It took him a few minutes to regain his composure. Slowly he inched his way back to the keyhole. Staring in his direction was a nine-foot-tall monstrosity. Its skin was translucent, like the spiders’, with blue veins crawling throughout the length of its body. The bottom half of the creature, as far as Emanuel could tell, consisted of two beefy legs and a slender tail ridged with spikes that connected to a massive torso. The upper half of its body was humanoid, with a thick chest, two muscular arms, a thin neck, and round face. But it was far from human. The creature’s skull was lined with the same spikes as its tail, and in the center of its face was a single socket crammed with two small, reptilian eyes.

Emanuel waited, petrified, for several minutes. Finally, he took in a deep breath.

Whatever the thing was, it appeared to be intelligent. Perhaps he had just seen one of the more sophisticated Organics. He guessed the spiders were not the top of the Organic food chain, that there was another species behind the invasion. He forced his face against the keyhole one more time. Staring back at him from a meter away were two small, malevolent eyes. They blinked, and he let out a blood-curdling scream.

Sophie stood on the rooftop, watching the sunrise split the horizon in two. The clearest sky she had ever seen surrounded them in all directions. It was captivating and chilling at the same time. Zero cloud cover meant the Organics had already removed enough of the Earth’s surface moisture that the water cycle had been broken. She was no meteorologist, but she knew enough about weather patterns to know the Earth was dying.

“What’s that?” Overton asked from the corner of the roof. He took a step toward the railing and looked out across the Colorado Springs skyline through his scope.

Sophie strolled over to him, squinting into the sun to get a better look.

“Looks sort of like rain, but without the clouds. Here take a look,” he said, handing her a pair of binoculars.

“That’s not rain. Those are the remains of people from the orbs that are being beamed up to a collection ship far above the atmosphere. You can’t see it, but trust me, it’s there,” Luke said from the stairway.

Overton narrowed his eyes. “How do you know all of this?”

“The ships have been in orbit since they invaded a few days ago. We didn’t know about it until it was too late. They must have some sort of cloaking technology. I don’t know,” he said shrugging. “All I know is that when they finally emerged on invasion day, our weapons systems were already dead from the magnetic disturbance. With the click of one button, the Organics unleashed a shockwave that effectively shut down most of our technological advances from the past millennium.”