Hope?

Currently trapped in an attic, hiding and scrambling around like rats. The only thing preventing us from escaping being the killing machine with a weapon that could end our hopes of escape in one shot.

Worst of all, this killing machine had found us, coming towards our location with intent to send us to the great beyond as we could do nothing but change our hiding spot.

It got to our location and found nothing, for we had already left that spot.

The cylinder turned into an arachnid once again and after searching for a few seconds, it initiated its blue light and scanned the area again.

This time I moved in accordance with where the light was moving. I understood one thing but wasn't sure about another. What I understood was that the blue light is used to scan areas and identify living things probably by heat signatures or something along those lines.

What I didn't understand, was why the arachnid turned back into a cylinder when it found our location. If my theory is correct, we might just be able to escape this terrible predicament.

I allowed myself to be identified by the arachnid's blue light and it immediately reverted back into its cylindrical form. My theory was correct, the cylinder was the mode in which it could use its weapons.

As it moved towards my location, I quickly moved towards the not yet unidentified Karl, making sure the woman was close to me at all times.

"Karl, did you see?" I whispered.

"What… see what?" He whispered back.

"The machine, it needs to transform into a cylinder to attack us. There's a small interval before it reverts from arachnid to cylinder and vice versa. We can use that." I said.

"Hmmm... I hope you're right." He said.

"Ummm… sorry to intrude but do you have a plan." The woman said.

"I do, just follow my lead." I said.

I relayed the plan to the both of them.

"But, after we escape here, what then? It's not like we can just keep just keep running on foot forever." The woman said.

"We go help the others, that reminds me. Karl, did you find a car?" I asked.

"Yeah, I did. It's a small car though, it's going to be hard to fit us all in it, but it's possible."

"Okay, lets do this." I said with conviction in my voice.

The cylinder reverted back into an arachnid and immediately resumed its search for victims. After moving around for a few seconds, it brought out the claw with the blue light. Just what I was waiting for.

The arachnid scanned the room and identified me with immediate effect. It turned into a cylinder and just as it was about to zoom to my location.

"Boom!!!"

A bookshelf crashed on it indenting it into the wooden floor. It managed to crawl out but that was all part of the plan.

Immediately it came out and reverted back into its spider form to begin its search anew, another large bookshelf fell on it and this time, the bookshelf wasn't so light that it would crawl out from easily, especially not in its arachnid form.

"Boom!!"

Karl pushed another bookshelf down on the already downed arachnid, for good measure. We sighed in relief as we had trapped the bringer of our demise and we could finally escape.

Now the only problem was the second cylinder. I wondered how the others were faring and tried to clear my mind of thoughts that predicted terrible outcomes, but they just kept flooding in.

"Your plan worked." The woman said as we went down the staircase leading to the lower floors.

"Yeah, I'm relieved it did." I replied.

As we ran down to the basement, Karl ran outside and brought back a spade and a fire extinguisher. He gave me the extinguisher and took the spade. We headed towards the basement weapons in hand, although we didn't know how effective they would be.

Upon entering the basement, we could see the arachnid closing in on Charles and the others. Walking slowly, claw by claw but every claw aiding the inevitable discovery of the location where they were hiding.

Karl and I snuck up behind the arachnid. Slowly but surely, we were right behind the machine.

"Now!!"

I sprayed the extinguisher all over the machine and while it was disoriented, Karl hit it as hard as he could with the spade, sending it flying across the room.

"Everyone out now! Head towards the back!" Karl screamed out to everyone and we all ran out of the house towards the backyard area of the house.

We were now at the backyard of the house, the car right in front of us. Karl jumped into drivers seat while I got in the passenger seat. The others scrambled into the back.

"Tch… Tight!" Evelyn said.

"I don't think it's time to focus on that right now." I said, as I looked out the window and saw the two arachnids come out of the house.

Karl stepped on the gas pedal with such aggression, it was like he was exasperated at the pedals existence. We zoomed off and we barely escaped the lasers shot out by the now transformed cylinders.

The cylinders chased us for a while but to no avail, the car was just too fast for them. Those things were probably made to catch humans on foot, and even at that we could still outrun them to an extent. The main thing we had to be worried about was its laser beam.

We drove off and this started to feel all too familiar. The alien's storm into our location, and we run and try to escape. Was there going to be an end to this vicious cycle? How long were we going to keep running like this? What was the government doing about all this?

Questions upon questions kept on popping in my head as I tried to imagine a makeshift future where we actually survived this and the human race made it out alive but that line of thought was extremely hard to come by given our current situation.

Clang!

Driving as we were, we heard a loud noise coming from a few meters away. It sounded like footsteps

Clang! Clang!

The sound was getting louder. But we continued driving

Clang! Clang! Clang!

The sound got even louder and Karl slowed down.

A large shadowy figure was at the side of a building. The atmosphere became eerie as we were all puzzled as to what it was. Karl drove slowly and carefully, inching closer to the figure with every rotation of the wheel.

As we got closer, I could see some similarities with a certain object I had seen before. When we got close enough, I could somewhat make out what it was as It looked exactly like the tripod Karl and I had seen before.

Bzuiiiii!!

A bright red light flickered on from the machine and it was cloaked in the shadows no more, laid barren for us to see in all it's mechanical glory. It was coming out from the side of the building with it's sights set on us.

Karl immediately turned the car around and drove in the opposite direction. Hitting the gas pedal with much more aggression than before.

The tripod followed suit and before you know it.

Biiuuuu.... Boom!!!

It fired its laser at us, barely hitting us but destroying the ground beside us.

"Ahhhhhh!!! What is that!" Evelyn screamed.

"It's a tripod!" I screamed.

"What's a tripod!?" The second woman asked.

"We don't know, we just call it that because that's what it looks like. This is the second time we've seen one."

"Wait, you saw one and survived!?" Franklin said.

"Boom!!" Another laser was blasted towards us but missed again.

"Waahhhh!! What are we going to do!" Evelyn screamed.

"Nothing, just drive!!" Karl exclaimed as he applied even more pressure to the gas pedal.

The car accelerating at an alarming rate, and the tripod right behind us, our situation was looking even more dire than ever.

"Boom!!"

Our luck ran out, and we were hit by a laser. Our car off balance and tumbling, summersaulted a few times before gradually losing momentum and coming to a halt.

What were we going to do now? Our car crashed and our situation getting worse with every step that demonic machine took. Things were looking very grim, and they didn't look like they were getting better anytime soon.