“Drive!” Warren shouted as one of the dropship’s turrets swivelled around toward them. His heart hammered in his chest as the barrels lowered before coming to a rest pointed directly at the truck. A reddish glow began to form inside of the weapon.

  “Holy shit!” Lisa slammed the truck into reverse and barreled back down the street. “What is that thing?”

  Twin beams like molten hellfire sliced across the street where the truck had been a second earlier. Where it struck, the asphalt vaporized, leaving behind a deep channel. Six other beams lashed out from the craft, cutting through buildings and streetlights.

  “Over there!” He pointed toward an alleyway leading to a parking lot behind the pizza place. “We can cut across the lots and escape the aliens.”

  Lisa shot him a look. “Do you honestly think they’re little green men?”

  “What else could they be?” Warren flinched as a pair of beams blazed right past his window. “I don’t know many countries building spaceships the size of mountains.”

  Lisa spun the wheel, the truck briefly rising on two wheels. When all four wheels slammed down again, the engine revved and sent them rocketing across the street. She hit the curb and briefly lifted both of them out of their seats. With another spin of the wheel, she careened into the alleyway. The passenger side struck the brick wall of the building, and a loud sound of metal crunching followed.

  Warren braced himself against the dash as the truck plowed through garbage bins. Food waste and wrappers splattered against the windshield. Lisa barely seemed to notice the garbage sticking to her truck as she hammered her foot down on the gas pedal.

  “Wait!” he called out as he spotted movement behind them. He could see Kassandra running across the street with a group of people in tow. “Kassandra is right behind us!”

  Lisa’s knuckles tightened on the steering wheel, but the truck only picked up speed.

  “Stop,” he repeated more softly. “We’re safe back here and I’m not leaving them behind.”

  Finally, the vehicle slowed before rolling to a stop on the gravel behind the pizzeria. His sister was breathing heavily, and she didn’t release her grip on the steering wheel. She stared straight ahead without moving.

  “I’ll be right back,” he said, touching his sister’s arm lightly. “Just wait for me here.”

  Warren stepped out of the truck and waved at Kassandra who was running in his direction. She held a pistol with both of her hands and was leading a family with three children, along with an elderly couple. Their faces and clothes were covered in a layer of black soot.

  “I’m so glad you saw me.” Kassandra pushed back a strand of stray dark hair. “Those… things destroyed the sheriff’s office. I tried to save as many people as I could….”

  Warren stepped over to the truck and glanced in the cargo bed. Inside was an old box of tools, some worn coveralls, and a tarp, but there should be more than enough room for everyone.

  As his gaze returned to the rubble-strewn street, he decided it was a good idea to arm himself. He leaned over the side and flipped open the toolbox. From inside, he retrieved a beat-up old claw hammer and a box cutter. “Everyone should be able to fit in the back of the truck.”

  He opened the tailgate and helped the family climb inside. The elderly couple took a bit more effort, but with the help of the husband, he finally managed to lift the woman inside. Finally, Kassandra leaped lithely into the back of the truck. In her hand, she clasped the familiar shape of a Glock 22 pistol.

  Warren stared at the weapon, his hammer suddenly feeling inadequate. What was he going to do against an alien invasion with a simple tool? It would probably be about as effective as harsh language.

  But he didn’t return the hammer to the toolbox. Instead, he gripped the handle tighter as he hurried back to the passenger side of the truck. As he was about to climb inside, he spotted a woman marching out of the smoke with five men in armor flanking her.

  He knew immediately none of them were human.

  The woman wore black form-fitting armor, the surface polished to a mirror finish. In her hands, she clasped a futuristic-looking rifle with two barrels; one on top of the other. She had dark braided hair hanging to the side, showing off her swept back horns. Her skin was the color of a ripe plum, and her dark eyes glittered as her companions raised their weapons.

  The others with her wore the same type of armor, but their weapons looked even more ominous. The same glow he’d seen from the landing craft appeared in the rifle’s barrels before the woman raised her hand and barked something in a strange language. After a second, the men lowered their weapons and glared at him.

  Warren let out a breath he didn’t realize he’d been holding. If the rifles they held were even a tenth as powerful as the ones mounted on their vessels, they would have destroyed the truck in a single shot. He didn’t know why the woman had spared him, but he wasn’t about to tempt fate by staying a second longer than necessary.

  The crack of a pistol firing made him spin around. Kassandra had raised her Glock and squeezed off a shot. She corrected her aim and fired again, the shot hitting one of the aliens in the head.

  As the lifeless alien crumpled to the ground, it was like time slowed down. He dove inside of the truck and shouted for his sister to drive. A storm of beams lashed out from the fallen alien’s companions, pulverizing the side of the restaurant. The bricks fa?ade crumbled and an avalanche of masonry pelted the truck. He heard a pained cry from behind them, but he didn’t have time to worry about who had been hurt.

  They needed to get out of here.

  His sister slammed her foot down on the gas and the truck lurched forward. She turned the wheel hard, and the tires kicked up a spray of gravel. The next shot barely missed them, and then they were safely behind the building. She didn’t slow down as she sped across the parking lots linking the different downtown lots.

  This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  As they drove, he realized the destruction in the town was growing worse. He could see flames burning in half a dozen buildings, and dark smoke billowed up into the sky. But worryingly, he didn’t spot anyone else fleeing. Hopefully, they had all found shelter before that thing started shooting its crazy weapons all over the place.

  The truck zoomed past the hair salon and then into the parking lot of the local hardware store. When they reached the end of the building, Lisa spun the steering wheel into a hard turn. The back end fishtailed before the wheels caught on the gravel.

  They rocketed out onto main street at full speed, past the alien craft half buried in the asphalt. He waited for one of the weapons to disintegrate the truck, but for some reason, it didn’t target them.

  Do their weapons only have a limited range? Or did they choose not to shoot at me?

  He didn’t bother lingering on the question, as he didn’t have enough information to unravel any of the alien’s motives. He didn’t know why the strange horned woman had spared him, or why this mountain town was under attack. Nothing made any sense at the moment.

  Warren remembered the pained cry from earlier and glanced through the rear window. The elderly man was holding a t-shirt up to his head and blood was streaming down his face. It looked like Kassandra had been wounded as well. But neither of the injuries looked serious enough to risk stopping to treat. Once they reached his father’s old cabin, he could tend to them.

  Lisa slumped back in the driver’s seat as they sped down the road heading out of town. “What in the fuck is going on?” she exclaimed. “Did you see that thing in the street? I mean… lasers? Seriously?”

  “I think we’re being invaded,” he said quietly. “It doesn’t make any sense, but I can’t think of any other explanations.”

  “Those… things weren’t human, were they?” she continued. “I saw them in the rearview mirror. They had horns. Why are horned aliens invading our town? Is their planet low on rednecks or something?”

  Despite their dire situation, he couldn’t help but smile at his sisters’ words. “We just need to lie low until the government deals with them.”

  Lisa gave him a weak smile. “Or until Cletus and all his friends fill those assholes with buckshot. Don’t they know how many guns we have in the hills?”

  “Speaking of that,” he said. “Do you have any weapons?”

  “What, you think the navy lets me take home machineguns?” She shook her head. “I don’t have anything, but you know dad has an armory at the house. Plus, he has a ton of tannerite.”

  Warren frowned. “Tannerite? What’s that?”

  “Oh right, I forgot Dad got into that after you left.” She slowed the truck as they approached the cutoff to the dirt road leading up to the cabin. “You shoot at it and it explodes. I bet it could make a pretty good bomb in a pinch.”

  “We’re not going to be making any bombs,” he said firmly. “We’re going to hole up until the air force shoots down every last one of the bastards. After all, you saw the damage the missile did to the mother-ship, or whatever you want to call it.”

  “Do you really think the navy can win—”

  “They will win,” he said firmly before softening slightly. “And I said the air force, not the navy.”

  “There’s no way the chair force will do anything,” Lisa shot back. “Those guys are barely full-time compared to us leathernecks…” she trailed off and frowned. “I need to get back to my unit. They’re going to be fighting this invasion, and I can’t leave them on their own.”

  Warren shook his head. “Unless you have a helicopter in your back pocket, there’s no way you’re getting back to your base. Who knows what’s going on in other cities? For all we know, every town in the state is being invaded.”

  “Once it’s safe, then we’ll head to my base,” she insisted. “I won’t leave them behind.”

  He simply nodded, knowing now wasn’t the time to argue. Instead, he concentrated on watching the road ahead. If there was an ambush waiting for them, he wanted to spot it before the trap was sprung.

  But no aliens lurked in the thick brush and the rest of the drive up to the cabin was uneventful. He couldn’t even tell if the massive vessel was still hovering above the nearby mountain; the dense forest canopy overhanging the road only allowed him to catch brief glimpses of the sky.

  After nearly half an hour of driving up the steep trails, they finally pulled into the nearly hidden driveway of the cabin. Trees had grown around the entrance, and thick weeds sprouted from the middle of the rutted road. It looked like no one had lived here for years.

  “I’ve never seen it this overgrown,” he commented to his sister. “I thought dad’s illness came on suddenly.”

  She shrugged in response. “He was getting old. And most of the time he preferred to putter around in his woodshop instead of doing yard work. Can you blame him?”

  As they inched forward—the tree branches clawing at the side of the truck—the brush slowly thinned out until they reached the house. The one storey structure had been built over 150 years earlier and had thick field stone walls. Almost everything—from the doors to the window frames—was original and had been lovingly restored by their father.

  Across from the cabin was an old wooden barn and next to it was the woodshop. At the sight of his dad’s old army jeep parked next to the structure, he felt the sudden pang of loss. He wished he had come back more often when he was in school.

  Why had he waited so long to come home?

  Lisa steered the vehicle in front of the house and then put it in park. She unbuckled her seat belt before resting her head against the steering wheel. “That was… something. Wasn’t it?”

  “Definitely something,” he replied. “I need to check on the others. Will you be alright?”

  Lisa didn’t reply and simply waved him away.

  Warren hopped out of the truck and hurried around to the back. As he approached, Kassandra stood up from the cargo bed, holding her left arm gingerly. She had dust covering her face and her shirt was torn.

  “Let me see your injury,” he said without thinking. He gently held her soft hand and examined her arm—it was swollen, with a nasty bruise forming. Her arm was almost certainly fractured. “On a scale of 1-10, how much does it hurt?”

  “Somewhere around an 8?” she said, the pain evident in her pinched features. “But the others are worse off than me. Take care of them first.”

  Warren nodded tersely before clambering onto the tailgate. The old man was the most seriously wounded out of everyone. A loose brick must have struck his temple and his face was drenched in blood. “I’m Warren,” he said to the man. “What’s your name?”

  “I’m Victor,” the man mumbled. “Thank you for saving Eleanor and I.” He reached over and squeezed the elderly woman’s hand.

  “Do you know what happened to you?” Warren continued. “And can you tell me how you ended up here?” He needed to check for a concussion. Not that he could do much without access to a hospital.

  “Some War of the Worlds nonsense,” Victor grumbled in a scratchy voice. He reached up to touch his temple. “I think a brick hit my noggin. Mind you, it was pretty hard to focus with all those demons shooting ray guns at us.”

  Warren leaned down to check on the man’s eyes. Neither was dilated, so he had probably avoided a concussion. He reached out to help the man up—he needed to find a way to stop the bleeding—but recoiled when a searing pain erupted from his wrist. His eyes widened as a black band with a burgundy oval in the center materialized from nowhere on his forearm.

  After a second, the pain vanished, leaving only a dull ache behind. He pulled his wrist closer to examine it. In the middle of the oval, writing appeared:

  While he examined the band around his wrist, the others in the truck’s cargo bed reacted as their own wristbands appeared; the adults grimaced with pain while the children began to cry. Before he could dwell on the strange new development, he heard his sister call out. He spun around and caught sight of bizarre creatures moving to block the driveway.

  The aliens had found them. And there was nowhere left to run.