Chapter 3
"Athena. Clarify active." Instructed Winston. "No change. Population remains at 80 000." Answered Athena. "Have there been any attacks on Troy?" Asked Winston. "Sorry. There are no attacks on record." Replied Athena. Three pairs of eyes turned in my direction. "I know what I saw." I said in a cold voice. Closing my eyes, I remembered it clear as day…
Faze glanced up at the clock… 9 P.M. With only an hour left in his shift, all that could enter his mind was the thought of going home. Being the most popular restaurant in the whole city, his gained its fame from cooking every meal manually. The difference between the automatic restaurants must have been huge, as his restaurant was fully booked years in advance. The pay was crap, but it was one of the few jobs left to put him through school. "Faze. I'll just get you to take the trash out, then you can go home for the night." Said his boss. Nodding, he reached down and turned the temperatures of his frying pans down to the minimum temperature, giving his coworker enough time to set up. Picking up three bags of trash, he opened the back door and slowly headed towards the dumpster in the back parking lot. Slowly making his way to the dumpster, he couldn't help but admire the beautiful sunset showing the end of another day. The sky was pink with plenty of daylight still left. Thoughts of his mother's homemade spaghetti entered his mind. Despite being a cook himself, she still made spaghetti so much better than he could. Opening the lid, he heaved all three bags in at once with one arm.
Without a moment's notice, an orange light flooded the sky. In shock, Faze looked up in the sky to see where the light could be coming from; the whole sky was full of orange. Out of the orange, an immense rectangular shape dropped down into plain view. It kept lowering down thousands of feet at a time until it remained only a kilometer above his restaurant. Faze's jaw dropped. "Would this be an alien visit?" he thought. Faze had always wanted to meet an alien. With eyes fixed on the immense rectangle, he surveyed the thing must be big enough to fit ten thousand people inside. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw more movement in the sky. It was yet another rectangular ship leaving the sky. Pulling out his holophone, Faze attempted to record what was going on. To his dismay, his phone was mysteriously dead, despite being at full power an hour ago. During this short time, even more ships began coming into view, until the sky was littered with rectangular ships everywhere. Faze could not believe what he was seeing. The back door opened, revealing the face of his short, but very angry boss. "Faze! Quit running the clock and get back in here and punch out!" Spat his angry boss. The moment his boss finished his sentence, the rectangular ship up above lit up; an orange beam seemed to emanate from the ship, growing darker and darker. The beam of light grew longer and longer, until it was focused right on the restaurant. The second the beam touched the restaurant, the ground began shaking in every direction. In seconds, the building lit up, then instantly turned the restaurant into a small pile of ash; a huge heat wave spread out in an enormous radius. Faze felt like his face was going to melt off. Ash sprinkled everywhere; erasing any proof of human existence. "Well… I guess I'll be going home now…" Said Faze to the empty space in front of him. Fishing in his pocket, he felt the familiar metallic feeling of his car keys. Faze spun around to see the parking lot perfectly intact, with his yellow 1972 Civic sitting in the lot. His car, being over a hundred years old still worked great; of course with a few modifications. Being that any automobile that was not self-driving was illegal, Faze installed the entire self-driving system onto his ancient car, but added a switch to turn the self-driving mode off at any time. Running as fast as his two legs could carry him, he sprinted the short one hundred feet to his door, yanking on the lever, and hopping in. Tapping the key on the ignition, the car sprang to life. "Take me home." Ordered Faze. "Calculating route. All routes are blocked. Would you like to change your destination?" Answered the preprogrammed computer. "No." Said Faze as he reached forward flicking the self-driving mode switch off. Hitting another button, a gear lever popped out of the middle console. Faze was no rookie at driving without a computer; many times he would drive manually when he was running late for work, leaving curious motorists behind in the dust. "This would be one of those times." He said to himself. Slamming on the gas pedal, he peeled onto the highway next to his work. Just as he pulled out, another beam slammed into the parking lot he had just left. Not even bothering to look back, Faze changed gears into second, then third. Beams were slamming the city from every angle; visibility decreased to a minimum as ash floated as far as he could see. Turning his wipers onto maximum, they only seemed to smear the ash with hardly any effect. With deft hands, he quickly spritzed window wiper fluid across the windshield (something modern cars never used anymore). This helped Faze for about twenty seconds before being coated in ash a second time. Faze had never felt so much adrenaline in his life. He was just some broke college kid who lived in his parents' basement, lived a boring life, and here he was driving through the Armageddon. The sound of lasers destroying the city as he drove through the city was rather off putting; so, Faze quickly flipped on his MP5 player, listening to a bit of instrumental music. Faze had been accelerating so much, his third gear was nearing maximum capacity, just as he was about to shift into fourth, he saw movement in the corner of his eye; a massive pine tree was falling right into his path. Moving his hand back onto his clutch, he shifted into 4th gear and floored it. Just squeezing under the pine tree, a sharp turn was approaching. With loads of experience, he instinctively pulled the clutch down, then turned his steering wheel to the right. With his right hand, he grabbed the emergency brake, then put it back down again. The car drifted around the corner at a perfect angle, slowing back to a steady speed again. With a bit of sweat dripping into his eyes, he squinted to see the familiar highway exit leading home.
Faze sped through the exit, emerging through the raining ash. Up ahead, it was still clear of the rectangular ships of death. Before he even knew it, he quickly pulled into his own usual parking spot. The neighborhood, still somehow oblivious to the destruction around them, remained quiet as usual. Frantically, Faze sprinted towards the front door. "Mom! Dad! We need to get out of here!" Shouted Faze as he tore through the door. Running upstairs, he saw his parents, brother and best friend all sitting on the sofas, eyes glued to the television. "The Omnic crisis continues to devastate Russia. Today, another twenty deaths are confirmed. It is unknown if the crisis has spread outside the borders." Announced a female reporter in a smoke filled city. "We need to get out! We're under attack!" Faze repeated. "Ha ha. I think we'd have heard something if that were true, son." Said Faze's father. "I'm not lying, Dad! My work just got burnt to the ground!" Desperately replied Faze as he began grabbing important objects. "Even if we were under attack, we're safest here." Said Faze's mother. "Connor! Guys! You have to trust me. We don't have much time!" Said Faze in a last ditch effort. Faze had finished grabbing the last of his gear, when Connor turned around. "I've known you since I was born. Let's go." Faze, surprised to see his friend serious for once, made eye contact. Connor, normally being the funny guy, never left a conversation without a joke. Quickly, the pair rushed out the door to see the ash cloud had already reached the neighborhood. With eyes wide open, Connor said "What did you do?" "Hey, the ash is good for gardening, ya know? Replied Faze. "Dude, I knew you were into recycling and all that, but you never told me you were going to turn the whole city into a botanical garden!" Shot back Connor. Laughing only once, an orange beam once again jetted through the sky and obliterated what was once, Faze's house. Horror struck, the pair turned and ran towards the forest bordering the edge of the city. Faze did not have any time to show emotion. Survival was engrained in his mind, and running was his only choice. Connor, already out of breath began slowing down after two minutes of running. "We're not going to make it." Said Connor, out of breath. "Correct." Said a woman, off to the side. She had appeared out of nowhere, as if she slithered through the light. Wearing a grey jumpsuit with a funny circular logo on it, she also held a threatening looking weapon, which appeared to be a gun. Her brown eyes were full of malice, cold and calculating. "Are you one of them?" Asked Connor pointing up at the orange light. "Yes." Coldly answered the woman. "Why!?" Exclaimed Faze. "What did we ever do to you!?" The woman chuckled, then looked Faze straight in the eye. "Foolish. There is no room for humans. Not anywhere." She said in a French accent. With that, she raised her gun up to her shoulder and fired once, straight at Connor; instantly turning him into nothing, but a small pile of ash. "No!" Screamed Faze as he lunged at the woman. With quick reflexes, she turned her sights into Faze's direction. Before Faze had even taken three steps, she fired. Faze felt an agonizingly burning sensation, his backpack, and clothes burned away as if they were nothing. His burning skin felt as if it was shrinking into nothing. "I guess this is it." He thought. But there he stood; naked in the field. For a second, the woman stared at him in disbelief. Just as confused, Faze sprinted right past her straight towards the tree line. The woman aimed her sights once again, and fired. The beam struck Faze once more giving him the same agonizing pain from before. Wanting to scream, he clenched his teeth, and kept on running. Within seconds, he made it into the forest, away from his executioner. Naked and alone, but alive.