by Richard Mann
Peter nudged Vinnie awake as Kojak shouted from the cockpit, ‘I canna concentrate with his snoring!’
He looked out the window at the New York skyline as the shimmering X-37D made its way to a landing spot near Brooklyn Bridge, across the Hudson River. It hovered, then landed. Above the X-37D the monstrous black mothership slowly turned making grinding noises, and dropping bits of debris on the city below. Peter and his team got out and they looked up, mouth’s open, as a huge section fell into the river, making a huge splash in the river, and creating a wash, which came up to their feet.
As they stood shell-shocked on the grass by the river bank, Peter looked at his watch. It was 2 pm local time, but the alien ship blocked out the sun like a solar eclipse, covering the area in semi-darkness.
Peter gathered his four-man team for a briefing. Johnny Two-Times, Fag-Ash Phil and Vinnie. He handed round cigarettes and took one himself, Fag-Ash lit it for him. He looked up at the ship, then at his men. Vinnie burped loudly as Peter started talking.
‘We’ve been diverted here to get intel, to observe and report. Do not engage the enemy. Repeat, do not engage the enemy. Des and his team will stay here to protect the ship. Any questions?’
‘I need a brew,’ said Vinnie. ‘Later, Vinnie, later,’ chided Peter. ‘We will wear all-black gear, I’m hoping the enemy won’t spot us.’
Peter took point as they walked off, Fag-Ash taking tail-end Charlie as they strode along the river bank towards Brooklyn Bridge. ‘Strange the buildings are intact,’ observed Peter as he looked at the New York skyline. Why?’
‘It is strange Pete,’ replied Vinnie, taking a swig of water as they walk in the semi-darkness.
‘Bradley said their ships are one mile wide. This one looks bigger—more like three miles wide.’
‘It’s definitely bigger than the one over London,’ added Vinnie.
‘Maybe this will be their HQ,’ observed Peter.
They walked in the shadows as they left the river and started to cross the Brooklyn Bridge into New York City. There was no alien activity on the bridge as they crossed, looking this way and that, trying to stay hidden. As they crossed the bridge they could see people milling about, looking confused, trying to escape, and in the distance they could see alien patrols and fighter craft.
They crept silently into the city, the alien ship hovering several miles over the Empire State Building. It was so huge that the whole of New York City was in its shadow, its massive black shape like something out of a horror movie, invoking a darkness of spirit among the people.
Day became dusk. The atmosphere of fear among the people was palpable, Peter’s sensitive hearing could hear the screams of people in the distance.
Anguished screams, blood-chilling.
Peter and his team hid out in a shop below the Empire State Building. From their hideout they peered out of the window and observed the chaos: crowds of people wandering, running, and the alien foot patrols, killing or kidnapping them.
There were fewer people left on the streets now as they stared up open-mouthed, fear etched on their faces. Every five seconds the monstrous black ship emitted a deep, grinding, throbbing hum which made the ground shake, windows shatter, and roads crack. Every time the spaceship hummed and vibrated, small bits fell off it.
‘Why are people just standing there?’ asked Vinnie.
‘Rabbits staring at the headlights,’ replied Peter.
People were running in all directions trying to escape, screaming as they were hit by falling debris from miles above. Suddenly a twelve-foot piece hurtled down and crushed two cars, smashing a hole in the road. Water burst from a main, and a gas pipe hissed invisible gas. A small crowd looked up in fear, as the circling mothership made an ear-blistering grinding noise like someone scraping their nails across a blackboard. People ran in panic as they saw a much larger piece of the ship come hurtling down towards Earth.
A young girl stood transfixed looking heavenward as the black section of the ship became larger in the sky. Her mother grabbed her and ran for her life as the ship section crashed into the top of the Chrysler building, destroying the top twenty floors. Glass, dust, and steel were everywhere. Crowds ran in panic as debris and huge clouds of dust fell from the building, like a replay of 9/11—but of course, this was worse.
Much, much worse.
Peter watched as state troopers launched missiles which exploded harmlessly off the massive alien spaceship’s shields. The wreckage of F22’s were strewn on the streets. Alien fighter craft now dominated the sky, whizzing around the ship, like bees around a nest—a huge nest.
People were now fleeing the city in panic, in any way they could—bicycle, motorbike, car or lorry. A toddler being carried by her mother dropped her teddy bear. Shops were looted for supplies. A man tried dialling 911 on his mobile, then made a run for cover into a coffee shop. Breathless, he ran in; a group of New Yorkers were cowering in a corner. ‘911?’
‘Are you joking, even the police and soldiers are running away!’ says a large African-American woman in a smart business suit.
‘Grow up boy! Find your family—find a safe place to hide!’
Peter and his team moved out of the shop into the dusty darkness, the haze penetrated by searchlights from the alien patrol craft, looking for humans. They made their way to Central Park as they watched larger alien fighter craft land there. The fighter craft design was less monstrous than the ship above, but still looked sinister, and the darkest black you could think of in your worst nightmare, looking as though it was designed to scare the inhabitants of invaded planets.
The soldiers hid in the undergrowth as they watched alien troops, pale green, patched-up skin, large black eyes and thin, wiry bodies, wearing black Narzuk uniforms, with swastika-style armbands, start spilling out of the craft. Peter had a sinking feeling as he gestured—waving his arms—for the people to leave, but curiosity seemed to get the better of them. Some people are just stupid; he had risked exposing himself; he had learnt a lesson that day.
Some of the elderly in the crowd, stood open-mouthed recognising the uniforms, sending shockwaves through those old enough to remember. Some people just stood mesmerised by the spectacle, too frightened to move. Out of the ships walked growling, muscular, alien dogs, with yellow eyes, and spines on their backs, eyeing the escaping humans, saliva dripping from their large fangs.
Terrified women were running. But it was too late as they were being kidnapped by Narzuks, and any men who got in their way were shot. A long line of women—filthy, with torn clothing—were being scanned and taken aboard the larger fighter craft and shuttled to the behemoth of a ship above them.
All about was panic and terror.
‘We must do something!’ shouted Vinnie.
Chapter 49
Nazi Speech
‘Observe and report - those were our orders!’ replied Peter.
Vinnie wondered if Peter had lost his bottle. A group of Special Forces Rangers crept along, behind some bushes near to them, waiting for an opportunity to strike at the parked alien craft. A patrolling fighter spotted them and a few laser blasts later, they were burnt husks, smoke rising from what was left of their bodies.
‘Sit tight,’ whispered Peter. Vinnie nodded.
‘Hold on, something is happening,’ added Peter.
A terrified crowd was being herded into a group. A high-ranking alien in black, surrounded by alien soldiers and robots stood on a platform, addressing the crowd. Peter noticed he has a red armband with a strange black swastika symbol. He had red streaks running through his eyes like he was on something. The alien used a headphone translator as he spoke.
‘Orgvod…People of New York, your attention, please. I am Lord Grim-Uk of the Imperial Sumeri army. Please salute your new leader.’ A human man in a black uniform stood on the platform. His lank, unkempt, black hair was in contrast to his pale
, unhealthy face. His shifty coal-coloured eyes looked at the crowd.
Peter nudged Vinnie, ‘I’m sure I have seen that guy before – he’s in the US military. I’m sure of it!’
‘People of New York, do not be afraid. This is a period of change—great change.’ The crowd fell silent. A large crow settled on the platform a few feet from the general and stared at him. Then it turned around and stared directly at Peter hiding in the bushes, its black eyes penetrating. Peter saw the crow but was not afraid, it was as if the bird was communicating with him. An image came into his mind of a tall blond being dressed in black clothing and piercing blue eyes, powerful and malevolent.
There were other forces at work here. The man spoke.
‘We are entering a new system. Our new national breeding program will abolish the liberalistic concept of the individual and the Marxist concept of humanity and will substitute, therefore, the folk community, rooted in the soil and bound together by the bond of its common blood.’
‘What the fuck is he talking about?’ said an African-American man in the crowd.
‘Of all the tasks which we have to face, the noblest and most sacred for mankind is that each racial species must preserve the purity of the blood which God has given it. The purest of you will be preserved for our new race. Others will be transported for resettlement.’
The African-American man in the crowd shouted,
‘Are you a racist Nazi?’ Others booed at the general. The crowd were shouting and waving their fists. An elderly Jewish man with glasses, supported by a walking stick, was crying as he pointed a bony finger at the speaker, old memories resurfacing like a nightmare, ‘Are you Hitler?’ he cried. ‘Are you a fucking Nazi?’
The aliens started splitting up the crowd, African-American, Jews and disabled to one side, white people to another. Women of breeding age were herded into another area, and scanned by machines which looked like airport scanners. Any who protested were executed where they stood.
On the outskirts of New York, larger craft were lowering huge, black sections of wall, 200 feet high and 30 feet thick. The alien engineers were constructing a huge wall around New York. Thousands of people were at the base of the barrier screaming and looking up in desperation, their shouts of terror could be heard for miles. They gazed up at the wall, all hope evaporating from their faces.
A group of men see a gap in the wall and hide behind building rubble, as they edged closer. They waited until the alien patrol moved away before making a dash onto open ground, and through the gap in the wall. Just as they crossed the gap, their hearts pounding with adrenaline, alien robots detected them and fired, blowing them ten feet into the air, their limbs scattering everywhere.
Four soldiers fired in vain at a robot towering three meters tall, bullets bouncing in all directions. If it were possible, the robot looked annoyed, as if a mosquito were biting it. It hovered towards them and armed its laser cannons, which sparked violently, glowing orange, ready to fire. The soldiers fled in panic, eyes wide in terror, but were blown away by a fiery laser blast. One of the soldiers, agony etched on his bloody face, dragged his pain-filled body behind some rubble, his legs in fleshy tatters, the bone protruding, and blood soaking into his trousers. Alien dogs ran after and caught escaping men and women. They savaged the men, biting their necks, leaving the women to be captured by the black-uniformed Narzuks, where they were lined up in a queue and put through a scanner. The dogs finished their prey, eating the men alive.
Their screams could be heard for miles.
On the alien mothership, high above in Earth orbit, naked and drugged women were being passed along a conveyor belt, being scanned for defects and diseases, their blank eyes showing no emotion. A white woman with red hair was scanned showing a lump on her breast; a red-light and flashed, there was a beep, and a chute opened up underneath the conveyor belt. She disappeared down the chute never to be seen again.
Peter’s radio beeped twice. It was a message from Des. Peter whispered to Vinnie. ‘We have to get out, they’re building a wall around New York!’
They slowly edged their way out of Central Park, back the way they came, knowing at any moment it could ‘go noisy’ and they would have to fight their way out. Peter’s sensitive hearing could hear men’s screams; a vision came into his mind of men being eaten alive by dogs. Strange dogs. As they reached the outskirts of New York they could hear the shouts and screams of thousands of people —anguished people. They turned a corner—then they saw it. A wall.
A huge black wall, hundreds of feet high.
Impregnable.
Their hearts sank.
‘How the fuck do we get out Pete?’ asked Vinnie. Peter’s mind raced, searching for a solution. Their X-37D was on the other side of the river, and this wall blocked their exit over the Brooklyn Bridge.
‘Let’s get closer,’ ordered Peter.
They crept around piles of debris and abandoned cars until they were only a hundred feet from the bottom of the wall. They hid behind a huge pile of concrete from a collapsed building. Through gaps in the concrete, they could see white alien robots patrolling the perimeter near the wall. Crowds stood around looking forlorn and panicked, looking for a way to escape.
But of course, there was none.
Then Peter remembered the bird—the crow, the image of the blue-eyed being with fangs. The image talked to him: “Noble warrior, do not give up hope, help is on its way.”
Vinnie, Johnny Two-Times, and Fag-Ash Phil all looked at Peter for salvation. Their situation seemed hopeless. ‘How are we going to get out?’ asked Johnny. ‘How are we going to get out?’
‘I have the feeling we’re going to be ok,’ said Peter.
‘How?—We’re surrounded!’ exclaimed Fag-Ash.
‘Look to the skies,’ replied Peter.
‘Do as he says,’ adds Vinnie, trusting Peter’s instincts, but then, there was a huge explosion as their concrete hiding place was blown apart by a robot laser blast.
They had been spotted.
Peter looked around him, his head splitting, dust in his eyes, Fag-Ash and Two-Times lay injured, crushed under the rubble, moaning in agony. Vinnie was unconscious. His head was spinning as he pulled his friend out of their hiding place, right out into the open. Then he pulled huge lumps of concrete off Fag-Ash’s and Two-Times’s legs, ignoring the aliens hemming them in.
They were surrounded by white alien robots, and a few black Narzuk troops closed in, leading fifty grey uniformed troops behind them. But above them, Peter spotted something. Two black winged beings descended out of the darkness, red-eyed and white-fanged. Then he was hit by a laser blast from a Narzuk sharp-shooter and fell to the ground. He watched through glazed pain-filled eyes as one of the red-eyed winged creatures picked him up and shot up into the sky.
‘Nightcrawler!’ shouts one of the alien soldiers.
The next thing Peter knew he was aboard the X-37D, and they were flying away at maximum speed. Des was shaking him, ‘Pete, Pete you ok?’
‘Yes, what happened? One minute we were surrounded then we were here.’
‘You’re not going to believe this, but two strange creatures came out of the sky carrying you. They were not human. If I didn’t know better I would say…they were vampires!’ exclaimed Des.
‘What did they look like, was one a tall blond creature?’ asked Peter.
‘Yes, the other was a woman, black hair, red lips, a real knockout.’ Then Peter became solemn. ‘Phil and Johnny?’ Des nodded, ‘Badly injured, but I think they will make it.’
Who were the creatures? And the woman – he had seen her before, deep in his subconscious an ancient memory stirred. He had a vision of an ancient city and a herb garden, the smell of rosemary, and the soft touch of two women as he lay between them on a white cotton bed, and he knew them both. Rays of a warm sun shone into the room from a garden as he looked at them
. One an elegant Greek Goddess, with long brown hair, the other a dark fiery beauty – a touch of Spanish gypsy about her, as they kissed him on his body, then his lips, their naked breasts touching his body. Pictures flashed through his mind as the centuries passed - then he drifted back to sleep. There were other forces at work here. Good and evil.
Chapter 50
Domination
CENTRAL LONDON
An alien ship hovers over London, emitting a deep, grinding, humming sound. The Houses of Parliament are in ruins, city skyscrapers are burning. People are fleeing the city any way they can. Rampaging mobs are looting, shops are being ransacked, Alien fighter craft have complete control of the skies and are destroying buildings at will. The wreckage of Eurofighter jets is strewn over the capital.
There is no electricity, no water. There is panic in the eyes of a young father carrying his toddler daughter as he barges past two men into a wrecked and dimly lit supermarket. He puts water and tinned food into his rucksack. ‘Where’s mummy?’ asks his frightened daughter. The father kisses her, makes his way out of the back exit of the supermarket and heads down into a dark, eerie tube station. He lifts her over the ticket barrier and climbs over.
The man and his daughter make their way down the stairs of the escalators, navigating via emergency lighting. The vast London underground network has become a home for thousands of people. People find a home wherever they can, wrapped in blankets. The man carries his daughter down to the lowest level, by the platform. The emergency lighting is dim but he can see people lining the platform, sitting on deckchairs or sleeping bags.
An elderly couple in deckchairs listen to Vera Lynn’s We’ll Meet Again on a CD player. The man sits down next to them and gives his daughter some water. The elderly man gives a blanket to his wife and wraps a blanket around himself, then he smiles at the young girl and gives her a sweet. She looks up at them returning the smile, hoping she will see her mummy again soon as her father hugs her close.