They came in the night.

Every phone in town could be heard, screeching with the emergency alert we’d been preparing to receive for weeks:

HUMANOID THREAT. SEEK IMMEDIATE SHELTER. THIS IS NOT A DRILL.

No one knew what they were. There hadn’t been a crash. Or a UFO sighting. They simply took New York City overnight, moving from borough to borough before they spilled into New Jersey through the tunnels, taking county after county until the North went dark.

By then it was too late.

I’d heard news reports about bodies by the thousand—no, million, humans and their pets too. Of eerie silence, unlike any ever known on Earth.

Before we lost connection, momma said they’d been unleashed from hell, and that these were the end times. I was starting to consider the possibility. Their movements were so sporadic, so unexpected that our military hadn’t been able to stop them, let alone see them. The last time the President spoke, he warned every U.S. citizen alive that we’d been left to fend for ourselves however we could:

“America, you are the last bastion for true freedom on the planet, I still believe that to be true. If we do this right, the world will never forget the American sacrifice. Now, the time has come for me to say thank you to the great people of this brave nation, may God bless you all, and may he save our souls from what is to come.”

D.C. fell some hours after that.

No one was coming to save us.

I had to remind myself of that as I tucked the panel into place overhead and crawled myself flat beneath the floorboards.

The ground soon began to shake with grave force, as if a stampede were charging toward my house. My eyelids squeezed tight in my face as I awaited certain death.

And I heard it.

A howling, almost shrieking moan growing louder—LOUDER.

“ALIEN MOTHERFU-“ My neighbor fired his rifle.

Automatic weapons began drilling just outside, makeshift bombs blaring in frantic succession, rattling the walls and kicking up dust.

The front door burst open and something bellowed, fast feet pounding over the wood above as I mushed my palm over my lips to keep from breathing.

I listened to the screaming of familiar human voices, and the firing soon quieted to a heart-sinking stop.

My ears were ringing with terror.

Still, it couldn’t blot out the scratching of something knifelike, inches from my eyes. Snip. Snip. Snip. Snip.

I stretched trembling fingers to reach the pistol at my waist, finally managing to take it in my hand and aim it at the floorboard in front of me, when it shredded down the middle and was ripped off.

Fuck me!

Hot, metallic breath smeared my cheeks and I could’ve sworn I’d peed myself as I winced, momentarily blinded by the lamp I’d carelessly forgotten to turn off.

But I couldn’t bring myself to shoot.

All I could focus on were rows of jagged shark teeth in a bloody open mouth…that was also nearly transparent, like the rest of its body, except for the curved lines of muscle and the bulky round shapes in its core resembling organs.

“Wh-what are you?” Shaking, I almost dropped my weapon onto my face.

And, it froze.

“What d-do you want!”

My nail clicked, grazing the trigger.

Its mouth snapped shut. I could practically see through to the plastic ceiling fan behind his head. Then it spoke.

“Eaaaaaat.”

The throaty word rippled down my spine and I hollered, popping shot after shot into its hideous face right between two beady black eyes, until it fell forward, crashing on top of my chest.

The impact forced all the air from my lungs. Its body went limp. And then—