Chapter Three

What Seems To Be The End

Eventually, Nathan and I fell asleep in the car. When we woke up, the sun was just rising. (No one found us, wow.) We started the car back up and headed back towards Pilot Butte. Though it wasn't a smart idea, Nathan needed closure, he needed to know. Nathan slowly turned the corner to his street to only find the same as what we'd seen everywhere else. All the houses were burnt down or demolished from the crashing or explosions. We drove to the front of Nathan's parent's old house to see the whole thing in ruins. Blood sprayed against the unmarked parts of the driveway, but Brendan was nowhere to be seen. Nathan left the car on, but got out and ran to the rubble of the house. He spent close to an hour digging through the rubble through the upstairs and then went downstairs, being damn careful not to make too much noise or ruckus so the whole place didn't come crashing down on him. He went into his old room and caught the gleam of something shining in his eyes; he flinched as he moved through the rubble towards it. When he knelt down to get a better look at it, his eyes filled with tears and his breath hitched. It was Brendan's military name tag that hung around his neck; the chain broken and the corner of it burnt off. Nathan's heart was broken.

Brendan… you were so brave… Why?

When Nathan came back out, he was obviously shaken by something, but he didn't say. I didn't ask. The tag was tied around his neck now. We only assumed that either he was killed fighting that thing somewhere else or it took him, hostage. Nathan didn't care, but his heart had a hole in it for not ever knowing what happened to his younger brother. I had the same hole in my heart, but for my family. I had kept quiet, but Nathan knew I was going to want to go and see if they were all okay.

We set out to Edenwold, where my family lives… lived. Sure enough, the house and everything was destroyed; no one to be seen. There was nothing left. I prayed that they were all okay; my mom, my brothers, my dog, everyone. We drove back past Pilot Butte and headed into Regina. The city was in ruins and we could still hear the faint cries of people around the city being kidnapped or killed; loud booms and explosions in the distance. We were the only ones driving. It looked creepy; all the abandon or destroyed cars along the roads. It looked like a zombie apocalypse, but worse. Nathan stopped as we came to a dead end. The road was jammed up with cars and there was nowhere else to go. He slowly went to get out; I did the same.

"Nathan… do you really think it's a good idea to be getting out of the car out in the open?"

He looked over at me with an emotionless look on his face.

"It doesn't matter. Whether we stay here or wander the city, they'll find us eventually."

I swallowed my fear hard and nodded. Then, we began to walk down the road. Where was my family? Where was Nathan's family? Where were all our friends? Where was anyone?! We walked slowly, tiredly down the long, broken up, deserted roads between the crumbling, tall buildings. Dust drifted through the streets as the faint sound of sirens and car alarms were going off in the distant. We walked for hours; noon passed, and the sun was already beginning to set. We had finally reached the west side of the city.

I could see in the corner of my eye two silhouettes of those things. They were leaning against a building watching us as we walked by. I didn't know if Nathan saw them too, but I sure as hell did! They were only about thirty feet away. With they're creepy smiles, large statures and bulky muscles covered in what was probably some kind of weird 'space' armor, they looked terrifying. I slowed down, but one of them waved his hand in the direction we were heading and said,

"Oh, don't let us distract you humans. Just keep walking the way you were."

I looked at Nathan and then we both turned back to the way we were heading before. He grabbed my hand and held it tightly as we began power-walking away; their faint laughs becoming quieter and quieter the farther away we got. These beings seemed pretty irritable and cocky. I didn't like them. I didn't trust them at all.

Eventually, we came to the Brandt Centre and saw people, humans, gathering there; all of them looking terrified as if they were being forced to go there. We ran, still holding hands, into the slowly crowding area just out front of the Brandt Centre and got close to the front of a stage that had been set up. This must've been a planned and announced thing here in Regina and others in the surrounding areas must have been forced to come here too. Maybe our families were here.

Nathan and I made sure to run into the area as quick as possible so we could get to the front. He didn't want to, but I insisted on it. We stayed off to the side as the large, open area began crowding more and more. Two guards eyed me up while more and more people gathered around us. I guess they took a liking to me rushing to the front or something; not caring that I had my boyfriend with me, of course. Once the area was crawling with people, the guards on the outdoor stage stepped forward, giving a solid solute to their chests and staying silent, at first. One man approached from the back. Smiling like he was on the red carpet, not intimidated by ten thousand people, he was sure having a good, old time up there.

The strange and largely muscular man walked up to the mic stand. On the stage, a few humans had probably had set up for their arrival, and they sure enough were more than educated to know what we had set up for them. A ceremony almost; for the arrival of the extraterrestrial who were sophisticated, resembling humans almost completely. Stronger, more powerful and three times bigger in stature than humans; it was truly a sight to behold. A crowd of over ten thousand people and probably the bravest son of a bitch I've ever seen had the balls to walk up those steps, across that stage, face to face with that being and handed him a mic to put on the stand. The dumbasses that set all this up were too careless to not remember putting a fucking mic on the stand.

Good lord…

The man smiled but was frozen. I could tell from where I was in the crowd with Nathan that the man was terrified to turn his back on this being from another world. The being gave a gesture to kindly leave, and so he did, and as fast as possible. He spoke quietly at first not knowing how loud it would be. The sound hummed through the speakers set along both sides of the crowd. He spoke louder,

"Hello…"

He had a sly grin on his face and a few people throughout the crowd waved and said hello back. Nathan was getting nervous, and I was already nervous, but I also found it hilarious too. Humans were dumbasses. I didn't dare laugh, though. There were about fifteen of these fairly identical looking muscular guys up there and from what I could tell, 'fan-girl-ing' of course, they looked and acted exactly like 'Saiyans' from the Dragon Ball Z, Super and GT series. The armor, the thick, black hair, the… the TAIL?!

HOLY SHIT!

The man continued,

"No one speak, just listen…"

The crowd went instantly silent; he looked pleased. As though he were our master and we were his measly pets!

"Since the vast majority of all you little beings speak the English language, that's what I'll speak…"

They know other human languages… Oh, my God!

"On May 7th of the Earth year of 1984, a microscopic drone was sent out from one of our space cruisers just outside of your galaxy. We had been studying your galaxy for far too long and needed to know if there was any intelligence or life within it…"

He then chuckled to himself,

"Intelligent… Ha!"

He was simply insulting us, but I didn't flinch, not a single muscle. In case nobody noticed, but I liked being ALIVE and would like to STAY alive! The man continued speaking,

"It detected the only planet with life and rich natural resources and immediately transmitting a landing location to it. Once it arrived in your hemisphere, it landed on one human being, one target. This target was not chosen, it was picked at random. Burrowing into that humans brain, it uploaded and implanted false imagery of our people, our culture and our lifestyles. It took what we were and used some voluntary civilians and even the Royal family to switch it around; make it the opposite, well, for some things. Basically, what I'm trying to say is that some of our people volunteered to act and record their voices and emotions, falsely. They pretended to be kind, caring, supportive and motivating. It wasn't until November 20th of that same Earth year that anything of our decent would be addressed. Predesigned characters and figures to what you humans call 'anime' were also uploaded into this human's brain and were meant for your world to eventually see. That human's name as we have recorded after watching him for the past thirty-seven human years is Akira Toriyama."

He paused for a moment as the crowd started murmuring and then a loud, deafening bang went off. He shot a bright yellow energy beam from his hand!

No, it can't be!

I was in more disbelief than I had ever been before in my life. Most of the crowd ducked and flinched to the loud blast. The crowd went completely silent again. The man continued,

"He became well-known in the eastern hemisphere of your planet; well-known in the west too, but not nearly as much. He did exactly as we had planned. Put out a false reality for a children's show to brainwash the humans into loving and worshiping us; but the truth being that we are nothing like what Akira Toriyama had set out for us to be, thanks to our prerecorded drone…!"

He paused for a moment before he continued,

"Of course, his output of us being strong and ruthless was true, but… it was severely censored!"

Clenching his fist, he began to raise his voice,

"We are the most unforgiving, blood thirsty, war hungry species known in the universe!"

He paused, and then spoke sarcastically,

"Huh… I guess we do have something in common after all… other than looks that is!"

The men on the stage all laughed. Not a single human did. We were all almost pissing our pants in fear. He turned back to us and stared at all of us for a moment. He looked like he was analyzing all of us, but then he stopped; staring dead and cold eyes in my direction. I froze and stared right back at him. I have a physical and psychological problem where I cannot stare into another person's eyes for more than a few seconds at the most, but here, here that didn't exist anymore. His face went blank and that scared me the most. What could he possibly be thinking? A few people around me started backing away from me to make sure it wasn't themselves the man was staring down upon. He then gradually began taking his eyes away from me and once turned around, I almost fainted. Nathan caught me and helped me stand. The being on the stage turned his head to face the men at the back of the stage. He covered the top of the mic with one hand; he didn't want our people to hear whatever he was saying. He spoke to one of the men from the back and then he turned back around, taking his hand off the mic, not looking at me again.

Thank God, I thought he was going to kill me by just staring at me for a long moment there!

"We know everything about your race; your cultures, your lifestyles, your people… everything… Since we all already know everything, we will only need to take all those that we see as fit, useful… or pleasing to the eye…"

He gave a sly grin, panning his eyes over in my direction for a moment and then quickly looking away again. I think that eighth of a second he stared at me was almost worse than the minute he stared at me just because of the context and what he was implying. I wanted to accept it as a 'compliment' because he basically said I was pretty, but… they're aliens, and very scary, violent, blood-thirsty ones, too! He inhaled deeply, taking in the scents of every living being around before continuing.

"To make a long story… a little bit shorter, we are taking hold of your planet, stripping it of its richest resources and all life forms, and then, selling it for profit."

It was silent for about three seconds for the information to sink in before he said his final statement to the whole crowd.

"…kill them all."

Silence… silence… and then, the outburst. People started screaming and trying to run. Nathan and I stood still. The man laughed loudly as he watched all the pathetic humans run away in fear. All the men behind began to fly and jump off the stage, grabbing people and killing those who tried resisting or fighting back. It turned horrifying.

The man kept laughing into the mic and then, the inevitable; when I dared look back up on that stage, he was already staring straight at me, but this time, a large bone-chilling, devilish smile crossed his face. Nathan was turned the other way, horrified as he watched hundreds of people being torn apart, slaughtered, and separated from their families and friends. Nathan and I, as well as about twenty or so other people, stood strong and tried not to be afraid. Not knowing that at that same moment, millions of humans around the globe were being slaughtered by these beasts. They were Gods compared to us.

We stood still and silent, and then without any warning, in a huge flash of light, the spokesman 'Saiyan' was standing right in front of us. Two others appeared alongside of him and he simply said over the screams of thousands of people, kneeling down to my level and taking a firm grasp at my lower jaw, he stared straight into my soul and said,

"We… Are… Real!"

I was completely paralyzed.

"You're… You're… You're S-Saiyans!"

He grinned but didn't say another word to me. He stood, letting go of me and looked at the other two.

"TAKE HIM!"

He spoke as pointing at Nathan, who turned right at that moment to find the two men with the spokesman grab him and pull him away from me.

"NOOOOO; NATHAN…!"

The spokesman grabbed my arms and began pulling me the opposite direction. He pressed his face against my ear, breathing heavily.

"You're a pretty, little human, aren't you?"

I squirmed in his grasp, desperately trying to get away.

"NATHAN! NO, STOP! LET HIM GO!"

"TAYLOR! LET HER GO, YOU BASTARD!"

Nathan threw a punch to the one, but he quickly dodged it and threw his fist into Nathan's gut. He gasped, falling forward, breathless, gasping for air. Blood dripped from his mouth.

"N-No… Taylor… l-let her go!"

The man holding me tightened his grip, grabbing both my arms behind my back and used the other to grab my jaw, forcing me to face Nathan and the two holding his arms back.

"Oh, what's the matter? Is that your mate?!"

Tears ran down my cheeks. I was so afraid.

Nathan, don't die.

He slowly began to raise his head, weakly, looking at me. He mouthed the words 'I love you' before the other man holding him jabbed his knee up it Nathan's side, forcing him to scream and fall forward again in pain.

"NOOOOOO; STOP IT! LEAVE HIM ALONE!"

The man holding me chuckled into my ear, biting the skin behind it and moving his hand from my jaw to my neck.

"TAKE HIM BACK TO THE SHIP! I'LL DEAL WITH HER!"

Nathan was pulled off his feet into the air, and within a flash, they were gone. I stared teary-eyed at the sky, burning with smoke and flame.

He's gone. Nathan… no…

The Saiyan holding me tightened his large hand around my neck and bit my ear.

"I think I'll have some fun with you before I take you to the ship!"

"W-What are you talking about?! No! NO! LEAVE ME ALONE!"

The Saiyan laughed deeply under his breath.

"…but I think I'll need some help."