The first night that Connor had slept alone, he spent under the stars. He used to gaze up at them and wonder what was really out there, other than Earth of course. Now he looked up and wondered what fresh hell would come after the invasion. How many more of them were there? Streaks of light and flashes peppered the night sky above him, threatening to rain down more death, more horror, more black clad aliens with nothing but murder on their minds. He kept his rifle close and never let go, not even after he fell asleep. His coat and beanie had kept him warm until around 2:00am when the cold broke through and chilled him to the bone. He hoped it was doing the same to them. Maybe they would be so miserable on Dottir that they would turn around and fly back home to their sunny paradise or whatever they came from.


    When morning arrived, he didn''t know what to do. He thought his instincts would guide him but they were silent on the subject. What do you do when your whole world was turned inside out and everybody was gone. He was hungry, he hadn''t eaten anything since vomiting on the side of the road. He could eat and walk though. He needed a destination.


    What if they''re not dead. What if they survived and they''re hurt. How could you even sleep?


    His feet were moving before he had actually thought it through. His parents were certainly dead but he couldn''t leave them there in either case. He couldn''t just leave their bodies lying where they fell. He stayed on the wood line next to the road for fear of being spotted in the open. He would probably still be seen just inside the trees but it gave him the ability to break line of sight within a few steps by running a little deeper. They probably had some kind of high tech scanner or infrared vision.


    They came here from another planet, they''re not going to be fooled by me standing behind some trees.


    The time that he spent walking back down the windy country road had slipped past him, nearly unnoticed. He was both numb and overwhelmed at the same time. His mind wandered almost constantly but he couldn''t remember thinking about anything. He must have been in shock. The straps on his backpack were starting to feel uncomfortable and his mouth was dry but he was almost there. He could see smoke rising from the cornfields burning. It was surreal to see that and nobody was trying to put it out. There were no flashing lights, no sirens, his dad wasn''t dragging the garden hose out there or cutting a fire break in the field. It was just going to burn until it was done.


    As he drew closer he could see bodies in that field. Some were already charred black and others lay motionless inside their black armor, their weapons just feet away from them. His dad took at least ten from their first blind charge through the growing corn. Pieces of the house were completely blown apart and Connor could see the same wallpaper that he had grown up with through the gaping holes. He gripped his rifle tighter and the weight of the backpack vanished. One of them was still alive. It was sitting with it''s back against the wood stove in the living room and nodding it''s head every few seconds. Connor brought the scope up for a closer look.


    It''s either falling asleep or hurt bad and trying to stay awake.


    He scanned the rest of the property for movement though the smoke was making that harder to do. He knew he could use that to his advantage and worked his way around to follow the smoke screen. He reached the side of the house opposite of the Alien soldier and slowed his approach from feet to inches at a time. He had snuck up on animals before, hyper aware of every movement and the consequences of failure, but this was different and his heart pounded so hard that he was afraid the creature could hear it.


    When Connor finally made it to the back door his legs were burning from the cautious movement. He eased the door open like he had done many times before to sneak back inside after a night of sneaking around with the neighbor''s kids. The rough material on his pack brushed against the door frame and caused his whole body to seize. He eased the safety off and worked to calm his breathing though no sound came from the living room. Another few steps and he would see it, but what would he do?


    as he rounded the wall to the living room he could see that the alien was still there. Blue blood had streamed from the side of it''s exposed face down along it''s armored shoulders and onto the floor beside it. His father lay crumpled against the wall behind the wood stove, red blood was under him, more than Connor had ever seen before. He winced and dipped back behind the wall, tears built up and threatened to fall. He steeled himself and stepped quietly back into the living room with his rifle leveled at the soldier. It didn''t react at all.Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.


    It''s wounded, they left it to die, just like me.


    Connor''s legs were trembling as he crept closer. He had enough adrenaline in his system to cause a heart attack, he thought as he bent down and picked up the alien beam rifle and set it behind him. He could blow the thing''s head clean off it''s body at this range. 180 grains of hate straight through it''s brain for what it did.


    I wonder if it can speak our language. I could find out where they took Laura. I could ask it why they''re doing this.


    "Hey wake up you ugly lizard." Connor hissed and poked his barrel into it''s wound.


    The alien woke up and hissed, grabbing at the rifle barrel but Connor was ready for that and pulled it back. It stopped all movement when it realized what had just happened. Connor nodded.


    "Yeah that''s right. I caught you sleeping didn''t I? Where did your buddies go? They go to burn another farm? Kill more of my neighbors?"


    The alien''s eyes darted around the room frantically.


    "Oh I already got your little laser gun. You ever see one of these before?" He held up his rifle. "You know how many animals I''ve killed with this? One more wouldn''t bother me one bit, especially one this ugly. Did you kill my dad you motherfucker?" He pointed and the soldier followed the gesture to the body behind it but it didn''t react further."


    Connor brought the rifle''s stock forward and hammered it into the alien''s head just as their eyes found one another again. He screamed in rage and grabbed it by the armor and dragged it back to his dad.


    "WAS THIS YOU? DID YOU DO THIS?" He put the thing right beside his dad''s lifeless eyes and raised the rifle with tears pouring like rain onto the hardwood floor. "WHERE IS MY MOM? WHERE IS LAURA?"


    The Sharlah trooper raised it''s hands in an awkward gesture of surrender, showing it''s armored palms but it''s eyes gazed past him to the beam rifle behind his feet.


    "Oh you just go right ahead and make that move. I''ll paint the wall with you and go eat breakfast before the fucking fire gets here." Connor hissed and stroked the cool metallic curve of the trigger.


    "Crysss ehk tiear." It said through the pain in it''s mouth and shook it''s head back and forth.


    "What? Did you just say you wanna die?" Connor said grinning like a fox but the Alien turned it''s back to him and sat on it''s knees.


    It''s surrendering.


    There were zip ties in the kitchen junk drawer, he knew, but he couldn''t go back in there and take his eyes off of it.


    "Come here ugly." He said, pointing at the floor in the doorway with the beam rifle while keeping his 30-06 at his hip and pointed directly at the alien. It obeyed. He retrieved the zip ties and inched his way around behind it. Again, it was compliant.


    What the hell am I going to do with an alien? The old mine maybe?


    He formed a hasty plan. They would get the canoes from the barn behind the house and float, separately, down to the old coal mine. It was abandoned but relatively safe inside.


    "Follow me ugly." He said and started out the back door but froze when he saw her. What was left of his mother was laying face down just a few feet away from the house. He was so focused on approaching the back door that he hadn''t even noticed her. She had been.. eaten. Connor''s blood ignited and burned in his veins. His legs started shaking again as he turned on the thing behind him. It had large black eyes that betrayed no emotion whatsoever but he saw it''s nostrils flare as it put together what had just happened.


    "I am going to kill every last one of you. Every single ugly motherfucker that steps within eyesight of me. You sick FUCKS."


    Connor found the canoes in the back of the barn and started to work them free but he couldn''t focus on the soldier at the same time. It stiffened as he walked up to it, never breaking stride, and landed a haymaker across it''s bleeding face. It grunted and went down as if the lights had gone out for a moment. It woke up gasping for air and stayed down while Connor tossed old tools and random objects to the side, digging his way to the canoes. When he finally moved the first one, two mice bolted for the light streaming through the open door. The trooper scrambled to its knees and lunged for one of them but landed face down in the dirt, unable to catch itself with it''s hands zip tied together.


    Connor scoffed and went back to pulling out the canoe. He staged them both outside of the barn and walked back in, alien eyes watching his every move. There was a piece of rope hanging from the rafters. Connor pulled it down and cut it in half, then tied it to what looked like attachment spots on the alien rifle.


    "There, now I don''t have to worry about you getting your hands on this. This is mine now." He said and draped it across his chest and then grabbed a shovel from the pile of garden tools to his left. "Lets go ugly, you''re going to do something useful."


    He marched the trooper outside and slammed the shovel down into the dirt to break the ground. He showed it what to do by making eye contact and digging a few strokes himself. He grapped a pair of wire cutters from the toolbox in the shed and walked behind the alien to release it''s hands. It just stood there, unsure what to do until Connor threw the shovel at it. The metal spade clanged off of the black armor and left a dusty mark but not even a scratch under that.


    "BURY THEM!"