Chapter 5: The Hero
Mark enters the University; he walks over dead bodies as they lay on the floor. He enters the med lab of the school and searches for the bandages and antibiotics; he funds them and heads for the food courtyard, where he enters the kitchen and gathers as much food as he can. On his way back, Mark hears a large sound outside, of a noticeable nature and decides to investigate. He slowly moves towards the roof top by the use of a stairway. He reaches the roof and sees the flying ships and decides not to risk discovery by heading back, until the sound is heard again, causing a look into the distance from him. He risks discovery and moves towards the edge and looks towards Central Park and sees a large number of people; they were being held captive by the aliens, as a small ship flew over his head towards the Park. It landed, as the alien commander steps out. Mark focuses his eyes hard, trying to see what is happening, when the alien weapon activates and zooming his vision and hearing. He sees the commander walking out of the ship into the crowd of terrified people, before a man and woman stand to greet him.
‘President Bush?’ Mark says to himself
‘President Bush, of these United States of America; I ‘am commander Zolt, of the Galena civilization; from the Glochidium Galaxy’ it uttered, in a deep dark voice
‘Glochidium, on earth; refers to a parasitic larva of certain freshwater bivalve molluscs, which attaches itself by hooks and suckers to the fins or gills of fish’ President Bush said
‘Your attempt to humour the situation, is most amusement’
‘I made no such attempt; my remark was intended to insult you’
‘Insult me?’
‘Yes’
‘Have your laugh Mr. President; for I was going to show mercy upon you and your people, by executing you right here and now; but, I will let you live long enough to watch what will become of your precious Earth’
‘And what, if I may ask; will become of Earth’
‘Ravage; we will take everything from you; your water, minerals and oxygen, will all be taken from you; and you will spend the last of your days gasping for the little we leave. If that doesn’t kill you, then they activation of your Super Volcano’s will.’ President Bush took the words to heart and unleashed a right hook across Zolts’ alien face, to the anger of the alien squadron, but they were quickly calmed by Zolt with a wave of his hand. Zolts’ face had a slight cut, as grey blood bleed. ‘Defiant to the better end; you humans are more like us than I first thought; what a pity, we have to kill your kind’ he uttered before leaving in his ship.
Mark was taken aback, by what he had seen and heard. He made his way back into the campus and back to the basement. He knocked and identified himself, before the door was opened for him.
‘Here’ Mark said, as he gave the meds to Brick, ‘Carol’ he called out to the mother of two, ‘here, take this bag, it has food and water, divide it among us, with priority to the children’ he instructed, as he feel to down in a corner with his mind racing to understand what he had just heard.
‘What’s wrong?’ Yuan asked, as she came to him, causing a look from Susan
Mark looked on, as everyone ate their portion of food, knowing that he had to inform them of the situation that had risen. ‘Everyone listen’ he said, as he got up, ‘how Pamela?’ he asked
‘She is fine, the bandage is in place and I have given her water, she should come too in an hour or two’ Brick explained
Mark nodded in acknowledgement, before continuing, ‘when I was up there I saw survivors’
‘Survivors’ they gasped, with the exception of Susan, who was busy holding her daughters hand
‘Yes. But that is not the real issue here; an alien commander was talking to President Bush; he has been taken prisoner. The commander said that they are planning to take every last mineral resource we have on earth and make it un-survivable; and if that doesn’t kills us, then they would activate our Super Volcano’s’
‘What is a Super Volcano?’ asked Dave at the sewer door
‘It’s a ground level volcano, that, when erupted; will destroy the whole world. Think Yellow Stone National Park; it’s one giant Super Volcano waiting to go off, there will be no survivors’ Mathew explained
‘What will we do?’ asked Mendes, a Latino lady in the room
‘We have to fight’ Mark said
‘And how are we supposed to do that?’ Yuan asked
‘I don’t know; but I know that sitting down here will not get us anywhere. They are planning to kill us all; I know you’re scared, I know you wish nothing more than to sit down here and hide. But they are not giving us that option; they are not going to allow us to sit down here in fear. They came here to walk all-over us, but if there is one thing that we humans are capable of doing; it is to rise to any occasion and win’
‘Nice speech, but we still need a plan of action’ Dave pointed out
‘First we need to rescue those captives in the Park’
‘And how are going to do that; we are outnumbered’
‘First we are going to need a bigger place to hide them all, next we need to gather food and water; last but definitely not least, we are going to need weapons, lots and lots of weapons’
‘The sewers run across the entire Manhattan and New York in general right’ Mathew pointed out
‘Yes’ Mark replied
‘Then we can use it to gather supplies; they school already is offering us food, water medicine so all we need are weapons, which we can get just two blocks down from here, there is an arms shop’
‘And how do you know about the arms?’
‘Dude; Republican’
‘Then it is settled’
‘Hold on just a minute, we still need a place to put everybody’
‘Ground Zero’ Mendes said, ‘After the 911 attacks, the new building was built over a big gap. It was supposed to be a reminder of the tragedy and is supposed to be big enough for three 747 Dreamliner; it has its own electricity’ she was explaining, as everyone looked on, wondering how this cheerleader looking girl could ever have known about this. Once finished Mendes looked at everyone’s expression and realised why they had it, ‘believe it or not, I did a historical course at this school and the September attacks was my specialty’
‘Ground Zero, it is’ Mark said, as he now had all the pieces to set a plan in motion
Earth Stands Alone: part one Page 5
