The deep sleep did not last as long as I had hoped. Suddenly, the room was lit by harsh strip lighting above our beds. I squinted against the brightness and placed a hand over my face. I slowly moved my arm away from my eyes to adjusted to the offensive light.
"It's started," I heard someone say.
"Have you got all of your gear?" another voice said.
"Johnson, come here. Grab that for me a second," came a third voice.
"They have taken the streetlights out," said a familiar voice, it was Agent Vox entering the room. "Come on everyone. We need to get moving. Get dressed. Here are your weapons, hopefully you won't need to use them." Vox handed out the handguns and ammunition as we were pulling on our clothes around our beds half asleep.
Moments later Kai was by my side "You ready A.J.?" he asked.
"As I will ever be," I replied.
We all filtered out of the room, with Dr Derwent and Dr Immanuel heading up the rear.
"You should be safe here, for now," Vox said as he turned to address Adelaide.
"Be careful," Adelaide said to us all before we headed down the hallway. Adelaide's final gaze appeared to rest on Paley as we all exited.
"See you soon dear Adi," Paley said as he waved to her, as if he was waving goodbye to saunter off on a short city break. How could he seem so oblivious to what had happened? To what was about to happen.
Agent Vox steered us to the stairwell, and we descended four floors to reach ground level. We walked towards an open door and stood in the doorway was Agent Riley who signalled for us all to enter the room with her. Once inside the room we were confronted with a large amount of TV screens, each with different surveillance footage. After we stood for a few minutes whilst Agent Vox and Agent Riley spoke to each other quietly in the corner I realised that some of the footage was on a loop. It must have meant that it was footage of significance, or that was the last footage that was captured before the surveillance camera feeds had stopped. In some footage there was sightings of armed forces stealthily making their way along streets or remaining hugged up against the sides of buildings whilst checking the way was clear. All the personnel on the feed appeared to have backpacks, head torches and weapons in hand.
Agents Vox and Agent Riley came to join us, presumably finished with their whispered chat. Both looked very serious and attuned to the situation.
"Okay, we are going to move out and join some of the other soldiers who are four streets from here. We cannot yet work out why the creatures have decided to leave their crafts, but we need to make sure that we are containing the situation. There is a broadcast going out over TV and radio to warm people to stay in their homes and lock their doors. We want to naturally minimise civilian casualties and make sure the streets are clear for our guys," Agent Riley spoke.
"It appears several major cities across the world are experiencing the same as we are. Well, that was the final update we received before we lost contact with some countries. We have managed to share footage with a few neighbouring countries before feeds were cut. There seems to be similar happenings in terms of power being cut to some parts of major cities close to where the creature's aircraft have quietly moved. They seem to be tactically hovering just above many urban areas. They have now descended far enough to be in plain sight, visible to the naked eye. "Agent Vox added.
"Okay, let's go," Agent Riley instructed.
"Let's do a quick pack check as everyone passes me out of the door," Officer Beckett called, and as we departed, he did. He checked we had our protective gear on correctly and checked our weapons, stopping us one by one as we snaked down the hallway to the front entrance. We all waited until Beckett made up the rear of the snake and Agent Vox led us out into the night.
I could feel my heart beating faster, with my pulse jumping, attempting to escape from the skin on my wrist as we made our way across the street, to the next, and then the next street, stopping to take cover at appropriate places to ensure the coast was clear. Each time we stopped I felt short of breath. As we paused for the third time, I tried to slow my breathing. Then abruptly a voice shouted, "Fall back." Which was then followed by rapid gun fire. My breathing exercise went out of the window. I grabbed the weapon I was holding a little tighter at the sound of guns being used.
Suddenly Immanuel stopped leaning against the wall of the building we had stopped at and stood pin straight and walked to the curb of the streets path. "No, no, no stop shooting," he called "Stop!" he exclaimed.
"Paley, Paley, what are you doing, get back over here" Beckett called.
I was so confused, why was Paley saying to stop shooting. Surely, he didn't want people to be killed. Somehow, I managed to muster up the courage to leave the shielding side of the building and made my way over to Paley in a half crouch.
Through quickened breath I asked, "Immanuel, why? Why should they stop shooting? I don't understand."
There was no time for him to reply. A soldier came over to us, looking rather sweaty under the weight of another man's body. "He has been hit. We need someone to take him back to the temporary base you just came from," he declared between heavy breaths. He himself seemed fine but had a great deal of blood on his clothing.
"We will take him," Jen said, as she looked at Lava, adding, "wont we."
"Thanks, I won't forget it. He has a large slash wound to his chest. He needs to keep the pressure on it until you get him to the medic. He's Rice, I'm Stone."
Lava nodded, "Yes, we can carry him."
"Ok the rest of you, with me," ordered Stone as he carefully put Rice down near Lava and Jen. Stone lightly tapped Rice's right arm and said, "You're going to be alright mate, see you soon." Rice managed to give a weak nod and then we were off, heading towards the sound of gunfire.
Just before turning the corner, I shouted to Paley who was still stood near the curb, "Paley, you go back with Lava and Jen." He did not shout in protest, so I assumed he agreed with that course of action. I was hoping if Jen and Lava could get Paley back to Adelaide, she would be able to calm him.
As we entered the street where there were flashes of light followed by harsh sounds of bullets flying, I could see people bobbing up and down between parked cars with small head torches, some turned on, some turned off. They seemed to be shooting down an ally way, between several terrace houses. We all followed Stone's lead. We weaved through cars and stopped just short of the ally way. I could hear more gun shots in the distance.
Suddenly there was a cease fire. And I could manage to make out the gunshots from afar more easily. Then came a loud scraping noise, like metal piercing into stone. Suddenly, just like on the footage from the Isle of Man a large looking Anhurian came bulldozing out of the ally way, followed by another, then another. The silence was broken, and a shower of bullets rained down on the three Anhurian creatures. Agent Vox, Agent Riley, Officer Beckett, and Kai moved forward to take better head shots and additional shots to the creature's backs, where we knew their two hearts were. The creatures started to thrash and wave their arms defensively around themselves. All three creatures went down quickly. Two fell in the middle of the road and the third smashed into a parked car on the opposite side of the street, causing the car alarm to start screeching. Moments later the crunching and creaking protests from the car dissipated into silence along with the car alarm. The third Anhurian gave out a wheezing sound before its head lolled. All three were dead. Several of the soldiers checked the bodies giving them a nudge or three with their feet.
"Keep moving," someone yelled. And in unison all the troops between the cars left their spots and began to make their way to the other end of the street, presumably heading towards the distant gunfire.
Agent Vox made his way back a few yards to where I was stood, "A.J. you and Dr Derwent head back. We have bene given intel over the radios that these things are seeming drowsy. I am hoping we will be able to deal with them as quickly as possible. Hand me your packs, I have received a message that some soldiers are running low on ammunition and first aid." I obeyed Agent Vox, as did Dr Derwent and we made our way back along the four streets feeling lighter without our packs, but no less afraid. We followed the route we had taken on the way into the 'action', but in reverse, making sure to stop where we previously had, to check for any creatures heading our way.
As we stopped, just 200 meters or so from the front of the building we trained in -and I use the term trained loosely - a voice shouted, "Light 'em up lads."
Followed by a second voice, "Get the grenades, it's not going down." We crouched down against the side of the building we were closest too, aiming to stay out of the way of gunfire and explosions.
All at once we saw an Anhurian stagger down the street past the building we were aiming for, followed by a few troops a few seconds later. Two explosions, two short blasts, could be heard and then there was silence. We waited a few minutes to make sure the attack had finished then Dr Derwent and I agreed to make a move from the spot we were in. We didn't want to be sitting ducks, especially when we did not have any of the trained personnel accompanying us.
Making our way across the street to the entrance of the makeshift headquarters I caught a glimpse of the soldiers who had taken down the creature laid so many yards to our left. We wasted no time in getting inside.
"Are you ok?" I asked Dr Derwent.
"Yes, well as ok as anyone in my line of work would be in this situation, I suppose A.J." he replied, "Let's find the others."
"Ok," I said, "Good idea." As I spoke a young-looking boy in army uniform was walking down the hall towards us, "Hey, excuse me, do you know where the wounded are being taken?" I asked.
"Ye, just down the hall there, third door on your left," he responded quickly, seemingly in a rush to be somewhere they were needed.
"Thank you," Dr Derwent replied as he started to walk in that direct and I followed.
When we reached the third door and opened it, there were cries of pain and we saw medical staff working on those who were the quietest in the room. I looked over to my right and there was Lava, assisting someone on the medical team with a patient on the fourth bed in the row of beds.
I turned to my left and saw Dr Derwent had gone over the assist with another patient, surrounded by two medical staff and Jen.
I made my way over to Lava, "Can I help?" I asked the woman next to Lava. I quickly turn to Lava and asked her a question too, "Where's Paley, is he alright?"
Lava replied, "Yes, he is okay, they had to give him a sedative to calm him, but we left him with Adelaide."
Happy with her answer and assuming Paley was in good hands I started to help with the wounded.
I was not sure how much time had passed but nearly past the point of exhaustion I left the makeshift medical area with Dr Derwent and Jen, and we all sat on chairs in the room opposite to take a break. There was no surprise that I fell asleep in sat up in the chair I was resting in, I felt I could have fallen asleep stood up.
The next thing I remembered was being woken up by someone shouting in another room. As I opened my eyes, I could see Dr Derwent was asleep in the chair next to me, and it appeared Jen had also been woken by the noise. She had a large red mark on her left cheek where she must have been resting her head on her hand. As I went to rub the sleep from my eyes I looked down and saw the dried blood on my hands and arms and decided against touching my face. The sight of the blood brought me back to the reality of the situation. It reminded me about all those poor soldiers who were in so much pain and in need of help a mere few hours ago, before daybreak.
"Morning," Lava said as she walked over to me. She looked exhausted. I wondered if she had managed to get any sleep. "Well nearly afternoon really," Jen chimed in as she looked at her watch.
I listened a moment and it was quiet. "What happened?" I asked Lava, assuming she knew more than I did at that moment.
"It's over they think," she replied with a smile.
"Really?" I said, in disbelief. She nodded.
"Did you hear that?" I said nudging Dr Derwent in relief "Dr Derwent, it's over."
Henry Derwent started to stir. I repeated what I said, and he looked at me in disbelief.
"Well… that is great news," he replied once he had his bearings.
Once we had all caught up on our experiences of the night, we went to find Adelaide and Paley.
When we managed to locate them, Paley looked very ashen and weary. Adelaide looked a little concerned for him.
She said that Immanuel had not taken the news well at all, the news that the Anhurian's had been killed.
Paley was very quiet. He was nothing like his usual self in the hours that followed.
"Where are Beckett and Kai?" Jen asked, "Did they come back?"
Lava looked at Jen, "What Lava? Do you know?" Jen went on, "Are they hurt?"
"They are not in a good way; they are downstairs in the medical area," Lava replied solemnly.