Wings of Death

A shocking discovery

It took the scientist about half an hour to virtually reconstruct the creature. Every part of the creature’s body had been pieced together based on the feather’s measurements and the description they had heard on the radio.

“2 D image reconstructed. Switching to 3 D projection”, the scientist was loud and clear.

Soon he turned on the holographic projection device and they all could see a 3 D model of the creature. It looked exactly like the ones which Nathan had seen outside his house on that fateful day. It looked like a huge bird covered in scales and feathers. It reminded Nathan of the harpies he had seen in his video games. There was just one major difference; the Bloodwings had strange limbs covered in blue scales.

“Miss Margaret, tell me something. Do avian creatures usually have scales on their bodies?” questioned Dr. Grant.

“No, they don’t. Mostly reptiles and fishes have scales”, she answered confidently.

“Interesting, very interesting”, continued Dr. Grant.

He scribbled something in his notebook and then went on to issue another order, “We need to analyze the cellular structure and chemical composition of their bodies immediately!”

A young boy in a lab coat made a small incision in the feather and scraped the feather using a small scalpel. He collected the scrapings in a small petri dish and began observing them under the microscope. After that a lady cut small pieces of the feather and began staining them with different chemicals. Nathan and Alex were still staring at the hologram in amazement while Margaret was minutely observing the scientists. She looked extremely worried. It was as if she understood something was wrong.

An hour passed. The alarms on their watches went off. They quickly turned off the alarms and apologized. Nathan and Margaret knew their parents would be extremely worried for them but they needed to know more about the Bloodwings. Margaret wanted to text her parents but Nathan stopped her.

“Sir, we have finished our tests. You may want to look at the findings yourself”, said the young scientist in a quivering voice. He was sweating profusely and his hands were trembling in fear.

Dr. Grant took the report from his hand and told him to get some rest. His eyes widened and the furrow on his forehead became deeper as he read the report. He wiped the tiny beads of sweat from his face and took a deep breath.

Once again he spoke into the recorder, “Final research findings”.

He requested everyone to gather around him. “Let me get straight to the point. We analyzed the anatomy as well as the cellular composition of the Bloodwings. At first I thought they might be mutated or genetically modified avian organisms but then I noticed the scales on the creature’s limbs. Avian creatures do not have scales on their bodies and they have hollow bones. The Bloodwings on the other hand, have solid bones. I was wondering how they managed to fly. Their bones are not made of calcium but an unknown element which is much lighter than calcium. I think we need to study their corpses to find out more about them.  Now, let me enlighten you about the most shocking discovery. Almost all organisms on earth are carbon based life forms. The Bloodwings are Argon based life forms. Argon, as you all know, is a noble gas. Argon does not form stable bonds with any element. There are no Argon based life forms on earth. You know what that means. The Bloodwings are extra terrestrial creatures. In simple words, this is an alien invasion. We know almost nothing about their species. Miss Margaret’s theory about rain having an adverse effect on these creatures hasn’t been proven yet. At this time, we need to gather more information about them. We just know that they resist small arms fire and even armor piercing rounds have very little impact. So far we have seen a few of them being shot down from the sky by using rocket launchers and missiles. We don’t know how to fight a creature which can kill people by just screaming. Their screams interfere with Radars and cause disturbances in the propellers of aircraft. We are woefully unprepared to deal with such a threat.  Several questions still need to be answered. Where do they come from? How do they communicate? How intelligent are they? Do they live in colonies? How do they breed? We need to learn more about them before we can devise a plan to counter them or else we all are going to end up like those soldiers”.

Margaret looked horrified. Her cheeks had turned pale in fear. Alex felt a chill run down his spine. Nathan had faced several aliens in his video games but he never expected to encounter one in real life. He still couldn’t believe that an alien invasion was underway. The scientists in the room stood dumbfounded. Dr. Grant sat down in his chair and lit a cigarette.

Nathan looked at his watch, it was almost 5 A M. He was worried about his parents. Margaret insisted that they leave immediately. Before leaving, she decided to take Dr. Grant’s number. She promised to contact him if they managed to find anything new. The security cameras showed that it was still raining outside. They thought they might still be able to reach home before their parents got up. Nathan thanked the scientists and bid them farewell. They were about to step outside the room when a shrill cry was heard outside. Nathan and his friends froze in fear. The scientists covered their ears and started trembling in fear.  Dr. Grant rushed towards the door to close it.

“Get away from the door!” he yelled.

He slammed the door shut and locked it using his pass code. The screams continued outside.

Alex came out of his stupor and said “That can’t be possible. We didn’t see a single one of them when we were outside”. He turned to Margaret with a bewildered expression on his face.

“You said that they can’t survive in the rain. How is this happening then?” Alex took out his palmtop and opened the weather apps. “Look, it clearly states that it is raining outside", he said. The security cameras also showed that it was raining quite heavily outside. Yet, the screams did not stop.

Nathan’s face turned pale in horror. He turned to his friends and whispered, “I don’t think they are outside”.

“What do you mean they are not outside? Can’t you hear the screams?” shouted Alex angrily.

“I mean they are not outside the building. I think the Bloodwings are inside the building!”