Chapter 5

The tapping of shoes on the concrete alarmed the alien and its head immediately turned to where Leo was running. It hissed bearing its fangs and started to slither quickly after the boy.

As soon as Leo heard the hiss of the alien, adrenaline moved his legs even faster without him knowing. He was really out of breath but continued to run down the roads.

Up ahead, Leo spotted a blue, red and white sign. It read :

GREEN PARK

'Perfect' thought Leo, he could use the tube station passages as a way of escaping the creature.

Just as he was about to turn into the train station, he caught sight of the Ritz Hotel. One of the best hotels in London. All the lights were turned off and luggage was left deserted outside the doors. Through one of the open windows, Leo could just about make out something moving. He stared shocked hoping someone else was here with him but as he made his way closer, the moving things got closer to the window and eventually an alien, smaller than the others but still an alien none the less, slithered out of the window and onto the ground. Leo turned round and ran back into the tube station.

Climbing down the stairs into the underground, he looked over his shoulder to see if the alien was still following him. At first glance, he couldn't see the alien so he pushed himself onto the wall next to the stairs so he could still peak round but the creature couldn't see him. A few long minutes passed before Leo heard a hiss. Careful peaking round the wall, he saw the alien slithering passed the stairwell completely oblivious that he was there.

Once the alien had gone, Leo thought it safe to move so he walked forward through the tube station. He came to the things you scan the Oyster cards on (I don't know what they're called?). He took out his wallet from the back pocket of his jeans and realised that he didn't have his ZIP card with him so he just jumped over it and continued walking on the other side. He ran through shops and up and down the escalators that had been stopped since everyone had deserted the city. Leo made his way onto the platform and decided to wait to see if a train ever came. While he was waiting, he studied the maps and I decided that he wanted to take the Piccadilly line into the outskirts of London.

After waiting for a while, no train came. Believing that all the train drivers had left the city alongside everyone else, he made the decision to walk there. He carefully lowered himself onto the pebbles off the side of the railway. He moved his feet onto the wooden planks of the railway and started to walk across them. He couldn't make out anything in front of him as he continues to step across the planks being careful not to slip.

After walking down the tunnel for what seemed like forever, Leo could finally see light in the distance. He started walking faster towards it. Eventually, he reached the source of light which he discovered was in fact another tube station, not that he expected anything else. 'Piccadilly Circus' - sign read. He placed his hands on the platform and hauled himself up. He hooked his legs onto the platform and pushed himself onto it. Brushing the dirt off of his trousers, he stood up and fixed his backpack on his shoulders.

The echoing sound of Leo's footsteps was the only sound to be heard for miles in the deserted tube station. The escalators weren't running but all the lights were still turned on. 'They'll turn off soon with no one monitoring the power stations' thought Leo. All shops were still open and many bags were scattered on the floor as people had left in a hurry.

As far as he could see, there were no aliens here at the moment but there obviously must've been previously for people to have left in such a panic. Holding his bag on his shoulder with one hand, he used the other to grab onto the sides of the rail as he stepped down the motionless escalator.

Leo walked slowly through the train station's tunnels and as he turned a corner, he saw daylight. Well it wasn't exactly day anymore, more like sunset. Once outside, he carefully put his bag down and slumped down against the wall of the train station. It was so quiet and peaceful it was like the aliens hadn't reached this part of London yet. Leo felt his eyes getting heavy and started to close them.

HISSSSS

The loud hissing noise startled the sleep right out of Leo and he immediately grabbed his bag, swung it over his shoulder and looked around for the source of the noise. There, in the park just in front of him, he could make out the shape of the alien. It was circling the tree not seeming to have spotted the boy yet.

Trying not to panic, Leo pressed his back to the wall behind him and as stealthily as he possibly could, walked back into the tube station. Once far inside the tube station, he let out a sigh of relief but immediately regretted it when something ran into the back of his leg. He turned quickly to see a small alien about the size of his arm trying to bite him but failing miserably due to his brown combat boots. Leo lifted up his foot and brought it down hard onto the creature but alas it's skin was too armour-like so it stayed wriggling underneath his boot. He reached into his bag and pulled out the knife he had taken from the police station earlier and sliced through the snake-like thing. A black liquid, which Leo assumed to be its blood, seeped out and onto the yellowish tiles of the floor. Momentarily, he stared at the thing he had just killed before hearing another loud hiss behind him and bolting towards the platform.

He threw himself off of the platform and onto the wooden railway planks. Without thinking about it, his legs carried him in the opposite direction to where he had come from and moved him towards the next station, Leicester Square.

1.066k words

Sorry I haven't updated in like a month, I have been really busy with school work. My business studies essay is now done and I don't need to worry about completing it anymore so I should be able to update more regularly.

😙🙂