The Crew - Invasion.
Part 1: The End.
Aaron stood on the edge of the cliff, his long brown trench coat loudly flapping behind him, as he stared out at the swirling white clouds. The gentle sea breeze played on his cheeks, helping cool his warm face. With the slowest of movements, he placed his hands together, and removed his leather gloves, dropping them onto the floor with disdain. He reached up his sweaty left hand to his brow, and wiped away the flecks of dried blood, finally coming loose from his skin due to the moisture in the air. His eyes slowly lowered from the skies, down to the small boat waiting on the beach. He knew he'd have to push it into the water alone, and sail it by himself out into the channel, away from Dover and towards France. He let out a long sigh, wiping the blood from his hand onto his t-shirt, the batman emblem becoming muddied with the blood of his friend.
He pulled out his phone from his dark brown cargo pants, and checked the time: 5am. At that moment, the sun began to slowly peek over the horizon to his side, and he felt the warmth of the sun on his face. Perhaps this could be a sign that things were finally going to be better, and that he would be all right. Placing his phone back into his pocket, his eyes caught a glimpse of the large pile of messy earth to his side. He knew it was time to get on the boat, start sailing at first light. He turned to his side, and looked down at the roughly dug grave before him, and his hand began to shudder. He knelt down slowly before the smooth rock that marked the headstone, and he let his eyes linger on the pair of broken glasses that were laid on top. He took a long, deep breath, and muttered quietly, trying to maintain some of his pride. "See you later Josh. And thanks." He stayed still for a few moments, his eyes welling up before him as he looked upon his friend for the last time, before slowly standing up and walking past the grave down towards the beach, the boat, and hopefully safety.
Part 2: The Beginning.
"For fuck's sake man, now really isn't the time!" Aaron yelled at Josh, his voice full of bitterness.
"Dude, relax! It's an easy raid!" Josh declared loudly, shoving Aaron's arm out of the way and grabbing his phone, checking his twitter.
"At least wait until I've healed!" Aaron protested, spamming his mouse as his hero slowly took more and more hits. Josh had been caring less and less about WoW ever since Hearthstone had come out, and he'd kind of lost interest. Aaron just wanted to do well on the new DLC, and Josh was really letting the side down.
"But dude, its a DM from Fluke, it's either going to be funny or mega important!" Josh said, opening the Twitter app and clicking his messages. There was a long pause as Josh read the text on his screen, his jaw slowly dropping open. "Uhh... Hollow? TV, now."
"Dude I'm not watching a movie with you, I WANT to beat this boss!" Aaron protested yet again, his eyes glued to his screen. Josh had already stood up and gone out of the room, leaving his character to slowly be beaten to a pulp before Aaron's eyes. Aaron made some sort of grunt of complaint, as he was finally slain by yet another AOE nuke, standing up straight and grumbling to himself. "Damnit Josh..." before stepping out of the room and stopping Josh, who was sat in front of the TV. "Whats the big panic?"
Josh turned towards his friend, his eyes wide, and said loudly. "Fluke's on TV!"
Josh was right; on the large TV set was Fluke's face, live on the Jonathan Ross show, singing his new song "Broken Twigs." Aaron gave a small clap of astonishment and stood next to Josh, looking at the screen.
"Damn, he really has done well for himself." Aaron commented, his hand involuntarily tapping along to the rhythm.
"I know right? Told you going all the way to America for the audition was a good idea, now he's an actual musician person!" Josh chuckled. Aaron slowly sat down next to Josh on their large leather sofa, and watched Will having the time of his life, impressing thousands of people live. Josh reached over and grabbed his beer, taking a quick sip, then frowning slightly. "Its gone flat, damnit."
"I told you to bring it to the raid and drink it there"
"But when do I ever listen to you?"
"Fair point."
Suddenly, the music stopped, and the TV turned into a large emblem of the BBC emergency broadcast network. Both Aaron and Josh's expressions turned from mild contentment to a look of exasperation.
"Fuck's sake!" Blurted out Josh, "We know its April 1st, stop with the pranks, I'm trying to watch Fluke on TV!" He yelled at the screen, slamming his bottle down on the table angrily, the contents of the bottle too flat to have any reaction.
"This looks kind of official Josh, maybe just listen to it." Aaron commented, sitting up a little straighter.
"Of course it looks official, that's how they get you! Remember Kony 2012? Bet you believed that shit too."
"Did not!"
"Ten quid says this is a load of shit and it's a joke." Josh mentioned forcefully, sticking out his hand to Aarons face. Aaron slapped away his hand, frowning.
"I'm not betting anything, just watch okay?"
Josh managed a slight grumble which sounded something like 'You watch okay..' before sitting back in the sofa and staring at the screen. After about 30 seconds, the emblem turned into a man sat in front of a news desk, his face stern. He looked as if he'd been rushed in on short notice, and was reading off of some papers.
"Hello good citizens of great Britain,"
"Here we go..." Muttered Josh.
"I come today on the emergency broadcasting network to bring you urgent news."
"Total bollocks..." Added Josh.
"We had reports that alien space crafts had entered out atmosphere earlier in the week, but they were judged to be a hoax. However, we now have reports that the entire city of Edinburgh has just been wiped out by a large fleet of invading ships."
"Pfft, really? C'mon really? Next he'll say there have been zombies rising from the-"
"Shut up Josh!" Aaron insisted loudly, his back leant forwards and his eyes on the screen.
"We are urging people to stay indoors if you are in the country, and for those in cities to make your way to less populated areas, as the ships seem to be targeting large cities. Currently we know the ships are moving south at a rapid speed, and are currently laying siege to Durham, and are predicted to move towards York and Leeds in the next few hours." Josh quickly sat up, as a live news broadcast from Durham showed large spacecraft's destroying Durham, as a man with a live news camera filming it. The camera panned down, and it looked as if large humanoid creatures as tall as a house were walking through the streets, obliterating cars and people alike with lasers from their hands. Aaron's mouth dropped open, and he became rather weary. Josh was still not entirely convinced, but his curiosity was peeked.
"We should uh... Maybe call someone to see if this is legit.." Josh muttered, slowly pulling out his phone.
"Didn't you just say this is all a load of shit?" Aaron asked, his eyes still on the live footage.
"Shut up." Josh muttered to his friend, as he took out his phone and speed dialled Will. He picked up almost instantly. "Uhhh... Will, are you seeing this?"
"They're escorting us out of the building and towards the street, what's going on?!" Will asked in an unusually angry tone. Clearly his biggest moment of fame being destroyed didn't make him too happy.
"Aliens." Josh said plainly down the phone.
"Josh don't mess me about, what is happening?"
Aaron quickly grabbed the phone from Josh and said down the line. "Hey man, so those reports from Tuesday that said there were aliens turned out to be right, and apparently they're hostile and destroying England, heading south towards Leeds."
"Ahhh..." he heard Will say, "That must be why they have swat teams out here. I've heard that they'll be shipping peo-" But then there was an ear-splitting amount of noise from the speaker, like something had exploded close to Will. Surely they weren't in London already, weren't they headed down from Scotland?
"Hello?" Aaron asked of the phone, "Hello? Will, you there man? Will!" There was a long pause; all he could hear was loud noises, and screaming. At one point he could have sworn he heard Jonathan Ross swearing violently, then his voice was silenced. There was the sound of exploding, loud footsteps, some shuffling, and then Will's voice came back, barely a whisper.
"They're here dude, they're fucking here, they're attacking the cars, they killed Wossy and everyone, and I'm covered in fucking blood!" He whispered in a panicked tone to Aaron, who turned to look at Josh, who was sat, looking confused and a little afraid.
"What are you going to do, what's happening?" Aaron asked quickly, putting Will on speaker for Josh to hear him properly.
"They said there will be boats to take people out to sea, go somewhere else, because they thing England may be totally taken out. They said... Oh god, they said go out to sea until the ships move on and then come back, they wont attack a destroyed settlement. I'm... I'm going to head to where the ships are as soon as I can, if I can get out of here. God this is worse than my bloody fanfic." Will said, his voice sounding strained in fear.
"Where are the boats?" Josh asked hurriedly, wanting to be part of the conversation.
"Dover, if you guys make it I'll see you there."
"How the hell do we get to Dover?" Josh asked Aaron, his face looking almost terrified. His face reflected how Aaron felt, but he tried to maintain his composure.
"We drive." Aaron said, quietly.
Will's voice suddenly came down the speaker, fast and quiet. "They're everywhere, stay away from London, ill try and meet you on the way, stay away fro-" The line went dead. Aaron and Josh looked at each other for a few seconds, both trying to take in what just happened.
Eventually, Josh said quietly. "Alright, I guess we'd better get going then."
"You sure about this?" Aaron asked him, unsure.
"You've seen the movies, people who do nothing die right away." He stood up off the sofa and looked down at Aaron. "C'mon man, grab some stuff and we need to get going. I'll drive." He said, turning and starting to walk away to gather his things. Aaron was impressed by Josh's drive and willingness to take charge.
At least, he was impressed until Josh stubbed his toe on the coffee table, and an audible "Owww!" was heard. Aaron stood up, avoided the coffee table, and went to gather his belongings. It would be a long trip.