This thing was slowly approaching in the sky. It was gigantic and looked terribly inhuman and unmerciful. The atmosphere was very windy and dark out there, and a strange noise seemed to emanate from the spaceship as it was moving on, something like a metallic low frequency buzz.
"Fluffy!" shouted Marvin.
"What? I know… They're here."
At that moment, Penelope, the midwife, came back in the room. When she saw the dire vision through the window, she immediately dropped the tray she was holding, and all her instruments fell loudly on the ground.
Now, one of the huge spotlights of the spaceship started to glow intensely, as if it were gathering more light inside of it, or more energy. This purple disc of light started vibrating.
"Oh, no!"
All of a sudden, the round quivering light burst into a giant purple beam that came down towards the city with an awful noise. The beam hit a bridge and made it explode with an opaque cloud of dust and vaporized concrete.
Sounds of panic inside the hospital were suddenly coming from the other rooms and from the corridors. People were shouting with an expression of surprise and terror.
"Bloody hell!" exclaimed Marvin. "What are we going to do? We've got to move away."
There were sounds of hasty steps, people running all around, trying to escape from this monstrous apparition.
"I can't move away" replied Angie with an expression of pain and fear on her face.
And it was true. She was already in labor.
"It's okay." tried to affirm Marvin, rushing to his wife's bedside. "It's going to be fine."
Penelope, scared as she was, started to shout desperately:
"I knew it! Oh, gosh! I knew they would eventually come right here and destroy us all."
"Calm down." said Marvin. "They won't destroy us. They're not… they're not really real."
But as he was speaking this words, he felt a sudden twitch of doubt. They all saw it happening. It was unfolding right before their eyes, and all the destruction and devastation that was going on seemed to be nothing less than real.
He turned an inquiring eye on Fluffy, hoping to get reassurance from her.
But Fluffy, instead of caring for what was going on outside, was staring at the midwife with what looked like cold and unshakable resentment.
"What do you mean not real?" shouted the midwife. "Haven't you seen that?! We're under attack!"
"I know, but… Never mind."
The spaceship was still approaching, and it seemed that it was somehow orienting itself toward the very hospital. As one might have feared, its round shaped spotlight turned on again.
"It's coming!"
The bright disc shone intensely and vibrated in luminous waves for a moment. Then, as before, a great beam of light was shot, this time towards a building that was standing close to the hospital, blowing it away.
Then the purple spotlight went on once more.
"We've got to take shelter!" said Penelope. "Don't worry. I am going to take you to a safer place."
Unexpectedly, the midwife had recovered some courage. She quickly removed the catheter and the other monitoring devices that were attached on the future mom.
Outside, a loud buzzing sound was vibrating closer and closer. This time, the spaceship shot its purple beam right into the hospital. The hospital was a tall building, and the light beam impacted it somewhere in the upper floors.
The sound of the impact was tremendous and almost deafening. All the windows exploded instantaneously. The entire upper part of the tower was blown away, and all the building was deeply shaken. After that, the air remained filled with the tingling noise of falling pieces of glass and metal.
"We have no choice. Let's move!"
One second later, they were all running across the hallway, pushing Angie's bed on its wheels, as fast as they could.
Other people were also running away, trying to escape: doctors, nurses, patients — at least those who could still run — mixed up in a great confusion.
When they arrived at the elevator, there was already a small crowd in front of it. It was hopeless.
"Come on. I know another one." said Penelope.
They rushed through several smaller halls. How long — were they all thinking while running — before another deadly beam hits the hospital again? At the end of a corridor there was another elevator which seemed unoccupied.
They pushed the button; the doors opened. Penelope used her badge and pressed the button for level -2.
"Wait for me down there." she said. "There are other mums I have to take care of. I'll come back. Just wait for me. Oh gosh! I've not joined for that."
She went away, while Angie on her bed, Marvin and Fluffy were going down with the elevator.
As they were descending, Angie gazed at the buttons of the elevator, each of them having the associated number of its floor, and the corresponding department of the hospital. Third floor was gynecology, second floor was gastroenterology, and so on… Until minus two, the underground floor which was the mortuary.
"No! Stop!" cried Angie, and she pressed the button when they reached the level -1: it was the parking floor.
"What are you doing?" protested Marvin.
"She sent us to the mortuary! I'm not giving birth surrounded by corpses!"
"But we would have been safe. She said to wait for her there. Don't we need her?"
"Forget it! I'm getting down here."
Seeing his wife's determination, Marvin had no choice but to push the bed out of the elevator.
Now they were in the subterranean parking lot, surrounded by idle cars. Marvin pushed the bed further, against a wall.
"I'm going to go try to find the midwife." said Marvin.
"No! You're staying with me! She might not be able to come back anyway."
Suddenly, they heard another booming sound coming from above, and the whole building shook violently. Probably another devasting laser shot had just destroyed the floors above the surface.
At first, they thought that the ceiling was about to crumble on their heads. But the structure resisted.
"You see? Just stay with me."
"Okay. But…"
When Marvin looked down, he saw that the sheets covering Angie had turned red.
They felt a great upheaval of panic. They had survived all the attacks until then, but now the labor was undergoing complications. And no medical staff was there to help. All of a sudden, they understood they were alone.
Angie was struggling a lot. Marvin was feeling so helpless. There was nothing he could do to save his wife and his baby, or even to just alleviate the suffering. He thought he should go find someone who could help them. But who would? The doctors had run away, or were killed in the attack. Maybe the whole city had already been burned down to ashes up there. The midwife… They both felt on the edge of despair.
"F… Fluffy. Can't you do something? Please. Work your magic…"
The cat goddess jumped on the foot of Angie's bed and she looked at her solemnly, evaluating the situation in a long silence.
There, in the half light of that subterranean shelter, her silver fur appeared with a darker shade. And her golden eyes shone with a brighter and more mysterious brilliance.
"I must tell you…" she said with a soft voice. "You are going to die…"
There was something in her current attitude that resembled the terrible aspect of Bastet, when, five thousand years ago, she used to be worshiped in Egyptian temples and hypogea, when torches were illuminating the darkness around her and she stood wisely among the holy smokes.
"… unless you rely on me.
"I… I do!" replied Angie.
"Then, when he is born, you must let me take the child."
"What… what does it mean?"
"You know. I will take him with me to the Fluffy Galaxy. He will undergo a special training there. It will be a long travel. But I swear I'll return him safely to you."
"Okay!" said Marvin. "Whatever! Just save them if you can."
"I need your word. Both of you."
Angie and Marvin both nodded in agreement. Anguish was at this moment stronger than the sadness they could have felt because of that project.
Then, Fluffy came closer to Angie and started kneading her belly very softly. Almost instantaneously, Angie felt a great relief. The pain had decreased a lot.
The cat goddess continued to take care of her during several minutes, softly pushing with her paws. It all lasted for quite long, but eventually she felt some more contractions; she pushed as hard as she could, and finally, the baby came out.
They soon heard him cry. The mummy and the baby were safe. They all began to cry tears of joy and relief.
The terrible noise of destruction above their heads had also ceased. They couldn't imagine why. But maybe there was still some hope left.