It was a Tuesday. I remember because Monday was movie night. We used to go together. Most times some sort of animation movie because of Marishka - she loved them so much. I didn’t care. I liked those movies, but I loved how we all had a great time together. And the night before we had been to the movies. I don’t remember what we saw – something about a robot? – but I do remember Marishka giggling like the little girl she was. I woke up to the deafening sound of an anti aircraft alarm. I never had heard the sound of one in real life. I got out of the room and found my mother in a frenzy. I asked about my father, she said he had left home earlier, after some old friend from the military called. We started hearing people outside. Marishka left her room. “What’s going on?”, she asked. “Its going to be all right dear, now get some clothes on.”, mother replied with a smile. She then turned to me with a stern face. I could see in her eyes she was scared. No need to sugar coat it for me. As I got dressed, the noise outside got louder. I looked out the window to see people hurrying to go somewhere. Father came and went into his study. My mother rushed to him. I couldn’t hear them at first. When I got there my father was saying, “I have to do this. For all of you.” My mother was in tears, her trembling hands in front of her mouth as she turned her face to me. My father opened his old cabinet. I knew what was in there. As he picked up his old rifle, he looked upon the hilt. Then he turned to me. “Did you do this?” He asked. I nodded. It has been a long time ago, when I was about Marishka’s age. I remember regretting it and thinking I’d get a beating when he found out. But now, I could see tears forming in his eyes as he came to me and grabbed me by the shoulders. “Alexei”, he said to me. “I need you to pick up whatever supplies you can in a backpack and get your mother and your sister out. Follow the people outside. Get them to safety.” “What? What about you? What’s happening?” I asked. “There’s some kind of invasion. I don’t know much. But it’s bad. I have to go. I have to buy you time. They’re almost here.” “But… I… I don’t…” “Alexei. I trust you. Protect your mother and sister. I love you.” He hugged me. I felt lost and disoriented. He let go of me, and he turned to my mother. He hugged her and kissed her as she sobbed, tried to demote him. He finally picked up Marishka and hugged her too. “You be a good girl and do what mother and Alexei tell you, allright?” Her face was blank, eyes wide. Didn’t say a word. Father let her down gently and raced towards the door. “Viktor!” mother yelled. He turned, one last look. Then he left, closing the door behind him. People on the streets were by the thousands when we got out. They were rushing towards the outskirts of the city. I held Marishka’s hand. “You hold on to me real tight, OK? Don’t let go!” She nodded, still not talking. We started rushing with the crowd. Somewhere in the distance, the anti aircraft alarms kept sounding. Then, all of the sudden, an explosion. Guns started to fire. People started screaming and running. We started running too. I remember how my backpack bumped my back as I ran. I held Marishka’s hand on a tight grip. Mother followed close. We reached the oustkirts of town through the noise of explosions and gunfire in the distance. We could see all the people running, but we didn’t even know for sure where they were headed. We just followed them. Then another explosion came. This one, right in front us. I felt the blast, I saw the people flying through the air, the smoke and the fire blocking our path. People panicked and pushed each other trying to run faster and get out of the way. Someone pushed Marishka. “Hold on!” I shouted. But her grip was too fragile. “Alexei!”, she screamed. I felt her hand slip, her touch, lost. I saw her terrified face disappear among the crowd. I tried to stop but the oncoming of people was too strong. “Marishka!” I called, the sound was muffed by the screams of the panicked people. I saw my mother looking at me in horror. I could tell she knew what happened. Then another explosion. I flew up on the air, hit the ground, and blacked out. I woke up to screams and crying though the ringing of my ears. I opened my eyes to see the ground littered with the bodies of people, some immobile, some trying to crawl or get up. My mother’s lifeless, bloodied body lay just outside of reach. I tried to move, but couldn’t feel my legs nor my left arm. Then I saw someone getting up slowly. I saw her face as she looked around, as if searching for someone. Marishka. I lifted my right arm towards her. I tried to call but it came out as little more than a whisper. Her eyes found mine and she started running towards me. Then I saw something in the distance behind her. A figure, but not a human one. It pointed something towards Marishka. I tried to call her again, my throat burning with pain. I mustered whatever air I could, and shouted. “Look out!” She turned her head at the figure. I’ll never forget the awful sound of that shot. A bolt of blue energy punched though her fragile body and she dropped to the ground. “NOOO!!” I screamed, and the figure turned its weapon at me. Again, that sound. Then, darkness. I woke up to a voice. “I finally found you”, it said. I opened my eyes to see a little contraption floating in the air. “Eyes up, guardian. I am a ghost. In fact, I am your ghost.” I didn’t know what was happening. Apparently, I could get up and move again. I couldn’t see anyone. All I could see were abandoned cars and some human remains inside. They had been there for a while. “I know you have questions. But we have to get out of here. We’re on fallen territory, they’re coming.” I looked in the distance and saw a group of figures, some like the one I had seen before, and others different – bigger, scarier. “Fallen”, their name was apparently. I was confused and terrified. “This way” – the ghost said. It led me into some building. It was pitch black. “Wait here. I’ll see if I can light this place up.” And it left me. I couldn’t see a thing. It was cold. I could hear sounds but didn’t know what they were or where they were coming from. The lights came up in time for me to see the fallen rushing in my direction in a distant corridor. “I need to find you a weapon!” The ghost said. And it bolted forward. I followed it in stumbles into a corridor. “Here!” it said, next to a human skeleton that had a weapon next to it. “I hope you know how to use that thing!” As I grabbed the weapon, I felt something. A carving in the hilt. My carving. My family name. “Khvostov” My father’s rifle. The realization came to me like a punch to my face. They were all dead. That skeleton – that was my father. That place – that was his final stand. Everyone else – my mother, Marishka, all those people running for their life – [i]they were all dead[/i]. “What are you doing? They are closing in!” The tears swelled up as I continued to hold upon the weapon in both hands, looking at it. I would never see their face again. I would never hear their voice. I would never hold their hands. “You need to do something! I used too much energy bringing you back! If you die now, I won’t be able to do anything!” I heard that sound again. A bolt grazed my body and it smeared my flesh. I turned my head upward and through a fog of tears I saw them on the end of the corridor. The same figures that had killed Marishka. I roared as I aimed the rifle in their direction and pulled the trigger. I felt like everything happened in slow motion. I could see the bolts of energy whizzing me by, the fallen reeling with the bullets as they hit. Every shot, every flash of the nozzle of the gun brought a image to my mind. My father reading in his studio. My mother cooking in the kitchen. Marishka laughing at the movies. I would never see them again. My roar melted with the gun’s sound as the bullets left the chamber one by one. The fallen that had turned the corridor reeled with the bullets and fell, one by one, until no one of them was left standing. The rifle stopped shooting, the ammo clip depleted. Reality somehow got back to its normal speed. I kept on screaming and pulling the trigger. When I finally got myself to stop, I could feel the rifle hot on my hand. The fallen lay dead. I looked back at the skeleton. I dropped my weapon and fell to my knees, crying. Much time passed since then. I found others like me. I fought in a war I don’t quite understand, but I do it for every human still living. For all the families still alive so that they don’t have to go what I’ve been through. I still have many questions. I don’t know why I was chosen, and many times I asked to give my light away so that my family could be brought back. But it seems it doesn’t work that way. I have fought alien races, I have been to other planets, I have found things beyond my imagination and my understanding. I have developed powers I never dreamt to exist. And though I have found many weapons, there are times when I open my vault just to see my father’s rifle. Displayed as an ornamental relic, as a reminder of where I came from and what I fight for. Someday, I will find the one responsible for the invasion. For the killing of millions of people, for the death of my family. Then I will take my father’s weapon on one last mission. And it will be ornamental no longer.