She smiled and moved as fast as she could with all the cuts and bruises that threatened to slow her down. Maya would forget about the pain once she hugged her kids. She nearly tripped on the curb as she shambled up to the front of the house, staring in disbelief that she’d finally made it here.
Her mother’s car sat in the driveway—she was home, the kids were here.
Maya shuffled up the walk leading to the front door.
“Mom! Laura! Aiden! It’s me! Open the door!”
She kept knocking, but no one answered. The blinds covered the windows, so there’d be no peeking through those. Perhaps everyone inside was sleeping?
Maya hurried around the side of the house to the garage. She then heard movement at the fence, and smiled when she saw her first ray of hope since leaving the dome.
“Hey, girl,” Maya said, going over to the fence where her German shepherd, Page, looked through the cracks in the wooden posts. She walked through the gate and kneeled next to the dog. Page wagged her tail and panted as Maya hugged her and scratched her ears.
“How are you doing?”
The dog backed away and barked at Maya.
But Page never barked. It was the only reason they could keep the large dog in their apartment. Page then ran around the corner, barking a couple of more times. Maya stood and followed her.
When Maya came around the corner, Page was standing on the concrete slab patio. She barked again and then darted inside through the open back door. Her heart racing, Maya followed the dog.
Page stood at the edge of the kitchen, in the living room, looking back and forth between Maya and the living room. Maya moved around the island in the middle of the kitchen and saw two feet poking out from behind the bar. Maya hurried over and saw the body lying face down on the ground.
“Mom!”
Page moved out of the way and Maya kneeled next to her mother. She flipped the woman’s frail body over to see a gash in her head. The wound wasn’t bleeding, but blood had pooled on the floor around her. Luckily, her mother was breathing.
Maya rolled her over and the woman’s eyes slowly fluttered open.
“Mom, it’s me, Maya. I’m here.”
Her mother groaned, her eyes opening all the way as she looked around the room. Then she focused on Maya, her chin dropping.
“Maya?”
Maya pulled her mother into a sitting position. She grabbed the back of Maya’s shirt, gripping it tightly. After a long embrace, Maya pulled away.
“What happened? Where’s Laura and Aiden?”
Her mother’s eyes went pale. Tears flowed as she shook her head.
“What is it?” Maya asked. “Where are they?”
Sniffling, Elizabeth said, “I couldn’t stop him. He showed up and broke through the back door. I tried, Maya. But he took them. He took the kids.”
Maya’s jaw fell open as the realization struck her. That familiar crooked smile, the slicked-back hair.
“I said, ‘Gerald, please don’t do this. Let them stay here.’ But when I tried to stop him, he hit me with his gun.”
“He came in here with a gun?”
Elizabeth nodded. “I am so sorry, Maya. I tried to stop him. But I just—”
Maya embraced her mother again.
“It’s okay, Mom. There was nothing more you could have done.”
Maya groaned, tasting the anger rising in the back of her throat.
50
Maya sat on the top step of the front porch, staring at the house across the street. She should have known he was capable of something like this. Now, after everything, Maya would have to put aside her rage and think of a way to find Gerald, in order to get her kids back.
The porch door opened behind her.
“Mind if I sit?”
Maya shifted to the side and Elizabeth sat next to her on the step. She had changed into clean clothes, and the bandage Maya had wrapped around her head was still in place, a dark red spot over the wound where it had absorbed the blood.
“How’s that feeling?” Maya asked.
“Better. I’m a little lightheaded, and it still throbs.”
“It’s going to leave one nice scar.”
“I’m alive. That’s all that matters.”
Maya nodded. She was thankful for that, too. Her own headache had intensified, and swallowing several ibuprofen hadn’t helped. Whatever it was, she knew that passing through the dome had hurt her in ways she couldn’t understand, but it wouldn’t help to share that worry with her mother now.
“How did you get out from beneath the dome?”
“I had help. A new friend may have revealed a weakness, but it’s going to take more than one determined mom to fight back against the aliens.”
“What do we do now?” Elizabeth asked.
“I’m going to figure out where Gerald took my children. Did he say where they might be going? Did he say anything?”
Elizabeth shook her head. “He yelled a lot.”
Maya exhaled. “Is your phone charged? I guess I finally need to talk to him.”
Her mother didn’t reply. She turned her head sideways and raised her eyebrows.
“What?” Maya asked.
“You don’t know, do you?”
“Know what?”
“Phones aren’t working—no internet. We don’t even have power. It all went out days ago. Well, not all of it. Phones went first. Power went a day or so later. And radio signals faded out yesterday.”
“What? How can that be? It doesn’t make sense! I mean, it was like that inside the dome, but I don’t understand why it would be like that out here.”
“The radio was saying yesterday that it’s been like that under the other domes, too. But I don’t know—”
“Hold on,” Maya said, standing up. “What did you say?”
“I was just saying that I don’t know if—”
“No. Did you say, ‘other domes?’”
Elizabeth nodded. “Yes, ‘domes.’ You didn’t know that the dome over Nashville wasn’t the only one?”
Maya walked down the stairs and halfway to the curb before turning around and looking at her mother. She put her hands on her head then, and screamed, the sound reverberating through the empty neighborhood.
“The domes are everywhere, Maya. The aliens have arrived everywhere.”
Invasion
War for Earth Book Two
Coming Early 2018
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Acknowledgments
We want to send a special ‘thank you’ to authors Colin F. Barnes and Chris Fox who took time out of their own busy writing schedules to help us with some of the science shit in this book.