9.38 PM

I pulled open the car door to the driver's seat, slipping myself in nimbly. The rest hopped inside not long after I did, shutting their respective doors, which signalled to me that we were ready to go. As we didn't want to run into anymore aliens, I made sure to start up the engine and get the car going as soon as I could.

As I approached the overturned cars ahead all of us, I carefully manoeuvred to the side, scraping the curb slightly in the process. However, it had no effect on the tyres of the cars, which was a relief for us. Soon, we had already left the area that we had been hanging around for so long, including the garbage bin.

While we were heading down the street, the girls mumbled some things to each other in the backseat. Meanwhile, Enrique and I remained quiet, until he decided to reiterate something that hadn't been resolved yet. "So, you were asking where to go from here, right?" he clarified. "Well, I say to hell with Chicago! Let's leave the city now."

I shook my head, however, disagreeing. "Get out. No way you're serious about such a terrible plan. Terribly vague too," I disapproved, raising my concerns afterwards. "We've gotta prepare for a jam out of the city by whatever route we pick, and we've got no water or food in the car. And, if we don't make it far enough in time, those aliens might catch up to us."

"I agree," Veronica popped into the conversation casually, as if she hadn't just been gossiping about something in the back of her car with Jennifer. "I think we should go and stock up some supplies at a convenience store or something. My tía owns one just down the street for here."

"Alright, let's check it out," I nodded in approval. "Just give me directions to the place.

Before long, we were already making our way towards our first destination. Veronica guided me as we went down the street towards her aunt's store. It was actually only a short ride from where we were initially to the place, taking about a minute or so. However, we came face to face with an unpleasant surprise as soon as we approached it.

As I reduced the speed of the vehicle to keep on a lookout for the convenience store, I conveniently noticed something else. Loud, distinct popping sounds echoed in my eardrums as I wondered where the noises were coming from. I looked peered through the windshield, only to discover that there was some sort of violent gunning going on at a store.

Veronica's aunt's store.

"Holy shit!" Jennifer screamed in trepidation as she looked out of her window. "Are those people shooting one another with their rifles?"

"It is what it is," I sighed, shaking my head at the sight of the violence going on. I wasn't unfamiliar to it, though. I had witnessed much of the same kind of crimes going on when I was younger, but not to the extent of what I was seeing.

In this case, people were inhumanely raiding the store, blasting their guns at one another just to get a hold of their items. Whoever tried to intercept was tragically killed by the armed store raiders, which scared most of the bystanders away. The bloodshed went on as bodies continued to drop due to the amount of hoarding that was being done.

"Veronica, is your aunt in the store?" I enquired, concerned about her safety.

"Thank goodness she's not. She left for the Bahamas with my tío just a few days ago, so some other temporary workers are tending the store for now," Veronica explained as she heaved a sigh of relief. At the same time, I felt at ease as well, as I didn't want to see Veronica, or anyone in fact, to be troubled by the situation.

Unfortunately, we still had other things on hand to worry about. Before we can take off and find somewhere else to get supplies from, some of the raiders had already spotted us. As my car was the only moving vehicle with people inside it in near sight, they must have thought that there would be a chance for them to find something with us, be it food supplies or money.

Seeing the signs that showed that there were going to attack us, I slammed the accelerator with my foot hastily, causing the car to jerk forward. However, this alarmed the raiders, and caused them to raise their guns at us. At that point of time, we hadn't even sped away to a far distance that they couldn't shoot from behind us. Thus, I bellowed two words to everyone in the car.

"Get down!"

As soon as they headed my warning and lowered themselves, bullets began intercepting the vehicle, crashing through the rear windows and cutting through the air silently. They eventually exited from the windshield, cracking it to the point that it was a little difficult to see through it. However, despite having only a few bullets fired, the raiders stopped shooting at us, probably because they realised that they couldn't do anything to stop us anymore.

We then took some time to settle ourselves down. I took one hand off the steering to wheel to wipe the sweat away from my forehead. The peril that we had just experienced was highly unwanted, seeing how we had nearly died again. It would have just taken one bullet to be angled differently to have fatally killed one of us.

On the other hand, the terror that the innocent bystanders in Veronica's aunt's convenience store had experienced was unimaginable. The poor people must have been so traumatised by seeing the brutal deaths of the others—if they lived to see them. It was just so unsettling to think about how people could be as cruel as the aliens that were attacking us. It was almost as if the two species of life had no moral differences, or rather, in the lack of it.

Looking at the rear mirror for a moment, I glanced over at the ladies. who slowly got up from their laps, with Jennifer being the last. She parted her hair to the sides, shaking her head briefly. Meanwhile. Veronica took a series of deep breaths. Checking my watch, I realised that it had been minutes since the raiders had attacked us, even though it had felt like just seconds ago.

However, it was important that we stopped harbouring negativity and fear and focused on getting to our next destination. And that was when I noticed that we haven't even decided on an alternative place to find supplies at.

"Anyone got a place that's got at least some food or water to last us for a bit?" I asked around, helping to distract them from the traumatising event that had occurred not long ago.

"W-w-well, I was planning to cook dinner for Veronica and a f-few other friends tomorrow," Jennifer mentioned while stuttering nervously "I've got instant r-r-ramen too, though, if you're gonna need some."

"That's good enough. I don't think it'll be a good idea to go scramming out of the city right now, anyway," I elaborated.

"Why not?" Enrique questioned, turning his head suddenly to face me in a way that almost jolted me.

"I mean, like I mentioned. there ain't no way we gonna be avoiding a jam on the way out," I began. "If we encounter any aliens, it's not going to be good for us to be stuck in a car. I think it's better to find a much safer space to stay in and wait the attack out until we find a proper way out or some rescue team to get us," I explained my point of view, subtly hinting at the fact that I had the ability to contact Valour and send a rescue team for us when the time is appropriate.

Obviously, I couldn't outrightly confess that I had known about the invasion prior to its inception. They'd probably lose trust in me and go their own ways, which wouldn't be good for just me, but for themselves to. With me, they had practically a guaranteed escape route out of the city already, provided that nothing would go wrong. It was just a matter of time before they'd get their ticket out of the invasion.

"Well, fine. I'm just gonna give you the benefit of the doubt on this one," Enrique gave in after hearing my opinion out. "But, if anything goes wrong at Jen's apartment, we're getting out of Chicago the moment we can."

"Great," I said, pleased. "Now we just gotta get to Jennifer's apartment without anything going wrong the way it did just now."

"Please don't jinx it, for goodness' sake," Jennifer cried. "I'll give the directions."

Therefore, I finally stopped driving around aimlessly and headed towards Jennifer's apartment. It was a little reassuring that we had somewhat a plan that could be put into action to help us before our eventual rescue by Valour. Of course, I still had my worries, regarding how we were going to survive until help came and how to find enough resources to last us. I was pretty sure that Jennifer's food wasn't going to be sufficient, which was something we had to consider when scavenging for food in the future.

Then again, I might have been contemplating things too deeply and thinking too far. Looking at everyone around me, I could tell from the looks on their faces that all they wanted to do was to live at the moment. The ladies still seemed to be affected by the shooting earlier on, which was completely understandable. Meanwhile, Enrique remained abnormally silent, so I was guessing that he was also impacted by the raiders' cruel and merciless actions.

After a rather awkward ride with no one speaking except for Jennifer, who was simply giving me directions, we had cone close to her apartment. She let us know by mentioning that we about to reach in about a minute. Thus, we all started preparing to disembark from the vehicle. I grabbed my things with one hand that wasn't on the steering wheel and placed them together on my lap, while the others did some similar organisation with their items.

As Jennifer pointed at her apartment building, Iturned into the parking space outside it, before reversing into a lot. I turnedoff the car engine, looking out of my window for a moment to look at thebuilding before getting out. Jennifer then confirmed that we were at the rightplace by going, "We're here."