300 West Adams Building, 300 West Adams St

7 June, 5.13 AM

I awoke gradually, the sounds of people mumbling present. Their conversation became more audible over time as my eyelids folded open. I pushed myself up from initial position of lying down on my side, sitting up. I then stared around at the faces around me, going from blurry to crystal clear.

"Geez. You gave us quite the scare, y'know?" Jennifer chided as she flicked me awake. "We didn't really have the capability of dealing with two medical emergencies in the state we were in."

I squeezed my eyes shut for a few seconds, wincing as I recalled the events from the previous night. It was a little of a grey spot, as if I had been drunk and was suddenly experiencing a hangover. Only after a few moments was I able to recollect the most important moments of the day before.

"Tara checked for your pulse and breathing," she added. "As it turned out, you simply passed out, so it wasn't a heart attack or anything serious enough to panic about."

I frowned for a moment, wondering it they were serious. The way that they were putting it was as if I had lost consciousness and collapsed. But it seemed that they were implying that I... "I fell asleep in the middle of treating Veronica's wounds?" I questioned.

"Yes, you did, you idiot," she sighed as she put her on her forehead, shaking her head rapidly. "We let you be, but this 15-year-old medical prodigy here, Tara, helped to stitch Veronica up cleanly."

"I don't think knowing how to... to s-stitch a wound makes me a prodigy. I learnt it all from my mum," Tara interjected, stuttering as she smiled modestly yet nervously.

"Sure, it does," Jennifer asserted. "Anyway," she started as she turned her attention back to me, "didn't you say that Valour had a rescue plan for us today?"

I wiped away the annoyed frown from my face, one that I had kept thanks to Jennifer's subtle mockery targeted at me. Instead, I replaced it with a look of seriousness, as I thought through the plan that Valour had made. Just then, I came to my senses, realising that there was a set period of time for us to make our way down to a rescue venue.

"What's the time now?" I questioned brainlessly, not realising that my watch was still on for me to conveniently check the time on.

The others stared at me expressionlessly for a moment, not moving. Eventually, Jennifer moved, whipping her phone slowly as it wiggled out of her tight pocket. She tapped on the screen, eyeing what I assumed to be the time on it. "You have a watch there," she pointed out as I looked down at it, embarrassed upon realisation, "but in the case that your watch is just for aesthetics and doesn't work, it's 5.15 am."

I gasped loudly, covering my mouth as I excused myself. I slowly brought my hand down, shaking as I realised how dire my situation was. Our situation, to be exact. I had completely forgotten about the watch incident that happened just moments ago. No, this was important enough to focus on and throw about whatever embarrassment I had earlier on. It would cost our lives if we didn't go according to Valour's plan strictly.

"It's going to happen when the sun completely rises," I blurted out mindlessly as I grabbed one of the medical kits with me. I stuffed in some other essential items into my pouch, like small water bottles and dried snacks as I rushed to leave the camp. This prompted some confusion from the others in the group, who remained frozen and stared at me , clearly puzzled.

"What is this... it?" Veronica questioned as she continued to lie on the floor.

"I'll explain later," I dismissed her query hastily as I grabbed my rifle up from the corner of the room. "If we don't get out here now, we might never get out of the city—and even so, we won't remain here alive."

As I finally finished packing, I turned to watch Tara and Veronica, who gave each other an unnerving stare. Immediately afterwards, Veronica reached her hands out to Tara as she prepared to get up. I walked over and stretched my hand out as well, while Jennifer joined in to support our grip on her.

After much effort, we brought her up to a standing position. Despite this, her legs swayed back and forth like swings, alternating as this past by each other. It was as if they were jelly, and I didn't understand why. "This your way of dealing with the pain?" I asked, curious,

"No, this is the result of me not being able to feel my legs," Veronica lamented. "I swear I'm paralysed or something. It's been hours and this crap ain't going away."

"Then all the more we have to leave the city and get proper medical treatment outside," I alerted the others as they packed up. Before long, they were all ready, heading for the door while I supported Veronica together with the help of Jennifer. There was no way I was going to carry her solo for the rest of the journey to our next location of rescue.

Tara helped to open the door for us, pulling it into the room slowly as she allowed us to check for our surroundings before leaving. I peeped my head out of the doorway. looking left and right for any moving creatures. The coast was clear; thus, I gave everyone a thumbs up to get them moving with me.

We walked out onto the dark hallway, barely illuminated by the warm glow of the yet-to-rise sun, hidden by the horizon in the distance. We trudged quietly through the corridor, heading back towards the main entrance where we had come from the day before. As the sunlight got brighter ever so slightly, I panicked, dashing forward quicker than ever, which signalled to the rest to pick up the pace with me.

We sprinted to the front doors, while I whipped out my phone from my denim pocket. I scrolled through my contacts hastily, dialling Valour once I found theirs. Within seconds. the call went through, beginning with a greeting from Cornwall's secretary once more. "Hello, this is Hawthorne. I'm assuming you're looking for Mr. Cornwall again?" she asked, already knowing what I had called for.

"Yes. It's pretty urgent, so hopefully it's possible for you to get him over now?" I requested politely, although I was running and running out of breath in the background, which could have made me sound rude and pretty impatient.

"I'm sorry, but he's not free now. As you should know already, the G-23 extraterrestrials are planning to execute their 'Voltaic Beam' operation to destroy Chicago in less than an hour from now," Jessica reminded me. "Mr. Cornwall is busy dealing with other matters regarding this now. However, he didn't forget you, and requested that I pass on some information to you."

"Right," I responded, acknowledging her. "Go on."

"He wants you to and the survivors you have rescued to proceed to the roof of Yael Tower, where a helicopter will be waiting to pick up you and your acquaintances only," she informed me. "You are to arrive there within..." she paused, "half an hour from now."

"Great. That all?" I clarified, hoping that the conversation would end before we would exit the building.

"Yes, there's nothing else that he wanted me to pass on," she replied. "If you make it, our personnel will report your status to us. As for my own personal words, good luck," she went on, causing me to gulp anxiously for a moment as it was almost as if she were implying that we wouldn't survive.

"Thanks. I'll see you back in Headquarters in New York," I said, asserting that I would definitely make it back, not to convince her, but to convince myself.

Just as I hung up the phone, we arrived back at the revolving doors of the entrance. I pushed the door open manually, as the power had been cut as with the some of the other buildings around. Tara stuck close to me, standing beside me and grabbing onto my shirt while I continued to hold Veronica up with Jennifer's assistance.

This time, we didn't have the privilege of sprinting across the road, as we were holding Veronica up, resting her weight on our shoulders while we walked towards my car. This was in contrast to me carrying her solo the day before, where I could simply grab onto her stably and rush across quickly.

I grabbed my key out from the same pocket that I had my phone in, pointing it at the vehicle as we prepared to get inside, lowering Veronica to a sitting position. Tara pulled the rear door open, making way for us to slip Veronica smoothly onto the backseat. Tara went in after her, accompanying her.

Meanwhile, I, as expected, pulled my door open and placed myself on the driver's seat, while Jennifer took the other front seat. After shutting the doors, I looked up, noticing a hoard of aliens in the proximity through the broken windshield. They were on the move, suggesting the possibility that they might have been going after us.

Even though I couldn't tell if they were just roaming around or had spotted us, I wasn't going to take chances. I gripped onto the gear stick, pulling it back to reverse as I steered sharply to the left, getting us out of our parallel lot. I looked back at the approaching aliens, who were indeed, approaching.

Hence, I made a full turn in reverse, facing the car in the opposite direction at the end of the manoeuvre. I then thrusted the gear stick forward, stomping on the gas pedal aggressively as if I were in an F1 race. As a result, everyone in the car flung backwards, hitting their cushioned seats which still produced much noise.

I stared at the rear-view mirror for a moment, watching as the aliens accelerated futilely, unable to catch up to us. I leaned my head back onto the headrest, letting out a relieved sigh as we escaped from the clutches of the relentless alien beings. The others, apart from Veronica, looked back through the rear window, presumably to get some reassurance for themselves.

Eventually, they all relaxed, leaning back onto their seats just as I had done. We drove down the desolate streets, although they weren't simply empty—they were full of bodies. I avoided those that had particularly much heaps and piles of them to spare all of us our sanity and calm states of mind, even though the past week had pretty much made us go insane already.

"So, what was 'it' that you were talking about?" Jennifer questioned vaguely, thoroughly confusing me.

"What?" I shot back, a little impatient for no reason, possibly due to my lingering exhaustion from the days before.

"Geez, you're pretty damn moody," she scoffed, although it wasn't in the same irritated manner as I had spoken in. "You said we had to leave quickly before that thing would happen without specifying what it actually was."

I froze for a moment, completely motionless. Even my foot remained on the accelerator with constant pressure, my hands idle on the wheel. I even missed a turn as a result of my unmoving state. That, however, was the least of my concerns at the moment.

It was completely foolish of me to have had spill all of the "tea" that I was supposed to keep secret. The purpose of me not informing them with any vital details about the attack, as mentioned before, was to prevent an unnecessary panic that would cause more casualties than needed. That being said, I still had to explain the truth to them.

That I had known about everything beforehand.

It was time for them to absorb everything that I had been holding in my mind. I had to explain to them what would happen if we took our time to get to the rescue location. They had to know the dire consequences of missing the last safe helicopter out of the city before it would happen.

The unleashing of the Voltaic Beam.

I sighed nervously, my breath shaking as I exhaled. "You guys have to promise that you won't be mad at me about what I'm going to say," I made a disclaimer as I prepared to tell the truth. Tara and Veronica nodded in silence, while Jennifer was more verbal.

"No promises," she warned, her tone serious.

"I..." I stammered for a while, trying to gather my words. "I... knew about the attack beforehand."

Veronica and Tara remained rather calm, although a slight look of shock wiped across Veronica's face. On the contrary, Jennifer was largely stupefied, her face stationary. Her jaw plummeted down as she reached for the door handle for reasons that were obvious and unsurprising to me.

I thought of slowing the car at first, just in case she would try anything stupid, such as jumping out of the vehicle. I was pretty convinced that she was planning to, but stopped myself as I was directing my energy and focus on her words for that moment. Turning away from my view of the road, I faced her, noticing her expectedly sour look.

"You... you knew, and you didn't tell us?" she questioned, her query nearly turning into a lecture at the volume that she was projecting her voice.

"I... I just didn't want you guys to cause a... a p-panic before the attack would start," I stammered, trying to get my point through. "Valour gave me strict instructions on this to preserve lives that could have been lost through under human-caused violence even before the invasion would begin—"

"Does it look like I give a damn shit about your stupid Valour's guidelines? Stop being their fricking dog and blindly following through their irrational commands, Laurence?" Jennifer screamed, enraged as she confronted me by my actual name for the first time, greatly frightening me. "Think, damn it! Think! Did you think about how many you could have saved by warning everyone about the attack so that they could leave the city? And did you think about how many have died because they had no darn clue that some random animalistic aliens would go after them?"

I had nothing left to say at that time. Her point was debatable, but I didn't have the energy or motivation to continue the argument. It was going to be difficult to go on, considering that she had put me in such a spot that was barely possible to get out of. Portraying me as the antagonist seemed to be her goal.

All I wished for was that she would just understand why I had kept the truth from them.

"So, that's it? You're just going to shut your mouth?" she questioned rudely. "Alright. If that's how it is, then you can watch me leave," she added impetuously as she pulled the door handle.

Just then, Tara got up from her seat abruptly, her cold, hollow expression jarringly turning into a stunned one. She gaped, staring forward at the road ahead of us in fright while her eyes threatened to pop right out. "Look out!" she shrieked, covering her widely opened mouth with both of her hands.

I turned back to focus on the road, not long before being shocked by what was in front of me. An alien creature stood barely tens of feet ahead of us. At the speed that we were travelling at, it would smash right into us—and possibly through the broken windshield—and crush all of us to our grim deaths.

Hence, I released the pressure on the accelerator and crushed the brakes with my foot, causing the tyres to screech painfully. Everyone in the car flung forward, with the seatbelts being the only things preventing us from flying through the windshield and into the clutches of the alien head. However, there wasn't enough time for the vehicle to come to a complete stop before we would collide with the beast up ahead.

The car skidded and swerved violently, throwing all of us to the left and right as the car tilted with us. Eventually, we were stopped by a vigorous slam, one that was against the alien creature in front of us. We all swung back onto our seats, the sounds of leather taking multiple hits not subtle.

I closed my eyes for a quick moment, taking just a second to recollect my thoughts. I knew I couldn't stay oblivious to my surroundings for any longer than that, so I instantly opened them after I was done. I heaved a sigh of relief, although I kept in mind that the alien—injured but not dead—still had to potential to harm us.

Everyone else followed along and took a few more moments to process everything. I noticed as they exhaled deeply alongside me. I was about to turn back to ask if they were all okay. Of course, I knew they weren't. It was just some form of reassurance. All of us weren't ready to get back to our senses yet.

All but Jennifer.

She lugged her rifle with her, bearing it in her arms tightly as she pulled the door handle. She kicked the door open forcefully, provoking me as I was about to protest. However, knowing that it wasn't the right time, I kept my mouth shut, keeping my comments to myself to... when she was ready to speak to me again.

As the alien creature gradually stood up attempting to balance itself properly, Jennifer approached it without hesitation. Before it could fully regain its feet, she took aim and fired multiple shots at its head, putting it down again—this time, for good. The creature instantly collapsed anticlimactically, as if the villain in a superhero show was defeated too simply in a rather lame manner.

As the alien had been dealt with quickly, I expected Jennifer to return into the car to continue the heated but rather one-sided debate we were having. But she didn't.

Instead, she walked away.