Earth (The Invasion Trilogy Book 1) (4 page)

“Mattie?”
she calls out my name.

I move in front of her and give her an obvious stare.
“You guys finished sucking face now?” Honestly, I’m not even annoyed. I’m happy that Lisa doesn’t look so desolate. I’m sure that awful look will return soon enough, especially once we enter Canada. For now, though, she looks almost content, so I’m happy for her and for Hank, too. They’re both my best friends.

Lisa blushes at my words
before I poke my head into the cab, seeing Hank appears to be in the same blissful state as Lisa. “Sorry about that. We should keep moving.”

“Don’t be sorry,
I just wish you guys had woken up to your feelings last year, and well away from me, for that matter.” I smile, squeezing her arm as she assesses my face to make sure I’m not actually mad.

“We just sort of got lost in the moment
. We’ll control ourselves better next time, I promise. I don’t want you to feel left out.”

“Trust me; leave me out as much as possible. I don’t need to add to my nightmares. You’ve already reminded me that Hank isn’t a girl and has a penis. I don’t want to add anymore to that
,” I joke, watching Hank squirm in his seat. Lisa climbs back into the truck, and I stand at the open doorway. “I’m happy for you guys, truly.”

I watch some of the tension leave Lisa’s body. She must have been worried how I would react.

“I found something over here, something weird. Come have a look?” I stare at Hank.

“Sure, you wait in here
,” he tells Lisa and then steps out of the truck, shutting the door before Lisa can offer a protest.

I quickly move to meet him, not wanting to have to hear her complaining
, too. As I round the truck, I catch Hank adjusting his pants and wince when I comprehend why.

“What is that?” Hank figures out immediately what I wanted to show him.

“I don’t know. Do you think it’ll be dangerous to go through?” I have images of being disintegrated as we move into the strange haze. The thought gives me shivers.

“We haven’t even made it into Canada yet and we’re already finding the weird shit?” Hank complains then horrifyingly
, he moves his arm directly into the darkness.

“Hank!
What the hell!” I gasp, holding my breath as I wait for his screams of agony.

Instead
, he moves his arm back through the haze and we both look it over using the light from the headlights to make sure nothing sinister has happened to him.

He’s fine.

“So this isn’t going to kill us, but I don’t know what it means. Keep going or turn back?” he asks me.

“I don’t know
, but I’m freaked out here.”

“So am I
. We keep that away from Lisa, okay?” He eyes me carefully, and I nod to say I agree. Lisa is barely handling this as it is, she does not need us stressing her out more.

“So what do we do?”

“I really want to see what is happening in Canada. We’re close to Vancouver, and I want to take a peek. I say we keep going.”

“Okay
.” I take a deep breath, trying to summon some inner strength.

“You know we keep losing countries when they go silent and we can’t talk to them. Maybe that is what this dark haze does
; it cuts off communication.”

“Maybe
. Come on, let’s get back to the truck. I can feel Lisa’s anxiety from here.”

We both climb back into the truck
with Lisa in the middle again. I watch her reach out and take Hank’s hand as he starts up the truck, pushing us forward again. With her spare hand, she grabs hold of my hand as her head rests over my shoulder.

We drive through the black haze
in silence. I can’t help but tense up as we move through it, though. However, nothing happens. A few minutes later, I let my shoulders drop and rest my head over Lisa’s.

***

We cross the border not long afterwards, which is eerily void of any people. There are several upturned cars and I think I see blood on the road, but the headlights move away from it as we keep driving.

I begin to worry that perhaps we shouldn’t be coming here. Are we just fast-forwarding our own demise by entering Canada? Should we have stayed back where we were left by the government? At least we weren’t alone there
—well, not exactly.

It’s obvious from our drive to Vancouver that the outer places have already been attacked. I’d say they started on the outskirts of Canada and worked their way inwards, which explains why there
hasn’t been an influx of Canadians running over the border into an invasion-less America.

This whole situation is completely messed up. No one was prepared for this
. I’m not even sure we ever would have been. I mean, there are conspiracy theories about alien races, and everyone knows of the people who claim to have been abducted. They’re crazy people telling stories that aren’t possible, though. Except now we’re under attack, and while we aren’t under attack by little, green men, having those slick machines attacking us is just as farfetched. However, now that we are being attacked, perhaps little, green men and strange abductions aren’t crazy after all.

I think back to the strange metal machine we
’ve seen on the news. For them to be taking out entire countries at a time there must be hundreds of thousands of them, maybe even millions. What hope does humankind have to survive against them?

We drive through many quiet towns
, and as we near Fraser River, I notice an unnatural light filtered over the city. It’s bright and out of place. I’d almost say it was daylight except for the fact that it isn’t coming from the sun and it is the middle of the night. In the distance, there are loud, screeching noises, screams, explosions and the air smells of smoke.

“What is that light?”
Lisa whispers, her hand gripping onto mine hard enough to bruise as her body shakes next to me.

“I don’t know, but I think this might be as far as we can go
,” I mutter, my own voice shaking.

“We’ve come this far
; I need to know what we’re up against.” Hank shifts so his back rests against the door as he stares at us both. “We’ll drive over the bridge, and then you guys stay with the truck. I’ll go check things out and figure out what we’re up against. If it’s too much, I’ll find us some supplies and we’ll get the hell out of here. We can head back to the states and hide out in the North Cascades National Park. We’ll be able to hide easily in there.”

“No! It’s too dangerous, what if… what…” Lisa begins sobbing
. Hank wraps her in his arms, holding her against his chest.

I completely agree with Lisa,
yet I keep my opinion to myself. There is something about the screams that are pulling at me. I know they should be a warning and a sign to stay away, instead I feel a pull
to
them. There is human suffering going on, and I feel a need to help if I can.

It takes Hank several minutes to calm Lisa down, and then he starts the truck back up and we keep moving.

Going over the bridge, I can’t help feeling exposed and watched. It’s eerily quiet on the streets where we are, several cars are upside-down and crushed over the bridge, but there is a big enough gap to fit us through.

There is no human life anywhere, not even bodies. Where is everyone?

Once we’re on the other side, Hank stops the truck, and when he gets out, so do I.

“Where are you going?”
he asks, moving around and grabbing hold of the passenger side door before I can close it on Lisa.

“I’m going to come with you.”

“No, you need to stay here and look after Lisa.”

“It’s quiet here
, so obviously those things have already been and gone. You are more likely to need my help than Lisa.”

“Guys, how about no one leaves?” Lisa whispers.

“The sooner we go and take a look, the sooner we’ll be back and know what to do,” I state, slipping past Hank and taking several steps away from him before he thinks about manhandling me back into the truck.

“Maybe you should come with us? I don’t like the idea of you being alone here
,” Hank says to Lisa as he leans into the truck and caresses her face lovingly.

“I don’t know if I can handle seeing… I don’t want to face what my family had to already. It’ll give me nightmares
.” Lisa sniffles. I’m pretty sure she’s five seconds away from bawling her eyes out again.

“Okay
, look, just stay hidden, and if you see anything that is off, get away from here. Head back to America, and I
will
find you. We’ll be as quick as we can, I promise.”

I step away, knowing I’m not going to be left behind
, deciding to give them some privacy.

I stare at the surrounding buildings
, taking in the shattered glass, and in some cases, completely collapsed structures. It looks like a tornado has been through here.

I try to prepare myself for what we’re about to see and face, but I could have never been ready for what Hank and I
are about to see. Lisa was right to want to stay behind; I will never get rid of the nightmares that will live with me from what is waiting for us.

Chapter 4

Marduke

Two Days Earlier

My brother chases me for several blocks. I push people out my way
, shoving them in some cases. I know I’m running for my life, and unfortunately for me, my brother is fitter and stronger than I am. There is no way I can outrun him, not for long. He also has the added advantage that he’s spent more time outside in this world. He knows this place better than me. I’ve only ever gone to the park to watch
her
or followed her to the campus. If I haven’t been watching her, then I’ve been back at the apartment.

The ground shakes again and there are more screams. I lose my footing and fall to the ground, scraping my legs and ripping away the material
, grazing my skin. I chance a look behind me, seeing a lot of people have fallen down, too. The ground keeps vibrating under me as Ival’s head pops up from the mass of bodies lying on the ground, looking directly at me. He is close to me, only a few people between us.

We both stand up at the same time
. He reaches out his hand and grabs hold of my t-shirt, using it to anchor me to him. I’m pulled to a stop, crashing into Ival before he throws me to the ground, immediately sitting on top of me and punching me hard in the face. I feel dizzy, and by the time my vision begins to clear, I see another one of his fists before it slams into my head again. I shield my face with my arms, but all that does is open up my sides to him.

A sharp jab to my ribs causes me to strike back. I punch him in the face, no doubt hurting my hand worse than any pain I cause him. I try to kick him off me, but he’s too heavy and his weigh
t over my legs is too strong for me to get enough movement. I’m stuck.

When
I see the knife in his hand, I know I’m about to die. I always knew death was coming for me, however I did think I’d have more time to live. And I didn’t believe my death would come about in battle, especially not from the hands of my brother.

Since the disaster that happened when my great-grandfather ruled
, we’ve taken better precautions. Our people don’t actually engage in any hostile takeovers. It’s why we have the hinema. They do all our dirty work for us. We’ve designed them with the best technology available to us, and they do the rest without us having to lift a finger. They use their strength, inside information and exceptional weaponry to take down what we need them to.

My brother and I have never been close,
though no one in my family is. Not even my parents. We all know we have a duty to our people to run our planets so my father is rarely anywhere else other than his workstation. I have only seen him a handful of times in my entire childhood. We’ve been raised to be the perfect soldiers for our people. Not only do we have lessons on our family history and battle strategies, we are also trained much like the human military. As soon as I was able to participate in training, I was given a trainer and every day we ran drills.

I’m incredibly fit, but Ival is
even more so. He’s older, and he’s always been more focused than me. It’s almost always the first born son that takes control after the current leader steps down. However, it appears that my father named me as his successor. He’s not only going to shock our people, he’s sending out a clear message that Ival isn’t good enough, which doesn’t make sense.

Ival might be a bit cruel and have a temper, but from what I know of my father, he does
, too. Ival is smart and driven, and no one has ever considered that he wouldn’t be leader one day.

Ival grins down at me, actually looking like he’s
enjoying this. “I’ll tell them you died honourably, brother. I’ll tell them you deserve to be remembered well in our history.”

I don’t want to die, which is probably why I give one last ditch effort to get away. I hit Ival in the chest several times, hoping to at least wind him
. When that doesn’t work, I slam my fist down over his thigh.

Ival just smiles
, not moving an inch. I’ve never seen anyone beat him, not even his trainers when he was young could get around him. He has an incredibly high tolerance for pain.

“Ival, please…” I gasp, not seeing his fist until it slams into my
face.

Blood fills my mouth
, momentarily disorientating me and making me dizzy.

“What’s going on here?”
a man’s voice interrupts and then two pairs of arms grab hold of Ival, pulling him off me.

“Let me go!” Ival demands
. When they drag him away from me and let go of him, he slips the knife into his back pocket.

“You okay, son?” One of the men, a police officer, steps up to me. His partner grabs hold of Ival again when he tries to get to me.

“Yes.” I look away, trying to sound like a normal human as I attempt to stop the world from spinning.

“If you want to press any charges, we can.” He stares at me
, watching me shake my head no. “Good. I don’t really have time for this anyway. You might have been stuck in your own selfish bubble, but our entire city is suffering the aftereffects of an earthquake. You need to walk away from this now.” The man looks back at Ival, who continues to glare at me. “Right. Take off, kid. We’ll keep him here for a while. Go directly home, and try not to get into any more trouble today, okay?”

“Thank you.” I take in the stranger’s kindness. I’ve been seeing more
goodness in people since going to the park that first day.

I turn and run, hearing a struggle going on behind me as Ival no doubt tries to follow me. He could take on those two men easily, but I
’ve seen the two guns strapped to their sides, and I’m sure Ival has noticed them straight away. Even if he is able to disarm the men, there are too many people surrounding him; it would be dangerous. All he’d need is for a few brave citizens to step in, and he’d either be killed or locked away. He can’t risk it. Besides, we’re meant to be blending in and not drawing attention to ourselves. In fact, with the invasion in motion, we should be getting off this planet. I know that isn’t an option for me anymore, which means I’m in as much trouble as these humans.

I run for several blocks and find a way out of here. A large truck is
being loaded with crates full of boxes. The man isn’t paying much attention, mostly keen to chat to the man at the back dock where he’s taking the crates from, tapping the electronic device that is doing all the heavy lifting for him.

Feeling Ival hot on my heels, even though I can’t see him, I sneak into the back of the truck, moving to the very first crate that
has been placed and finding a small amount of room between it and the edge of the wall, hunkering down there, leaning against the small cab in front.

I hide there, hoping this is a smart idea
, feeling relief when, several minutes later, the truck roars to life. He has only put three more crate loads in the back and there is more room back there, so I spread out and sit on the dirty ground.

I have no idea where this truck is going or if this
is the right decision. I don’t know if I care, either. Those earthquakes are a sign, and now it’s too late to change this planet’s fate. Earth is about to be ours, and if what Ival says is true, the humans will be all killed. That girl that has made me feel strange things, the girl I want more than anything to protect, will be lost to me. Even if Ival is incorrect and our original plan stands, where we will take the humans off Earth and onto Oden, if I don’t make it off Earth, then I’ll never be able to ensure her safety and never get the chance to see her again. It shouldn’t matter to me—I’ve only spoken to her once—but it does matter.

I’m filled with incredible sadness. How can I miss someone I don’t even really know?

***

I hide in the back of that truck for hours, sweating and feeling cramped. We only stop once
when I instinctively move to the back of the truck and hide behind the crates of stock. The truck is opened and searched, however I am thankfully not detected. I have no idea where I am or why this truck needs to be searched.

With nothing but my thoughts to distract me
, I’ve spent my time trying to figure out a plan and what I should do. Yet, my mind distracts me, recalling the way that girl looked running and how her face lit up when she smiled. I wonder what she is doing right now.

Do they know about the invasion yet? We weren’t
supposed to attack for months; there is no way we could have the army that we intended. We’ll have to adjust our strategy, and perhaps instead of taking Earth in one big swoop, we might need to take it out in sections.

If that is the case, that will be a huge mistake.
Humans will fight and try to protect what is theirs. Giving them time to arm up and fight will be a problem, however it won’t stop what is happening. It will only prolong the fight, and cause unnecessary pain to innocent humans in the process. Innocent humans like that girl.

When the truck stops for the second time, another lengthy stay which involves the opening of the back door
, I know this is the final stop.

The crates begin to be taken out and I manage to sneak out without being seen. It appears the driver is just as chatty at this stop as he was at the other.

We’re in a new city, one I haven’t seen before, so it takes me a while to find out I’m in Canada now. I’ve managed to enter an entirely new country.

I’ve got nothing on me of any use
; no Earth money, no supplies, and no way of contacting home. Ival and I have a spaceship hovering high in the air, invisible and high enough that aircrafts couldn’t accidently fly into it. We need to teleport to get on there, but without a portable monit, which looks similar to a TV remote control and is a device that can teleport me to our spaceship within seconds, I’ll never get back to the safety of that spaceship. I’ll never be able to get onto any spaceship without it.

My one condolence is that
, if I’m going to die on this planet, it won’t be death by hinema. They’re programmed to recognize my DNA, so they won’t ever attack someone from our home planet. Perhaps if I can hide out on this planet long enough, then I might be able to wait for Father to come. Then he will be able to put a stop to Ival trying to kill me.

So why do I feel like a coward if I do that?

People crowd around a music store where a large flat screen TV is outside the front, showing a news program. On a loop is footage of the hinema attacking. The panic and fear in the people around me grows, and I feel the shift in attitude and body language. Many people move quickly away while others just stay fixed to the same spot, staring in shock at what the TV is showing over and over again.

While the hinema
s look similar to how they always appear, I know they’ve been modified. Previously, brute force and speed have been the key to us taking over planets. Some have been barely populated; most that have had life were an unintelligent species or animals, which were easy to overcome.

Earth is different. These humans look like us. They occasionally act like us. Their weapons are ruthless
, and they have experience with war. They’ve fought each other on and off for the life of mankind. We’ve never fought amongst ourselves as people. There have been no huge wars, and we have no crime. We would never have been ready to face Earth without prior knowledge of their defences.

Without knowing it
, they’ve been training for this invasion their whole lives, yet we’ve already gotten them beaten. The hinema will be far too advanced now. We might lose a few of them, but our stealth and numbers will put us ahead.

I’m positive
, if I could get word out, if I could explain that this planet should be left alone, then they would have to listen to me. We’re not a horrible species, just misguided in this instance.

I walk away, wondering what I should do. I know I should find a place to hide and wait for this to blow over. Ival would have had to leave Earth. He’ll be up on our spaceship until the invasion
is over. It’ll be too dangerous otherwise. Our hinemas might not attack us, but that doesn’t mean humans won’t. Even not knowing who we are, we could still get stuck in the crossfire.

W
hy do I want to head back to Oregon all of sudden? Why do I feel like I should find that girl and ensure her safety? She doesn’t know me, there is no way she’ll listen to me, and I know she’s better off without me. Ival is out for my blood and having her near me will only put her in more danger.

So how do I ignore what I want to do
, to do what I must? I’ve never been so split in my emotions.

***

It only takes one more day before the hinemas attack Canada. First the communications are attacked, leaving no chance to get word out to other countries or each other for help. I stay where I am in Vancouver, waiting for the first signs of the hinemas. A small part of me is interested to see how they work during the takeover—I’ve never seen them in action before.

When they land here
, they’re as stunning as I expected after seeing them in the short video clip. Huge and strong, I don’t blame the humans for running away from them—they look menacing.