Ethan's Fan Fiction Final

Battle: New York.

The day they came.

June 26, 2011 5:45am

Everything in New York was as normal, the streets outside are dark and empty awaiting the sunrise. Apartment lights turning on one by one a few minutes apart. This is just like any other day for Greg, waking up at 5:45 am, which is 10 minutes longer than he should have slept. He is not a very good morning person and the simplest of tasks seemed to be almost impossible until he had coffee running through his veins. Mornings were always rushed as he got ready in order to get to work on time. He worked at a small café in the heart of the city, which was slowly draining the life out of him every day he worked there. It was hardly a job he enjoyed but it covered his bills while he was waiting to be re-assigned a job in the army.

 As time was quickly passing by, Greg was now in a rush to get out the door before 6:45am in order to beat the rush hour traffic. As he left his apartment he was still finishing off his toast and had not completed buttoning up his shirt.

Once he made it out of the apartment block and onto the street, he hailed down a taxi with a high-pitched whistle and jumped in. It was not long before they had reached a traffic jam and the cars had come to a halt, so Greg paid his cab fare and jumped out and started walking down the road. While he was walking down the street he noticed that all the people walking past seemed to be in the same situation that he was, they all looked as though they were depressed and life was not getting any better for them. As he continued walking down the street past the sad and depressed faces to his work, he noticed a crowd of people gathering around a TV store window. He slowly walked over to see what the fuss was about and noticed a ‘Breaking News’ report being played on the TV. Trying to look past the numerous heads, he gets a slight glimpse of the screen and notices ‘The U.S Bank Tower’ in downtown Los Angeles had been hit by what was believed to be a large Meteorite.  A minute later, reports were coming in that the whole West Coast had been hit by a meteor shower. Buildings all across the state of California had struck by these meteors. For a moment he thought it was just an advertisement for a film to be released, everything seemed so surreal, he could not imagine something this extreme ever happening. But before he could finish his train of thought, there was a large BANG, which sounded like a bomb blast. He looked down the street to notice the road split in half and a trail of destruction leading to the bottom floor of an office building.

Adrenaline was rushing through Greg’s body as he rushed through the stampede of people towards the blast area; He just had to see what had happened with his own eyes. As he got closer and closer he became to notice what had happened and how much damage it had caused. It was one of the Meteors, like in Los Angeles he thought to himself. The damage to the building is immense, people of all ethnicities leaving the building looking like ghosts as they were covered in white concrete dust and coughing their lungs out. Burning paper documents drift down from the sky and litter the street. Moments later four more meteors roar overhead, past the high buildings, leaving a trails or smoke and flames.  Seconds later a slight tremor rips through the ground, then another and another.

All of a sudden there was a loud screeching noise (like metal rubbing against metal), then another small explosion out the side of the building where the first meteor had hit, out of the dust appeared a large machine like object. This object did not look very human like and almost looked like a robot. As it slowly emerged out of the dust, its detail became a lot clearer.  It was completely made out of mechanical metal parts that seemed to be working in some way and what looked like a short tank barrel at the front. It was a bit bigger than a small truck and seemed to be floating above ground. Suddenly it fired, once, and then twice, destroying vehicles and hurling them down the street. By this time widespread panic had spread and people including Greg were running for their lives. The sound of more shots, rip through the air, explosions are happening all down the street destroying cars, buildings and killing people. The screams of the people is now becoming deafening. Suddenly there is a blast, the sound of another gunshot, but this time it was coming from the direction everyone was running to. Everyone in the street pause for a second as they register what is happening. It was the U.S army and they had fired upon the alien vehicle. Their shot echoed through the streets and was a direct hit on the target. The alien vehicle was badly damaged but not destroyed. It starts to lose control smashing into anything in its path and coming to a halt after crashing into a bus.

As the crowds stopped running and the sound of screams had turned into cheers, everything seemed like it was going in the peoples favor, then suddenly there was another blast, this time it did not come from the tank, but another alien vehicle two blocks down. The shot completely destroyed the tank spreading shrapnel in every direction. There was a moment of silence as the people register what had happened before running for their lives again. As people were fleeing the area Greg noticed an army rifle rested in the gutter under a steel panel from the tank. He rushed over to pick up the gun checking that it was still intact. It was a bit scratched but did not seem to have any serious damage to it. After checking the gun was in working order he headed off in search of more U.S marines to help fight in the battle against the invasion.