Realms of Sci-Fi

Time to Be Free

It's going to happen today. I'm not sure we're fully prepared for what we have to do, but we weren't prepared for the end of the world either.

The aliens have kept the six of us here for months; the remnants of humanity dumped in the ruins of what had been Las Vegas. Practically nothing works, and the sands of the desert have been encroaching along the perimeter of the force shield, covering the base of the invisible dome at the city limit.

We didn't know why we six were spared the annihilation they visited upon the rest of humanity. They'd pulled us from all parts of the world, so we originally suspected we were specimens in an alien jar, but other than putting up the shield to contain us, they've ignored us completely.

The aliens don't care about us. We see that now. They never did care about us. Radio broadcasts, more static than words made us wonder if other humans survived, perhaps fighting back against the invaders. Yesterday, we heard a distant explosion.  Suddenly, we understood the aliens' plans. 

We weren't specimens. We were bait.

Humanity had survived the alien assault. Somehow they'd eluded the orbital bombardments and alien ground troops that tore our cities apart. The aliens couldn't find them, so they put us here to draw our fellow humans in. We'd been collected from all parts of the world to ensure whoever came to the rescue might have something in common with us and be more intent on completing the rescue, so much so they wouldn't see the trap until it closed around them.

We've been working on an escape tunnel under the shield. With only six of us, it's slow work, and without the proper tools, having the tunnel collapse and kill us is always a possibility. We have to keep going. We have to get out. We can't be bait for the remnants of humanity. They'll survive to keep fighting, even if we don't.

Today is the day we'll either breach the shield and escape to fight the aliens controlling our world, or we're all going to die. One way or another, we won't be their pawns. In victory or death, we shall be free of them, and it's going to happen today.