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  ‘But they’ve got to try something’ commented Joan.

  ‘But this is just suicide, Joan’ replied Stuart. ‘I mean, it’s like the charge of the Light Brigade all over again only much worse’ he added.

  Just then, an army officer arrived and shook his head as he spotted Jack.

  ‘There you are! I’ve been looking for you everywhere’ he complained.

  ‘I was just watching General Custer, sorry, I mean, General O’Dowd leading his troops away’ replied Jack making a rather unfortunate Freudian slip.

  ‘I think you were right the first time’ uttered Stuart under his breath as Joan just elbowed him in the ribs suggesting he just keep quiet.

  ‘It’s arrived!’ stated the army officer.

  ‘What has?’ puzzled Jack.

  ‘The thing you requested of course!’ remarked the officer.

  ‘What thing did you request then, Jack?’ puzzled Joan as she just stared at him.

  ‘A small airship’ smiled Jack as they now tried to keep up with the army officer as he led the way towards it. ‘Well, I couldn’t get mine here, repaired, and readied in time’ Jack explained ‘so I requested another.’

  Soon they were all staring at a small, single seat airship equipped with the same kind of self propelled cycle power as the much larger version they crashed landed in Eugene.

  ‘I put in a request to the government as soon as we got here’ smiled Jack as he walked all around it ‘the General thought I might be able to film his army from the air’ he explained.

  ‘You’d better get cracking then or you might miss all the action’ commented Joan as Jack immediately climbed aboard and ordered the mooring ropes to be untied.

  ‘I’LL SEE YOU WHEN I GET BACK!’ shouted Jack as he quickly turned the airship around.

  ‘GO CAREFUL! AND GAIN MORE HEIGHT BEFORE YOU ENTER THE DEAD ZONE WILL YOU!’ shouted Jenny before holding onto her father’s arm.

  ‘AND DON’T LET THEM CLIMB UP THE MOORING ROPES!’ shouted Stuart as he suddenly broke away from her.

  ‘Sorry, Jenny, but I didn’t want to shout in your ear’ he nodded.

  ‘Oh, I hope he’s going to be all right’ uttered Joan as she nervously bit on her lip.

  ‘You should worry more about the General’s army’ replied Stuart as he looked very concerned.

  They watched as Jack did exactly as they had suggested and gained a good height, before he quickly looked back, smiled and then waved them all goodbye before heading off on his way.

  It didn’t take long for the General to spot the newly named ‘Migrators’ as they soon came into view. He’d hoped his army would arrive there ahead of them and so he would have time to build a line of defence to protect the whole of San Francisco.

  As it was though, it appeared the Migrators were already there.

  Jack had managed to get just ahead of the General’s army and he paused from his peddling briefly to concentrate instead on some filming, as the General led his almighty army with him looking resplendent on horseback right at the very front.

  The moment Jack turned around and began peddling again though he noticed the Migrators up ahead of them.

  ‘Oh hell!’ he uttered nervously ‘I’d better warn the General!’

  Jack now looked back however, to see the General had already spotted the Migrators and had ordered the giant crossbows to be set up in a line.

  Jack now stopped peddling altogether and concentrated upon his filming instead.

  Unfortunately, the sheer speed of the Migrators had meant the General’s army had simply intercepted them in mid flow as they rapidly passed by them.

  Immediately upon spotting General O’Dowd’s army the Migrators began attacking!

  All the army’s horses immediately bolted leaving just the men and their crude weapons behind.

  Jack secretly clenched his fist and cheered whilst he filmed as he witnessed Migrator after Migrator falling dead to the ground after being struck by the specially made metal arrows!

  Suddenly though, the Migrators seemed to all issue a deafening high pitched screech, that even Jack heard loudly from the airship’s height. In fact, it had him reaching quickly to cover his ears!

  The strange, deafening noise seemed to be a special Migrator ‘call to arms’ as they now all gathered to attack the General’s army on mass.

  Turning his camera lens towards the battle Jack gasped in horror as he witnessed the sheer Migrator numbers as they now began to charge at the General’s Army at full speed!

  Jack himself trembled as he saw the entire earth beneath him turn completely black with Migrator numbers as they now fast headed for the thin line of guns of the General’s army!

  General O’Dowd’s army was still somehow holding the Migrators back, but then, in a second wave, like a floodgate suddenly being opened his entire army was completely engulfed and was quickly overcome and enveloped by the Migrators!

  The following scenes were now so horrific Jack had to stop filming and quickly began peddling and turning the tiny airship around to head back again.

  Jack was a scientist and not presupposed to becoming over emotional. Now though, he peddled back with tears running down his face and his hands trembling uncontrollably.

  He was so shaken, he even got himself quite lost and finally had to redirect himself back in the right direction again. For this reason it was taking him a lot longer to get back than it should have.

  Taking deep breaths to try and keep calm, Jack then reached for an apple he had brought with him to try and cure his now bone dry throat. Still haunted by the horrors he had just witnessed though, he found himself unable to even keep his hand still enough to eat it. He simply threw it away instead.

  As the apple reached around twenty or so feet above the ground it simply disintegrated in a sudden puff of smoke!

  ‘Heck! What was that?’ Jack puzzled.

  Then he began to realise ‘hey, I must be at the edge of the dead zone. No wonder no one ever gets out of there’ he concluded.

  Joan, Stuart and Jenny all waited for Jack to return and they all cheered joyously upon seeing him heading back again.

  The troops all grabbed hold of the mooring ropes as Jack drove the small airship down to land. Then he climbed out and took the only two steps from the tiny airship’s cabin to the ground as they all went over to welcome him back.

  ‘Thank Christ you made it!’ smiled Jenny as she ran and gave him a big hug.

  Stuart and Joan however, had noticed that Jack now looked as white as a sheet.

  In fact, he now looked quite ill.

  ‘Have you some water please?’ Jack just about gasped as an infantryman immediately handed him a bottle.

  Jack was unable to drink though as his hands were still trembling too much.

  ‘Jack?’ cried Jenny as she looked around at her dad for an explanation.

  ‘Are you all right, Jack?’ asked Joan, now looking very concerned as she now watched him just slump down onto the ground as he leaned his back against a wooden crate and just closed his eyes.

  ‘Help him drink some water, Jenny’ Stuart asked her and she tipped the water bottle up for him to drink.

  Jack now took huge swigs of water before taking the bottle from her and pouring some over his head as he just leaned back against the wooden crate with his eyes closed tight.

  ‘They’re all dead!’ he finally uttered.

  ‘What? All of them?’ asked Joan in dread as Jack just nodded his head as he now opened his eyes and just stared at the ground.

  ‘They fought bravely’ uttered Jack, but then he just shook his head ‘but you should have seen them, Stuart, the Migrators just overrun the General’s army in just a matter of minutes.’

  A second later, a young officer turned up and saluted Jack.

  ‘General Iram requests your presence for your debriefing, Sir’ he ordered.


  So Jack, Stuart, Joan and Jenny all went along to the meeting of mainly military men and government scientists.

  Jack was asked to go to the front and report General O’Dowd’s progress.

  ‘Well, how is it going?’ asked General Iram impatiently.

  ‘Give him a chance will you?’ complained Stuart on Jack’s behalf.

  Jack stood before them and now looked tired enough to collapse. He looked drawn and very grim faced as he stood there just staring at the floor.

  ‘They’re all dead!’ he finally announced solemnly.

  ‘What? ALL of them?’ queried one of the military advisors sitting with General Iram.

  ‘Yes, all of them’ replied Jack quietly.

  ‘The weapons didn’t work then?’ asked General Iram as the room suddenly fell completely silent.

  Everyone now looked shocked as Jack explained all he had witnessed.

  ‘The General’s army arrived in mid flow of the Migrators and he immediately set up the guns. At first they had some success’ explained Jack ‘and many Migrators were killed. Then though the Migrators just charged in, in such huge numbers it was like watching soldier ants quickly overcoming their prey. The Migrators were just so fast they quickly overwhelmed the General’s army. They didn’t stand a chance!’ concluded Jack miserably.

  ‘We will soon have the film ready to run, General’ announced a soldier, but Jack quickly stepped in.

  ‘No! I mean, there’s nothing to be gained by watching the horrors I filmed’ Jack insisted and General Iram seemed to consider this, then he nodded his head.

  ‘Tell them to stand down, Corporal, we won’t need to watch the film’ he ordered.

  ‘These creatures are pretty much invincible’ admitted Jack. ‘I underestimated how fast they can run, why they covered so much ground so incredibly quickly.’

  You could hear a pin drop now everyone was so quiet.

  ‘But we had seventy thousand men there?’ queried General Iram as he now stood up as he began to pace up and down.

  ‘Then the weapons we designed were of no use?’ queried one of the scientists on the design team.

  ‘Yes, they worked, actually they worked well’ then Jack took a large sip of water before continuing.

  ‘The Migrators gave out some kind of ‘war cry’ that seemed to be a call to arms. So they quickly all gathered together’ explained Jack ‘it was just their sheer weight of numbers that beat us.’

  Virtually everyone in the meeting was now puffing out their cheeks and shaking their heads in dismay.

  ‘They sound like soldier ants’ queried one of the military men.

  ‘Yes, only these ants are all over six feet tall with stronger than ten inch steel armour plating covering them’ uttered Joan.

  ‘The people they have in the dead zone are held there by some kind of invisible destructive field’ explained Jack ‘it just disintegrates anything trying to pass through it!’

  ‘What like a force field?’ a scientist sitting nearby queried.

  ‘No, it’s something else, I don’t claim to understand it, but it clearly doesn’t go beyond a certain height or I wouldn’t be able to fly over it in the airship’ replied Jack.

  ‘Is this a two way force field?’ a military man now queried.

  ‘No, it can’t be, otherwise General O’Dowd’s army wouldn’t have been able to enter the dead zone’ quickly answered Stuart.

  ‘If we can’t defeat these Migrators, then we’re all doomed’ commented one scientist as people now began to become alarmed.

  ‘LOOK! THERE MUST BE SOME WAY TO DEFEAT THESE THINGS, WE JUST HAVE TO OUR BRAINS UNTIL WE FIND IT!’ shouted Stuart as he stood up, jesting with his arms for people to remain calm.

  ‘YOU RECKON? IT TOOK YOU AGES TO KILL JUST ONE OF THEM!’ an army officer now shouted back angrily.

  ‘AND YOU SAY THERE ARE MILLIONS OF THEM NOW? THEN HOW CAN WE POSSIBLY DEFEAT THEM?’ shouted another military man angrily.

  One man now stood up as he held up his hands as he appealed for calm.

  ‘Gentleman and Ladies’ he added as he looked all around him ‘it appears to me these creatures are following a pattern’ he surmised.

  ‘And who exactly are you, Sir?’ asked General Iram.

  ‘My name is Boris Gregorksi. I am a professor studying insect behaviour in Munich’ he explained. ‘I’m afraid, these creatures are organised and are progressive in their behaviour in that they obviously attack a complete area, and are then most likely to progress once they have finished with that, to then move onto another. In this they are like our own soldier ants. They do much the same thing using their strength of numbers to overcome even much larger and more powerful prey. Unfortunately, I believe these Migrators next stage may be even in fact to take to flight’ he explained.

  ‘WHAT?’ someone uttered in shock as everyone looked completely astonished.

  ‘Then they could then quickly take over the world. Nowhere would be safe from them!’ uttered another scientist in alarm.

  ‘HOLD ON! HOLD ON!’ shouted Joan ‘LET’S NOT GET CARRIED AWAY HERE!’ she uttered holding up her hands for quiet. Then she turned to the Professor.

  ‘Professor Gregorksi, how sure are you about this?’ she asked calmly.

  The elderly Professor just smiled at them all.

  ‘I base my assumptions on over fifty years of insect study’ he nodded. ‘It is my belief our only chance of stopping these creatures is before they begin evolving to their next stage, because if they reach that…’ he paused for a moment and just shrugged his shoulders. ‘Well, I believe mankind itself could well be doomed to extinction should they ever reach that final stage’ he finally concluded as the room immediately exploded into uproar!

  ‘THEN THIS LEAVES US NO CHOICE!’ shouted General Iram ‘WE’LL NUKE THE BASTARDS!’ he announced loudly as everyone now cheered him!

  ‘But you can’t do that, General!’ protested both Joan and Stuart together.

  ‘No? You just watch me!’ stated the General stubbornly.

  ‘General, the nuclear fallout could last for a thousand years and would kill Americans possibly for centuries’ argued Stuart.

  ‘Then you tell me, Professor Keys, what’s the alternative? Just wait for these things to devour us all?’ replied General Iram forcefully.

  ‘That’s not the point, General’ argued Stuart.

  ‘Then you tell me, Professor Keys, what is the point?’ replied the General now looking quite angry.

  ‘The point is, General, no nuclear device will go off in the dead zone!’ argued Joan.

  ‘Oh, you reckon do you?’ smiled General Iram as he now marched up and down in front of everyone.

  Then he stopped.

  ‘WELL I RECKON IT WILL BLOW THESE DAMN INSECTS TO KINGDOM COME!’ he shouted as the military people all cheered him! ‘Sergeant, get me the President on the line’ ordered General Iram as he now marched off.

  Stuart just sat there shaking his head in despair.

  ‘I’m just hoping the bloody bombs won’t go off now’ he uttered.

  ‘I agree, Stuart, this is just sheer madness and I don’t think it’ll help one iota’ nodded Joan.

  ‘I just keep hoping this is just a nightmare and any minute I’m going to wake up in my bed at home’ commented Jenny as she just put her head in her hands in despair.

  ‘Do they really think an insect so capable of disarming our every line of defence will really not be prepared for something like a nuclear strike?’ smiled professor Gregorksi.

  ‘Well unfortunately, Professor we’re now about to find out’ uttered Stuart as he just shook his head in disbelief.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Day Ten:

  16th January 2021

  Aboard The

  U. S. Aircraft Carrier

  Neil Armstrong:

  The President, having been told of the defeat
of General O’Dowd’s army agreed that a nuclear strike was now their only option to protect the world against the Migrators.

  He immediately ordered a multi missile attack on California in the vast area covered by the Migrators, from just beyond San Francisco all the way up to the huge black building now believed by many to actually be their space vehicle.

  A coded message was sent to the Aircraft Carrier Neil Armstrong anchored around a hundred miles off the Californian Coast and it immediately sounded battle stations.

  Jack, Stuart, Joan and Jenny all sat around their makeshift camp knowing full well that if the nuclear warheads did in fact explode, they would all be killed, if not immediately from the enormous blasts, but from the nuclear fallout that would come very soon after.

  Jack was particularly worried for his wife and children who were within the nuclear fallout zone themselves up in Eugene.

  He spoke to his wife on the phone and she explained that word of a nuclear strike had now leaked out, so there was now a mass panic to escape from the area. So roads were all blocked solid and people were even turning to violence to steal any vehicle they could just to escape. The result was that she and the children had no realistic chance of ever leaving the area.

  ‘The nuclear warheads won’t explode in the dead zone, Jack, you know that’ Stuart tried to reassure him.

  ‘Somehow, Stuart, that just doesn’t make me feel any better at the moment’ Jack replied as he worried about his family.

  Realising the missiles might cut out upon reaching the dead zone the military experts had worked on a trajectory that would mean the rockets would fall down and hit their targets anyway.

  Proof of their success would be seen in the large mushroom clouds they produced soon afterwards, followed by the incredible strong winds that would simply blow everything away for fifty miles or more!

  Soon the countdown began, broadcast all over the army encampment at Lodi.

  Everyone had been given advice how to protect themselves from the blasts, based upon an old United States government public television advisory campaign from the Cuban crisis entitled ‘Duck and Cover’.

  Jack though, said it was a complete waste of time.