Intruders: The Invasion: A Post-Apocalyptic, Alien Invasion Thriller (Book 1) Read Free Page B

building, housing the gym and pool, and locker that I’d just robbed.
     
    * * *
     
    Everything had a dreamlike quality as I made my way to the
PE building. There was a grayish, silvery dust floating through the air,
coating everything around it. The dust was being dispersed by the wind, landing
in trees and sailing through the air with the wet snow that fell through it.
The smell was sulfuric, and some of the powder landed on my lashes. I blinked
it away. Wet snow dribbled over my cheeks, chilling me. I began to shiver,
despite the heat radiating from the crash site and the steaming ground near my
feet.
    Pockets of steam popped and whistled upward, like a pot of
boiling sauce. I looked down at the ground, watching as if hypnotized. The
scene before me was surreal.
    Heat radiated from the PE building. The snow had melted all
around it, and bubbled at my feet. I stood just on the periphery of it,
stopping just before the sizzling, popping heat on the ground.
    The building was coated in the dust, the ground around it
dotted with glowing embers of various sizes and shapes. A fire had started in
the ceiling where the thing had landed.
    A bespeckled kid walked toward me, his eyes round behind his
Harry Potter glasses. “It’s a meteorite. I can’t believe it. Have you ever seen
anything like this?”
    I shook my head. “No.”
    “This is incredible!” He held up his phone, recording the
flaming, smoking, dust covered site as the sirens screamed toward us. He smiled
at me, his face awestruck, then pointed his phone toward me. “We’re witness to
an historical happening right now. What’s your name?”
    “Zoe.” I saw my reflection in the screen of his phone, and
blinked at what I saw. The wild, disheveled girl that looked back had dodged a
bullet because of the meteorite.
    But many others died because of it.
    The fall-out of the crash hadn’t yet begun.
    At that point, I couldn’t help but be thankful for it. I
revelled in the dust falling all around me.

 
    Chapter 2
     
     
    Finally, I was released from questioning. Rayback insisted
on driving me home. My sister and Derek were still at the station being questioned.
    The events of the last twenty-four hours had been so
unbelievable, I wondered if I’d been hallucinating. I hoped that I had.
    Rayback’s car was cold at first, and I ducked down into the
seat, my thrift store army issued jacket rising around my jaw. The winter hat
on my head was another find from my mother’s things. A pink and grey, whimsical
thing with an exaggerated pom-pom on the top. It was far too cheerful for me,
but it was hers, and strands of her chestnut hair were still woven into the yarn.
    I didn’t know why I felt like I needed her things near me.
Little snatches of her with me, at all times. I guess I remembered the mother
she was when Kelly and I were little --- before the drink took over.
    The thing I remembered most was her smile. The wide, lovely
smile that lit up her entire face. I remembered her wearing this hat, outside
in the snow, making snow angels with her two small daughters.
    I held on to that memory with a death grip, because it was
the thing that reminded me that my mother had loved me at one time.
    “Zoe, if you know something, you need to tell me. If you’re
trying to protect Kelly or Derek, you’re not doing them any favors.”
    I stared straight ahead, through the windshield at the
falling snow. The wipers moved back and forth steadily, making me feel sleepy.
I felt so tired, and knew that if I closed my eyes right then, I’d nod off
without a problem.
    “Do you know where Jessica is, Zoe?”
    His words snapped me back to reality. I turned to him and
stared. “No. I wish I did. But I’m . . .”
    He watched me, and his eyes were a strange mix of
expectation and compassion. “You’re what, Zoe?”
    The words stuck in my throat. I could barely get them out,
because if I did, it would make it real. I whispered them. “I’m so scared.”
    “Of what? Tell me,