Authors note/warning: I just wanted to put a more realistic touch to this story. So, since they are in high school there will be things such as drugs and alcohol involved. If that is something you area easily offended by this might not be something you enjoy reading. However, it is also something that does not stay throughout the story. Just a little something they do before the invasion that normaly teenagers get themselves into.


Chapter Two


"Here. Take another."

Tucking a strand of russet hair behind her ear, Chloe leant forward. She placed her mouth over the multicolored glass bowl and inhaled slowly. She waited a moment before letting the smoke slowly escape her mouth. It engulfed them entirely in the small car.

The other girl grinned, "How did it feel?"

"Awesome," a smile crept on her peach lips. She licked them thirstily.

"What do you think your Dad would do if he knew what you were doing right now?"

"Shoot me," Chloe made her right hand into a gun and used her left as if she were holding the device. "Bang, bang!"

"I think he'd throw me in jail."

She giggled, "Yeah he would. Then poor little Maggie would have her clean record smudged."

"That isn't even funny. My life depends on a clean record."

"Your life also depends on you asking Mike out," she changed the subject abruptly. A grin made its way on her face as the blonde beside her started to blush.

"No way," she recoiled at the idea. "He doesn't like me."

"What if I know he does?"

Maggie leant over the drink holder between them, "How would you know?"

"He's on the football team," she rolled her eyes. "Plus, I overheard him tell my brother he thought you were hot when they were playing XBOX live the other night."

"You're kidding!"

"Nope," she popped the 'p'.

A squeal erupted from the girl next to her, "Yay! Now we need to find you someone."

"I don't have time for that," Chloe objected instantly.

"You can make time! Nursing school isn't the only thing in the world," her friend sighed. "What about your lab partner? He's a junior, so that means he's older, and he's kind of cute."

"Robert Kitner?" Chloe pretended to gag. "He's always doing these weird blog things."

"Those are pretty weird," Maggie agreed.

"My brothers home."

"I thought everyone was going to the-"

Chloe cut her off, "Not Matt. Jed."

"Jed's home? No way," Maggie ran a hand through her golden locks.

"Yeah…" she chewed on the inside of her cheek. "I don't know how to feel."

"You don't have to feel only one thing."

"It's just… I missed him so much and I'm so unbelievably happy to have him back. Then I start thinking of how he just left me alone."

"He wasn't trying to hurt you though," her friend offered as she saw the look of despair on Chloe's heart shaped face. "Everyone copes to loss in different ways. I mean look at your Dad, Matt, and you. Matt does it through sports, your Dad does it through work, and you do it through this."

She held up the glass object with a laugh.

"I just wish he didn't have to cope so far away."

"Want to head back to my place and make something to eat?" Maggie gripped the keys and twisted them so the ignition started.

"I'm so hungry," Chloe clutched her stomach.

As Maggie backed out of her parking space Chloe turned on the radio. A soft voice echoed throughout their eardrums as they started back to the homed area. Both were zooned out when Chloe noticed the lights flicker off from the street all at once. The radio went silent filling the car with static.

"What the heck?" Maggie leant closer to the wheel as she squinted before her. "Is it just me or did it get darker?"

"The power went out," she commented.

"Good thing my stove is gas powered."

Chloe laughed.

Right before they arrived at the other girl's house Chloe's phone began to vibrate. She saw that it was her father and quickly answered.

"Hey Dad."

"Hi sweetheart," his voice soothingly said through the speaker. "Where are you?"

"I'm at Maggie's house."

"Staying there over night?"

"If that's alright?" her body jerked as Maggie parked the car.

"Yeah that's fine. I'm going to be on black out duty tonight."

"Bummer."
"Well, I love you Chloe. Have a good night."

"Love you too," she shut her phone.

Sometime after the dinosaur nuggets, fries, salty popcorn, ice cream, Maggie's IPOD running out of battery from playing it on a battery operated speaker, and reading one another passages from novels in British accents the two girls fell asleep. The sound of glass shattering on the wooden floor caused Chloe to snap upwards. Her eyes were cloudy as they scanned her surroundings. She took in the mess around her and realized she had fallen asleep on Maggie's bedroom floor.

The house shook. Ignoring the kink in her neck from sleeping on the ligneous exterior she wobbly stood up. Maggie was sprawled across her bed dressed in her clothes from yesterday. She noted that she hadn't changed either; she was still in her dark jeans and mossy scoop neck.

Once again the ground beneath her quaked. Suddenly it seemed her ears opened up and she perceived the sound of what seemed to be bullets outside.

"Maggie wake up," Chloe smacked her friends shoulder.

"No."

"I think there's an earthquake," she said a bit louder. "Get up Maggie."

The girl groggily sat up in her bed. And as if it were slow motion the house completely rattled as an explosion sounded close to the house. It was so earthshattering that Chloe's legs buckled and she fell to the floor.

Maggie helped her to her feet. Her green eyes wide with panic, "What do we do?"

"Find out what's going on."

They both tugged on their shoes sloppily and stumbled out the back door of the house. Chloe saw shadows on the ground and glanced up at the sky.

"What the hell?" she squeaked.

Paratroopers.

"We need to get out of here now," Chloe demanded. She gripped Maggie's hand and started tugging her into the front yard.

"What about my parents?" asked Maggie frightened.

Chloe stopped, "Where are they?"

"At work."

"Let's just get somewhere safe first."

And as if the world was working against Chloe that morning the sound of a bullet rang through the air. If someone were to tell her that light traveled faster than sound she would have to disagree. Bullets traveled faster than anything she had ever known, faster than any living person could avoid.

All she saw was the look on her friends face to know something had happened. But she didn't have time to figure out what as Maggie grabbed her forearm and yanked her in the opposite direction Chloe had been leading them. The adrenaline pulsing through them let them run without feeling for a good while.

Until Maggie fell. Chloe tried to process what happened, but couldn't comprehend why Maggie just dropped to the ground. Before she could completely take in anything someone seized her around the waist. She tried to squirm out of their grasp as fear pulsed through every fiber of her body.

"Get her in the car now."

She recognized the female voice and ceased her struggling. Looking beside her she saw Toni sticking her auburn head out the window with wide eyes. The person holding her shoved her into the backseat of the black vehicle. Her eyes peered back at Maggie and knew then why she fell. A bullet had gone straight through her skull. The car jolted to life and zipped off through the streets.

"I don't know what Matt would do to me if I hadn't found you."

Danny, he was one of Matt's greatest friends. He glanced back at her as they made their way out of the town narrowly missing hitting objects. Chloe stayed silent.

"Where do we go?"

"Find my Dad," Chloe ordered. "He will know what to do."