Jeff ran the three blocks to the church at a fast jog. He hadn't run this much in a long time. The stitch in his side was painful, but not enough to deter him.

As he drew closer he saw a crowd of people gathered near the pillar. They stayed a safe distance away. Several of the men and women were crying hysterically.

"Where did you take our kids?!" A woman shouted and threw a rock at the pillar.

The rock slammed into the golden material and fell straight down without any ricochet. The Pillar was unsurprisingly unharmed.

Still, about 60 meters out Jeff's mind went into overdrive. He tended to get overly logical when in crisis situations. Which his wife did not always appreciate. He let it go to work here and started drawing his conclusions.

Just yelling questions doesn't work. Waiting might pay off, but he wanted answers now. The pillars might attack, but if they did his actions likely wouldn't matter. The aliens had already proven powerful and coordinated with the words in the sky and synchronized pillars dropped. So the only answer was to do something new and gather more information.

The last logical point was most important to his final decision.

He was willing to do anything to find his children.

The pillar rested in the middle of the church parking lot. A safe place to land that didn't hurt anyone, he noted. The crowd of people had gathered on the road, treating the separation of asphalt and cement parking lot like a boundary they didn't dare cross.

Jeff slipped past them not slowing down despite the exclaims of surprise and caution. He ran right up to the pillar. He hesitated just a moment then held out his hand and placed it against the golden surface of the System Pillar.

The golden surface was slightly warm to be touch and melted from a strong surface to a puddy of sorts. The glowing golden puddy attached to his hand like ooblek and began gently pulling him in.

He resisted a moment and found he could pull his hand out if he wanted. That would only delay him though. He needed answers and this was where he could get them. And he was willing to do what it took to find answers.

He took a deep breath and stepped fully into the Pillar.

He moved forward and the golden substance intuitively moved around him. It stuck to him tightly but did not inhibit his movements. It was strangely pleasant, except that having anything so close to his mouth and eyes was extremely unsettling.

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His searching hand broke through the other side and he quickly stepped through to the other side. The room he entered was about the size of his living room. Comfortable, but surprisingly smaller than he expected.

He looked back and the golden glowing stuff did not make up the whole wall. It was only visible in a single, door-like archway. The rest of the wall had a silver metallic hue to it except for small highlighting streaks of the golden glow marbled throughout the metal. The four walls of the room were made of the same material. It lit the room in a warm golden light.

In the center of the room, there was a small circular table. It seemed to grow straight out of the floor in intricate curving patterns.

On top of the table was a bowl filled with a milky golden liquid. The message was clear. He was supposed to drink the liquid.

Uh oh. He was confident that the only way to get answers was to at least interact with the Pillar, but drinking some unknown substance was pushing it.

"Uh, I'm here for information. Where did you take our kids?" He asked, seeing if verbal communication would work now that he was inside the pillar.

The golden streaks mixed in with the silver around the room glowed then a glow moved from the edges of the room to the bowl in the center. The message was extra clear. He had no choice but to drink the stuff first.

Maybe it would allow him to communicate somehow. Or it would prepare him for nefarious experiments…

Best not to think about that, he thought.

He moved forward and picked up the bowl. It was heavier than he expected for its size. It was about half the size of his typical cereal bowl.

Yeah, this is just like drinking the extra milk after cereal. He thought as he brought it up to his mouth.

He debated if he should drink it quickly or take a small sip and wait. The golden lights around the room pulsed as if saying, 'Get on with it'. He decided to trust the system…of the System Pillar and do it quickly.

He downed the liquid in two quick gulps.

Halfway through he couldn't help but wonder if drinking it was the wrong way to go. Maybe the lights flashed because it wanted him to just touch the liquid. Too late now.

He was surprised that the liquid had no taste, or smell for that matter. The texture was awful though. It seemed to coat every surface of his mouth and throat. His tongue was quickly covered with a waxy-puddy-like film.

He placed the bowl back on the table and tried to take a breath. Only a trickle of air filled his lungs before he started gagging. The liquid had coated his throat completely and was blocking his windpipe.

Alarmed, Jeff tried breathing through his nose instead. That worked better, not great, but better. His body started tensing up desperate for more air.

Growing up asthmatic he had plenty of experience with forcing himself to stay calm despite not having air. Still, he felt his panic rising. He sat on the floor and forced himself into a metered breathing pattern.

He had just gotten over his alarm when the stuff coating his insides seemed to wake up. It soaked into his tongue and mouth and then started expanding. There were intense bursts of pain everywhere the golden substance had touched. The pain subsided quickly into numbness.

He fell to his hands and knees as he felt the tingling numbness expand from the roof of his mouth and toward his brain.

Then there was only darkness.