They say home is where the heart is, but by the time I turned sixteen, my home had been destroyed, and my heart along with it. What happened had happened too suddenly. An invasion from another world, my life ruined before it could even begin. The only thing I can say now that I am looking up at the darkened sky is that mankind put up a good fight. Whether they will ever be able to overcome the odds and destroy these replicators is beyond me.

To think that people of Earth were worried that artificial intelligence, A.I., would take over the world. Who would have thought that the threat was not our own A.I. but another world’s A.I. 

Things happened so fast back then. A massive black portal opened up in the sky, and millions of objects fell through it. Some were destroyed upon impact, while others spread out and killed any living thing they saw. Insects did not seem to set them off, nor did trees and plants, but anything bigger than a human baby was killed without remorse. 

When the invasion first happened, my father and mother, who were both inventors and scientists, were called to help find a path for human survival. Or more like forced to help. I was left at home. They could not take me with them. No matter how much my father and mother fought to take me along, they were still dragged away. 

The only reason I survived was thanks to the special shelter my father built under the basement that hid any heat signatures on the other side. This was also a partial lab with many books and research papers. 

I spent two years in that shelter. I stayed until there was no food or water left. During my time there, I read and learned everything I could from the books my father stored there. Robotics was the main thing I was actually good at. I did not know the chemistry stuff all that well, so I could only learn what I could understand, and even then, I probably could not use it all that well. 

But robotics and artificial intelligence I learned quickly since I already had a decent understanding of it. I tinkered away and made some simple robots here and there and even my own A.I. that could do many things. But many of the things that I built were to be used for when I finally had to venture out. 

And now, twenty years later, here I am lying in the mud. I can’t even feel anything below my waist. My life up until this point was not easy. If I was not smart, I would have ended up as some sex slave for one of the raider groups roaming the land. Luckily, I got to live another twenty years. I still have no idea what happened to my parents. I had never heard a word from them since the day they were dragged away. If they are alive, I hope they are doing well. If they are not, then I am about to see them once again….

- - -

The sound of a familiar alarm was going off in my ear. I groaned slightly as I slowly opened my eyes. To be honest, I am not sure if what I had just been through was all a long dream or what, but I remember it all vividly. 

The days of starvation. The days where I was running for my life not from alien robots but humans just like me. The days when I fought on the battlefield, trying to liberate a town or city. Or the day I lay in the mud as the rain dropped on my face. 

Those days were survival of the fittest until the world’s militaries finally began to rally all humans together to fight against the invaders. People I had befriended died soon after. It got to the point that I stopped talking altogether and stayed alone. There was no need for me to make friends or socialize with others. If I did, I would only be causing my already shriveled heart to shrivel even more.

“It was too real to be a dream….” I could still remember it all. Everything I learned, I knew it by heart. There was no way such an experience was actually a dream. 

I slowly sat up, rubbed my eyes, and looked around. It was my bedroom, except it was not from the time I was sixteen but from when I was fourteen…. “Two years? If it is all true, can I really prepare in time?” 

It was not like my parents would allow me to drop out of school. I could skip it, but what then? Eventually, the school will call them. I guess I could always hack their database and mark myself present every day…. “I guess I will do that, but for now, I should show my face in school for today. If I am not wrong, today is the fight between Jen and Amanda. I need to stand on my best friend’s side.”

Luckily, I trained to the point that I do not think anyone my age can defeat me in hand-to-hand combat. Jen has always been my best friend, so I need to protect her. “Maybe I should just step up and fight for her. Amanda is a big girl…. If I recall correctly a few other girls and a few boys joined the fight as well.” 

I remember this day only because I got beaten up as well. All because a boy Amanda liked asked Jen out. Even though Jen rejected him, Amanda still couldn’t take the fact that the boy, Keith, asked someone else out but no her. Her ego seemed to have been shattered, and she decided it was Jen’s fault.