The light blinked steadily as we approached, a red pulse lighting up this dark corner of the forest.

“What is it?” someone whispered. It didn’t matter who said it, it was on all of our minds. The answer wasn’t. So silence filled the air as we drew nearer.

The trees above us were charred, growing shorter as we approached the thing that fell from the sky. There was a hole in the ground where it…landed.

The wind picked up, and the pulses sped up. My hair stood on end and I desperately reached out for someone, anyone. A hand grasped mine, sweaty and trembling.

“What’s happening?” I asked, but nobody answered. I didn’t think they would.

The pulses sped up even further, and the wind slammed into us, branches and twigs slashing at our faces and arms. I didn’t let go of the hand in mine, but I turned my head away.

Then everything stopped. The wind. The static. The pulse. And after a clicking noise from the crater, our breath.

And moments later, our hearts.