@ForbiddenPlant smackdown 8 - Alien invasion.

Pictures used: #2, #3, #5

The prompt for this round is to include three pictures (I'll add them to the media section as I go) within a plot based around an alien invasion. Cliche? Absolutely, but let's hope it has enough unique qualities to keep you interested throughout.

Part 1

With the dawn of a new day, came renewed hope. Hope that we finally found a way to rid our world of the vile creatures that desecrate our cities.

The first strange occurrence I can recall, were the swarm of bee-sized drones that arrived out of nowhere on the day of my son's tenth birthday. Our celebration turned into a nightmare as quickly as it took Sean to swat an insect with a rolled-up magazine, squashing it against the plastic garden table. Its comrades converged on Sean, weighing him down with their immense numbers. Even after so long, I can still envision that sweet man rolling around on the ground in agony as they stung every square millimetre of his exposed flesh in retaliation. Rachael turned the hose on them, hoping to drive them off or drown them. They only flew away when he stopped moving.

Perhaps a month after we buried Sean, Mike came charging through the back door, gasping for breath. "Mum!" he yelled with panicked excitement. "Mum, something's happening at the graveyard. There's police and everything!"

I smiled, pleased to see him so animated, like a normal child again. "Really? What were they doing?"

"They put yellow tape across the gates and won't let anyone past and they're making all the cars go through the estate. Jimmy's mum said they found dead people in there this morning."

"Well, it is a graveyard." I laughed.

"Apart from the buried ones! She said it would be on the news."

He raced off, switching the TV on in the sitting room so he could keep an eye out for it while he did his homework. I'd just finished setting the table for tea when he called me.

"It's started!"

The camera panned away from the officers guarding the gate as I joined my son, its focus adjusting to zoom in on the scene at the top of the hill. Strewn across the concrete path lay the remains of several broken headstones, flowers and ornaments. I recognised the teddy bear Mike had left on Sean's grave almost immediately, despite it being filthy and sun faded.

... desecrated numerous graves before turning their attention on the security guard, whom we assume disturbed them in what can only be described as a heinous act of vandalism. We'll have more on this story later this evening.

I turned the channel over in disgust. Mike didn't complain for once.

By late evening, with Mike tucked safely in bed, I turned the news on just in time to catch an eyewitness interview. Several times during his recount of events, the reporter asked him if he'd been drinking or taking drugs. What he described fit with the devastation the cameraman had recorded earlier, but I agreed with the reporter's disbelief.

"Foot-long leeches in Ireland? Right, and the Pope's a prod," I muttered sarcastically at the screen. "Sounds to me like you had five or six too many beers, old man."

Sean's grave, along with three others, looked in the same bad shape in the footage they played at the tailend of the interview. What I couldn't fathom was the reason; why in hell would someone mutilate four decaying bodies?

Several months passed before anyone noticed a pattern of missing pets in the area. If the amount of flyers nailed to every lamppost and tree were anything to go by, there were several dozen and ranged from kittens, rabbits and dogs, right up to Mr. Brown's pony. There were the usual rumours about the new restaurant downtown, but the Public Health Department quickly dismissed the notion.

If memory serves, the first recorded sighting went viral on YouTube as one of America's most elaborate hoaxes. The scene depicted an enormous slug-thing, erupting from the ground at speed, in a field full of cows. Once on the surface, it moved considerably slower, allowing farm hands to attack it with pitchforks and spear-like weapons while avoiding jaws containing layers of razor sharp teeth.

It was the same day the reporter and the guy he dubbed a druggie appeared on the news again. Only this time, the guy spouted about it being the end of the world. I'm not afraid to admit that I didn't balk this time. It was too much of a coincidence for someone on the other side of the world to film a super-sized version of the very thing he described as having crawled from Sean's grave.

Reports of similar occurrences in other countries flooded in soon after. By Christmas it was established that the larvae infested every country worldwide and were growing at an astronomical rate. But larvae of what? These things are huge.

... To be continued.