Hannah was so spoiled that it turned her into a brat. She whined, cried and would guilt her way through anything. When I left, she was going through the beginning stages of boy mania, so I was happy to miss out on the drama she would bring with that.
Now, she won’t get to grow up into an adult. Now, I’ll never know what type of person she would have been. When we were little, she said she wanted to become a vet. She wanted to heal all the wounded animals she saw. I doubt she would have had the stomach for it, though. She has a heart too big to cope. She would bring home every stray animal she found and sob constantly for the ones she lost. No, that job would have eaten away at her.
She was smart at school, smarter when her mind was focused on her work and when she put in effort. I had always pictured her being a teacher. In fact, I had imagined that teaching young students would suit her. I think it would also have been a way of karma finding her. She had always been so horrible and annoying to so many teachers, she just had to have students being like that to her. It’s only fair, right?
But now I don’t know if she’s even alive. That future she thought she had and I had envisioned has been lost.
I shake my thoughts away. It’ll only upset me to stay on this track. My mind is a minefield these days.
I eye my hands, which hold the handgun and rifle. We’ve been given a pouch that can be clipped onto a belt that is full of bullets. It feels so final to be holding the weapons and definitely surreal.
“Listen to me,” Sergeant Casper’s voice brings me back out of my thoughts. I can’t seem to stop getting distracted. “I know this is scary. I know you may want to run and hide, but we need you. You’ll be given a specific area to guard, and I expect you to fight. This is our home, and no one is taking it from us. So put away your fear, keep those fucking tears in and grow some balls!” the Sergeant yells. If he’d been hoping for some sort of agreement or fist pumping, he’d been wrong. It isn’t that people don’t also feel this way, but right now, we’re all in shock. I should have been preparing for finals, not holding a gun and going into a war to most likely die.
“Mattie, I think I’m going to throw up,” Lisa whispers to me. She then passes me her two weapons and pouch before turning away and fleeing. She only makes it a few steps before she vomits and many people around us, me included, wince. My own stomach twists uncomfortably.
“Wow, I haven’t seen a girl puke like that since that chick at Mal’s party drank half a keg of beer,” Hank says quietly to me. He’s been standing on my other side.
For some reason, the three of us—Lisa, Hank and myself—have formed a weird friendship, and I don’t exactly understand why. Well okay, I do. Lisa and Hank are completely hot for each other, although also in denial. They’re good friends, so that way they can stay close to each other without actually having to do anything about their feelings. I’m best friends with Lisa as well as being her roommate, so we’re kind of a package deal.
Hank plays basketball here at the university, and from the games I’ve seen, he’s really good. Tall, handsome and fit, he makes most girls swoon, and boy does Lisa often swoon. It’s a bit sickening really. They would honestly make a gorgeous couple if they could admit their feelings.
While Hank is tall and bulky, Lisa is petite and short. She is Asian with perfect skin, not a single blemish. If you’d seen us go for a run together, you’d think she was superhuman. She is fitter than I am with only trying half as much as I do, and I’m fairly certain she doesn’t sweat. I’m not sure that’s possible except that she never appears to. She is sweet and a little neurotic while Hank is funny and completely calm about everything.
Even though I’m not a mushy person, I can totally see them married with several beautiful children and some obscenely happy future. I think their biggest question will be where they’ll raise these imaginary children because I know how homesick Lisa is and Hank is a blue-blooded American.
He comes from a family of cops—his dad and older brother are both police officers, his uncle is a detective and his grandfather was a police officer for thirty-eight years. He’s admitted to us that, even though his family is happy for him to go pro with basketball, he doesn’t really want to. He wants to be a cop like the rest of the men in his family. It wouldn’t surprise me if he gave up basketball and did that anyway.
I realise I’ve drifted off with my thoughts again. I haven’t even noticed that Hank left my side, doting over Lisa and making sure she’s okay. I’ve also missed a lot of what Sergeant Casper has said.
I think I would have stayed in my thoughts if a man hadn’t pushed a thick wad of paper at me. I open it up and find a map of Northern America and some parts of Canada on it as well. I gather that we’re being sent further up north. Since the last reports I’ve heard have been about Canada going dark, I have no doubt that we’ll be finding out what exactly happens when a place goes silent very soon.
I know I should be afraid—a normal response is to fear death, fear the unknown—but I think I’m still in too much shock to be afraid, or at least the correct amount. I assume a sane person would probably be in the fetal position, weeping right now—sort of how Lisa looks next to Hank. I just can’t wrap my head around this. I’m still hoping it is all just some horrible joke and the world is doing some belated April fool’s joke on us. That’s possible, right? Or this is just some super realistic nightmare that, even though it’s taking me forever to live through it, I’ll wake up from this and I’ll have only been asleep for a couple of hours. That is more probable. I’m going to hope for the latter.
A lot of people have gone into full meltdown mode. Many have up and left to go home as soon as the blackouts started to happen around the world. Maybe if I could have gotten a flight home, I’d have left, too. However, most commercial airlines closed down and none were going anywhere near Australia. So I stayed and Lisa stayed because she has been stuck in the same position I have. Hank has stayed at the campus because his family is already on the streets helping, and I don’t think he could bear to leave Lisa.
So when they rounded up everyone left on campus and the people living in the area, looking for volunteers, we came down to the football field, and that is where we’ve been recruited to fight. Sergeant Casper has made this all sound so practical, so organized, and so easy. We just have to protect a certain area and shoot anything that isn’t human. Easy, right? Who cares that we’re all untrained, unprepared and underequipped for any of this. I mean, a handgun, a rifle, some ammo and a map? Really?
Obviously their decent weapons are tied up elsewhere, and no doubt, some of these will have been gathered from seizures, donations or gun shops. All it adds up to is the fact that we’re screwed.
“Let’s try and stay together.” Hank takes my hand while he has Lisa wrapped up under his other arm, holding her close to his side. She looks dazed and ill. I think we’re going to be in for a vomit-filled ride.
We’re eventually loaded into transport vehicles. After that, it’s a long five hours before we arrive in Seattle. From there we are moved into another truck and driven closer to the border. We’re given a new speech as an attempt to motivate us and new orders to stay where we are dropped off. We’re also given one radio, which we’re to use at the first sign of those scary machines. I get the feeling they want us to be a warning system and we’re really just being sent out here because we’re expendable—we can give others a better chance of knowing when and how to expect our enemy.
I think a lot of people begin to realise the hopelessness of our situation because, as soon as we’re dropped off, many just appear to breakdown. Some sob, some just sit on the ground and stare blankly into the distance, some even scream in a fit of rage and despair.
Lisa wails into Hank’s shoulder. I know she’s thinking, not about her own mortality, but of her family. She has a big family with seven or eight siblings—I always forget how many and have no chance of being able to remember their names—who Lisa is super close to as well as her parents.
Moving to another country was the craziest thing anyone in her family has done. They were proud of her; I heard it whenever they spoke on Skype. And now she has no idea if they’re dead or alive, in pain or suffering. It’s the unknown that is killing her. The unknown about my own family is hurting me, too.
“It’s going to be all right,” Hank tries to assure her, though his words are empty. I still have her weapons and ammo on me, I don’t think she cares to have them back.
We’ve been left in a field with no obvious landmarks in sight. On the map we were given, there are circles for command centres, places where we can get help if needed, but they’ve failed to tell us where we are on it.
“What are we supposed to do?” I ask Hank while Lisa continues sobbing into his shoulder.
As sound like thunder reverberates through the sky, and as we gaze upwards, we see several fighter jets zooming quickly overhead, heading into Canada.
“Maybe we should follow them?” Hank suggests.
“On foot?” My mouth drops open in shock. He wants us to walk into Canada? I don’t even have my passport on me, not that I think they’ll care about such things right now.
“Not on foot. There’s loads of farmland out here; there must be houses and cars, too. Let’s try and find something.”
We leave the group we’ve been left with, no one paying us any attention as we walk away. We move slowly, hindered in speed by Lisa. She hasn’t said a word since we’ve been dropped off. I worry she is going into shock. Well, okay, we’re all going into shock, yet maybe Lisa’s reaction is normal, and it’s Hank and me who are the weird ones.
From what we’ve heard before communication became spotty, the military has deployed all of its women and men, and every fighter jet is up in the air. All their available tanks are on the roads, and no doubt, every weapon in use. I’ve heard whispers of nuclear weapons being readied, but I’m not sure if that was just talk or not. There’s no sparing anything; this is a fight to the death.
“Look, over there.” Hank points across a field to a small cottage.
We make our way over to it slowly, nightfall beginning to cover us in darkness. I have no personal belongings on me, not even any ID or money. Will any of that matter anymore or ever again?
“Do you think we should stay here for the night?” I ask, not sure if I’ll ever be able to sleep again. I can imagine the nightmares I’ll have when I close my eyes.
“No, we should keep moving.”
“Moving where?” Lisa whispers, her voice cracking. She’s still under Hank’s arm; I don’t think he’ll be letting go of her anytime soon.
“I think we should check out what is exactly happening and find out why things are going dark.”
“What?” Lisa stops moving and Hank stills when she pulls on his arm. “You want to go looking for those things?”
“I just think we should take a look; find out what is going on,” he says calmly back to her.
“You know, I doubt we’ll have to wait long to find out if we just stay here,” I say as my heart rate speeds up at the thought of how close my death might be.
“I don’t want to die,” Lisa cries, burying her head in Hank’s shoulder.
He moves the handgun to rest in the belt of his pants at his back, passing me his rifle, which means I’m now carrying three, and then he sweeps Lisa into his arms to carry her. I’m not even sure if she’s aware that he’s carrying her, either.
We move quicker now as I try to ignore Lisa’s tears. It’s not that I’m heartless, but I don’t want to break down, and if I let her tears affect me, then I know I will.
“Have you heard from your brother or your dad?” I ask Hank, hoping he might have heard some new information that he hasn’t shared with us yet.
“We all said goodbye yesterday.” His voice hitches, and I notice him blink away a stray tear. “We know that there is a good chance we won’t be getting out of this alive. Dad just told us that, if we’re going down, we’ll do it fighting and to ‘give those sons of bitches hell’.”
“Wise words.” My body shakes at the thought of confronting one of those machines. It looked scary enough on the TV, I’m not sure how awful it’ll be in real life.
“I know my way around weapons, and I think maybe, if we can ride out this attack, there is a way we’ll survive.” He looks over at me, his eyes begging for me to agree with him, that his belief that we might survive this isn’t just false hope.
“Yeah, well, when you two start popping out kids, you’re on your own,” I tease, my words falling flat.
“My sister was pregnant…” Lisa moans then her sobbing intensifies. Hank glares at me, but it doesn’t have much intensity behind it. I’m pretty sure most things we say will set Lisa off, and Hank knows that deep down.
“I’m sorry, Lisa. I didn’t mean to upset you. We have no idea what’s going on back home. I think they’re okay.” I swallow over my lie. I fully believe that there is little chance that anyone has survived those machines. Saying that to Lisa won’t help her, though.
“Maybe if we can make it to Canada, we can see what is really going on once it goes dark. It might not be as bad as we all think,” Hank suggests hopefully.
“And if it is bad?” she wails.
“Then we take down as many as we can.” Hank sounds sinister, causing a cold shiver to hit me at his words.
We move in silence then, not voicing what I’m certain each of us are thinking. Between us, we have three handguns, three rifles and a handful each of extra ammo. We already know these things are bulletproof, so how exactly are we supposed to take them down?
Unfortunately, we’re all about to find out what these things look like up close and personal all too soon.
Chapter 3
Mattie
The small cottage has been hiding an elderly couple easily in their seventies. They are frightened when they open the door to find us. I try to hide myself behind Hank and Lisa, not because I’m scared, but because I’m trying to hide my weapons. There have been whispers of looters and crime increasing with the lack of police presence. I think, if we had more warning of what was happening, more time than what we were given to know everything was about to end, we would have seen more of the uglier side of humankind. However, with the little warning and potential end of the world scenario, most people are in too much shock to do anything, or they’re hiding like these people.
“I’m sorry to disturb you, but we need your help,” Hank speaks calmly.
I look over his shoulder to see the old man holding a protective arm in front of his wife.
“They look tired, dear. Let them in,” the woman says kindly. When she smiles, her face scrunches up and she looks like that typical, cute, old lady type.
“We don’t want no trouble.” He glares, although grudgingly he does move to let us pass. Well, he lets Hank and Lisa pass, but when he sees my weapons plus Hank and Lisa’s that I’m still holding, he blocks his wife and backs her up against the side wall, trying to protect her.
“I don’t mean you any harm. These are just what we were given to fight those things attacking us,” I explain, looking to Hank for guidance.
Should I put my weapons on the floor and step away from them? Even though I don’t want to have anything to do with fighting an alien race attacking us with guns that are most likely useless, I also can’t bring myself to give up the weapons. They’re our only defence, even if we have seen that bullets have no affect over them.
“That’s actually why we’re here, we’re heading into Canada to find out why their communications went down and what exactly is happening over there, but we need transport. We saw your cottage and wondered if you might have a vehicle we could borrow.” Hank smiles sincerely at the couple. He’s always the charmer.
“I don’t have no—”
“We have a pickup truck out the back. It’s fully gassed,” the old woman speaks up, cutting her husband off.
“That is my truck, I refuse to—”
“We don’t need it anymore. We agreed to spend our last days here together, in our home where we brought up Jacob. We promised that we’d sit by his tree and not leave him alone. We don’t need that awful sounding and polluting thing here.”
The husband turns around to stare at his wife. While they communicate silently to each other, I feel like we’re intruding on a moment.
“Fine, take it. Just promise me you’ll take care of her.” The old man moves his hands to his back pocket, taking his keys out. He removes the correct one off the chain and hands it to Hank, his eyes moving back over to me as if afraid I might try something now that he’s given us what we want.
The old lady steps around her husband, staring at Lisa in concern. “Do you have any supplies with you? Vancouver is over a couple hours’ drive from here and it’s getting late. You all look so tired. We have a spare room you could—”
“Vivian…”
“Thank you, but we really should be on our way before…” Hank trails off and we all pause to take in his unsaid words.
Before the machines attack America and we’re all dead.
“At least take some food and water with you.”
“That is for us,” the old man hisses.
“We will be fine, but thank you for the offer, and thank you for the use of your car. I assure you we will take care of it for you.” Hank nods his head in a gesture of thanks to them.
We walk back outside and pile into the front seat of the three-seat pickup when Vivian rushes after us carrying a small bag.
“Just in case,” she offers as her husband glares first at the bag then us. He wraps his arm around his wife’s shoulder and watches as Hank drives us away from the small cottage, finding us a dirt road heading in the direction of a main road.
Earth (The Invasion Trilogy Book 1) Page 3
