The Outsiders Invasion

Chapter 1: Retaliation

T.O.I. Chapter 1: Retaliation

It has been a while since the invasion started, and the last few months have literally turned into something straight out of a television show. The world was turned into a barren wasteland, free from the usual commotion of the people occupying it. Well, it wasn't like many people were actually occupying it anymore, many people had fallen into the hands of the Outsiders. That's what we called them; the name alien still sounded too foreign and out of place on our lips. We were initially supposed to negotiate with them, which ended up having our President killed and the Pentagon turned to rubble. Johnson and I had been assigned to guard the President during that meeting that sent our country into turmoil. I will have to tell you that story later on, but the important thing is that he and I had been in the Marines long before all hell broke loose. After the world turned to chaos, we returned to our base to help coordinate the attacks since we were the only survivors of the Pentagon incident and had dealt with the Crawlers first-hand.

Crawlers weren't the main threat, the ones who had bombed the Pentagon had been the Outsiders. The Crawlers were more like their overgrown dogs with a viscous personality. Picture them as mutant lizards with long well-built legs and instead of the usual scales you'd expect you were met with a slimy pale skin. They had a long muzzle with 4 sharp fangs sticking out in a saber-tooth-like fashion, and 3 eyes lined up on either side of their faces. They were brought here by the Outsiders who just dumped them down on Earth to do their dirty work while they sat back and watched.

We knew this was a global-scale disaster due to the fact that they had not taken down our communications. China, Great Britain, Egypt and many other countries had been affected by this as well. Recently we found out China's leader had been taken down since it happened right before our eyes as we watched through the image of a laptop screen. Our base was attacked a few days later and we were forced to flee, taking everything we could with us. As the weeks passed by we found out their true intentions to keep the communications on which was to find and destroy us more easily. They were able to pinpoint the location of the caller and the receiver so they could get there and annihilate their targets.

We were currently on day 134 of the invasion, and nearly 75% of the world's population has been wiped out. These past few months have been spent scavenging for food and supplies as well as studying the enemy for possible means of attack. After the first couple of months we were able to bounce back the tracking signal they used to find us so we could keep an eye on them and get them where we want them. Before it used to take a lot to make them come after you, like an online conference with another country. You would be tracked in a matter of hours and taken down. All they cared about was splitting us off from the rest of the world. After the world's population began to dwindle, they started looking more into the small stuff. We were able to lead them to us by sending a simple text on a cellular phone. It was a disappointment they had sent the Crawlers on that one, I guess they didn't want to get their hands dirty with something so insignificant or maybe they had actually known what we were up to.

We have been tracking a large group of Crawlers these last few weeks that led us to a nuclear power plant in Southwestern Arizona. Using radars we have been noticing high activity in this part of the state and a Rifle Platoon was sent to investigate. We were dropped off 2 miles south of our target by three MTVRs (Medium Tactical Vehicle Replacement) and two MATVs (Mine Resistant Ambush Protected All-Terrain Vehicle), one leading us and the other trailing behind for protection. The drivers would leave us here and then head back to our camp we had set up in a nearby town called Buckeye. The town was our current residence, we were going to move on in a couple of weeks. It was dangerous staying in a place too long which is why we changed location at least once a month.

The first MTVR barely came to a halt when I jumped out of the passenger side inspecting our surroundings. Taking out my high-tech binoculars I zoomed in on the power plant that still seemed to look huge from the distance we were at. So far, no Crawlers. This wasn't a surprise, they very much preferred the night but wouldn't hesitate coming out during the day. I turned to look back at the raging sun that was beginning to dip below the horizon. We only had a couple of hours left before sundown and I at least needed to get us inside, being out in the dark is too risky. The Outsiders had set up a night patrol and it was nearly impossible to not get caught.