That first great push sent it a good twenty feet into the air. Only then, at the apex of its jump, did the impossible jets come on, spouting great plumes of fire that bore it up, up, up into the smoky sky, until it dwindled into a speck against the gray-streaked blue, and we were standing alone in the ruins of what man had made.

2.

There was barely time to consider what we were going to do next before two sounds split the air in tandem: sirens, racing down what remained of the freeway, and the ominous chopping of a helicopter’s rotors slicing the sky into manageable chunks. I looked up. The copter was far enough away that I couldn’t make out any logos or insignia, but it was closing fast. If we were going to get away, we needed to do it now.

Mandy burst into tears and bolted toward the copter, waving her arms wildly in the air above her head as she signaled for it to land.

“Over here!” she shouted. “Please, we’re over here, please!”

Graham ran after her, shouting for her to come back, leaving me standing between Jeff and Toni, staring. I had never felt more alone, or less human.

“Think she’s defecting?” asked Toni. She turned to look at me. “I’ll be honest, I thought I’d be the first to choose the sweet bosom of humanity over whatever you alien fuckers have planned. But hey, everybody gets to pull off a few surprises.”

“Shut up,” said Jeff.

“Nope,” said Toni.

Mandy was still running, waving her arms, and Graham was still running after her. The sound of sirens was getting closer. I glanced nervously around.

“Maybe we should be looking for cover,” I said. “I don’t think we want to meet whoever’s driving those vehicles.”

“You get the boyfriend, I’ll get the twit,” said Jeff, and took off running. I followed close behind, with Toni at my heels. It was interesting, in a terrible, abstract sort of a way: we were all running for different reasons, but to anyone looking, it probably looked like we were a united front.

That’s the trouble with people. You can never tell what’s happening inside them. Jeff caught up with Mandy easily, grabbing her around the waist and jerking her off her feet as he pulled her to a halt. She kicked and shouted. Graham started to move to her defense, only to stop as I grabbed his wrist. He looked over his shoulder, expression hurt. I shook my head.

“We need to get to cover!” I yelled. It was probably too late. The chopper was close enough to have seen that two of us weren’t flesh-colored, and our green was too over-all to be a shoddy attempt at camouflage. That didn’t mean we shouldn’t try.