America's Last Stand

"Phew! That was close!" The City Dogs squad finally got rid of that menacing tank. "Everyone alright back there? Man, that was a T-90, and we just survived! I don't know how!"

"Yeah, but our trouble's still not dealt with," Rogue Jacob pointed at the Kor Ondrone, which was now so big, it covered half of New York City. "What could those alien-zombies be wanting? Money? Power? Fear? Respect? Or blood? That is quite a tough thing to consider."

The UFO roared as it sent a sonic blast around Times Square, that made nearby skyscrapers shudder and wobble. The ground crackled, as the tremors passed through. Some of the buildings bent slightly, due to the powerful shockwave's impact.

"You know what, bro?" Carl Jason was busy tending to his wounds. Although he'd taken care of defense, he got shot by the T-90's LMG. "Maybe we should sneak up on that murderous tank, kill the freaks, and claim it for ourselves! That armor could be useful for both transportation, and defending ourselves."

"Hmm... I think you're right!" RJ thought about it. And the plan wasn't so bad, after all. "Okay then, squad. Let's move!"

Another shockwave from the Kor Ondrone made their skins sting.

"Radiation! We need some cover above our heads."

The trio sprinted through narrow alleys, across (empty) speedway zones, along the catwalk under bridges, under vehicles, and through the cracks of (empty) buildings' walls.

If you've read any war books, like Tomorrow, when the war began, or Parvana's Journey, or War of the Worlds, or if you'd played war games like Call of Duty, or Battlefield 3, then you'd probably know what the landscape looked like. It was quite similar to war-torn countries like Iraq, Syria, etc.

All of this war... it makes you feel suspicious. That's right! Some Iranian terrorist had to be behind all this.

The squad retraced their steps back to the place where they'd last seen the tank. It was nowhere to be seen. Ho great! They'd just ran about two-three miles, just to find their objective had failed. And dawn was breaking. The New Dawn was about to steadily creep up.

"Oh, c'mon! I thought North America had good defense supplies! Where are the U.S. Marines? Where are the Navy Seals, the Air Force?" Li'l Jacob asked himself, in vain. "Are we in this alone? Are rest of all Americans truly cowards?"

They thought they were alone. But no! They were not!

It was almost 5:30 am, when the first ray of sunlight struck atop the summit of the concrete giants, the skyscrapers of everlasting glass, steel, and brick. Not a sound, except for the distant humming of the UFO object, covering 1.4 sq miles of the sky, with occasional sonic booms, when the core showered the earth, with radiation rays.

"Alright, time to scour the surroundings," Rogue Jacob and the others were breaking their fasts on the packed rations. "Let's see if that damnable T-90 dares to inch forward."

Li'l Jacob hid behind an Aston Martin, while Carl Jason and Rogue Jacob flanked the sides of the road, behind electric poles. "Okay, make sure you select Saiga 12k, and fill it with full metal rounds, instead of tracer bullets."

All three members of the City Dogs, reloaded their guns, and aimed, through the scope.

No sound. No sign of life.

There was a continuous humming sound. But it wasn't the usual noise produced by the Kor Ondrone. It was...

"Yeah, right!" Rogue Jacob squinted towards the sunlight, as he laughed sarcastically. "So once we've breached our way into the city, once we have done most of the hard work, the entire nation reacts, huh?"

Four F-22 military jets skimmed past, overhead. But they weren't headed for the aliencraft; they just zapped around the city, scaling each and every corner. The grey, metallic birds produced a buzz - humming tone, similar to a TV whose volume has been set to 100%. If only CJ hadn't insisted on bringing ear plugs, the entire team would've been deaf, by now.

The planes travelled in a 'block'(square) formation, with their dangerous missiles, ready to deploy. But something was strange.

"Oh, no, no, NO!" RJ turned to his friends. "Fall back! Fall back! Those hawks are gonna blast our fleshy bodies, away, and spill the blood and entrails, all over the place!" He led them inside a small café that sold coffee. There wasn't enough time, to read the shop's billboard sign, outside; nor to find out the brands of coffee it sold. Time is quite precious to those who preserve (conserve) it; it is plentiful in lazy people, but scarce in hardworking people.

The four planes of doom flew clockwise, over the 2-storied coffee shop. There was nothing 'Bricksmasher' squad (a.k.a. The City Dogs), could do now. They'd have to wait for 'Boxcrusher' squad (Cooper Black and his brother), to rendezvous. The only thing they could do now, in this moment of distress, was to... er... drink coffee.

Just then, there was another loud, piercing sound ( similar to a jet engine's roar, when you get close enough), that made all the wooden chairs, porcelain plates, and ceramic cups, to rattle and start disco-dancing. It sounded like a sweep of an air fleet.

When they thought it was safe enough, they managed a peek. Clear. The squad slowly crouched and snuck out of the main caféteria, and looked outside, to find:

An entire war force! Tanks, AA cannons, marines, B-2s, stinger soldiers, SEALs; the US has finally decided to lend and hand, or should I say, an entire arm!

Planes raced in the skies, while infantrymen cleared the path for the M1s, Flak Halftracks, Leopard tanks, and M1A2 tanks, to safely pass through.

Pops, crackles, and smoke clouds in the distance told the news: the war has begun, at last. The 3 City Dogs stood there, in awe, as they watched hordes of marines, moving in straight lines. One of them stopped by, to greet them.

"Hey there! Are you part of the U.S. Army?" the soldier asked the squad. "Are you in the Air Force; the Navy? Anything? NO?"

Rogue Jacob didn't know what to do, or what to say.

"Oh, alright! As long as you're all humans, and sane humans, you've got nothing to fear. We Marines shall take care of the rest. I'm sergeant Dan Walker. You can join our forces, and assign yourselves as... um... guerillas."

"WHAT!? We sign up as gorillas!? Are so big and hairy that you think that we are--" Li'l Jacob was steaming with rage.

"Calm down, bro," RJ laid a calm hand on LJ's shoulder. "He meant 'guerillas', not 'gorillas'!"

Rogue Jacob turned to the Marine. "Yo, I'm Jacob. Roger 'Rogue' Jacob. Just call me RJ," the leader of the C.D.s introduced himself. "And these are my... uh... comrades. This one's Carl Jason, the expert sneaker in the group. The one crouching near the cashier and pretending to steal the cash is my brother, Li'l Jacob."

"Oh," SGT. Dan Walker fixed his M16 gun into position. "Alright then, it's nice meeting you guys! I've got to secure the northern part of Manhattan."

He was about to salute them off, when his eyes gazed upon their guns. "Whoa! Is-is that... a Saiga 12k? Those guns are quite hard to find, nowadays. Where'd you find those?"

"Why?" Rogue Jacob held the shotgun out. "Wanna swap?"

"Sure," the Marine exchanged the M16 assault rifle, for the Saiga 12k shotgun. SGT. Dan Walker aimed at a few porcelain cups inside the café, and fired a shot. The gun fired a spark and a loud Dhokl! (sound produced by this shotgun), and the cups were now a pile of ceramic dust. "Hmm... nice. I hope no one saw me vandalizing the shop, except you three. Okay, I gotta go. You guys can help in defending, too."

"No, thanks. We've already got too much on our plate. We're looking for some missing friends."

"Missing, you say? Well, you'd better check out the subterranean quarantine chambers."

"Subterranean what?---"

There was a loud smash as a nearby 18-storeyed building collapsed under the impact of a B-2 Bomber. Whatever it had done, it wasn't a 'Just Testing' signal.

"Ho shit!" Dan Walker quickly evacuated the café and looked up at the huge plane dropping bombs on Manhattan. "Damn! Why is that B-2 bombing us? Shouldn't it be destroying the... thing?"

Ground-based portable flak cannons opened fire, and so did the Halftracks. Within seconds, the B-2 crashed into a 22-storeyed skyscraper, which was now showering bits of broken glass, and steel, down the road. Then the B-2's fuel tank exploded. A massive shockwave was generated. The wave made the entire skyscraper cleave in half, top to bottom. The building was on fire, and the wrecked aircraft burst open. Metallic bits and shrapnels rained down. The building made some creaking noises, before beginning to tilt over, and the entire top half landed on the road, crushing an AP tank, and twenty Marines. The eastern road was shut off by the broken carcass, of the broken building.

"Ah ****! How are we getting to Suffolk, now?" a Marine's words were overheard by the squad. Everyone was now busy cursing in the worst slang and taboo words, that the English language knows about.