Invasion
Chapter 8

The raincontinues outside and lightning races through the clouds without a break; this isdefinitely unnatural weather. Takashi and Olivia raise their jackets to coverthemselves from the pour—though Sergey braves through it without a flinch. “Theinvaders grow restless,” he says. “What do you mean?” Takashi asks. “Thesecreatures are, how you say, energy-based: electrical. They can control it,change to electrical form. They are creating this weather. This is what you seein cloud. It is not lightning.” “And how do you know all this?” Olivia asks. “Isaw it happen when me and my men encountered the creatures. Come. We musthurry.” They run and cross the street to the left of the hospital, at thefour-way intersection. He crosses the street to the right and heads into an alley,with Takashi and Olivia behind. It lies at the back of a building, where itlies between two parts of it. The alley leads to a cellar door, which, whenopened, reveals a set of stairs leading down to a metal door. He knocks on thedoor and a rectangular slide for looking is opened. A man looks through thenewly opened slide and Sergey nods his head; he closes back the slide andunlocks the door. They start speaking Russian as Takashi and Olivia wait behindand watch; the man looks at them. He continues to speak with Sergey; theyfinish and he turns back around to them. “Ok. Let’s go,” he says. “What wasthat about?” she asks. “He does not trust you guys,” he explains, “don’t takeit personally. He does not trust anyone. Now come.” They all head inside and theguard locks the door again. Inside, they see a long, wide corridor to the leftand a short one in front; fluorescent lights on the ceiling illuminate them,some flickering slightly. A man sits on the corner on top of a barrel, holdinghis M27 assault rifle firmly with one hand on the trigger and the other on thegrip attachment, all the while chewing a gum. He smiles at them and nods hishead, “Dobro pozhalovat’” he says to them. They both nod their heads and smile,not having a clue of what that means. Sergey walks through the corridor andturns around to call them. “Well, nice to meet you guys,” she says, smiling.“Uh, yeah,” adds Takashi. They both speedily run through the corridor, whichturns sharply to the right at the end. That corridor leads to another metaldoor. Sergey grabs the key from his pocket and unlocks it. It opens to a widearea full of people, weapons, and equipment. “Welcome to the resistance,” hesays. “Whoa,” Takashi admires. “This is a big place,” Olivia remarks. “Haha, makeyourselves at home,” he tells them, “I have to check on my men. I will be rightback.” He walks away to the clinical area near the edge of the top-left wallinside a makeshift tent, taking out the cloth full of medicines and bandagesout from his jacket pocket. On the way, he converses and chats with his men; hiswords are unintelligible from the distance; she can’t hear what he’s saying.Even if she could, she wouldn’t understand anyway as they’re speaking inRussian. So she stands there waiting, crossing her arms. Takashi looks aroundand witnesses some of the soldiers looking at them. He feels a littleuncomfortable; he knows this feeling all too well. Reminds him of the waypeople stare at him back home, like he’s a freak. Though, he doesn’t remembermuch of it. He’s thankful for that. Some memories are best forgotten. He looksdown and sees a few pebbles lying around on the ground. He levitates a few ofthem to his hand and wiggles his fingers as it floats around his hand. Sheturns to him, “What are you doing?” she asks, smiling. “I have absolutely noidea,” he answers. She chuckles and shakes her head.

Back attheir base, the soldiers remain vigilant, prepared for the creatures’ nextattack. Julian is still hard at work, analyzing the remains of the creaturesthey’ve killed in the medical wing. He has dissected a few of the specimens todetermine their physiology. “This is incredible, truly incredible. I amexamining an actual alien life form. Extraordinary,” he speaks to himself,excited—his gloves and apron bloody yellow, “but what are you? Energy beings??Yet, you have organs.” At that moment, Edward walks in to check on his progress.“Well, doctor. What have you found?” he inquires. “Uh, well, not much yet, sir,”the doctor answers, “for one thing, they have internal organs. And as we saw,they can also bleed; they have a heart too. This was a bit surprising sincethey aren’t physical beings per se. And they do also possess a brain, a quitelarge one in fact, similar to ours, which indicates some form of intelligence. Thesecreatures might not be purely as instinctual as we’ve thought. I believe theycan think and coordinate. They may even possess free will. Though they arequite savage, which coupled with intelligence, makes them a very dangerousopponent indeed. Traces of electrical impulses remain in the neural pathways ofthe brain, even after death. Further analysis indicates they are beingtriggered by a signal, originating from outsidethe body. I suspect that they do also have some sort of a hive mind.” “A hivemind, doctor?” Edward asks. “Yes, sir. My theory is, although, as I’ve said,they do possess intelligence and a sort of free will—each individual has someform of sentience—there is something else that can issue commands to them. Isuspect they have some sort of leader or king or something like that.”“Interesting… What of their shifting? Have you found a way to hurt them in thisstate? Or perhaps stop them from converting at all?” He sighs, “No, unfortunatelyI haven’t.” Edward stares at him with disappointment. “Uh, well, we know that theirchanged state is electrical in nature,” he says, thinking, “physical attacksare useless at this state, but perhaps a countercharge can be applied to hurtthem or maybe even force them to convert back to physical form. Of course,please understand that these are all still just theories, sir.” “Well, we shallneed to test them out then. How long do you need to make such a device?”“Honsetly, I’m still not sure, sir. I will need to research further,” heexplains. “Hmmm. Very well, doctor,” he turns around and walks away, “but dotry to hurry, please. I suspect we will not have long before we encounter themagain,” Edward warns him as he leaves the room. “Yes, sir,” he sighs. He continueshis examinations; he rubs the sweat off his forehead and his glove leaves astain of the creature’s blood on it. “Oh great,” he speaks in annoyance. Hegets frustrated and moves on his rolling chair to the table on the wall to hisright. He removes the gloves and disposes it in the disposal bin and grabs atissue to wipe the stain off before grabbing a new pair of gloves, puts them on,and returns to the examining table. He lets out a sigh and rubs his eyes. Tothe table on his left lies a slightly glowing chunk of dark blue rock: a meteorfragment. It’s small enough that you can clutch your hand around it. He startsto stare at it, contemplating, and stands up and approaches it. He picks it upand clutches it around his right hand. “If only you still work,” he says tohimself. As he does so, he reminisces about the experiment and what went wrong.

Afterthey invaded, they started setting up a makeshift lab and a machine in theunderground levels of the mall that could direct the energy from a radiantlyglowing blue meteor fragment into a person. They were trying to unlocksomething hidden within the human brain. Circular in shape, wide and tall, themachine consisted of a center placement for the fragment and a device on top toabsorb its energy and redirect it. It was a long and wide bluish device thatgets narrower near its mouth; it was hanged on the wall above using wires. Theupper end of it was connected to seven cables, which connected to a long, thinrod to shoot the energy. Subjects would stand on assigned places around themachine and an observation area is located high on an upper level behind aglass, which surrounded the machine. The storm continued on outside from theday before and Julian suspected that the otherworldly energy emanating from thefragment is affecting the environment, or at least the weather. Strong windsblew through the city, bending even the tallest and mightiest of trees; the skywas covered in dark clouds pouring heavy rain; and the sound of roaring thunderscould be heard throughout the city. The test subjects were ready, seven oftheir own men, some were nervous while the rest braved on. The machine wasactivated and the soldiers walk towards it from another level below. But, twointruders, namely Takashi and Olivia, have somehow breached the perimeter andentered the machine beforehand. “Whoa. Look at this place,” Takashi said. “Takashi!We shouldn’t be here. Let’s go,” Olivia said to him, worried. “Hold on. Olivia,look at that,” he wondered approaching the glowing fragment, “what is that?” “Idon’t know.” One of the soldiers noticed them and informed Edward. He quickly orderedthe men to subdue them. Olivia heard this and looked up to see them standingbehind the glass. “Oh, shit,” she exclaimed. She shook Takashi’s shoulder towarn him. He turned around and saw, “What? Oh, shit,” seeing the soldiers comingfor them. They quickly ran to the door and locked it. “Shit! Takashi, please,can we go now?” Suddenly, the machine started to whir; the activation processwas already started. “Takashi?! Something’s happening.” “Dammit! Shut down themachine, now!!” Edward ordered his men. “I can’t, sir. It’s too late,” said theoperator. “What??!! Dr. Edwards!! You did not install a failsafe??!!” “Uh, uh,well, sir, I did not expect this. It’s only a makeshift machine, sir. I toldyou it wouldn’t be perfect,” Julian explained, anxious. Down at the machine, Takashiand Olivia were panicking as they tried to replace a way out. The machine whirredlouder and let out a high-pitched sound; a beam fired from the device above tothe fragment and started absorbing its energy; it shook and glowed brighter. Itreleased a burst of energy and filled the machine with some kind of strange andpowerful aura. They became caught in it and began to levitate off the floor. “Takashi!!!What’s going on??!” she asked, frightened. “I don’t know. Some kind of electromagneticenergy, I think, urgh, lifting us,” he tried to answer. They started to experienceheadaches and began to bleed from their nose and eyes as they held their heads.“Aaaarrrrgggghhhhh!!!” they screamed out in pain. The device shook violentlyand the whole place trembled. The soldiers started to panic as the monitorsounded out a warning. “Aaaarrrggghhh!!” He looked to her and cried as helevitated, and told her, “Olivia, I’m sorry. I love you.” She looks to him too,“I love you too,” she replied with tears. Then, the fragment released onefinal, powerful blast—kinda like an explosion—that knocked and slammed themboth against the wall, destroyed the machine, and shattered the glass of theobservation area. Its force was also powerful enough to knock back everyone atthe observation area and to be briefly felt at the surface as a tremor. People abovewere shocked, but quickly shrugged it off. The fragment gave one last glow orflicker before it finally died. Edward and Julian regain themselves and gotback up, as did the others—though still dizzy and a little weak. They walkedtowards the edge of the glass, holding their heads in an attempt to get rid ofthe headache. Takashi and Olivia were both knocked unconscious and they laythere against the wall. “I’m sorry, sir. It was a failure,” Julian said.“Perhaps not, doctor. We may still be able to recover,” Edward hypothesizes,“those two down there have been exposed to the fragment’s mystical energy. Theymay have even absorbed it. You men, go get them!! We need to study them,doctor. We may never get another opportunity like this.” “Yes, sir. I’ll do itright away,” he replied, “alright, men. Bring them to the medical wing. Andmake sure they can’t escape.”

At themedical wing, they lay unconscious, strapped to a gurney. “Sir, I’m afraid, thefragment is useless now,” Julian stated. “What??” Edwards asks. “The process islost to us forever. All its energy seems to have left it and entered these twosubjects. They are now the only ones who possess it, within them.” “Argh,verdammt. What can we do, doctor?” “Well, I will need to study them further,but, perhaps, I may be able to extract or maybe replicate the energy directlyfrom them. Of course it will take time, but it’s theoretically possible.” “Verywell. Do it, doctor. As for these two, as of now, we will refer to them assubjects Alpha and Delta,” pointing towards Takashi and Olivia, respectively. “CaptainMatthews!” “Sir!” he shouted, giving a salute. “Give the good doctor anythinghe needs.” “Yes, sir,” he replied. “Good. Carry on, men,” he said as he left. Julianwas excited about this. “This is it, the next stage. Improving the man insteadof the machine,” he said, smiling, “I hope you two are ready. We have much workto do.” He went to the side of the gurney, the one with Olivia on it, androlled it towards the fMRI machine, next to its panel. He ordered the soldiersto place her on it as he went to the computer to activate it. They did so,placing her head inside the helmet-like device attached to it. The machinewhirred as it sprang to life; the lights turned on one by one as the panel slidinto position inside. “That will be all for now, captain. I need to be alonenow,” he told Samuel. “Alright, doctor. We’ll be outside if you need us,” hereplied. Julian initiated the imaging process and the fMRI began its sequence;the lights inside flickered with a clicking sound above an unconscious Oliviaas if a camera taking photographs. Images began popping on the screen. He wasenthralled, for it revealed what he had hoped. The scans showed increasedneural activity, especially in the frontal lobe, and elevated brain waves.“This is fascinating,” he spoke, “new neural pathways seems to have beencreated. More connections between areas are available leading to increasedmental faculty and processing.”

Meanwhile,on the other gurney, Takashi was starting to slip out of his unconsciousness.He moved his hands about and moaned, although Julian didn’t hear as themachine’s whirring was loud enough to cover the noise. He opened his eyesslightly, heavy they were, vision blurry; a headache remained in his head. Hetried to regain himself. A light, fixed on the ceiling shone at his still tiredeyes. He struggled to get free of his shackles to no avail. “You’re awake, Ihear,” Julian suddenly spoke. Still out of it, breathing loudly, he said,“Where am I?? What’s going on?! Where’s Olivia??!” “Relax, boy. You’re gonnahurt yourself after what you’ve been through,” he said, rolling to him on hischair. “Who are you? Why am I strapped down?!” As he screamed, the lights andthe monitors suddenly flickered and fizzled; something had changed inside him;changed by the energy of the fragment, more than the good doctor thought. Hewas intrigued by what happened. “Fascinating,” he said. “What do you want fromus?” Takashi continued to inquire. “You and your little girlfriend havesomething that belongs to us. You both absorbed the fragment’s energy. Now it’sdead and you two are the only link left. I am going to study you and replace a wayto extract it from you, and your little girlfriend.” “If you touch her...” “Oh,you’ll do what? You are strapped to that table. Hahaha.” Angered, he struggledharder to escape. The room shook a little, the lights flickered violently, andthe fMRI machine sputtered. One of the soldiers outside felt the tremor andasked his friend, “Hey. Did you feel that?” He snickers, “After what we’ve beenthrough, I’m sure you’re feeling all kinds of crap,” the other soldier said.“Yeah. You’re probably right. It was nothing.” The air around him bended andbecame distorted. Julian felt a mixture of excitement and fear as he witnessedwhat was happening. He rushed to Takashi to stop him, but it was too late, as hebroke free—there was a flash, as if a light had just been instantly shone tohis eyes. Takashi got up and thrust his right hand to him and the doctor flew backwith great force, hitting the wall behind, cracking it before falling down tothe floor. As he lay there semi-unconsciously, Takashi looked at his righthand, bemused by what just happened. His face was rounded, shocked, like whenhe saw her post something on the Facebook news feed. He quickly snapped out ofit—no time for thoughts—he had to free Olivia.

Hetried to shut the machine down, looking everywhere for a switch. He began clickingrandomly on the computer keyboard and even banged the machine several times. “Hangin there, Liv,” he said, holding the sides of his head. “Come on, turn off!!”He banged it again and it finally did. He stood there for a moment, confused.“Ahhh, don’t look a gift horse in the mouth,” he quietly spoke to himself. Thepanel slowly slid back out; he shook her and yelled at her as he kneeled besidethe panel, trying to wake her up. But, it was to no avail. There was a momentin his mind where she was dead. It was too late. He pressed his index andmiddle finger to the upper-right side of her neck to check for a pulse. Hiseyes dropped a tear, “No. No, don’t do this to me, Liv,” he said. A teardropped onto her face and he held her hand. “Don’t leave me. I need you.Please.” He closed his eyes, “Please.” She then suddenly moaned and moved herhead around. “Liv?” he said, shocked. “Uhhh, what?” she asked. “You’re alive!”He started crying, his eyes watering with tears. Olivia raised her arms andrubbed her eyes, “What?” she asked, still groggy. She looked at him. “Hey,” shesaid, smiling. He smiles back, “Hey.” She got up, rubbing her left eye with herhand, and asked him what’s going on. Just then, one of the soldiers went in tocheck up on the Dr. Edwards. Surprised to see him unconscious and the subjectsawake, he grabbed his gun and was about to shoot. Olivia inadvertently raisedher right hand towards the soldier as they both screamed and covered theireyes; the soldier was then repelled back. Bemused, they stood there staring atthe door. “Uhhhh, what just happened?” Olivia asked. “I don’t know,” Takashianswered, “no time to figure it out. We have to get out of here.” She slid fromthe panel to the floor; Takashi ran to the door and closed it before grabbing along pipe from the floor and used it as a lock. “Come on. We have to replace anotherway out that’s not through that door,” he said. “Hey, look,” she said, “it’s avent. It’s big enough to fit us, I think.” Baannngggg! The soldiers were rammingthe door. “Well, let’s replace out then.” They climbed the table below it, grabbedhold of the grating above and pulled as hard as they can. But it wouldn’tbudge. “Shit. It’s not working,” she said. He hurried and looked around to replacesomething to pry it open, but there was nothing. “Hahaha, you can’t escape,”Julian said to them, groaning. The soldiers were nearly through, the doorhalfway bent. “We’ll see about that,” Takashi said. With no time left, hegrasped the grating and pulled again as hard as he can, screaming at the top ofhis lungs. It suddenly bent and was torn off along with the wall it wasattached to as he fell back to the floor; some debris was scattered across theroom. Olivia looked at the broken wall and was amazed. It was incredible. Thewall completely tore off around the vent showing the concrete underneath, withcracks lined around it. He sat up, groaning. “Baby, how did you do that?” sheasked. “I have no idea,” he answered, still groaning, “no time to think. You gofirst. I’ll follow. Hurry.” She quickly climbed inside with him behind. Theycrawled through the somewhat narrow passage as the soldiers broke through thedoor, their guns cocked as they enter. There were no signs of the subjects,only the debris scattered through the floor. Samuel looked around and saw thebroken vent. “Dammit!” he exclaimed, “wake him up!” He then turned on theradio, “General, sir?” Edward was sitting in his room in front of the tablewhen he heard the radio buzz. Looking at files and documents, mostly pertainingto the fragment’s discovery, he turned to it, sitting just to his left, andheard Samuel’s voice. He told him, “Sir, Dr. Edwards is hurt, and the subjectsescaped. They’re in the vents.” “Of course,” he said quietly. Snapping back tothe present, Julian puts the fragment back on the table before rolling back tothe examining table to continue his analysis.