“GET OUT OF HERE NOW DAMNIT!” Gerald screamed at his son and shoved him toward the kitchen door. Connor staggered backward and tripped over a chair, falling onto his backpack.
“I’m not fucking leaving you!” He screamed. Two alien ships were landing in the field outside, approximately 300 yards from the house. Their thrusters fired to slow their descent and obliterated the crops under them. The rear and side doors opened and troops in jet black armor were spilling from both of them. Connor’s eyes went wide and he looked at Laura and then at his parents.
“Go.” His mother mouthed the word and then spoke the next out loud. “You’re young. You have so much still to live for. Save her, go.”
“I’ll cover you son, go now.” Gerald said and brought up his rifle to shoot through the window at the advancing soldiers. There was an organization to them, he could see it now. Smaller pale gray aliens were in the front, they advanced awkwardly and bumped into each other as they jogged forward. Their eyes searching frantically from side to side. Gray doglike creatures ran beside them, licking their lips and howling in delight. Behind them were heavily armored troops, they advanced more slowly and were more cautious. The one in the middle was the largest of the group. He pointed to the left and right and squads of four to five soldiers branched off from the group to go to where he had directed them.
Connor picked up his rifle and pack. “Laura we have to go, come on. Thank you dad, mom, I love you so much.” He had barely finished his sentence when several bolts of red light ripped through his parents living room and sent splinters and glass everywhere.
Gerald nodded and opened up with his civilian model assault rifle, hitting several of the smaller ones hard and dropping them to the dirt. The rest of them took off at a sprint, howling into the air with excitement. They were wild, barely under control from what appeared to be their handlers. Connor sprinted outside, throwing his pack through the back window of his four door sedan and tossing the rifle between the two seats. The engine revved as he started it and slammed it into drive. The long driveway came at him faster than it ever had before and he left a storm of dust behind him that clearly marked the escaping car. One of the drop ships in the field came to life again and closed it’s doors, it was going to chase them.
“Shit shit shit! They’re coming after us!” He said and skidded off of the driveway and into the main road. The potholes that would now probably never be filled in rattled his old car down to the frame as he hit every single one, his attention on the black shape filling the rear view mirror. “Laura I can’t get away, it’s too fast! Hold the wheel!”
She did, no questions asked, she reached over and took the wheel as Connor leaned out of the driver’s side window with his rifle. The alien craft brought itself along side the car and he could see light pouring through the open side door. One of the creatures leaned around the corner with a weapon of it’s own and Connor fired, hitting the outer hull as his shot went wide to the right. He had led the craft too much for the short distance between them. Milliseconds after the report from the old 30-06, a large section of the road blew apart in front of them sending chunks of asphalt into the air like a fragmentation grenade, turning the windshield into deadly confetti. Laura screamed and jerked the wheel to one side and then the other.Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.
“I cant see! Slow down!” She yelled, her eyes frantically searching for a spot of windshield that she could see through. Connor leaned back inside and took the wheel just before the front end of the car lifted and rolled to the right like a giant had swatted an annoying fly buzzing toward it. They had hit a turn in the country road, one of dozens before the next town but Laura didn’t know the road like Connor did. The car flipped and went airborne before crashing back down into the forest thirty yards from the bank and finally rolled to a stop. The world went black.
Connor didn’t dream while he was unconscious, nor did he feel the pain that was waiting for him to come back. There was simply nothing, like before he was born. Time passed and he didn’t exist anymore. Everything was waiting for him. The pain, the fear, the nausea, the invasion. It all patiently waited for the young man to wake up and then it assaulted him all at once. He woke, and he screamed. Pain from his ribs shot through his whole upper body and he clawed at the seatbelt that kept him from doing anything about it. Once free he fell out of the open door and rolled to his back.
“Ahh oh god, Laura!” he called out, but no reply came. “Laura, please be okay.” He said and coughed before sucking in a labored breath. He felt with his hands and found the ribs that were hurting. He hoped that they were just bruised but he knew they were probably fractured if not broken. As Connor climbed to his feet, he could see the contents of his car strewn about the crash site but he easily spotted his pack and rifle still in the back seat area’s . Laura wasn’t in the car but she also wasn’t laying anywhere nearby. He walked around to the passenger side but slipped in the slushy snow and screamed again when his body tightened to keep from falling. He went down to one knee and that was when he saw the blood droplets that had melted their way through the snow until they ran out of heat and became snow themselves. Little red droplets but also blue droplets. He crinkled his face and scooped them up in his hand.
Is this what their blood looks like? Is that a piece of Laura’s hoodie?
The dread and the nausea came next when he saw the chaos of the footprints in the snow and the drag marks that led back to the road, and then the scorch marks on the pavement. Laura was hurt but she was conscious and she fought them, probably even cut or stabbed one of them but they took her in the end. God knows where she was or what was happening to her. He leaned against the car and wretched, causing a whole new level of pain in his ribs.
His knees buckled and he vomited his last home cooked meal from his mother, and when the feeling passed and when he got his legs back under him, he grabbed his rifle and his pack and started walking. Connor James knew where he was, this was where he grew up. He knew the road, he knew the turn that had sent his car into the woods, he knew the creek that ran along that road, he knew how to get to the next town, what was there, where to fish, where to hide, where to get away and see the stars. He knew his parents were dead. They had made a terrible mistake in not finishing him off. A terrible mistake indeed