Reno grimaced as he reached the transport, trying to keep the countdown timer in his head.

  Ten seconds? Maybe less?

  He threw himself into the vehicle, his ankle hot and swelling tightly against the wrap as John and Beckett pulled him fully up into the seat.

  “Everyone’s here!” Gibson said. “Go! Go!”

  Five seconds?

  The transport sped off, heading back toward the National Guard checkpoint. All of the soldiers looked out the back of the vehicle, staring at the obelisk and waiting.

  Zero?

  Shit. The explosives didn’t—

  The ground shook the transport and Reno saw the flash before he heard the thunderous concussion. At first, the top of the obelisk broke away from the ship, and then the bottom of it collapsed into the depths, burying the destroyed generator beneath tons of rock and debris.

  The transport stopped as all of the soldiers inside it watched the obelisk collapse to the right.

  The darkness above flickered, and then, as if God had hit the light switch, Reno saw the golden light of the rising sun on the eastern horizon. It had already begun to paint the sky in wide, luscious brush strokes of crimson orange. High, fluffy clouds floated overhead and the sight of them made Reno cry.

  The aliens who had been in mid-flight when the dome dropped fell from the sky, plummeting back to Earth like hunks of a splintered comet. The mothership hovered, and for a split-second Reno felt as if it had marked him. It knew he was the one who’d brought down the dome over Nashville. And it wasn’t happy about it.

  The soldiers cheered, a few jumping up out of their seats and others high-fiving and hugging each other.

  Reno exhaled as the mothership ascended, presumably returning to deep space or whatever distant galaxy it’d come from.

  Beckett put his arm around Reno. “You did it! You son of a bitch, you did it!”

  Reno shook his hand, then turned to John. John winked at him.

  Exhaling again, Reno sat back against the wall of the truck and closed his eyes.

  5

  The transport arrived back at the National Guard checkpoint to a chorus of cheers and smiling soldiers—a different scene from the one they’d left only a few hours before.

  When the transport stopped, other soldiers rushed up to it. Reno had had a few minutes on the drive to catch his breath and get himself together. His hands had been shaking and his face numb after watching the obelisk collapse to the ground. He could still see the belly of the mothership as it rose into the sky and out of sight, and that made him shiver. He felt a pat on his shoulder and looked over.

  “That’s all you,” Rodriguez said. “Go get ‘em, rockstar.”

  Reno looked around and noticed everyone else staring at him, grins spread across their faces. Rodriguez was the first to start clapping, and the others quickly joined in, standing and pumping their fists into the air.

  Reno smiled and stood up. The soldiers patted him on the back and ushered him out of the back of the transport, where he was greeted by more National Guard troops. They smothered him with high-fives, slaps on the back, and even a couple of bro hugs.

  Then a tall soldier came over and, without asking Reno, lifted him up. The soldiers crowd surfed him like he was a teenager at a rock concert. He couldn’t help but laugh, trying to relish the moment.

  They’d done it.

  They’d destroyed the obelisk. Destroyed the dome’s power source, freeing Nashville. They’d defeated the aliens.

  In that moment, Reno thought about Jack as his hand wrapped around the token still in his pocket. He should have been here to bask in all the glory. All Reno had done was follow his instructions.

  He would find a way to honor Jack. It was the right thing to do.

  He also thought of Maya. He hoped she had found her kids. Hoped she was safe. Reno wanted to see her again, and with this victory, he hoped it would be possible.

  When his feet hit the ground, Reno stood face to face with Rupp. The Master Sergeant glared at him, the same disgruntled look from before plastering his face. Reno wasn’t going to kid himself. This man intimidated him. And he didn’t seem to give a shit about what Reno had done.

  Reno looked down at his feet and, when he looked up, he was greeted with a wide smile and an extended hand.

  “Good job, soldier.”

  Reno looked around, then smiled at Rupp. He accepted the man’s firm handshake.

  Rupp then raised Reno’s hand in the air and pointed at him. The other soldiers erupted in applause, hooting and hollering as they continued to celebrate.

  Car horns sounded, and Reno turned to see three transport vehicles pulling up to the checkpoint. They parked at the edge of the growing crowd, several of the soldiers carrying boxes of wine and champagne.

  “Looks like Army,” Rodriguez said.

  “I’m going to go talk to them.” Rupp turned to Reno once more. “Really, you did good. Your bravery is admirable.”

  “Thank you, sir.”

  Rupp walked over to meet with the newly-arriving infantrymen.

  Reno scanned the crowd again, making eye contact with John. The cop extended his arms and laughed. Reno went to him, and the two men embraced.

  “You weren’t lying, you son of a bitch. You’re a goddamn hero.”

  “You trusted me and got me over here. You’re just as much of a hero as I am. Besides, Jack is the real hero. And I’m going to make sure people know that.”

  “They will.” John stepped back and looked over Reno’s shoulder. “Just enjoy the moment. We don’t have to worry about those bastards anymore.”

  Reno heard a pop then, and turned to see where it had come from. Beckett stood nearby with a bottle of champagne, the contents flowing down the side of the bottle. He raised both arms in the air and then, looking to the sky, pressed the bottle against his lips and guzzled.

  As he watched everyone celebrate, Reno’s eyes drifted to where Rupp was talking with one of the Army soldiers. His hands sat on his hips and he was looking at the ground, shaking his head. Reno’s own smile disappeared.

  Rupp kicked at the ground as he turned and made his way over to where Reno and all of the other soldiers were still celebrating.

  This isn’t good.

  Pressing his fingers into the corners of his mouth, Rupp whistled. Most of the soldiers turned to him. His somber expression caught everyone’s attention, and many of them quit smiling and stopped cheering.

  Rupp cleared his throat. “Put down the fucking champagne, Beckett.”

  Beckett turned more slowly than the others had, foam still sticking to his chin. He glanced at the soldiers on both sides of him, shrugging in confusion as to why he’d been singled out.

  “What’s the matter, sir?” a female National Guard soldier asked.

  “Corporal Robertson has just informed me of some very grave news.” Rupp turned to the man. “Corporal?”

  The corporal stepped forward to address the crowd.

  “I want to first applaud the efforts of everyone here for taking down the dome. You did one hell of a job.”

  The soldiers erupted into another round of applause. Then Rupp stepped forward, his eyes narrowed. “Everyone, shut the hell up and listen to the rest of what the corporal has to say. Do not interrupt him again. That’s an order.”

  The crowd went quiet other than for a couple of throat clearings.

  Robertson continued.

  “You’ve given us very valuable information on how to take these domes down.”

  “Domes, sir?” Rodriguez asked.

  “Nashville wasn’t the only city domed and attacked.”

  Someone dropped an empty bottle, which rolled away and clanked to a stop. Nobody spoke.

  “We have confirmation of attacks on Chicago, San Francisco, New Orleans—hell, most major American cities are under domes right now.”

  Reno’s mouth fell open as if he’d been left in shock, but something in his mind had felt it all along.

  “I know this news comes as a shock to you.” Robertson paused, and he seemed to be reassuring himself as he spoke to the troops. “But I don’t want us to forget how important the victory today, here in Nashville, was. Now we know how to take down the domes—and what happens when we do. Those alien bastards run with their tails between their legs.”

  “Permission to speak, sir?” Rodriguez asked.

  Corporal Robertson nodded.

  “We’ve had no contact with anyone outside the dome until you all came rolling up in here just now, no way of communicating once the thing turned black. It’s great that we know how to drop a dome, but how are we supposed to get that information to the people trapped in those other cities?”

  “That’s a fair question, and I’d be lying if I told you we had a solution for that right now. But we’re working on it.”

  Several of the other soldiers tried asking more questions, all at the same time. Rupp came forward and silenced them all with a steely glare.

  “Thank you, Master Sergeant Rupp,” Robertson said. “Now, I know you all have a lot of questions. But what’s important now is that we work on evacuating the city and getting all of you to a place where we can be ready with our next move. My men will have further instructions for you, so please get with them right over there.”

  Everyone grumbled as they lined up to get their orders. Various men kicked at half-empty champagne bottles and stubbed out celebratory cigars.

  “Harvey,” Rupp said. “Come over here.”

  Reno looked to John, signaling for him to join him. The two men walked over to Rupp and Robertson.

  “This is him,” Rupp said.

  “We’ve got to get you somewhere safe where we can debrief.” Robertson turned and started to walk away before turning his head and waving Reno along. “Come with me.”

  6

  Maya lay on the bed in her childhood room, staring up at the ceiling. Despite using every breathing technique she’d learned from martial arts and meditation to try to calm herself, she couldn’t. Even keeping her eyes open didn’t keep her from seeing Gerald’s face.

  She wanted to kill him. It didn’t matter anymore that he was the father of her children. Maya didn’t give a damn who he was. He had come into her mother’s home and taken the kids. Maya had custody of them, and even though the world had gone to shit, that didn’t mean he could do whatever he wanted. The days of her equally splitting custody with him were over. Whenever this thing ended, she would do everything in her power to make sure Gerald’s children never saw him again, whether that was through the court system or by putting him into a grave.

  Maya exhaled and sat up. She wiped the sweat from her brow and pulled a hair tie out of her pocket. Slipping her hair into a ponytail, she swung her legs over the side of the bed and made her way to the empty space on the floor at the foot of it. If breathing steadily wouldn’t calm her down, then maybe exercise would.

  She put herself through a rigorous circuit training routine, alternating between twenty reps of different exercises with only a ten-second rest in between each round. Maya channeled her anger into the movements. Sweat dripped down her face, and her body hurt. But it was the good kind of pain.

  Maya was on her third round of push-ups when the ground trembled. It wasn’t intense enough to throw her out of her push-up position, but it was enough to make the China dolls rattle on top of the dresser. She pushed herself up onto her knees and breathed heavily.

  “What was that?”

  It had felt like an earthquake, but Maya had never heard of any happening in the Nashville area. Fear suddenly hit her, that it could have been something much worse.

  “Maya! Get out here, quick!”

  Maya jumped to her feet at the sound of her mother’s voice and ran out of her room.

  “Mom?”

  “I’m downstairs. Get down here!”

  Maya hurried down the stairs to see that the front door was open. Outside, her mother stood near the steps, looking out towards the city. Maya followed her gaze.

  A mushroom cloud had formed on the horizon, and Maya knew instantly that it must be over Centennial Park. And then it hit her. She could see the city. The dome was gone. And so were the obelisk and the massive spaceship that had been connected to it.

  “Is that—”

  “Centennial Park,” Maya said. “That’s where it came from.”

  “Where the obelisk is?”

  Maya shook her head. “Was.”

  High, light clouds floated across the morning sky and birds flew in tight flocks from east to west. Maya scanned the sky in all directions, but saw no sign of the spaceship or the flying aliens.

  “He did it.”

  “Who?”

  “Jack. He destroyed the engine—took down the dome.”

  “What does that mean?”

  Maya ran back into the house. Her mother hurried after her, calling her name and asking her for some sort of explanation. But Maya ignored her, rushing up the stairs and back to her room.

  She threw all of her clothes and things into her bag, and then made sure she had water, a protein bar, and her loaded handgun. Then she went back downstairs to where her mother was waiting.

  “Talk to me, Maya.”

  “Mom, you need to go and pack a bag.”

  “What for?”

  “We need to get out of here. We need to get my kids.”

  “Don’t be ridiculous. Did you see what happened? The dome is gone!”

  “Exactly. And do you really think an alien invasion took place only in Nashville? Do you think the rest of the world has been watching this like a Hollywood movie? They’ll be back, and when they return, it won’t be pretty.”

  “You don’t know that.”

  “Yeah, well, we’re not going to be around here to find out. Now, go pack a bag.”

  Maya looked over to see her mom standing with her arms crossed. She shook her head. “I’m not going anywhere.”

  Maya’s brow furrowed. “What are you talking about?”

  “This is my home. I can’t leave.”

  Maya walked over to her mother and took her hand.

  “Mom, this is just a place. Okay? You can get another house.”

  Her mother shook her head again, more firmly. “This isn’t just a place. Your father and I lived in this house our entire adult lives. I’m not leaving.”

  Maya went to say something else, but her mother cut her off.

  “There’s nothing you can say that will change my mind.”

  Tears filled Maya’s eyes. “Mom, please.”

  “I’ll be here when you get back. Have faith. Go get your kids.”

  Maya hugged her mother, gripping the back of her shirt tightly as she cried into her shoulder. Then, she walked outside and her mom followed, staying on the porch while Maya headed to the pickup truck. She threw her bag in the passenger seat, then looked back towards the patio. She wanted to ask her mother once more to come with her, but realized that it wasn’t going to happen.

  “Get your kids. I’ll see you when you get back.”

  Maya wiped her eyes and nodded. “I love you.”

  “And I love you.”

  Maya ducked into the vehicle. She took a deep breath, stealing one last glance at her mother. Her mom waved, and Maya blew her a kiss.

  She pulled out of the driveway, taking off and crying as she avoided one more look at the house.

  7

  Ignoring the interstates, Maya headed north on Highway 258. With the dome down, she knew the interstates would be crammed with emergency crews trying to get into the city. She’d seen some flashing lights on the back roads, too, but nothing that would slow her down.

  Gerald lived on the other side of the Tennessee-Kentucky state line in the town of Bowling Green, which was about an hour’s drive in normal conditions. But, with few people on the road, she was able to drive faster than she ever had, holding at around 90 miles per hour. The quicker she could get there, the sooner she could put him in his place and get her kids back. As the sun dropped below the western horizon, she turned on her headlights and the high beams, hoping a curious deer wouldn’t meander out into the highway.

  She drove with the air conditioning cranked, which raised a chill on the back of her neck as she pondered what she would do once she got to his house. The safety of Maya’s children came first. But she couldn’t just ignore what he had done. And the kids needed to know the truth about their father. She’d done well to respect Gerald, even though there had been times when she’d wanted to curse him out or even hit him. She would never have done anything like that with the kids around, but things were different now. Laura and Aiden had seen how Gerald had treated their grandmother when he’d come and snatched them from her home, and they’d understand why their mother wasn’t putting up with the bullshit anymore.

  She barreled around a slow bend, easing off the gas and leaning forward to get a better look at what was ahead in the darkening twilight. A quarter mile up the road, several vehicles stretched across the highway, blocking it. They appeared to have been parked that way deliberately. Men stood in front of the cars, but from what she could see, they weren’t armed.

  Scanning the area, she hit her brakes and tried to decide whether she should take another road which cut across the highway in front of the blockade or stop and see what this was all about.

  One of the men smiled and waved as she slowed down further on approach, clicking off her high beams.

  You’re being paranoid, Maya.

  She came to a stop about five feet in front of the vehicles, but kept her doors locked and her truck running. A large man with shaggy blonde hair who was wearing a Kentucky Wildcats shirt approached her door. He wasn’t carrying a gun, and she didn’t see one bulging underneath his shirt or in a holster on his waist. Maya dropped her window.

  “Good evening.” The man grinned, and she could see he had several gold teeth.

  “Evening.”

  “What’s a pretty thing like you doing out here by yourself?”

  That’s not a great way to start a conversation, Maya thought. She gripped her steering wheel with both hands.