30 Days a Soldier

Chapter 6: Race To Sanctuary

Their hearts racing from the adrenaline coursing through their bodies, John, Sam and Cassie attached themselves as best they could to more running civilians, each one seemingly aiming for the shortest route to Regents Park. Pretty much the only light available to them was the flashlights of smartphones or the headlights of cars that had been left in the middle of the crowded streets, as such it was easy to lose your footing especially if you were suddenly blinded by a bright light.

Every once in a while the heavens lit up in bright red and white explosive flashes as Eurofighters and numerous other fighters held off whatever was up there. So fast were these fighters flying and as low down as they were, the entire street was shaking and jolting as the overlapping sonic booms reached ground level, glass from the windows even flexing to the point that it shattered, potentially killing anyone in their vicinity.

Stumbling forward as best they could and as fast as they could, his left hand held tight to his Sister's right and Cassie being led by Sam, the three forced their way through the jumbled peoples while constantly being jostled and knocked aside. It would take them ten minutes normally to walk from his sister's flat and to Regents Park, rushing as fast as they were, John hoped to god that they made it in 5 otherwise they risked being late. His senses heightened, and the sound of blood rushing in his ear, John caught sight of a woman seemingly laid up either dead or unconscious outside The Camden Head pub on the other side of the road. Not a single person was stopping to check on her, John certainly wasn't, she just wasn't a priority to him and so she was left unattended.

Painted yellow stripes passing under his trainers, they continued over a once busy road, now choked with stalled cars and made it onto a street which allowed them an unfettered view ahead - not that there was much to view over the smoky orange sky beating like a heartbeat and thick black and white smoke funnelling down into the street. The gunfire they were approaching was starting to reach a crescendo it seemed when suddenly, the overhead orange skies seemingly broke in two as, out of a thick low-level cloud, a Eurofighter burst forth. At incredible speeds the fighter descended almost to street level and continued to thunder towards them, lampposts risked swatting the fighter from the air were it to collide with them and just one wrong movement by the pilot could have crushed any chances he or she may have had of surviving the night.

As they continued to close on one another, John trying to get them to the cover of a building's wall a few feet in front of them, he happened to notice that just behind the fighter and closing fast was another object, this one at a glance slightly smaller than the fighter. Bright green shots lit up the street, the afterimage burnt into his retinas as the second craft fired. Shoving his sister bodily into an alley and taking cover there himself, John was deafened and almost thrown to the ground as the Eurofighter tore by, the shots having just missed it. The world then seemed to explode when the obviously enemy craft struck against a lamppost, the lamppost shattering but not before the impact knocked the enemy craft off course to collide against a white 4 storey building which it easily crashed through while exploding. Such an intense shockwave was sent out by this explosion that around them tiles and bricks crashed to the ground, asphalt burst into the air, and the breath was punched from the lungs of anybody caught in its path.

His ears killing as they tried to recover from the blast, and his eyes feeling like they were burning as dust and the newly birthed cloud of miniscule dust filled debris choked them, John again grabbed hold of his sisters hand and pulled them out and back onto the street. Stumbling forward over bricks, glass and metallic debris, John couldn't see anything further than a foot or two from him as they closed on the impact site. Fires raged into the intersecting Arlington Road, the red almost white hot fires melting the brickwork of a home improvement store, a river of fire filling the furrowed crater left behind in the road work. All John could do was to keep them going, all the while coughing and almost breaking their necks as they stumbled over fractured walls and smashed cars which had been catapulted into the street by the force of the insane impact. From the ground a geyser of flame roared as the cut gas pipes caught alight, something which was safely overcome as the pipes cut off the supply.

Pushing on, their pace having slowed due to the inability to breath properly until they were well away from the crash site, they kept moving as hard and as fast as they could, managing to even catch up with another tide of racing Londoners. Slowly, steadily, as if he was underwater, his hearing started to slowly return with the sound of gunfire that seemed to be almost on top of them being the first thing that greeted him.

Through the cover of bare tree branches, John made out a vast structure in the distance towards Regents Park. Recognising it for what was, John was in awe at the knowledge and the resources that must have went into constructing the vast ship. From the top of a shallow curved hull, lightning was crackling along the surface, occasional pulses shooting out to strike against black miniscule dots which were firing out pencil dotted thin lines of green. The lights of helicopters and the RAF was obvious as they tore past above the vast construct and from the ground golden bursts of flak fire tore into the skies and any oppressive opponent who ventured too close. Here the smoke wasn't orange or black, but was instead taking on the cycling red and blue of emergency response vehicle lights.

Rapidly closing the distance and squeezing through tightly packed vehicles and onto Outer Circle, a road which wrapped around Regents Park. Armed response police officers and soldiers from the British Army were holding station at the entrance to the park, their weapons pointed to the ground as they allowed the civilians to run through the open gate while their eyes darted about the incoming flux of civilians, they were obviously scared but were doing their best to continue to do their jobs.

Passing through the gates and into the floodlit park, that's when John finally got his first proper view of the Alien ship, it was a sight which almost halted him in his tracks. The ship was a more than enormous triangle and could have passed for a Star Destroyer were it not for this seemingly being made out of one piece of black metal and being almost totally alien in design. It was easily as tall as the London Eye at its highest point and it seemed to stretch over the entire park, buildings and trees crushed under its immensity. Towards the bottom vast ramps were open and red light flooding out of them as countless Londoners boarded. Thousands were racing across the bright floodlit grass, to their waiting sanctuary and to his right screams and bullets rent the air as soldiers held off whatever enemy was attacking.

The earth shaking under him and his body feeling like it was being punched repeatedly, the constant firing of an anti-aircraft battery throwing numerous rounds into the sky almost overwhelmed them. Pushing onwards, they raced to their sanctuary.