The Choice

Alex stepped out onto the back patio and took a deep breath of the chilly November evening. It was the night he had been waiting for, and the night he was dreading. He let out sigh, visible in the chill as a large puff of white mist, and he reached into his flannel shirt pocket for his pack of cigarettes. After 12 years of no smoking, the last few months found him back in the habit. Luckily, this would be his last one. He looked towards the westering Sun, it’s heatless light illuminating the growing frost on the grass and leafless branches of the surrounding trees.

As he took his first drag from his smoke, a waterfall of thoughts went through his mind. He never wanted to die, there had always been a thought in the back of his mind that he was somehow immortal. A little snicker escaped from him at the thought. But at the same time, he was not afraid of death; that fear had been conquered decades ago during his years in the navy. What he feared about death was simply the idea of “not being”. He didn’t want it to end abruptly, that these six decades of life that he had would simply just wink out of existence. To him, it was meaningless whether or not God actually existed. Religion had nothing on spirituality, and he cared nothing for organized religion and their pomp and circumstance to fight for an afterlife. He just wanted to go on, it didn’t matter if it was as a corporeal spirit or a singular lump of energy; Alex did not want to forget himself, he liked who he was. He didn’t want to forget his family, and, most importantly, he did not want to forget or be separated from his wife. Diane was his everything. Alex would not be the man he was today, smoking on his patio, were it not for Diane.

She had suffered greatly since her twenties, chronic illnesses have a way of making life nigh unbearable. But she was strong! Lord was she strong! She would scoff at you if you told her, intimating how it was all just luck that she made it through all those medical procedures, and how she still suffered, and feared that any little thing that went wrong in her body would end her. Yet, here she was, alive and well in her sixties and spending her retirement years with the one man she could not live without. And it has to end like this… Alex thought and lowered his eyes to the bricks at his feet. The lump in his throat grew at the notion that he wouldn’t remember her in death. It would be the ultimate betrayal of Mother Nature, the ultimate insult, the ultimate knife in the back to a life well-lived and wife well-loved.

Alex turned to the sliding glass door behind him and spotted her on the couch through his own reflection. Diane’s smile was always the warmth his soul needed, and she gave that warmth so often. He remembered the night in bed, twenty-something years ago, when she asked him to tell her what made her beautiful, but he had to do it in the form of a story. She always had such a way about her, it was intoxicating.

The breeze kicked up a bit, and Alex shivered through the cigarette smoke. It was a kickstart to the present, and the situation that he and Diane had found themselves in. Weeks back they had many frank and loud discussions as the situation around the world grew beyond control. It was finally decided that they would stay put. There was the generator that he installed a few years ago, it’s low rumble having become a staple of the world outside their home and thus in the background of the noises of nature. Perishable food items had been stocked in a moment of “just in case”, and that was what they lived on. Oh, how I miss the taste of prime rib! His mouth instantly watered at the thought. And the water pump, quiet now, was able to suction enough water out of the dead municipal lines to give them shower water and dish water. Part of the “just in case moment” was to stock up on bottled water. Going to the bathroom was a little more involved, but let’s just say that Alex’s old bones became older after building the outhouse. They were the only ones remaining in the neighborhood, so it’s not like it was a huge deal, anyway.

Alex and Diane had found a way to make their living, and it was their choice. The kids begged and pleaded for their parents to follow them to the Mississippi Safe Zone, but Alex and Diane utterly refused. They had spent the last twenty years making their lives what they wanted them to be, and nothing was going to stop them from enjoying it up to the last moment. The kids were not actually Diane’s, they were Alex’s from a prior relationship, one that Alex regretted every moment of. Alex always told Diane that, if there was one thing he could change in his life, it would be to ask her out when they were in 10th grade. That additional twenty-five years together would have saved them both a lot of heartache in their lives, and they could have become the unstoppable couple long before they actually did. But, as tough as things were when the kids were kids, Diane had loved them thoroughly and completely. It was a wonder of human nature to watch them come around to the realization of how important she truly was in their lives. Then came the grandkids, and a joy like no other for Alex and Diane.

You’ve earned yourself quite a life, Haus!

Back to the present…

The lone ship was spotted of the Eastern Seaboard about four years ago, and those aboard, while an enigma and a fascination to the entire world, were treated as refugees and allowed into the country. Followed incessantly by the government and the press, the new inhabitants barely had any time for themselves. Unfortunately, despite that limited time, none of us knew that they were actually hatching a plan. That plan came to fruition only a few weeks ago when the invasion began. Ships showed up off both coasts, and the offensive began. The country’s population was pushed to the interior, millions died as the larger cities were overrun.

But the major coastal cities and the immediate suburbs seemed to be the only thing they wanted, and the Heartlands. Alex and Diane were only about 45 miles from Philadelphia, but they had yet to see the enemy with their own eyes. It didn’t stop the outer suburbs from emptying of people though. The American defenses seemed to hold, as the technological gap did not appear as large as one would have expected of such an invader. There was no word from the world beyond, however, as communication breakdowns began shortly after the invasion. Who knew if China or Europe even survived?

That didn’t really matter, though, when it came down to brass tax. Alex and Diane had convinced the kids and the grandkids to head for the Mississippi Safe Zone, they still had plenty of life left to live, and a hope that they may be able to live it. Alex and Diane, they would live comfortably for as long as they were able, then face the inevitable on their own terms.

Not realizing that he had been contemplating the world for so long, Alex was pulled back to the present moment by the searing heat of his butt. His cigarette was down to the filter, its end was at hand; and by the strange noises coming from the behind the tree line a football field away, Alex realized that the cigarette was a symbol for this moment. He patiently stepped to the edge of the patio and rolled the butt between wrinkled knuckle and thumb, droppint the red hot cherry into the grass. He turned and went to the sliding glass door, Max the cat waiting anxiously for him to enter. The door closed behind him, Alex bent to give Max a pat on the head, removed his shoes, and tossed the rolled up filter into the garbage can.

Diane saw it in his eyes when he came into the living room and sat beside her on the old couch. This was it, this is how their lives would end. Between the final rays of the setting Sun and the light of the Halloween decorations that his wife had refused to take down, they could see the first of the Inimicor army coming through the brush. Not all that dissimilar from humans, the blue-skinned cyborgs marched towards their home. Alex had reservations when he first saw their spacecraft flying above the waters of the Atlantic Ocean those four years ago, but he was willing to give them the benefit of the doubt. Too many of his fellow Americans felt the same way, and now they were paying for it. would he change his mind if given the chance? No way, he thought. Everybody deserves a chance.

Before sitting back and curling his arm around Diane, Alex took one more look at the open gate in the backyard fence. The trip wire barely reflected the sunlight into his eyes, but it gave him piece of mind to know that it was set and ready.

The Inimicor may make it to his home, but they would never make it inside. He kissed Diane on the forehead and whispered in her ear, “I love you, baby, for ever and ever.” She hugged his arm tighter about her and pressed play on the remote.

On the screen, Michael was pleading with his little brother, Sam. “Look, this isn’t a comic book, Sam, these guys are brutal killers!” “So are the Frog Brothers!”

The explosion rocked the little neighborhood to its core…