2021 (30 page)

In
a meeting of all his key personnel, the General just shook his head.

‘I’ll be honest, People, I don’t know if we
can
defeat these monsters, but if I had the chance to choose whether mankind went down fighting or just running away screaming, then I’d choose fighting any day!’

Everyone in the room
agreed and so cheered him!

His words belied a
simple truth however, that realistically barring a miracle, there was little chance of the human race ever defeating the all powerful Migrators!

Day Twenty One:

27
^th
January 2021

Upper Compton,

Surrey, England.

A
lec and Tom had both watched television in horror every day as news of the Migrators soon dominated all the headlines as the crisis deepened with seemingly no solution in sight.

Of course, away from growing military presence around California and the huge panic by people to leave North America, life just went on pretty much the same as usual.

Tom, Alec and all the other workers at the car repairers all watched the news in their tea break every day, before returning to work afterwards always shaking their heads in disbelief.

Many teenagers like Tom and Alec had volunteered to sign up to fight for the now
newly named ‘International Defence Army’ but they were all turned down. The British government preferred to keep their names on file for if the Migrators ever reached their shores.

Of course
anyone could catch a civilian plane to America now as absolutely no one wanted to go there anymore, only leave there if it was at all possible.

The official
American government advice was that it was considered that enough countries had now volunteered fully trained army personnel for the time being and anyway, if the Migrators did begin developing wings, volunteers would then be needed to defend their own countries.

All ordinary people could do at this stage was to carry on as usual and hope the crisis in America would eventually be solved by the combined world’s military.

In the garage
where Tom, Alec and Mark worked basically talk was about little else as they followed the news every day and then discussed it amongst themselves as they worked away as usual.

U
nexpectedly on the 24
^th
January though, Father Mathews turned up at the garage asking to speak to Tom.

‘Father Ma
thews wants to speak to you’ Mark told him.

‘Who is it again?’ queried Tom
as he climbed out from underneath a car he was working on.

‘You know, Father Mathews’ repeated Mark.

‘Father Mathews?’ puzzled Tom ‘I wonder what he wants?’

‘Perhaps he wants to recruit you as a priest’ joked Mark.

‘Me?’ laughed Tom ‘he’s on a loser there then’ he chuckled away.

With that
, Tom wiped some of the oil from his hands as he went to see what the old priest wanted.

‘You asked to see me, Father Mathews?’ Tom asked curiously as he left the garage workshop
area to speak to him.

‘Yes, Tom, I guess you’ve seen all the horrors going on in the United States?’ Father Mathews asked.

‘Yes, Father, it’
s hard not to, unbelievably bad isn’t it’ Tom nodded.

‘I’ve been asked by the Vatican
to seek your help’ smiled the priest.

‘My help?’ puzzled Tom ‘what on earth can
I
do about anything, I’m just a mechanic?’ shrugged Tom.

‘Ay, we both know you’re so much more th
an that, Tom’ smiled the old priest.

Tom sat down, so Father Mathews just sat down next to him.

‘I
don’t do anything like that praying anymore, Father’ Tom whispered to him.

‘Tom, I’ve been sent he
re to tell you to go and see the Pope’ explained Father Mathews.

‘The Pope?’ chuckled Tom ‘Father
, have you been drinking too much communal wine or something?’ uttered Tom with a chuckle.

‘No, that I haven’t’ smiled Father Mathews. ‘Tom, I’m being
serious
now, we believe you may be the key to stopping these Migrator creatures.’

‘Na, the yanks will
just nuke them or something’ smiled Tom.

‘Tom, don’t you read the newspapers? They’ve already tried that
and pretty much everything else and nothing they’ve tried has worked and most probably never will’ insisted the Father firmly.

‘But, Father Mathews, I’m just a mechanic’ shrugged Tom ‘I mean, seriously, what I can I do?’

‘Yes
and Jesus was just a carpenter’ argued the Father.

‘Yes, bu
t come on, Father, let’s face it, I’m hardly any Jesus am I? I mean, I bet Jesus never swears like I do sometimes when I scrape the skin off my knuckles when a spanner slips’ Tom smiled.

‘Tom, hundreds of thousands
or possibly even
millions
of men, women and children will all die horrible deaths being simply devoured at the hands of these creatures unless we find a way to stop them’ insisted Father Mathews grabbing Tom’s arm in an attempt to make him take him seriously.

‘Blimey, then you’re really serious about this
?’ Tom uttered, now looking quite shocked at the old priest’s sudden outburst.

‘
Serious? Tom, I’ve never been more
serious
in my life! Tom, you don’t seem to realise what a fix we’re all in. Mankind is looking at complete extinction here, unless we do something quickly’ Father Mathews insisted.

Tom was just amazed but then he just threw up his arms in surrender.

‘OK
Father’ he shrugged as he finished wiping his hands on a rag before he threw it neatly in the bin. ‘What exactly do you want me to do then?’

‘The two men outside have been asked to take you to Rome
’ Father Mathews explained.

‘But what if I don’t want to go?’ asked Tom curiously.

‘Take a pe
ek at them’ suggested the old priest and so Tom pulled down the blind in the office window a little to look out to see two very burly looking men outside, all dressed in black.

‘Somehow, I don’t think they’ll take ‘no’ for an answer do you?’ Father Mathews smiled.

‘Umm, maybe not’ Tom agreed.

With that
, Father Mathews started walking away and Tom shouted after him.

‘HANG ON, FATHER!
AREN’T YOU COMING WITH ME?’

Father Mathews walked back and
just smiled at him.

‘Ay, l
ad, now I think I’m a bit too old now for all that gallivanting around the world, don’t you?’

‘
I don’t think so, Father Mathews’ laughed Tom.

‘Tom, I’m a weak old man. You
just go and do your best and God Bless you, son’ smiled the priest as he made the sign of the cross on his chest before he finally left.

‘Can you come with us please?’ su
ddenly asked one of the men dressed in black.

‘Hold on, I just want to tell a mate of mine’ smiled Tom as h
e ran to the next office to explain everything to Alec.

Alec was just sitting there tapping figures into
a large calculator as usual when Tom suddenly grabbed hold of his arm.

‘Hey! What do think you’re doing? I’ve los
t my place now’ Alec complained.

‘I’m
sorry, Alec, but I’ve got to go’ he told him quickly.

‘Go? Go where?’ queried Alec looking slightly startled.

‘I’m being taken to the Vatican City to s
ee the Pope!’ Tom quickly explained.

‘Yeah, and I’m
off to see the Queen at Buckingham Palace in a minute, we’re having cucumber sandwiches out on the lawn’ Alec joked.

‘No, Alec, I’m
serious
, there are two men outside who have come here to escort me there’ explained Tom.

‘But why, you’re not even Catholic? Blimey, mate, you don’t even go to church?’ queried Alec. ‘Na, you’re just having me on’ chuckled Alec as he just went to start adding up his figures again.

Tom just pul
led Alec out of his chair and dragged him over to look out the window.

‘Look outside!’ he told him
.

Tom
then pulled down a slat in the blind, so Alec could stare out at the two men now pacing impatiently up and down outside.

Then he turned back to Tom
.

‘Are you
sure
this isn’t just someone’s idea of a wind up?’

‘No, this is genuine
, Alec, Father Mathews was here himself only a moment ago’ explained Tom.

‘Father Mathews? B
ut he’s
our
priest, I mean,
my
priest in the church my family and I go to every Sunday’ puzzled Alec.

‘Come
on, Alec, I’ve got to go’ uttered Tom impatiently ‘if you can explain everything to your dad and apologise for me for leaving on such short notice please?’

‘No,
you’re just winding me up, going to see the Pope indeed, what was in your sandwiches this morning, dope or something?’ Alec just joked.

‘Look
, I can’t waste time standing here arguing with you, Alec, I’ve got to go’ stated Tom as he began to leave ‘I’ll see you when I get back.’

‘Y
ou’re not really
serious
?’ queried Alec.

‘Yeah, why do think I’
m now grabbing my coat and fast heading for the door?’ laughed Tom.

‘Then I’m supposed to
just stay here and tell everyone you’ve decided to pop over to Italy to see the Pope? NOT BLOODY LIKELY! I’M COMING WITH YOU’ shouted Alec as he just dropped what he was doing as he ran to catch up with him.

On their way out
, Alec bent down to speak to Mark as he was just underneath a car, busy carrying out a repair.

‘Mark, if you can tell my dad both Tom and I have volunteered to fight for
the International Defence Army’ he told him casually.

‘Yeah, all right’ replied Mark
, not really paying any attention.

A couple of min
utes later, it suddenly dawned upon Mark just what Alec had said and he almost hit his head on the underside of the car!

‘You’re doing
what
?’ he puzzled.

The two men
in black weren’t too sure about allowing Alec to come at first, but in the end, Tom just refused to leave unless he did.

So after a brief stop at each of the
ir houses to pick up some clothes and their passports, they were soon on their way.

‘Did you leave a note?’ Tom asked Alec.

‘
Na, I just told Mark that we had both volunteered to fight for the International Defence Army’ smiled Alec.

‘Really, what did he say?’ pondered Tom.

‘Nothing really’ replied Alec
casually.

‘What did you tell you
r mum?’ asked Alec.

‘Oh, I just
left a note saying pretty much the same’ smiled Tom.

‘I wonder what she’ll say to that’ pondered Alec.

‘Didn’t you tell your mum you’re going to see the Pope
, Alec?’ queried Tom ‘seeing as you’re a Catholic?’

‘
You’re joking! If I said that, they’d all want to tag along’ smiled Alec and Tom just laughed. ‘Well the Pope gets treated like a pop star in my house’ smiled Alec.

T
hey then travelled by taxi to Gatwick Airport.

‘We’ll have to check if we can get your friend on the same flight’ one
of the men in black told them after they had arrived.

So both Tom and Alec ended up waiting at the airline’s check in desk for him, whilst he sorted out Alec’s flight.

He came back ten minutes later.

‘I’ve had to book us into a later flight. We can check in now
, but we’ll have a couple of hours to kill’ he explained.

‘No matter, I could murder a fry up!’ smiled Alec.

‘D
on’t you ever think about anything other than your stomach?’ Tom criticised, but one of the men in black just nodded his head.

‘You can eat if you like
’ so then Alec got his wish.

Soon they were on their way to Rome’s Intercontinental Airport Leonardo Da Vinci approximately 14 miles from Vatican City.

They had been booked in First Class and both Alec and Tom loved it.

‘Blimey, this is the life, much better than working
any day’ smiled Alec.