I awoke to police sirens and bright lights flashing into my apartment from the street below. With work only a few hours away I turned over and covered my head with my pillow. The sirens and lights didn't seem to be stopping after a few minutes, so I decided to get up and walk over to my window that overlooked the street. Looking across the road from my apartment building I saw a police car with its sirens on, but I did not see any police officer anywhere near the vehicle. The door to the police cruiser was open and parked halfway onto the sidewalk. Around this time I noticed there was a lot of noise coming from my upstairs neighbors and from outside my apartment in the hallway. People from my building were yelling and it sounded like they were running down the hall toward the stairwell.

I was pretty freaked out by this point so I turned on my TV to see if I could figure out what in the hell was going on. I stopped flipping the channels when I got to the news station and saw the late night reporter who worked in my city. She looked extremely frazzled and was standing at the foot of a high rise in the city.

I turned up the TV as she began her report, "Late into the night large structures exploded up from the ground. They seem to be large triangular structures much like the pyramids in Egypt. They have symbols on all sides which to this point I have confirmed we have been unable to decipher. Government officials have been in contact with this news station and are telling us this is not part of any government or military experiments. Law enforcement officials are urging people who live in the city to start evacuation immediately. Law enforcement officials also would like to stress that these structures have shown no signs of danger and urge citizens to move swiftly but safely from the city.

The news station cut back to the main anchor as he interviewed some professor about wild theories regarding the pyramids.

I knew I needed to get out of my apartment building and make my way to where my brother lived out in the country. I grabbed my backpack and threw some clothes, food for the road and a bottle of water inside before zipping it closed. It was still summer so I would be fine in the jeans and t-shirt I was wearing.

I started for the door but then stopped and headed back toward my bedroom. I grabbed my .38 revolver I kept in my nightstand and my holster I used when I went to the pistol range. After putting on the shoulder holster with the revolver tightly secured inside I grabbed a few extra cylinders of ammunition and I headed out the front door of my apartment.

After locking my door I turned to notice that their was no one left on the floor and that the noise I had heard earlier was gone. I hurried down the stairs and out onto the street and was immediately bombarded by loud sirens and the sound of people screaming as they ran down the street. I looked down the road in the opposite direction the people were running and was shocked by what I saw. The pyramid I saw on TV was a few blocks from my apartment building.

It was no longer a shinny black like I saw on the TV, but now the pyramid had an eerie green glow. I cant explain how or why but that green glow made me feel sick to my stomach. It was not feeling I had ever experienced before but I knew beyond any doubt that it came from the green light emanating from the pyramid. I took a last look at the giant structure and turned down the road with the crowd of people. I ran for as long as I could without stopping.

The street was an endless stream of people running away from the pyramid. By this time the people inside of the cars in the road realized that with all the foot traffic that they wouldn't be going anywhere soon, so they abandoned their vehicles and ran alongside the other pedestrians.

I stopped to catch my breath and noticed a group of soldiers up ahead motioning for people to hurry. It looked like the soldiers were loading up what people they could to evacuate them from the city. Unfortunately there were so many abandoned cars on the road it looked like the military trucks were moving just as slow as the people on foot. Having caught my breath I started jogging with the crowd toward the city limit hoping there would be more trucks shuttling people out of the city. I only made it another one hundred yards or so when I saw a bright green flash and heard a large explosion behind me.

I did not stop to see what had caused the explosion and I don't think I could have even if I wanted to. The crowd of people had become so panicked by the explosion that they started to sprint forward creating a stampede effect. I know I saw at least one person trip and not get back up again. I couldn't say how long I sprinted along with the crowd but I do know I heard more explosions and short burst of automatic gun fire. I also heard other sounds, I assume from the pyramid, like a 'whooshing' noise and a buzzing noise. I didn't stop running until I got to an overpass leading to a highway that went west toward my brothers home.

I was extremely relieved to see soldiers loading people into large trucks and speeding down the highway out of the city. I didn't really think about it until afterward but the highway was almost completely clear of cars and people. I don't know if this was because the soldiers weren't letting people through or because so many people abandoned their cars when they realized that walking out of the city was much faster. Either way I was grateful for it when I got into the truck and we sped down the highway.

This was the first time since I left my apartment that I actually sat and tried to figure out what in the hell was going on and what those pyramids were.

"I heard those things were new tanks that the Chinese developed and sent them for the first wave of the invasion". A woman sitting near me proclaimed.

"No way those are from outer space. Definitely". The man who made this statement looked exactly like a person who would make a crazy statement like this.

I sat back and listened to the people on the truck argue about where these things came from and what they had seen. Most of the people had heard and seen the same things that I had. One man, quiet until there was a lull in the conversation, spoke up. He looked extremely rattled when he spoke and I don't think any of the people on the truck believe what he said.

"They were skeletons. Large shinny skeletons with green eyes and big guns". The man looked straight toward the ground as he spoke. "I was out on my balcony when some soldiers sprinted down the road below me toward one of the pyramids. That's when the skeletons just appeared in front of them. Some soldiers fired their guns but most were so surprised by what was happening that they just stood there. It didn't seem to matter anyways." The man stopped and did not look up from the ground./p
The other people on the truck with me simply stared wide eyed at the man. The remaining time I spent on the truck was spent in silence.

We all assumed the soldiers were taking us to a military base away from the city. I figured I could get out once we reached our first stop and then head to my brothers house. We had been moving steadily west, so I took this time to get some sleep while riding in the back of the truck.

I was awoken by the shouts of the soldiers telling us to get out of the truck. They didn't have to be so harsh with us I thought, but then I saw the panicked look on their faces. I knew something was very wrong.

I heard the strange buzzing noise and saw the same green glow that I saw back in the city. As I jumped out of the truck I noticed we were inside of a hastily constructed forward operating base. About fifteen soldiers were sprinting to the low sandbag wall that surrounded the base. The soldiers began firing their weapons into the clearing they faced.

One soldier was left with us and he started yelling at us to run toward the center of the base. I let the other passengers follow the soldier while I drew my revolver. Looking out over the sandbag wall to the clearing I saw what the soldiers on the firing line were shooting at and the old man who told the stories about shinny skeletons was proven honest. Shinny metal looking skeletons were slowly advancing toward the firing base. It seemed like the soldiers gunfire was having very little effect on the advancing skeletons.

I could not explain what came over me at that moment. I had never been a soldier or been in a gun fight in my life. I had spent plenty of hours recreationaly shooting and competing, but practice doesn't make a real gunfighter. Despite this I sprinted toward an empty spot next to a soldier behind the sandbag wall. I saw the green energy which exploded from the skeleton's weapons streaking overhead.

"Hey. what the hell you doing?!" The soldier next to me yelled over the gunfire.

"Diaz! Shut the hell up!" A sergeant yelled at the solider. The sergeant looked at me with my small revolver. "You know how to use that thing?!" I nodded. "Ok guys these things are tough! We need to hold here until the heavy guns get mounted on the truck so we can blast these bastards away!"

On the sergeants order the soldiers stood and fired into the skeletons. I quickly followed their example and stood to fire my pistol. As my head came over the short wall I saw spurts of green energy hurling toward the sandbag wall. I managed to fire three rounds before the soldier next to me was hit square in the chest from one of the skeletons weapons.

I looked on in horror at the man next to me as he did not simply fall from a gunshot wound as I expected. Instead it looked like the green energy bolt ripped the mans body into smaller and smaller ribbons until there was nothing left of him. I ducked down behind the sandbags and saw two other soldiers die in the same horrifying way as the man who once stood next to me.

"Here they come!" A soldier screamed.

I took a quick look over the barrier and saw the skeletons were moving methodically toward our firing line. Their slow methodical movement did not seem to negatively effect their accuracy. I looked to the sergeant to see what he would order us to do, but the man seemed frozen with terror or indecision. I knew the man was deciding if he should order his men to retreat or to hold the line and n all likelihood, die to the last man.

Fortunately for me the sergeant never had to make his decision. Three trucks with large caliber machine guns mounted to the top skidded to a halt behind us and began firing into the approaching enemy.