It started at dusk. 

The Scod, an intergalactic race of resource hunters, besieged Earth's densest cities with a succession of starfighters, sleek black ships designed for speed but built for destruction. 

Governments responded in fear, retaliating when attempts to correspond failed. The Scod's enhanced deflector shields held strong against Earth's would-be offense. Their photon digitizers acted as huge EMP blasters which quickly disabled all communications' including fiber-optic networks and satellite imagery. Laser Gatlings burned aircraft carriers in half. Planes fell from the sky, tanks melted into the ground. 

Scod transport ships hovered above Earth's atmosphere, waiting for the all-clear before penetrating the exosphere. Though no one knew their true intentions, total domination seemed likely. 

Marie had fair warning of the imminent attack the day before. They had destroyed all the main cities the first day.  News sources flooded the airwaves with theories and methods of surviving a potential alien attack as soon as the Scod were detected. 'Get underground. Bunker down. Stay in groups.' Now her TV displayed a blue screen. Her phone disconnected, landlines dead. She heard faint thrusts of air traffic and thundering explosions in the distance.  

Dread hatched in her belly but she would not nurture it. Her daughter, just four years old, sat in her booster seat eating sweet potatoes and chicken, drinking milk from a sippy cup adorned in green frogs. They lived a secluded life in a small village, just hours outside both Toronto and Ottawa. Surely they'd be safe for a little while longer. 

Their house in Ompah was tucked away in a small line of forest along the shore Palmerston Lake. One of only six houses on Dead End Lane, she and her daughter moved there after her mother passed away. The inheritance allowed her to flee the big city and her abusive boyfriend when her daughter was still newborn. 

It became a simple life. She had everything she needed. No mortgage, so she worked from home designing websites as well as renting out the back half of her home to guests over the summer holidays. Her mother had survived years on tourism alone. 

Who would come here now? She thought. How will I work? She touched her phone screen again and the question mark still displayed next to the WiFi symbol. Her screen flickered white and black, but still managed to stay on, as well as the power to the house. For that she was thankful. Though it was mid-autumn, the sun still warmed the house through the windows, but the heat would need to be turned on soon. Her fireplace went unused. She didn't see the point when central heating worked so well, never mind chopping wood.

Do I even have an ax? 

Another distant explosion rumbled the ground softly, like an insignificant earthquake. Nothing shook or fell in the house, but Marie's dread intensified regardless. It was already dark. There was nothing she could do, nowhere she could go. They were supposed to be safe. 

BANG. BANG. BANG.

Someone knocked on her door, frantically. It scared her more than the far-off fighting. This was here and now. Someone was at her door and it sounded like they wanted in, badly. 

BANG. BANG. BANG.

"Marie!" a man called out. "It's Nathan. Marie? I know you moved out here! I just want to see you guys. It's crazy out there, let me help."

Dread morphed to panic as Marie heard the voice of her daughter's father. Nathan was a criminal and drug addict. The short time she knew him, he always carried a gun and a small ziplock of coke. He was one of her many mistakes when she fled the county to experience the city. His charm intoxicated her and his attention made her turn a blind eye to his illegal dealings. He didn't start beating her until she told him she was pregnant. 

Marie grabbed her daughter who began to pout and ran up the stairs to the bedroom overlooking the front of the house. It was a side view, so she could see him clearly. It looked like he was alone. His old grey pick-up was rusted out and parked on an angle. 

The banging continued, intensified to slamming, then barging. More thundering explosions lit the sky orange like the sun decided to have another go at setting. 

Marie began rummaging through drawers until she found a purple fleece sweater. She threw it over her daughter's head and grabbed a pair of boots from the closet. They were too big for her daughter, she'd kept them to eventually grow into. She put them on her anyway and frantically looked for clothes and shoes for herself. 

The other bedroom she rented faced the back of the house and had a balcony porch, with stairs to get into the yard and down to her private beach. Once dressed, she scooped up her daughter and raced across the hall as Nathan finally broke down the door. 

"Marie, she's my daughter too! I can take care of you both!" His scream was crazed, coked-out. He heard her footsteps above run across the house. "Goddammit, Marie, I'm not going to hurt you." He chased.

Marie held her daughter close, flew down the stairs and towards the lake. She didn't know where to go. She heard Nathan following quickly down the wooden staircase. Her only instinct was to hide.

Starfighters chased F/A 18's in the sky above as Marie ran to the shed by the lake. Lasers shot through the air. Explosions grew closer, got louder. Her daughter began to cry. She fumbled with the shed door, got in and hunkered down. 

Survive. She thought. Survive. She threw a tarp over her daughter and spoke soothing words, sang a small lullaby. 

"Marie, goddamnit!" Nathan drew close. "You're not fooling anyone."

That's when she noticed the ax. I do have an ax. 

Nathan flung open the door. 

WHACK. 

The sky outside turned red. Marie covered her daughter's eyes, picked her up and stepped over her dead ex-boyfriend, ax still stuck in his skull. 

We'll survive. We'll survive.