Author's Note: Hey all, so it's almost looking like the story will contain stats and the like. I want to get started on typing the chapter, but I'll hold off at least until later tonight and check the poll again at that time since I've got some homework and note-taking to burn through. Anyone else at the University of Chicago? Good luck on everyone's upcoming finals!!!

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“It’s easieeeeeeer to ruuuuuun! Replacing this paaaain with sooomething numb...” I had been driving for nearly thirteen hours and just hit the chorus in Linkin Park’s song, Easier to Run.

Quite honestly, I was singing my heart out.

I had a bunch of pent up stress and fear and singing to the music I’d loved since I was a five year old kid was turning out to be a great way of relaxing in its own way.

Picking my phone up from the cup holder, I checked the maps app and felt a shiver of anticipation run through my spine.

I was a little under an hour away from Rugby, North Dakota where the tower in North America was supposed to have dropped. I was currently driving past some huge depression in the ground. Glancing at my phone to see if it was some sort of landmark, my eyes widened in surprise and I took a double take out of my window.

“That’s supposed to be Devil’s Lake” I muttered to myself.

‘Hmmmm if all that water evaporated from the heat the tower brought with it before hitting the ground, then it’s no surprise my family and I could feel the tremors all the way in Kansas…and now that I’m actually looking, I notice that there are zero signs of life outside the car.’

Looking from my window, the scenery around me had changed into one that I would expect from one of those movies where the world had become a post-apocalyptic wasteland due to some unprecedented nuclear warhead strikes.

It even reminded me of how the land looked in those Hiroshima videos I’d watched as a high school student in U.S. History class…almost instantly I grew nervous and surveyed my surroundings with a wary look.

‘Wait, could there be radiation out here? Shit! I didn’t prepare for that…how could I have prepared for that? Bio-hazard suits are too bulky…’ Then I smacked myself on the forehead.

‘Radiation comes from the chemicals in the warheads. Stop freaking out for nothing, Alex’

I laughed a little at my ridiculous thoughts and continued screaming the Linkin Park lyrics.

I drove along the highway for another twenty minutes before I could finally make out the top piece of a lone white tower standing against the backdrop of a cloudless starry sky. It stretched straight into the sky and stood as barren as the land around it looking exactly like a standard obelisk, but much wider and longer. I was surprised by the plainness of the tower, but immediately chalked it up to the fact that the self-proclaimed Overlords had nothing to prove to us.

A full half hour passed before I could finally see the base area of the tower.

I surprisingly saw a ton of lights flooding the area and movement down near the base of the tower. There was a blockade surrounding the tower in what seemed to be a radius of at least a mile. After another minute or two, I stopped in front of the barricade and noticed the warning shock signs on the fence covering the entire perimeter.

I slowed to a stop in front of what I could only assume was a gate, giving it a wide berth of about ten yards upon spotting the assault rifle toting camouflaged pair of men in front of the blockade’s gate.

‘Damn, I suppose it only makes sense that the military is here…’

Both guards walked up to my car. One coming for the driver’s window and the other took out a flashlight and began flashing it through the windows of my vehicle as he inspected its contents. Although I had nothing to hide, I grew a little nervous and started fidgeting in my seat.

I rolled my window down to confront the one walking towards me and after a second, the military man came to a halt outside my window, looking at me with stern brown eyes. He appeared to be in his mid or late thirties with a robust build and weathered face. His eyes were what really told me what I was dealing with; they held a hardness to them that I immediately assumed came from years of seeing some brutal shit and making it out physically fine and mentally strengthened.

So I was pretty confused when he gently asked me in a gruff tone, “Can we help you, son?”

“Uhhh, yeah…I’m one of the…marked? I was hoping to get into the tower...” I replied a little perplexed at my own situation.

“Oh, you’s a brave one ain’t ya?” The one that had been searching my vehicle finally reached my window. He was skinnier than the first guy that had approached me, but his eyes held the same haunted look.

“Brave? I’m sorry, I don’t under-” I began to say, but was cut off by the words of the larger man.

“We’ve had to drag in a few of you in the past couple hours already and they’re staying in the barracks under strict watch. But, there were also even a couple of kids that showed up on their own…same as you.”

I was slightly taken aback by this information.

‘It’s only been a little over twenty-four hours since the towers landed, how many people could’ve gotten here before me? How did the military find out who was marked so quickly…?’

I had yet to find a trace of the mark on my body, not that I’d looked much after that strange dream I’d had with the voice.

“So, how many people have already shown up?” was the question I found myself asking.

“There’s already about thirty-five people here. Albeit, more than half of them had to be rounded up, but they’re confined in a barrack separate from those who came of their own free will. They’re all specially supervised by one of our sergeants so that no one can just change their mind and make a run for it.”

I sweat dropped upon hearing this, but nodded my head in understanding. The fate of the human race relied on every single marked one showing up at the towers after all.

“We’ll let everyone enter the tower at the end of the week.” The soldier carried on. “There’s a worldwide tally keeping track of the number of acquired marked ones so that we know how many we’re missing once it comes down to it.”

“What if you don’t find them all like even twelve hours before the deadline?” I asked already sure of the answer.

The skinnier guard chose to speak up and said, “Well, with all those countries working together…that’s some serious manpower, tech, and resources don’t ya think? If we’re missing some, then we just search harder than we was. Reason these ones’ve been found so fast is ‘cuz they was scattered across the nation in juvenile detention centers or even top security prisons.” The skinnier guard replied in a thick southern dialect.

This tidbit of news really struck me dumb.

‘What kind of process did they use to choose who was marked and who wasn’t if we’re getting people straight out of prison???’ I incredulously thought to myself.

The burly guard seeing me sit there, unsure of what to do, looked around and coming to a decision he says, “Hey kid, unlock your doors so that I can hop in and show you where you’ll be staying. The roads are under reconstruction so it’s impossible to drive without knowing what things look like. I’ll personally make sure your car gets to where it needs to go.”

I nodded at his words and unlocked the doors. He went around the front and hopped into the passenger seat beside me.

The gate opened and I drove through it listening to the directions he was giving and suddenly a question popped into my head.

“Hey, so uh are you guys gonna go through our luggage?”

He looked at me skeptically and said, “Well, of course. Those kids from the detention centers only have the clothes on their backs, but any other person coming through here has to be checked since they could be carrying anything. Just in case they’re psycho and want the world to end, they could do that just by killing one of the marked people.”

I nodded at everything he said.

‘Makes perfect sense I thought.’

“So…” I let out a nervous laugh and quickly let my next words tumble from my mouth.

“…imma be real with you, man. I got a machete and hatchet in my bag in the backseat…” I glanced over at him and silently congratulated him as the only reaction I caught was a small twitch and a raised eyebrow, but I hurriedly kept speaking anyways to give an excuse.

“…purely for survival purposes! You know? I hope I’m wrong, but I’m expecting something on the level of what happened a month ago and those are the only questionable things I brought with me!” I finished my words in a flurry and looked over at him expectantly.

He simply signaled for me to turn down some random road and kept his silence.

‘If he takes my weapons, I’ll probably be royally fucked when I go in there.’ I frantically thought to myself.

After about ten seconds of silence, he reached up to scratch a stubble of beard on his chin and said, “Well, I don’t see the real problem with it if it’s for survival...worst comes to worst, they’ll confiscate it until you have to enter the tower.”

I breathed a sigh of relief.

Within the next ten seconds, we reached a small, rectangular one-story building made out of bricks with a number three on it. It looked to have been hastily erected, but there was even a glass window pane that looked like it stretched from the top of the side walls all the way around the entire building to allow sunlight in during the day time.

‘Man, the military must’ve been putting in work as soon as that tower landed.’

Parking my car, I hopped out, grabbed my bag and gray windbreaker from the backseat, hauling them into the driver’s seat.

‘This thing really is ridiculously heavy. I bet it’s all that water in here.’

Throwing my jacket on, I heaved the pack up and onto my shoulders with a low groan. Stepping back to shut my door, I saw the soldier was already waiting for me in front of the car.

“Sorry, this thing is damn heavy. I’m Alex by the way. I appreciate all the help” I said while putting my hand forward towards him.

He looked at my hand for a moment and then, “Mike…and no problem, kid. Just walk through those doors and there’ll be a sergeant in there to help you out.”

Nodding to him, I tossed my keys at him with a light smile.

“Please crash my car. I’ve been looking for an excuse to beg my parents for a new one.”

He let loose a deep laugh and patted my back as I passed by him, making my way towards the door.

Arriving in front of the door, I took a deep breath, placed my hand on the knob, twisted and pushed my way through the doorway and into the tiny building.

As soon as I walked in, I took in the scene laid out before me.

There were twelve thin mattresses with six on opposing sides of the rectangular building. The window I’d noticed from outside was letting in the faint light of the moon but was blocked by the bright rays of the light bulbs lining through the middle of the ceiling.

‘Damn, they even got electricity in this place already? I’m impressed…’

Looking for exits, I realized the door I’d come through was the only one in and out of barrack number three.

All, but one of the beds were occupied with people that looked to be around my age and they were all staring at me. I stared back for only a few moments and looked down to my right where a uniformed man was lazily seated in a chair next to the door.

I immediately assumed that this was the sergeant that Mike had told me about.

This guy seemed a lot more at ease with himself than the other two soldiers I’d talked to since he wasn’t wearing his combat jacket and instead had on a form-fitting white tank top that showed the outlines of his leanly muscled upper body.

His arm was draped across the back of the chair and a camouflage hat was on top of his head, obscuring his eyes from view. I only looked at him for a couple seconds before he lazily lifted his hat with the tip of his right forefinger.

I was astonished when I saw his eyes holding the same steel in them as the last two men I’d seen had.

‘I guess the military is pulling out the best from everywhere. It does involve the fate of the world after all…’

He spoke in a raspy voice saying, “Name’s Sergeant James Kesler. I’m your C.O., you can take that last bunk at the end there.”

He indifferently nodded off towards the collection of beds and after looking at him for a couple more seconds, I walked towards the only empty bed at the end of the right side.

‘Guess they won’t be checking my luggage like Mike had told me. Probably just a scare tactic or something.’

Little did I know that it was Mike’s job to check every person coming through the gates of the base and he’d trusted me at face value when I told him about why I’d brought the machete and compact hatchet…

I was walking down the aisle towards the last available bed and heard whispering on all sides. I took the time to take stock of those around me.

There were eight guys who had their stuff situated at the front of the barrack and three girls towards the back where I was going to be sleeping.

Once I reached the bed, I slung my stuff off my shoulders and onto my new bed.

Taking a slow breath and turning around to meet the eyes of all the people in the room, I let a smile out and attempted to soften my face to say, “Hello everyone! It’s nice to meet you all. My name is Alex Taylor and I’m just a nineteen year old attending college in Chicago...or, uh, I was anyways.”

Painful memories fought to surface to the front of my mind, but I pushed them down quickly to check the reactions of all those in the room.

Mostly all of them were looking at me with looks of disbelief and one of the girls, she had blue hair and was looking quite cute, was lightly smiling at my introduction.

Suddenly, one of the guys from the front said, “Hey, quit screwing around and show us your mark.”

I looked straight past everyone to a blonde haired kid with piercing blue eyes. His build was quite similar to mine, although he may have been a couple inches taller, and with his smooth baby face and strong jawline I’m sure he’d never had a problem in the looks department with any girls.

“Ah, uh-huh…my mark. Well I’m sorry to disappoint you, but I’m going to have to respectfully decline. As far as I know, you have no right to know or even to care.” I lightly smiled and scratched the back of my head to try and show that I wasn’t taking his words personally, but I also wasn’t one to be wantonly pushed around.

I dryly laughed at myself on the inside while thinking that I obviously shouldn’t reveal that even I didn’t know where I was marked.

“Now, if you’ll all excuse me, I’m gonna head to bed. I don’t know how all of you got here so quickly, but I’ve been driving all day and I’d like to get some rest. I hope you’ll all introduce yourselves to me in the morning.” I said this before the blonde guy could respond to my earlier words.

Moving my pack off and onto the side of my bed, I turned away from the others and shrugged off my jacket, tossing it directly on top of the pack on the ground. Pulling my boots off, I stood back up and turned away from them all once more.

The voice of that blonde kid rung out once again from behind me, “It sounds to me like you don’t even know where your mark is. It’s on your back, idiot. Or are you telling me you haven’t looked there yet?”

I instantly froze.

‘I sure as hell haven’t checked my back yet.’ I thought to myself.

“Hmmmm, you’re completely right.” I spoke in an even and disinterested voice. “I haven’t looked there yet. I have to thank you, even if you were quite rude about helping me out.”

Shrugging my shirt up over my shoulders, I heard gasps from behind me and once again that kid spoke up.

“What the hell are you playing at? Why do you have a vest on?”

Turning to face him, my eyes narrowed as dark memories flashed through my head.

“Are you kidding me? Why do I have a vest on? Do you not remember what happened that day?” Striding towards him, I saw his mouth quirk into a small smile as though he was happy to get a reaction out of me, but it quickly vanished upon seeing the wild look in my eyes that the memories always seemed to pull out of me.

“I had no part in what happened that day. No monsters came and attacked me, but we’ve been invited by the aliens to come into their towers. Maybe they’ll use our group as a sample and logically determine if we’re to be saved or not! Like statisticians would, you know? Through diplomacy!” His blue eyes shone in earnest and I knew he was being completely serious with me, but I could only look at him as if he were crazy.

Staring him right in the eye, I coldly say, “And that’s why you’ll be one of the first to die.”

Turning my head to look around the room, I saw that all the people in the room except for Sgt. Kesler, four guys, and the one girl with blue hair were looking at me like I was crazy.

Turning my gaze back onto the blonde haired kid in front of me I decided to calm myself and switch tactics with the guy.

I spoke more softly saying, “Look man, I don’t know why you’re thinking what you are, but if you go in there with the mentality that it’s going to be pure diplomacy…you’ll die.”

His eyes flashed in fear before covering it up and I just continued to speak.

“I’m just trying to give you a heads-up. Believe it or not, we’re on the same side and the Overlords are the enemy. They’re the ones who attacked us and killed millions in the United States alone. We’re far past any kind of diplomacy if you ask me.”

His eyes were cast down towards the ground at this point and seeing that I’d probably gotten through to him, I turned around and had every intention of passing out on my bed, but before I could even walk two steps, the blonde’s voice called out to me.

“Hey…I’m sorry. Even I’m not so dull as to think everything’s going to be that simple. I just didn’t want to believe things could be as bad as they are…they really did threaten everyone on the planet…” He said in near disbelief.

“Here, look…” As he spoke, he began pulling his shirt off over his head.

“Yo, man, look I don’t really swing that way…” My hands were waving off the blonde guy in front of me, but at this point, his shirt had come all the way off and he had a slight blush of embarrassment on his cheeks.

“No! Just…look at this.”

He turned around and on his back I could see it. A pure blue water drop shimmered in the light of the barrack and it seemed to be rippling as if it really was made of water. The drop of water was fairly large and took up the entire area between his shoulder blades.

“Okay…nice tattoo, man…” but even I didn’t sound too convinced with my own words.

As I watched, the drop of water continue to ripple I finally caved in.

“Alright, it’s not a normal tattoo. I get it.” When I said this, he turned around and put his shirt back on with a large grin on his face.

Sticking his hand out to me, he said, “My name is Bryce Weathers. Sorry for being an ass. I’m twenty and I’ll soon be taking over my father’s technological investment business, ARR & Co.”

Eyeing his hand warily for a moment, I reached out and grasped it. “Like I said, my name’s Alex and I’m sorry for losing my cool…I lost a lot that day and it’s a sore subject for me.”

He nodded and looked at me expectantly.

We stared at each other for a few seconds until I couldn’t take it anymore.

“What, Bryce?” I quickly say to break the awkward silence.

“I showed you my mark, so show us yours!” He shouts as if it were obvious.

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Author's Note: Wonder what kind of mark Alex will have ;) haha. Don't forget to answer the poll in the last chapter! Guests can answer it as well so don't be afraid to let your opinions be known! Thank you all for reading :)