Go find out.

I don't know what's come over me, I mean...well...it's you! -You've- come over me! This is totally against my better judgment! But I'm probably the closest person for at least a mile...I suppose I owe it to myself to be the first to see; so I turn around and walk into the woods, a firey orange aura as my guide.

Heat kisses my skin before I see even a trace of fire. Either I'm close or it's a real inferno in there. Pushing through low branches and shrubs, eventually I catch the fire's glow breaking through the wall of trees. As I come closer, more and more of the scene is unfurled to me, until I'm positive that what I've walked into is real: a crash site.

Though everywhere the trees are on fire, there's a particularly large mass of metal at the end of a huge ditch-- something of a crater, really, left behind by a flying craft skidding along the earth for god knows how far. With all the flames and smoke, it's hard to tell.

Stepping cautiously through the wreckage, my leg is suddenly caught on something. I scream uncontrollably as I look down and see a spindly hand grasped around my ankle. I pull away easily, and the prone creature doesn't pursue me, but I just can't calm myself down after the sight of that...-thing.- It's exactly what I've seen in movies, the skinny, big-headed aliens with the scary, hollow black eyes and pale skin. Tell me I'm dreaming all this!

All of a sudden I hear the thing in my head. I glance at its feeble form-- not even looking at me-- as it speaks in a calm, soothing tone.

Do not fear, Child. We are here to aid your people.

Somehow, I believe the alien creature, and am suddenly filled with an overwhelming sense of calm, and sadness. Looking more carefully now, I can see the creature's blue blood oozing out onto the forest floor. Scanning the rest of the area I can see that there are others, and they, too, are dead or dying.

My comrades and I have failed, the being continues, Others will come, but until then, you must alert your own people! There is an army. You must find it. Do not trust your leaders; they have already been infiltrated!

"Infiltrated? What do you mean?" I ask aloud, not entirely sure how to speak through my mind, "You mean killed?"

The being responds with an almost painful buzz, as if annoyed with me.

You will find that in combating -the Hive- there are far worse fates than ****.

"What? The Hive?"

There is no time. You are in danger. You must leave. Take this.

The being indicates a small box laying beside his broken body, which I snatch up without hesitation. The being seems glad.

Go now, Child. Xel'ng be with you.

A safe distance from the inferno, I look back at the fiery light and take stock of what's just transpired. As far as I know, I'm the only human being to witness this, and who knows what evidence-- if any-- will survive the smoldering disaster? I could be the one and only person in the world to see this, which makes the alien container in my hands all the more important. But what is inside?