Wow I didn't think the first chapter would have been so short haha. Don't worry, it was just the intro. Chapters will be longer and more entertaining in the future, so please bear with me X3

I was 19 when they arrived. The Darkness.

It was an average day when we spotted a ship flying above. This wasn't any ordinary ship though; it was massive. At least twice the size of the ships we use here.

People stopped to watch as several doors on the sides of the ship opened, dropping several strange creatures onto the earth. Somebody was brave enough to approach one of them.

The strange creatures seemed dazed, as if they were trying to adjust to their surroundings. As the young man carefully made his way towards them, though, they attacked.

The poor fellow couldn't even react. Within seconds he was on the ground, a bloody pulp.

"Alien invasion!" Someone shouted. Everyone spread into a panic as the monsters continued to attack helpless people.

I grabbed Maya's hand tightly. "We have to go, now!"

She nodded quickly and we took off in full sprint away from the site. We made our way into the ghetto and barged into our small apartment hurriedly. I quickly began to barricade the door with every heavy piece of furniture (which wasn't much) we had lying around.

"This should be okay..." I panted, finding a place to sit.

"What the hell were those things?" Maya wondered aloud.

"I'm not sure," I sighed. "But I don't think that's important. Where is the Traveler?! It wouldn't have allowed these monsters to attack us like this. What's it doing while we're out here being slaughtered?"

"I don't know." Maya replied. "Maybe something happened..."

"Impossible!" I interrupted. " The Traveler is supposed to protect us! There's no way he could have left."

"We don't know anything for sure, Zero." She frowned.

"I want to go out and investigate." I blurted out.

"What do you mean by 'investigate?'" She asked uncertainly, raising an eyebrow.

"I mean, go out and look for him." I replied enthusiastically. "There has to be a reason he hasn't come back yet! I want to go find out why."

"How do you expect to do that?" She snorted. "We're poor; it's not like we can afford a ship or anything."

"I know a guy who builds them. He owes me a favor." I replied. "We can go together."

She looked down at her feet and stayed quiet for awhile.

"What's wrong...?" I asked worriedly.

"I don't want to go out and look for something that might be long gone. I'd actually prefer to stay here and find a way to help people..."

"There's no way the Traveler's abandoned us!" I exclaimed. "That's impossible! And how do you think you'd be able to help anyone out here?"

"I'm turning 18 soon... I could join the Russian Ground Forces or something like that. Help push these things back, y'know?"

"Absolutely out of the question." I said firmly. "We need to play it safe. I'm not going to let you risk your life for a problem the Traveler could solve himself."

"Zero, are you blind?! The Traveler isn't here! And the only reason he couldn't be here is because he left! You say you want to play it safe, but you're the one with the brilliant idea to go into space to go look for him!"

"There's actually hope for my plan to succeed." I retorted. "If I find the Traveler, he could end this and it'd all be forgotten within a month. We don't know how strong these things are. You might not stand a chance against them!"

"Don't tell me what I can't do." My sister hissed. "If you're going to go along with your plan, then I'm going with mine, too. In the end, we'll find out which was more stupid."