Chapter Text
Sam placed the camera on the tripod and once the light that indicated it was recording lit up, she cleared her throat and moved to stand in front of it quickly, going over and over in her mind how she was going to state the situation, her reporter's mind never truly having gone away, even after all that had happened, and with it the habit of picking her words carefully whenever she stood in front of a camera. She tamed the whirlwind in her mind and without an emotion in either her voice or her face, began to speak to the camera:
"I record this in hopes that one day we will overcome this and humanity recovers enough that this message is found: Today, two years ago, Earth was invaded by Aliens. Out of nowhere their ships appeared all over the world and pulverized the militaries of the world. In a swift and brutal campaign that saw organized resistance crumble in two months, what seems to be an amalgamation of different alien species invaded the planet and occupied the most populated cities of the world with their ground forces, who overran the military efforts of the world's greatest powers with ease. Their technology surpasses by far anything humanity has ever faced: They have handguns that shoot sticks that pierce tanks like they were made of wet paper, aircraft that leaves no trace and goes undetected to everything but the naked eye just to mention a few examples of their technological superiority. The greatest horror to the organized resistance effort, the shields of their ships that absorbed the fury of the Russian and American nuclear arsenal, cannot go unmentioned; but after the destruction that came in retaliation, I doubt we’ll ever forget such a thing."
Sam sighed and pinched her nose, not knowing what else to say. She knew she should've prepared this more and yet she'd gone and done it just because she suddenly remember this morning that it was the anniversary of their arrival. She quickly decided to just retake it from where she felt it was right.
"They are everywhere and where they are they kill or capture and nobody is sure which is worse. The obvious thing to do is survive, to run and run people have done so far. The problem is that groups get big for it is instinctual in humans to band together, but if a group gets too big, they come like moths to a flame, called by an unknown reason and leave nothing but corpses and burning wreckage behind"
Sam paused and decided to add, albeit hesitant
"Corpses, burning wreckage and what I'm 100% convinced are bullets that bounced off of the plates of their armor. In this recording I hope to leave an account of how life in these dark days was, so that future generations have a reliable source to refer to when learning of this time in our history"
Sam sighed again, knowing she had to be honest to posterity.
She'd spent her life lying: to her friends, by telling them they were her friends when she felt nothing but contempt for them; to her parents, who had managed every aspect of her life to turn her into the perfect daughter and heiress to a fortune; and most importantly to herself.
Reason why she'd cracked first chance she got and became a reckless party animal that made scandal after scandal-grabbing headline with her partying and drinking.
Reason why she was twenty-seven and been in rehab three times.
Reason why she had slept with enough people to make a list as tall as Frank and had two abortions after pill malfunctions with guys she never got the name of.
Reason why the last thing she'd told her parents before the world came to an end was that she hated them and that she wished them a fiery death.
"And honestly-" Sam admitted "Because this is the only way I can cope, really. The only thing that gives me some sense of normalcy in this hell I’ve been calling life as of late."
She chuckled lowly and hurtful, lamenting out loud and repeated what her father had told her without much presence of mind; too far down memory lane to notice.
"I would've been a hell of a reporter hadn't it been for the booze...and the drugs...and the-" Sam caught herself and growled exasperated. Her laptop died over a year ago and things had never calmed down enough for her to worry about stupid shit like her laptop and her editing tools.
"Yeah-" She admitted to herself and to the camera "This is how bad things are. I doubt we'll ever forget something like this but just to be safe: Yeah, I'm losing it and so is everyone else. It's just that everyone else wasn't as bad as me when this shit started. Allow me to introduce you"
Sam went up the camera, stopped recording and took it off the tripod, walking to the door without the slightest rush; already guessing what Frank would say of her idea.
The diner she’d chosen to use as a studio looked decent enough that you could easily convince yourself that the broken floor tiles and the ripped open seats were like that due to slow business. The woods around ithe diner were green and alive, as all things were in the summer; and if Sam closed her eyes and listened, she could swear she was back in that rehab center in Europe that was surrounded by forests and deer that would let you feed them and pet them.
It took little to feel that the world was at peace when it was this quiet. When the cars and the people stopped making their noises and the world was actually a place we lived in instead of just a place where we had to toil while real life happened in the internet.
A cold shiver with the force of a lightning that made the small hairs on her skin ran its path up and down Sam’s spine at the thought of why this peace existed and Sam felt awkward to say the least as her mind did its thing and reminded her how much of a fuck up she was; enjoying a peace created by the death of Frank’s family and the unknown fate of Sarah and David’s children along with so many others who are still unaccounted for.
Sam walked back to the group, her mind busy trying to find the correct wording to convince Frank that it wasn’t a stupid idea based on impulse, as well as what she’d say so that someone in the group might give her idea a try and speak their mind.
“Little Bird-” Jonah acknowledged Sam as she came up to the group and Sam stood in shock for a moment, his imposing figure still a bit intimidating to Sam “We’re leaving tonight”
She didn’t want to admit it but Jonah reminded her of one of the alien species; his stern appearance and great strength bringing Sam mental images of the ones Frank had taken to call Brutes due to their aggressiveness and seeming lack of smarts.
“Why?” Sam’s heart started to beat erratically and her mind became clouded with worry “I thought we were staying here a couple more days here”
“Yeah, we were-” Frank’s gruff voice boomed and startled Sam, who jumped in her shoes much to Frank’s amusement “Until it turned out there’s someone lurking in the woods”
“What?” Sam asked serene, though her mind started to repeat over and over ‘Fuck’ in panic.
“Someone’s been watching us for who knows how long-” Frank started to explain and Sam made note to pay close attention. Frank was a man of few words and when he said stuff like this, Sam liked to know all she could and for that she would need to ask the right questions “David said he thought he saw a blue light shine the other night and Billy found broken branches and footprints in the mud early this morning near one of the traps we laid out.”
“Humans?” Sam asked as she hid how irked she was by the small reminder that other people had to be added to the list of dangers.
“Most likely-” Jonah responded, however his face gave away he had great doubts about that answer “If it were them, we would’ve found a Grunt corpse ensnared in a trap already”
“And the footprints were human” Frank added, seemingly trying to convince Jonah for some reason.
“If it was a person or a group of them, they would’ve showed up already. We’ve been here what? A week?” Jonah spoke his mind amicably yet insistent “That’s more than enough time to scout us out. We both know whoever left them wanted us to find the footprints and what’s more important: I’ve never seen boots like those and neither have you, Frank.”
“Yeah, well-” Frank nodded as he took in Jonah’s point “More the reason to leave if you ask me. Sam-” Frank looked at her with that stern, you-better-listen-to-me gaze he had that he most likely had used with his children “Get some shut eye, we leave at dusk”
Sam sighed and nodded as she gripped the camera in her hand tighter, deciding that her useless little project could wait until they were out of this particular danger. Appreciating her lucky stars, she gave a quick thanks to whoever was listening for Frank having the presence of mind to tell people why they were doing this so suddenly.
Frank and his buddies were good people, Sam knew that, but still they could be odd at times and the group sometimes just did things without really knowing why other than ‘Frank said it’. If they wanted to survive, they needed a plan and they needed to know what was going on; walking in the figurative dark could get them killed.
‘Walking in the actual dark however-’ Sam thought to herself as a smile appeared on her face ‘is a very good way to slip past through danger’