For weeks now, there'd been rumblings about a possible attack: not from foreign (or even domestic) enemies, but from an unlikely source: outer space.

We were told by the governmental leaders to stock up plenty of (nonperishable) food items, clothes, and belongings we felt that we could not do without.  We were told to make sturdy bomb shelters that could prove to be impenetrable from attack or artillery (alien) fire.  There were no guarantees that we'd even emerge alive when the attack DID come, but it was better than standing around and doing nothing at all.

The threat of an alien attack was never far from our minds.  The life we knew was interrupted: everything had to be planned or plotted out carefully if we even as much ventured outside, "in case alien eyes were watching our every move".  

This morning, however, I was deeply disturbed to discover that there was an eerie cast to the sky.  It appeared that the sky turned a vivid blood-red color, splashing everything in an ugly purplish-black glow.  It looked as if a very bright red sunset was taking place, but the air had a sense of forboding about it.  It was unnaturally quiet: not a hint of a breeze, and the birds had stopped singing.  People looked out and up at the oddly colored sky with a look of fear on their faces, me included.  It was one of the scariest things I had ever witnessed.

Mom decided that we were not to go anywhere.  She felt it in her bones that something big was about to happen.  No kidding.  I felt pangs of fear icing up and down my spine; it felt as if teeny tiny bugs were crawling all over me.  She suggested that we head to our underground shelter as quickly as possible.

We did not know what was going to transpire, but whatever it was, it was not good.  I was scared that I would see alien space craft start to show themselves in the skies, and I wondered what would happen if that were to take place.  All mom and dad could do was stand, transfixed, as they stared at the president, who was currently speaking out on national television about the event.  From the tone of his voice and the look on his face, it was clear that whatever was going to take place was quickly becoming evident.

I begged mom and dad to join me and my brothers in the shelter.  I wanted nothing more than to get to safety, but at the same time, I was terrified at the thought of leaving the house, just in case some space craft did happen to appear.

~End of part one.~