What now?

A few months ago, my husband and I, after twenty years of marriage, purchased our first home. We saved for years trying to find the perfect home to fit our family and pets. We decorated every room exactly how we dreamed. We thought our lives were going to be amazing after renting for years. We had our very own safe space to relax and enjoy. It was blissful for the three months we lived there. That was until the world decided to end. That fateful night was the last blissful day we had in our new home.

Alarms sounded off. Police ran rampant through the streets. Helicopters were in the air and our neighbors banged on our front door.

“Julie! Get out of your house now! Get everything you can and head west!” George yelled as I opened the door.

“What?” I asked confused rubbing my eyes. “What?!”

The panic set in as I watched the surrounding neighborhood frantic trying to leave. They were hurriedly packing their vehicles. I closed the door and re-opened it. I wanted to ensure it was not a dream.

I ran upstairs to wake up Timothy and Christopher. Timothy was my husband. He was a heavy sleeper. Apparently not even the apocalypse ruined his sleep. Christopher was sitting across his television when I opened the door. He was playing Xbox with his friends and to minimize the noise, he wore headphones.

“Chris! Grab whatever you want. Pack enough clothes and necessities and head to the RV with the pets.” I yelled in a panic. “Just do as I ask and don’t ask questions right now!”

Running into our bedroom, I woke up Tim and told him the same thing.

“What’s going on honey?” he asked not taking the panic serious.

“I don’t know. George and all the other neighbors are packing and leaving their homes. It sounds like something is being bombed and I do not know what is happening. He said to get what we could and head west.” I yelled out panicking with fear.

“Oh my God. It’s happening!” Tim said.

“What’s happening?” I asked standing still.

“The conspiracy theory the boys and I talk about. We have been talking about this for years. We created our own eco space underground to sustain all of us should this happened. I'll explain later. Be sure to bring the box. Otherwise, we won’t be able to get in.” Tim said. He stood up and went into the closet to get the box he was referring to.

The box itself was strange. It held Tim’s collective items of UFO phenomena articles, building infrastructures, plans, a map, and a heart shaped locket.

At this point, I was in a hurry to gather our belongings. I gathered our things and made several trips back and forth to the RV with clothes, food, and the pets. We had five dogs and two cats.

Once we were ready to leave, the boys started calling Tim and sent him the directions to the underground layer they had built. My husband was a building contractor and his friends also worked in the same industry. Every single one of them had different knowledge of the theory and made plans “just in case” it ever occurred.

Before heading to the location, we called our parents and let them know we would pick them up. No one answered and arriving at their homes, they were demolished. We were dumbfounded because we were unsure if our parents were dead or alive. We could not waste any more time looking through the rubble when deep down we knew they were gone. They had perished. Both of our parents lived across the street from one another. Tim and I were the only child in our families. Many of the homes were collapsed or on fire. There were several vehicle accidents with people fighting.

We stopped and put gas in the truck and filled the extra gas cans we carried. Just in case there were no gas stations available. I cried in the truck while Tim pumped gas and Chris was in the back seat. When Tim got back in the truck, he looked at the map the boys sent and before heading off, he leaned over and hugged me for a few minutes.

We made our way to our destination, which was about three hundred miles out in the boondocks it seemed. We had plenty of time to talk and take in our loss of our parents.

“Was this really happening?” I said to myself.

Chris was in the backseat with the pets. He leaned over and grabbed my shoulder telling me we were going to be okay.

The plan was put together well. The route to drive was to go through back roads and highways that were not used. This saved us a headache of being stuck in traffic since those who were leaving the city, all took the same route using the loop and main interstate. Everyone was going west, and we headed east.

After a few hours, we arrived at the opening driveway heading to a small mountain. There was nothing else around. I did not see anyone else’s vehicles. I seriously thought Tim was making this up.

When we came to a stop, a keypad sensor came up from the ground. The locket was the key to unlocking the door to something. The land moved from underneath us and in front of the truck, an opening began to reveal a driveway. It was dark while Tim drove in and it took a few seconds for our eyes to adjust. Once inside, it looked like a government secret location like the ones on television.

After we parked, we got off the truck and out came two of his friends, Calvin and Ruthers. They were dressed in military uniforms.

“Isn’t this a bit much?” I asked Tim. “You boys really know how to take things serious.” I joked.

“Honey. I haven’t been completely honest with you.” Tim responded grabbing my arms.

“We all work in the military. And although we joke about the conspiracy theories, we knew this would happen.” Tim said.

I did not know how to handle this information. All along, since I have met Timothy, he has worked in construction. He's built homes, buildings, garages, and that sort of stuff. I worked as an insurance agent. This is how we met. I sold him insurance.

“Quit joking around Tim. You do not work for the government.” I responded.

“Honey. I do.” Tim responded in a serious tone. “I have never revealed this to you because I did not want you to worry. I really do work in construction. For the military among other departments. Top Secret departments.”

I felt ashamed that I did not know this about my husband of twenty years. Then it all came together. The outings he had with his friends. The looks they had when they would say they were going “fishing, camping, etc.” The locations he would have to go to on occasion and our finances. The investments and pulling of the money when he said he would move funds. I would not question him either. We were always great with money. The only other big purchase besides our vehicles was the house we recently got. Nothing else.

It took me a while to process this and while I did, he ushered us into the area that would be our home. It looked exactly like the house we owned from the inside. Down to the carpet and wallpaper. The other families soon arrived after us. The men met in a meeting room while we waited.

There was a total of five families that arrived. The ladies and I walked around and each of us had our own home built exactly as we had before the apocalypse. Every detail was amazing how the men put this together. It was a neighborhood underground. Complete with a pool, running water, electricity, and a garden for food. Enough for all of us to survive a lifetime. This had been put together for us to ensure our safety and wellbeing.

The children played around the small park that was on the far end of the “neighborhood” while us women joined our husbands to see what was happening with the conspiracy we knew nothing about. At this point, they could not deny answering our questions.

For years, the government had been hiding alien invasion and the contact they had with them. The US government began construction on these underground bunkers for the head of the military families, the political members that mattered and the President of the United States. They had selected remote locations across the world for this. Not everyone would be in the United States.

They had computers mapping the locations of these places and they were also in the know of deep intelligence. All our husbands had high rankings in their positions. Making them highly aware of the possibilities this would happen.

The boys laid out their theories and how this came to happen.

Several years ago, the government received a signal from an unknown source. They searched until they were able to communicate with someone. They deciphered the first message to say, “We will return to take what is ours.” They thought at first it was mistake, but after several attempts with different scientists, they each concluded spelling out the same message.

They spent years sending out satellites to get closer to this alien and to no avail. Each time the launch failed to find what they were searching for. That was until five years ago. The signal returned and this time it said, “We are closer than you think. You will not escape. We will rule the earth and take the resources we need for our planet.”

My husband and his friends were able to pinpoint the resources they were discussing and built this bunker far away from the potential disaster areas. The military would oversee destroying the alien ships from space to avoid any collateral damage on earth. Other countries were aware of this potential disaster, and they all wanted to collaborate with defending the Earth from an invasion.

“They have obviously failed because parts of earth are destroyed.” Tanden replied. He oversaw every satellite that orbited the earth and potential threats.

“The military has begun Operation Cutter.” Eloy said. He oversaw this operation and the results.

The other wives and I looked a little dumbfounded because we did not know what all this meant. We never expected any of this to happen.

“That means the military space forces will now enter earth to destroy anything that has gotten passed them. Ladies, imagine Star Wars ships fighting the Empire. We have ships that fly in outer space and in Earth with high defense weapons that Calvin here has developed.” said Eloy.

Calvin’s wife looked at him surprised and flushed with embarrassment and joy. It was nice knowing I wasn’t the only wife who wasn’t aware of our husband’s military background.

Ruther’s spoke after a few minutes.

“We also have those defense weapons here in the compound to protect us. They are on automatic watch and can be set off from these iPads.” He said lifting the devices and handing each of us one.

“The children are more than welcome to play with these as well. The teenagers who are avid gamers.” Ruthers corrected himself.

For the rest of the evening, we waited for anything to come close. The men explained the logistics of how deep we were underground, and the enforcement of any impact should anything be shot down and land upon us.

The compound had day and night effects. Stars illuminated the ceilings and when it was sunrise, the lights were bright enough to provide us with the warmth we would get outside.

All of this was happening so fast, and we were unsure of our future.

What now?