It’s time.

Luke looked up at the man in the hat, briefly illuminated by a passing car. He owed this man a great debt - the man in the hat had, after all, saved his life - but he was about to pay it off. He wordlessly handed over the recording, in the form of a USB. The man in the hat took a moment to plug it into a laptop - a new one by the looks of it - before nodding once and pocketing the drive...

“Don’t go”

Her whisper was barely registered, drowned out by the influx of thoughts running through my mind.

Canned food, check. Water bottles, check. Passport…

“Passport, passsssspooorrrttttt’ muttering, I strode to the dressing table by the house phone, yanking open the top drawer and ruffling through the piles of papers before pulling out the small black book.

I flipped it open “John Lewis… hmm...

They came in the dead of night, a silent invasion. Humanity had been looking into the depths of space for an eternity, but never had they imagined such a curse. And yet, here they were. Apokolypsians, as they become known. A biotech species. One that had evolved to feast on the electrochemical energy that terrestrial species used for life and movement.

The red energy beams emitted by the creature...