The Invasion

I was at work, sifting through emails, when I heard the crash. It was a window at the opposite end of the corridor from my office, so by the time myself and other confused staff got there whatever had strewn glass and left a viscous looking trail of slime was gone. Those nearest began to panic, so I turned and made for the stairs.

I'm noted for my calm under pressure but sprinting down four flights of stairs to the sound of what can only be described as utter chaos from my floor and the outside world marked a point where my nerves were severely tested. The scene outside pushed me a little closer to the edge.

There were people and vehicles everywhere, as though a hurricane had visited! Those that could stand were mostly staring in the direction of the city centre, wide eyed and open mouthed.

It appears the a series of what were thought to be small rocks, possibly meteorites,  had landed. We were soon to discover they were some sort of pod from which some sort of creatures had emerged, before racing en masse to the centre of the city. But I digress.....

My, indeed our, initial reaction was to race into the city centre, using what transport was still available. That was one of the reasons, the other being the people travelling in terror from the centre, that caused an even more panicked gridlock. There were injured too, some still able to move around but most unable. The injuries they carried were horrific!

A certain order began to rise out of our chaos; first, we needed to get those injured some medical help, aided by makeshift 'hospitals' which were little more than tents at the sides of the road. The military had arrived and cordoned off the central area, and were planning their response. Oh, but that sound though!

It was part shriek, part howl and we jumped every time those fell creatures did so. It wasn't spoken aloud for the most part, but we suspected  those extraterrestrials were communicating in some way. What scared us more was that the tortured pleas of those people who were left behind gradually waned before their bodies were taken by the beasts.

At some point, it felt like months but was probably weeks, we had some knowledge of our tormentors. They were alien, which we knew, but were parasites too; their thirst for harvesting worlds unquestionably impossible to satisfy. By then it was too late for Earth. It was entitled possible that we could have rebuilt, but anarchy reigns true. They were telepathic, our vile invaders, but also hosts. It appears to be a virus, one which attacks the immune system. Worse still is what it does to the infected, for the real enemy now is not the invaders but us!