I couldn’t believe a year had passed by with us continuing to live in the city. It seemed easier now and less overwhelming, but there were still things that I never really got used to. I was going into my last year of high school and was looking forward to applying for nursing schools. Life was going like it should be and I was very happy and grateful to Seth and Liam for working so hard so I wouldn't have to work and could focus on my studies.

I got up and turned on the television. We had finally gotten our living room set up with a comfortable couch and a small entertainment center. I usually watched the news in the morning so I could keep up with what was happening in the world. There was so much that I learned about the meteor and its effect on humans that no one inside the wall knew about because we didn’t have access to this information. We were reliant on rumors that spread since the tv broadcast signal did not reach anywhere inside the walls.

An emergency broadcast was going off on the news and I had a flashback to when I was 8 years old watching the broadcast of the meteor coming to earth. My heart was pounding as I saw footage of what looked like civil unrest at the wall. The military was trying to hold off people that were trying to get through a giant hole that looked like someone blasted through the wall. That was near where I went through a year ago to get here so that meant it was near where we used to live. What could’ve created a hole that big in the wall?

“What’s going on?” Liam asked walking into the room looking sleepy. He was still in his pajamas and sat down next to me on the couch. I immediately grabbed his hand for a sense of security. What did this mean? Would there be more pressure to eliminate people like us?

“Something happened at the wall,” I replied.

“Reports of the Contractors gang rising up and infiltrating our cities have been confirmed in multiple locations. This morning an attack was made on our border and military are diligently fighting off the threat,” the news anchor went on.

“It doesn’t look like they are doing a very good job,” Liam stated. He was right. The military men were getting wiped out easily by some of the powers being used.

“Did he say the Contractors? Like the people you used to work for?” I asked.

“The boss was planning an all out war for years. I thought he was just crazy and daydreaming about getting revenge on the people that exiled us, but I guess he was actually trying to recruit so he could pull this off,” Liam said.

“Due to the nature of this fight, we are instituting a military draft. All healthy, ambled bodied men ages 18 and up must report to their local military branch for assignment…”

My eyes widened in shock at that. I looked at Liam. There was no way he could do that. Neither him nor Seth would make it unnoticed in the military for very long. Their fighting skills would raise red flags all over the place.

“Fuck…” Liam hissed. “We’ve only been here a year and something like this has to happen.”

Suddenly, screaming was heard through the speakers of the television. A creature the size of a horse barreled through the barricade the military had up. This creature looked alien like and had a tough exterior that looked like it was a shell. It was a brown color and had a large horn on its face and jagged, sharp teeth. It was eating some humans. The camera panned up to the meteor and these creatures looked like they were hatching and emerging from the meteor.

“What are those?” I questioned moving closer to the television to get a better look. Then loud alarms starting going off around us. Sirens and an announcement to evacuate as quickly as possible was playing on every loud speaker in the city. I felt panic ride up inside me and felt like the meteor landing was happening all over again.

“Go make an emergency pack,” Liam told me.

“What’s all this noise?” Seth asked walking out of his room in a daze, looking like he had just woken up.

“Aliens or something are invading or something like that. Basically we are back to survival mode,” Liam told him as he started to gather essential items from around the apartment. I could feel the fear and panic from the city around me and that paralyzed me. I couldn’t move from my seat as I watched more creatures go through the hole in the wall. How was I supposed to pull myself together when I could feel everyone’s panic around me?

“Ash, what’s wrong?” Seth questioned sitting beside me.

“Everyone is panicking and it’s hard to even breathe,” I choked out and tried not to hyperventilate.

“Take some deep breaths with me.” Seth led me through taking some deep breaths and I was starting to be able to separate myself from other people’s feelings. “We’ve survived this long, there’s no way we are going to go down without a fight now.”

I smiled at Seth to show him I was feeling better. I was still worried, since this was a new situation we were facing. Could we evacuate with the normal people or would the military catch us as powers? They had scanners that could detect powers now and would they use them at the emergency shelters that we were being directed to evacuate to?

“I’m not sure we can evacuate like normal citizens,” Liam said. He had gotten dressed in all black just like when we were inside the walls again. Except this time he kept his headband off and his eye uncovered. That’s how I knew this was serious.

“If they are calling for a draft then we’ll get separated from Ash. Plus they’ll probably have scanners at the shelters,” Seth strategized. “What if we surrendered?”

“Surrendered?” Liam questioned looking confused.

“There’s been political talk of powers joining the military if they wish instead of being imprisoned or executed. They have to make sure they’d follow orders, but I think we could say that we want to fight those creatures to save people and they’d be less likely to kill us right?” Seth had a point, but I was unsure how I’d be helpful in the military. I knew how to fight from my years of survival, but I was still pretty useless even with a power.

“I don’t want to go back to exile especially with those creatures taking over. That’s probably why the Contractors attacked the wall. They were trying to escape too,” I stated.

“Shit. We are in between a rock and a hard place. There doesn’t seem to be many options for us at this point,” Liam sighed plopping down on the couch on the other side of me. I could tell he was trying to think of what our best option was at this point. “I think it’d be worth it to try to evacuate and then if we see scanners we get Ash safe in the shelter and we can surrender.”

“What? I’m not getting separated from you two,” I insisted.

“Even if you surrendered you don’t have a fighting power. Your safety is my first priority,” Liam responded.

“And what if they come for me after you are gone? We won’t have any way to find each other again.”

“We will just have to risk it. We’ve done things on the fly before, this’ll just be another one of those times. We will have to figure things out as we go along,” Seth replied. “Let’s get ready. We’re running out of time just talking.”

Ten minutes later I was holding my emergency pack and we were in the crowd of people all evacuating to safety. The creatures hadn’t entered the city yet, but it was only a matter of time since they were on their way here. People were still panicking, but they seemed to trust the military so things were more calm than when the meteor hit. Liam was getting stared at by some soldier because his red eye was uncovered. It was a dead giveaway that he was not normal, but he wanted to be prepared for anything and I could tell he was using his eye to analyze the threats around us.

Seth kept right behind me and Liam was beside me. We were being filtered through Main Street and people around us were scared and crying. I felt bad since the citizens had felt safe for so long and now it was all gone. The shuttles were up ahead that were taking people to evacuation shelters. I saw a scanner and instantly felt anxiety. A power was discovered and the guy was immediately dragged out of line by the military police. He was handcuffed and taken to a separate shuttle that was heavily guarded by armed officers.

“Scanners,” I said to warn Liam and Seth. It was too late though, the officer holding the scanner noticed it going off and then he looked in our direction. He came over to us and the scanner didn’t react to Liam probably because he had a negating power. It weakly reacted to me and then started going crazy when it was pointed at Seth. The guard probably assumed that since Seth was behind me it wasn’t me that caused it to go off.

“A power!” The officer called and then more officers started to close in.