Our call to Houston was not replied despite the many attempts which we made. And finally we decided to descend on the emergency coordinates programmed in the system. It was a smooth landing and we are now back on Earth after a two years mission to Mars. But we stayed in the craft as there was no welcoming party to our arrival. Its all quiet out there. We feared the worse but we will sit tight for now. After all, we have been away for two years and what is another one more week. Our rations will suffice and the craft is working fine with its life support.
"Warren, do you think we can leave now?" I am Warren Mather; Commander of Flight X102 from Mars. We left Earth on 2nd April 2015 and now its May 13th 2017; the eight day since we landed. My other three crews are getting nervous to open the door to our craft. The person who is asking is Cornelius Bend; Navigator and Co-commander. Next to him is (Ms.) Frances De Mille; our Flight Engineer and the last member is Doctor Paula Smith; Medical and Scientist. I looked all four of them as they sit by their consoles looking at me. Since, we landed; we had been busy with the instruments to do the reading outside on everything that can tell us what happened to those on Earth. But we read nothing of the ordinary except a high spike in oxygen level. We tried to linked up the Houston Main Frame but we failed as we could be not be authenticated. We checked that all we had was the last feedback on December 23th 2016, and then nothing after that date. It looked like the whole world went offline or dead on that day at precisely 2319hrs. Frances told us that the system log registered nothing after that time. So the vote was on for us to decide our next action.
Three weeks later after a long search for living souls in the borrowed jeep, we finally ran out of petrol on the stretch of road at Santa Rosa, Florida. I got out of the jeep and looked down the road which we came. I remembered we pass some town about five miles back and I was sure the petrol gauge was half full.
"Warren, you mind telling us what do we do now? We been on this unit for three weeks and we seen not a living soul. Empty cities and towns but there are food and drinks for us to grab. But I want to know what happened to the folks? Did they die or if they did, where are the bodies? Now we are stuck in this no-man's stretch with a dead jeep." Cornelius had been bitching since we left Houston. He is right; since we came out of the craft, we had seen no one alive or dead. It was like a ghost town but the machinery are still in place. The control screens are working and we checked that our messages came in but no one replied to us as if they are all missing.
It was then the ground beneath us was a dark shadow. I looked up and saw the large alien spacecraft hovering over us. Immediately, the four of us got out the jeep and we ran off the road. But soon we find ourselves immobilized in our tracks like we are frozen in time. I see something appearing before me; its an alien with some sort of weapon. It walked towards me and point the thing at me. But I am not shot or dead. The alien took the so called weapon and pocket it. The next thing I know I was in some holding area with my three crews. We looked around us in this empty hold area. It a rectangle area with what may appear to be a large doorway at the rear of us. Suddenly the doorway raised itself up like a garage door.
There are a few of our people like us walking out towards us. They came forth and hugged us as in relief we are alive. I knew them and more so one other person. I walked towards him and called out his name.
"James, its me Warren. What happened back there? Where am I now?" James is the Flight Coordinator for X102 at Houston Control.
"Warren, thank God you are alive. We been rescued by these aliens from Earth last year. Somehow our atmosphere failed on the day December 24th at 0001hrs. The oxygen level dropped to nil but we were all rescued up here by the aliens. They came in their large ships and took us here. They been taking care of us while they repaired Earth atmosphere. They taken us to near Jupiter since then. We were advised that your craft was sighted in Houston and we came back to fetch you. You are safe now."
"But James, I was on Earth. The air is breathable again. We can go back. Can you tell the aliens this and we can all go back."
"Is it? Please join the others while I tell the Master of the ship." James took off back behind the door while the others came swarming over me to inquire about the mission. Little I was to know later that James was to report to his Master on my findings may be detrimental to my survival.
"Commander Warren. I sincerely apologies for having taken you off your planet called Earth. You see we have taken your people to be our feeding stock for our people while your planet will be used as our training ground for the military. But your late arrival back to your planet, gave us a new idea. You will be returned back to Earth to continue in your survival there as the last four Earthlings. But mark my words, your existence will depends on your ability to evade termination by my military trainees force of twenty millions young recruits who will be landing there soon in one Earth month period. So you got shall I say 30 days to prepare yourselves for the next invasion."
Its now our 29th day since we came back to Earth. We are the last survivals but we renamed ourselves the Four Horsemen. Like in the Biblical tale, we will ride like them to fight the coming invasion force. Its a battle which we would never win but we have assured ourselves of victory. A final victory for Earth will be ours. The landing of the invasion force came as planned on that day on the peninsula of Florida state.
"Cornelius on my mark, you will turn the key. Frances will assist me here while you and Paula do the same there. We will take them with us and leave them ashes." I placed my finger on the key which will unlock the detonating countdown for the nuclear bombs we planted around the state.
"Ashes to ashes, and goodbye Earth." I heard Cornelius reply from the other end of Florida State.
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