01 - Integration

“Make sure you gas it up, diesel not unleaded!” a voice shouted at Maya Sullivan.

Maya growled. One time. And they would never let her forget it.

“Yeah, dad. I got this. I’ve only done it a million times!” she shouted back at the glaring visage of her father. Raymond “Pops” Sullivan was a big man and prone to shouting even when he was talking normally.

“Your brother’s gonna be there by noon. Don’t let him pocket any money!” her father continued to shout as Maya cranked the ignition of the diesel truck.

The engine sputtered to life and she shifted the manual transmission into reverse. She could still see her father’s mouth moving, but the noise of the engine drowned it out. She gave an elaborate shrug and cupped a hand over her ear as she reversed out of the drive way. His eyes bulged and his mouth opened wider, until the front door opened and Maya’s mother slapped him on the shoulder.

The big truck trundled out into the neighborhood road. It was an old delivery truck her father had converted into a food truck. The sign upon its side declared it Sullivan’s Comfort Foods, showing the big mass of Raymond Sullivan in cartoon form holding a plate of mashed potatoes and pot roast, with an equally unreal smile.

Maya shifted gears as she pulled up to a battered Circle K gas station a mile from home. She stopped before a diesel pump and pulled out the business debit card.

“Don’t dare use it for anything other than business!” her father had always warned. “It’s about records. If you can’t keep good records, then why even try your hand at a business!”

As a third year business major, Maya understood what her father was talking about, but that didn’t stop her from day dreaming about using the card to buy something deliciously non-business related.

Maybe a nice overly expensive cup of coffee. Now, that’s real rebellion.

Maya chuckled at the thought as she punched in the pin code and began pumping fuel.

Cars honked and rumbled along the streets on a Monday morning. Maya watched with minor envy. They had places to be and things do to. Sure, they might be stuck in dead end jobs, but they weren’t working for her father. Better uncaring corporate overlords than the unflinching, all-seeing eye of Pops Sullivan.

“If you ain’t going to school in the summer, then work!” Pops had ordered her to the delight of her eighteen year old brother. It wasn’t as if her brother were exempt from the work, but suffering together was better than suffering alone.

At twenty one, Maya figured she should have been old enough not to be roped into the yearly summer horror that was manning her father’s food trucks. She was a grown ass woman with grown ass woman things to do, but her arguments had withered and died under the stern gaze of her parents. Also, there had been the issue of having no money to do grown ass woman stuff.

Raymond Sullivan was a big name in their neighborhood. A former U.S. Army sergeant turned entrepreneur, with a hot wife, three smart kids, and three food trucks that plied their trade across the city of Dallas, Texas.

“When I die, y’all get one truck each,” was his promise.

Maya was hoping he’d live forever. She looked over the truck, it was older than she was, but it was spotless. The paint touched up and the rust all chipped away and replaced. If there was something that Pops Sullivan did, it was keep everything he owned well maintained and running smoothly.

In that bulky neon colored truck, Maya saw her future. She had finished her third year in college. Barely. It wasn’t that she didn’t like learning, but she was realizing she didn’t want to become a business manager or anything related to working with people or money. The last semester had been a long and painful drag of half heartedly studying and scraping by with a pass on her finals. Now as the summer break was in full swing, she wondered if she would be going back to university.

Of course, the choice wasn’t entirely hers. There would be legit hell if her father and mother found out her desires. She wanted to step away from her education for a year or two; maybe travel like some of her friends had. There had to be something better than the oppressive Dallas summers and sitting behind a grill cooking heavy foods for people who were trying to find comfort in artery clogging lunches.

She had found herself thinking on it more and more lately. Perhaps it was just a rebellious dream she would never accomplish.

It was nine in the morning but the heat was already everywhere. She dreaded her eight hour shift behind a grill in a steel box. There were windows and there were fans, but air conditioning? No, they were for the weak.

The pump snapped her out of her wandering thoughts, clicking loudly as her fuel tank filled. She shook her head and reset it, checking to close the fuel cap and then heading toward the store.

Bobby Neville was at the cash register. Like her, he was a college student and she had grown up along side him in their neighborhood. He had a wide smile and some of the straightest whitest teeth she had ever seen. His parents were dentists.

“Maya, how’s it going?” he called out as she entered the store.

“Off to bring joy to the masses,” Maya replied, grabbing an energy drink and some snacks for her shift.

“My ma says y’all make the best green bean casserole in the state,” he told her as he handed her change back.

“My granny’s secret recipe. We had to wait until she died before we used it,” Maya said and smiled awkwardly at Bobby’s bemused expression.

“Uh.” Bobby replied.

“Good day to you!” she called hurriedly leaving. Bobby waved her goodbye as she rushed out the door and raced back to her truck. She didn’t look back, not willing to relive the awkward moment.

“Stupid,” Maya muttered as she got back behind the wheel. Bobby wasn’t some heartthrob but he was a nice guy and she was unfortunately a mess around him. She didn’t get it. She was fine around everyone else, regardless of gender, but when Bobby entered the mix, she felt as if she constantly shoved her entire foot into her mouth.

She sighed and started the engine.

The day could only get better, she told herself.

ANNOUNCEMENT!

Maya jerked as text appeared before her. She tried swiping at it, but her hands passed through it.

Integration has commenced for Universe 7524365-2.

Star System 458725V, local name “Sol System”, has been deemed Point of Contact. Dimensional Instabilities may occur.

Point of Contact Transference requires Tier Adjustment. Tier 1 Earth changed to Tier 2 Earth. Be Aware: Local wild life, weather, and geography may be disrupted.

END ANNOUNCEMENT

“What the shit,” Maya muttered.

She shoved the truck door open and clamored out, only to be caught by the seat belt she had put on. After a panicked struggle, she looked around the gas station searching for some kind of explanation.

“Was that real?” she gasped. Her heart was pounding in her chest, but the words were gone.

The sky suddenly filled with a white light. Maya flinched, it wasn’t blinding or painful, but it overwhelmed everything. As if she had lost all ability to see and instead of darkness, it had been replaced with white. She blinked and her vision returned.

She realized it was dead silent. She looked to the cars and vehicles on the road to see they had stopped. People were getting out of their vehicles, a look of worry and fear etched in all of their faces. She saw a few collisions, but nothing more than fender benders.

“I guess I’m not the only one…”

WARNING.

Dimensional Instability in local area. Relocating is recommended.

END WARNING

.

“Okay, what the hell!”

Glancing upward, Maya saw the sky break.

One moment it was a clear blue morning sky with a few clouds and in the next moment, terrifying darkness began marching across the sky in sharp crooked lines. Utter blackness bisected the blue of the sky and the white of the clouds, pushing them apart as if the whole of heaven was a sheet painted glass.

Maya began screaming and rushed back into her truck. She managed to grind into first gear and the big truck jerked forward. Her screams weren’t the only ones, as people saw the cracking sky and tried to flee.

She hit the main road with a hard thump and without checking both directions for oncoming vehicles. All traffic had stopped for a moment, but now people were rushing back into their vehicles.

“The first thing to do when you’re in a shit situation is to get the fuck out of there,” those were her father’s advice. The words flared in her mind as she went from first gear into second and then into third, the big food truck moving around stopped vehicles.

Ebony lighting began striking down from the sky. It stabbed down in the blink of an eye, but it stayed in one spot for a few seconds. Everything it touched vanished. Cars, people, a dog running furiously dragging a leash. When touched by the black lightning, their colors inverted and they vanished, leaving behind a brief afterimage.

Maya pulled her focus away from the horrors behind her and tried to focus on the road before her. She ran through a dead intersection without slowing or checking for oncoming traffic. Cars had stopped and people were staring at the sky.

WELCOME!

The Integration of your world-

Maya yelled in terror, swiping at the words marching across her vision.

“Get the fuck out of my sight!” she cried and the words promptly disappeared. She was panting heavily and holding onto the steering wheel with a death grip.

A bright golden light flared in the middle of a parking lot and it grabbed her attention. As the light faded, a massive creature appeared. Maya stared, barely comprehending what she was seeing.

It was a mix of squirrel, dog, cat, and pigeon. She could see the various parts of it, the squirrel head, the dog legs, the cat body, the dull grey feathers of its tail. A chimera of everyday animals that was the size of a horse.

She was so shocked that her foot had eased off of the pedals and the truck slowed. The chimera roared and screamed, in agony or rage. It staggered about the parking lot and then pounced upon a man who was holding up a phone, recording the creature.

There was blood. A lot of it.

Maya choked down the horror and slammed her foot on the accelerator. The truck jerked forward, but it had slowed down too much. With a sputter of the engine, the truck stopped.

“Shit, shit, shit,” Maya cried as she shifted gears and began restarting the truck. But she was too late.

Ebony lightning stabbed down and everything was filled with a cold and terrible darkness.