The Trigger

The Prologue: An Unordinary Ordianry

Prologue

It was an ordinary Monday night. Ohh, how I was wrong. So terribly...painfully wrong.

'Here we go,' my wife said as she came out of the kitchen arms overloaded with a tray of lasagne.

Nicholas, my youngest son, perked up. A beaming smile grew on his face as his sparkling green eyes stared at the tray. I grabbed a plate and began to serve out the food for my family. Nick was the first to reach out and grab a plate. I gave him a stern look and he shied back away. I was constantley trying to teach him selflessness. A cute, guilty smirk replaced his smile as he bowed his head trying to hide his eyes from mine. Instead, I handed the plate to my daughter Sophie. She smiled a thanks, and then hurriedly dug into the food. Nick was next. He didn't spend a second spare before he dived in. Fork after fork plunging into his mouth. His mother, Alyss, stroked his shoulder in an attempt to slow down this ravenous beast we called a son. He looked as if he hadn't eaten in months, maybe even in years. Nick, having finished his dinner in a mere second looked up. I let out a short sigh. Nick's face was a canvas, absolutely smeared with sauce from the mince. I reached over and grabbed a napkin and moved back to-

Clank!

I looked over my shoulder suspiciously. Frowning. Deep in thought. I sent a worried look at my wife and stood up, leaving the napkin behind. Silence enveloped the family behind me as I approached the noise. This silence was now only broken by the floorboards creaking under my feet. As I reached the doorway to the front door I hesitated. Leaning forward I listened intently for any noise around the corner. At first, there was silence. But slowly like the immutable breathing of a grief worn breast I heard a chittering. I scrunched my face. Confused. It sounded like one enourmous angry insect.

So the stories were true. I cursed my unbelieve. I was too quick to dismiss any notion of aliens. I hastily went back to my awaiting family. I sent my wife a worried look. Nick noticed and sent his own worried and confused look to both of us.
My wife continued to look at me, as if she was praying that the worst had not just knocked on our doorway. I felt a tear roll down my face and I nodded. I was almost ready to accepting my fate.

'Okay, c'mon kids its time to go,' my wife interrupt the silence, motioning for our kids to get up. 'You go get the stuff, I'll take the kids out the back'.
My wife gathered the children and began herding them out the back door as I entered the kitchen.

I watched them hurriedly rush out of the door as I entered the kitchen. I opened the further most cupboard and grasped the item I had looked for.

Click...Click. I peered back into the dining room hand raised and enveloping the handgun I had picked up. I began to stalk back over to the door my family had exited through. Hoping. Fearing.

My body froze as a high pitch screem erupted from outside. A second later I was on the move. I bolted for the back door and leaped out now only carrying the Handgun. My blood chilled as my eyes beheld the scene before me. An insect like creature, one that towered over everything due to his enormous hieght, leered over my family. My wife stood in front of Nick and Sophie protecting them from the alien.
'Get away,' I screamed as I ran for my family.
Bang! The first shot of nine left the barrel and hit the insect square in the chest. The alien swung to face me and as it did so one of its thinly arms swung wide and hit my wife. She flew for a split second and hit the ground with a thud.
From afar I cried out 'Nick, take your sister and check on your mother. Than go to the hurricane shelter and lock the door, don't worry about me.'
Bang! The second shot redrew the attention of the alien away from my children. The alien, obviously hurt, took a stumble forward and let out a loud chitter. Seeing this, I dashed past the alien to my family, sending a third round into the alien. The alien slumped and lifelessly fell, thudding as it hit the earth, flooding the ground around it with strangley coloured blood. I attempted to vault over the slumped, still bleeding body of the alien and rejoin my family but tripped. I cursed my hurriedness and then ironicly rushed to get back up again. Not bothering to dust myself of I began to head towards the rest of my family. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a glimmer of light. I turned around to find another creature standing there. Bang! Fourth bullet. The bullet flew true and smashed into the creature's head.

As I continued, I looked over to where my family was.

'Not again,' I mumbled as I began another run towards my family.
This time two of them towered over my family. Bang! The fifth bullet, it hit the closest one and sent him sprawling backwards. The second alien also got hit. Not by a bullet by my shoulder. The crash tackle sent both of us flying away. We flew backwards, each of us wrestling as we did. I landed on top of the alien and began to riegn blows down onto his pincers. The alien dazzed by the blows, didn't notice me cock my gun with the sixth bullet. Bang!

I looked back up at the other alien, the one I had previously hit. I aimed and BANG the seventh bullet. I gasped in pain as I pulled the trigger. I had obviously fractured my wrist, maybe even broken, whilst hitting the previous creature and so the pain of pulling the trigger sent my shot going wild. The creature spun to see what had made such a loud noise and charged at me. I quickly put the handgun into my left hand and let the alien come closer to me. Bang! The eighth bullet slammed into the creature at point blank range dropping it into the pool of blood that awaited below him.

Exhausted I stumbled over to where my wife lay and knelt beside her.

'Darling,' I said to my wife as she rolled over to face me. A tear rolled down my face as I gazed on her bruised bleeding face.

'The...the kids,' she stuttered.

'What about them?' I replied.

My wife rolled back onto her side and held up a mangled finger into the distance.

I stared into the space she pointed at. There, behind another creature were Nicholas and Sophie.

Anger and hatred boiled inside me as I reloaded my gun. I took the first few steps towards them in a dazed stumble. The next were hard mortars crashing to the ground as this daze became anger. The last were quick sprints of a dad. A dad who had let his children down and could no longer save them. I jumped at the creature who hungrily tore at my children and sent us both tumbling backwards. Then in a fury of blows I let the boiling rage cool to a simmer. I lent back to look at what I had done. The creature lay in an almost dead state, it's loud chittering reduced to that like a heartbeat of a dying man.

'Why?', I screamed as I sent another blow into the already mangled face.

'Give,' another blow, 'me,' another, 'my...kids...back'

The last blows where that of my tears rolling down my cheek and thundering down on his face.

'Die, you son of a-'

And then I pulled the trigger.