Gob's Arc

Chapter 1 of 11

The sky cracked open on the day Gob planted his last seed. He was a small letter e with no eyes, and he found his way by the light that poured from his open mouth. He aimed that light at the bare dirt and felt the seed drop in. His parents had taught him this trick, the way they taught him to make sparkle. Fluroess and Potbelly waited for him somewhere past the hills. He meant to reach them before the dark ate the world. Then a shadow slid over the dirt. Gob tilted his mouth up. His light climbed a smooth metal belly. A flying saucer hung above him, silver and round, its rim lights blinking red and blue. A glass dome sat on top, and behind the glass something watched. Gob froze. The seed lay half-buried at his feet. "I have nowhere to hide," he said. His light shook. A hatch opened. Not from the saucer, but from the ground behind him. Snow burst up in a wall. A giant snowball rolled toward Gob, fast, a scowl carved across its face. It did not slow. Gob threw his light wide and saw no gap, no door, only white coming. The snowball hit. But it did not crush him. It scooped him up and kept rolling, away from the saucer. Cold packed around Gob's small body. Through a thin seam he saw the saucer chase, its lights spinning. "You searched for someone," Gob said into the ice. "Was it me?" The snowball grunted. It rolled harder. Then it stopped at a low ridge and split open, spilling Gob out. It shoved him toward a shape in the dark. Gob pointed his light and lit a striped figure. A round peppermint head sat where a face should be. The figure wore a red coat with torn cuffs. A tiny teapot swung from its belt. It reached for Gob with a white glove. Gob understood too late. The snowball had not saved him. It had delivered him. "No," Gob said, and made his light flare bright as he could. The flare stung the striped figure. It flinched. Gob turned to run, but the saucer dropped low and blocked the ridge. Its light pinned him. The peppermint figure closed one glove on Gob's arm and lifted him off the ground. Gob kicked. His light swung across the sky and caught something worse. A second craft. Beyond it, a third. The whole horizon glowed with rims and domes, a fleet drifting down over the hills. The hills where Fluroess and Potbelly waited. The striped figure carried Gob toward the saucer's open hatch. Gob stopped kicking. He aimed his light past his captor, at the fleet, and counted the ships between him and his parents. Dozens. The invasion had begun, and it stood between Gob and the only two he needed to reach.