The President had issued a state of emergency but it hadn’t done any good. People had poured out of their homes in fear. The war, if you could call it that, lasted only a few days. The aliens had weapons that neutralized the nuclear weapons some countries tried to use. Communications systems around the world had been taken over as well. Messages for calm had been transmitted over and over but it was useless. Even messages from world leaders that the aliens were not there to harm the population did nothing to calm the riots. Zealots and anti-government groups rose up and overpowered the local law enforcement. Jesse, Jordan and Taylor’s dad had been one of the Seattle police officers killed on the first day of rioting. Soon, bombs exploded and neighborhoods were overrun.
Jesse was just arriving home from picking her sisters up at school when the news broke of the alien ‘invasion’ as it was being called. They had watched the news in terror. Their father had called to tell them to barricade the house and to gather as many supplies as they could in case they had to leave in a hurry. They were supposed to go to the cabin up near Wenatchee if it got too bad. That was the last time any of them heard from him. By that night, roaming groups had overturned cars and set fire to homes and businesses throughout the area. Jesse, Jordan and Taylor had gathered as much as they could and hidden in the old cellar behind the woodpile when rocks and bricks had been thrown through the windows of their home. They had barely made it to safety, climbing from the second story balcony into the tree that was next to it, as their house was overrun. They had been running and hiding ever since.
Jesse stopped to adjust the black scarf she had tied around her nose and mouth. She didn’t want there to be any sign of her, including the slight fog of her breath in the freezing air. There was too much riding on her not getting caught, namely Jordan and Taylor, her seventeen and fifteen year old sisters. At twenty-two, she was their mom, dad and protector.
Tonight, she had been fortunate to come across a small convoy of Trivators. They had set up a ration station almost ten blocks away. She had grabbed a box that had been dropped as they unloaded supplies into one of the distribution centers they had set up for the humans like her who refused to trust them. She had found other packages before and while the food was bland, it was edible. She had disappeared into the dark alley before anyone saw her.
Hiding behind an overturned trash bin, she had emptied the small box into her backpack and disappeared. She had been terrified at first she was about to be caught. She had never been so happy about the stench of decaying garbage as she had a short while ago.
She knew the Trivators had an excellent sense of smell. Well, some of them did. She had watched from a distance as a small group of the massive males discovered several human men hiding in ambush a little over a year ago. One of the Trivators had held up his hand and sniffed the air like the dog they used to own. Shortly after, the men were taken out with a clean shot to the chest. She hadn’t stayed after that. She just knew she needed to avoid all contact with both species of male, Trivator and human, if she and her sisters were to remain safe.
Jesse froze when she heard the sound of trucks moving slowly down the street with no headlights on. A worried frown pulled at her brow as she glanced frantically around for a place to hide. The only ones out this late at night were those who were like her, searching the shadows for food or those who she didn’t want to find her.
Other humans and the Trivators, the alien species that had come to Earth four years before supposedly in the name of peace, were to be avoided at all cost, she thought bitterly as she thought about her younger sister, Jordan.
The Trivators may have wanted peace with the humans of Earth but what they had found was war and hatred. They would have their work cut out for them if they thought the humans would welcome them with open arms, she thought as she squeezed between two pieces of ripped corrugated steel panels. She hissed when a jagged piece cut her forearm, leaving a long but shallow line. She scooted between several large sections where the ceiling had collapsed and slid the backpack off her shoulder.
The sound of the trucks engines echoed loudly as they drew to a stop outside the building. Jesse leaned her head back and groaned when the large loading door was unlocked and pushed open. She slid further into the shadows, drawing her knees up to her chest to make herself as small as possible. A moment later, a moving van backed through the doors followed by a pickup truck. The area grew dark again when they pulled the door closed and she heard the sound of the chains being run through the bars again. This time from the inside of the doors.
“Make sure those damn doors are secured well,” a raspy voice muttered. “Those fucking aliens are all over the place. I hate this shit. We should have been out of here yesterday.”
“It took longer than we expected to capture one of the bastards alive,” a woman’s voice said coldly.
“Why do you need one alive? Aren’t you just going to kill him anyway?” Another voice asked, puzzled.
“I told you, I need to study one of them closely to see just how powerful they are,” the woman bit out. “If we are going to take control of this area and eventually the western half of the United States, we need to know how to kill the bastards. If we can kill them, we can rule the world ourselves,” she laughed.