Light seared Ian’s eyes. Blindly, he aimed his gun at the source of the light and fired shells as fast as he could pump the gun. He had never been this terrified in his life, his mind reduced to acting on instinct; the light had to go if they were to see the aliens and defend the women in the house.

John stumbled on a decorative rock set to one side of the walkway, his rifle discharging into the night sky as he fell.

As he exited the house, the sun seemed to be Guy’s eyes as a bolt of lightning came out of the sun and ripped across his head, the light mercifully blotted out. The pain was instant and incredible. He tried to cry out, his words lost in a wet gasp, the piece of a gun he still held falling from his grasp as he collapsed on the porch, not knowing his blood was pouring across the cement and half his face gone.

Landing painfully on the ground, John righted himself and turned away from the light to see Guy slump to the porch, covered in gore.

The light winked out of existence at the same moment Ian felt a heavy blow to his chest, his arms going suddenly numb. He looked down and saw the smoking ruin of his chest as he fell to the ground beside John.

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He was a cop; it was his life, a way of thinking, but John could remember no experience that could answer the predicament he was in. Part of his mind registered the deaths of Guy and Ian and the dire need to protect the women in the house, balancing against the need for survival, while the rest of his attention was on a way to turn the situation to his advantage.

The open yard was not the place to make a stand against the aliens while exposed. The house was a death trap if he tried to fight from there while he would draw the aliens in to the family he was trying to protect.

There was only one option, and it called for courage.

Stretching flat on his stomach and controlling his breathing, he tried to build his energy. He had to move fast if he was going to make it to his destination.

Thinking of his wife in the house, her blond hair and playful smile, her love. He could not see her die like her brothers; he had to take the battle to the aliens.

Tensing his muscles, John leaped to his feet and made a dash to the woods, hoping he was running away from the spot the light had glared from and far enough away from the spacecraft to begin a deadly game of cat and mouse.

He waited for the shot that would take him before he reached the woods.