The invasion turned out to be as simple as that. At best, conventional armed forces can slow or stop enemy invasions. That is, most of the so-called "models" between zero and ten can be defeated with conventional weapons with a sufficient concentration of firepower.

This is good. It gave civilians the opportunity to find shelter before the samurai arrived.

Well? What if they don't come? Well, then you're finished, aren't you?

—Professor Asimov, Lecture on Opposing Threats, New Oxford University, 2027

***

I gasped as the red light flashed outside.

Two words filled my world.

Invade!

"Oh no," Lucy said next to me.

I felt her hand fumbling with mine, and I squeezed hers, and the cue in front of me disappeared, replaced by a loading circle in the center of my field of vision. A new prompt appeared with a map pointing me to the far end of the museum. A huge hint hovered below the map for a few seconds, then all moved to the corner of my field of vision.

(Don't panic.)

by AdamsCo

p Message and map provided to you)

"Oh, shit," Daniel said. He was looking at the window on the roof.

I followed his gaze and saw huge black things pouring out of the cracks in the sky. They were long, dark, and covered in wriggling pieces of flesh, but I could only guess how big they were, without any sense of scale.

Smaller fragments...... Things flew past the bulky alien creatures, each one a hundredth the size of a large object.

Then I saw one of the snowflakes crash into an aircraft trying to escape.

The sky was lit up by beams of light and bullets, dense and bright, looking like glowing columns of water. The roar of heavy machine-gun fire in the distance reached the museum. Some of the smaller alien pods exploded in mid-air.

"Oh, shit," I agreed. The big ones had to be the size of skyscrapers, and they landed to the ground in the graceful manner of bricks, just as bricks fall from a great height.

"Go, go, run!" Someone screamed. An adult.

We rushed in the direction indicated on the map, the children screaming as we walked by, and several adults from the surrounding schools directed their charge. I tried to find the kittens, but for a moment, the only thing I could think of was holding Lucy's hand and making sure we didn't get stepped on as we entered a smaller hallway.

I lost track of time as I struggled to get Daniel ahead of me and Lucy to her feet. As we huddled together, breathing became hard and I couldn't hear myself thinking about crying, screaming, and the smell of fresh urine.

When we saw a huge sign, my heart felt like it was going to explode. There is a stick figure in the house with a yellow-black radiant symbol on one side and a greenish-black jagged bug-like opposing warning symbol on the other.

We were squeezed in, all of us squeezed into a narrow doorway that led to a large room.

I know what an invasion vault should look like. Before I was born, there were cartoons on TV, and I remember having one in my elementary school.

The room we were in...... Not a refuge.

There were reinforced walls, and the cubicles on either side were supposed to be beds and waiting areas, but nothing more.

"Where's the door?" Someone screamed.

I turned to look at the entrance. That huge reinforced door...... Not there.

This is not a refuge, but a dead end.

But it still has to be reinforced, and it is better to wait here. I stepped aside—pulling a disheveled Daniel, his hands over his injured eyes, and Lucy, who had lost her cane along the way—with me until we avoided the surging children. and caregivers. There were more people in the museum than I could have imagined. Maybe there will always be a hundred.

I guess this shelter can hold so many people.?

"Are you okay?" I asked Lucy.

"It's just peachy," Daniel said.

I retorted, "I'm not talking to you. ”

He held out his finger to me, but with a nervous laugh on his face. A little bit of ease helps, and it makes things work.

"I'm fine," Lucy said. She looks a little shaken, but otherwise looks pretty good. "Check the kittens."

Kittens, right?

I pulled my friends aside so they wouldn't get in the way. The flow of people pouring out of the entrance to the vault has now slowed to a trickle. Robots are stationed around the room, babbling greetings and nonsense to keep people calm, but nothing can be heard in the cry.

I took a deep breath. "Kittens!" I shouted.

Eyes turned to me, I might look like a fool.

"Kittens! Tome! ”

The twins rushed over, then Nemo and Nose, Bagan and Tim. I pushed them towards Lucy, who kept them calm with a hug and a smile.

I counted the heads. "Sparky and Junier are missing," I said before returning to the center of the room. "Kittens! Spark, teenager?! ”

"Miss LeBron, your voice is currently at a decibel level above the recommended value, please lower your volume—

"There," I said. "The kids are all there."

"I'm disposing of a disciplinary action against you," the robot continued.

I resisted the urge to curse the robot. "One of the kids is destroying the exhibits of, uh, museums," I said.

The robot stopped, one of its machine eyes either focused or unfocused. "It's a priority issue," it said before going offline.

Something grabbed my side and gave me a quick spin and almost fell. I came face to face with Spark, and the little guy looked at me with wide, almost panicked eyes. "Cats," he said. "Kitten, kitten, she fell." He pointed to the exit of the vault.

I was stunned.

The kitten is my responsibility, and maybe Junior is already around. She's the kind of person who hides at such times to me off.

However, would she really do it?

I have to tell someone.

Looking around the room and finding that adults are staring at their phones in response to panic, or staring blankly into the distance, they are useless. The robot came out.

It's up to me, Lucy or Daniel.

That's not the best.

"Oh, well, Spark. Listen, tell Lucy I'm going to pick up Junior, okay? I asked.

The little one nodded, and ran to the others. I walked towards the exit. I'll find Junior and, if necessary, pull her by the ears and drag her back.

The floor jumped out from under me.

When everything is shaking, scream. Lights flickering. A piece of reinforcement on the wall bends and falls off, revealing a thickness no thicker than paper.

"," I said.

The lights came back on, bathing the room in red. There was a crackling sound, and the air was filled with sounds that were incredibly calm. "An intrusion was detected in this building. Please seal the shelter door and wait for further instructions for rescue. ”

I think all of us – or at least those who understand – have set their sights on the door.

There are more than a dozen floors below the museum. Aliens could be on any of them.

I heard rumbling in the distance, and I could imagine the city being destroyed from above by an alien horde. I've seen videos of repulsive bee swarms attacking cities, and that's someone else's problem. I have to protect the kittens.

I struggled forward and shuffled out of the shelter.

I'm going back. When monsters lurk around every corner, it's not wise to go out into the open.

I bit the inside of my cheek and tried to stop being an idiot. Once the missing children are found, everything will be fine.

The corridor back to the museum itself was much longer than I remembered. I met a couple of kids running by, and a couple of adults were chasing them and looking back at them.

The farther you go, the fewer people you meet.

Then I went to the main floor, and my gaze was dragged to the ceiling above, or where it used to be. The far end lacked a hole large enough to park a bus, and shards of metal and concrete crushed entire corners of the museum.

In that hole, there was a large mass of fleshy mucus, like feces stuck to the edge of the toilet hole.

I covered my mouth with my hand.

Something had moved out of the fleshy mess.

My gaze was fixed on a massive object that jumped out of the destroyed pod and crashed onto the monitor. It is the same size as one of the dogs, but has no hair and is black in color.

I didn't have long to stare at it before it rolled off the dropped display and disappeared from my sight.

Is there only one?

This pod looks big enough to hold dozens of them, but part of it is crushed.

"Cats?"

Just a few dozen meters away, Junier was crushed under the collapsed wall of a display case. The girl struggled to lift, but she was held down.

I...... I want to run away.

There are indeed man-eating monsters in the room.

I took a step back.

"Cats?" Juniel shouted. She must have seen the pod too. And the noise she makes. Can they even hear it?

My legs were shaking. My breath was holding and the acid was burning in my throat.

I ran.

My knee slammed into the ground next to Junior. "Pull it down," Junior said.

"Shut up," I said. "Quiet. How many people do you see? ”

"May I answer or do you want me to be quiet?" She said scathingly.

Now is not the time. I think my expression also told her something.

"I saw six," she said.

That's six more than I can handle. I tossed the idea aside, grabbed the edge of the display and lifted it. It's just some thick padding with metal railings around it, but it's so big that it's hard to pick up with just one arm. To make matters worse, lifting it will cause some of the things above to fall off.

Junior moved underneath, frowning as he pushed up. She slipped out and stayed behind.

I blushed and put down the monitor. "Well, now we need ......"

Juniel's gaze crossed my shoulder.

I turned.

The monster was standing ten paces behind me.