Approximately three hours after midnight; Two childhood friends, Mourad (21) and Fabrice (20), are on their motorcycles driving home from a high school classmate’s birthday party in Braine-l’Alleud’s youth centre. There is literally nothing in sight except agriculture covered in darkness as far as the eye can see. They’re on a dirt road in between fields that locals refer to as ‘le chemin de Remyval’. Apart from the headlamps on their bikes and a strange bright object that flickers above them like a flare, everything is covered in darkness. It’s the middle of the night and they are in the middle of nowhere, so the sudden appearance of what resembles an asteroid is enough to make both of them stop and take off their helmets.
The unidentified flying object appears and disappears from sight twice, before an explosion rips out of the ball of light and crashes it in one of the sugar beet fields that surround the dirt road. While they discuss whether they should get off their bikes and check out the crash site, the burning Kraey ship cracks open to reveal the face of a greying blonde woman in her early fifties. (On Wazdog’s cargo manifest, her name is Britta.) She has a stern look on her face and is surprisingly unaffected by the situation. Although she sees another woman in a cargo pod next to her who is unconscious, she ignores her surroundings, seemingly motivated only by reaching whatever destination currently obsesses her mind. As “Britta” leaves the site of the crash, hiking with cold determination out of the beet field, another female clone shouts at her from the crash site. This second clone, who also survived the crash, looks much younger. (According to the cargo manifest, this “Haisel” is 19.) This younger clone is stuck in a pod and cannot break free. Britta turns her head, makes eye-contact from afar, ignores the younger clone’s cry for help, then continues to walk away from the crash site.
When Mourad and Fabrice reach the burning remnants of what they understand is not an asteroid but an actual extraterrestrial space ship, Haisel is unconscious and hangs face-down out of the pod in the mud. The adolescents find several bodies first, though, all of which were assassinated by Wazdog. (They are not aware of Britta’s existence. She has already disappeared from sight. And another female clone has also escaped.) Mourad and Fabrice discover Haisel still has a heart beat and pull her out of the contraption. She is unconscious and seemingly asleep.
[They talk French. I will translate;]
“Oh dude,” Mourad gasped, “we are so screwed.”
“What?”
“These people. These are the people I dream about.”
“What are you saying? A civil war in Europe is what you dream about. This is a flying saucer.”
“No dude, I’m serious. See that guy over there? That’s a German politician. See that girl over there? She’s an Italian pop star.”
“They’re all dead.”
“Dude, believe me. These are the people I dream about. Okay?”
“I believe you. I believe you.”
“Okay. What are you doing?”
“She’s alive,” Fabrice said, checking whether Haisel has a pulse, “we should bring her to a hospital.”
“No,” Mourad decided.
“How so, ‘no’?”
They are startled by a secondary small explosion nearby and that’s when Mourad notices the alien’s cadaver. This discovery shocks them. An immense anxiety takes hold of Fabrice. It’s the middle of the night and they stand amid burning remains of dead people, heaps of rapidly decomposing biotechnology, and what appears to be an extraterrestrial crab from outer space. But Mourad is not intimidated by the situation. He throws Haisel over his shoulder and with great difficulty walks a few meters in the mud towards their parked motorcycles.
“You’re taking her home? Stop acting like a fool.”
Mourad: “We have to leave.”
“We should call the cops,” says Fabrice.
“Are you blind or something? This is a flying saucer.”
“Stop. Please. We have to call the cops.”
Mourad, angry, stops walking and drops Haisel, angered by his friend’s conformism: “That thing there, it’s an alien. And did you see all those dead? What? Since when do you trust the government?”
“I’m calling the cops.”
“Fabrice, I swear, if you call the cops, I’ll break your face.”
Fabrice takes his phone but has trouble using it because his fingers are shivering due to the adrenaline rush.
Mourad comes over and pulls the phone from his hands. He grabs Fabrice’s shirt and continues berating his friend: “What do you think is gonna happen if we call the cops? You think this is the first UFO they find? You wanna get suicided by the police? I don’t wanna die. You wanna die?”
“Let go of me!”
“It’s like Area 51, dude. They’re gonna cover it up and then we’re dead.”
“Stop!”
“Okay okay. Just… don’t call the cops. Do that for me, okay?”
Fabrice doesn’t say anything but nods his head in defeat.
“Okay help me.”
“What!? Help me get her up.”
“Where are you taking her? We should take her to a hospital.”
“She’s not wounded, she’s just unconscious.”
“Yeah and why must we save her? We don’t even know who she is. It’s maybe an extraterrestrial.”
Mourad sighs, walks through the mud towards the alien and points at it. “That’s an alien.” He points at the dead clones. “That’s a human. She’s human.”
“What?”
“How many times did I talk to you about my dream? It’s been years! And I’ve shown you the websites online. I’m not the only one.”
“You’re one hundred percent sure these people… But you’re crazy or what?”
“Okay okay okay. Listen; I promise you I’ll call the cops if they talk about it on the news. Agreed?”
Fabrice responds with a frown.
Mourad continues: “If they cover this up. That means we’re in danger, right? But if they talk about it on the news, then I’m paranoid.”
“Yes.”
“So we don’t talk about it. And we wait. And if the news talks about it, then we call the cops. Right? So we get her out now, and then, if we’re safe, we can bring her back.”
“Okay. Oh no, Mourad. What about our phones? They can know, they know we’re here. They track our phones.”
“Yes, well it’s too late for that. We’ll have to pray they don’t.”
“But if they find us they’ll…”
“Stop thinking. Start moving. And help me carry her.”