“After the Ohio incursion, and the uplifting of our new Vanguard Protectors, we have tried our best to come up with an early warning system to detect the incursions. The problem we have faced in this endeavour is that we have no damn clue how they do whatever the heck that ominous rip in the sky is. Frankly it's kind of annoying. Really, if it wasn’t so vital to our survival, it would be exciting. In the years since, we have started trying to figure out all we could, but so far, we have learned very little. We do know that there are some signs that point to an incursion before it happens, but only by minutes, and none of them are very helpful. Like, for example, who is going to be able to recognise that an incursion is coming based on the fact that the place starts to smell like someone just mowed their lawn. It’s just crazy to think anybody could do something like that.”
* Quote from Oliver Nordstrum Ph.D, during an impromptu interview at a Starbucks, 2031
Our little group continued our slow walk, the others still immersed in inane conversation I couldn’t care less about. With my gaze flitting about, darting to every bit of movement I could see, I lost myself in the sounds and scents of the park. Zuri’s hand still held in my own just added to the relaxed atmosphere, and I let my worries dissipate slowly.
We were slowly making our way around a bend, flower beds on either side of the little pathway. They weren’t anything special, if I identified them correctly, but they did make the place a whole lot more lively.
I was distracted from the pleasant sight by a sudden shift in the scent of the wind.
I wasn’t quite sure what it was. There was a hint of something I knew, something I didn’t like. It didn’t smell of danger, just some unpleasantness, but that alone was enough for me to take note of it. And I zeroed in on it immediately.
Letting my senses wander, I took in everything around me. From the low rustling of the leaves, to the distant laughter of some children. The smell of the foliage, the earthen scent, and the hints of food in the distance. It didn’t take long for me to figure out what exactly had raised my hackles.
At the end of the slow bend was a bigger open area, decorated with a few park benches, a surprisingly clean trash bin or two, and some more flowers. In the middle of it all, with their back facing us, was a group of people I was very familiar with. And one I could definitely go without ever seeing again.
Leon and his lackeys were boisterously, and obnoxiously, talking about shit that I couldn’t make out. Not that I had any desire to. Swaggering around as if they owned the place, they were too loud, too annoying, and acted like total dickheads. Pretty typical behaviour for them, now that I thought about it.
My mood worsened immediately, and I tensed up, hands clenching. Zuri noticed immediately, of course, and she gave me a glance. I didn’t turn to her, eyes locked on the bane of my existence, and she followed my gaze. When she noticed the group in front of us, she pulled the rest of us to a stop with casual ease, joining the conversation.
My attention was locked on Leon, fixed on the man who’d been such an insufferable dick for the past three years or so. Ever since I enrolled at this college, he’s been the perfect example of a fucking bastard. I had no idea why he had it out for me. I’ve never even spoken a word with him before, but ever since he first laid eyes on me he just couldn’t stop being a massive asshole. Always acting like this tough macho who was better than anyone else, despite having no redeeming qualities.
The worst part of it all was that I never had the chance to show him what being competent actually meant. Oh sure, I could have, multiple times, but Zuri had stopped me. Every single time.
Probably for the best. If she hadn’t, I might have already murdered him. I had the plans for that prepared for a long time already. Not that it would be hard. He and his goons were often going around the less savoury parts of town. A small little accident here, some unforeseen events there. It wouldn’t even be hard to dispose of the bodies!
Their families would be a bit more trouble to get rid of, but even that could be done with a couple of weeks' work. I knew where they all lived, of course. Gathering everything I needed on them had been almost instinctual. Their homes weren’t specifically secured from break ins, nor would it be hard to catch them on their own one after the other. Really, all I needed to worry about was where to get the gear I’d need for the little expedition.
Zuri finally pulled me out of my thoughts, gently squeezing my hand. I blinked, a bit surprised, chastising myself for getting so distracted by that bastard again. With an inward sigh, I tried to calm myself down, actively controlling my breathing and letting the tension flow out of me.
Stop thinking about all of that! That ain’t your life anymore. How many times are you going to let yourself slip like this, hm?
Our group turned, Zuri casually leading us along a different path. I knew that this would be the more scenic route towards our destination. Before we had even set foot in this park I had studied the ground plan and maps, every last bit of information available.
Zuri kept one eye on me, and I gave her a short, grateful glance. I had no idea what I’d do if she’d ever leave me alone.
“Do you think they have a proper BBQ bacon?” Sydney asked, now that it’s been decided that we would visit the pizza place nearby.
I deliberately focused on their discussions in an attempt to get my mind back on track.
“Why don’t you check? Their menu’s posted online,” Cori said, her first words since Zuri and I joined the group earlier.
Sydney nodded at that with enthusiasm. “Good idea.”
There was a momentary lull in the conversation while the girls checked the menu. I didn’t bother, not much of a fan of the feeds. There was too much trash there–too many clickbait posts and sponsored ads, an endless stream of fake news and misinformation.
Not to mention the slew of baggage that was waiting for me in the digital realm. Better to just not engage with it, even if it wasn’t always easy. I couldn’t completely distance myself from it, of course. It was 2050, after all, but I did my best to only use it in case of emergency.
Willing myself to think about literally anything else, I watched the trees as we walked past. Many of them were just your average tree, although I learned a few interesting things about them today. Like the fact that the trees with white bark were Aspen trees, not Birch trees. As it turned out, there was more than one type of tree with the characteristic white bark. I didn’t know what I’d ever do with that information, but I had it now.
Eventually we got closer to our destination. The small pathway, and the tunnel of trees it led through, slowly opened up towards a more open area. Located at the edge of one of the smaller lakes, it was surrounded by a good bit of greenery. In the middle of it all, prominently displayed on the red brick plaza, was the building we were looking for.
The style was very much not like what I had expected. Really, the design should’ve clashed with everything else, looking more like something straight out of 2025. But for some reason it didn’t. Large windows and a slightly oversized roof made it look quite inviting. The vibrant reds, yellows, and orange tones set it apart nicely from its surroundings. And the brickwork that made up the ground around the building gave it a surprisingly homey and cozy feeling.
From our position we had a pretty good view of the inside. The big windows in front let in a lot of light, revealing an interior design that reminded me a bit of those old school Italian restaurants. It certainly had style, even if it was very different from the modern look you’d find literally anywhere else in this city.
On one side of the building was a well designed outside seating area. Artfully decorated chairs and tables, all following the same design philosophy as the rest of the place, were arrayed neatly, some flowers and bushes giving it a bit of life. To the untrained eye it looked very haphazard, but I didn’t even take a second to see the system by which everything had been placed.
And, of course, it gave a perfect view of the lake.
To nobody’s surprise, our group naturally steered towards the outside area, lost in their conversation about this and that. Picking a table not far from the water, I took the corner seat closest to the nearest path back towards the entrance of the park. It was a habit I had never been able to break. Without having to say anything, Zuri sat down next to me, aware of my thought process. This way she too would be able to get away quickly. I gave her a minute nod in thanks.
Our hands were still interlinked, and I took a deep breath, taking in my surroundings and the pleasant wind. Thoughts about Leon and all the other unpleasant things were soon all gone, lost to the wind. Leah picked up some of the menus and handed them around, even though they had checked the digital version earlier already.
To my pleasant surprise, the menus were actually made of almost genuine paper. Very antique, and very fitting.
“How are you doing?” Zuri’s words were quiet, her smile holding a faint hint of worry. We were both going over the menu, but I didn’t miss her attention being mostly on me.
“Better… I think.” My reply wasn’t quite a lie, but it wasn’t the full truth either. Right now wasn’t the right time to go into more detail. The day was too nice for that.
“You’ve been more tense again in the past few days,” she replied, not a rebuttal, simply a statement. She was worried, I could almost taste it.
“Had a lot of bad dreams. Again. And while the trip is nice…” I left the statement hanging, knowing she would understand. That was the best thing about Zuri, she understood me almost instinctively.
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“Want to talk about it?” she asked gently, but I shook my head.
In response she let the subject drop, another thing I liked about Zuri. She didn’t pry, she gave me the time I needed, and she didn’t make me feel like I owed her any answers.
For the next couple of minutes we all went over the different meals on offer. Leah and Nia were deeply immersed in a heated discussion which Pizza would be better, while Sydney was going over her choice of lunch in meticulous detail.
Zuri eventually settled on a proper meatlovers, no surprise there. She lived for the stuff, and I was wondering if there’d ever be a day she would order something else. Even if there was, it likely wouldn’t be here. According to the menu, they offered actual, genuine, lab grown meat. Which just made me raise my eyebrows when I saw the price. Only 5100 credits for a pizza this good? There had to be a catch somewhere in that, right?
Oh well. We’d find that one out soon enough.
After some perusing, I eventually decided on a Pizza Tonno. I’d never tried one before, and today felt like a good day to try some new food. Hopefully it’d live up to my expectations. Leah and Nia, of course, took the longest. Or maybe Cori did, I could never tell. They did all eventually settle on something, though, which was good.
Sydney was the only one who had known what she wanted before we even arrived, but even she had gone over all the different toppings on offer. The moment she saw that they had actual cheese to go along with her BBQ bacon, she’d almost squealed in delight. That girl was far too much into that stuff.
With the food decided, the group returned their conversation to other topics. Mainly thanks to Leah, who was unable to go without talking for so long as a minute.
“Have you seen Magenta’s latest stream? Liquid Catalyst was on, she’s so damn cute! Like, okay, she has nothing on Moonbun, but still.”
Sydney chimed in before anyone was able to answer the question. “Isn’t Moonbun the one that did that charity event recently? The one where they sold that plushie for that cancer foundation or what it was?”
“Yeah. Tax write offs, I’m sure,” Nia muttered with a dismissive gesture of her hand. “No way in hell there’s still one of those charities around.”
“No, it’s real. I heard Paragon runs it, she wouldn’t let anyone mess with it,” Sydney insisted. “They even published the invoice to prove that they actually sent all the money there.”
“Yeah, but like, that shit can be faked so easily,” Leah countered, just as dismissively as her friend had been.
Sydney shot her a disapproving glare, “Not everyone is out to get you, y’know? There are still some nice people out there. Aren’t you the one who’s always on about how Samurai are these heroes and shit?”
Zuri giggled at that, giving Leah a mirthful glance. “You did say that.”
“Fine, whatever,” Leah relented, rolling her eyes. “Anyway! So, like, Liquid Catalyst was on and she was so damn cute. I wonder what kind of fanfictions are out there for her. Probably should check. Like, there is so much potential there.”
“Oh, for fucks sake,” Sydney sighed in mock-complaint, giving her friend an exasperated look, “do you think of nothing else?”
“The day you stop yapping about all those weirdo boys, I’ll stop pestering you about Samurai,” Leah retorted in annoyance.
Nia and Zuri both broke up in laughter, much to Sydney’s chagrin. Everyone present knew that that would be an impossibility. Even I couldn’t suppress a faint smile of amusement.
“Just because you are too gay to appreciate a handsome man, doesn’t mean I can’t enjoy myself,” Sydney replied haughtily.
“Yeah, but guys are fucking weird. All that talk about cars and guns and games and stuff, doesn’t that get old?” Nia firmly sided with Leah, earning herself a glare from Sydney. Which she, of course, ignored.
“Hey, don’t start generalising now,” Zuri chastised, “There are plenty of guys who aren’t like that.”
“Sure, but those aren’t the ones Syd is talking about. Also, don’t you start picking sides now. We all know that you are even more indecisive than either of us,” Nia shot back.
“I’m not indecisive!” Zuri defended herself indignantly. “I just appreciate both sides.”
They were interrupted in their bickering, when one of the waiters made his way over. He was a handsome young man, probably around my age, maybe a year or two older, wearing a work uniform that very much fit the rest of the restaurant in terms of style. It gave him a strangely fitting sort of gentlemen-like look, especially with his carefully styled hair and the well groomed goatee.
What surprised me the most, though, was that he didn’t look like he wanted to jump off the next skyscraper. I felt almost stupid even thinking it, but it almost looked like he enjoyed the job. That could mean three things, generally. Either the place was far better than I would’ve given them credit for, which was generally highly unlikely. The man was a massive masochist, in which case, more power to him, I guess. Or he was a bit mentally damaged. I couldn’t quite decide yet which one was more likely.
“Welcome, ladies. What can I get for you today?” His voice was pleasant and his smile seemed genuine.
The others didn’t seem to notice his suspiciously good mood, just giving the man our orders. Sydney almost jumped up and down in her seat, rattling off a long list of instructions, while Leah and Nia just gave the bare minimum needed. He noted everything down in an old school notebook, something I could very much get behind. Nothing beats a proper pen and paper. Once everyone was done, he gave us a wave and wandered off.
Before the good man had even taken three steps, the group had already descended into yet another discussion about inane things that I couldn’t give any less of a crap about if I tried. I still kept one ear on it, just in case they wanted something from me, but otherwise, I focused more on the nice view. The lake did make for a pleasant sight, even if it was obviously artificial. There were even some ducks there, which was a bit of a rarity. With most animals having died out in the last thirty odd years, having vat cloned ones around was generally reserved for the rich and influential. To see them here made me question just what all of this had cost, and why we weren’t charged ten, or even hundred times the price.
“Say, Yurei, what’s your opinion on this?” Sydney’s question ripped me out of my daydreams, and I turned to them, mentally replaying the last couple of comments to catch up.
It was about boys, again. Great.
“I don’t really care for either,” I said curtly, not really interested to get involved.
“See? You’re outnumbered,” Leah told Sydney with nearly a cheer.
“She didn’t say that she’s on your side either,” Sydney shot back, pointing with one finger like a weapon.
“Yes, but it’s two and a half against one and a half,” Leah grinned. “That means you’re outnumbered.”
“What, I’m only worth half a point?” Zuri’s voice was full of mock-hurt.
“Well, you are in both camps, so it’s either half a point for each side, or a full point for each side,” Nia shrugged, obviously pleased with herself. “Either way, we outnumber Syd.”
“Can we just talk about something else,” Sydney muttered, put off just a little.
“You were the one to bring it up,” Nia pointed out.
“Yeah, yeah. Fuck’s sake,” Sydney turned away, signalling the end of that topic.
The conversation drifted to other things, mostly school related. And to nobody’s surprise, Sydney was the one to bring up the topics of boys again. I stopped paying attention.
Our food arrived relatively soon after, the sight of the man balancing six plates, plus a tray of drinks like it was nothing, quite impressive. No time was wasted, the moment the plates hit the desk we all dug in. The scent alone had been heavenly already, but combine that with the taste? I wouldn’t have expected half the quality for the price.
Honestly, it made me question how this place was even staying in business. The ingredients alone would probably already cover most of the cost for the pizza we paid. If you added that to the cut they’d have to pay the park, however big it might be, plus the labour of the chef and the waitstaff, I wasn’t quite sure how they managed to make any profit.
But I didn’t smell anything out of the ordinary. Nor could I taste chemicals, poisons, or anything else. It was just a good pizza. Oh well. I wasn’t about to complain about cheap, good food, and really, it wasn’t my problem how they made their money.
I ate in silence, more or less ignoring the chatter from the others. None of it was of any interest to me, but given the situation, I didn’t really mind either. Friends were not something I had a lot of, and in the past three years I had learned to enjoy the company of those that I could be at least reasonably sure I could trust. At least to an extent.
Not to mention that any moment shared with Zuri was a moment worth remembering.
I lost myself in that thought, enjoying the good food and the semi-good weather. Even if the sun wasn’t out, it wasn’t raining at least. The lake smelled surprisingly semi-clean and the soft breeze had just enough chill in it to be almost hypnotising, sending my black hair into a soft dance on the wind.
I idly thought that I might need to cut it again. By this point it was starting to reach past my shoulders. And while I liked my hair, I didn’t want it too long. That could be a problem in a combat situation, one that could prove deadly.
Lost in my idle contemplations, I almost missed the subtle change. Almost.
During my training I learned to interpret the world around me in various ways. There were a lot of different signs for various different things, and once you started to pay attention to them, it was quite easy to get a good idea of what was going on without even seeing it.
This attention to detail allowed me to be very aware of even the smallest of changes in my surroundings. Quite often sight was the first sense that was tripped, although hearing could also be the first indicator. Touch was rarely the thing that alerted me to something, and if it did I would typically have to react a lot faster.
This time it was a scent that caught my attention. It was a subtle thing, hidden beneath the cacophony of the park around us. Just as silence had a sound, the stale environment could also have a smell, and this one didn’t fit. Neither the park, nor the city around us. In a way, it didn’t seem to belong to anything on this planet. As if it was alien. At the same time, it had that very familiar quality of freshly cut grass.
My hand stopped, halfway towards my mouth, the slice of pizza it held forgotten.
I couldn’t hear any lawnmower or other machinery at work. There were no signs of children playing on the grass nearby that might be the source of the scent. I also couldn’t find any indication for old grass storage, compost, or anything of the variety. And even then, the scent was much too fresh.
There was only one other thing that had this scent. Something I haven’t smelled before myself yet, but one that was infamous for it. The antithesis.
Alarm bells began to ring in my head, and I began to look around more closely, my posture shifting, my body tensing. I hadn’t felt any indication of danger before, but right now, I was certain that something was going to happen. And soon.
Before I could voice my concerns, the world around us shifted and changed.
A loud crack rang out, and then the sky darkened, an eerie red gloom settling over everything. Looking up I found four tears in the sky, leading into total blackness. And through them came dozens, maybe hundreds of big hulking masses of alien flesh.
At around the exact same time a number of pings rang out in my augs, and my HUD, something I usually kept clear of anything, displayed a large box, bold red letters running across it.
INCURSION DETECTED!
Please remain calm and make your way to the nearest shelter immediately!
My blood ran cold. The world around me seemed to stop. My mind went into overdrive, immediately assessing the situation. My eyes locked onto one of the blobs of alien flesh hurtling towards the ground, coming straight for this park.
“Fuck…”