Chariot 3: Conception
Chapter 50 – Awaken

Somewhere between Corona and Roswell, New Mexico the heat of the rising sun started to burn his scratched face. The Grey creature opened his eyes and shook his head, slowly trying to regain his consciousness. His sensitive ears distinguished a strange noise somewhere at the distance, blended with the sound of the birds flying above his yet, undead body, the pilot of the spacecraft heard the unfamiliar sound approaching his location.

The alien stood still and cleaned off the dried mud from his face. His uniform, made with some sort of zero absorption technology seemed spotless clean as if he had never touched the dirt. He looked around and saw the dragging marks of his fallen craft leading to the hill where it had stopped. Once he identified the easiest path to its peak, the limping survivor started to move as rapidly as he could towards what was about to become his observation point.

As the creature passed by his craft, he looked at its front, smashed onto the rocks while his eyes quickly searched for the body of his leader. With contempt, his sight found what he looked for. He looked back to his path and with the desired disdain, kept limping towards the hill.

The alien felt the pain on his back as he inclined his head to look up, in search of a gripping spot for his hands as he made the way up the steep hill. Half a way through the climbing he stopped, almost unable to cope with the pain between his thigh and calf, a peculiar connection that the humans would refer to as the knee, however in their case and for their sake, it was biologically far more complex.

As he overcame its summit, the Grey landed on his knees, tried to catch his breath and then made the effort to stand back up. The slimy sweat dropped from his forehead. He blinked his slanted eyes, trying to add some moisture to the dryness that the dusty air had caused him. He protected his eyes from the sun light with his hand and then saw the vast field, replete with debris from his allied craft completely dispersed a few miles ahead.

As his eyes browsed ahead, the visitor from outer space located the source of the curious noise far beyond.

Two humans riding their horses over the landscape moved towards his direction while conducting a whole flock of sheep. “An adult male and his younger version”, the Grey referred to the child – probably the son – in his thought while searching his body with a slight, but at the same time, awkward despair.

Without taking his eyes off the two Earthians, the creature finally found what he was looking for. The skinny being took the little black square out the pocket of his spacesuit and quickly had a glance on it with the corner of his huge eye, ensuring the paralyzing device had not been compromised during the landing.

With a brief sense of relaxation, he took a deep breath and then placed the only instrument of defense he had in his possession back into his pocket.

Noticing the sheep would not move any further due to the obstructing wreckage that covered the field, the boy and his father dismounted their horses.

The man took off his cowboy hat in his hand, scratched his head and then placed it back while he looked around, wondering where all that bright wreckage that suddenly appeared on the land of his patron could have come from.

Confused, the foreman came closer to the clusters of debris in an attempt to decipher what they could once have assembled.

Careful not to be seen, the Grey kept his position and hoped those two humans would keep theirs. The creature`s advanced eyes watched the two curious humans separate from each other and make their way around the field, observing, touching and searching through the several parts of the beyond the edge technology spread over the field.

It then finally became clear to the Grey that the two humans could not identify what that all was. When the younger one tried to approach the adult whose expression suddenly changed as he stared towards the ground, the boy was abruptly turned on the opposite direction and then sent back to his horse.

At that moment, the Grey`s big black eyes popped as he saw on the eyes of the human, the reflection of the undeniable truth, he had found one of the bodies of the crew, or at least part of it.

The creature watched the rancher shouting at his progeny and pointing to his horse. The human bended to grab something from the ground while his son run to mount his horse.

The Grey watched the back of the man as he stood still. His hands seemed full and as his curiosity tried to decipher what debris he could have possibly collected, the creature inadvertently entered his mind. The man felt the strange sensation of his thoughts being shared and as if he knew he was being observed, he turned his body around with his eyes pointed on the direction of the uninvited visitor.

The creature prudently lowered his body. His head found the ground.

For a second their eyes seemed to have found each other`s. At that moment the human not only felt confused but rather crept. He sensed something was going on. He could almost hear his intuition whispering on his ears.

The foreman had no idea what was going on. All he knew is that he would not stay there to replace out.

He ran a few steps and proficiently jumped on the back of his horse, said a few words to his soon and as fast as they could, they left, bringing along whichever sheep would follow them.

The Grey figure stood back on his feet and still uncertain whether he had or not been seen, he watched the two humans depart the precinct and leave a discomforting trail of dust behind them.