C'ath knelt beside the dead body. Unlike most of the dead who were piled up just outside of camp waiting to be thrown into a mass grave, this one had died of suicide. C'ath and his helpers had carefully looked over the bodies, picking the healthiest ones out of the diseased and rotting corpses, loading them onto anything with wheels, taking them to the makeshift kitchen. It had been backbreaking work, but it needed to be done.

He took a moment to catch his breathe, his lungs ached from breathing in the ash and dust, and his eyes watered constantly. The cooking fires didn't help his breathing but at least it was warm. The light barely cut through the unnatural darkness, it was noon yet the ashen sky looked like deepest night. As the wind blew more ash into his face, C'ath wished that he had a building to work in. But no building had survived the impact, they had all been destroyed by the earthquake or the firestorms.

Taking the butcher knife, he cut into the body. It had been hard to do the first day, each cut had made him want to vomit and tears had filled his eyes. Now, they were just a source of food. Another way to stay alive.

He heard his helper, V'Thra, curse as she cut herself opening a can of vegetables, one of the last they had.

“Make sure to bleed into the pot,” C'ath said. “We can use the protein.”

“It's my blood. If anyone gets it, its me,” she replied, placing her digit in her mouth.

Before he could reply, there were screams from the refugee camp. He couldn't make much out over the crowd, but it sounded like 'demons'. Getting to his feet he looked to the sky and saw something impossible. Hundreds of lights were coming down through the ash cloud. He had seen flying machines before, his people had made massive ones to transport goods over land and sea. But they huge and slow, these were about as large as a transport bus and flew through the sky impossibly fast.

They came to within a few hundred feet above the camp and then they shouted impossibly loudly, “Help is here. Stay. Help is here.”

They repeated the message, the accent and pronunciation was strange, like they didn't know the language very well, but it was understandable. Some people still ran, but most stayed where they were, whether out of shock, hope or simply being too weak and injured to move.

The strange things flew to a clear spot on the edge of the camp and landed gently on ashen ground. C'ath went towards them, still holding his butchers knife, V'Thra followed close behind unthinkingly holding the can of vegetables. They weren't alone, dozens of others were heading to the things as well, most holding some kind of makeshift weapon.

The things were oddly shaped, a little like a bird in flight but without a tail. They were smooth and made of some black material, there were no windows and C'ath wondered how those inside could see. The one closest to them shifted, rippling like water to form an opening, allowing something on treads to drive out. It was rectangular in shape, bright white with a red cross on it. Two appendages that looked a little like arms and hands were built onto its back, it didn't look like anything C'ath had ever heard of.

He noticed that more of the box things had appeared. They were all doing odd things, digging into the dirt, placing odd bits of rubbish and debris inside themselves, and putting strange devices up. At least a few seemed to be setting up tents, these were also bright white with the same red cross on them.

“Help is here,” the nearest box said. It placed a small tripod down, and pointed at someone in the crowd. “You, here. You help I. I help you.”

The woman slowly and cautiously walked towards the tripod.

“You speak, here,” the box said, pointing at tripod. “Speak.”

“What do you want me to say?” she asked.

“Speak. Say.” The box repeated.

The woman looked terrified, but began speaking. “Please, help us. We need food, water, medicine. Anything you can spare.”

“Food. Food is eat, yes?” the box asked.

“Yes. We eat food.”

The box motioned at the tripod again. “Speak, say anything. Speak, speak, lots.”

The woman began talking again, telling the tripod who she was and what we needed. The box turned away from her and moved towards the crowd. “Food. Show food,” it said, holding out its hands.

C'ath was about to run to the kitchen to get some when V'Thra slowly stepped forwards, holding out the open can of vegetables she still carried.

The box moved forwards on its treads and took the can from her. The crowd shouted in despair as the box upended the can into a hole on its back. That one can was more food than most of the people had eaten in days.

“No worries,” the box said. “Make food for all. Many food. Make line. Make line and food for all. Water for all.”

C'ath saw several boxes come forward with bowls and a long table, while a much larger device followed behind them. The large device came to a stop and several ports opened up, much to the shock of everyone. Each of the boxes placed a bowl in a port and a few seconds later they pulled out a bowl full of white paste. They placed the bowl on the table and went to get more.

“Make line. Eat the food. Good food. Healthy food. One food, one person,” the box said.

People began to push and shove trying to reach the food first. They didn't know what these things were, but if the boxes wanted to kill everyone here, all they would have had to do was wait. Hunger drove the last bit of fear away and C'ath began to fear a riot might start.

One of the flying vehicles lit up, an ominous tube had appeared on its front pointed at the crowd. “Make a line. Fighting bad. No fight. Food for all. Make a line. Food for all,” the box repeated. The crowd slowly shuffled into something resembling a line and people began to get their bowls.

The box seemed to watch the crowd for a few minutes, ensuring it stayed peaceful. Then it spoke again. “We will help the sick. But we need to learn. Healthy people, please come here. You will not be harmed. Healthy people come here. You will not be harmed.”

The words were easier to understand. The accent was still there, but it was making proper sentences and the words sounded natural. C'ath still didn't know who these... people were, but for the first time in weeks he had hope. Without too much hesitation he stepped forward.

When there were ten people lined up, yet another box came towards them. “Please follow me to the medical tent,” it said in the exact same voice as the first box.

They went with the box towards one of the dozens of tents that now dotted the area, still more were being set up in the distance. It looked like there would be enough to hold everyone in the camp. Stepping into the tent was like paradise to the ashen hell outside. The air was clean and warm, and there were clean cots to lie on. They would barely hold C'ath, but they would be better than the hard ground and filthy blanket he had been using.

“Lie down please and relax,” the box said. “This will feel strange.”

“Why are you speaking more clearly now?” C'ath asked as he went to a cot.

“We are learning your language. We knew a little from the radios, but hearing you speak is letting us learn more quickly,” it replied. “Now please lie down. The faster we do this, the faster we can help.”

Lying down, C'ath felt the cot shift to fit his body better. There was a faint buzzing noise and he felt something press against his arm, causing him to jerk away. Something that looked like a needle was attached to his arm, it didn't hurt, in fact he didn't feel much of anything from it. He resisted the urge to touch it, and laid back down wondering what was happening.

As he breathed in the clean air, he began to feel cold. It started in his arm where the needle was stuck and moved towards his stomach. He tried not to groan as his stomach roiled. Someone vomited, and the tent was soon full of retching, coughs and groans. The boxes had poisoned them, whether by accident or on purpose, C'ath knew he wouldn't leave this tent alive.

The poison began to move up his chest towards his first heart. He reached for the needle to rip it off, and felt his body go limp. He couldn't move anything below his head, even trying to speak did nothing but cause a faint whimper.

“Please don't struggle,” the box said. “We are doing an emergency procedure to learn your biology as quickly as possible. It is painful and very uncomfortable, but it must be done. The easier method would take many hours, and each hour wasted means more of your people will die.”

C'ath barely heard it. The panic, nausea and pain was too overwhelming. As the cold reached his head sheer terror sent him into unconsciousness.

**

C'ath slowly came to.

He didn't know where he was, he was too comfortable and warm to still be at the camp. For the first time in weeks he didn't itch, and as he moved his digits he didn't feel the gritty ash rubbing against his skin.

There was quiet talk and snoring around him, that was different to. There should be crying, wailing and coughs of the dying. Briefly he wondered if he had died and this was paradise.

“Ah, you're awake. I want you to take your time and slowly open your eyes,” a voice said. “You're going to see something surprising, but don't worry, you are safe and everything is going to be OK.”

Nothing could be more surprising than what he'd already seen, C'ath thought as his memories returned to him. Still he steeled himself before looking at the speaker.

He wasn't ready for what he saw. The speaker wasn't the box, but a living breathing, something. It was hairless with two long arms just below its small head. It was wearing a long white coat, with a red cross on its front, so C'ath couldn't make out much of the body, but it was very skinny. Two tiny eyes looked down at him, but most of the things face was covered in a mask.

“What are you?” he asked.

“We're humans,” the creature said. “We come from another planet that is actually pretty close to here. One of our scout ships found your planet just after the asteroid hit. When we learned what had happened, we grabbed everything we could and came running. This is actually a pretty big deal for us, we'd never seen an alien before today.”

C'ath didn't know what to say. The philosophers had debated if there was life among the stars, but to discover it was true. To see them face to face, to have them come and save his people, it was too much. “Why did you do all of this?”

“You were in trouble, what kind of neighbours would we be if we didn't help out?” the human asked.

Neighborly