The Human Climax

The sky was dark.

I gazed out the window of my bedroom. I searched the sky and the clouds with my wondering eyes. It was quiet, unlike it had been a minute ago.

It was the middle of the night. I had been woken up by a loud bang. I had crawled out of bed, wondering what had caused the noise, and in the process noticed how dark the sky was. Not just nighttime dark, but black dark. It was almost...evil.

I wandered out of the room and through the large hallways of my home. I searched for the room I knew I would find my father in.

I was surprised when I didn't encounter anyone telling me to go back to bed, that my father was busy. Where was everyone?

When I reached the room my father wasn't there. Alarmed, I went to other rooms I thought he may be in. I eventually reached large room that I knew I wasn't allowed to enter, but did so anyway.

My father was there, as were many other people. He was having a meeting. I knew I was not supposed to interrupt those.

Every head turned as the door creaked when I opened it, padding softly into the room, clutching the blanket in my hand.

"Daddy?"

My father looked stressed, and seriously worried. Many of the people in the room gave me sweet looks, and continued to look at my father expectantly.

"What is it, Quinn? Daddy's a bit busy right now. Isn't past your bedtime?"

"I'm sorry, Daddy. That big noise woke me up. What happened?"

The people exchanged worried glances, as if this is what they had been talking about before I came in. My father looked tired, as if he wanted to forget about whatever the meeting had been gathered for.

I looked out the window. Several other people had, too. The room was silent.

"Why is it so dark outside, Daddy?"

My father looked lost for words. A large man began to shoo me out of the room, but my father shook his head.

"No, no. I've got this." He said.

"Mr. President, we have to continue with this meeting." A woman said, who was standing beside my father.

"I know, Sarah, I know." My father said. "Just hold on a second, please."

"Mr. President," Another woman said. "Do you have any idea what to do?"

My father narrowed his eyes. "Of course I do!"

That silenced the room again.

"Daddy?" I said again, feeling a little scared. "What's going on?"

"Nothing, sweetie." He said. "The noise you heard was just thunder. The sky is dark because there is going to be a storm. Okay? Now why don't you go back to bed?"

I was still scared. "Daddy-"

Suddenly, a loud noise shook the whole room. A noise like I had woken up to. I screamed as several hangings fell off the walls.

The woman who had been standing beside my father ran to the nearest window. After a few seconds she turned back around, her expression slightly fearful as she looked at my father.

"Mr. President...I think it's them." She said.

My father's face turned horrified. "No...it can't be. They're to soon! We're...we're not ready!"

The other people seemed to panic.

A strange green light shone through the windows. I started to cry as another noise shook the room.

"Daddy!" I screamed, running towards him, but security stopped me.

My father stood. "Johnathan, evacuate Quinn and Lindsey. Tell the rest of the team to alert the country! Plan A!"

Johnathan moved to take me away. I kicked at him.

"No!" I yelled. "Daddy! DADDY!"

Then a part of the ceiling fell in, falling on top of Sarah and killing her. I screamed.

The room was in full panic now.

I screamed again. What was happening? My father always knew what to do. Why wasn't he fixing things?

I looked up at the sky through the hole in the ceiling. It was even darker then before and now had several green lights dancing across it. Large flying objects flew into view, shooting lasers and glowing strange colors.

I screamed as one of them landed on the roof, causing the entire room to shake violently.
Johnathan grabbed me and picked me up, running out of the room.

I screamed at the top of my lungs. "Johnathan...who...w-who are they? What's happening?"

"We don't know, Quinn." He said, turning towards my mother's room.

We reached her room. She was already standing outside with some security men.

She was yelling. "Where is my husband?! Where is Quinn?! I WILL NOT GO UNTIL YOU BRING THEM TO ME!"

"Mommy!" I yelled through my sobs.

She turned, and her expression turned slightly relieved. "Oh, Quinn! Quinn, you're okay!"

My mother took me in her arms, while Johnathan and the other men continued to lead us to safety.

"The president will meet us there, Mrs. Knoxville." Johnathan said, and my mother nodded.

"Mommy, what's happening?" I asked, as a laser shoot through the wall.

"It'll be okay, Quinn, don't worry." She said, holding me close to her chest as the walls shook.

They lead us outside, where a helicopter was waiting. My father stood there with three other men. The other people who had been in the house were taking other helicopters.

"This will take us to the hideout, Mr. President, where you can make the first broadcast." Johnathan said to my father.

He nodded. "Get on."

Johnathan lifted me onto the helicopter, and I could no longer hear where they were saying below.
I watched as my parents were about to board. But then, one of the large flying objects swooped down. A bright light shot from it, hitting my mother.

I screamed. "Mommy!"

Johnathan pushed me back.

As my father sat down next to my mother, several men trying to get him into the helicopter, another object flew down, shooting laser beams left and right. One hit two of the men, and another hit my father. He fell to the ground, limp.

"DADDY!" I screamed. "DADDY, MOMMY! NO!"

Johnathan shoved me further into the helicopter. "Quinn, sit down!"

"NO!" I shouted. "WHAT HAPPENED TO THEM? WE CAN'T LEAVE THEM! MOMMY! DADDY!"

The helicopter began to take off.

I sobbed. "NO-"

*

I sat up violently, gasping for air. I was drenched in sweat, and my vision was blurry. It took a few minutes to calm myself down, the dream slowly fading away.

I sighed, putting my head in my hands.

"Good morning, Quinn."

I looked up, to see Stevie sitting on her bed staring at me. I just nodded at her.

"You did not seem to be enjoying your dream very much." She said, batting her eyelashes at me.

I grunted in irritation. "No, Stevie, I was not enjoying my dream."

"Why is that?" She asked.

I started to her ignore then, beginning to get dressed for the day. I pulled out the same out black sweat outfit and white sneakers.

Stevie is nice and all, but she can be quite annoying. Like being extremely nosy, asking you questions as soon as you wake up, following you around, things like that. She is my roommate, so of course I don't hate her, but she's a bit strange. Some people say something happened to her during the invasion. I don't really like to think about that, so I don't ask her.

I made my bed, thinking about the dream. I couldn't count had many times I'd had it. It was the only thing I dreamed anymore- if I could get any sleep to begin with, seeing as I have insomnia. It was always the same thing, what had happened that night. I shuttered and pushed the memory from my thoughts.

I started to walk to breakfast, and Stevie followed me. I rolled my eyes as she skipped along.

I managed to make it to the cafeteria without having a conversation. I got in line for food by myself, sniffing the stench that flowed from the machines behind the counter.

After grabbing a bowl of strange liquid I walked to my usual table and sat down.

"Hey, Quinn." Christian greeted me.

"Hey, guys." I said, nodding to him and Dylan.

After a few moments of silence Dylan spoke up. "I heard today is a visiting day."

Both Christian and I gave him looks of outrage. "What?!" I exclaimed.

"Yeah." Dylan said. "They announced it late last night. Not a lot of people were awake."

I sighed heavily. "Oh, fuck. I hate visiting days! And I'm really not in the mood for one today."

Christian nodded in agreement. "I hate being looked at like they look at us."

I sighed again. I hated visiting days. The aliens would just come in, and stare at us in disgust and confusion. Like this was some kind of fucking zoo! This place was not a zoo. It was hell.

Dylan looked nervous. I knew this was stressing him. After all, we hadn't been warned a week in advance like we normally were.

I took his hand and squeezed it. "Don't worry, bud. It'll be okay."

Dylan was younger then Christian and I. We were 18, and he was 16. The invasion had happened when he was just six. He barely remembered the normal world. Hell, living like this, like some kind of experiment, in this place, was the normal world for him.

Dylan has a bit of anxiety problems, so Christian and I are always looking out for him. He's always up all night and doesn't eat a whole lot. It's not a rare thing for him to be sick. He gets scared easy. I guess that's what growing up in this world did to you.

"You okay?" Christian asked him, also seeing the look on his face.

Dylan nodded faintly, snapping back into the conversation.

I looked at him, trying to tell if he was really okay. Dylan has long, dirty blond hair that parts down the center of his head and falls a little past his ears, almost to his shoulders. He's short for his age. He only came a little past my shoulder. Dylan also had lots of freckles, and dark blue eyes. A glance at those eyes told me he wanted to drop the conversation.

For his sake I changed the subject.

"I had the dream again last night." I said.

"How bad was it?" Christian asked, scratching his head full of lots of extremely messy, light brown puffy, slightly curly hair. He's got big dark brown eyes and he's tall. He always wears long sleeves. Well, at least under the black sweatshirt and sweatpants we all had to wear, complete with white sneakers. He's not exactly skinny but not exactly fat. He's one of the only people who can make me laugh.

I shrugged. "It wasn't all that great. But I know it couldv'e been worse."

"Oh, well good, that's not that bad."

"Yeah. I wish I could just stop having it." A lot of times I have this dream, the exact thing that happened the night of the invasion. Sometimes it was just watching it, but other times it was extremely vivid and I was living it, sometimes even feeling the pain. At times it got me sick.

Sometimes I really do wish I could forget it. But it helps me remember my parents and the way life was before the invasion. It means sleep, which doesn't come often for me. So I guess it's almost a good thing. I guess.

I really shouldn't be complaining about remembering my parents anyway. Christian had been adopted and Dylan was raised by his big brother. Dylan had barely any memory of his parents and Christian hadn't even known his.

I sighed as the bell rang and we all shuffled out of the cafeteria.

Click.

"Attention humans: Today is visiting day. All activities will be performed outside. There will also be a message from Merlin in 10 minutes. Gather in the auditorium. You will be on your best behavior."

Click.

My jaw dropped and I exchanged shocked glances with Christian and Dylan.

"Merlin is sending us a message today?!" I said in disbelief.

"Why? I wonder if something happened." Christian said

"Something did happen." Said a voice. A figure walked up beside us.

It was Stevie. I rolled my eyes.

"What do you mean?" Dylan asked quietly.

"Didn't you hear?" Stevie said, cracking her fingers and widening her light blue eyes. She also had long red hair, and a round face. She pushed her glasses against her nose.

"Stevie, if we heard, we wouldn't be asking you. Just tell us." I said, not even looking at her.

"Well," She said, as if she had the attention of the whole world, proudly flicking her hair over her shoulder.

"These two girls tried to escape last month and the searchers found them recently. They killed them and found their maps and directions and stuff, and it was leading to the place the steal aways were hiding. So the searchers went there and found the steal aways, but they got away, but not before they could figure out what they were up to. So now Merlin knows about the steal ways, and he's quite angry."

"Who tried to escape last month?" I asked. Usually I know about these things, but I hadn't known about anyone escaping last month.

"The Anderson twins." Stevie said.

I gasped and Christian made a noise. "The Anderson twins are dead?!" He exclaimed.

She nodded, frowning.

The Anderson twins are dead? Holy shit. Well that sucks. They were nice. Damn.

"The twins are dead, it's visiting day, and now we gotta hear from Merlin. Fuck me."