Part One – The Seven Hour War
It was 11pm on a Sunday night. I was in bed, listening to the radio. It was tuned to a low profile news station in some obscure foreign country. It was in English, so you can be pretty sure I was one of about three listeners, considering it was the middle of the night in this country, too.
"So anyway... we've had rumors of weird, flying... things." The host wasn't exactly the brightest of people, "Of peculiar bubble things and balls of green lightning. Is it just me, or is everyone in the world just getting high? My vortigaunt friend here has something to say, I'll put him on."
"Mmmmm... The Combine approach. They seek only to enslave and dominate this planet, like the rest of the galaxy. Our end is coming."
"OK... thanks for that, Vorti. Let's put on some music. This was a request from a Mr Mike Hunt and... son of a-"
The song "Never gonna give you up" came on. I flicked the light on and leapt out of bed. This was it. I fumbled for my phone, found my father's number and hit call. Three rings.
"Talk to me." came my father's voice.
"We have to go. I'll meet you at the batch."
He was silent for a minute. "I understand. I may have to stay a few days. The injured."
"Good luck." I ended the call.
Over to the wardrobe, I pulled on my jeans, shirt and leather jacket. Put on a holster. Grabbed my bag, grabbed my keys and headed for the door, stuffing the radio into my bag as I walked.
This was the moment I'd been planning for years, but I hadn't expected it to come at eleven o'clock at night.
In the garage I climbed into my car, my prized possession: my RX-8. Of course, I couldn't normally afford such an expensive car, especially not one in such perfect condition, but my father had sold it to me cheaply after he'd bought a nicer car.
I drove out onto the street. Into second. Into third. Into fourth. Back into second as I turned a corner. Back into third, then fourth as I got onto a main road.
Heidi was my priority. She'd be at home, so I had to head there. Calling her cellphone, there was no reply. Hardly surprising, it was 11:30, she had work in the morning, and usually went to bed early anyway. I called her home phone. After eight rings, she answered.
"Uh... hello?" she said groggily,
"Hey, it's me. Really, really sorry about the lateness of this call, but it's kinda important. I can't really explain over the phone, I'm heading over now. Can you please get up? Don't wanna be rude, but we'll need to leave pretty soon. And if you could put a pot of coffee on, I'm sure we'd all benefit. I've got a feeling we'll all be up most of the night. Thanks a lot, see you soon."
Heidi and I had been going out for two years. When I said something was important, she knew it was important. I kept driving, only 20 or so km over the speed limit.
It took another eight minutes to get to Heidi's house. By then the wind and rain had kicked in, making me more anxious. I didn't know who these "Combine" were, but the rumors I'd heard didn't sound good.
Pulling up at her house, I leapt out of the car and jogged to the front door. Heidi was looking out the window, dressed in a night gown, and she opened the door. "Harry, what the hell is going on?" she demanded.
"Sorry. Really sorry. But we have to get out of the city. The Combine are coming, it's war all over again. Heidi, I know I must sound stupid here, but I'm being deadly serious. If we stay here, we're fucked."
"I trust you, Harry." said Heidi, softly, "You've never been wrong before. But I'm scared. When you start getting agitated, there's bound to be something seriously wrong." I was generally a very calm person, it was one of the things Heidi liked about me. When she'd been freaking out about exams back in school, I was there to calm her down, to help her study. When she'd had a bad day, I was there to comfort her and stroke her hair.
"It's gonna be OK, Heidi. I'll keep you safe." I said reassuringly. She came over and put her arms around my waist. I gave her a hug. "OK, get anything you may need." I said, snapping into business mode. "Medication, documents, stuff you can't live without. We've gotta travel light. We leave in ten minutes."
She went to get her stuff. Unlike me, she didn't have an emergency pack. I made a cup of coffee, drained it, and went to help her.
"You'll need basic essentials," I repeated, as I helped her pack some things into a bag, "A couple of clothes, nothing much."
"Where are we going?"
"My dad's house on the West Coast. We'll be safe there. He's going to meet us there, eventually."
"Are we going there straight away?"
"Not quite. I've gotta pick up a few things first. Then we'll go."
Five minutes later, we left, Heidi locking the door and both of us holding cups of coffee. I had her bag. She was still quite confused, and I don't blame her. When your boyfriend comes over in the middle of the night, telling you that you need to get out of the city, you'd be pretty confused too.
"How are we getting there?" asked Heidi, looking around for my car. I pointed out the RX8, "That's what we're driving?" she exclaimed, "How on earth could you afford that?" I had only acquired the RX-8 in the past few days, and Heidi hadn't yet seen it. She was used to me driving a beat up, old pickup.
"Good question." I said, putting her bag in the trunk and opening the door for her. I got into the drivers seat, put the car into first, and away we went.
Ten minutes later we arrived at the house of my old friend, James. Grabbing my hatchet I said to my still very confused girlfriend, "Come on. This won't take long."
I went to the door, knocked, and went inside, heading straight for the living room.
"Don't worry, folks. I used to live here. Just came to pick up a few things." I called. Going to the wall, I gently tapped it with my knuckle, moved along, tapped again, moved along, tapped again, then swung my hatchet into the wall. James walked into the room at that moment. He smelled of marijuana. This was nothing new; he grew pot.
"It's time, then?" he said calmly, walking over and taking the hatchet.
"Yeah. Get Olivia, get your car and get the fuck out of here. Head for the coast if you want, that's where we're headed." I replied as he continued hacking at the drywall.
"I might follow you. Safety in numbers, you know? Ah, fuck this wall." He began gouging slabs out, and a large black bag came into view. I helped pull away the wood, then tugged the heavy bag out of the wall with James' help.
"Um... what's in the bag?" asked Heidi.
"Brace yourself." I said, unzipping the bag. Inside were a bunch of powerful guns, with plenty of ammunition. I grinned for the first time all night. "Enough to take down a small army." I said, taking out a shotgun and ammo pouch.
"Alright, I'll just grab my bag then we'll go." said James.
"D'you wanna ride with us, or bring your car?" I asked,
"I'll bring mine." he said, grabbing his apocalypse bag, "So what are you driving?"
"You'll see." I said, loading the shotgun. James and I picked up the heavy gun bag and went out to the car.
"Shit! Nice, man!" James exclaimed as the RX-8 came into view. We hefted the bag into the trunk, James got into his car, and off we went.
We'd have to head past Olivia's house, so rather than split up, I followed James. It was costing us valuable time, but I couldn't ask James to abandon his girlfriend. None of us were quite sure what was going to happen, but it wouldn't be good. The vortigaunt on the radio had said the Combine were coming. I didn't know what the Combine were exactly, but I'd heard vortigaunts refer to them before. They were some sort of alien with an Empire throughout the galaxy, or universe. I wasn't sure which, but I wasn't really worried about that at the moment.
On the way, I made another phone call.
"Louis? Yeah, hey. It's Harry. Yeah, it's in a window this time. Seriously, though, we're all about to die. Combine. Yeah, I was listening to this radio station, they've gotten reports of... yep. Probably still talking about it. The IP is... just a sec. 211. 461. 889. 65. That's . Anyway, I'm with Heidi, and we've got James and Olivia following. We're heading for the coast, but will be passing you guys on the way. Mind if we drop in for a drink and some ammo? And do you wanna come with? Sweet, see you in a couple of hours."
It was half past one when we finally reached Olivia's house, and quarter to two by the time we left. We rigged up a radio system through James' cell phone and my laptop, so that we could stay in contact at all times.
In the past few years, the city had grown exponentially. In heavy traffic, it would often take four or five hours to cross it. It was also difficult to leave the city. Since aliens started showing up, walls had to be built; high walls laced with barbed wire and guards to keep out the antlions, and strong enough to withstand antlion guards. There were only a few exits, and they were heavily patrolled.
Lucky for us, it was two in the morning, so traffic wasn't too bad. We got to the city gates by two fifteen.
It wasn't difficult to leave the city. They were supposed to check you for ID, find out the purpose for your departure, but the guards were slack. None of this was enforced, because the more people that died outside the city, the better. It meant there'd be fewer people in the city.
I pulled over outside the first set of gates, and a guard sauntered over to me, assault rifle in hand.
"Over eighteen, sir?" he asked,
"Yep."
"Purpose for leaving?"
"Antlion hunting." I said, nodding to the shotgun. Of course, this was bullshit, I was driving an RX-8, was accompanied by a young woman, and it was two in the morning. The guard knew this was a lie, but none of them cared.
"Got a license for that shotgun?"
"Of course."
"Any other weapons or illegal items in the car?" he asked. There obviously was, as there was a pipe and multiple types of ammunition in clear view, but like I said, the guards didn't care.
"None."
"Alright, drive on through."
"Cheers mate."
I drove forward and waited for James to go through the same process. He also got through without trouble, and pulled in behind me as we waiting in between the sets of gates. It was a bit like an airlock, but they let you through once there were no aliens in the immediate vicinity. This would sometimes take hours, as they didn't like using up bullets and would usually wait until any antlions had moved away of their own accord.
As we waited in the darkness, I talked to James over the radio.
"So how much pot did you bring?" I said. Heidi flinched. I wasn't surprised. She'd just heard her boyfriend ask a guy who she was going out into the wild with about how much of an illegal substance he was carrying.
"Um... about five pounds." came the reply,
"Pounds?" Heidi and I said in unison,
"Yeah. I'm not leaving behind my whole stash. I've also got some seeds, and spores."
"Great. So you plan to turn the batch into a grow house."
"No. Well, maybe. But these seeds will last for years, they're in an airtight container. So hopefully I won't have to."
"Um... Harry? How long will we be on the coast for?" asked Olivia,
"Not a clue. Could be a couple of days, months, or even years. To be completely honest, I have very little idea what's gonna happen."
"What do you know?" asked Heidi,
"The Combine are coming."
"Who are the Combine?" asked Olivia over the radio,
"I don't know. I'm afraid I'm flying blind here, guys. But I've heard the vortigaunts talk about them, and they don't sound nice. Hope for the best, guys. Hope for the best, prepare for the worst."
"Oi, Harry, chuck on the TV. See if there's anything up."
I tuned my laptop onto the TV frequencies, and just as I gained reception, a loudspeaker squawked out a message.
"All clear for departure. Gates will open in three hundred seconds. When opened, gates will remain open for twenty-two seconds. Have a nice day."
"Really don't want to stall it..." I muttered. Unfortunately, James heard me. However he only got about halfway through his sentence, before the TV showed a news report.
"There have been reports of numerous unidentified aircraft. The authorities are telling people not to panic, however already small groups of people have already apparently taken to looting. We now go live to the United States President, Dr Graham Hensen, for an urgent press conference."
"James, you getting this?" I said,
"Yeah, this is heavy."
"Gates will open in two hundred and forty seconds." came the loudspeaker.
The most powerful man in the world, the President of America came onto the screen, behind his desk in the Oval Office.
"My fellow Americans," he began, "The question as to whether or not we are alone in the universe was answered several years ago. The vortigaunts, the head crabs, the antlions, all species from another planet. It seems that today-" there was a crash off camera. It swung around to reveal that several of the doors into the Oval Office had just burst open. About a dozen people in white body armor and strange helmets crowded in, and opened fire, using strange, dark weapons. There were screams, cries as journalists dived out of the way, and from the corner of the camera I saw the president get tackled by four of his Secret Service, who were already shooting back at these unknown assailants. Within seconds the conflict was over, every visible human dead, but not one of these masked figures. One dragged a kicking Hensen into the camera view, drew a knife, and sliced his throat.
The feed went dead.
"Holy fuck..."
"Gates will open in one hundred and twenty seconds."
I heard gunfire outside, along with noises similar to that of helicopters. There were shouts, cries, and an alarm went off. I grabbed my shotgun in one hand and held Heidi's hand with the other.
"Gates will open in ninety seconds."
There was pounding on my window. I swung the shotgun around, but it was one of the guards and a vortigaunt.
"Let us come with you! There's Combine out there, we gotta get the fuck out of the city!" he said, panicking. I thought about it.
"Gates will open in sixty seconds."
"Alright, hop into James'. He has more room."
James was driving a Kia. They did so, but opened the windows to talk to me.
"They're gonna try and cut the power, anything to stop people from escaping the city. Hope like hell the gates open before they manage it. If not, we're fucked. City mechanisms will automatically lock the inside doors anyway."
"Gates will open in thirty seconds."
I turned the car on, took off the handbrake. Put the clutch in. Moved into first.
"Gates will open in fifteen seconds."
"Get ready..." I muttered,
"Ten."
"Nine."
"Eight."
"Seven."
The gates began to slide open.
"Six."
"Five."
"Four."
"Three."
"Two."
I dropped the clutch and jammed on the accelerator. The RX-8 shot forward, just as there was an enormous explosion. The ceiling of the cavity between the gates collapsed, and the gates stopped moving.
We escaped, but just barely. My RX-8 got out fine, James lost a wing mirror and bumper, but they were unscathed. I accelerated, into second, then straight into fifth.
"You OK?" I asked Heidi. She was white as a ghost, but nodded. "James, bro, you all good?"
"Shit man, I think so. Look behind you."
I looked in the rear vision mirror. The city was under attack. Helicopters and jets soaring over head, fires, explosions, gun fire, and strange, tripod things like those from War of the Worlds.
I floored it. We were home free.
