THE SIGNAL

Seventeen Years Missing

Nyra didn't stop running until the city lights disappeared behind her.

She reached an abandoned apartment building and climbed to the roof. From there, she could see the ruined skyline.

The strange ships were still above the clouds.

But something bothered her.

The creature's words kept repeating in her mind.

You were the one who called us.

Nyra opened her laptop.

She searched every file she had collected about the first invasion.

Nothing.

Then she noticed something strange.

A photograph from seventeen years ago.

It showed the sky during the first event.

Nyra zoomed in.

There, hidden between the clouds, was the same symbol she'd seen beneath the railway station.

But there was something else.

A timestamp.

THREE MINUTES BEFORE CONTACT.

Nyra's eyes widened.

She checked another photograph.

Same symbol.

Another timestamp.

Same thing.

Three minutes before the sky opened.

She searched deeper.

Then she found a classified recording.

The file was labeled:

PROJECT ORIGIN — SUBJECT: NYRA VALE

Nyra froze.

Her own name stared back at her.

She opened the recording.

A man's voice spoke through the static.

“Seventeen years ago, we didn't discover the aliens.”

The recording paused.

“We discovered Nyra.”

Nyra stopped breathing.

Then the screen went black.