I watched my friends go one by one. Their haunted screams chipped away at my heart. It tortured my mind and dread gnawed inside me. My thoughts were so tangled that I couldn’t even think. I felt selfish and ashamed when I thought Please don’t let it be me. Take everyone before me. I backed away from the window and drew the curtains. I stood in the middle of my room in a terror that was slowly annihilating my head. My hope of me surviving slimmed to a mere chance. The aliens were swiftly taking over our world.

      My neighborhood was destroyed. The house that hid me was the last one standing. I shivered. Glass shattered downstairs and my mother screamed. This can’t be happening! I thought miserably. I closed my eyes and felt tears leak out. I crawled under my bed and whispered, “Mommy.” Something metallic clattered up the stairs and skittered across the polished floorboards. I held my breath, fearing it would hear the air that desperately wanted to leave my mouth.  The thing stopped before my bedroom door.  The door creaked and swung open.  It crept in and paused in front of my bed. I saw its feet, a steel spike balls that rolled when it moved. I heard the squeak of metal against metal as it bent down on the left side of the bed.  Silently I inched out from under the bed. The metallic screech came closer. Trembling I crawled as fast as I can the rest of the way. I saw the thing’s green back and darted out of the room.

     I didn’t stop running until I was on the next block. I sighed in bitter relief and leaned against a charred tree. You shouldn’t be feeling relieved that your friends and family are gone. I was so engrossed in my melancholy that I didn’t realize until I was walking down the street that it was eerily quiet. I stopped and looked around.  The houses looked perfectly normal, but there was something off. I felt like I had stepped into a different realm. Then I noticed it. Each house looked exactly the same. They were all bright white with a round door and three windows. The windows all had green curtains and the doors had shiny, brass knobs. Even the front roses were in an organized crimson array of 6 by 6. It was a subtle noise that chittered from inside the houses that seized my attention. It didn’t sound human. Cold fear dripped through me. However, a low, whirring noise interrupted my thoughts.  Something blocked the sun and stirred the leaves as a large drone-like plane landed in front of me. A long aluminum tube exited the drone and reached towards me. I yelled and turned around, leaping away. My legs were running before they hit the ground, but I was too slow and it coiled around my waist like an icy, steel snake.

        I felt a wonderful feeling of weightlessness before I was pulled into the drone. I kicked and struggled to no avail.

       “Noooooooo!” I shouted helplessly. I felt regret hack me mercilessly. I thought of the other people. I imagined myself a coward. This is what you get for not helping your friends. Suddenly a sense of acceptance came over me from the frightened notion that terrorized me. What will I do if this planet would be inhabited by creatures from another galaxy? Me, the only human left. Maybe it was better that I was captured. As I was taken inside that machine, the anticipation that controlled me disintegrated. Mommy, I’m coming for you.