Jessica was sitting in her living room, watching the news.

The alarm clock, that's what woke him up. Zach's loud, beeping personal hell, his demon that tormented him every morning. He tried many different ways of blocking out the beeping on many different occasions, from covering his face with his pillows to simply threatening the alarm when he was drunk. Either way, it was the alarm that woke him up.

Zach removed his face from his pillow and threw back his covers, before slamming his hand on his alarm and stopping the dreadful beeping noise. He read the clock, it said 9:00.

"Good thing it's a Saturday," Zach said as he rubbed his hands through his hair and over his face. "I love Saturdays."

He then proceeded to stand up and pace around his apartment's bedroom for a few minutes to stretch his legs. He didn't know why he did it, but it seemed like an ordinary piece of his morning routine. He then opened his wardrobe and pulled out a mixture of different shirts, jeans and shoes, none of which he could decide upon. He soon picked out a plain black shirt and skinny jeans, as well as some navy deck shoes. He then walked over to the bedside table and grabbed his iPhone, before flicking through the different novelty apps he had installed in pure boredom and reached his contacts.

He then scrolled down and picked Jessica, before putting the phone to his ear.

Jessica heard her old flip phone ringing and she picked it up, flipping it open, seeing it was Zach, and answered. "Hey honey."

"Morning," Zach said, sitting down on his bed and slipping on his shoes whilst he rested his feet on his bedside table, purposely kicking over his alarm clock whilst doing so. "Sleep well?"

He held his phone on his shoulder whilst he slipped his shoes on, but held his phone once more as he stood up, picking up his alarm clock and checking if it was damaged; he didn't like it, but it was expensive.
He walked out of the door and into his living room as he waited for an answer, before sitting down on the work surface of his kitchen and opening the cupboards for a snack.

Jessica smiled and said. "Yes, did you?" She turned the news off and rested back on the couch as she talked.

"Roughly," Zach said as he searched through his cupboards for something to eat. "Woken up by a damn alarm clock."

Zach soon realized his parties had depleted the food in his apartment. He sighed and then remembered the cafe down the street. He ran over to his door and grabbed his keys. He was starving, as he hadn't eaten for quite a long time, in his mind, he had actually eaten during the night, but was too drunk to remember it.

"Listen, I'm heading out for my breakfast. Do you want me to get you something?"

Jessica smiled and stood up. "Can I come with you?" She asked, they didn't live too far apart and she could meet him there.

"Okay, I'll meet you there," Zach said, putting his coat on, a black, cow-leather jacket which he sometimes wore with a grey hoodie depending on the weather. It was sunny outside, so he simply didn't bother.
"It's the one nearest to my apartment, okay?"

Zach ended the call and put his phone in the pocket of his jeans, before leaving his apartment and locking the door behind him. He took the stairs instead of the elevator because of time, and walked down the street to the cafe. It was a nice-looking establishment, with a nice outside area with tables and chairs, as well as an inside seating area. Zach preferred to sit outside, however, as he had never liked sitting indoors due to his frequent trips outside whilst in the Marines.

Jessica nodded and hurriedly got dressed, grabbing her purse she made her way to the Cafe and smiled at Zach. "Hey." She said, walking up to him.

"Hey," Zach said, standing up and embracing her in a hug. He looked around whilst she hugged him, and saw a lot of people with their phones out or looking at the sky. Zach ignored it as a phenomenon, something he wasn't interested in.
"I'll go and get breakfast, I'll get you a coffee and something, don't worry."

Zach went inside the restaurant and nodded at one of the people working the counter. He studied at College with her, and he knew her pretty well. Whilst he was waiting however, he was still confused and a little haunted about what was going on with the sky.

Jessica nodded and went to buy them each a latte. She noticed the way everyone was acting and went to talk to an elderly lady. "Excuse me ma'am. Is there something going on?"

Whilst he was stood at the counter, he noticed Jessica was inside talking to an old lady. Ignoring it as a simple chat, he got his food, which consisted of Zach's black coffee and a bagel and Jessica having a latte. He walked back to their table, smiling at his fiance as he walked through the door.

Zach sat down and pulled out his bagel, before looking at the sky. He was impressed by what he saw, there was a cut in the sky, the edges looked like burnt paper and space could be seen through the cut. He thought it was a freak accident of nature, and simply sat back and ignored it.

Jessica came back to Zach, eyes wide and her face fallen. "Zach..."

Zach turned and looked at Jessica, and immediatly his face went dark.

"What? What's wrong?" Zach asked, standing up, placing a half-eaten bagel onto the table alongside a fresh black coffee. He walked over to Jessica and moved her hair away from her face, before stroking her cheek to try and calm her down.

Jessica's hands trembled softly as she whispered. "Something's coming..."

Before Zach could answer, he heard an ear-piercing scream and a sonic boom quickly followed, causing Zach to grab his ears. He looked towards the cut and saw dozens, maybe millions of ships heading through. He grabbed Jessica and ran into an alleyway, before looking at her.

"You stay," Zach said, looking at her dead in the eyes. "Right here, don't move, I'll be back, I promise."

Zach burst off into a sprint, clearing the tape around the cafe's outside area with a swift jump. He ran back to his apartment and unlocked the door, before running to his bedroom. He looked outside, fire rained from the sky as he heard screams and sounds of gunfire from the Police. He pulled a trunk out of his wardrobe and retrieved from it a Colt 45. Pistol, for which he pulled out a magazine of ammo and ran back out into the street, leaving his entire room a mess.

"ZACH!" Jessica called after him panicked but reluctantly remained in the alleyway, covering her ears to the noise and she trembled in fear, she finally looked up to see something from her most horrible nightmares. She screamed as something hit her and everything went black.

Jessica's scream was drowned out by the sounds of battle, a sound that Zach was accustomed to, but he heard the scream above everything else. He sprinted down the street, dodging gunfire and bits of debris until he reached the alleyway. She was nowhere to be seen, but there was blood on the ground. Zach dropped onto one knee and clenched his fist, before hitting his head against the wall in anger. She was gone, if he hadn't gone and got his gun then she would still be with him; probably still alive.
Zach pulled out his iPhone and looked at the contacts, before ringing up someone.

"Andi, it's Zach. Jessica's gone."

Jessica awoke in a dark room, she could hear strange talking on the other side of the wall and she couldn't understand or even recognize the language.

By the time Zach had finished his conversation with Andi, New York had been taken over. The aliens were rounding up as many humans as they could and bringing them to Times Square, Manhattan. Luckily, Andi lived around that area.
Sgt. Andi Scott, leader of Zach's Marine Battalion and also Zach's brother-in-law. Andi was allowed to keep most of his military gear, or at least he said he was.

Once Zach arrived, he quietly entered Andi's apartment, before heading over to Andi himself, who was sat by the window with binoculars, looking at the hordes of humans being rounded up like cattle.

"It's sickening," Andi said as Zach approached. "You'd think we'd be able to stop something this big, but we can't."

"We didn't even know it was coming." Zach said, still looking at the pictures of Jessica on his iPhone. "She's got to be there."

"Well," Andi replied, pulling out an M16 assault rifle that he had locked away from his military service. He was a decorated member of the U.S. Armed Forces, so he was allowed to have a weapon in emergency.
"There's only one way to find out."

Once they had made their way to Times Square itself, their military training coming in very well to stay out of sight, they pulled out each a set of binoculars and looked upon the scene. There were rows of Humans, being tended to by members of this new alien race, who were planting these devices onto their foreheads and causing them to stand up and freeze, like a mannequin in a sense. The Mothership then came alive, and they all disappeared in the blink of an eye.