Creatures of the Night

Chapter 1

Lucas led his younger brother, William, by the hand through the night. After their parents and friends had gone missing, all they had was each other. William shivered. Ever since the sun had gone out, Earth became much colder. However, Iodocus, the Earth lord, attempted to fix this problem by installing two new devices on Earth. The first one was implanted deep in the core of the planet. This machine took the magma around it and transformed it into an energy that was projected out in every direction, making the ground warm. The second device, more like devices, were held in suspension in the atmosphere. They were like street lamps, in a matter of speaking, but they light up the whole planet. This made the stars disappear completely, leaving the night sky but a sheet of darkness.

They trudged up along the street. Suddenly, William noticed a figure rapidly approaching them. As is came closer, Lucas could see that it had glowing eyes... no wait, scratch that. It had glowing purple eyes. Lucas tried to back up into the shadows with his younger brother, but only succeeded in tripping over his tattered pants. He quickly scrambled to get up and take cover out of the light produced by the street lamps. For awhile now, Lucas hadn't seen natural light. He missed its soft glow and it's warm touch. Now, the only light that earthlings had was faint artificial light. Well, the earthlings that were left.

The creature continued to approach. It walked like a zombie, yet its eyes were wide open and alert. Lucas tried to sink further into the shadows, but backed up into a wall before he could do so. Lucas and his brother were now trapped. The creature dragged its feet closer and closer to them, Lucas' level of panic rising with each step. Closer and closer. Lucas could almost feel the creature's stale breath on his face. Without pausing to find out if it was a friend or a foe, Lucas slammed his fist into the creature's chest, momentarily knocking the wind out of it. William ran back out into the street, with Lucas at his heels. Lucas ran away from the creature with William tightly gripping his hand. He didn't bother to look back. The two brothers ran back into the night, like two bats flying away from light back into their refuge of darkness.

They ran as far as they could, only pausing because of William's loud panting. Lucas perked up, scanning the area for more creatures. He noticed that they were in the park where he used to play with his parents in as a young child. They would play hide and seek, toss frisbees, play catch... Now, the playground was run down, with long vines covering it like a thick blanket. This would be their temporary home for tonight. For the past month, Lucas and William were together, but alone.

The attack was unexpected, and had changed everything from that moment onwards. Lucas was taking the bus home with his brother. The school bus suddenly jerked to the side, dodging a sizable meteor that had fallen into the middle of the road. Cars everywhere swerved, some flipping over. Air bags had popped out their hiding places in the cars. It almost looked like a party with lots of festive white balloons.

The charred meteor suddenly cracked open, revealing three aliens. They were very similar to humans, but had purple skin and were very short. They were only a few inches taller than his seven-year-old brother. Futuristic guns materialized into their hands. They loaded them and fired into the air. "Alright!" One of them said while stepping forward. He was a bit taller than the other two and obviously the leader. "I need everyone to come with us!" His voice was hoarse and had an accent that made Lucas think of a dog bark. He sounded bored as he continued, "We have come to inform you that a toxic gas has been recently discovered in your atmosphere due to your race's stupidity. You have been using gasoline to power your automobiles, and it has allowed a toxic gas to form in your air. Someday, your carelessness will be your doom! But for now we need you all to come to our clinic so we can give you medical injections. These medical injections will protect you from this gas so you may continue to live your lives in peace! Now, would everybody please follow me into this portal as my... colleagues summon it." The alien didn't seem very pleased as he spat out the word colleague because it implied that the other aliens were his equals.

Everyone nodded and followed him through the portal. The other two aliens waited behind to make sure that everyone went inside. Lucas began hearing screams of pain from the inside of the portal. William perked up. The people that had clustered around the portal while waiting for their turn to enter began to panic. Some tried to escape, but only got vaporized by the laser ejected from the alien's guns. Lucas was in alarm at this point. Over the sound of screams and the sounds of lasers being shot,  he yelled to William, "We need to get out of here!" After glancing around, he added, "Follow me!" Thankfully, William didn't put up a fight and quickly took his brother's hand. Together, they ran away from the commotion. Lucas' shoulder got scraped by a poorly aimed laser, but only took notice of it later, after the two brothers had escaped.

These thoughts drifted Lucas to sleep. He and his William had taken shelter under the slide of the play structure, with moss being their bed. To be honest, it was their most comfortable refuge in awhile, compared to sleeping in dumpsters and on the roofs of houses only a couple stories high. Lucas slept for awhile, but was soon awaken by the screams of a girl. A girl?!? Her scream meant only one thing: that there was still someone out there who was alive! Lucas sat up quickly, banging his head against the bottom of the slide. William woke up slowly, rubbing his eyes. Lucas helped his brother up, then ran off to find the girl.