Blackout Part I

Chapter 3

It all started so suddenly. First the Internet went down, a couple days later the landlines died all over the world, on the same day all the phone’s died-every single one. So of course all the girls in my village went completely mental. The local news started taking interest in this ‘phenomena’ as the called it, blaming natural causes like the American’s were, my uncle and grandmother have other opinions…but then both of them are a bit off their rockers, especially grandmum-age isn’t kind to that old brain of hers and it still shocks me that my uncle was actually elected as mayor. I was at my uncle’s office when the last broadcast went off.

The newscaster looked at the camera intently, and my uncle sat at his desk-forcing us to watch it while I was doing my homework. The newscaster, Conan Aiken, was well built and had a thick mane of blonde hair. “In earlier news, Television stations all over the country and the world are starting to suffer from electrical power outages. The causes of these power failures and our top scientists cannot confirm that these occurrences are being caused by solar flares. This super virus has then been named Techie and it is not known how long it will last, and once power comes back on-it will take days, even weeks to reset the programming-” and with that-the power cut off.

“Fools, they don’t even know” My uncle scoffed. I rolled my eyes at him. I often wondered why it was him and grandmum that were raising me.

“I still can’t believe that you believe in aliens Uncle Angus-it’s just weird.” I mumbled. My uncle then went on to lecturing me again about knowing about the existence of aliens might save my life one day. There was a sudden sound that made Uncle Angus pull me towards him protectively. The floor began to move violently and the entire city hall was plunged into blinding darkness and the backup generator was at the repair shop-so my uncle and I were on our own.

“Alright love,” Uncle Angus said in the darkness. He left my side, leaving me alone in the dark.  I heard his desk drawer open and slam shut, and then a light came on-my uncle’s emergency flashlight. “Time to leave” he continued his arm slipping around my waist again. He led us into the hallway, which was echoing with screams and people trying to find their friends. One thing about my uncle, aside from being a believer in aliens, is that he’s an excellent leader. Uncle Angus herded everyone together and led us all out of the building with only a flashlight.

You know the luck of the Irish? How it’s making fun of their bad luck? Well we Scots got it worse. Everyone in the village had come out to escape the darkness, only to come out to dark skies and lightning and wind. I put a hand up to my face to keep my red hair out of my face. This is turning out to be a fantastic day. The wind violently picked up sending all our arms up to cover our faces. Uncle Angus didn’t fully cover his face though; he was still looking up at the sky. What I saw then shocked me. The lightning highlighted a dark ship like figure, a door opened, and at least ten dark figures exited the craft.

Every one backed up, making a huge gap in the middle of town. Three of the creatures stepped up, black scales shining and luminescent green armor shinning in the bolts of lightning. The front one looked completely bad, and not in the good way. He (well I assume it’s a he) was covered in what I assumed are scars, the one on his right kept looking towards the middle one and then back to this sheet of paper he held in his hands and was wearing a silver band around its neck, the one on the left looked like it was bored.

My uncle pushed me behind him. Oh my god…Grandmum and Uncle Angus were right?! Aliens exist?! NO WAY!!!

Uncle Angus walked up to the three and nodded greeting. I felt a pair of eyes on me, and looked dead into the orange eyes of the alien on the right. It scanned her for a moment and then looked toward the guy in the middle. There was a strange sound coming from the scarred alien, something my uncle couldn’t understand-none of us could. The one with the silver collar suddenly walked off, disappearing from view into the ship. My eyes are on my uncle as the alien he was trying to converse with began to get a wicked, purely evil grin on its face. I don’t like that. Somethings wrong. I don’t like these things what’s going on?

There’s a sudden painful gasp and my Uncle goes flying to the ground, a bloody whole smack in the middle of his chest. The alien is holding a smoking gun in its claws. My…my uncles…dead? For some reason I can’t cry. I loved him like a father so why am I not crying?!

The collared one came back, looked at my uncle’s body and then looked at the scarred guy as if nothing had happened. Girls are screaming, women are weeping, men are making everyone back up and start angrily yelling, but over all this raucous I’m still hearing the alien’s conversation. A series of clicking and gurgles…and something that sounded a lot like a human name. The facial expressions aren’t happy and the name came back up, sounding a lot like the name Bradley. It’s just my imagination, I’m in shock and I’m hearing things.

The scarred guy growled and yelled something to the seven behind him and then ordered the bored one on his right to do something. The small army charged at us, sending us either running or to the ground. The bored one is suddenly mad with action, shooting down the towns people with this huge gun. This gun isn’t like the one that killed my uncle. There’s no blood on the towns people and the other aliens are gathering the bodies of children and adults alike. I’m running like mad-I’ve got to get grandmum and get out of here!

I start to hear gun shots and throw my hands over my head, still running. Only then did I realize that it was my own guys firing, plus the added firing of the maniac alien. This thing is like a freaking one man army! It’s jumping my own guys and shooting them, then leaping to the next guy, doing all of this without even getting shot once!

My name is Alana, I’m sixteen and if I die here-I want everyone to know that my uncle was right. A full scale invasion of earth is starting now. He said that these blackouts were some sort of attack, and now the only one who could help was dead and growing cold on the ground.

I shake the thought of my uncles body out of my head and keep running down the streets, my house is only a few blocks away; I can make it to grandmum and hopefully get the crazy old bat outta there!!! Humans are dropping like flies around me. People I know and have grown up with are being dragged away like wild animals. What the hell is going one!?!

I throw my door open. This has been my home since I was young, my uncle and my grandmum raised me here. And now with Grandmum I’m about to leave it forever if it’s possible. I’ve got to get us somewhere safe and stay there until and if the aliens ever go away. “Grandmum!” I call out, searching desperately around the house. Where is she?

I hear the clicks and gurgles of the aliens and run to that room. I look around the doorway and it looks like the two are arguing while my grandmum is just sitting there contently, humming and clapping her soft old hands together…I did tell you guys she was going crazy right? The two aliens were at each other. One seemed unsure of my grandmum, the other looked like it couldn’t care less and would take her anyway and cuffs its companion in the head with its claws-making bright green streaks of blood come out.

That’s it. They’re not grabbing my grandmum too! They’re not taking her away from me! I run to my uncle’s room and grab his pistol from his dresser drawer, checking if it’s loaded (which it is) and running back to grandmum’s room. I show myself in the doorway, getting their attention, and shoot off two shots, hitting them in where I thought their hearts would be…if they even have hearts. I only got two chuckles when one pointed a gun at me and fired. I feel my body shutting down and I hit the floor. Everything went black after that.