Invasion
Chapter 1

Everyoneis asleep. Though they’re not sleeping in their beds. There are people sleepinginside their cars, on the streets and inside a telephone booth. It’s as if theysuddenly went unconscious as they were doing their activities. We go to anunfamiliar hotel and through the window of one of the room’s bathroom. We see abeautiful young woman with long hair and clean face, without clothes, sleepingin the filled bathtub with only a hanged light swinging back and forth. Herveins glow bright blue leading up to her eyes, closed though they are. She thenawakens suddenly in a shocked manner, as if from a nightmare, and screaming; shelooks around and seems to be confused. Getting up, she tries to make sense ofwhat’s going on. But, it’s just an ordinary bathroom; her clothes are laid andprepared in a chair. She goes to the mirror, but doesn’t seem to recognizeherself. She puts on the clothes: a simple plain white t-shirt and a pale brownjacket and black jeans. As she does so, she steps out of the bathroom and looksaround to remember what happened. But, she seems to have lost her memory andcan’t remember anything, not even her name. “Who am I?” she asks herself. Dizzyand confused, she continues searching through the hotel room, hoping to replace someclue to her identity and her current predicament. She notices a telephone andtries to call someone, but can’t because, as she sees, the line appears to havebeen cut rendering it useless. She notices that it’s 2:50 in the morning bylooking at the clock hanged on the wall. “2:50. Huh,” she mumbles. Unable toreplace anything else, she decides to go outside to look around and perhapsremember something about the place. She puts on her shoes and steps outsideinto the hallway.

As shecloses the door, she looks at her room number. “614,” she says in a soft voice,“614, 614.” She walks dizzily down the hallway, still confused, and noticesthat she doesn’t see or hear anyone. “Hello. Is anyone here?” she yells, stilldizzy with her vision blurry. There seems to be no answer. She goes to theelevator to go down, but just as she is about to press the button, she stopsand decides to take the stairs instead. As she walks down, she stops cause she seessomeone who has fallen asleep on the stairs: a man. She stands there looking athim while becoming more confused. She thinks what to do and decides to wake theman to ask what’s going on. She crouches and tries to wake him. “Hey, wake up.Wake up. Come on, please, wake up,” she says in a quiet voice. Unfortunately, allher attempts at waking him seem to have failed. She lets out a sigh and gets upto continue her walk downstairs. She also notices a maid sleeping in one of thefloor’s hallway. She reaches the end of the stairs, but doesn’t see anyone. Sheopens the door to the lobby and is surprised by a man who fell through. Sherealizes that everyone in the hotel is asleep. Before walking out the front,she decides to see the manager’s logbook to replace her entry log and maybe replace anyinformation about her. She replaces the manager asleep while still holding hishalf-smoked cigarette between his fingers. “It’s a wonder this place hasn’tburned down yet,” she says to herself. She replaces the logbook. “Room number,room number.” she says, sifting through the pages. At last, she replaces the pagescontaining the records for the hotel rooms. “What room number was I?” she asksherself. “Yes, ummm. 614,” she says as she scratches her head. “Ah! There itis.” Written beside it is her name. “Huh. Olivia. Olivia. Olivia, Olivia,Olivia. Olivia what?” She asks in bemusement while trying to remember her lastname. Unfortunately, it isn’t written in the book. Below her name is anothername. “Takashi?” She gets confused. “I was with someone? But, he’s not here.”His last name isn’t written too. “What kind of hotel doesn’t write your lastname?!” she asks furiously. She becomes frustrated, but, nevertheless,continues her journey and walks out the front door to the streets.

It isstill dark out, being it’s 2 in the morning, and there seems to be no power.Everything is dead. But she continues on. She is not getting any answers by justwaiting around. As she starts to walk, she notices that the hotel suddenly lostits power. She also notices people asleep everywhere: in their cars, on thestreets, while eating their foods, inside their newspaper stands. It’s as ifthe whole city had suddenly dropped at the same time. “What the hell?” she saysin a perplexed voice as she realizes that the entire city is asleep. She beginsto get more and more frightened as she walks through the darkness, alone. Herimagination begins to play with her mind and she starts to hear strange soundsand feel like there’s someone, or something, watching her. She reassuresherself and just keeps walking, through what seems to be an endless road filledwith nothing but darkness. She also starts to wonder why she could awake from whateverthis is, but everyone else couldn’t. As her mind continues to play tricks onher, she gets more and more frightened and paranoid, and starts to walk faster,feeling a strange and ominous presence behind her. She braves herself and turnsaround to look, but there was nothing there. “Ok, get a grip on yourself. It’sjust your imagination,” she says to calm herself down. She then turned aroundto continue forward. Eventually, as shebegins to lose hope, she sees a bright light in the distance. But, unfortunately,her paranoia also increases; she feels the strange presence returning. Feelingfrightened, she starts running towards the bright light. As she gets more andmore distressed, she notices the streetlights and cars turn on in sequence oneby one as she passes them. She gets closer and starts to see a building, butbegins to panic. She feels the strange presence closing in and starts sprinting,scared out of her mind, before finally reaching the building, jumping to itssafe haven of light. She breathes rapidly, trying to catch her breath, and thenturns around to see nothing—all of the cars and streetlights suddenly turn offagain. “Ha ha,” she laughs nervously, “there’s nothing. Just my imagination,”she says, still catching her breath. She regains her composure and turns back aroundto examine the building.

Itappears to be a mall, four-stories high, huge and wide. It would seem that itis the only thing in the city that has power. She assumes that there must bepeople inside—it has power after all—that have awoken like her or maybe neverfell asleep at all and have taken refuge inside. Surely they must have answers.So, after finally replaceing the first sign of hope since her awakening, shehappily enters. Hoping to replace people who are awake like her, to her shock, noone is inside. She kneels down in despair and lies down on the floor, succumbingto her desperate and bleak position. As she lies there thinking what to do, herdesperation quickly turned back to hope, as she hears a door opening andclosing somewhere, giving her the sense that someone IS awake besides her. Shesmiles and then quickly picks herself up and starts running towards the sound,which appears to be coming from the top floor. She runs up the flights of stairsand when she reaches the top, she begins to hear footsteps. But her happinessquickly turned to caution as the footsteps she heard belong to two armed men inmilitarized suits: soldiers. She hides behind the wall to avoid being seen.“Soldiers. What the hell’s the military doing here?” she asks herself, confused.Then she remembers back to her awakening, the prepared clothes, and the factthat everyone in the city is asleep but her. “Of course. It’s gotta be some sortof military secret project or experiment,” she says herself, assuming aconclusion, “and I’m the lab rat.” She peeks around the corner and sees themwalking away. “They must be using the mall as their base,” she deduces. Shedecides to follow them, not noticing the camera behind her. Inside a room,another soldier is watching the video feeds. He notices Olivia in one of thecameras. “Uh, sir,” says the soldier, “it looks like someone is awake, sir.”Their general, a bit shocked, comes to the screen and watches as she followsthe two men, although they couldn’t see her face. A brilliant, but eccentricman, he warns his men of her presence. “Men, be advised that someone is awakeinside the building,” says the general. “But, that’s impossible sir,” repliesthe soldier nervously, ‘Everyone’s--“ “Oh, I’m sorry,” cuts the general, “Iguess my eyes and the security camera are lying to me then.” “No, sir,” helooks around, “It’s just that no one is here.... um, sir.” “I see. Well then, Irecommend that you, ummmm, I don’t know, search the premises and FIND HER!!!” “Yes,sir!” Olivia, still oblivious that her presence is known, continues to followthe two soldiers, but stops, as she appears to have lost them.

Shestands there, bemused, trying to replace them. Then to her shock, a voice calledfor her from behind. “Excuse me, mam. Uh, just relax. I’m sure you’re confusedas to what’s going on, but I can assure--,” the soldier suddenly stops, inshock, as she turns around, “It’s her. SHE’S ALIVE!!” they both quickly openfire on her. Shocked, her body suddenly moves to dodge the bullets, jumps tothe ceiling for a second, and then moves out of the way of the bullets behind acorner. She is surprised, more befuddled, I guess, but the soldiers open fireagain, so she starts running for her life. “Attention all units, subject Deltais alive and awake. I repeat subject Delta is alive.” Shocked, the generalwidens his eyes in shock as he hears his soldier’s announcement. “Find her!!She must not leave this building!” he orders them. Olivia continues to run asmore and more soldiers keep pouring out. After a while, she seems to have lostthem and stops to catch her breath. One of the soldiers approaches her frombehind and tries to grab her. She turns around in shock and swings her hand. Toher surprise, the soldier is suddenly repelled back with great force. Standingin shock of what just happened, she looks at her hand in bemusement.Unfortunately, the other soldiers found her and start firing, again, giving herno time to think. She runs, but is cornered on all sides by the swarm ofsoldiers. Panicked, she runs without thinking and jumps out the window,realizing too late that she may have just made a jump to her death. “Oh, shit!”she yells as the ground closes in. She closes her eyes and prepares for theinevitable, but to both her and the soldiers’ surprise, she lands safely andunharmed. “What??” she asks, flabbergasted. Realizing in amazement that she isunharmed, the soldiers open fire again. She runs, and notices the streetlightsand cars turning on one by one again as she passes them. But, she doesn’t thinktoo much of it as she’s running for her life. But, instead of going straight,this time she turns left at the first intersection to lose them. She keepsrunning as the sound of the bullets and the soldiers starts to fade. She looksbehind her to see and before she can turn back around, hits someone and theyboth fall.

Whilecatching her breath, she looks at whom she hit, realizing that he is awake likeher. A young man with short hair, wearing glasses, a gray shirt with a darkgreen jacket and dark jeans. He regains consciousness, sits up, and looks ather. “You’re awake,” he says, smiling, but still a bit dizzy. “Yeah. You’re awaketoo,” she replies, happy to finally replace someone awake. “Ha,” he lets out a chuckle,“What’s--“ “Oops! No time now! We have to hide,” she cuts him, remembering thatshe’s being chased. She grabs his arm and runs fast. But, realizing that thesoldiers may already be catching up while they were talking, she leads him to anearby building, which appears to be an apartment building, opens the door andhides inside. She can relax for a bit now as she watches outside through the window.The man, confused, asks her what’s going on. “Hey, what are we doing?” he asks.

“Hiding,”she replied in a quiet voice.

“Fromwhat?”

“It’s along story.”

“Okay. What’syour name?”

“Olivia.”

“Hi,Olivia. I’m Takashi…I think. Uhhm, nice to meet you.” Her face turns to shockas she remembers that that was the name below hers back in the hotel. “Takashi?”she asks in shock. “Yeah, well, I think,” he replies.

“Youthink??”

“It’sdifficult to explain. So, you don’t have a last name?”

“I uh,don’t remember. I, umm, I lost my memory.”

“Really?Well, that makes two of us then.”

Sheturns to him in surprise. “You lost your memory too?” He nods his head toanswer, “Yeah, hence the ‘I think’.”

“Ok. What’sthe last thing you remember?”

“Notmuch. Actually, I don’t remember anything before I woke up.”

“Wheredid you wake up?”

“In arestaurant. I was…eating, I guess. I was dizzy and confused. Everyone wasasleep.” “Yeah, me too. Not the restaurant thing, the other part.” “I tried toremember something, anything, but couldn’t.” “So how did you remember yourname?” “Well, I looked around and there was a napkin on the table with “Takashi”on it. I had a pen in my pocket, so I figured I wrote it.”

“Ok,” shesays.

“But, otherthan that I don’t remember anything.”

Shesighs, “Hey, listen. I uh, think we came here together.”

“Whatmakes you say that?”

“Well--“Interrupted by a passing helicopter, she stops and they both move away from thedoor. “What the hell is that??” he asks, confused. “That’s who we’re hidingfrom: the military, apparently.” “What?! Th--the military?!” Shocked, he asks,“What the fuck are the military doing here?!” “I uh, think they’re looking forus,” she replies, looking confused and scared. “Why?” “Well-- arrgghh!“ suddenly,a headache appears to stop her and the building starts to light up. “Hey, lookat that,” says one of the soldiers in the helicopter, “I thought we shut downthe entire city, sir?” “We did. That’s her,” says their captain. “Attention allunits, they’re inside the apartments building.” “Uhh, which one, sir?” asks oneof the soldiers. “Which on--?! The one that’s LIT UP!!! Idiot!!” “Oh, shit!They found us. Come on, I’ll explain later,” says Olivia. As they run up thestairs, the soldiers break through the door. “There she is. Let’s get her.” Theyopen fire. “Shit!” she yells. “Just keep running!” screams Takashi. “She’s notalone, sir, there’s someone else with her,” reports one of the soldiers. “Comeon, follow her!” “Hey, wait. The fire escape, come on” he says as they runthrough the third floor stairs. They open it and head out. Though the soldiers quicklycatch up to them and open fire again. Surprised, Takashi falls over the railingand falls to the ground. “Noooo!!!” she yells. She hastily runs down the fireescape and jumps off to the ground beside him. “Ohhhh…” he moans. Catching herbreath, “you’re alive,” she says, smiling, though surprised. “Yeah.” The gunfirethen continues. “Shit, come on!” “Whaat?” still dizzy from the fall. She helpshim up and they run through the alleyway back to the streets where,unfortunately, the rest of the soldiers from the helicopter are already waitingfor them. Guns cocked and pointed at them, “Hold it right there,“ speaks thecaptain. “Oh, shit.” They throw their arms up. “Who’s that with her, sir?” asksone of his men. The captain looks through his scope to replace out. “Ohhh, shit.” Hehas a face that says “tough and ruthless military man”; he has seen much actionthroughout his career in the army.

SamuelMatthews first met Edward Leichthammer when they were both still soldiersfighting on the battlefield. Edward came off as a bit crazy and eccentric—abrilliant physicist with a master’s degree and a doctorate joining the armydoes seem a little strange. Okay, very strange. But as the days went on andthey fought side by side, Samuel began to respect Edward. He was determined,confident, a brilliant strategist and tactician, and is an adept fighter. Hequickly rose through the ranks, leaving Samuel behind. He became captain withina year of serving and a year later became colonel. In the end, he became ageneral and was leading his own army with Samuel as his most trusted captain. Heis loyal to Edward to the end and will follow him always.

“Don’tmove! Don’t try to run now,” he spoke while moving towards them, “just relax, we’renot going to hurt you.” He signals to the rest of the squad to get ready.Looking nervous and unsure of what to do, he orders to his men to fire. As theydo, Takashi puts his hand in front of him and suddenly, some kind of pulse waveappears from his hand blocking or repelling the bullets and knocking out thesoldiers. Still reeling in, they both become bemused by what just happened. Sheasks him, “how did you that??” “I have no idea,” he replies, having no clue atall. They both stare at the soldiers as they start to regain consciousness. “Hey,come on. Let’s go while they’re down,” says Olivia. And they run. The captainstands up, catching his breath with a grim expression on his face. He contactsthe general, “General Leichthammer, sir. I’m afraid we lost them.”

Hescoffs, “That’s fine, captain. Just return to base to regroup.”

“Um, I’mafraid I have some more bad news, sir.”

“Give itto me captain,” replies the general.

Hesighs, “Subject Alpha is alive sir, and awake.” The general becomes shocked bythe realization that they’re both still alive.

“What?”

“Youheard me, sir. Subjects Alpha and Delta are alive, sir. They were together whenwe found her…and before we lost them.” The general, still shocked, staresblankly into space. “Sir?” “They survived,” says the general quietly with asmile, “incredible. They’re more powerful than I thought.” “Sir?” “Uh, yes,most intriguing captain,” replies the general as he snaps out of it, “justreturn to base.” “Yes, sir. Ok, let’spack it up! We’re returning to base.” “Hmmm, most intriguing indeed,” he spoke ashe sits back on his chair with a curious smile.

After awhile, they both are still running, noticeably beginning to get tired. Shelooks back and notices that the soldiers are not following them anymore. “Hey, they’regone.” They both look back to see. “Yeah.Alright then, let’s stop here,” he saysin a tired voice. They both stop at theriverfront, very tired and out of breath. They sit down and try to talk aboutwhat the hell’s going on while they rest. “Hey, what time is it?” she asks him.“Oh, it’s a, half past invisible.” “Hahaha,” they both laugh. “I don’t know,haha,” he tells her. “You still haven’t told me why they’re after us.” “Well,it’s kind of obvious isn’t it? I mean, we both saw what you did back there.”“Yeah,” he says looking at his hand. “So, they’re after both of us, right? Doesthat mean…you can do things too?”“Well, like I said it’s long story.“ He looks around, “Well seeing as there’snobody around and nobody trying to kill us, I think now’s the perfect time totell it.” And so, she tells him everything about her awakening.

“Anyways,I lost the two guys, and then one of them called me from behind. As he wastalking I turned around and he was shocked. He then started shooting at me andI ran, of course. While I was hiding, one of the soldiers snuck up on me. Iturned around and uh, he, he uh, he was repelled or something. Whoosh.” “Whoa.”“Yeah. So, I was just standing there, you know, I was like, ‘What the hell?’But, the other soldiers came, so I didn’t have time to think and I ran. But,they cornered me.” “So how did you escape?” “I’m getting to that. I panickedand I jumped out the window.”

“You didwhat??!”

“Well,they cornered me!”

“How areyou still alive?”

“I don’tknow. All I know, is that I jumped, and next thing I know I’m standing on theground, unharmed. It didn’t even hurt.” He laughs, “Wow.” “Seriously! I thoughtI was gonna die.” “Yeah, but you didn’t.” “Anyway, I ran and the streetlightswere flashing, cars were ringing… I didn’t think too much of it since I wasrunning for my life. And that’s when I ran into you.”

“Hmm, Ok.”He chuckles, “Maybe you’re invulnerable or something.”

“What? Ican’t get hurt?” she chuckles back.

“Yeah, it’skind of cool actually.”

“Yeah,sure. Why not? You still haven’t told me your story,” she inquires. “Yeah, wellmine’s not too long. Like I said, I woke up in a restaurant, everyone wasasleep, I was confused and very dizzy. I couldn’t remember anything, so Ilooked around and I saw the name on the napkin.”

“Yeah.”

“Yeah,and then I went out. I just kept walking, it was dark and I was alone. I wasfreaked out.” “Tell me about it.” “While I was walking I started to heargunshot. And then, I saw the streetlights flickering on and off, one by one.So, I figured somebody must be awake and I ran towards it. As I was running, Inoticed the lights were coming closer towards me. Haha, I kept looking at it whileI was running, so I didn’t see what was in front of me, and that’s when we hiteach other.” “Haha. Right. Um, the restaurant you were in, was it out of poweror not?” “Uh, yeah, I think so. No wait, um, it had power, but when I left, itshut down for some reason.” “Me too. The hotel I was in was like that, but itshut down when I left too.” “Hmmm. Maybe…” “Maybe what?” “Well, remember I cansort of shoot out some kind of pulse wave or energy wave.”

“Yeah,what’s your point?”

“Maybe weboth have the same power or whatever.”

“I’m notfollowing.”

“Haveyou ever heard of telekinesis?” “Uhh, I don’t think so. Then again, I did losemy memory.” He chuckles, “Right. Uhm, Telekinesis. Argh!” He screams as hesuddenly gets a headache. “Hey, you ok?” He hears a voice, distorted. “Peopletoday are so ignorant and complacent. Disregarding the scientific wonders ofthe universe. Telekinesis, telepathy, teleportation, regeneration, they are allwithin our reach. Through science.”

“Argh!!”“Takashi, what’s wrong?” asks Olivia in worry. “Urgh, I don’t know. I think I remembersomething.” “Really?? What??” “Hold on-- Argh!”

“Telekinesis.What do you know of it, Dr. Edwards?” asks the general, “you are a physicist,yes?” “Uh, yes, sir. An Astrophysicist. Well, it’s uhh, the ability to moveobjects with one’s mind, sir,” replies the doctor. “I see. And just like thepathetic population of this planet, you have very narrow views, doctor.Telekinesis is so much more than moving objects with the mind.” “Sir?”“Telekinesis,” the general explains, “is the ability to influence matter, whichessentially is also energy, with the mind. One can influence the vibrations ofatoms, creating fire or freeze objects, turn intangible, generate energyfields, and even control the electromagnetic spectrum!!” the general screams inawe of this power, lifting his hands in the air. The doctor, only able to standstill, looks at him, swallowing and tapping his fingers against the clipboardhe is holding. “Ummm...” he mumbles. “And, of course,” the general says,returning to his normal voice, clutching his fist, “heal oneself and others,”he turns to the doctor, “and fly.” He approaches him, “Have I widened yourgaze, doctor? It’s all quantum mechanics after all, no?” “Uh, yes, sir,”replies the doctor. He chuckles, “Prepare the device, doctor.” “Yes, sir.”

“Argh!!!”he moans.

“Hey. Hey!”

“Urgh…I’m, I’m fine.”

“So whatdo you remember?”

“Well, it’sall a bit blurry. I could…hear two people talking about telekinesis and psychicpowers and some sort of device.” “When was this?” “I don’t know. Can’tremember.” “Ah, it’s alright.” “It makes sense though.” Confused, she asks,“What does?” “Telekinesis. The ability for the mind to move and influence physicalobjects.” “You’re saying that’s what we can do?” “Well, maybe. With telekinesisyou can influence and control matter, which also means energy. I think that’swhy the hotel and restaurant had power when we were in it, respectively. Wewere passively keeping it on. And that’s why it turned off when we left.” “Ok.Supernatural powers. Wow.” “Well, it’s not really supernatural. It’s all justscience really. Well, parts of it, I think,” he was still rubbing his forehead.That memory really gave him a headache. He doesn’t really understand himselfwhat this all means, he was just repeating what he heard.

Shesighs, “Ok, well, that still doesn’t explain how I...we made all those thingsturn on.” “Well, from what I remember, with telekinesis you can also createenergy fields or force fields or something like that. And you can heal yourselftoo and others and…you can control the electromagnetic spectrum?! or somethinglike that. I don’t really understand it myself, haha,” he laughed a tiredlaugh, “I think it’s like influencing electricity and electrical devices likeTVs, lamps, streetlights, computers, things like that,” he tries to explain. “Ok.But, when I walked out from the hotel and into the streets, I passed lots ofcars and streetlights and none of them turned on.“ He rubs his forehead again, “Well,sometimes these things activate by themselves like when you’re stressed out or indanger or something as a way of self-defense. Like you said, the cars andlights started turning on when you started panicking. Also, like when we werehiding. You got a headache.” “Yeah. Ok. That actually makes sense. So, nowwhat?” “I don’t know. We could just rest here for a while. I am soo tired.”Sighing, “Right.” She then chuckles. “What?” “This is kind of cool.” “Isn’t it?”Both of them let out a chuckle showing their enthusiasm for this power, and torelax as they finally can after being chased and shot at by the soldiers.