Part 4
Two weeks later humanity was still under attack, but fighting back. Trial and error showed that while bullets had no effect, it was possible to destroy an alien if it was hit at close range with a rocket launcher. For some reason, the broadcasts only showed the aliens being attacked after they had demolished a building. I didn't know why they didn't shoot them on sight, before they could do any more damage. Perhaps they did, but the broadcasters thought battles made more suspenseful footage.
The first successful hit was shown around the globe, going viral in minutes. The alien corpse was about twenty metres long, with a large head, a small body and two long, tentacle-like legs. When dead, the alien turned dark grey, many shades darker than the pale wispy colour they displayed while alive. I use the terms 'dead' and 'alive' because that's what the media used. They certainly bore no resemblance to any life on Earth. Nor, curiously enough, did they resemble the aliens that were already living among us, apart from their colour.
At first I had leapt to the obvious conclusion, that this attack was the culmination of their long term plan to take over the Earth. My hand hovered reluctantly over my phone, wondering if I dared call National Security again, or maybe the Army, this time. But as I hesitated, and watched the broadcasts more closely, I began to wonder. I saw more than one small alien wearing a uniform, clearly fighting the new-comers alongside us. It seemed they had thrown in their lot with humanity.
I watched the broadcasts more closely than most people for the first week, trying to confirm my theory.
Was it possible there were two alien species invading us?
~~~
A month later, although the armed forces had some successes, we were still losing the war.
I was cooking tea in my pyjamas, after finally managing to tear myself away from the screen for a few moments, when a huge figure dressed in riot gear kicked in the kitchen door. I froze in shock. Another smashed the window and came through it in a roll. I screamed, and tried to run. The first one grabbed me, ignoring my beating fists and kicking feet. Bare feet didn't have much impact on hard leather boots.
"Help!" I shrieked. "Let me go!"
Then I felt a sharp pinprick in my neck and everything went black.