Chapter 1

Al Norris was walking in the park on the trail that follows along the side of the small lake in town. It was a pretty spring day. He was wearing shorts and sneakers with a tee shirt under his long-sleeved shirt. If or more likely when it got warm, he could remove the shirt and tie it around his waist. The trail was not paved but it was in good shape. He walked at a good clip. Years ago, he would have run. Now, he had to be content to walk though still moved rapidly.

He was alone though that was now a normal thing. After his wife died, his daughter and grandchildren didn’t stay in touch often being busy with their lives. He didn’t do much to do his share either. His son, Riley, was away again on another project and he hadn’t heard from him lately. It was a quiet life but he didn’t really care. With his wife gone, none of it was that important.

It was the middle of the afternoon and he was over half way around on the west side of the small lake. He heard a loud noise and looked west. The light was intensely bright and became brighter until it felt like it was burning. Then there was a noise and wind but he already felt no more.

That first explosion registered on the Richter scale. After that, the rest of the explosions were too numerous to really register as separate events. In some areas, fires raged and, in others, the explosions set off earthquakes. In an hour, the explosions ceased and the aftermath began.

Flying ships began to land and armored creatures exited to kill survivors. At the few armed forces bases in the United States that still existed, there were attempts to fight back. The weapons of the aliens were powerful and their suits protected them to some extent. There were more ships overhead to bomb any group that fought back successfully against the ground attacks. The aliens didn’t seem to care if their fighters were killed as long as human resistance was wiped out.

Most people were defenseless because the government’s gun control plans had been very effective. A few found that the larger caliber rifles could penetrate those suits. When the suits were penetrated, they exploded. Anyone close was killed or injured by the explosion. The aliens were not taking prisoners. Every person seen was shot even if they attempted to surrender. Few escaped the slaughter.

The real help for humans was when people watched what happened when the alien was killed at a distance or someone saw it killed. However, if a group gathered, a ship appeared and a large explosion resulted. The army had used a method that smart humans quickly adopted. It had even been named. It was called “shoot and scoot.”

Riley Norris had watched his two friends die in the explosion of a suit. He was shaken but was shielded enough to be unharmed. He went to retrieve the weapons and then dropped them. His friend, Owen had been holding his rifle across his body when Eric shot the alien. Both rifles were badly damaged from the power of the explosion. Riley had a twelve-gauge shotgun but he realized that shooting an alien with it would require him to get close enough to be killed by the explosion. Given a choice, he didn’t want to die.

He had gone to ground and watched as his friends attacked the alien. He had been checking dead bodies while they went ahead of him. They had no choice but to fight since they were in the open when the ship landed and the alien exited it. Riley crawled back into a sheltered spot as he thought over what he had seen. He was on the side of a hill and watched as another alien ship found the people down below and killed everyone. It didn’t matter if they were men, women, or children. It didn’t matter if they lifted their hands in surrender. They were killed quickly and efficiently. There was no mercy.

As Riley watched, his eyes hardened. He knew he needed a rifle. A deer rifle sounded like a good idea. If he were home, he had such a rifle in his gun cabinet. He had seen the distant explosion in the direction of the city and had a bad feeling that he would never see his gun cabinet, his place, or his dad again. He spent the rest of the afternoon and all the next day lying in his spot watching and feeling helpless.

Twice, he watched people attempt resistance. Once, it resulted in the deaths of those resisting, those they were trying to protect, and the alien. A small bomb landed on top of them all. The other attempt failed to kill the alien but all the resisters died along with those with them. With the shotgun, he couldn’t help anyone, he could just die with them.

He spent two fitful nights in the same place with no food and little water. He watched a small convoy of two cars traverse his area rapidly. A short while later, he heard something fly over and heard and felt the explosion.

For the last half of the second day, he had seen and heard no one. He watched a large dog prowl around the next morning. It didn’t find anything and no alien came to shoot it. He had seen aliens kill big dogs just as they had people. It was late afternoon before he carefully moved out. He was looking for food and water. Having a safer place would be good, too. He walked all afternoon without seeing anyone or anything alive. He did find a house that was only lightly damaged. He went inside and picked through the canned goods. He also filled every water-tight container he could find with water. He made a cold meal and took a similar shower. None of the clothes fit so he put his dirty clothes back on. He slept the night in a bed wondering what was happening in the rest of the world. He was not optimistic.

He rested the next day going through what was in the house and as well as going through the contents of the few houses close to it. He could see the remains of burned bodies everywhere from the alien killings. He didn’t see any explosive marks that would suggest someone had taken an alien out.

In the next house over, he found a gun cabinet and clothes that fit. All the houses in the area had some damage. He noted that the aliens seemed to damage everything when they came through. With fresh clothing and a rifle, Riley felt more comfortable. He kept his work boots but found heavy socks. He had shorts and casual shirts. He loaded three sets of clothes as well as additional socks and briefs into the back pack he found. The rest of the space was taken by a couple of containers of water and ammunition for his new rifle. He would find food where he might for now. He slung the rifle while still carrying the shotgun though he had a sling for it as well.

He treated the world around him like it was hostile territory walking carefully and watching for people and aliens. He didn’t take a car or truck. He had a bad feeling about using one of those. It was quiet and, after a few hours of walking, he was in a pass and stopped to look out and down into the valley ahead of him. While he looked, he stood to one side to prevent someone from silhouetting him against the sky if they were looking up at the pass. He had found a pair of binoculars and used them carefully. They weren’t the best but would work until he could find better.

There was nothing moving in the valley. He could see the remains of people and cattle scattered through the valley. There were no aliens that he could see. It appeared they had gone through the area and completed their job. He also checked his back trail. He thought that, if he survived, then others might also. He also wondered if the aliens had any method of tracking the presence of people. He decided that he had to assume that they had at least some capabilities, perhaps infrared. In any event, it meant he would have to be careful about showing himself and to shield his presence including his heat emissions as best he could.

After viewing the area carefully and patiently, he started down the road into the valley. He was over half way down when he started looking for a place to stop for the night. He found a camping trailer that had been abandoned and looked undamaged. He went to the door and entered finding that it was deserted. He sat at the table and pondered what he wanted to cook and where to sleep tonight. He decided that cooking and sleeping in the same spot wasn’t prudent. He went outside and began looking around some more. Through the trees, he could see more trailers in a campground. He decided that he would cook in this camper and sleep much further into the campground. He cooked a simple supper from cans he found and left quickly after that to find a camper at the far end of the campground. It was also a nicer trailer. He saw the remains of the owners lying about twenty feet away dead from the aliens’ weapons.