"I'll be over in a little while mom" says Alex, as he hangs up the phone.
It was pouring outside and the thunder could be heard in the background between the cars and trucks passing by. Alex hurriedly grabbed his poncho and looked it over before he put it on over his head.
"I need to get me a new one of these" thought Alex as he ran his fingers over the small tears and rips in the worn material. Alex flipped the worn hood up and prepared to step outside after seeing his cab was almost here according to the app on his phone.
"Finally, it took long enough" said Alex, under his breath, as he stepped out into the pouring rain.
Alex quickly hopped into the cab and closed the door as the driver confirmed his destination.
"Corner of S Denver and 21st, right?" asked the driver.
"Yes" replied Alex as he put his head against the window in preparation for the 20 minute drive through traffic to get to the corner by his mom's house.
Alex thought about everything that had happened in the last 2 weeks as he rested his head against the window. His father had passed from an unfortunate accident. The drunk driver had walked away without a scratch, but his father had been barely recognizable when they found him in the wreckage. Alex had been depressed but he knew how much harder this was for his mother so he tried to put on a brave face for her and visit every couple of days.
Through the pouring rain Alex started to hear a siren. It was faint at first but it continued to get louder. He looked around trying to see what the need for the siren was. There usually wasn't any sort of life threatening weather in this part of the country and the storm was only supposed to last for a few more hours.
Suddenly an emergency broadcast came over the radio.
"This is not a test. Please seek shelter immediately and await further instruction"
The broadcast repeated in several languages and then came back around to English.
"I wonder what's going on" said the cab driver over his shoulder. He didn't seem the least bit concerned and continued to drive like nothing was going on. In fact, most of the cars around him were driving relatively normal as Alex thought about the question the cab driver asked him.
"I think you can let me out and I'll make it from here" replied Alex
"Are you sure?" asked the cab driver.
Without a reply, Alex confirmed payment and took off running down the side of the street towards his mother's house.
As Alex got closer to his destination, he started hearing screams in the distance behind him. He looked back to try and catch a glance of what was happening but all he could see was the headlights of the cars passing him by. Horns started blaring as traffic came to a standstill in the road. People were starting to exit their cars and run ahead as fast as they could but Alex still couldn't see what was actually going on.
"What's happening!?" yelled Alex at a random guy running by.
"RUN!" screamed the man, "Things fell from the sky! They are killing everyone!"
Alex picked up his pace and started sprinting to his mom's house. As he got closer the screams became louder and louder. The crowd of people had devolved into chaos as people tried to get away, but more and more people were being trampled under the feet of the mob.
Up ahead, Alex could see people had stopped. He quickly caught up and saw what had caused the crowd to halt. There were several human like figures holding strange guns and weapons in their hands. They had a black sort of armor on and were standing in front of a massive mechanized humanoid machine. The machine looked damaged and was currently kneeling with a hand like appendage touching the ground.
Alex looked back the way he came and noticed that another giant mechanized machine and a squad of people were slowly walking towards their position. He had never felt so helpless. There was nowhere to go and the only thing he could do was stand in the crowd and wait to be taken and beat to death as that seemed to be the fate of the others the figures had taken.
Alex looked up and heard a familiar sob. His mother!
"Mom!" yelled Alex
"Alex!" his mother cried as they embraced each other
Just then hands grabbed his mother and yanked his mother away.
"If we stand here and do nothing, we will die!" yelled Alex as he desperately tried to get closer to his mother.
"He's right!" said another man in the crowd. "We need to fight back or we will never get out of here alive!"
Alex ran straight ahead stopping to pick up a crow bar that was left on the ground. The crowd started running towards the figures, this time to fight for their lives instead of running away in fear.
Alex reached the figure holding his mother and he swung the crowbar as hard as he could hitting the figure in the head. The figures grip on his mother loosened and she managed to wrench her arm away and run back towards Alex.
"We need to get out of here Alex! screamed his mother.
"We cant mom" sighed Alex as the crowd rushed past and tried to take on the black armored figures. "There are more coming from the opposite direction. The best way out of here is forward since their giant machine looks damaged. We have to fight through or we are done for."
"We can't fight those things Alex!" cried his mother.
People were falling left and right as the black armored figures started using their weapons on the crowd.
Suddenly Alex saw a little girl ahead as her father, presumably, fell from a skull shattering blow. Alex saw the figure turn and step towards the girl lifting it's weapon to prepare for a downward strike.
"NOO!!!" Screamed Alex as he ran towards the girl. The girl looked up into the face of death of her executioner almost seeming to accept her fate. She was suddenly thrust forward and skidded across the ground. She looked back to see a young man slumped on top of her father. He had seemingly pushed her away to safety to live another few moments.
Alex felt his spine shatter and lay there on top of the father with blood trickling out of his mouth. He didn't know why he had done it, but he felt satisfied that in his last moments he could at least offer the little girl a few more minutes of this precious life. Alex closed his eyes as he heard his mother scream and then thought and felt no more.
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"Do you think he's capable?" asked the robed figure to the figure beside it.
"He's not my first choice" said the second figure.
"He stood his ground and made a selfless sacrifice for the sake of good" said the first figure
"Good has little to do with this. He has no knowledge of tactics, no fighting ability" "He's not a great commander or leader...He's literally someone that gets a special judgement for his selfless, but stupid, sacrifice" said the second figure.
"Our options are running out. If we choose no one we will never be able to push back the scourge that's taking over the galaxy" the first figure replied.
"Send him through then" said the second figure while he gripped his staff and prepared to open the portal of rebirth to a place that could cultivate the soul of a selfless young man into a leader who could turn the tide of a scourge that was eradicating life in the galaxy.