Prologue

The heart monitor beeped. After a while the beeps turned into white noise you wouldn’t hear unless you paid attention to. Gregg laid in the medical bed wrapped in a white, fluffy blanket watching a show he had recorded, back before all tv stations went off the air forever. He laid there, alone with his thoughts, silently taking in all the sights and sounds of the television. The air filtration system was hard at work pumping air from the surface into the room and facility.

Connected to the side of the bed was a small white button labeled “nurse.” Gregg fumbled blindly for the button, unsuccessfully. He frowned, discovering he had to look away from his show to press it. As he held down the button, a voice came through the intercom.

“Yes, Mr. Crosno?”

“Hello Mrs. Dunn, could you call in my nephew and his family, I wanna talk to his son about what has happened.” Gregg replied.

“Yes, sir.”

He released the button from under his finger. Turning to the other side of the bed to grab the remote, he turned off the TV. Five minutes later, there was a knock at the door, and a voice.

“You wanted to see me, Gregg?” Zach said, his voice muffled by the door.

“Yes, I did - come in.”

The door creaked as Zach opened it. Zach had his wife, Sarah, and his son, Eric.

“Zach, as you know, I’m dying. I think now is the time I tell Eric about the apocalypse and resulting war that followed after.”

“You really think he should know about all that, he’s still very young,” Zach’s wife asked, “Ignorance is bliss.”

“He’s 15 Sarah, he’s growing up. Let me tell him. I’m old, I’m probably gonna die within the next week or so. Let me tell the him what has happened. I should be the one that tells him, I know most about the events that occurred.”

Zach went over to his son.

“Do you wanna know what happened? I mean Gregg could write in his journal, and then I can read it to you when you're old-”

“No Dad. I’ve always wanted to know what happened, but you guys never wanted me to know. Gregg is 87, you really think he’s capable of writing in his journal about it?”

Eric went over to his great uncle.

“Tell me.”

Chapter 1

A Day in the Life

It was 2016, I would say, about March. I lived in a nice house on the Riviera in Santa Barbara. Your father, to say the least, didn’t have the best parents. They had a drug problem, and would act like Zach didn’t even exist. One rainy day, while I was watching some television, his parents came running up to my door with him, yelling at me saying the deal went wrong, and that they needed to leave. They left Zach with me, then they got in their car and drove off. No one knows where they went, but I thought I saw them when I was taking a vacation in Florida.

Zach was a good kid. He got good grades, didn’t get in trouble at school - besides a couple of occasions. He had some good friends too. They would come over, watch movies, play video games, eat pizza. I remember one day, during one of Zach’s sleepovers, him and his friend came running into my room, screaming that they saw a monster outside. I went to investigate and one of Zach’s friends popped up from behind a bush wearing a gorilla costume and threw a bucket of water on me.

Anyways, March, it was a Sunday, I had just woken up. The light from the bright sun blaring through the window hit my face, blinding me. I tossed the blanket off of me. It was hot, like usual. The sweat dripped off my forehead. I could feel the bedsheet stuck to my back as I sat up. Everything was blurry. I wiped the crust out of my eyes until everything became clear. I walked down the stairs and saw Zach sitting on the couch in the living room. The day before, he had just graduated highschool and was busy preparing and inviting everyone to a party he had set up at a pizza place nearby.

“Good morning Gregg,” Zach said to me, “how did you sleep?”

“Good, for the most part. It’s hot here. I woke up sweating and with the bedsheet stuck to my back.”

Zach gave a slight chuckle, “At least we don’t get tornados.”

His phone rang and he quickly answered it. I walked into the kitchen. My arms felt weak as I grabbed the coffee beans from the pantry. I looked out the window into the street as my coffee brewed, making a popping sound. Once the coffee was done, I poured it into my black mug. I could see the steam rise off the coffee as it poured into the cup. I put some sugar, cream, and milk into the coffee until it turned into a pale brown.

Grabbing my coffee, I walked outside to the driveway - it was sunny like always. I looked over the beautiful city, admiring the big, blue ocean. Looking over the mail, it was just bills, and useless junk. I slammed it down onto the table as I came inside.

“Hey Gregg, what time do you think we should start the party? 2 or 3?” Zach asked me.

“Let’s do 2, the earlier the better.”

“Alright, cool. I’ll start telling people what time.”

I saw Zach run upstairs to his room. I sat down in the living room chair and turned on the television. Right at that moment my phone rang. I work everyday of the week, except Sundays. I only took the day off that day for Zach’s graduation party. Looking at the phone it was my co-worker Phil.

“Hello?” I asked.

“Hello Mr. Crosno, I know you’re taking the day off today, but something really important is happening. I can’t explain it over the phone, you have to get down here, now!”

The phone went to dial tone. I turned my head up and sighed. I got up and walked to the stairs and yelled.

“Hey Zach!”

“Yeah?”

“Listen, I know I said I would take the day off today for your party, but my co-worker said there’s something urgent going on and I need to go over there.”

“Will you be back in time?”

“Hopefully. Push the party back to 3. I’ll be back in time, I promise.”

I went upstairs to my room and opened by drawer. It was filled with a wide variety of suits. I grabbed a suit. After getting dressed, I walked down the stairs and into the garage where my car was waiting. I hopped in, made sure no one was looking, pressed a secret button hidden under the dashboard, and waited as the floor sunk down into the ground.

Chapter 2

Cascade

The platform lowered slowly down into the abyss. As it went down, it got darker. Dark enough to a point where I couldn’t see my hand. The elevator made a whirring sound until it reached the bottom. Lights flickered on, one by one. All I could see in front of me was a tunnel road. I put my car into drive. The concrete walls gave off an uneasy feeling. I turned on my car heater because of how cold it was down there.It was completely silent. All I could hear was the sound of the wheels echoing off the walls. I turned on the radio.

After driving for several minutes I came to a stop at a giant metal door. I drove up next to the microphone and speaker that was hooked up onto the wall. I heard it buzz on with some static feedback. A voice came through.

“Hello Mr. Crosno. Sorry to pull you into work on your day off. Phil is waiting for you in his office.”

The giant door creaked open slowly, revealing another elevator. The elevator was short, unlike the last one. The elevator door opened. There was an underground parking lot, filled with a wide variety of cars. I drove up to my parking space and got out and walked into the lobby.

The woman behind the counter greeted me as I walked by. I walked down the halls of the base, heading for Phil’s office, which was situated near the back of the facility. People were rushing around, entering and leaving rooms. Multiple people bumped into me too busy to notice. The base was often busy, but never to this extent, unless something was going on.

I got to Phil’s office, which was right next to mine. Phil was second in command, right after me. I was the head of the base. I hired and fired people, made sure to get work was getting done. Phil was a workaholic. Work always came before anything else. I would say he was the most productive person working there.

He was a short, young man with orange curly hair and glasses. I looked through the window on his office door. He was typing rapidly on his computer while talking into the phone. He started running around the room, looking through his files. I knocked on the door. He looked up, and quickly went over to open it.

“You wanted to see me?” I asked him.

“Yes, sorry I couldn’t tell you what was happening on the phone. As you can probably guess, everyone here are really busy trying to figure out what is happening.” He replied.

“What did you want to tell me?”

“Well, check this out.”

He showed me to his computer, which had security footage on it.

“This is footage of something happening at another base down in Los Angeles.”

“What type is it?”

“Experimental. I think something went wrong or something, watch the footage.”

He clicked the computer mouse, which caused the security footage to start playing. The video showed an empty hallway. There was a giant flash, and a scientist running away from this disgusting looking alien thing. More scientists ran down the hallway, more monsters chasing them. Phil clicked the mouse, causing the computer to switch to another camera. It showed a cafeteria. Armed men were trying to take down this giant alien, but their bullets didn’t phase it. The alien started killing the armed men, one by one.

“I’m assuming you’ve already tried contacting the base?” I asked him.

“Yes, sir. No response, communications are down.” He replied.

“What’s the possibility of one of these aliens escaping the base?”

“I would assume low, it being an experimental base.”

“Call some of the other nearby bases about what happened. I’ll send some guys down there, and tell the other bases to send their reinforcements. Make sure they’re all armed. I gotta go back to the surface for my nephew’s party.”