Earth (The Invasion Trilogy Book 1) (2 page)

I force my feet to freeze, yet there is no hope convincing my gaze to move away from her. She hasn’t seen me staring, her concentration only on the worn trail in front of her. She moves along the slight bend, bringing her directly in line with where I am standing, although I’m still several feet from the trail. Then I get a view of her from behind as she passes me.

Her hair swings from side
to side; some hair is glued to the back of her neck from sweat. There is a small, damp patch along her back and a gap between where her skin-tight t-shirt finishes and her shorts start, displaying the skin of her stomach. I have a forbidden urge to rip those shorts away from her and see her obviously perfectly formed ass without the obstacle of material. Her legs are long and I see new muscles bunching from the backs of her thighs and calves. Her legs lead my eyes back upwards, again landing on her delectable ass and then back up her back.

I can’t help myself now, running towards the same trail and following her. I need to see her, need to talk to her
, and strangely, I worry that she shouldn’t be out here on her own. I’ve seen the death, violence and weapons this planet has and is capable of. I need to protect her, which doesn’t make sense to me since she is obviously human. I’m here to take this planet away from her.

Where are these urges coming from?

I stay close to her, though not so close she will notice me following her. I imagine speaking to her, wondering what I’d say.

I have a language chip that
has been implanted in my neck when I got here. I currently have access to ten Earth languages that are commonly spoken. Although Ival tells me that English is the most common in this place, I’ve never had to use it much. We’re not permitted to speak our own language at the risk of being overheard, but Ival and I don’t talk much to each other, so I’ve had very little chance to use this strange language. It has taken me months of watching TV to understand some of the slang and the correct way to pronounce words.

What if I mess up? What if I make a fool of myself? What if she knows I’m not from here?

I watch her disappear from my view behind a line of bushes, and as I round the corner, the girl suddenly steps out and crashes into me.

She is strong, stronger than I would have thought possible
, and even given my wide shoulders, sturdy body and years of training, I go down easily, hitting the ground hard and falling onto my back.

“Are you following me?”
she demands of me. She wipes her forehead with one hand, removing the headphones with her other. Her eyes narrow on me as she stands over me so closely that I can’t stand up without needing to crawl back to get some room.

“No
,” I croak out, my throat sore. I don’t think I’ve spoken in days.

She crosses her arms over her chest. “It looks to me like you are. I noticed you staring at me earlier
. Do you have something you want to say?” Her voice sounds off, like she has an accent that is different to what I’ve been hearing on the TV for the past few months.

I shake my head, not sure what I’m supposed to do. My heart is still racing
, and I think I might be shaking. Not because I’m scared, but because I’m so nervous. I’m not sure I’ve ever felt nerves like this in my life.

“Are you here to run?” She stares down at my clothing and I look down at myself quickly too, wondering what she sees. Am I not in suitable clothing?

“Yes.” I’m grateful my voice sounds clearer this time.

“Are you capable of saying more than one word answers?” She removes her arms from her chest
, and from this angle, I get a clear view of her breasts. It does the opposite to helping me get a clear understanding of what she’s saying.

“What is your name?” I ask, hoping
it is customary to ask someone on this planet at a first meeting. I honestly just really need to know the name of this beautiful human in front of me.

“I don’t give out my name to strangers. Are you from somewhere else
; your accent sounds off? French, maybe?” She takes a step back and allows me the opportunity to easily stand, which as soon as I think I’ll manage it and not fall over, I’ll try.

“I’m from France.” I nod, already allowing the French
in my language chip to come forth. I haven’t spoken this language at all, but I will be capable if need be.

“Cool, I’ve always wanted to visit Europe. I think I’ll end up there after college if I get recruited.”
Her gaze becomes unseeing as her mind drifts away from me.

“Recruited?”

“I play basketball. Are you just going to stay on the ground or what?” She gives me a small smile, one that appears to make my heart beat even faster. Maybe I’m having some form of allergic reaction to being outside? Maybe this atmosphere isn’t as alike as our own on Oden as we’ve thought. But then, why has Ival never mentioned this?

A beeping sound takes her attention off me and down to her watch, which she touches and it turns off. “Shit, I’m late. Maybe I’ll see you around
?” She turns then jogs away, leaving me staring after her.

It’s long after she’s disappeared that I feel the freezing ground chilling my entire body, and another near miss with a runner coming around the corner not expecting me to be on the ground, that I get up
to leave.

This
has not been what I’ve expected to happen when I left the apartment.

I go back to my temporary home and let my mind
wonder over the beautiful girl I’ve just spoken to. I’ve never reacted to someone like that before, not even on my own planet. It must be a one off or perhaps just the shock of a change of scenery. It could have been anyone I spoke to and I’d have reacted like that. I just spoke to a human, something I’ve never done before. That explains it.

So I decide to go back to the park tomorrow and hope to see that girl again, just to prove to myself that I am overreacting.
But when I see her the next day, and the one after, and every day for an entire month, I realise that something is off with me.

I make sure I hide, ensuring that she doesn’t see me again.
My heart beats furiously, my palms sweat, and watching her move causes my body to react to her. I want her
badly
. Additionally, after seeing and even speaking to several other human women around the area, I find it’s only her that causes this reaction in me.

One of the days I watch her jog, I follow her back to where she is staying. It’s on a campus, one crowded with young humans and tall buildings. I have watched her play a sport, one that I recogni
se is basketball. I see she is good at it and incredibly fit. She has a skill for the sport, and I see something inside her when she plays. I see how much she loves to play. She smiles, she laughs, she shows her determination; it astounds me.

After the game
, I notice her catching up with another female and male, laughing with them. She looks happy, and when she smiles, it seems impossible, but I swear she gets even more attractive. I love seeing her smile and suddenly hate the thought that it might ever go away. I want her to always smile, to always be happy.

There is something so alluring about her. Something about her that screams to me
of love and life. I’ve not seen it on this planet before, but since I first spoke to her, I begin to see it in other places and faces. Suddenly, it appears everywhere. Love surrounds me, all different types. The girl speaks to my body and mind, however others speak to me differently.

I watch a mother hugging her child tightly to her, a couple kissing on the sidewalk
, and a stranger offering money to a homeless woman. I see laugher, smiles and squeals of excitement as I pass the campus that she is staying at. I recognize that there is more to this planet than Ival and I have realised, and that we’ve made a grave mistake to begin the process of taking it away from these people.

They’re not all heartless
. They’re not all evil. The thought of wiping the future smiles off her face, taking away her home and life that she has built for herself, is unacceptable to me.

A heavy weight sits in my stomach as I make my way back to the apartment. The hinema
, who will be sent out to take Earth, won’t be here for several months. Maybe I can convince my father that this might not be the correct thing to do. Maybe we should focus instead on educating humans and teaching them how to properly care for Earth. We could even use humans as allies and not create an enemy out of them.

I try to think of a way to word my request where my father might actually listen to me. There are the other planets close to Earth, ones we can claim and still sound successful to our people. This doesn’t have to be a failure for our family.

When I enter the apartment, Ival is already there, pacing. He looks angry. When I step through the door, his anger turns directly onto me.

“What is
—?”

“How long have you known?”
he demands of me, pushing me up against the wall and holding me there. He’s slipped back to our own language, something I’ve gone months without hearing.

“Known what?” I answer in English.

“What Father has planned for you? I’ve done everything he’s ever asked of me, and he wants you to lead? You’re weak! You’re nothing!” He pulls me forward and then quickly shoves me again, causing my head to painfully slam against the wall, making me feel dizzy.

“What do you mean
? Me lead what?” I try to push him off me, but he twists my arm and holds it until the pressure feels unbearable, moving my body so my front now is against the wall, my arm twisted behind me.

“Don’t play stupid with me. I will take control of our legacy, even if it means I have to kill you myself.”
With his free hand, he withdraws a knife and releases my sore arm to wrap his arm around my head, bringing the back of my head to lean against his shoulder as he holds the sharp knife to my exposed neck. “Goodbye—”

Ival doesn’t get the chance to finish his words or kill me
; we’re interrupted by the ground violently shaking beneath us. We both lose our balance and fall to the floor while screams of surprise and fear sound from the other apartments surrounding us and outside something loud crashes to the ground.

“What is happening?” I gasp, backing away from Ival while I have the chance.

“This is the first sign that our army is arriving on Earth. It’s time to eliminate the humans as well as you, brother. You will be written off as a casualty of war,” Ival states while grinning.

“Eliminate? What? We’re not meant to take Earth for months
,” I gasp, still crawling backwards and hoping to put some much needed distance between Ival and me.

“I told Father that we needed to act now. These humans don’t deserve this planet and they definitely don’t deserve to be taken to ours to live.”

“What does that mean?” I ask, my mind stuck on the words where he’s said the humans would be eliminated.

“I might have
had them tweak the programming on the hinema. Any movement, any attack from the humans, and they will be killed.”

My mouth drops open in shock and my mind instantly changes to the girl I’ve felt obsessed with for over a month. She’s not supposed to die for this, no one was meant to be hurt
; not physically anyway.

“We can’t murder the humans
. They don’t deserve that.”

“They are draining this planet
, and they will drain Oden if we take them all on. You had to realise we couldn’t take them all. You must have known this was the only solution there could be.”

The ground shakes again
, and I use the distraction to get to my feet and sprint through the still open door, which I never got the chance to close after Ival pounced on me when I entered.

Ival unfortunately is right behind me
, and in my panic I’ve run down the opposite way from the stairs. While there is a lift at this end, I don’t have time to wait for it. There is a large window looking out into the street below, three stories down, and without slowing down, I jump through it, feeling cuts that sting as the glass shatters. I fly through the air and land roughly on my feet below.

People around gasp and stare at me in shock, but when I hear my brother
’s feet landing behind me, I know he must have followed me out the window. I don’t stop to check if I’m injured, I just run.

I move in the opposite direction of the park and from the campus because
, even though my thoughts are completely scattered right now, I know that I don’t want Ival anywhere near that girl. I need to lose him first then find her and keep her safe. Then I need to somehow try to fix this mess that I’ve helped start.

Chapter 2

Mattie

The world as we know it is ending.

I’ve always wondered what it was like at the beginning of time. I’ve had so many questions when I let myself ponder it. How did we come to be? How was the earth formed? How did we evolve to be who we are now? How is it that we revolve around the sun? What was the very first form of life?

Many religions have their own answers to some of these, even science has answered a lot, yet there still is so much mystery. How is anything really possible? How can we truly exist? How did we survive through our ancestors who, when you look at history books, had to endure so much pain and misery? I feel astonishment and disbelief that we’ve all made it this far when I consider the past.

However, not
once have I ever wondered about when the world would end. I’ve always felt like I was in the middle of the timeline, not near the end. Millions upon millions of years have happened; I’ve always assumed millions of years were still to come.

I
have had generations of my family leading up to me, and as much as I’ve never imagined or felt inclined to have children, I just assumed one day I would. Then they would have kids and so on, and I would die, but my family would continue. I’ve never thought I would be at the end of my bloodline. I’ve never imagined my family would end here with me. That humankind would end here.

I know it’s not like a light switch is about to go off. It won’t be one day we’re here, the next we’re not. We’ve still got time left on Earth, but we all know it’s coming to an end. It’s not a matter of years
now, it’s possibly only weeks or days.

M
um used to tell me that you always remember where you are for the important news in life. She was at a neighbour’s house, watching a speck of a TV, when man first landed on the moon. Their whole neighbourhood had turned up to watch the spectacular event.

Even though I was only four-years-old
at the time, I still remember sitting on Mum and Dad’s bed listening to the small clock radio that Princess Diana had died. Mum sat next to me in shock and I tried to understand what it really meant. I also remember the day perfectly when I found out I had received a scholarship to go to an American college. Dad had raced into the gym, franticly looking for me. He had been a mixture of excited and nervous.

And now there is this news about the invasion. News I won’t ever forget, but I guess it won’t matter because soon there won’t be anyone left. When I found out we were being attacked, that we were being invaded and having to go to war against an unknown enemy, I was in my dorm room at the University of Oregon.

We’d all felt the earthquake two days earlier. At first, it just seemed like a freak thing, especially since all around the world people were feeling them. Even now, we’re not sure what caused it. If it was the machines that were preparing to attack us, which did something that made the ground shake, or if somehow our planet was trying to warn us. Give us a heads up that something evil was coming.

Either way
, it doesn’t matter, not when we’re all about to die.

I had just finished my morning run when I walked back into my room and found Lisa, my roommate, crying. She was actually having a meltdown. Lisa tends to be a crier, but never before have I seen her so hysterical. I almost called out for help since I had no idea what was wrong when she pointed at the TV.

The invasion had hit south first; Australia, New Zealand and Indonesia were among the first to go black. The reporter had been talking via satellite to someone in Australia when the picture went dark. Soon, all transmissions were lost and no one was able to contact to anyone in the southern hemisphere. Not even satellite images were able to pick up on anything. It was like there was something blocking its view, something all-encompassing and not possible.

I came into this just as the reporter was saying that Japan
was sending out fighter jets to survey the area. We waited hours while a sick feeling built inside me. Then they reported that those fighter jets had gone missing, too.

No one knew what was going on, but that didn’t matter to Lisa and me. We were both here in America on scholarships
—mine for basketball and hers for lacrosse. I’m from Geelong in Victoria, Australia and Lisa is from Wellington, New Zealand. Basically, the day we found out about the invasion was the same day we knew our families were most likely dead. I tried to call home and sent out a hundred emails, but I couldn’t ever get through to them, didn’t get any replies.

The last time I spoke to them was a
few days ago on Skype. Everything had been fine, with my parents celebrating an anniversary. I was telling them how excited I was to come home for winter. Summer is my favourite season, but I’d gladly give up my American summer off to spend winter at home. I got a bonus summer when I went home for a couple of weeks over Christmas.

I
am only a month away from completing my first year at University, and now I never will finish.

So while everyone went on high alert after things became very suspicious, it
hasn’t been until Europe went dark yesterday that we’ve gotten the first image of what we are up against and confirmation that we are under attack. We saw a fifteen second clip of the machines that are attacking us. They’re not of this world; they are foreign and unnatural.

E
ven if it hadn’t been attacking us, if I’d just walked passed one in the street, it would have given me the creeps.

It appears to be made of metal except
it’s smooth, as if it has been sculptured, and there are no obvious lines or joints, almost as if it has skin. It is gigantic, easily as tall as a two-story building, and apart from the strange glowing light that I assume is an eye of some sort, there isn’t an obvious front or back to it.

In the short video
, we saw a man standing in front of the machine, bravely deciding to take it on. He shoots it using a regular handgun and the machine appears to absorb the bullets, which does not slow it down. In retaliation, however, it produces its own weapon.

Shots of a glowing bullet fire
out, and what I can only assume is an invisible wave of pressure pulses out as well because people in the background, ones running for their lives, are picked up with the blast and thrown about. Glass smashes and then the video stops.

We don’t get to see what happens next
, and we have no idea how to stop it.

Now, one day after Europe and two days after we
’ve lost everyone in the southern hemisphere, it is our turn. South America has already gone dark and Canada has reported that their communications are being hacked. Talk from them has been spotty since. Perhaps they’re dark now; I don’t know. Our own devices are shorting out. My mobile phone has stopped working three hours ago and the TV in our dorm room is now only showing static.

Everything is in chaos
, and I know we only have, at best, days left.

Humankind will be annihilated in days.

I can’t wrap my head around it. Maybe that is why I haven’t cried yet. Don’t get me wrong, I’m angry and scared and freaking out. Every unexpected sound I hear makes me cringe, expecting to see those evil things. Every thought that enters my mind is of my friends and family back home. A small part of me still hopes and believes that they’re okay. That I’ll be able to go back home and see Mum and Dad again. That I’ll be able to fight with my younger sister, Hannah. I don’t want to think about them hurt or dead…

No, they’re fine. My family is fine.

“Focus!” Sergeant Casper screams at me, and I snap my eyes forwards to stare at him. We’re still at the university where volunteers are being recruited to the football field and asked to help out against this attack.

I’m no soldier and definitely not ready for war, but I can’t sit in my dorm room waiting to die. I can’t sit and do nothing. Something inside me demands that I fight and that I at least die trying to save what is ours.

Lisa isn’t feeling as patriotic as me, however I also refuse to leave her behind, so I’ve dragged her along. Our other friend, Hank, is a fighter, coming from a family of police officers, so with us both willing to fight and unwilling to leave Lisa behind, she has now suffered through a way too short handgun training session with us.

There are many down on the field with us, more than I
’ve expected. Most look to be in shock and afraid, but many have determination in their eyes.

“Are you listening to me?” A small amount of Sergeant Casper’s spit hits my face and I wince, only just managing to resist wiping it off straight away.

“Yes, sir,” I mumble. It’s the best I can manage without either slapping him or breaking down and crying.

He growls at me
, but there isn’t time to argue. Perhaps if this had been a proper military and if he knew we weren’t all about to be killed in battle, he might have pressed me. Instead, he stalks away and down the line of women and men scared and frozen in place. As soon as his back is turned away, though, I wipe my face quickly.

Thousands of military men and women like Sergeant Casper have been dispatched and dispersed throughout America. As soon as things became suspicious
, they started the process of not only securing the President, but also other important people. They’ve scattered soldiers throughout America and dug into their reserves of weapons to prepare everyone.

So after half an hour of basic gun training, I’ve been given a handgun and
rifle to fight off alien machines which have already shown that bullets don’t hurt them.

I’ve handled weapons before. Dad had taken me and Hannah hunting several times. I didn’t love it, but I was good at it
, and I liked making Dad happy. He may not have gotten any sons, but he could still enjoy a good hunting trip with his girls. Hannah mostly cried, covering her ears. She always hated the crack of a gunshot, and if she saw a wounded or dead animal, she’d cry for days.

Even though Dad loved that he could take me out hunting, he also loved how girly Hannah was. She was
afraid of the dark, so she would sneak out of our tent to snuggle up to Dad when we were camping. He doted on her and so did Mum. She got most things she wanted and always was considered the baby. I’d been jealous of that when I was younger, but as I grew older, I appreciated that they treated me differently. I wasn’t afraid to work for what I wanted and was proud of where I’d gotten myself.

I trained hard to be as fit and strong as I am now. I got this scholarship based on my grades, which I studied hard for, and the extra training I put in with basketball. The proud look on my parents
’ faces was worth all the hard work and sacrifices. I earned their approval and I was a better person for it.

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.