Chapter Eight : Eyes Of The Exterminators

''In the silvery moonlight, a massive Tripod battalion marched through the suburban area , bathing the many homes with harsh light , scouring the land for survivors. To say so, there seemed to be barely any at all. Juniper, Adalene , Steven , Rigel , Misty , Spinel and Brandon all stayed close , creeping slowly under the titanic war machines , forced to hear the screams of people being grounded up and sprayed on the torched Earth as a fine red mist. The machine's feet stood atop a car and crushed it, unfazed in its pursuit to exterminate humanity .''

''Dodging and evading bullets at high speeds, Spica was at the peak of her misery , trying barely to hold out until help came. Dahlia was a little overwhelmed in her pursuit against deactivating the black hole machine, being thrown off balance as the soldiers assaulted her. Tripods blared in the distance, signaling their arrival. If they came close enough, Spica thought , the fight would be lost. However, even though she was occupied with such things , her mind could not help but revert back to a time of peace , but still , even then , turmoil was in the air .......''

''Spica was just two days in with living with Brandon and the others, the strange world , everything. It was ....odd .''

''She had just escaped from Cassiopeia, telling everyone of the memories of her blowing up that building with all those people in it , just to make an attempt to kill her 'master' , her torturer .......her wife. It was too much to handle .''

''The feather that broke the camel's back was the statement Brandon had said to her, a simple , ' I'm sorry. '''

''Spica absolutely lost herself and screamed in anguish with such force that for a second, her entire being was glowing with immense power , and a massive shockwave shoved everyone back into the walls and furniture. Misty was standing particularly close and was thrown the farthest, actually being blasted through the walls , flung across the street and into the house beside it. Such a blast disorientated everyone. Everyone but Brandon, who was barely moved physically by the accidental spectacle of power. Instead, he held out his hand and led Spica to a large , dimly lit room and talked to her , all while she wept and repeated apologies , Although she hadn't noticed it yet , Brandon had already seen something great in her , and was hell bent on bringing it out .''

''Now Brandon was staring in bewilderment as the crew hid behind a truck, a shivering Adalene in his arms as the titanic Tripod walked away , all of them covered in blood and small flecks of human flesh. An arm was flung from the machine's internal grinder, then a leg as it moved away. Smoke stunk in the area during the trek, with Spinel crying in Misty's embrace , intent on surviving such a massive catastrophe. Who could allow such a thing to happen ? Why would they ? Brandon's questions were cut short, just as another Tripod screamed from its bellowing horn. Juniper ordered the crew to keep going as a soldier ran past, asking them to do the same. It was dark, therefore he could not see them very well .''

" I need you civilians to evacuate the city at once . New York is overrun . There are underground shelters in New Jersey and Boston, take the highways and get to them at once !! "     Shaking his head , Brandon took Adalene and helped her to stand up as more marines ran through the area .

''" Come on, mom . Just a little more until we reach the park . Keep with us ." he said. Misty unsheathed her sword and  began to circle the group, the same as Rigel took his pistols and did the same. Another spray of blood and humanly fluid, most of which smelled awful , showered them. Dead bodies littered the streets as heavy thumps from the war machines shook the ground .''

''" How much more ? " Adalene said in a weak voice. She was extremely tired and stressed, nearly fainting as the group went ahead , temporarily forgetting her as they saved a man trapped in rubble. He had a face degloved and a body that was torn to shreds as they pulled him out, dying before he could say one word. Then she slumped onto her knees and fell to the ground. Exhaustion had taken a toll on all of them, but as a fifty year old with no sleep in two days , plus being thrashed about in a war that they already lost , she couldn't take it anymore. She was about to give in until Brandon and Misty helped her up, wiped the dust and blood from her face and carried her all the way until now , they were in the midst of a massive extermination zone .''

''" Not much more . Just a little farther ...." he said, trying not to choke on his words. Brandon began to cry himself as he thought about Iris, his own mother , dying by the hands of humans. Being held captive and passing away, rather violently. So violent that he couldn't look upon it with a straight mindset. If he did, he'd run the risk of making himself emotionally unstable. Now, yet again , with conditions out of his control , Adalene seemed close to death's door as she shuddered and coughed. As superhuman as he was, he felt like he was going to fall apart at the seams ....so a person much more fragile and older than him ? And his mother at that ? No wonder she looked pale, despite her dark complexion , and most of her vitality drained. To put it such, she seemed dead , and would have been , if Misty and Brandon didn't come when they did. It was a stark contrast to their surroundings as well, with the devastating night came about as fast as a bullet , especially since the marines were now coming by in swaths , armored and coupled with personnel vehicles and war machines of their own : tanks and fighter jets. Those subsonic, missile-carrying behemoths hardly mattered against the three-legged , indestructible , humanity-feasting abominations of the galaxy that walked upon the beaten city .''

''Literally human-feasting. Misty remembered seeing such as disgusting feat as a few Cassiopites tore apart a human woman and began eating her contents, ripping out her intestines and organs as she convulsed and shuddered , too close to the cold , unfeeling hands of Death to do anything. She then expired, her eyes making contact with her own ...............still , Misty had to "ignore" it as the Heart Of Darkness was first priority. If they lost Earth again, Juniper made it clear .....they were not getting it back. Ever .''

''A shudder then shook the ground, more massive than any other , even drowning out the warring between the humans and Tripods as another took its place. Poor Adalene just groaned as her son and the others panicked, especially Misty , asking Juniper what was going on. She didn't know. Then another. Soon enough, massive cracks began to shift and form , splotching their way through the subdivision as they began to spread .''

''" Run, Get away !! " a few marines shouted as the ground began to violently shake , splitting the team apart as Brandon , with an incapacitated Adalene ran as fast as he could , with Misty on his tail , trying to avoid being swallowed up by the abyss as the ground gave away. A few unlucky marines were swallowed as the ground shifted widely this time, shaking the nearby decrepit building and causing a few to fall. Spinel, Steven , Juniper , Rigel ? They were out of sight. It was too dark, too loud and too dusty to see anything as the collapsing buildings kicked up massive amounts of dust and smoke , A major crack emerged as Misty , Adalene and Brandon ran near a store , only for its windows to explode outwards violently , showering them with shards. The ground then began to separate as the groaning within the ground grew louder. The two stopped occasionally to catch their breath before running again, watching as the hole grew bigger yet in size. Shattering glass sounds, crumbling and noises louder than the jet engines of the fighters in the air filled Brandon's ears. He helplessly ran away from the mess and stopped behind a car, waiting out the apparent earthquake there , with Misty , watching as soot , dirt , water , sewage and debris rained down in cataclysmic torrents from the upheave. The ground then shifted so hard that a few high rise skyscrapers collapsed in the background and a nearby one fell right onto the void, shattering on impact noisily. Marines ran to reassign new places for strategic purposes, as many more needed to run for their survival. Then the tremors stopped all at once. Silence filled the air as the the ground stood still. Misty grasped Brandon's arm and helped him up, as he was on his knees for stability. Holding Adalene, who was still out of it , he was about to ask Misty to hold her whilst he searched for everyone else , but the notion was stopped when suddenly , the ground jolted upwards violently , throwing up everything it had swallowed in the inky blackness of night and throwing it about in deadly spurs. It then sunk inwards and exploded as the ground began to shake again, although , not as much as before. Then ....it was all clear. Slowly, a massive head began to rise up out of the void as its titanic engines began to roar. Misty shouted to everyone else to run as she and Brandon bolted at superhuman speeds to get out of the vicinity, watching behind them as a Harvester rose out of the ground , screeching at the other Tripods nearby. Running, Brandon didn't stop until he and Misty were hiding behind a house , breathing heavily as the noise subsided. Calm ran through the streets as they breathed in and out. Then again, the two walked out into the street slowly , them and other soldiers , watching as the Harvester stood before them , large , chrome and bright , as the machine's headlights beamed down on the alley. Misty and Brandon couldn't help but look on as the Harvester sounded its ear-popping horn, then began to unveil two tentacle-looking appendages , veering its ugly head among its audience. A loud whirring sound began to resonate as they stood there dumbfounded, unable to move , Brandon especially , as he and so many others looked onto the thing. Then, as the tentacles began to glow , massive beams of white hot energy began to slice at the onlookers , vaporizing them into bloody dust .''

''Brandon and Misty ran as fast as they could as a beam barely missed them, searing the air around them for a moment. Then as they managed to get away temporarily, an unlucky soldier was blasted away in a gory mess , along with another , and two more were set on fire , and the beam veered too close to them. Holding Adalene and staying close to Misty, the two narrowly avoided death as a beam shifted over their heads and blew up a soldier next to them , then blasted a tank , causing it to blow up in a deadly combustion , impaling many others. A marine ran past as the beam phased through and incinerated him before blasting a nearby car and overturning it, blasting many others. A loud scream was heard as another soldier died in a flaming inferno, being vaporized in front of Misty , barely missing her and singeing her hair's tips for a moment. Then another was blown apart in a bloody mess all over them, with some even entering their mouths , all the while trying to survive. They dashed into a nearby salon as a few others followed, most getting burned alive by the heat ray before nearly missing again. The two stopped as Adalene regained consciousness slightly, but were cut off as a few cars were thrown by in the shop , as the nearby cataclysm completely destroyed the alleyway they were just on , but they continued , running with a semi-awake Adalene in their arms as they tapped into their superhuman speed to outrun the devastation as the heat ray swept across a nearby freeway and overturned the entire superstructure , causing as explosion so big that fire engulfed the street for a few seconds. The heat ray obliterated many nearby houses as they ran and blew out multiple streets at once, the two barely avoided getting crushed by a fighter jet that had been downed , watching as many more buildings were obliterated , then finally stopping and hiding behind a truck that was overturned as the Harvester walked nearby , showering them with blinding light , staring intently at them , daring them to move. Adalene put her hands over her mouth as she stifled a cry, with Misty on the road , flat and merging with the dark , and Brandon pressed up against the vehicle's front end , barely shone on with the exterminator's eyes. And at once, it stood up slowly and turned away , walking forward as the soldiers that remained retreated , a few fighters that stood around being knocked out of the air by the Tripods nearby .''

Adalene weeped silently as she, Misty and Brandon all hugged , having barely left the escapade with their lives ......still having one more objective left , saving Earth from the black hole machine .