Horizon Seeds (Complete)

Chapter Twenty

Headline: VOLCANIC ACTIVITY ON MOUNT ST HELENS WORRIES SCIENTISTS
Headline: FLIGHT ML5578 LOST AT SEA, 240 PASSENGERS AND CREW DEAD
Headline: RED CROSS TO HOST BANQUET TO RAISE FUNDS FOR MEXICO
Headline: PUBLIC POLLED: DOCTORS AND CANCER VICTIMS WANT ALIEN MEDICARE
Headline: FIRES REPORTED AT CRIMINAL COMMUNITY

Once someone shot her with an analgesic, Val decided she had waited long enough. She sat paitently until Mo had cleaned up the gash in the back of her head and stood up, pulling on a shirt her father handed her. Her dress was trashed and the last strap had almost broken through. She was grateful to have something to cover herself up with again. She swayed, a little dizzy and it took a moment for her to find her equilibrium again, then she moved towards Five and asked if she could see what was happening below.

'I want to see what is left, please.' She almost pleaded with the alien. He looked at her as his feathers flutters briefly then showed her to a monitor near the front of the small shuttle space. Everyone else in the shuttle fell silent as images of their home was relayed to the screen. There was still a lot of smoke but the view of the river was clear, a winding gash of dark brown, but there were no more fires. They really couldn't see much from the altitude they were at and George asked Five quietly what would happen next. She let them discuss their options of going to his mother ship or landing back down beside the river, and she turned to Simon who was near the back playing on his wrist device.

'Simon, can you please show me what happened?' She didn't need to ask again as everyone in the cabin fell silent.

'It's bad, Val. Wait until we land in a few hours,' George said, indicating the decision had been made. She shook her head at her father and turned back to Simon. Chan was sitting beside him.

'Orange, can you watch the footage with me, see if we can use it as evidence?'

'Sure, Val.' He moved in his seat to let Val step past him to sit on the other side of Simon. Val's dad, Five and others moved behind them to view over the back of the seats as Simon projected the footage onto the wall of the shuttle. Four separate videos played at the same time, segmented to show individual video windows. Simon made the time sequence appear so they could all see what was happening altogether. Then the whole thing played out like some really bad home slasher movie that were popular a few decades back. The mob arriving and the two groups talking. But simon must have seen the fire first as he flew a drone to the fields as a man set it alight with a blow torch. The second fire started and a dark figure exited the glass houses. By the time George had made it into the top fields, all of them along that side of the village were burning. Simon managed to fly a drone to cover Gary helping the women and children onto the first shuttle, holding Molly's little baby in his arms. Molly followed the last of the families on board with two baby bags and a little girl's hand. Gary spoke into his communicator and stepped into the closing shuttle. A moment later it lifted off.

Val's attention was drawn to the explosion in the glass house. The drone that was too close to the bomb lost its video and that screen went scratchy, then black. The remaining three drones captured Carl and Frank dragging Parker towards the second shuttle just as Five lifted George towards the third. One drone followed a handful of mob members to the eastern fields and the group watched as they set the corn crops a light. One man walked through the orchard and fire flew from his flame thrower, lighting up every single tree. Val felt sick as she watch the glee at which the sick bastard worked his way from the trees to the buildings that made up family homes. Had the children and their mothers been around, there would have been no way to get out of those homes fast enough. She fisted a hand in anger then watched as other evil men started hacking a goat to pieces while it was still alive. She wanted to be sick again.