4 Impact Site

It was like a bullet hole, bleeding ash into the forest. Trees were flattened to the earth, and closer to the meteor were layers and layers of woods, sticks and trunks and splinters. For a meteor of its size (a little bit less than a school bus long, two trucks wide) the impact site was surprisingly small. The meteor seemed to cool down,

"With such a large meteor, its a mystery how it didn't make a louder noise," Asher commented, squinting at it despite wearing his glasses.

"Its also is a mystery how no one on the news or on the forum are talking about it," PJ said, scrolling through her phone.

Adah picked a stick off the ground. "I'm going to touch it," she declared.

Miriam put a hand on her girlfriend's shoulder. "Wait, it could be radioactive."

"I don't think it's too radioactive. Besides, from this distance we can be affected too," Asher pointed out.

"Should we really be dealing with this?" Cain suddenly fretted. "Shouldn't NASA be looking at this instead of us."

Adah punched the air. "This is our forest!" She declared. "NASA can kiss my bum."

"NASA hardly does anything," PJ added, rolling her eyes.

Cain crosses his arms and sighed. "Alright. But I just don't think we're up to do this. I don't think punching an alien space rock is a good idea."

"What if we didn't punch it?" Miriam slowly said.

"Then what would we do, honey?" Adah asked.

"Throw something at it?"

"Oh, great idea!" Cain exclaimed. And without saying anything else, he threw a foot-long branch at the meteor like a spear. Despite the fifty or so feet between them and the object, it hit its mark because Cain had been practicing to join the football team.

What should've been met with a thud was met with a more metallic sound. Everyone gave a confused look, and then Asher said decidedly, "That's not what it's supposed to sound like."

He began stepping over the corpses of trees towards the vessel. As he did, he realized that the closer he got, he saw the light also wasn't normal. It was more of a sheen. PJ also saw that as she trailed him.

"Could it be?" She gasped.

"What do you mean?" Adah breathed as she rushed past Asher, Cain hot on her heels.

"I think it might be a spaceship!" PJ exclaimed.

Adah facepalmed. "You don't mean that. You're too involved with your phone," she critiqued.

PJ's brown eyes shined with anger. "I'm serious!"

"It might have metal bubbles and that's what my stick was tossed into," Cain said.

"Yes! When it came out of orbit, the metal must've burned up," Adah triumphantly said.

"If that's how it works, then every single US space shuttle would've burned up," Asher commented.

"But some of them did, right?" Adah asked.

"But not from the metal!" PJ spat.

Asher was in the thickest of the rubble now, standing only an arm's length away from it. Hesitantly, he raised his arm and knocked on it, twice.

Bang. Bang.

"That's metal. What a coincidence if that's another 'metal pocket'." PJ said.

"See! You admit metal pockets exist!" Adah exclaimed.

"I said it mockingly," PJ glowered.

"Jeez, don't get your tinfoil hat in a twist," Adah laughed.

Her face burning red, PJ looked at Asher. It didn't help.

Asher slowly made his way around the exterior, knocking every couple of seconds. "Entirely metal! How fascinating that it didn't obliterate this whole town!" He shouted from the other side of the meteor.

Miriam began to walk backwards, and Adah put her hand on Miriam's shoulder. "What is it?" She asked.

"I don't…. This is all too intense for me," Miriam admitted.

"Miriam! You can't be serious. A meteor crashed in our town and you're gonna back out?" Cain said, pouting.

Miriam brushed a strand of red hair out of her face and looked away.

"Just this one time, Miriam," her girlfriend promised.

The red-haired girl sighed and smiled. "Fine. But I still think this is way above our level."

"Me too, sister," Cain grunted.

"The properties of this meteor to keep it from crashing to earth seem almost anomalous. It would have to be a tiny bit less light than air for it to fall down this much and make such a little impact. On the level of water, I think," Asher said.

"What'd you see on the other side of the moon?" Miriam asked.

"Hey, that's a good name. The Moon. Isn't it that the first to find a meteor get to name it or something?" Cain asked.

"If we're naming this, we aren't naming it something like 'The Moon'," PJ hissed. "It's not creative."

"Let's see what this really is before we go around making names," Ashed said. "And I'll tell you what I found." He sat down on a tree trunk poking above the rubble.

"That intense that you need to sit down?" Adah asked.

"Yes. There's a noticeable difference between here and another site I saw," Asher replied.

"You saw another meteor?" PJ interrupted.

Asher shook his head. "No. There's an area where the damage doesn't seem like that much, and a tiny bit past that is another impact site much worse than that. It's almost like this bounced."

"But metal isn't supposed to do that!" Cain exclaimed.

"Well, actually, if you throw it hard enough and it's the right material, it can be!" Asher informed.

"Oh," Cain said.

"Stil, how didn't it kill us all?" PJ wondered.

"That'll remain a mystery," Asher said.

"Well, maybe one day we'll figure that out," Adah said. "For now, its just a very decorative climbing fixture."

"No, it's too angular to climb. Wait, aren't rock formations supposed to be un-angular?" Cain suddenly asked.

"Yes, but I thought you assumed that," Asher replied, nudging his glasses up on his face.

Adah used the trunk Asher was sitting on to gain a vantage point. Then, when she got a good grip on the sides, she pulled herself up, combat boots kicking at air. She stood up and declared, "Whoa, Asher, that really does look like a bouncy ball on carpet but, like, bigger. Everyone, get up here!"

Hesitantly, PJ and Cain began to climb. Meanwhile, Adah's boots were making cling sounds as they interacted with the meteor. "Huh, this area seems to bend beneath me."

"Adah, don't," Asher groaned, sensing what she was about to do.

"Adah, do," Cain cheered.

Adah jumped up just as PJ and Cain had gotten up, and when she fell down into the inky darkness, PJ, Cain, and her screamed.

Cain ran over to the hole formed. "Adah! Adah, are you okay!"

"Yes… just winded," Adah said after a second. "Grab a phone and come down here. This is crazy!"

PJ's eyes widened. A hollow meteor could only mean one thing. Was it possible all of her "far fetched" conspiracies were real?