The Salty Bite

You were still hanging out with Layla and having the occasional chat with Charlie as well. It's starting to get fairly dark outside now as the sun sets a bit more. You were finally catching up with Layla and enjoying each other's company as lots of laughter and giggles were coming from your table, getting the occasional look over by the people sitting at the tables beside you or walking by.

"Oh my gosh Layla you're so funny!" you burst out laughing still, doubled over and clutching your stomach as if it was about to cramp. Layla's still giggling, keeping her composure still looking rather proper and ladylike while doing so.

The big screen TV that's hanging from the wall was showing a rerun of an old soap opera before suddenly cutting to the news. "We're sorry to interrupt your regularly scheduled program for this breaking news." the female voice is heard over the speakers now. Everyone by now had stopped their conversations and turned around, their eyes focused on the screen where the attractive blonde news anchor sits.

"I'm Kristina Novak bringing you this Earth altering announcement." she introduces herself. She's in her early 30's having been the main news anchor for the local news station, ANC for a few years now. Her makeup and hair were done spot on as she wears a light blue blazer over her buttoned up white blouse with a small gold necklace around her neck.

You were still laughing not really paying too much attention to the TV until Layla kicks your shin which causes you to quiet down. "Kristy!" she puts her finger over her mouth to signal you quiet down as brush her off, nodding as you understand and don't want her to get too worked up. You turn around and lean over the back rest of your chair but immediately turn more serious as you see the headline and footage of the screen. 'Hundreds killed or missing on Acropolis Beach.' in big black bold letters are shown at the bottom of the screen as information scrolls by through the ticker. Live footage from a circling helicopter shows the police wandering through the destruction of the beach as they wade through the sand and slime left covering the beach. Mangled bodies are covered and moved into body bags as certain bodies were too gruesome to be shown live on TV and had to be blurred out or censored. Torn up pieces of bathing suits and discarded bikini parts were littered around the beach as clear and black slime were coated on them. Samples the slime were taken by scientists to bring back to their labs as well as to the League for further examination. "Around an hour ago, an unidentified aircraft was seen crashing into the ocean close to Acropolis Beach. Footage captured from a cellphone shows the strange ship crash into the water as people were wading towards it. Numerous gasps and chatter breaks out around the burger joint as you watch more intently. "Charlie could you turn the TV up a bit?" you ask as he grabs the remote control and turns up the volume.

The clip continues as it gets to the point where people were being dragging under water and the first Octopodian had appeared behind the boy. The phone zooms in to get a slightly blurry close up of the strange alien. "Holy shit" "Is that an alien?" "What the fuck is that?" "That can't be real right?" lots of voices speak up now as everyone starts getting into a panicked frenzy, confused, curious, scared at the image they were looking at. "Oh my God..." Layla gasps and covers her mouth, sounding like she almost has tears in her eyes. The clip continues to show the aliens coming out of the water and giving chase as people scream and panic and run away before the clip cuts off and a picture of the alien is shown again beside Kristina. "Due to the graphic nature of the video, that is as much as we can show. The League of Propriety has be notified and the police **** will be working closely with them. Reports show that they were seen carrying off hostages into their spacecraft before launching back off into space." Another short amateur clip shows the spacecraft hovering above the water before ascending and flying back off towards the sky and presumably, into space. "We're unsure what these creatures are, why they came, what they want, and if they'll even come back again. We'll be following this story closely so in the mean time, please stay- yes...? Alright. Sorry it seems that we have interview with one of the people that were caught up in the attack."

The screen cuts of to a male reporter holding a microphone as a traumatized looking young man as standing, wrapped around a towel and holding the hand of a little girl. "Holy shit it's Matt." people gasp and look on in awe as one of their own classmates is seen with sand covering his face, his body trembling as he looks at the camera. Matt was 5'8, and your average college student, not a star athlete but still in rather good shape and helps out a lot in the community. He was best friends with Louie so Layla had seen him very often as she looks on with more concern. "T-they just came out of the water. The ship crashed into the water and some people went to go check it out... but they never came back. They just started attacking, killing all the men... and the women... they shot some strange slime at them, they couldn't move. They stripped and **** them... it was horrible, I didn't know what to do." he says, trying to remain as calm as possible, still holding onto the little girl's hand tightly. "Her parents did their best to save her, I just couldn't leave her there. I wish there was more I could've done for them" the little girl hugs his leg tightly as she cries out for her mother. "Please... save us. I'm sure they're gonna come back. I'm begging the League to do something please!" the interview ends as Kristina professional wipes a few tears away from the heart wrenching scene of the little girl. "What a courageous young man... we will be holding a fundraiser for the surviving victims of this attack and we'll be sure to do anything we possibly can. Please stay tuned as we try to uncover more news and reports regarding this horrific event, thank you and have a good night." The TV turns to a commercial as people look around at each other, some teary eyed, some shaking in fear, some hugging with each other. You do your best to hold in your emotions as you grip hard onto the metal chair you're sitting on, crushing and bending the metal arch at the top of the backrest before you stand up.

"Kristy? Where are you going?" Layla is wiping tears out of her eyes as well.

"We can't stay here, let's go back to our dorms where it's safer. It's like they said, we don't know if they'll come back again so I figured we should be somewhere bigger and with more people." you explain to her as you hide your hand that's clenched into a tight fist. Layla nods as she understands your reasoning and gets up too, grabbing her bag. "Charlie, you stay safe too." you look over at him as he gives you a reassuring smile. "You too, both of you." he waves you both goodbye as the doors open up with you walking out first. The expression on your face tells the whole story as you march on forward into the night with Layla following close behind.