The Day They Came

We started firing every cannon we had, but it wasn’t enough. His shields were too strong. Two minutes later, we heard the alarms going off, and the captain of the battle ship squadron was yelling, “Retreat, retreat!”

The world was preparing for battle. The intergalactic republic was warning us not to but Napoleon had already declared war. Nearby planets were asked for help but Napoleon warned them to stay away. Us humans had already seen what Napoleon does to things that he does not like. Napoleon and his army of dog-like creatures were said to be unstoppable killers. We could not run for wherever we ran Napoleon would find us.

I was the captain of the Interstellar Spacecraft Protection Team or I.S.P.T. My job was to lead my team and protect all of our battle ships, but we failed. I was leading 150 million people into battle. We are supposed to destroy anything in the path of the battle ships to make sure they can make it to the opponent. I was about to lead one of my teams in front of the leading battleship and then... it exploded. Some of the surrounding battleships and protection ships got destroyed, the rest were out of reach or went flying back. Two more ships exploded, then we saw it. There were hundreds of fleets of ships led by battle ships, and leading them was he: the dreaded Napoleon. 

We started firing every cannon we had, but it wasn’t enough. His shields were too strong; we couldn’t touch Napoleon’s main ship. Two minutes later, we heard the alarms going off, and the captain of the battle ship squadron was yelling, “Retreat, retreat!” All of the ships were going back to earth, but then I saw a bright flashing light, and they were gone. All of the ships had just been destroyed by Napoleon. And then it hit me, we were no match for Napoleon. He was far too powerful to even be touched by one of us. We were simply insects he could flick away.

Then I noticed that one of the wings on my plane was missing and I was falling down to earth. I was trying to think of what to do but I couldn't focus when I was spinning around like crazy. Then it all went black.

I woke up in a strange room and my left arm felt really light. I looked over and it was gone. What was left of my arm was covered with a metal sleeve. I got up to go explore but as I was walking to the door I saw another person. I went back to the bed and noticed that she was not walking but hovering over the ground. 

She came in and I asked, “who are you?”

“Hi, Gladden. I am Nakeja, one of the survivors who did not get caught by Napoleon.”

“Where am I, what happened to my arm, and how did you know my name?” I asked.

“You lost it in the crash then we took you here.We don't know what Napoleon is doing because he could just destroy our planet. We should get going. There are people waiting for you," said Nakeja.

We walked past many rooms filled with people like Nakeja, but some had different powers. Some of them were shooting fire out of their palms or making things float. But there was one room that stood out. It was dark in there and it felt weird walking past it like there was something pulling me closer to it. Yet, it wasn’t exactly desirable.

Then I asked Nakeja about it and she said, “It’s nothing to worry about. It is not permissible for anyone to go in that room."

So I kept moving at a steady pace, thinking about that feeling that it gave me. We walked into the room and I felt a chill fall down my back. Standing in front of me were six corpses sitting in the seats. Their heads were hanging as blood dripped down their necks with large bite marks embedded in their skin. Next to the table was a dog, one of Napoleon's dogs. The air was thick with the smell of blood. Then I heard a clank of metal behind me and Nakeja was standing on the other side of the door. But it wasn't Nakeja any more; her figure was melting into something new; it was almost human-like but smaller and uglier.

I looked back and the dog jumped on me. I felt a sharp pain as blood trickled down my good arm. The dog went for a second bite but I stopped it with my hands. I ran over to a table and grabbed a pair of scissors. Then I looked back and it was gone. I walked over to where the dog bit me and saw a blood stain up the wall. I looked up and it jumped off to bite me again but I jumped out of the way. Then I prepared to fight back and when it jumped at me this time I ducked and slit its throat with the scissors.

My heart was pounding and my arm was in deafening pain. I needed to find something to stop it from bleeding. I walked over to the man in the closest chair and wrapped the shirt around my arm. But then something small and shiny under the table caught my eye. It was a briefcase. I went under the table and picked it up and opened it. Inside was a metal arm and on the side of it was a tiny button. I pressed the button and the arm turned on and started floating. The arm then flew into the position that my arm usually would be. The fingers on the arm started moving then I noticed that I was moving them.

I tried picking up the suit case and it worked. I looked over at the table and tried to pick it up with one arm.  The table easily lifted up and it felt like nothing. I thought of the dog I had just killed and then I felt something weird. I hesitated but looked down. The arm was gone. I looked behind me and the arm was hovering over the dog and the palm was glowing. Then the insides of the dog were being put back together and slowly the glowing stopped. The dog slowly began to get up and then stared at me. It started to run at me and I got ready to fight. As I punched, it jumped. It took me to the ground and I closed my eyes waiting to be ripped apart. I felt something wet on my face and looked up to see the dog licking me. 

I didn’t know what to do so I got up and rubbed his soft fur. It was warm and felt good just like a real dog. I walked around the room and it followed. I decided that I would make the best of it and name it Tristan. Then it hit me, how I was supposed to get out?

After I walked over to the briefcase, I looked for anything that could help and my arm started to feel heavier. I looked down and it was changing forms. It looked like it had a hole on the top. I pointed it at the door to see if anything would come out. Something shot out like a bullet. It sticks to the wall and the top starts flashing red. I went over to look at it and it started flashing faster and before I had time to react there was an explosion and I was propelled into the wall. When I got up the alarms were going off and there was water from the sprinklers falling. I ran through the gap in the wall and ran through the halls back to where my room was. There was a map on the wall of the room. Sweat was falling from my brow and my body was still wounded. My entire body was aching. I looked at the map and saw the exit.

Then I heard yelling and it sounded like they were looking for someone. I started running through the halls looking for the exit. It was like running through a wet maze. I wondered if my arm could help me and then it started reshaping itself into a skateboard. It flew off of the ground and started hovering. I jumped on it and it flew me to the exit. When we got there it was heavily guarded by dogs and tiny melted shapes like Nakeja. The board turned thinner and flew over to the creatures piercing their skin as if it was paper. The arm was reconnecting to me and I watched the creatures fall bleeding with disoriented limbs on the floor. The exit was right there but it felt like something was holding me back. I felt the feeling that the room gave me  a chill went down my back and the hairs on the back of my neck stood up. I looked back and the hallways were lit up purple. I was frozen with fear as it got brighter. Then I felt something tugging on me and looked back at the exit. I ran out and decided that if there was something that dangerous in that building it had to be destroyed. I turned my arm into a plasma rifle and felt in control. I looked straight into the hallway and saw a figure surrounded by the light. It was slowly walking towards me. I aimed and pulverised the building. There was a blinding light and when I finally opened my eyes the figure was standing in front of me. I could feel its cold hard breath blowing on my face. I backed up and fell on my back confused on how he dodged that and how fast he moved. Then he was gone. 

Tristan came over to me and I used him to get up. We walked around and looked for shelter. I couldn't stop thinking about that figure. It was powerful I could tell, but why was it there and why did it just stare at me? It could have ended me once and for all. We found a small abandoned neighborhood that was partly destroyed from the war. Some of the houses were still standing and we stayed there for the night. 

I used Tristan as a pillow and we fell asleep. 

I woke up to a loud barking and looked out the window. There were a bunch of dogs doing one of their patrols looking for any survivors. Then as they were leaving a group of people attacked them using weapons I haven't seen. Once they had killed the dogs I used my hand to fly over to them but I kept a distance floating above them just in case they had reason to harm him. 

They looked bigger than normal. They looked off, like something had changed but I couldn't quite tell. The people looked stunned and didn't say anything. 

After a brief pause they asked, “who are you?” 

“I am one of the few survivors from Napoleon's attack,” I said.

“What attack and who's Napoleon?” they asked.

“Do you not know about Napoleon the world destroyer?”

They looked puzzled and then one person that was older than the rest walked to the front.

He said “Napoleon is no longer alive. He was murdered 50 years ago during the 5th battle. One of his own dogs murdered him and gained control.”

I was shocked that one of his own dogs could kill him. I thought that they were made by him and that he controlled them.

“What happened after that?” I asked.

“The dog strengthened his army and killed the remaining humans.” 

“Were do you stay?” 

“Follow us, we'll show you.”

They took me to a cave deep in a mountain. I walked in and my arm reattached onto my shoulder. There were thousands of people working on supporting the inside of the mountain. 

“Who is the main dog? Does he have a name?”

“The main dog is called Titan.”

“How are you planning on defeating his army?”

“We aren't planning on staying here until they decide to leave or just forever.”

I stopped walking. 

“What? Why?” I asked.

“We know we aren't able to defeat him, so we decided to stay down here.”

I was stunned that they would just give up and tried for days to get them to fight back, but they wouldn’t give in. They told me that they were done fighting because they had lost enough family and people due to the war.

After I stopped asking I started to notice how well this community was thriving. I got to know the people there and figured out how everything worked. As they were showing me the nursery we heard a crash and then sirens. People were running all around us in the same direction. Then a voice came on the loud speaker. 

“Attention all humans surrender now or this place will be destroyed along with all people we capture being killed."

Then they stopped. 

Someone had stood up on a pile of old knocked over stuff and was speaking but not in our range of hearing. Someone pushed through the crowd to give them a microphone and they continued speaking. She started talking about how the dogs had controlled us for years and how it was time to fight back. 

In the crowd someone shouted, “What if we all die?”

An argument erupted throughout the crowd. That sentence reminded me of my starship crashing. Looking down at my arm the moments were flashing through my head. I wasn't supposed to feel this fear. My profession guaranteed my death but I was having second thoughts. People settled down and someone seized the opportunity to tell people what would happen if we were free. After that people started shouting and running for an underground bunker with weapons. I grabbed 2 grenades and a carbine gun. As we got our defences ready there were explosions near the front gate and dogs came in my arm sensing danger started changing and looked liquidy. As I stared it turned into a gun with multiple barrels. I headed to the front line and watched waiting for the dogs to get to us. Once they came into range we fired, killing some of the dogs. 

I thought about a gun with a giant laser cannon on top and it reshaped. The difference in weight was weighing me down, but  the excitement of firing it  was unbelievable. During my attack the dogs took the opportunity to attack the people near me so that if I shot them I would kill the people next to me. I was surprised with their intelligence and changed my weapon to an AR shooting them individually until  all of them were off the people. The victims of the dogs were severely injured. My hand transformed into a long thin pan looking shape and delivered them to higher ground. Without my hand I was vulnerable,having to use my normal equipment. I took my carbine and started shooting at the dogs around me.

Just as I started running out of ammunition my arm came back. It turned into shards and split up killing the dogs by the dozen. As the last dog fell, I looked around. Half of our people had died. They looked astonished, but I could tell something was off. At first it was a faint rumbling, but it grew louder by the second. Then it stopped. I looked at the exit and saw more dogs coming but these were different. The closer they got the bigger they seemed. My arm returned and turned into two giant arrows without me telling it to. It was as if they knew what to do. They shot off into the distance. The enemy troops started falling. After they all had fallen the hand came back. Then we saw it. A ship, not just any ship, but the mothership. 

As it came closer, the troops got back up. They  started closing in on us. We knew we were done for but then they stopped. They started shaking as if they were in pain. A moment later vines ripped through their flesh from their limbs and backs. Everywhere the hand had touched them. Moments later they fell and the ground was filled with plants I’d never  seen. Then realizing I had been distracted I looked up to see the ship individually taking the humans. My arm dismantled my body flying into the ship. They had won. They played me like a pawn leading them to the remaining humans. Just then an earbleeding sound came from the ship and red lights flashed all around me forming one. There was one thing going through my mind, “We had lost.”