From The Moon It Came
A short story for the Lunar Awards contest
While Susan and her little brother David were headed to the carnival that arrived in town earlier that day they saw a bright light shoot across the sky.
“Sues did you see that?” David pointed.
“Yes I did. I think it was a shooting star,” Susan walked with a casual stride down the gravel road.
“Do you think that it landed in town?” David skipped ahead of her.
“It did seem to go that way,” Susan wiped the few strands of hair from her face.
It was a warm night for early September which made the night out even more enjoyable. David said that he couldn’t wait to see what the carnival brought in the way of prizes this year. His favorite games were the ones with balloons and darts.
“Well, I’m sure that you will win some stupid looking stuffed animal again,” Susan smiled.
Susan just enjoyed getting together with her friends somewhere other than at school. Not very many events happened around their small town so when the carnival came for a week it was a blessing to all the kids.
As the two of them got closer, they could hear the sounds of the carnival games and rides, and smell the sweetness of the cotton candy.
Did dad give you enough money?” Susan asked.
“Yes, I think so. He gave me thirty dollars this time,” David smiled.
“Okay, now remember, we’ll meet at the community building at eleven o’clock,” Susan said.
“Yeah, I’ll remember,” David walked up to the carnival gate.
Susan told the teller at the gate that she was paying for her and her eight year old brother tonight. David was only half price since he was under ten which left Susan with more money.
“Okay, I’ll see you later,” Susan watched as David headed toward the games.
As Susan headed toward the entertainment building to meet her friends, she looked around at the different craft tents. Her friend Michelle decided to rush up behind her though.
“What are you looking for?” Michelle tapped Susan’s shoulder.
Susan jumped even though recognized her friends voice, “hey you,” Susan turned around.
“I knew that I would find you looking at this stuff,” Michelle smiled.
“Well look at the beautiful craftsmanship of this beadwork,” Susan picked up a beaded bracelet that spelled out hope.
“Yeah, it’s pretty but come on lets go meet up with the others,” Michelle said.
“Wait, I want to buy this one first,” Susan pulled out a ten dollar bill.
After Susan bought the bracelet and put it on, Michelle grabbed her hand and dragged her toward the entertainment building. Standing out front was their other two girlfriends Sam and Becka.
“It took you two long enough,” Becka said with a smile.
“Hey, did you guys see that shooting star over this way?” Susan asked her friends.
“I did. It kind of looked like it fizzled out over the animal building,” Sam said.
“Did anyone go and see if something landed over there?” Susan asked.
“No, I didn’t think much of it. I was waiting for you,” Michelle said.
“I doubt if it’s anything… Maybe a burnt up rock or something,” Becka said.
The curiosity of it really got to Susan so she wanted to check it out. She thought that it would be cool if she found a meteor or something from outer space.
“Come on, lets’ go see what we find,” Susan coaxed her friends.
Hesitant, Michelle agreed to go with Susan so Becka and Sam followed as well.
“We probably won’t find anything. It probably burned up before it even landed,” Sam said.
The four teenage girls walked toward the animal building laughing and joking around about what they might find when they heard a scream.
Before they walked inside the building, a woman ran out crying.
“What’s going on?” Susan asked the man that followed behind the woman.
“It’s horrible. I wouldn’t go back there if I were you,” the man said as he kept walking.
This peaked Susan’s curiosity more as she walked inside. First they saw the many cages of rabbit varieties.
“Awe, look how cute this one is,” Becka stopped and smiled at the angora lop.
As Susan and Michelle slowly walked toward the back of the building, another upset woman ran past them. Susan looked at the cages that now had crowing roosters in them.
“The chickens should be next,” Michelle said.
As Susan and Michelle walked a little further, they stopped when they saw bloody and dead chickens all over the ground.
“Hey you two why didn’t you wait for us?” Becka and Sam quickly stopped.
“What do you suppose happened?” Michelle asked covering her stomach.
“I think I’m going to be sick,” Sam turned and walked back the other way.
Becka followed Sam while Susan and Michelle stood there in shock. A couple of carnival workers came running inside after they heard what happened from the first observers.
“Oh my goodness, what could have done this to these poor chickens?” One worker said.
Just as the men were looking around the cages for any survivors, Susan saw something run out the back door.
“I just saw something,” Susan pointed toward the door.
The two carnival workers ran toward the door and pushed it the rest of the way open. They carefully peeked out and one at a time walked out into the darkness.
“I don’t see anything,” the one guy said.
Susan slowly walked toward the back door while Michelle stayed behind. As Susan peeked out the door, she saw the dark shadow of a four foot creature suddenly attack the one carnival worker.
“Ahhh, help me,” he screamed.
The other worker ran to help him while Susan backed up and quickly closed the door.
“What’s out there? What did you see?” Michelle asked.
“We need to get help. I don’t know what it is. I’ve never seen anything like it,” Susan cried.
Just then they heard a scream from the other worker. Susan remembered that she saw a phone on one of the wood posts at the other end of the building. Michelle followed Susan as they ran to call for help. Susan picked up the phone and it dialed directly to the main office but no one answered.
“No answer,” Susan hung up the phone.
Susan then thought about her little brother and his safety. She looked at Michelle, “Michelle, I have to find David. You need to find a phone and call for help.”
Just then a few more carnival workers and a couple of police officers ran toward Susan and Michelle.
“We heard that an animal attacked the chickens in here?” The one officer asked.
“It’s something big and it attacked two workers out back a few minutes ago,” Susan pointed toward the back of the building.
The five men ran to the back of the building while Susan and Michelle carefully looked around and called for David. Susan remembered that David’s favorite thing to do there is the games so they headed to the midway. Susan and Michelle ran into Sam and Becka standing outside of the bathrooms and convinced them to go with.
“We should stick together now because I don’t know if that creature is roaming the carnival now or not,” Susan said.
“But the police should be able to kill it, right?” Michelle asked.
“You would think so, but it moved really fast,” Susan said.
“You actually saw it?” Sam asked.
“Well, it was dark but I saw how big it was,” Susan said.
When the four girls got to the midway, they found David talking with a couple of boys that he goes to school with.
“David, we have to leave now,” Susan said.
“But it’s only ten o’clock.”
“There is a creature on the lose here and it’s killing everything,” Susan grabbed David’s hand.
“You’re kidding me right?” David pulled his hand away and laughed.
“No David, we saw the dead chickens,” Michelle said.
“Dead chicken’s? Cool,” one of the other boys said.
“Come on David, we’re leaving. Can we catch a ride with you guys?” Susan asked Michelle.
“Oh, yes of course, but that’s right, my parents aren’t home and they said that they will pick us up at eleven,” Michelle said.
Susan looked at the other girls, then David, and then the other two boys, “okay, we need to go inside somewhere safe until we know that the police have killed that thing.”
Just then, over the loud speaker they heard a mans voice say that he was deputy Dan and he asked that everyone at the carnival to please go indoors until further notice. He said that it is for everyone’s safety while they resolve the issue at hand.
“Well, you heard the man. Let’s get to the community building, it should be safe there,” Michelle said.
Susan looked at her little brother and smiled, “we’re going to be okay.”
David looked at the other two boys and played it cool, “of course we are, everything is under control.”
Once everyone was at the community building it got a little crowded in some areas. They heard some of the people say that they saw the creature and it looked like it had fangs as long as a sabretooth tiger. Another said it looked like it had spikes on its back.
“What did it look like to you Susan?” Michelle asked.
“It was about four feet tall and ran on two feet like us, but it looked bulky or muscular and it didn’t look like it had a neck.
“It sounds like the Tasmanian devil,” the one boy said.
“I don’t know but it’s very vicious,” Susan reflected at what she saw.
After forty-five minutes had passed, deputy Dan popped up on the loud speaker again, “okay everyone, it’s safe now. We got the situation under control. You all can go home or enjoy the rest of your night here at the carnival.”
“I wonder if they killed it or captured it?” David looked at Susan.
“Well, hopefully they killed it. Who knows how many people that thing hurt or killed,” Susan said.
“Can we play a couple more games?” David asked.
“I would really like to go home now David. It’s been a scary night,” Susan said.
As the seven of them walked out of the community building, they saw the two deputies and some other man walking and pushing a large tarp covered cage. Both of the deputies had blood spots on their clothes and one had his hand wrapped up. Then a couple of paramedics walked past pushing a gurney with a bloody sheet draped over it.
“Was that a dead body on that gurney?” Sam asked.
“Probably,” Michelle said.
The next day, when Susan and David were sitting at the breakfast table, their dad turned the news on the TV. The newscaster started to talk about what had happened at the carnival last night. Susan and David looked at each other as the man said, thankfully only one person was killed when it was attacked by an unknown creature. They listened as he went on to say that it was discovered that the meteor that was sighted by many last night housed an organism that rapidly grew once it found and fed on the chickens at the carnival.
The newscaster then introduced a visiting scientist, Dr. Walter Druman.
“Hey, we saw him last night,” Susan said.
Dr. Druman stated that he believes that the meteor that housed this creature came from the moon. Although he is not sure why it came down and if it was meant to land on the earth but it did and created some ciaos at the carnival. The newscaster then asked Dr. Druman if the organism would have survived if it didn’t find food as quickly as it did?
“Yes, I believe it would have. This creature’s DNA was made to survive many scenarios. It’s almost like the survival of the species depends on it,” Dr. Druman said.
“Does that mean it’s still alive?” David looked at Susan.
The End.
I hope that you enjoyed this story I wrote for the Lunar Awards contest. Please feel free to tell me in the comments below. And don’t forget to subscribe to Pennie’s Writing’s so that you can read more stories like this.