It had been all over the news for days now. I have lost count.

Ever since the Mothership entered our

atmosphere, everything has been one chaotic mess after the next. We lived in a gated community and

now it has become like a war zone. The neighbors have started working together to build a fortress. The

city has been on lockdown or Marshall law as my mom keeps calling it, for at least 2 weeks now. The

electricity still works, phones still work, but Mom just keeps saying this is it. This is everything her

childhood ever warned her about. This is what we have been preparing for. It’s the wait. No one knows

what’s really going on and the the news hasn’t been any help. We are on guard now, the neighbors have

all come toegther and we don’t know what to really expect, but tonight I’ll get to see Astria and Tishin

will be here tonight as well. It’s time to figure out what’s going on because Mom says to hope for the

best but prepare for the worst and that’s what really scares me.

“Xenon,” I heard Astria yell from the front yard. I turned to run to her. It had been 4 days since I last saw

my best friend. We don’t leave from our homes much now since this new alien ship showed up into the

atmosphere and the President says in his speech every night, that there has been no solid contact made

with the ship and cannot confirm any form of actual life as there is a shield protecting the ship itself.

“How are you, tell me what has happened. What have you heard or do you know anything? My Mom

won’t let me use my phone anymore,” I ask Astria.

Tinshin whispers, “Xenon, please don’t talk so loud, there are too many people lisenting and this feels

like the beginning of a big war. We don’t know who’s listening.”

Astria’s Dad was a systems and software teach and his office was here in Fort Meade. He had been the

head lead on a new project that they had been working on.

Astria looked at me, nose scrunched, “Xenon not here. Not now. I only get 10 minutes and now I only

have 9, so here’s what we are going to do.”

Tinshin and I listened to her, hanging on every word. I could hear the sirens start going off again.

“Astria, what, what are we going to do, this is getting scarier by the second,” I said impatiently.

Astria shushed me before continuing, “Xenon you really need to stay quiet, our lives right now depend

on that. You and your brother are going to walk back into the house. I want you both to grab your ID’s

and clothes and wear something comfortable because we may not be coming back for a while if ever.”

“Whaa-a-a-a-t... wait.... wait, you must be joking. We cannot just leave our mom, what is she going to do

without us. What are we going to do without her? Wait, there are so many...,” I said so shocked by what

she just said.

“Xexon, stop talking and listen. I do not have any time to explain much of this to you, but you need to

listen. That Mothership is not here by accident. The government is behind it and my dad is not coming

home ever again and we will not survive this if we do not leave now. There is a way to stop all of this

from happening and I have a good friend who knows where we can find the nuclear reactor that they

have been secretly building for these very reasons. All those news stories were just cover ups for

contacting the alien world. Remember all the times they said those transmissions were just sounds, it

has all been a lie and my dad figured it out, he told one of his most trusted friends the information we

would need to save everyone. There is a way to destroy the power supply and return it to the earth, so it

does not hurt everyone. But we now only have 3 more minutes. We need to go. Your Mom will

understand, she has too, this is it, and we at least must try,” with a sad but hopeful look in her eyes, I

knew in my heart she was right.

“Fine,” I stated.
“Fine! Fine, are you kidding me, you both have lost your minds. We are teenagers. What do we know

about anything? Bro I just had my first date, I have a job, it is possible they will just go away,” you could

hear the fear in Tinshin’s voice.

“No, get it together Tinshin. Mom prepared us for this moment. She knew, she always knew this was

going to happen one day. She prepared us for these moments right here. Mom is sick and she is going to

tell us to go. We need to at least try. This is our life now. We will be 18 in just a month if we live to see

that month go by, then we need to go and try to save the world.”

“90 seconds, go in the house, pack a bag, get your things, our window closes in 5 minutes from,” a slight

pause in Astria’s voice,” now!”

Tinshin froze. “Now or never little brother,” I said as I grabbed his shoulder. “Now or never.”

Tinshin stood there for a couple more seconds. He looked me in the eyes and said, “We are doing this for

Mom. She deserves to see the sunshine in the sky one more time,” you could hear the words get stuck in

his throat.

We shook hands and ran inside to pack. Mom was asleep in her room. We did not go in and wake her up.

I stood at her door for a minute while Tinshin packed what her could. She looked so peaceful. She has

been sick for some time, battling with the best of them. Now this. If Astria says there is a way, then I am

doing this for my Mom. She knew. Moms always just know.

Tinshin came running back down the hall. He stopped at her door with me and placed his hand on my

shoulder.

“Tape the note to her door. She will understand, but I am bringing you back home, brother. We are going

to come back. I promise you that.”

It would be a week before we arrived where Agent 10 told us the destination would be. He seemed like a

good man, but we only got to meet with him long enough to get the information before he made us

leave. They were ambushed and he stayed behind to fight so we could escape the Gran Jefe of the New

World Government. Agent 10 told us to look for a kid named Zendevin and his robotic dog Gup. Gup was

one of Tech’s Biggest accomplishments, but they were never able to duplicate him to mass produce.

Zendevin was the creator of the code that was needed to create more, but the government wanted to

use the coding for other evil plans and Zendevin had destroyed the code and burned down his lab, but

he took Gup with him. Zendevin was in hiding ever since but Astria’s Dad knew where to find him. Agent

10 handed us a piece of paper with just a name on it.

“Zendevin, who is this guy and why do we gotta find him,” Tinshin was panicking.

“Zendevin worked closely with my Dad at the facility where they had begun this coding project.

Zendevin is the brain behind this high tech code that has also been used for this larger than life power

source. I remember my Dad mentioning something about Gup the robot dog and how special he was to

Zendevin. He also said that Zendevin was only a teen like us but has a super human brain. He will know

how to stop this power source from bringing world destruction, “ Astria stated very matter of factly.

“Alright, well how do we find him,” I said, standing up to put my back pack on my back ready to go.

Astria pulled a GPS device from her pocket, “With this,” she said. “We use this device my Dad left behind

in case of emergencies and I imagine this constitutes an emergency. My Dad said only to use it if there is

no other way, he desgined it to be untraceable but said it has coordinates to a secret safe house that

only 3 people know about, Agent 10, Zendevin and my Dad. Zendevin had to have gone there,” she said

with a slight sound of hope in her voice.

“Then this is where we will go, the coordinates are not too far from here.” The coordinates brought us to

a place called Blackrock, right on the Maryland, Pennsylvania state line. This area was a secluded forest,
mountain area. It had taken us to a small cabin, with a stream that ran alongside the old wood cabin.

This was the most peaceful moment I had experienced in weeks. There was only the noise of the running

water, oddly, not even the sound of any birds. It was too quiet, and I had a very uneasy vibe about this

place.

“Get back here Gup,” Zendevin came running out of the cabin, chasing after a small robot dog. “GUP,

stop right now.”

Astria, Tinshin and myself, all froze right were we stood. The robot dog was giving us a blaring barking

noise, as if to warn us to not move or make any sudden movements.

Zendevin came running down the front steps of the cabin and rushed to pick up the protective robot

dog.

“Hush, Gup,” Zendevin said with a gentle tone, “these are our friends, they are here to help us.”

Gup, the robot dog, stopped his robot barking and just stared at us.

Astria stepped forward, extending her hand for a handshake, “I’m Astr -….” Before she could get her

name out, Zendevin finished for her.

“Astria, and this is your best friend Xenon and his brother Tinshin. Yes, I know, your dad has told me all

about you. Let’s go inside before they see us,” he ushered us to the door with a movement of his hand.

Inside the cabin looked vastly different from the outside. It was more modern-looking, with freshly

painted walls and computer equipment everywhere. The windows were blacked out, and only a small

light hung from the ceiling to illuminate the room. It looked like Zendevin had been here by himself for

quite some time.

“Let’s not waste any time, I know why your dad sent y’all here and we have no more time to waste. In

short, I never actually destroyed the code. You cannot destroy the code; you can only re-write it and I
could not let any of it fall into the hands of Gran Jefe or his minions. So, I backed up the code onto Gup’s

main hard drive. Gup is the key to all of this now. His programming chip is the key to turning off the

immense power source,” Zendevin was speaking while shuffling around his computers.

I responded, “what do the aliens want then and why have they come here?”

Zendevin’s glanced in my direction and then continued to type feicely on his keyboard.

“The aliens gave us this coding over several correspondents back and forth. This has been going on some

time now. They thought we would use the code to make things better around the world. The aliens

mean us no harm, but they will destroy this earth if Gran Jefe tries to go through with his plan of world

domination. We don’t have much time left before they destroy this world and leave no trace of the

coding and Gran Jefe knows I am the only one who can do this, so I ran, and went into hiding. I wasn’t

going to leave Gup behind either. I built him, gave him life and a purpose. He is my buddy!”

Gup wagged his little robot tail and continued to play with a bouncy ball that Tinshin was rolling back

and forth.

“But like I said, Gup is the key,” Zendevin responded quickly.

Astria replied, “Alright so what’s next.”

“Well,” Zendevin, paused for a moment, “We need to take Gup and his chip to this site here, its about 3

miles away from the cabin. Once there we need to sneak past the guards and find the main holding cell

for the power source. There is a huge main frame in a room right next to the power source, once we are

in, we can bypass the code for security, then plug Gup into the mainframe and I can start the upload

process to erase all the coding.”

Tinshin interjected, “About how long is that going to take, the upload that is?”
“If there are no interruptions, about 10 min. From there once the process is complete, the power sourse

will shut down. Once the Alien King and Queen have seen this happen, only then will they leave. The

problem is going to be getting past Gran Jefe’s minions.”

“That’s not a problem. Xenon and I can handle that. We have a few friends who have been itching to be

a part of this fight. And if it means saving the world and seeing Mom again, we can handle this,” you

could hear the determination in Tinshin’s voice.

The kids went to work getting everything in place. Tinshin used Astria’s secure phone to make some calls

to people he knew could help. In just a few short hours, the plan was all in place. It was time to execute

the plan and save the world. They set off on the three-mile trek and came to what looked like a hill on

the side of the mountain. Zendevin walked around the side and picked up a small rock. On the bottom

was a tiny button. He pressed the button, and a small entrance began to open. It would be even quieter

now, if that was possible. I could feel the sweat dripping down the back of my neck. There wasn’t a

breeze in the air. It was now or never. Zendevin motioned for us to come on. Inside this secret cave, small

l.e.d. lights lined the pathway. They led to several corridors.

“Where do we go now,” I asked, panting out of breath.

“This way,” motioned Zendevin.

Just then we heard a loud explosion come from outside. Rock beagn to fall from above our heads.

“Hurry, lets go!” Zendevin started running.

Tinshin looked at me and said, “Don’t worry, the crew was on it.”

Outside the neighbors were battling the minions, Tinshin knew they would come through. It was up to us

to keep going.
We ran down another long corridor and at the end was a big heavy-looking gray door. There was a small

keypad to the right. Zendevin began typing in a long code and after about 30 seconds, the door made a

whoosh sound and started sliding open. Astria and I were keeping our heads on a swivel. The explosions

from outside were getting louder and more intense. I really hope our people were okay. Zendevin

immediately got to work, disabling the power source. He started typing heavily on the keyboard and

simultanieouly plugging Gup into the USB port. Gup was still wagging his tail, but he looked sad.

“How much longer Zendevin, I don’t know if the neighbors can hold off the minions for much longer,”

Tinshin said. You could see the look in our eyes.

“Almost got it man,” Zendevin said.

The process of the upload to kill the power source had started. There were 4 minutes left. We could hear

the fighting in the corridors now. 2 minutes left. Just then, a minion came from behind the door holding

a power shard in his hand ready to fight. We stood there in terror, Astria grabbing my hand and Zendevin

crouched behind the big computer. Tinshin was standing next to Gup, with his hand on Gups tiny robot

body.

“Stop it now, or I will stop all of you with this power shard,” shouted the minion.

Like an answered prayer, we heard a voice from behind the minion shout, “Put down the power shard or

I’ll end you where you stand.”

“Dad,” Astria choked back her tears, “Daddy, you’re here.”

“Where else would I be sweet girl, you are my daughter and I’m never going to let anyone hurt you. I am

glad to see you took my instructions and did exactly what I needed you to do. I am proud of you,” he

motioned for his daughter to come to him.

The minion placed his weapon down. 1 minute.

“We need to get out of here. Once Gran Jefe finds out that we have stopped this, he is going to be

coming for all of us,” Astria’s Dad replied.

“Zendevin, how much longer,” asked Tinshin.

“15 seconds.”

The explosions stopped. The fighting in the corridor stopped. Everything went blank.

I woke up to the sun shining in my bedroom window, the smell of bacon coming from the kitchen and

the news blarring on the televsion.

“Xenon, wake up, come see the news, they said there may be aliens headed this way, hurry come see,”

my Mom yelled from the kitchen downstairs.