"So you did decide to come!" Alice said excitedly as I met up with her.

"Anything to get my mind off of things," I joked.

"Where do you think these 'aliens' will strike next?" Alice asked as we walked into the elevator.

"Hard to say. It seems to me like they want to take out the smaller threats first." I've been trying to analyze everything as it's happened.

"If you were the aliens, what would you do?" Alice wondered.

"Well, I'd take out the most vulnerable targets first as a warning, then I'd wait for the right moment and take out everything else, little by little," I explained.

"You strategize too much," Alice said as we walked into a store. I noticed that a little further down, there was a small stand set up for Army recruitment's. How strange!

"You know, Hannah is having a party on Wednesday. You should get something new to wear to spice things up a bit?" Alice said gesturing towards a trendy display. 

3 days later, I woke up to the sound of my cell phone ringing. "Hello?" I said sleepily.

"Sarah, it's Peter! I need to talk to you after lunch," Peter sounded serious.

"Why, what's going on?" I asked yawning.

"Just...just be ready for me after lunch, OK? I'll meet you at your house," Peter said as he hung up. This wasn't going to be a meeting about anything good.

I realized I hadn't been keeping up with the news, but Dad refused to even let me touch the T.V. remote. A mix of something really bad, terrible, or horrible must've happened to make him act like that.

Peter couldn't have come fast enough. The suspense was killing me! "Peter, what is happening out there?" I asked worried.

"The aliens, they've supposedly 'crash-landed' all over the world, except for Australia." For once, Peter was the scared one, not me.

"That's where their fortress is, isn't?" I asked hopeless.

"That's not all, our attempts to protect ourselves and others haven't worked out too well. The military numbers are slowly dwindling by the minute and Military Officials all over the world are being forced to take desperate precautions! Sarah, our nation is going to have to turn to us; every boy from the ages of 14 to 17 have already started recruiting." I looked at Peter in disbelief because unfortunately, I knew exactly how things were going to turn out.

"Peter, you can't go! You and I...we were meant to be. If you join the war, I'll probably never see you again." I suddenly felt big hot tears slowly trickling down my face. "Peter, don't do this to me! Don't leave me," I sobbed as Peter hugged me.

"Sarah, I'm sorry, it's too late. I already signed up and leave on Saturday for Pennsylvania," Peter said sadly.

"How you could you do this to me?" I said accusingly as I pushed him away.

"It's only a matter of time before they get to you to," Peter said warningly.

"I thought we were going to be together forever," I said, tasting my own tears. Peter put his hands on my shoulders and looked me in the eye.

"And we will Sarah, we have to get through the war first." I shook my head in disagreement.

"Don't you see? The war will only tear us apart." I couldn't believe how blind Peter was!

"Then come with me," Peter suggested. I had never thought about running away to live with Peter, but then, who would take care of Dad? I couldn't leave him behind to fend for himself!

"Peter I...I can't. My Dad needs me here and what about my brother? Dad can't always be there for him to," I explained.

"Your brother is plenty old enough to take care of himself and your Dad. I understand that he's younger than you, but you have to stop babying him around, take a step back, and let him grow up," Peter said.

"You don't understand! Ever since my mother died, Jason's been struggling and because he's the youngest, he needs a lot of extra support," I explained.

"Well then fine, DON'T come with me," Peter snapped.

"You don't get it do you? I'm the strong one that has to keep my family together. Peter, I can't just up and leave and expect that everything will be fine when I get back," I said.

"I see exactly where I stand and understand perfectly now. You would think that after it being me that you've gone to for help, to vent, to escape, to ask for opinions and advice on things, and it being me that you trusted to tell all of your deep little secrets to because you were too afraid to tell your Dad that you would choose me over your family, but no! I can see that the past ten years haven't changed anything between us. So when I die in the war, don't bother  to come to my funeral. In fact, you can just FORGET ALL ABOUT ME! MAYBE THEN YOU'LL STOP CRYING LIKE A LITTLE TODDLER!" Peter yelled as he turned, walked out, and slammed the door.

Dad stormed down the stairs when he heard the door slam shut. "What was all of that about?" Dad asked angrily and concerned at the same time.

"What have I done?" I said under my breath. 

"And then...I realized that we broke up," I said through tears, trying to explain the whole situation to Alice.

"Sarah, I am so, so very sorry," Alice said. "Did you already tell your Dad?" Alice asked questioningly.

"Yeah, I told him everything last night after I calmed down enough to talk. It's hard to believe that I cried myself to sleep last night. I mean, I..I don't know what to do or what to think. Peter hasn't even tried to apologize," I said.

"Well, I think you should take it easy and try not to think about it too much. If you need to talk, I'm here for you," Alice said with a warm smile.

"Thanks Alice, I knew I could count on you," I said with a sigh of relief and gave Alice a hug.

The house was too quiet when I came back and I soon found that Dad was asleep. Everything from last night was starting to play back in my mind. I always feared this would happen; not that it would happen, especially during a time like this. I mean...Peter was my everything. Without him, I'm nothing and I don't know what to be without him around. I thought about it all for a few hours. Crying didn't seem to help matters, so I decided to rock out to Taylor Swift's sad songs. Later that night, Dad was nice and bought Inn-N-Out Burger for dinner. Usually I inhaled it in less that 5 minutes, but this time, I only had my milkshake; I didn't feel hungry at all. Dad suggested I should go to bed early thinking it would relieve my stress, but it didn't. I only cried and cried some more.

Eventually, I snuck back downstairs for some ice cream. Dad wasn't there to scold me for eating on the couch, so I of course I ate my ice cream on the couch. However, Dad left the T.V. remote out and my curiosity about how bad the war was got the best of me. As I predicted, the only place that wasn't touched by the aliens was Australia. I watched all of the footage, interviews, updates and data on everything that I could find. When they showed what those aliens had done everywhere else, the light bulb came on! I knew exactly what I wanted to do.

LATER THAT AFTERNOON...

"Sarah, are you sure this is what you want to do?" Alice asked me one last time as we patiently waited in the recruitment line at the mall.

"Absolutely," I said confidently.

"But...why?" Alice wondered.

"I lost my mom, my brother, my boyfriend, and Dad didn't try to stop me when I explained myself so really, I have nothing left to lose," I explained.

"You don't have to do this."

"Alice, you can't talk me out of this one; I've already made my mind," I said determined.

"I know, that's why I'm coming with you." I shot her a warning look. "Oh come on! Somebody's got to watch out for you," Alice said as she grabbed a pen and started working on a stack of paperwork.

As we turned everything in and left, I took a deep breath because there was no going back now.