The Invasion

Quishmael's Last Stand

"Ugh, that Quishmael should be shot!" I said
angrily to Kylan and Gypsy.
"I know, I could tell. That's why I gave you that
look, if Quishmael were human he would have
had your hide," Kylan responded.
"I know. I can't help it, though. I never told
you, but I have anger issues and it usually gets
in the way of everything. I don't know why but
you don't make me angry, even when you make
a comment that. I know coming from anyone
else's mouth I would have already killed them
for it," I explained.
"Huh, I could tell by the way you looked at him
that you absolutely loathed him. I couldn't tell
what it was caused by, I mean, I completely
hated him from the get go and a little more by
the time he started talking but not as much
hatred as that was in your eyes when I looked at
you."
We were relatively silent the rest of the way to
the FBI's Secret Headquarters. I'm really glad
that we found the location of the FBI's Secret
Headquarters. But, I can't tell you where it is.
That's where we have our base nowadays. If the
Martian population ever came back or another
group of aliens came here to attack then I will
not be giving out our location to complete
strangers.
Anyway, we arrived at sunrise the next
morning after passing the giant mountains that
encased the area, making it an excellent choice
for a Headquarters. Fasers were scattered all
over the bloodied ground. A battleground. Kylan
and I picked up two fasers that weren't covered
in the red stuff to arm ourselves. If the Martians
and we had a battle here then they knew where
our headquarters was essentially. They would
come for us, and we would be ready.
"Kylan, they're coming! They know where our
base is and if they have any brains at all they'll
know we came here first!" I shouted.
"What was your first clue, the blood bath here
or the fact that now the King hates our guts?" he
said sarcastically.
"Well, if they knew where the FBI was, then
they'll know were headed there," I said
intelligently.
"That makes sense, actually more sense than my
explanation and explains how they will find us
a lot better."
I began to hear the beating of helicopter wings
and running of engines. Out of the blue sky
came giant hovercars filled with Martian troops
(I could only assume) and what looked to be
flying trucks large enough to hold four
elephants. Troops jumped out of their trucks
and onto the ground. Weapons were thrown
down to them. They were clad in makeshift
armor that could easily be penetrated by our
fasers. There were hundreds of them, and I
thought hopelessly that we couldn't possibly
win. It was two untrained humans up against
hundreds and hundreds of career aliens. Not a
chance.
The first brigade ran up to us in seven large
bounds and were upon us. Kylan and I hit all
the Martians we could until our ammunition
ran out. Then we picked up another faser
before a shock from their weapons could hit us.
Kylan was hit several times before he fell and
Gypsy came in to guard him. I was on my own,
and it was more than scary. There was no time
to shake and tremble out in that desert, I just
had to face the music and fight for both Kylan
and my lives.
"Stop!" I heard a familiar voice shout. "I want to
finish her!"
It was Quishmael. The fighting Martians stopped
and formed an isle right down the center of the
crowd. Quishmael thundered down the isle and
raised his sword (only the weapon that causes
the most painful death). An electric charge
coursed through every fiber of the sword,
scaring the crap out of me. Literally if I hadn't
gone to the bathroom a half hour ago then I
would have wet myself right there.
"Bring it on!" I heard myself say.
I found that a button on the faser made the
front of it grow a sword head but keep the faser
part. We slashed at each other for a while, and I
was pretty good. I could tell Quishmael was
surprised at my newfound abilities. Even I was
astounded by my coordination and keeping that
electric sword from slicing my body to shreds. It
was like a deadly dance; one wrong move and
you were toast, and not the crunchy kind that
you put butter or cream cheese on. A slash here
and a stab there, we kept at it. I managed to get
a few good blows in, but it never was enough to
make Quishmael falter for more than a few
moments. At one point I had Quishmael flat on
his back, but he managed to trip me and got a
stab in to my left ankle. A scream escaped my
lips as I stumbled to my knees and got some of
my hair sliced off by his blade. At this point I
didn't care if he shaved my head bald! I was
getting out of this fight alive! The Martians were
yelling for their King at this point in the game,
but they didn't interrupt the not very fair fight.
Suddenly, out of the hot sand, poured a wave of
scorpions. They bit and slashed at our feet and
calves and ran up our legs. The Martain army
stepped back so as not to get attacked, lucky
them. I couldn't let the scorpions distract me, I
already had a disadvantage by being human
and I didn't need another one. Quishmael tried
to fight off the scorpions instead of fight me, so
I took this chance while I had it. Sure I doubted
my shooting abilities, but I felt for the trigger on
the faser I held anyway. The scorpions were up
to my neck, and it took all the concentration I
had to ignore the pain and aim at his heart. All
the adrenaline in my blood made it hard to see
straight, but I pulled the trigger. My shot rang
out and I hit my target in the face. He keeled
over immediately. Dead.
Everything stopped. All the chants in Martian
language from Quishmael's army faded away.
The scorpion army sank into the scorching sand
like a mirage. You could probably hear a pin
drop from all the way across the battlefield.
But then the strangest thing happened, a soldier
from one of the front lines came foreword. He
(or she) said a couple of what I could only make
out to be words in Martian to the corpse of
Quishmael, kneeled by his side, and killed
himself right there! But there's more, one by
one every Martian did the same, following the
first's example. I was rooted to the spot the
whole time, unmoving. This lasted a good half
hour until all the soldiers of Quishmael's army
were gone.
I suddenly unfroze and established what had
happened. I had won! I will live! I examined my
cut ankle and found that the slash was a little
deeper than I would like it to be, but not enough
that it would inflict serious damage. Thank God
it hadn't touched my Achilles tendon either.
The scorpion bites and scrapes were worse,
though, I fell to the ground and screamed
bloody murder until my lungs ached as much or
more than my entire body did. I felt like dying
right there, I felt worthless and like my entire
fight was for nothing. I had a job to do, and that
was restart the planet, but if that meant that
every obstacle I went through left me like this,
then I would rather be dead. Every obstacle I
went through meant killing something or
breaking some natural human law and it was
taking a toll on my emotional health. Every day
was not only a physical struggle but an
emotional one. A roller coaster I wanted off of.
But then I remembered my mother, my brother,
my friends and other family. They died and I
lived, so I must have lived for a reason. I could
get through this, and the worst was over. I just
defeated the Martian king for God's sake! With
newfound vigor, I tore off a strip of my shirt
and wrapped it around my still bleeding ankle.
That would have to do for now because I still
had to wake Kylan.
"Kylan... Kylan... KYLAN!" I shouted at him. No
response. Great! I slapped his face lightly and
even poured a bottle of water on him. He finally
woke with a start,
"What!"
"We won!" I filled him in on the whole strange
yet welcome suicide and how I defeated
Quishmael in hand to hand combat. He also
helped me disinfect and replace the skin on my
ankle.
"Ahhh... much better!" I said when he was done.
"Good, now are we going to get inside or what?"
he replied, just a little frustrated at this point.
We turned to face the door. A heavy bolt
crossed around the front, clearly locked even
though I hadn't tried it yet. Kylan, the dork, did.
And found the door to be locked, a chain
wrapped around it.
"Wasn't it obvious the door was locked?" I
questioned.
"I had hope," he replied sheepishly.
"Why don't we scavenge around for something
to break it with?" I suggested. A thought of
using a faser to bust the door open crossed my
mind but I ignored it, thinking that they
wouldn't keep a weapon that could break the
door inside the Headquarters.
"Sure"
Gypsy started running towards the mountains in
the distance where we came from.
"Gypsy! Come back!" I yelled to my dog. She
never turned around, just left. After all I have
been through, lost everything, and now the only
thing saved has willingly gotten up and left.
None of my old life knew me anymore and I
knew I had to accept that. Despite that, it was an
entire day before I got over losing my
companion.
After two days of waiting for her to come back
we decided to look for that key, if there was one
out here. For seven hours we scavenged with
nothing to show for it. By the end of day three
we were so tired that we slept most of the day.
Day four rolled around. We got up as normal,
ate breakfast, and set out to scavenge some
more. We didn't have much food left. We had
plenty of water but still rationed it. While I was
sorting through the pile of guns that still had
ammunition in them, I saw out of the corner of
my eye something moving by the mountains.
Something big was running, and it was coming
toward us! Thinking it was more Martians
coming to fight, I alerted Kylan.
"Better arm yourself," I told him. We both
grabbed one of fasers that was loaded and
pointed them at the movements in the distance,
waiting, watching. Slowly, the thing, or rather
things, came into view. I breathed a sigh of
relief and put down my faser back into the pile.
Kylan did as well. I leapt to them yelling,
"Gypsy! You're back!" I hugged her and she
licked my face back. She had brought a pack of
dogs back with her, some I recognized from
outside our cell at Quishmael's base. One of
them held a key in it's mouth, some held food,
and others were empty mouthed. I took the key
from the gray dog carrying the key and
immediately knew what it was for. I left Gypsy
and her new pack and went to the door to the
FBI's Secret Headquarters. The key fit right into
the bolt and I unfastened the chains holding the
door in place. All the dogs rushed in as Kylan
and I opened the heavy, steel reinforced door.
The door locked behind us as soon as we let it
close. I could hear the chains sliding back into
place, protecting us from any further onslaught
from the Martians. Once inside, I looked
around. Wow, this was what we were waiting
for! No plans needed anymore, now that we'd
killed the king, but it was still a welcome sight
to finally reach out destination.
But, on further investigation, we found our
final surprise. On the floor were two kids, both
unconscious. One was a girl with dark brown
hair. The other was a boy, about five foot five in
height with dark red hair. The girl was actually
pretty strong looking for a girl but the boy
looked stronger, his skin pale and shiny with
sweat.
Kylan and I rushed to their aid, trying to wake
them, but not succeeding. I went back outside
and while Kylan held open the door, I pulled
the hovercar into the building. Kylan got out the
first aid kit and tried to figure out what was
wrong with them, though it seemed that they
didn't have any injuries. Upon further
examination that theory was confirmed. They
hadn't sustained any injuries, which meant that
the Martians didn't actually get inside the
Headquarters, which helped a lot. I poured a
little water in the little girl's mouth, and she
sputtered awake.
"Uhhhhh..." she moaned. Then she noticed Kylan
and I. "Ahhhhh!"
"It's ok, we're friends," I said soothingly. She
nodded.
"Can I have some food?" she asked. I reached
over and grabbed a couple sandwiches and a
bottle of water and placed them in front of her.
That's when I noticed that there wasn't any food
in this place. None. That must be why they
passed out, they hadn't have any food or water
since the invasion.
The girl gulped down the water and ate three of
the five sandwiches I had given to her.
"What is your name?" I asked after she was
done eating.
"Erin, and this is Damen," she explained. "My
mom and Damen's dad took us to work the day
the Martians came. We were left inside while
they fought to keep the Martian at bay before
reinforcements arrived. Even then the Martians
defeated us. I guess they just never found out
about us. I didn't want to leave to get help and
food, though, because we didn't know where we
were and if we did then the Martians would
find out about us."
"Why don't you know where you are?" Kylan
asked, clearly confused. "Didn't your parents
bring you here?"
"They blindfold us until we get into
Headquarters so that anyone who is not an
agent won't know where it's located. I guess,
though, that's the way it has to go," Erin said.
Kylan nodded and then proceeded to wake
Damen. Damen woke with a start and preceded
to ask what was going on until all three of us
had completely explained what had happened
the last five days or so, and given him lunch.
Damen isn't very patient and always needs to be
"in the know". But, completely opposite, is Erin.
She's always calm, quiet, a little shy, and
patient.
"Oh," he said, finally at ease with the world, or
at least to us.
"So," Erin started. "Do you think there are any
more people left like us?"
"I don't know," I replied, still unsure myself. "I
guess it's possible. We're living proof of that."
"We should investigate," Kylan answered. "I
mean, it's not completely out of the question but
I wouldn't get your hopes up. We should get
some cars, supplies, and go out on a search
party!"
"Ok, but we should wait until Erin and Damen
get better," I pointed at their scrawny stomachs.
"Fine," Kylan, Erin, and Damen responded in
unison.
After about three days Erin and Damen looked
strong enough to finally go out and help gather
supplies for our trip. We figured that the trip
would take a couple years, just to completely
circle the globe once, especially since most of it
will have to be explored on foot or only flying
over oceans to conserve fuel. On a normal
occasion we wouldn't split up, but, since it is
traveling the ENTIRE globe we kind of have to.
Kylan is going to go with Damen and half of the
pack of dogs. That leaves Erin and I with Gypsy
and the other half of the pack of dogs. We
figure that the dogs can sniff out hidden
survivors. Our to groups can communicate by
video phone (which I think is the coolest
invention EVER!) Basically, it's a cell phone with
a webcam on it and a microphone so that you
can communicate with another person by video
instead of just speaking. It has some practical
uses but it doesn't seem very practical when the
background to your call is a messy room that
makes you seem like a packrat, if you care about
appearances.
Anyway, we also decided to take semihovercars
instead of regular hovercars so that we can
carry all the supplies and the dogs. We didn't
pack so many supplies because we could always
break into a store and get some more. The week
after we decided to take this trip we left. There's
not much more to it, our adventures are another
story, but I can tell you accurately what became
of us and the people we found.