The Mists of Tomorrow
by Charles Shaver
© 2003 Charles Shaver
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The ball was very pretty. It swirled with blues and whites and glowed from within. Jalyn Robinson said it looked like a giant marble. Her classmates agreed. "But it must be soft, like holding mist in your hands," she added. Again everyone agreed.
Jalyn and her friends sat in a semi-circle around the floating ball, watching it with delight. Their teacher had left the small class for a moment to go to the office to make copies of their math worksheets. Soon after, the children witnessed their little visitor emerge from thin air like magic. The glowing, misty ball appeared above the teacher's chair where she sat and read stories after lunch to calm everyone down. Naturally, her entire class of third-graders sat in a semi-circle around the chair like they always did at story time, staring at the ball.
"Go touch it," Billy whispered to Brenton, the class athlete and all around tough-guy.
"No way! You touch it!" said the now not-so-tough-guy.
"Nuh-uh, not me. What if it's sticky?" Billy pondered. He hated sticky things.
"Nah, it don't look sticky. Like Jalyn said, it looks like mist." said Alex.
"Or a fart," said Rufus. Everybody laughed.
"I bet it's got radashun! That's why it glows! Everything with radashun glows! It'll make your weenie drop off if you touch it!" cried Alex.
"No it won't." Brenton tried to dismiss him.
"Uh-huh! My dad said if you stand in front of the x-ray machine at the doctor's too long your weenie will drop off cuz it's got radashun!" Alex protested.
"But x-rays don't glow, do they?" Maribelle asked.
"I'm not sure," Billy replied. He was the class genius. He never even had to try and could always get an "A" in one subject or another, except P.E. He was lousy at P.E. "My doctors always make me close my eyes and hold my breath when I get an x-ray so I don't know if it glows. I just know they shoot radiation through you."
"They shoot it through you? Man, grown-ups are sick!" Alex said.
"So, what is it?" asked Hope.
"I dunno," Alex said.
"Beats me." said Brenton. "Billy, do you know?"
"Well, the only thing I ever read about glowing balls of light was when I read this book about UFOs and stuff." Billy was good at explaining things, so everyone was listening. "It said sometimes people see glowing balls in the sky that are really alien spaceships. Of course, that's always outside and I think usually at night. It said most have been explained as either satellites in the top of our atmosphere or swamp gas."
"See! It is a fart! It's someone's fart!" yelled Rufus. A few of his classmates shrieked with giggles.
"Go on, Billy," Jalyn urged.
"Well, that's about it. It can't be a satellite and I don't know of any swamps around here. Or anywhere in Texas for that matter." Billy said.
The children all sat and stared at the ball. Jalyn couldn't get over how beautiful it was. How peaceful and nice it seemed. She even wanted to hug the ball, but Alex's warning of radiation came back to her and she decided not to touch it. Then the ball flashed, almost like a camera. Not a child screamed, though some sat up a little more straight. Jalyn got the oddest feeling, like she wanted to leave the ball alone. Like she wanted to leave the classroom entirely. She got up and headed for the door. One by one, her classmates followed her. Once outside, the small gathering looked at each other confusedly, until Alex and Brenton decided to do what kids do best when outside: they ran into the big field that had been cleared in the back of the school to play. Soon, all the children were out behind the school playing.
BEEP! BEEP! A car horn got everyone's attention. It was Richard Robinson, Jalyn's father. She had expected him to pick her up from school early so they could go to the movies together and miss the afternoon and evening crowd, but she had forgotten all about it in the midst of playing and the confusion the ball had brought to the children. Jalyn ran into her father's open arms. He was a handsome man, though a busy one. Just when it seemed he had no time for Jalyn or had forgotten her, he took a day off and took her out of school so they could go to the movies or make the extra long drive to the beach together.
KA-BOOM!!! The ground bent upward, shaking Jalyn and her father right off their feet as they embraced. In the short distance from where they stood, Jalyn and her father watched as her classroom flickered and flamed into a roaring blaze.
* * * * *
"What do you mean? This was arson?" Richard Robinson was furious to hear the news.
"We're not sure, Richard. I am jest saying that we have found evidence that there may have been some tamperin' with a few of the classroom's wires." Fire Chief Dan Wickum had agreed to meet with the PTA inside the school's cafeteria two days after the fire. The place was filled with parents and concerned citizens. Chairs had been set out in neat little rows for everyone. At the front of the gathering there was a long folding table with four men sitting on the other side, looking back at the crowd. The four men included Police Chief Arnold Akawa, the town's only Asian man, Fire Chief Dan Wickum, Principle Brisco Dinkle and School Superintendent Bill Davis.
"Well, that sounds a hell of a lot like arson to me," Richard said as he sat down vehemently.
"This school is old. West Archer is a small town. Most of us at one time or another stepped foot inta that school, some even as students. An' the school has seen a lot of cosmetic care over the years but not so much in the guts of her. She's an old lady and old lady innards have a tendency to give out once in a while," explained the Fire Chief.
"But there is evidence?" asked Grant Parcel, a crooked elderly gentlemen and lifetime citizen of West Archer who had lived long enough to have seen the town just as automobiles were being introduced into the region. He was the oldest and peevish of those gathered and Brenton's grandfather.
"Well, there might be. We jest found some lose wires a bit outta sorts. We can't be positive right now, but they didn't look frayed. Kinda more of a clean cut." Fire Chief Wickum remained calm. "An' we know all of the children had gone outside to play in the teacher's absence. We've also heard that many of the children are claiming they saw a ball of blue light inside the classroom and that's why they left in the first place. Seems to me they mighta seen a spark or something come out from one of the walls an' it scared them outside."
"But who would do such a thing?" The question came from Alice Steeplemeyer, Rufus' step-mother.
"I can't rightly say," said Fire Chief Wickum.
"Um, well... if I may, Dan," it was Officer Akawa. He was originally from California but was a good man by West Archer's standards. "I hate to say it folks, but there are some real sickos running around out there. First off, we don't know one-hundred-percent that somebody actually tampered with anything in the school. Second, I and my force have been on duty around the clock to help Dan and his department. And third, if it winds up that there was something fishy going on with those wires, we gotta face up to the possibility that it just might be someone with a sick sense of humor. There's a lot of people out there who would do such a thing for... well, if I may be so blunt, they'd do it just for shits and giggles."
"That's is indeed sick," commented Superintendent Davis.
"So when will we know for sure?" asked Alicen Robinson, Richard's wife. "I mean, my child could have been in there, for crying out loud! My child could be dead right now! When will you know?"
"Definitely within a week's time," said Fire Chief Wickum. "When we do find something, we'll let you all know."
The group gave a collective groan of dissatisfaction.
"Until then," Principal Dinkle spoke up, "Your children will be in room 108 down the hall from their former room." That left no one any more at ease.
* * * * *
Alicen Robinson walked carefully into Jalyn's room so as not to wake her up. She looked down at her precious child and tears began to well up in her eyes with the thought of what might have been. She reached down and hugged her child.
"Mommy?"
"Oh, I'm sorry sweetheart. I just came in to check on you."
"That's okay mommy. Did you see the people at school?"
"Yes, sweetheart. We did."
"Do they know why our school blew up?"
"Well, it wasn't the whole school, sweetie. Just the classroom you were in."
"Oh, I know. But what about the ball? Did the ball get outside like we did?" Jalyn wiped at her eyes.
"What ball?"
"The blue ball I told you about. The swirly one like a marble."
"Oh, well that was probably just a spark from loose wires or something, sweetie." Alicen accepted the explanation as she told it to her daughter.
"But it wasn't a spark." Jalyn was finally able to look at her mother with open eyes.
"But you said it flashed, like a camera flashes."
"Well.. yeah. But it wasn't a spark... I don't think."
"Go to sleep, sweetie," Alicen said. "Tomorrow your father and I are both taking the day off and taking you to the beach." Jalyn smiled. It didn't take long for her to go back to sleep.
* * * * *
Richard Robinson awoke to the sound of his wife's screams.
"Honey, honey, what's wrong?" he asked. Alicen flailed her arms and kicked her legs, trying to move up onto the headboard of their bed.
"Did you see it? Did you see it?" She asked over and over.
"What, honey? What? Alicen, you have to calm down. Tell me what's wrong."
Alicen took a breath to try to calm herself. She was shaking all over. "Over there," she pointed, "the foot of our bed."
Richard looked to where she pointed, then around the rest of the room. "I don't see anything, honey. What's wrong? Was it a nightmare?"
"No," Alicen gulped for air. "I woke up... feeling... feeling like... like I was being watched." She turned her gaze from the foot of the bed to meet Richard's eyes for the first time. He saw something in her he had never seen before: utter terror.
"What's wrong?" he asked, convinced something had happened.
"When I looked, there at our feet, was a ball of light. It swirled around and around like a ball of mist. I shook you to wake you, but you didn't wake." Alicen thrust her head into her husband's shoulder and began to cry. "I was so afraid. I couldn't move. It flashed, so I screamed and it disappeared."
* * * * *
The Robinson family had had a good day at the beach. Jalyn, most of all, had a wonderful time. Her parents hadn't played with her quite as much as she'd hoped while she built a sand castle and romped in the surf, but it had been a good day none-the-less. Jalyn even met a couple other kids from out of state. Their parents had taken them on vacation. They ran and played together for a while. Yep, all-in-all it was a good day for Alicen.
"Honey? What is that? Smoke?" Alicen pointed off to their right.
"Huh? Where?" Richard looked around. "Yeah, and is it ever dark. I wonder what's burning."
"Isn't that-?" Richard thought the same thing at the same time and looked at Alicen.
The car remained quite as the Robinson family finished their trip home. When started heading down their street, the Robinson's heart sank in fear in what they had been anticipating. Fire trucks surrounded their house, with crews of men running all around the neighborhood. Richard pulled up in front of Dean Patterson's, his neighbor, yard. Richard got out of the car, staring at his house.
"Stay inside, Jalyn," Alicen said as she got out.
"What's happening, mommy?" Jalyn cried out as Alicen closed the door and joined Richard.
The elderly Mr. Patterson came over to speak with them.
"I'm sorry, Richard. I dunno what happened. Me and the misses were sitting out front 'chere on our porch when we heard this, well... sort of an explosion. 'Bout knocked me right outta my rocker. The misses called the Fire Department right away, but the house got all engulfed real quick. I'm sorry. I'm awful real sorry."
The Robinson's could do nothing as they watched their home burn to the ground.
* * * * *
"Seems almost like something's telling us to get out of here," Alicen told her husband. They lay in a motel bed together at four in the morning, in the dark, with little Jalyn sleeping just a few feet in the room's second bed.
"That... that thing scared the hell out of me. I think it knew me," she added.
"What do you mean it 'knew you'?" Richard was tired, but with a mind racing after the previous day's events he found it hard to sleep.
"I'm not sure. It just gave me this feeling like it knew me. Like it was someone who knew me."
"Don't go telling me it was some damn angel or something. Angels don't make it a habit to scare people." Richard said.
"No, not an angel. Just like someone real. Like a ghost."
"Oh, Christ! There's no ghosts, Alicen." Richard's snapped.
The two lay in silence for a moment. They had had this argument before. As far as Alicen could tell, Richard had never had any sort of experience of any sort that could be described as a ghost and had been raised strictly Southern Baptist. He and his family believed in the presence of the Devil in modern day life, but did not tolerate certain beliefs. She, on the other hand, could remember many contacts with the dead throughout her life. The last incident was just after her father's death nearly five years ago. She had woke up in the night to go to the bathroom. When she had laid back down in bed with Richard she rolled on her side facing the bedroom door, which they kept open most nights, and as she closed her eyes she caught a glimpse of her father standing in the hallway with a slight bluish-white glow around him. When she opened her eyes to look a second time, the hallway was an empty blank of blackness in the night.
Alicen's father, Carl Strauss, wasn't always much of a father. He had been a merchant marine in Washington from the time he was sixteen until he retired at the age of sixty-two. Having been at sea all the time, he had missed most of Alicen's childhood. But he did love her. And by the time Alicen was pregnant with Jalyn he had retired and more than made up for all the lost time as a wonderful grandfather. Jalyn loved her 'grampa,' and the dear child's foundations shook when he passed away from throat cancer.
Alicen never told Richard about seeing her father that night. She had brought the subject of ghosts up once a long time ago when they first got married. He had dismissed all ghost stories as fables for children and the incredibly stupid. Alicen hadn't liked being called stupid, even if Richard hadn't made the comment directly toward her. So she never spoke of any of her experiences ever again with him.
She thought about the memory of her father's appearance in the hall that night five years ago. He was wrapped in a bluish-white glow, just like the ellipse that had swirled blue and white that she had seen the night before their house caught fire.
"I don't know how else to explain it," Alicen finally said.
Richard hesitated, as if thinking about what to say, then said, "I'm hungry."
"Nothing will be open for a few more hours," Alicen answered.
"I noticed an all-night liquor store down the street. Maybe I can get some Danishes and coffee to tide us over 'til breakfast."
"Do you really want to go out now?"
"Yeah, I told you: I'm hungry." The bed rocked slightly and squeaked as Richard rolled out. Alicen heard Richard dress himself with his jeans and undershirt he had worn the night before and leave the room. Sleep descended onto Alicen quickly. As she felt her eyelids looming to a close, she rolled over to check on Jalyn one last time. Her child slept peacefully in her bed, but beyond the bed Alicen glimpsed something she would not think about until much, much later. For beyond the bed where her child slept, from out of the bathroom, emerged a softly glowing orb of blue and white light. Alicen's eyes snapped shut.
* * * * *
"Come on, we gotta get the hell outta here!" Richard's yelling jolted Alicen and their child right out of their beds.
"What is it Richard?" a still half-asleep Alicen asked.
"This town's gone mad!"
The screams and wails of sirens hit Alicen for the first time, and there were lots of them.
"Come on, baby girl," Richard said to his daughter as he snatched her out of bed.
"What's going on, daddy?" Jalyn rubbed her eyes.
Alicen pulled back the room's curtains. The outside world of little West Archer was entirely was a huge, swirling black pool of smoke. About two miles down the road the entire town became a forest fire with homes and buildings being the flames' kindling.
"Richard!" Alicen cried.
"Yes, I know. We gotta get outta here." Richard grabbed Alicen with his free arm and pulled her towards the door. As the Robinson family scrambled down the flight of stairs to the parking lot Alicen felt a slight dab of something rub against the bare skin of her arm. She looked and found the sky to be filled with the ash of her burning home town and the burning remains of its good folk. She couldn't help but look again in horror at the small town where she had grown up. That, she reflected upon immediately, was a mistake for that is when she saw the greatest horror of horrors she had ever known. She could compare it to nothing but the gloriously sickening visages often found deep within Richard's Bible. She could smell the acrid smell of flesh burning and ichor filling the streets. And Alicen froze in her place..
Stygian clouds roiled up and into the morning sky, blacking out all hopes of a sunrise. And out of this black, ominous, evil set of clouds came forth a thing of silver like a giant proverbial knife slicing through the thickness of a cloud layer come to life. This sliver of silver grew larger and larger until Alicen could tell its enormity in full. The entire slick streak of steel stretched a mile wide and had the unmistakable shape of a chromium plated cigar. A great beam of orange-yellow light flashed from the surface of the hovering apparatus and down into the gut of the little Texas town of West Archer, sending more flames bellowing high into the sky.
"Richard!" Alicen screamed with more force than she could have ever imagined she could muster. Richard responded by stopping at the foot of the stairs, his baby girl crying in fear and confusion in his arms, and followed the path of his wife's eyes to the great menacing machine heading their way. Richard's mouth dropped wide, unable at first to comprehend anything his eyes were telling him about the world that was being laid to waste at the moment.
Then, finally, he muttered with mottled fear and disgust with what might have been his first real breath he had in minutes, "My God, we're being invaded." Richard continued his stare for a moment longer until the cries of his child growing louder brought him about to the task he had at hand.
"Come on!" he yelled at his wife and she began to move again, too.
Soon the entire Robinson family was in their Ford Bronco. Tires squealed and filled the air with the stench of rubber, not that anyone would notice any time soon over the rest of the entirely bizarre and grotesque smells filling the air at the moment. Richard almost hit the motel manager as he stood near the sidewalk, awed at the apocalypse ensuing before him.
"Richard, what the hell is that thing?" Alicen asked.
"What the hell do you think it is? It's a God-damned fucken UFO!"
Alicen shook and shivered with fear as Richard's words spoke what her mind until then, either out of fear or confusion, could not. Then the horrible reality of it all struck her hard. Tears began to flow and she felt foolish for wanting to cry because she immediately felt the futility of tears at that moment. More than half the town had been engulfed in the arms of death in what she could only guess to be a very short time. She could do nothing for her town. Nothing for her friends. Nothing. Except, maybe, she could save her family. That's all she could do and she resolved herself to the task with the immediacy of having to accept the existence of flying saucers upon having seen one destroy her home town. Speculation was over, it was time to save her family.
"What can we do?" Alicen asked Richard. "Where will we go?"
"Far away from here," Richard said as he pointed the Bronco out of town and hit the gas hard.
* * * * *
Fire Chief Dan Wickum, having given up all hope of fighting any of the ensuing blazes that consumed his small community, stood at the corner of Main and Champion streets and turned his attention to directing people out of the little town turned war-zone. Fire hydrants snapped for unknown reasons, rocketing through the air. The streaming water left behind helped to stir the thick black smoke into living, swirling plumes until he and Officer Akawa, located somewhere behind him, could no longer see each other. Car alarms screamed and the ground rumbled, drowning out the screams of the people running for their lives. The smoke engulfed Dan until he could not see. But still Dan refused to leave anyone behind. From out of the choking black smoke materialized old Mr. Parcel.
"Akawa! I got one over here!" Dan yelled as he grabbed Mr. Parcel. Dan removed his oxygen mask and placed it on the older man's face. From the black walls of smoke behind him appeared Officer Akawa, handkerchief in-hand and held over his face. Officer Akawa scooped up Mr. Parcel in his arms, taking Dan's oxygen tank, too. Dan turned again to search for more people.
"Dan! What are you doing? We have to get the hell out of here!" Akawa yelled.
"I can't leave anyone behind! Not a damn one! Ya hear me? Now get him outta here!"
Just then the earth beneath their feet shook violently. Akawa nearly lost his grip on old Mr. Parcel.
"What the hell was that?" Akawa yelled after Dan. The smoke of war surrounding them parted and granted them a view of a monstrous metallic thing. It was tall, twelve feet or more with arms like a man. It had no legs but instead from the trunk down it had a massive mechanism with tracks giving it mobility. It's chest was broad and round and it's head looked like an inverted bucket with antennae on top. At the end of it's left arm was a vise-like gripping hand. The right arm extended down into three long tubes. The metal creature lifted its right arm up and pointed it of to one side of the men. Each of the tubes flickered and flashed for a moment like metal heating inside of a microwave oven, then three solid beams of light came flying out the end and through the walls of smoke with a sizzle and crack of electricity. In the direction that the creature shot, Dan heard an explosion and felt the ground shake.
"It's a damn robot!" Dan yelled.
"Dan! Duck!" Officer Akawa screamed at the top of his lungs.
Dan turned towards Officer Akawa, taking his eyes off the robotic invader for the first time. Flying at him from the direction that the robot had shot was a long piece of lead pipe. Fire Chief Dan Wickum shot through the air as the pipe sliced into him, picking him up off his feet and sending him airborne.
* * * * *
Richard Robinson refused to let up on the gas peddle even as he wove his way in and out of other terror-stricken citizens tried to run and drive out of town.
"Richard, be careful!" Alicen screamed at him. But he wasn't going to listen to her warnings. All he knew was that all hell had broken loose on the little Texas town of West Archer and he was bound and determined to get his family out at any cost.
In the back seat Jalyn cried out in a long stream of fear and confusion.
"Jalyn, we'll be alright." Alicen tried to soothe her.
"Don't worry, baby girl," Richard called back to his daughter, "I'll get you outta here no mater what." Richard's face grew more stern as something inside him strengthened and resolved itself.
"No matter what," he repeated to himself.
* * * * *
Officer Akawa rushed to the nearest car, a beat-up old Corolla, with Mr. Parcel in his arms. He set Mr. Parcel down next to the car.
"Can you stand?" asked Akawa. The old man nodded and coughed, holding Akawa's handkerchief to his face.
Akawa's attention was drawn to the car due to it's open windows. He threw open the passenger door.
"Get in!" Akawa made sure that Mr. Parcel got in, then ran to the other side of the car. He crawled behind the wheel and bent over to search below the dashboard.
"One good thing about being a member of the LAPD before I moved here," he told Mr. Parcel as the car started, "you get to learn how to do nifty stuff like hot-wire a car. Buckle up, Mr. Parcel. We're getting the hell out of here!"
Akawa released the brake and slammed his foot on the gas peddle.
* * * * *
"Richard! Slow down!" Alicen screamed at her husband.
"We gotta get out of here!" he yelled back. Black smoke filled the streets making it hard to see. Explosions rocked the ground beneath their speeding Bronco. Richard drove forward, slicing through the choking smoke of the burning city. Madness and obsession captured him. He was going to get his family out alive, no matter what.
"Richard! Look out!" Alicen screamed just as Richard slammed on the brakes. But it was too late. A panel-truck pierced through the black smoke, just in front of the Robinson's Bronco. The Bronco spun out of control. Jalyn's screams were drowned out by the squeal of tires and the crunch of metal on metal. The Bronco slammed sideways into a telephone poll that then collapsed on top of the Ford. Somewhere under the mish-mash of metal sat the twisted remains of Richard Robinson. Alicen Robinson's body remained in the passenger seat, the door crushing in on her from the right. A massive indenture in her forehead bled profusely where her face had smashed into the dashboard. And in the back seat, behind her mother, sat little Jalyn screaming in fear and confusion.
Soon, though, outside her door appeared a small ball of bluish-white light. Jalyn calmed immediately. She unfastened her seatbelt and opened the door. She remembered this ball from her classroom, and she had the same feeling of familiarity and friendliness when she looked at it.
Jalyn stood outside the car, staring at the ball as it lowered itself to her eye-level. The ball began to move away from her. She didn't really think about it, but she immediately followed the path of the ball. It led her to the sidewalk and then lowered itself down into the drain where rain water flowed into the sewer during the wet winters of West Archer. Jalyn followed, getting on her hands and knees to crawl into the drain. Once below the street, the ball remained hovering in front of her for a second, then disappeared.
* * * * *
Richard Robinson found himself enveloped in a blue mist. He wasn't sure where he was. All he could remember was the image of the little city of West Archer engulfed in flames and smoke. So he naturally thought himself to be wandering the streets of his home town. He immediately began to search for his family. It didn't take long for him to find Alicen. She wandered toward him, arms extended and beckoning to him.
"Alicen!" he called to her. The bluish-white mist around them swirled gracefully. Beyond his wife he saw a bright, inviting white light and was immediately drawn to it.
"Richard, where's Jalyn?" Alicen asked.
He paused, "I-I don't know." Richard felt a rush of peaceful feeling rush over him and he knew something was wrong. He didn't know where his daughter was but he wasn't finding himself awashed with concern.
"Alicen. Richard." The voice was soft, low and familiar. Both turned to find Alicen's father walking out of the blue mist that surrounded them.
"Daddy?" Alicen cried.
"Yes, sweetie. We have to help Jalyn." the old man said as he approached Richard and Alicen.
"Dad, where are we?" Both Richard and Alicen looked toward the bright white light as she finished her question. They both immediately knew the answer to her question.
"We're dead." Richard said.
"Jalyn!" Alicen cried. "Wait, she's alive isn't she?"
"Yes," confirmed Alicen's father. "But not for long if we don't do something."
"What's going on, dad?" Richard asked. Again, the minute he asked he somehow knew the answer. The earth was being invaded by a race of aliens from the planet Korlon. They numbered only six, but that was all they needed for the aliens had at their disposal an army of automatons that would do most of their dirty work. And West Archer was being attacked because the Korlons wanted to take control of the nearby nuclear facilities, disabling the entire southwestern United States by effectively cutting of all power and even communications. The other aliens were elsewhere across the globe making similar such strategic strikes.
All looked hopeless to Richard, until again a wave of knowledge washed over him.
"A small group of rebellious humans will live nomadically for years in the Mojave desert. Eventually, their numbers will grow to make a formidable stand against the invaders," explained Alicen's father.
"How is it that we know all this?" Alicen asked.
"I don't know," he answered. Again Alicen and Richard looked toward the inviting light that seemed to be beckoning to them.
"No," Alicen said toward the light, "We have to stay. We have to help Jalyn make it to the desert. Right, dad?"
"That's right," he affirmed, "I've been trying to help her since I first died. I've been trying to appear before her, to warn her. To drive you two away from West Archer. But I failed. Now, I have led her into the sewers near the edge of town."
"We need to contact someone to get them to help her." Richard said.
"We can't really communicate with the living. But I do have someone in mind," explained the Alicen's father.
* * * * *
Fire Chief Dan Wickum found himself surrounded by a beautiful, soft, blue glowing mist. Before him, in the distance, a bright light beckoned to him. He stepped towards it peacefully.
"Wickum! Dan Wickum!" A voice called to him from somewhere within the surrounding mist. The Robinson family materialized at his side.
"Dan!" Richard cried. "We need your help!"
"W-well, sure. What's wrong?"
Alicen's father stepped forward. "You're not truly dead yet. We need you to go back. Your city needs you. We need you."
"Dan, our daughter is in the sewer drain near the corner of Main and Harper... at the edge of town. Please, go help her!" Alicen pleaded.
"Mr. Wickum. Your services are still needed. You must rescue my granddaughter and take her to the desert." Alicen's father explained.
"Yes... y-yes, my duties come first." Deep within Dan Wickum a certain resolve formed itself. And soon, he was no longer dying.
* * * * *
Dan Wickum pulled himself up off the ground. deeply embedded in the right side of his chest was a thick lead pipe. Without thinking of the consequences, he grabbed the damnedable thing and yanked on it hard, removing it from his body. He screamed so loudly that he was afraid he might draw the attention of the invading robots nearby, but the sudden shock of pain easily caused an override of his fear. Chief Wickum found himself back on his knees. Using the lead pipe for support, he pushed himself up off the ground. He gathered what strength he had left inside himself and headed off towards the corner of Main and Harper.
* * * * *
Officer Akawa found himself charging headlong into the body of one of the invading robots in the little Corolla.
"Hold tight, Mr. Parcel!" Akawa hit the gas and smashed the car into the attacker. The Corolla spun into the intersection of Main and Harper. The robot flew back from the car's wrath, rolling into the front yard of a home.
"Mr. Parcel, are you okay?"
Mr. Parcel raised his hand in a gesture of "okay."
"Good." Akawa noticed the little Corolla's engine had dropped out from under it as the hood and front end caved in from hitting the robot. "Stay here. I'm going to find another car."
Akawa stepped out of the car. He grabbed the door to the car as a shock of dizziness overcame him. He immediately knew he had to have hit his head when he ran down the robot. He looked over towards the robot to see if he had put it out of commission. From out of the smoke beyond the unfunctioning robot appeared Fire Chief Dan Wickum.
"My god!" Akawa exclaimed as he ran for the Fire Chief. "Dan! I thought you were dead! Oh my go! And I just left you there!"
"It's ok. We gotta get to Jalyn Robinson."
"You're hurt. I need to find us another car."
"You do that. I'm going for the girl."
"Where is she?"
"In the sewers. Just go. Now!"
Officer Akawa ran off towards the damaged panel truck in the middle of the intersection. Dan Wickum headed towards the sewer drain of the curb. He passed the humongous robot lying in a front yard. The robot shifted, moving it's arm full of laser firing barrels in his direction. Lead pipe still in hand, he plunged the thick rod deep into the red glowing area of the robot's head that can only be described as it's visor.
Electricity charged the lead pipe, rocketing Chief Wickum several feet backyards and across the street. As Chief Wickum regained his composure, he noticed that the robot now seemed permanently out of commission. Wickum straightened his thickly meshed fire jacket and headed for the drainage ditch.
* * * * *
"Come on, little darlin'. Grab my hand." Chief Wickum pleaded with Jalyn to trust him. She reached up so he could grab the small child's wrist and pull her out of the sewer.
"Dan!" Akawa yelled. "Over here!" The police officer carried the elderly Mr. Parcel in his arms to the panel truck that had proven to be the disastrous demise of the Robinson family. Wickum swept Jalyn up into his arms and headed for the same truck. The engine was running. Wickum plopped little Jalyn in the passenger seat next to Mr. Parcel who held her close.
"Akawa! Gimme your gun!" Wickum yelled. Akawa did this and climbed into the driver's seat. Wickum loaded himself into the flatbed in the back of the panel truck and he tapped the cab's roof signaling Akawa to go. The panel truck lurched forward as Wickum braced himself. He eyed the area, looking for anything he might have to shoot at.
"Akawa!" he finally yelled down towards the open driver's window. "Get us out of town, then head west to the Mojave! That's where's we'll find refuge!"
He could be sure amidst the noise and confusion of the alien invasion, but he thought that the good officer Akawa had yelled back at him with an affirmative. The Mojave wasn't going to be much of a home for them, but it was going to be their home. The panel truck disappeared into the smoky outline that surrounded the city.
"Yeah," Chief Wickum said to himself. "It won't be much. But it'll be home. An home is where people take care of each other. No matter what."
Chief Akawa gunned the truck and headed west for the desert.
The End