Michael, Nathalie and Sarah were terrified. The house shook every few minutes. The storm would grow in intensity then die away for a while, only to re-emerge with a vengeance. The atmosphere was ominous.
It had felt like a war, Michael thought anxiously. There had been gunfire and a sound like a car-crash, but now the only sounds were the storm itself.
Michael looked bewildered. Nathalie didn’t know what to say to him. She just shook her head and went to try and comfort Ben - he still refused to leave his bedroom.
A high pitched vibrating sound suddenly flowed through the building. It seemed to be coming from above, from the chimney. A blue laser-like light lit up the ceiling. The walls of the house started to shine and fluoresce becoming transparent. Inside the walls strange shaped metal objects could be seen. They had long curved arms with a ball-like head at one end. They began to move as though possessed of some intelligence. The shapes gathered and fused. They began to shine a white-hot blue.
‘You’ve got to get Ben!’ Nathalie screamed, ‘We’re getting out of here now. Come with me Sarah. Mike - you grab Ben.’
Michael went to try and lift Ben forcibly from his room. Ben’s strength and weight were surprising. He went hysterical when Michael tried to pick him up, spitting and clawing at his face. ‘I want to be here. I know what is happening. Leave me!’ yelled Ben in his high-pitched tormented voice.
Michael had old back injuries. He’d pulled it again last week. He didn’t have the strength to lift Ben against his will. He was going to have to leave him.
Nathalie and Sarah were by the front door. She prepared herself to run outside - this building had a frightening life all of its own. The glowing, moving walls were beyond her comprehension and she could see the fear in Sarah’s eyes. They would have to face the storm. She ran outside and braced herself, clinging to a lamppost against the wind, holding onto Sarah with her other arm. She scanned for shelter as they waited a moment for Michael and Ben. Michael, fearing for his own life, finally left Ben and ran for the front door too.
‘He won’t let me take him!’ cried Michael, the tears streaming down his face in the rain. He grabbed Nathalie’s hand and all three ran toward the church across the road.
A deep repetitive rumble sound started, descending from the top of the house. The sounds had a strobe-like pattern and reached a crescendo, rising finally to an impossibly high pitch.
The metal structures worked their way toward the top of the building, travelling through the walls. They melded themselves into a vaguely circular shape. Still, Ben was not frightened. The molten metal pushed itself outwards and the attic space fired into dust. The metal formed a disc shape, which merged where the roof space of Danny’s cottage had been just seconds before.
The newly emerged disc rose and shone with white light despite the storm. At the centre of the translucent disc a small structure could be seen. A structure called the Urnie. The Urnie had waited patiently inside a weight-bearing wall in Danny’s loft for decades. Finally it was on the move. Within the Urnie was a glowing yellow image of the Akashi space-tree. The tree's image started to spin and the solidifying disc took off. It raised itself but then hovered above the house completely motionless in the storm.