"ALL CIVILIANS MAKE WAY TO THE WALL…ALL CIVILIANS MAKE WAY TO THE WALL…" A loud speaker shouts in Russian.
Chaos floods the streets of every city and town from the outlying villages surrounding the Cosmodrome to Moscow and to St. Petersburg. People grabbing what belongings they deemed most important, if any, scramble for their cars jamming as many people into the vehicles as possible. Street lights flicker from the failing power grid. Swarms of looters and vandals taking advantage of the vulnerable situation ransack stores to grab what goods they can. Fires burn in the streets as accidents caused by the chaos create explosive situations. Gun shots continually echo throughout the streets and alleys as once peaceful confrontations become deadly ones in the panic. Tens of thousands of cars carrying hundreds of thousands of fleeing refugees stuff the highways in bumper to bumper traffic as the last of humanity heads for their salvation.
Amongst the exodus to the Wall, a young man, devoid of family and friends, seeks speedy passage out of the atmosphere to escape the oncoming Darkness invading Earth. Still five miles away from the Wall, the immense silhouette can be seen stretching on far across the horizon. Tuvia sits quietly listening to the radio chatter of his junker car's stereo. Cars of all makes and models, packed full of people, honk their horns in a panic desperately wanting the standstill to end while exos and military personnel do their best to direct mayhem.
Tuvia is the only one in his vehicle, having refused to let anyone in. He knows what desperate lengths some people take for their own safety and he did not want to risk the confrontation. His small rusty sedan's engine rumbles loudly as it idles in the center lane. Tuvia did not bring much with him: a messenger bag with a change of clothes, some personal items and a hundred rounds of 7.62 ammo for the old Mosin Nagant his family had passed down since World War II. The old rifle, freshly cleaned and scope zeroed, lay in the passenger seat next to Tuvia locked and loaded. With the mass hysteria, Tuvia knew he could not play it safe and trust people to act civilly when society collapses.
Tuvia's radio struggles to relay the message playing across all channels. "- forces invade- all over – heavy concent- in Western Europe, America, Southern Afr – Austral- ." Through its static, he gets the gist of the message. For the past two decades, almost as long as Tuvia's been alive, aliens had been completely annihilating every human colony in the solar system. No, not aliens….the Hive. Humanity resisted but was no match for the onslaught of the Hive and the Darkness that followed. A month ago, the first Hive forces began decimating cities on Earth, and now the last remnants of humanity escape to their last strongholds – in Tuvia's case: the Cosmodrome.
An explosion sounds off in the distance followed by a chorus of screams approaching from behind. Tuvia turns to look through his rear window to see a bright red mushroom cloud growing a half mile down the road. Scores of people running on foot flood in his direction away from the explosion. Others seeing the fleeing tide, leave the "safety" of their vehicles joining the stampede toward the Wall. Tuvia continues to eye down the road waiting for something else to happen. What that something is he hoped would never come.
To his dismay, a second explosion, larger and closer than the first, lights the night sky. It is soon joined by a hailstorm of white blue plasma streaming through the fleeing crowd. Those hit by the plasma bolts drop to the ground causing those behind them to stumble and fall slowing the pace of the mob. The Hive continue their press, unloading their weapons into the unresisting humans. Tuvia knew that in minutes the creatures would be on top of him. Grabbing his bag and rifle, he kicks open his door and makes a break for the nearby woods.
Fighting across the grain of the throng, Tuvia squirms his way through the panicking crowd and stalled vehicles. The Hive speed ever closer as a few stray plasma shots whizz by Tuvia's head. Tuvia, upon reaching the guard rail of the highway, leaps onto the grassy field with the tree line only some thirty meters away. Dashing his way there, he keeps his head on the swivel in case any patrolling Hive are roaming the sides of the road as well. As he reaches the tree line, Tuvia ducks behind a lone oak with his rifle at the ready. The distance he covered was not far, but it was far enough for anyone, human or Hive, to have spotted him. What he didn't need was someone on his tail.
Tuvia watches on as people collapse in their struggle to escape the Hive but are quickly overtaken by the light hating monsters. The roars of the Hive Knights, their three green eyes glowing in the dark, echo down the road and are answered back by the screaming of women and children. The acolytes continue to fire their plasma weapons as the smaller decrepit-looking thrall slice any their claws could reach.
The Hive leaves a path of destruction in their wake. Cars crushed and burning, piles of bodies scorched and mutilated, and a fog of darkness creeping through the devastation consuming the light…this is their mark.
Tuvia, with little pity for those who did not make it, collects himself and withdraws into the darkness of the forest.