I have never given much thought to how I would die. I always thought I would die as an old woman who passes away in her sleep. A nice, peaceful, quiet way to die. I think most people would agree with me.

But as I look around my current surroundings i'm sure my nice little scene where I pass away as an old lady won't come true.

New York is in ruins, people running in every direction, buildings being crushed, and toppled as if they were made of cards. Mothers, Fathers, Children, People; lay dead in the street.

What started out as a normal Summer day, has turned out to be the first Intergalactic War, in human history.

I was on summer break, visiting New York City for the first time. Raising nearly $4,000 to go on a cross country tour with my schools history class. My school offers many trips for the students, depending on what classes you take. I happen to be a huge history buff, so it was a no brainer I was going to come on this trip! It took me almost 9 months to raise the money. You see when you live in a government provided apartment for orphaned teens, it can be hard to raise the money.

My family passed away when I was 14 years old. We were driving home from a Seattle day trip that we took every Spring. Unforchantly while driving home that night our car was struck by a drunk driver, Caltipuling our car off a bridge, and sending us down an embankment.

The next thing I remember is waking up at the hospital and being attached to wires and tubes. The doctors and nurses kept saying it was a miracle I survived. But I didn't see it like that. I saw it more as a curse. Why would God keep a 14 year old girl alive and kill her whole family.

After months of hard work and Physical Therapy, the government turned me over to Foster Care, seeing as how I had no other living relatives. But like most cases it didn't work out. Abuse, to many kids in one home, only letting you live there so they get more money from taxes, yad yad and so on. So as a last resort they sent me to the Boys and Girls Independent Housing Center of Washington State. Or a I like to call it, Freedom (If you look back at my previous situations you would understand.)

I guess raising that $4,000 was a huge achievement for me, seeing as how the other students just asked Mommy and Daddy to pay for it.

We had already spent three weeks traveling in LA, Phoenix, Houston, New Orleans, and Nashville; And now we are on to our last city New York. We were going to spend one week in New York and then visit Washington DC for 3 days if we had the time, but as you can see I don't think we will be making it to DC.

We were just about to go eat lunch at some weird restaurant. They only served Shawarma. Whatever that was. When we noticed a strange funnel cloud form. But what happened next would have surprised anyone. These strange creatures, or aliens started to enter the city through the cloud! Attacking anyone, or thing that moved. Shooting them down with their guns.

I didn't know what to do. If I don't run, i'm dead, If I run, i'm dead. I figure I would rather die trying to save myself and others, than be frozen and be an easy target for shooting practice.

So what did I do? I ran and I sure as hell did not stop until I found a safe place to hide. I reached a small vacant, out of sight alleyway and I dove in, not wanting to get shot in the process.

And now we have reached where the story began. Me contemplating how i'm going to die. What a lovely thought right?

"Breath" I had to keep reminding myself. "Everything is fine! This is just a scene to a movie some producers are making, and we all accidently walked in on production..." My voice slowly faded.

As I look around the scene that's unfolding in front of me, I realize this is no movie. That is reall blood splattered on the ground, real buildings being torn apart, real people with real fear running away from real aliens. Whatever happened to my happy fictional life, where there was no danger? No aliens?

I hear a scream. But I can't pinpoint where its coming from, through all the smoke and dust. Do I risk my life and go help that person, or do I stay in my alley way and hope I don't get shot by an alien?

I know it sounds horrible, but do I really want to risk my life to save someone else? Odds are they were screaming because they were being attacked by an alien. But the guilt i'll feel later on will most likely kill me.

So I ran. As fast as I could out into the open street. What I saw is going to forever be engraved in my memory. One woman and her child, surrounded by five aliens, and in a blink of an eye they are both dead. Shot down by the aliens.

I heard screaming, and so did the aliens. I only realised it was me who was screaming when the aliens turned towards me. I was frozen. Unable to move. In my mind I was screaming at myself to move, to run! But I couldn't. The aliens started towards me.

"Move!" I said. "Move. Move. MOVE!" Still my body was unable to register. The aliens were coming closer, and I was still unable to move. They were only a few feet away, when my body decides to fall backwards. But hey, thats movement right? So I decide why not try to crawl away. At least i'll die trying. Unforchantly the aliens were only a 5 feet away from me now. As I continue scooting back trying to avoid contact with them I hadn't realized how close I was to a turned over taxi. I backed all the way up to the taxi, I had nowhere to go. I was trapped. I guess I put up a good enough effort. I was going to die. Everything that happened next was a blur. I felt them starting to attack me, but I had already gone numb. I had already excepted death. I felt myself begin to break. Were they just going to torcher me, kill me slowly? I don't know how long this lasted, it seemed like hours. But then all of the sudden it stopped.

I felt myself be lifted, and what sounded like someone talking to me. I couldn't make out what they were saying. I just wanted to be at peace. I just wanted to sleep. I could feel whoever was carrying me was running. It sounded like a man, he sounded angry. He was yelling at me telling me to open my eyes. But I was so tired. I tried to open my eyes but everything was so bright. He must have noticed because he kept encouraging me to try again.

He must have set me down. I don't feel any more movement. I open my eyes, and look to see who saved me. He was tall, had blue eyes, and short spiky blond hair. He looked to be in his 30's, and looked very fit. He was shooting something. It looked like some tricked out bow. Why would you need all those gadgets on a bow, I wondered.

He must have notice I was watching him.

"You should put some pressure on that arm of yours" he said to me, not even looking away from the war in front of him. "and don't try to move around too much. Your heavily injured."

I didn't even notice the pain until he mentioned me being injured. I must still be in shock. I groaned while trying to move myself into a comfortable position.

"Didn't I just say not to move? Do you want to bleed out?" He gave me a questioning but worried glance.

I didn't answer. What would I say? Yes, I want to bleed out and die!

"Hey, what's your name kid?" He took his eyes off of the war ahead and looked at me.

"It's Mikayla" I didn't realize it hurt so much to talk until I said those three words.

"Just Mikayla?"

"No Mikayla Barner, Sir..." I said wincing.

He turned back towards the city and shot three arrows at once. Hitting the three aliens that were flying by.

"The names Hawkeye, not Sir. That makes me feel old. " He said while shooting another arrow, this time it exploded after hitting its target.

"Hawkeye? Thats your name?" Really that was his name? You have got to be kidding me!

"It's not my real name kid-" Whack another alien down.

"It's my field name."

"Field name? What are you? Some kind of superhero or something?"

"You could say that."

This guy, Hawkeye, who is he really? A superhero? They don't exist. Right? Well I guess when I think about it if aliens can exist, then superheros can to. Right?

After our little conversation we both went quit. I'm starting to feel the pain from my injuries. I think all of this blood loss is getting to me. I keep going in and out of conscience. I don't know why Hawkeye brought me with him, he looks real busy trying to kill these things. Why didn't he take me to a medical center? He keeps looking at me like he's worried, then he presses something to his ear and talks. Is he talking to someone else? Are they like him?

All of these questions were spinning in my head as I started to blackout. The last thing remember was Hawkeye saying something. Something about winning and the war being over. Then something about taking me to his friends so they can help. Then I blackout.