Strange lights and other occurrences; a guide to alien housemates

Chapter 11: Siege

Humanity was screaming. Alarms sounded in a clamour of high pitched noise. Outside, children cried, families clinging to each other tightly. Above, the skies were filled with black ships, bigger than cities, crashing like drums. From them descended machines the size of towers, their electronic voices demanding fear stricken cries. The sky was torn with fire and smoke, the pavements cracked, cars left abandoned on the streets. People ran everywhere, bodies lying in the streets like rag-dolls. Phil peered between the curtains, hoping to see nothing nearing their house.
"Phil! Get away from the window! They'll see us!" Shouted Dan
He jumped back, just as a torpedo hit the pavement outside.
"Are you ok?" His friend asked, helping him up.
"Fine" he replied, obviously shaken.
"What the hell do we do?" Dan sighed. "We've had no message from Anya, not even a peep of a message from the Alliance she was talking about, and every government has been silent since Tuesday"
The situation was dire. Nothing from ITV, Channel 4 or Sky was to be found on the news, and the President of the USA was presumed dead. The BBC was, seemingly, the only broadcaster that still ran, using communications with over radio and secret messages passed around enslaved humanity. Not that that helped, as no one had a clue what was going on. The two had been hiding in their apartment for days, and hoped that this would conceal them, even if another scan was imminent. Outside, those who had tried to escape lay either dead or imprisoned.

"So what do we do? If we stay here, we'll be found and they'll kill us for not cooperating" Phil whispered urgently

"And if we go out there, we'll end up like every other family that thought they could sneak past. No, we wait in here until there's news" Phil was dissatisfied with this, but understood the reasoning behind it. If only they could remain undetect-

BOOM

The warning sounded again. Another scan was imminent.

"No no no no no!" Dan ran to the window, peering outside tentatively. A large black machine was heading for their front door. There was a CRASH as the front door to the apartment building was knocked down.

"There isn't meant to be another for 2 days yet!" He screeched in terror, not knowing what to do. They would have a matter of minutes before...

"Come on"
Phil grabbed him by the arm, dragging him towards the window on the opposite side of the house. They had just got near their front door when mechanical footsteps sounded just outside. They stopped, looking to the door, then to each other. Phil straightened up to his full height.
"Go" he said, pointing to the window. Dan looked at him in disgust "No! You'll be killed!"

"Dan, come on, either one of us dies or both of us die"

"Then why don't you go and I wait-"
Phil cut him off
"Because... I'm older"

Honestly, thought Dan, of all the times he could've used "I'm older and he chooses this moment"

"No." He said again, more firmly this time "If we die, we die together."
This was infuriating. It seemed that the option 'everyone dies' had been chosen by Dan. He gave him a look to represent this.
"I said no" Dan responded to the glare "I'm not running the gaming channel on my own!"
This was even more infuriating

"Dan, the world is ending and you're worried about the GAMING CHANNEL?!"

"You're the one who decided to use 'I'm older' as an excuse for sacrifice!"

Another crash echoed as the robot broke another door down. It was searching for them.

"SCANNING. HUMAN LIFE FORMS FOUND."