Chapter 62
Backstories
Leo was in his pod when Trent contacted him to let him know what had happened. It felt strange, playing the game and communicating via implant at the same time.
Leo/Future Man 10/16: Shit, Trent. I don't know what to tell you. Assuming I can't stop the Change and we don't get thrown in jail, you can join us. If the Change happens, we can definitely use a high-level pyro-mage.
Pyro Mage 43:2: I don't know what to do. I think God wants me to stay here and fight. But not seeing how we can win this one.
Future Man 10/16: I'll talk to Mr. Osmond. Since I have a good idea what happens in this area, you should join forces with us and make a stand in the city. With any luck, we'll be better prepared this time around. Have to go now. I'm in the middle of a VR game that will, hopefully, shed light on what the aliens are up to.
Leo sighed. Jason hadn't been kidding about the lousy character backstories.
***
Nina
“Take this katana, Nina, and wield it with honor,” Granddad said. The old man knelt in front of her, holding out his sword.
Fourteen-year-old Nina Katsuri backed away. Granddad had to be joking. The sword was the old man's pride and joy. A Damascus steel blade with a razor-sharp edge. Though she'd trained in Kendo for years, she wasn't allowed to touch it. But today the old man had called her into his room while wearing a kimono and kneeling in a meditative pose. Even he wasn't this formal.
“Mom!” Mom should be in the kitchen, making tea or something, but today there was silence.
“Come with me, Granddad. It's time for your nap.”
“No! Don't patronize me, Nina. Take this sword. Your family is no longer human and you must kill them all. As for me, I will take my own life.” He thrust the katana into Nina's hands, then pulled out a shorter sword, a tanto, and stabbed the blade into his stomach. With a groan, he forced the blade upward. Blood came pouring out.
“No!” Nina backed away, hyperventilating. Granddad was performing hari kiri, a ritualized suicide. Nobody did that anymore, even in Japan. She knew how it was done. She was supposed to use the katana to cut off his head now. Instead, she backed away in horror. “MOM!” She shouted. “Granddad is trying to kill himself!”
Mom came into the room.
Thank God, she thought. Mom will know what to do.
Mom's mouth opened wider and wider. Tentacles came pouring out. Mom's head tilted back. She screamed and charged Nina.
This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.
Nina drew Granddad's prized razor-sharp sword. Years of kendo training gave her the skill to cut off her mother's head without thinking. Her granddad was next to change and attack her, his tanto still buried in his middle. She cut off his head. Then her grandmother, brother, sister...
***
Sophie
“Tommy, where are you?” Sophie shouted, looking through the house for her brother, “Aliens are here, Tommy. I told you this would happen. Our libtard government lets aliens into the country without checking them first. So now we're all going to die. Typical.”
A staticky AM radio played in the background.
Anybody out there? If you're one of my three listeners. Hysterical laughter. This is Crazy Zeke and I could really use some help. Just killed my assistant with my shotgun. He was one of them. Shuddering breath. His blood and brains are on the wall next to me. Oh, God. Aliens are everywhere and they're hungry. They'll attack anyone, anything. Hell, I saw one in the distance try to eat a lamp post. They're getting bigger. One was at least eight feet tall.
Sophie passed a sticker on the wall saying “Guns Don't Kill People, Bullets Do,” next to a large cross, and a second sticker, “God Bless the NRA.”
“You get your stuff packed, Tommy. I'll get the guns,” Sophie called out, opening the gun safe, trying to decide what to take.
She strapped on her .44 magnum and grabbed the largest gun in the safe. It was a heavy bolt-action rifle that fired one of the largest bullets obtainable outside the military. Made to penetrate armor at long distances. Take that, alien scum.
“Tommy, you'd better be packing your stuff. Oh, there you are.” Sophie's eight-year-old brother Tommy came out of his bedroom. He looked like he was about to speak, but instead, he opened his mouth and tentacles poured out.
“Nooo!” Sophie cried out. Tommy was one of the few people in the world she cared about. “Tommy, fight it!”
Tommy screamed. She could tell from the horrified look in his eyes that part of him was still in there.
There was an explosion behind Sophie, and Tommy's head exploded. It was Uncle Luther, holding a pistol.
This time, it was Sophie's turn to scream.
“It had to be done.” Her uncle went to the door. “Run to the truck. I'll cover you.”
“Just a second. I forgot my personal things,” she said.
“Well, hurry up and get them. We need to get out of here.” Uncle Luther kept a nervous eye on the surrounding neighborhood.
Sophie hated her uncle. He was a creep, and that was before he killed her brother.
Sophie stepped away, walking towards the bathroom, then she turned around, grabbed her .44 Magnum, and pointed it at her uncle. At the last second, her uncle sensed what she was doing and turned around, looking straight at her the moment she fired. Head-shot. The gun's recoil pushed her back, but she'd had plenty of experience firing it.
The bullet went through her uncle's head and put a hole in the front door large enough to see through. Her uncle dropped to the floor, his face and head a blasted ruin.
This is Crazy Zeke, and I've spent decades warning people of this alien invasion. I really thought I'd be ready for it when it happened, but I'm not. I'm terrified. They're pounding on the studio door. Over twenty aliens outside. If I leave the studio, I'm dead. I'm on the outskirts of the city, on the corner of Hewie and Lewie Street. Next to Zeke's gas station, which is mine, obviously. Laughter. Crazy Zeke - Zekes gas station. Get it? I have a lead on a possible weakness that could help us drive off these aliens, but I need someone to get me out of here. Please, anybody...
Crazy Zeke droned on. Sophie stopped listening.
"I thought Uncle Luther was an alien," she said quietly to herself. "That's what I'll tell everyone. Anyone could have made that mistake." She curled up on the floor and started crying.