Man Vs. the End of the World

Chapter 2 Alien Invasion

(From Chapter 1... Leon's first theory of the End of the World turned out to be untrue and he returned to his home in LA, California.)

Leon stared at the bright sunlight shining in through the huge pane glass window front of his house. The scar from the lightening strike was still bright red with a slightly blackened center. He’d been wrong about the Rapture, or maybe he had really been rejected. Leon still wasn’t sure which. It had taken days to get home to his luxurious house in Hollywood. His depression at being rejected by God had been overwhelming at first until he remember he had a huge house and had made sure it had solar panels and generators. He knew he could return home to live out the end of days in comfort in his own home.

He watched the world go by from behind that clear glass pane, not that there was much to watch, a few breezes playing in the tree tops was about all he could see. Hollywood was as empty of people as Mexico City had been though he’d noticed that in some places there were scorch marks that he couldn’t explain. Suddenly the breeze stopped and the air grew very still. Leon pressed himself against the glass.

“Do you see that Neal?” asked the survivalist leaning forward to press his nose against the glass.

“Yeah, I do,” replied Neal. Leon knew that Neal had been left in the desert some days ago or had left Leon in the desert; he was never sure which one. Neal’s voice had to be a figment of his imagination, but it was comforting to hear him again.

“The air stopped,” said Leon pointing at the tree tops.

“Air does that,” responded Neal with a shrug.

“No, I heard something about this,” insisted Leon.

“Like what?” scoffed Neal. “Maybe aliens are sucking all the oxygen from the planet, just like they took all the people for food.”

“That’s it!” exclaimed Leon. “Quick, I’ve got a scuba tank down by the pool.”

“A scuba tank?” asked Neal baffled. “Why would you have a scuba tank down by the pool?”

“I like to practice, keep my certificate up to date,” replied Leon with a shrug.

“Practice?” Neal’s voice was full of skepticism.

“Okay, I was hoping to try to make out with a beautiful woman in the ocean someday on the coral reef or something. Gees, do to you have know all my secrets? How does Miranda stand you?”

“Marissa,” corrected Neal. “And we get along just fine, thank you very much.”

Leon trotted out to the pool house holding his breath. Just as his breath was running out, he found his scuba tank and mask. He inhaled sharply and took the regulator from his mouth and spoke to Neal.

“Neal, I can’t,” inhale “do a survival” inhale “show with a” inhale “regulator in my” inhale “mouth. I need” inhale “one of those masks.” Inhale “Let’s go.”

Leon walked back around to the front of his house where the hulking U-Haul truck with cacti and sand painted on the side sat in the blistering sun. He’d unloaded all the chocolate and candy bars and medical supplies, but much of the gear he’d left in the panel truck, just in case he needed to move quickly; you just never know when you need to move on during the end of the world.

The roads were much clearer in Los Angeles than they were in Mexico City so driving around in his commandeered U-Haul truck was a breeze. In fact, he was actually enjoying his morning commute without all that pesky traffic. Leon drove to his favorite scuba diving store, Eco Diving, which wasn’t very far from his home. He and Neal weren’t filming this part since Leon couldn’t very well speak to the camera and he needed to do his introduction to the episode.

Once he’d gained entry to the building, Leon quickly found the full face mask and plenty of canisters. He was elated, even though the practice pool itself had already turned green from an algae bloom and signs that people had been gone for a while were building up. One of the panes of glass was cracked and papers were strewn across the floor. He picked up one at random; it was a bill that had never gotten sent out.

Fitting the full face mask on, he posed in front of his camera. “If today the world were invaded by aliens, how could you survive the hunt for human meat and the inevitable theft of the atmosphere? I’m going to show you how to survive until the aliens go their way and the planet can recover. One of the first things you need to do is get a source of air. A good source might be a scuba place such as Eco Diving here. You want to find rebreathers. Breathing from a normal scuba tank would difficult and dangerous over a long period of time. Rebreathers mix your breath into the pure oxygen of the tank, allowing you to maintain carbon dioxide levels, nitrogen levels and trace gas levels.

“Your next step is setting up a safe house with a source of oxygen. This is probably the most important thing on your “to do” list. Of course you will need other supplies and laying in a supply of food will be next, but it would be useless if we didn’t have a place to store it and eat it. So since you are also likely to be hunted the best place to set up would be underground where your heat signature can be hidden from the aliens. The place you choose needs to be defensible.”

“ In Los Angeles, we have a subway system, so that’s where I’m headed first to find and prepare a place, then I’ll show you the best places to get oxygen to create a safe place.” Leon turned off the camera and looked at Neal.

Neal, of course, wasn’t really behind the camera so, Leon didn’t get the thumbs up he expected. Leon huffed to himself at Neal’s lack of enthusiasm. Working quickly, Leon loaded up as many tanks as he could fit into his U-Haul and drove back to Hollywood, feeling like an ant in a magnifying glass. He was sure that somewhere high above him, a mothership was looking down on the only moving thing in the city, his truck. He drove very fast hoping to cover the ground before someone some where noticed him. Neal was no help.

“Leon, look out! I see one!” Neal pointed out a shadow that moved behind a building quickly. They were going too fast for Leon to determine a shape.

“Are you sure?” He eased off the gas.

“Yes! Why are you slowing down? Do you want it to catch you?” Neal was practically screaming in Leon’s ear.

Leon punched the gas and the truck lurched forward. He heard canisters shift in the back. He took the last turn a little fast and felt his truck slide. He pulled his foot off the gas and controlled the slide, barely keeping the laden truck on its tires. Once the truck was under control, Leon slammed on the brake. Next to him, he could picture the unbelted Neal, flying forward into the dashboard.

“Neal! Are you okay? Why aren’t you wearing your seatbelt?” Leon shouted. His shook his head abruptly. “Never mind, let’s get this truck unloaded. I have an idea and a smaller car may work better to collect some of the other supplies.”

Barely looking around, Leon threw his door open and ran to the back of the truck. The lock on the door was just hanging in the hasp to make sure the door didn’t roll up when he was driving. It wasn’t actually latched because he wanted to be to have quick access without having to dig through a bunch of keys. Rolling, up the door, he grabbed the first set of tanks and units that came to hand.

He left the door open and dashed down the stairs, panting hard in his face mask. The Hollywood station struck his fancy somehow. There was a huge fake palm tree and the ceiling was covered in old film reel canisters. An old movie camera stood on a tripod. The colors were a little odd, but all in all it made Leon just a little bit happier.

Just as he’d suspected there was a train at the station and he felt elated. Now that he was under cover, he felt more secure and took his time. It was the red line that was in the station so all the seats in the train were upholstered in red fabric. He took off the mask for just a moment; he was sure there’d be enough air in the tunnel to be able to smell the car. It wouldn’t be good if he couldn’t stand the smell of his safe house. The first car he entered smelled of stale body odor, urine and vomit. He didn’t think he’d be able to clean it out effectively.

Finally the last car he entered seemed newer and smelled less than the others. He set up the camera and sat in one of the seats.

“For my safe house, I’ve chosen the subway and one of the easiest places I’ve thought of to seal off is a train car. This one is perfect for my needs. I’ll be using duct tape and plastic to seal all the windows and doors except for one end door, which I’ll be using like an air lock with the previous car.

“If I just seal up my room though, carbon dioxide will build up to toxic levels and I’ll die. So I’m going to get a bathroom exhaust fan to vent my safe house and use both Nitrox canisters, and pure oxygen canisters to create a breathable atmosphere for myself so I don’t have to spend all my time in a face mask. I can make this place into a cozy little home away from home while I wait out the aliens.” Leon tried to flash his pearly whites, but the mask interfered with the shot. He almost ripped off his mask in frustration, but felt he’d already taken huge chances just sniffing out the cars. He was sure that there was still some breathable air down here, but he didn’t want to take the chance of poison gas or other toxic gases piped into the tunnels to roust out any remaining humans.

He spent the next half hour transporting all the canisters he’d already obtained into his safe house, allowing the camera to run and film him. Though he did slow down since running made breathing hard in his mask and fogged up the face plate. Once the air was off loaded from his truck, he looked for a small car that had keys. Not finding one right away, he resorted to his old trick of breaking into a car dealership. The best car for his purpose turned out to be a victory red Chevy HHR, decent gas milage, meaning he wouldn’t have siphon too much gas and decent cargo space. The first place he hit was a hardware store to get plenty of duct tape and rolls of plastic. The bathroom fan was easy to get and he picked up a portable air conditioning unit because he thought it might get stuffy in closed train car. He added a set of tools almost as an after thought. Of course, he used a stray trailer to load a generator and bring it

Before heading back to the station, he stopped by a car parts store to pick up a couple dozen car batteries. By the time he was done loading them in the car, he was ready to have a nap and some lunch, but eating was out of the question until he had his safe house set up. The window tint kits on the display shelf tempted him and he grabbed what he thought would be sufficient to cover all the windows in the darkest tint available.

He drove the car back to the Hollywood subway station and left it there. The car was too sweet to be abandoned on his next stop, so he returned to the dealership and picked himself up a black granite metallic Chevy Aveo 5. This he drove to a medical supply company where to his luck he found a truck that had already been loaded with oxygen canisters to be delivered to local doctor’s offices. They were fairly sizable but there was a dolly in the back and he decided he’d only bring down what he needed and return when he needed to replace them.

Leon, practically giddy with the new concept for his show, set up the camera to record him taping up every window and the doors, first he applied the dark window tints and found he had enough to apply a second coat to the station side of the train. Blocking out the windows would prevent the aliens from simply looking in and finding him or his hideout. He spent a few hours carefully taping everything in place.

Leon wiped sweat from his brow, “You could help, Neal.”

“Nah, I’m the cameraman. You’re the star of the show. They don’t want to see me putting up plastic.” Neal’s voice hinted of a smile. Leon didn’t look up to check, since Neal wasn’t really there.

“Yeah, but you could work over there behind the camera and we’d done faster.” Leon insisted.

“You’d be done faster,” replied Neal.

“I’m doing it for both of us,” snapped Leon testily.

“I’m fine.” Neal sniffed. “We never did call my wife to see if she’s still here.”

“Neal, we haven’t had time to check on Mandy,” huffed Leon impatiently.

“Marissa,” corrected Neal automatically. “And we’ve been back in Hollywood a week now.”

“Besides, the phones haven’t worked since the first day we got left on the behind. It was a good thing I was down in that cave. The aliens missed me.” He tore the strip off the duct tape roll with his teeth.

“Missed us you mean, I was just hanging out in the desert waiting for you, like always,” Neal sounded depressed.

“Hey, we’ll find Marci.”

“Marissa,” Neal’s voice was flat, emotionless almost like he was fading away.

“Neal, stay with me buddy.” Leon reached out to pat Neal’s shoulder. His hand passed right through Neal. “Damn, I have got to stop doing that! Neal was left in the desert.”

“What was that?” asked Neal.

“Oh, nothing. Hey, I think I’m finally done with all but the vent window. You know how to install fans don't you?”

“What makes you think I can install fans?” Neal asked sardonically.

“Because you are the camera guy. I thought you knew everything electronic,” Leon said harshly.

“Electronic not electric, there’s a difference,” replied Neal.

“Fine whatever, can’t be too different from wiring a bomb,” Leon was definitely feeling snarky now.

Wiring the fan to a switch and to the generator proved to be easier than he thought it would be. He also got his air regulation system set up with Nitrox canisters first. There was a chemical supply company he knew about and like he’d thought, they had enough nitrogen canisters so he could set up an oxygen and nitrogen mix. Finally, able to remove his mask, Leon sat on one of the benches and took a deep breath.

“Perfect,” smiled Leon. “Give me a few minutes and I’ll go get some lunch.”

“It’s about time,” grumped Neal.

“What are you worried about? You’re not even real. You don’t need to eat.” Leon told his imagination.

Leon sighed heavily and got up. He replaced his mask and turned off his canisters. There was no reason to leave it on until he had his airlock completed. He still had a lot of materials to gather before he could get some rest.

Leon spent the rest of the day gathering what he felt he would need to make his safe house more comfortable. A trip out of Hollywood to a less ritzy part of town brought him to one of those discount stores, where he hit up the camping section again for furnishing and other luxuries. He stay away from the fresh food sections as much as possible, though he couldn’t smell much through the full scuba mask, he wanted to avoid seeing the rotting food. He had fun pushing the cart through the aisles and filling it up. The chevy HHR had plenty of cargo space so he filled a couple of carts and headed back to the Hollywood subway station. It had been a very long time since he’d done his own shopping. He found it to be a pleasurable experience, seeing as how he didn’t have to fight the crowds or wait in line to pay, or rather pay at all.

He spent a good amount of time making his airlock with plastic, duct tape and another canister between the doors of the two train cars. Exhausted, he inflated his air bed with a hand pump and sprawled across the bed leaving no room for Neal.

“Shove over,” Neal demanded.

“Inflate your own,” Leon mumbled sleepily.

“You forgot to get me one,” complained Neal.

“You were supposed to get your own, I was busy getting everything else.” Leon rolled over.

“I was holding the camera,” replied Neal.

Leon sat up, “No you weren’t we didn’t film the discount supermarket trip.”

“Well, we should have,” said Neal quietly.

Leon grunted angrily and lay on half of his bed to give Neal a place to lay down. He fell asleep within moments, ignoring Neal’s snores as best he could. Sometime later he was awakened by a thump and he thought Neal had fallen off the bed. He laughed heartily for a moment before hearing a second thump. The laughter was cut off abruptly as a third thump occurred. He lay still as the dead waiting to see if more would follow.

When it was quiet for a minute more, he got up and carefully checked both doors and made sure the fan was secured in the open window. He made sure to move very quietly around the dark car, but his hip struck one of the poles making a slight metallic sound as his knife in its holster hit the metal. Freezing in place, Leon looked around as the thumping sounds increased.

“Shit,” he muttered. The sound echoed through the station and his train car. Now he knew that the aliens had found his safe house. But it didn’t mean all was lost just yet. If he could hold out long enough, maybe the aliens would move on and not realize how close they had come to abducting the last man on earth.

Moving as quietly as possible, any faint sound he’d make covered by the strange hooting and the pounding on the metal skin of the train car, Leon made his way to the fan. He looked out at the station through the chopping blades of the fan. Small shapes danced into view but in the darkness, he couldn’t make out any details.

Instead the shapes seemed to swarm and get thicker as he watched. Even if he'd thought of an escape plan, he wasn't sure he would make it through such number of aliens. All he could think to do was to get his camera and several of his guns and sit in the most defensible place he could find.

Sitting in a corner, with a small light on himself angle down to prevent the light from shining out of the windows, he turned on the camera. "I'm under assault right now. I can't get a good look at the aliens since I put dark on both sides of the window, but you can hear them banging on my safe house. I don't know how they found me. I am trapped for now. I have my gun handy to defend myself but this could very well be my last recording so I'll leave the camera rolling until, well until things are decided."

Leon crouched in the dim light and waited. Several hours passed and the sounds lessened but didn't go away entirely. Every so often, an individual thump would punctuate the air and he'd start in surprise. His body felt cramped and as time ticked on, the meter on the oxygen tank ran toward the red empty markings. He felt nervous that he'd run out of air long before the enemy gave up the attack. Finally just as the canister ran dry, all the sound from outside ceased. Waiting for several minutes, breathing shallowly, to preserve his supply of air, he listened hard. When his ears confirmed that the enemy was no longer pummeling his train car, he dashed to his regulator integrated face mask and pulled it on.

He was going to have to work quickly, in case the aliens came back to get him. He got himself into the air lock with the least possible sound and then out into the other train car. Strange brown substance littered the floor, it rather resembled monkey dung, but he didn't bother to find out exactly what it was. Carefully avoiding the worst of it, Leon approached the open door and peaked out. Nothing moved in the darkness of the station. He raised his shotgun and stepped from the door, nothing moved. Feeling more secure, Leon ran forward to the stairs to the street level. But he stopped and mounted the stairs slowly, letting his eyes adjust to the moonlight. His stolen truck full of oxygen canisters still rested where he'd left it.

He ran forward to the truck and slid the door open. The dolly was in the doorway where he'd left it and he pulled it forward. Strapping the nearest canister in the dolly as quickly as possible, he was down the ramp and to the handicap ramp descending into the subway in just moments. Before returning down into the darkness of the station again, he looked around cautiously. Shadows moved in the distance but nothing seemed to notice him. The dolly and canister made a horrible racket rolling down the ramp and Leon winced inside, but it couldn't be helped. He moved as quickly as he dared, that wouldn't over turn the dolly and the heavy canister. Leon desperately wanted to be inside again as soon as possible.

The canister had to be lifted into the train car and that took him a few moments as the canister was made of steel and quite heavy. Once inside the airlock, Leon breathed deeply for the first time in his outing. Filling the room from the smaller canister, he rolled the bottom edge of the canister over the threshold. It was done. The door slid shut and Leon felt safer already. In the darkness, Leon connected the new canister by touch alone, not wanting light to attract any passing alien. He turned the valve and air began to fill the room again.

Sliding the mask off, Leon sighed, "Just in time, Neal."

"You wussy, you could have taken them on!" Neal shouted.

"Neal! Be quiet! I don't even know how they found us in the first place. Don't you go attracting them now!" Leon was practically shouting himself, to relieve the stress of almost being abducted.

Neal didn't answer Leon, he just laughed instead.

"Neal, do you feel a little light headed?" asked Leon feeling slightly dizzy.

"Nah, I'm fine," replied Neal. "It must be a side effect of running with that mask on."

"Yeah, you are probably right. I should sit down," Leon giggled slightly.

"Why don't you lay down on the bed?" Neal suggested.

Leon focused on the bed. "That sounds like a good idea. Neal, why don't you join me?" Leon tripped and fell straight onto the air mattress where he bounced slightly and began laughing.

Neal laughed too, "You goof ball. Marissa used to tell me how funny you were when you were growing up."

"Yeah, what did she tell you?” Leon snickered.

"Oh about how when you were five, you discovered that helium in balloons could make your voice change." Neal and Leon laughed at that. "Then when you were fifteen, you had your wisdom teeth out and the doctor gave you some good drugs. You laughed all they way home and even asked Marissa to marry you.”

"I did?" giggled Leon. "What did Mary say?"

"Oh, she turned you down and you began to cry like a little baby. Oh and you thought the family dog was an alien out to get you and your family. It was an evil little thing that wanted to chew your heart out." Neal was rolling on the mattress, holding his sides.

“Wait!” Leon sobered up for a moment. “Did you say dentist?”

“No, I said doctor, but same thing you know,” replied Neal through a giggle.

“Dentist, laughing,” Leon made the connection. “Laughing gas! Nitrous Oxide!”

Leon turned on a flashlight to look at the canister. Sure enough it was not painted the color of the oxygen tank and the label read nitrous oxide.

“Good one, Leon!” laughed Neal.

“I didn’t see your sorry ass on the street with the aliens,” mumbled Leon as he snatched up his rebreather unit and turned off the gas. “I’m going to have to start all over again with a nitrogen canister and an oxygen canister. Well, it’s been quiet out there for a while.”

Leon turned the fan on high to vent the gas out of the car and left again. The aliens didn’t seem to be around so Leon felt comfortable making the two trips he needed for his artificial atmosphere. This time making sure that he had the right canisters. He decided that once the sun had come up, he’d pack more survival gear into the U-Haul truck with the cacti and sand painted on the side and move it to the edge of town as well as obtaining supplies for the safe house. It never hurt to have a backup plan, in case the aliens found him.

Making sure that his air supply was secure as were the doors and the windows, Leon lay down on the air mattress again to rest until daylight. He still had a lot of work to do before he could hole up in his place to wait out the invasion they way he’d told his audience he would. Of course once that started, he feared he’d be bored. Life just wasn’t the same without the internet. Maybe he’d take up knitting or something. He spent the majority of the daylight hours gathering supplies and stole another car from a dealership to get back to the Hollywood station. The victory red Chevy HHR was invaluable in stocking his safe house. By nightfall, he was cooking a can of beans on a hotplate run off the generator.

“Beans again,” complained Neal.

“Hey, you don’t have to eat them and they are a good source of protein,” Leon didn’t glance up.

“Well, I don’t want to just sit around here all night. Let’s go do something fun!” Neal sounded petulant.

“Are you crazy? Neal, there are real live aliens out there and we are food to them. I’m not going anywhere,” Leon said firmly to his imaginary cameraman.

“What a wuss,” Neal goaded. “I bet Marissa is out there right now taking on the aliens single handedly.”

“Look, Neal. We’ll go to your house tomorrow, but don’t get your hopes up. Meryl is probably already alien food.” Leon ate his beans.

“Marissa and she’s more man than you are!” Neal retorted.

“Well, you would know Neal!” threw back Leon. “Good night!”

Leon threw the empty bean can in Neal’s general direction and went to his air mattress to lay down. Grudgingly, he scooted over to give Neal some room to join him on the air mattress. He made a mental note to get an air mattress next time he was out, a single since there wasn’t much room for another full sized mattress and Neal didn’t need much space. This night was much the same as the previous one, he’d just gotten to sleep when the banging started again.

“Neal, turn off your alarm,” grumbled Leon sleepily.

“I think that’s the aliens again,” whispered Neal in Leon’s ear.

Leon sat up suddenly and grabbed the shotgun he’d left on the train floor next to his air mattress. He retreated to his corner to listen and watch for any sign of entry. So far it seemed the aliens were only interested in staging a war of terror against him. They seemed to delight in banging on the cars of the entire train, if their whooping laughter was any indication. He rocked back and forth during the entire noise, trying to keep calm.

“Neal would you go out there and see what the hell those things are up to?” Leon whined.

“Sure, Leon, send me out there to face those things! I could get eaten!” Neal protested.

“You don’t even exist! Go look!” Leon demanded.

“Great! Treat me like one of your peons!” Neal stormed off to the other side of the car to wait out the assault.

Finally like the previous night the assault ended suddenly and the sound of retreating hooting carried back to them. Leon looked pale but didn’t say a word to Neal. He merely replaced the canister of air with the spare he’d brought to the train car and lay back down, not giving Neal any room on the mattress, after all, imaginary cameramen didn’t sleep.

Just to satisfy Neal, Leon decided to go to his sister’s house in the morning to prove that she was gone and there was nothing they could do for her. He took the little Chevy HHR and drove out once the sun was high because it seemed the aliens were mostly nocturnal and kept hidden during the day. At least in the three days he’d been running around to set himself and his brother-in-law up in the train car, he’d never seen more than shadows lurking in the alleys and dark places. When they finally got to Neal’s and Marissa’s house on the other side of town, Leon could tell at first glance that it was deserted, but Neal insisted on going in to the place.

“Open the door,” insisted Neal.

Leon had lost his own key long ago and suspected that Neal had lost his too.

“Uhm, I can’t. I seem to have lost my keys when we were in Mexico,” replied Leon sheepishly.

“You mean Mexican drug dealers are going to come to my house and put my Marissa at risk?” gasped Neal.

“No! I mean, no, of course not. All the drug dealers are alien food right about now,” reasoned Leon with a smile. “It’s no worse than they deserve.”

“But how are we going to get in then?” asked Neal plaintively.

“Let’s go around back. You have a glass patio door right?” Leon asked as he headed around the back.

“Yeah, Marissa wanted some of those double French doors. She said they looked classy.”

Leon smashed one of the panes of glass with his elbow and reached in to unlock the door. Neal gasped at the sound of breaking glass.

“Marissa won’t be happy with that!” protested Neal.

“She’s not here, or she would have heard us knock,” said Leon reasonably.

“But she could have gone to the store or something,” Neal replied. “And now you’ve put her at risk!”

Leon didn’t answer; they both knew that was not possible. When Leon entered he found old photo albums laying around the table; one of them was opened to a picture of him and Marissa when they kids. She had her arm around his scrawny frame and they were both smiling. In the background there was a county fair going on and Leon remembered that it was the only fair they’d been able to attend. A lady from the church had purchased their tickets and taken them. She’d also given them lunch and let them ride some of the rides. When Leon and Marissa’s father had found out though, he’d hit the roof and Leon had spent the next two days hiding out in the caves to avoid facing him. It had taken Marissa that long to persuade him to come home and she’d had to hide her bruises from him but he’d seen them later.

He sat on the couch with the open album on his lap. Leon hadn’t thought of his father in years, had tried not to think of him. Marissa had spent much of their childhood taking their father’s abuse and when she’d left, he’d taken the brunt of his father’s anger. It had been a harsh transition and he’d run away from home at sixteen. He hadn’t lasted long on his own and had been caught. His father didn’t want him back and he ended in a children’s home until he turned eighteen and joined the navy. Marissa had always blamed herself for leaving Leon in that situation. Of course Leon had used the Navy to build his strength and make sure no one would be able to hurt him again.

Shaking off the melancholy, Leon began to explore his sister’s house. He hadn’t been here since last Christmas and he took the opportunity to really look around. The house wasn’t as lavish as his house. For the first time, he wondered how much money Neal had actually made as his cameraman and thought about how he’d made Neal pay for things when they were on location. For a moment he felt a tinge of guilt, but it passed quickly.

“No!” said Leon suddenly. “If you needed more money, why didn’t you say something, Neal. You were supposed to take care of Mabel.”

“I did take care of Marissa, my wife.” Neal sounded angry, but Leon ignored him.

On the kitchen table, Leon found a note with Neal’s name on it He sat in one of the kitchen chairs to read the note.

“Dearest Neal,” Leon read aloud so Neal could hear him. “It’s time to go and I hope that I’ll see you again real soon. Thank you for taking care of my brother for me. I love you, Marissa.”

“Aw, that’s sweet,” Leon smiled.

“I bet your letter isn’t as sweet,” replied Neal pointing at another envelope with Leon’s name on it. Leon smiled at his name on the envelope. He was sure that letter would tell him how wonderful he was and how much she missed him.

“Leon,” read Leon aloud to prove Neal wrong, “I’m sorry you turned out the way you did. I blame myself, really. I miss you and the sweet kid you used to be. I hope to see you again someday. Take care of Neal, please. He’s the best thing that ever happened to me. Your sister, Marissa (not Mallory as you wrote on my last, very late, birthday card).” Leon frowned, somehow the letter hadn’t been what he’d thought it should have been.

Neal laughed sardonically, “I told you so!”

Leon didn’t dignify his imagination with a response, but rather crumpled the letter up and dropped it on the floor. He simply raided his sister’s pantry and left without another word to Neal.

When they had finally returned to the subway station, Leon inflated Neal’s bed and lay down on his own. The shotgun was handy as was his regulator integrated mask with rebreather unit. Leon didn’t feel like talking to Neal after their afternoon in Neal’s house. For the first time, the feeling that he was truly alone settled in. He didn't feel like making snarky comments to Neal; all he wanted to do was sleep.

“Hey, you better eat something,” prodded Neal from across the room.

Leon snatched up a couple protein bars and threw one across the train car at Neal’s bed. He ate his own bar listlessly and lay down. He didn’t sleep but stared at the wall of the train. He’d spent many years trying to forget about his past and didn’t like to be reminded of it, especially by his sister. He’d maintained contact with his sister because he’d felt like he was supposed to feel bad for her and she had protected him from their father for as long as she could, but in reality the whole thing made him highly uncomfortable. His psychiatrist told him that he hid his pain behind being demanding. Leon didn’t believe that.

He didn’t remember dozing off, but woke up with the banging again, but this time his train car was shaking and shaking hard. Something heavy ran into the side of the car making a large dent and causing the train car to shudder and tip slightly.

“Neal,” hissed Leon. “What the hell was that?”

“Oh, so now you are talking to me?” Neal said.

“Never mind that, Neal. What just hit the car?” Leon replied angrily. “How should I know?” Neal seemed in a bad mood.

The car shuddered with another impact. Leon leapt up and grabbed his shotgun and quickly threw on his rebreather mask. The small camera he kept in the train car went into his pocket since the rest of the gear was stored in the U-Haul. He opened the nitrous oxide cylinder to its full release to flood the car with the gas. Hoping it would work on the aliens pounding on the wall of the car at least long enough to give him a head start, Leon began pulling down the plastic . He waited until the car was full of the gas and then opened windows on both sides of the train. Immediately hairy arms were pushed through the windows followed by the faces of monkey like creatures. As they got a face full of gas, they retreated only to be replaced by more, some larger and some smaller.

Taking his opportunity, Leon ripped down the plastic to the other door and headed out as a full run. At first, the aliens didn’t realize that he was on the move, but it wasn’t long before a hooting call alerted the others. Leon raced down the track into the darkness, hoping to confuse his pursuers. Also, he knew that eventually the tracks would come up to one of the above ground lines. Leon couldn’t see much so he put his hand on the wall of the subway track so he wouldn’t run headlong into a wall. Behind him he could hear the pounding on the train car and the hooting calls of the hunting party.

He didn’t stop running at the next station, nor did he climb the stairs. The stairs were how the aliens had gained entry to the station he was in and he had no doubt that there would be more milling around the entrance to this one too. Finally, he broke out in the moonlight he ran for where he’d parked his U-Haul truck the day before when he thought he might need an escape. Glancing back, he saw that the aliens had taken the appearance of non-human primates, monkeys and apes.

“Neal, I thought they’d be reptilians!” gasped Leon between breaths.

“What made you think they’d be lizard men?” Neal didn’t even sound winded.

“Everyone knows that lizard men live beneath Los Angeles,” panted Leon.

“I didn’t know that,” replied Neal smoothly. “Besides can’t reptilians look like whatever they want?”

“You’re right,” admitted Leon who leapt a fence to get away from the closest of his pursuers, creatures that looked like a pair of chimpanzees. As he hopped down, he didn’t see the pool and fell straight into it. Being a strong swimmer he set out across the pool. The chimp pair sat on the fence and hooted at him. He grinned to himself, remembering that chimpanzees couldn’t swim.

“Ha,” he laughed. “You made a poor choice taking on chimpanzee form!”

“Quit laughing Leon and look!” demanded Neal.

Leon looked ahead. A big silver back gorilla and a few females waited for him, grinning and showing their huge canines. He angled away from them and exited the pool as quickly as possible. However, that left him next to the house with ape shaped reptilians to the front and to the rear. Backing away slowly, he pressed up against the sliding glass door. Unlike at his sister’s house, this door was unlocked.

Cautiously, he slid the door open just wide enough to let his body through. The reptilians finally realized their prey was about to get away and launched themselves at the door. He slid it closed before they could reach him. They hit the door hard enough to crack the glass on the first hit.

He didn’t stay to watch anymore but ran for the front door. That was locked however and he lost precious moments sliding the bolt back. Something small landed on his back and bit through one of his air hoses.

“Argh!” he yelled, trying to get a hand on the small creature. It looked like a spider monkey when he was able to pull it around . It didn’t make any sense that the reptilians would take on the appearance of a spider monkey, but there it was.

The monkey bared its teeth at Leon. Shocked by the length of the its canines, Leon threw it from him back towards the oncoming gorilla. The gorilla rose up on his hind legs and beat his chest with a resounding thump. The survivalist stumbled away, his air hose flapping uselessly behind him. He tore off the mask and breathed in fresh air for the first time in days; he clutched his throat, thinking at first that there wouldn’t be any air to breathe. When he didn’t suck in poisonous air, he let go of his throat.

It was much easier to run without the heavy rebreather system and the face mask. And he could see that troops of the monkey creatures were closing in on him from every side. Just when things seem lost, they almost had him cut off, the ground shuddered beneath his feet. He hit the deck and the monkeys and apes scattered like the wind.

Immediately he recognized it for an earthquake and when the first shudders had died away, he was on his feet and running. Sometimes small quakes were followed by large ones, some times they were not. He wasn’t about to take that chance. The U-Haul truck was still packed and still waiting for him where he’d left it. A few of the larger apes looked at him from the shadows, but most of them had retreated and were no longer visible.

Leon didn’t look to see if Neal was still with him and couldn’t waste his breath to ask. If Neal could keep up, then Leon would take him with him, but there’d be no going back to find him once the larger quake Leon felt was coming hit.

“Why did I park this thing so far away, Neal?” complained Leon,

climbing into the front seat and slamming the door closed. He panted hard to catch his breath. Neal sat in the passenger seat unwinded and relaxed.

The key was still in the ignition since there was no one left in Los Angeles to steal his stuff and it made a get away easier. The truck fired right up and the tank was full of gas. He’d been worried he might have to drive quickly and far before he’d be safe again.

“Can I film this?” asked Neal from the passenger seat.

“Sorry, but the camera got dunked in that pool back there. The video we shot is okay, but the camera needs to dry out.” Leon engaged the drive and the truck shot forward as a second somewhat larger quake hit.

“That’s okay, I have a backup here in the truck,” Neal replied smugly.

“Fine, whatever,” Leon didn’t glance over but grabbed the camera off the seat and turned it on. Using one hand to drive, Leon held the other away from him as best he could.

“The aliens didn’t get all the atmosphere but earthquakes are racking the city, thankfully for me. I was being chased by reptilians in the shape of earth monkeys and apes. If they’d caught me, I’d surely have been taken aboard one of their ships and turned into food right at this moment. I am fleeing Los Angeles, the alien infestation and the earthquakes.”

Leon drove as fast and as far as he could. He’d just about reached the San Andres fault when the largest earthquake yet rocked the U-Haul truck. The road bucked and heaved beneath them ahead and a crevasse began to split open. The road nearest to him seemed to be sliding away. He punched the gas harder hoping for a tad more speed out of the truck. The camera dropped to the seat next to him as he put both hands on the wheel.

The crevasse was slowly widening and he knew he had to be on the other side of it before it was big enough to eat his truck or he was going to die right here and right now.

“Leon, what are doing?” Neal’s voice hinted of the fear building in Leon’s chest.

“Saving your sorry life for my sister,” retorted Leon with his eyes pinned to the road in front of him.

“Leon, we’re not going to make it!” Neal shouted as the truck approached the widening gap.

“Shut up,” demanded Leon. “I can’t concentrate with your babbling.”

Neal shut up and Leon aimed the truck for the buckled road where it mad a slight ramp. The truck slammed into the ramp hard and lifted up in the air. Leon felt his heart bang against his ribs as time seemed to slow down and the truck hung in the air for a long moment.

The front end of the truck bounced hard pulling the truck the required inches forward. Leon’s head hit the steering wheel hard, causing him to see stars and blood ran down into his eyes. The engine roared as the front tires took the momentum and pulled the back wheels up onto more solid ground. Leon turned to Neal and grinned at him and promptly passed out. His foot slipped off the gas and the truck ran forward a little ways and fell off the road. Behind him, a large chunk of California slid away and toppled into the sea. The U-Haul leaned drunkenly off the side of the road but didn’t fall over.