22nd January 2014 (23:36)

Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus, the creatures are something else. 

"You listen to me you son of a bitch. I know you can understand me." The special detective yanked the creatures jaw up wards, levelling its eyes with his own. "Now. Answer. My. Question." He put extra emphasis on each word to make sure the monster knew he was serious. As if the severe beating, experimentation and illicit torture wasn't enough to demonstrate his seriousness. 

Detective O'Connor was part of the newly formed task force set up and run with the sole objective to find out where the creatures came from. The creature knew that the real question on their minds was 'will they attack again' but no one dared utter such lunacy. At least not until there clear up had been completed and people could start pretending that aliens never invaded the world and killed close to 7 billion people. Not to mention countless cities and towns, setting infrastructure back a couple of thousand years. Perhaps further, at least the Romans had roads. 

The creature stared into the Detectives eyes. It hadn't uttered a single word of any language and the only proof O'Connor had that they could even understand English was a crackpot scientist who claims he heard two of them talking to one another. Of course this came from the same man who spent the better part of two weeks in a flat talking to his dead wife, but O'Connor didn't care. If you asked any number of the men who had previously served under him (no one would dare say a bad word about him if they still needed to report to him) they'd all say that he liked to doll out as much pain as he could and sit back and watch you suffer. 

When the Prime Minister heard this, he knew he was the man for the job. 

O'Connor struck the creature again. It's hardened exterior didn't reply and the creature simply rolled his head to one side. I'd suspect that this was more to cushion the blow that O'Connor felt on his hand which now dripped with blood from his cracked knuckles. 

"How dare you." He got his face in close to the creature. How he stomached the fowl smell I'll never know. It smelt like a strange half way point between burning magnesium in a methane gas chamber and bleach. "This is our world. How dare you come here and kill countless innocent people and not expect to be punished. We deserve to know the location of your home. We deserve to know when another attack is coming." 

"As do we." The creature spoke. It wasn't perfect English by any means. It was gruff and the words sounded foreign and slurred on the creatures younger but everyone I'm the room understood. The six people who stood on guard, the scientists, the spectators in the gallery above, even O'Connor stood with his mouth gaping open. 

O'Connor tried to speak but the words came out more gruffly than when the creature tried to formulate a sentence. "We came to this world to love. We watched from the stars above you and we saw compassion and we were hopeful. We have crossed the galaxy for many years and we grew restless." The creatures eyes flickered side to side as he spoke but his face stayed perfectly still. Even when he spoke his mouth barely opened. 

"When we came, you humans were new. And we loved you. We tried to care for you but you grew fearful and so we retreated. But this fear turned into hatred and before we could intervene you were killing one another with weaponry that we banned on our home planet after it almost became uninhabitable." 

"So you are here to take over!" O'Connor pushed his chest in front of,meh could barely contain the pride riddled grin from his face. 

"No." The creature grunted. "Just to love and protect you. But you became impossible to protect and then you started developing interstellar flight and we knew that you had to be stopped before you take your killing skills across the galaxy. To out home." 

"So you launched the attack, to kill us all? You heartless bastard" 

The room fell quite. "Yes, I'm afraid we did. It was either you, or us." He bowed his head. "I'm sorry for the damage we have caused but you will eventually destroy yourselves anyway. We figured our planet was more worthwhile saving." 

The creature seemed solemn. I understood where he was coming from. After all what human wouldn't do the same if they ----- BLAM!

BLAM BLAM BLAM! 

The creature died almost instantly, O'Connor lowered his gun, his stupid face and his stupid grim clearly ecstatic as hitting the weak spot on a captured being. 

"Son of a bitch." O'Connor said as he spat on the ground. "Tell the commander to go ahead with the attacks, the creatures are of no use to us and they're no longer a danger."

20th January 2014 (21:30) (21st January 2014 failed to upload -app error)

Revenge is like a heavy hammer... When it hits you, it hurts.

The bridge out of the city stood as the only way across for either side. Despite the creatures advanced weaponry, power and clear technological advancements, since they landed they had no more say over the forces of gravity than humans did. With countless civilians trapped in the ruins and no way to get them out or get them clear, a bombardment was out of the question. 

The army had set up camp on the road and the surrounding grasslands. High on the hill sat their base. A permanent structure once used as a training facility. More recently it had served as a hospital and strategic command centre. Since the start off the debauchery there had been only one advance made by the creatures. A corporal and her commanding officer had caught it early and they had been driven back beyond the bridge. No one dared go after them. 

The base was one of only a dozen stationed out side the city. One of only two and a half dozen left in the country. Positioned around the lesser cities the length and breadth of the land they did their best to contain the creatures. But hey knew it wouldn't be. Long until the creatures made it out. The cities who had already fallen were prime example of that. Their surrounding counties had been over run and it wouldn't be long until they attacked from the rear. 

Soon humanity would fall. Every officer and private knew that. This was their last hope. One final outlandish attempt to destroy their attackers. And if they failed in their mission, their names would go down as valiant heroes. Not that anyone would have time to learn them, they'd be dead soon after. 

These were the thoughts of Colonel  Matthews as he stared down at the bridge from behind the muddied glass. The men were like boys from his view high on the hill. Boys sent to do a mans work. A man too afraid to go out and do it himself. 

Matthews sighed. He was going to entrust his race with the last few boys who were chosen simply because they could hold a gun and stand up straight. "Jameson. Bring me my gun and tell Corporal Grane to bring a jeep." 

Jameson looked at his commanding officer with an air of confusion and cowardliness. War had revealed his true colours. He'd have been better suited for a job in IT. "Sir?" 

"Don't question me Sergeant. Despite all this shit that is going on I am still in charge around here and if I tell you to do something it isn't asking you a goddam favour. IT'S AN ORDER," Jameson flinched at him raising his voice and quickly salutary and scurried out of the office door.

Matthews retuned to the window a smirk on his face. He caught himself smiling and realised his folly. <em> Smile all you like Adrian you damn fool. You'll die soon enough.</em>

21st September 2014 (23:28)

Easy like Sunday Morning

"Darling!" The words leaps from my lips I can hardly contain myself. I haven't been this excited about news since they announced the Tories were back in power. "Darling,listen to this." I touch her arm, shaking from the adrenaline. "You'll never guess what!" I wait, only a moment passes but I can't wait for her to give me an answer. "They've done it darling. They've fought back and won." I pirouette on the spot, hands spread out above my head. "I don't know how but they've done it. The reports say that they're going to get back into the city in a matter of days! We'll finally be saved." 

I catch the words before they formulate but they slip from my grasp. "We can get out of here." I look up at her face. "I'm sorry dear, I..." I bite my bottom lip, holding back the tears. "I'm sorry." 

I stand up again, happiness washing over me. "I just can't believe it. What's the date today?" She doesn't answer, she's mad at me for what I said. "The 16th? No, no. It must be later than that. Oh heck I'd forget my head if it wasn't screwed on... Anyway what does it matter how long it's been. Just two more nights, three more at most, we'll be saved. They'll fight back the creatures and sure enough we'll tell the grandchildren..." I can't help but wonder if I'll ever get the pleasure of grandchildren. But I daren't tell dear Viv that, not after she lost Tony. Ah Tony, I'm glad you died when you did otherwise you'd still be fighting just against a new enemy. "The grandchildren will love it. The month the aliens fell to earth." I touch her hand gently, flinching back at first as her cold touch startles me. 

"Oh Viv, you're cold!" I rub my hands together and try to pass some of my heat on to her. "There. And then once the stories have been made and the world turn right way up again. Then things will go back to normal." I look at her face and feel sick. I've done it again. 

I look in the empty sockets of my wife's face and look at the features that hadn't been effected by the bullet. If I had come to her with the news I had this morning, would she have still killed herself? I'd like to think not, but I couldn't say for certain by any means.

18th January (16:24) - error in the app meant it failed to upload

The Drugs Are Gone 

Sweet escape. Blissful minutes of beautiful colours and soft sounds. Expositions of blues and greens and golds. Never reds. Red is bad and there is no bad here. Just sweet peace. 

The flicker of the lighter, the crackle of the paper. The glorious aroma and I know I am not too far. 

I spend hours in my wonderland. Nothing can hurt me here. I see my friends and my family. They are alive and well. More alive than they ever were. 

Love feels more real here. Soft touches and gentle kisses. 

But it's coming to an end. And I know how I can make it last. Again, the crackle of the lighter. But the sweet aroma is less potent. The buzz less strong. 

And then it's all over. The colours disappear from my  life and I am alone. 

My friends walk away, my family shimmer into light. Their explosion is dark. 

I am left with an empty heart, an empty world, and creatures more hideous than any bad trip could imagine. 

The world has become a scary place whilst I've been away.

19th January 2014 (22:24)

Taking out the Dead

Lily struggled with the weight of Mrs Francis' legs. The wound had made turned them into festering lumps of meat and threatened to tear away from the rest of the corpse if she pulled too hard. 

Niamh had taken the rest of the children into the back room. She could hear her now, talking to them as though she were one of the adults. Even other Jonathan's harsh breathing, Niamh voices was angelic.

The stories she told were her favourites. Tales of beautiful princess and brave knights. But she liked making them her own. Quite often it was the prince that would need rescuing because he'd gone up the wrong tower and gotten stuck whilst the princess had to climb down her own tower and then figure a way out to save him. 

Lily admired her courage. It was only surpassed by her creativity which worked in tandem to create beautiful lands where the children could escape, if only for an afternoon. From time to time Lily wanted to join them and drift in wonderful colours on the back of the daydreams of a child. 

"Lift the legs more." Jonathan hissed at her. His teeth were tightly clenched and his face scowled with the tension of lifting the heavy corpse. Harriet's mum had died the same evening that Jonathan arrived. Luckily the children were asleep so they could figure out a way to break it to them gently. The last thing they wanted was to attract attention to themselves by a load of children crying their eyes out. 

"I'm trying," she hissed back. "They're going to split if I squeeze them any tighter!" Jonathan reached the first step and started tilting her head upwards, putting more pressure on Lily. There was a slosh from within Mrs Francis' stomach. The last of her remains that would never be digested. Despite the smell, Lily's own stomach rumbled. Their food supply was on the brink of empty and soon the would have to venture out into the world.

Jonathan had told her what it was like out there. As far as she could tell, society was finished. Sent back further than cavemen times, she knew it was going to be hard to move on from this. That's if they ever got the opportunity to. She had made Jonathan stop talking when he got onto the subject of the creatures. She knew those all to well and the memories clung to her brain like a virus. Something things you can never unsee and they will remain with you, like a scar on your retinas.

Half way up the stairs and Mrs Francis was starting to groan. The skin that so finely stitched her legs to her torso could be heard tearing. The effects of the creature had started to take its toll on her carcas and soon she would distinergrste. 

"Hurry up Jonathan, I thinks she's going to burst." 

"My neighbour did that. He died right down in the street and then a few days later. Splat. His body opens up and suddenly there's a million little crab like things and two parts of his body." 

"Do as you're told and hurry up the ." Their whispering had become a little too load and she could hear Niamh stop her singing to listen to the two of them. They doubled up their speed and were through the cellar door before any of the children saw the dead body. They had been sheltered from the horrendousness thus far and as far as Lily was concerned they weren't going to have to witness a human being, let along one of the girls mums p split open and spew baby creatures all of them.  

Jonathan pulled down on the handle with his back and the door swung gently open. Lily let out a gasp when she saw the state of the city she has lived in for most of her life. The grip on mrs Francis legs gave way and one of them hit the ground with a slap. 

"Watch it"! Jonathan growled. He looked down the road and saw the coast was clear. "Come on let's get this dumped round the corner, that way they shouldn't be able to find us for a while. Be quick though." 

They edged over the rubble and into the funnier street, cautious of how exposed they were. The city had a cold silence to it. Even before it still felt like there was going to be life above her head but Lily was painfully away that her small girls and her gay guest might just be all that remained. 

Jonathan slipped backwards as he miss placed his foot on a rock. He stumbled to the floor and Mrs Francis flopped on top of him. He clenched his eyes closed and his face turned a burgundy red. 

"It's alright Jonathan! she's in one piece still. Carefully roll her over and get out from underneath her." He did just that. mrs Francis lay on the floor with a look on her face and the blue glint of the sky in her eyes hat said she was resting. 

"Perfect, now let's get back inside before those things show up." 

Lily looked down at the mother. She hadn't been with her class for very long. She had been elsewhere but with her losing her job she couldn't afford the more expensive sclssses  any longer. Lily sighed as she realised that death was open her body. 

"we can't leave her there. She was a dignified lady. Can we move her. Please?"

"Look, I'm not being funny because I knew her all of five minutes but no matter how dignified and  lovely she was when she was alive, she's dead now so can we please just go."  

"I'll give you half of my food tonight if you help me move her over to that wall. Just so she can sit down in peace." Lily looked at him with expectation. 

"Fine. But hurry the fuck up." He went down to lift her torso back up. "And I get the canned stuff. You get the packet stuff." 

Lily looked at him with a coy smile. She knew that he wouldn't let her starve and he'd give her her share regardless of what deal they made out here. As soon as he calmed down he'd realise it too.

Lily bent down and grabbed the dead woman's legs. A little too roughly. 

The body ripped in too like freshly baked bread. Her organs spewed in the air and coated the pair in a green bile. Whilst they clued and spluttered at the smell of hype dead, the most frightful thing occurred. 

From the intestines of poor dead Mrs Francis erupted millions of tiny monsters. Like their parents they had an appetite for human flesh and like their parents, they struck immediately. 

As though the bile were a beacon, the tiny creatures swarmed Jonathan and Lily. Their flesh was soft and delicate and the tiny parasitic creatures feasted on it as though it were the only meal they had ever had.

Less than a minute after Lily had promised her diner to Jonathan, they were both dead. They didn't even had time to scream. 

Down in the basement below the ruined building, Niamh finished her story of the beautiful princess and the brave prince. Soon her childhood would be over too, and she would need to become the hero of her own stories.

17th January 2014 (23:54)

The Bigger they are...

Steve fell to the floor. His body detached from his head, the last of his brain trickling through the open neck wound. 

Jonathan fell against his body, using his former lover, partner, friend as a human shield. 

The creature loomed over head, looking at the bodies, entangled. Jonathan was hidden and the creature moved on. Without anymore humans to harvest, he left the corpses for his lesser brethren to strip clean. 

Jonathan rose, searching for somewhere to hide. He knew he didn't have long before they came. Came to rip flesh from bone. He gave a silent farewell to the man he never really loved and ran to a building on the corner. 

The roof had mostly fallen in and the windows shattered like monstrous teeth. But the ground floor looked stable. 

He burst in through the wooden door that hung loosely in his hinges and slid a table hard against the entrance. Trapped inside was better than being at the mercy of the pickers. 

He'd seen it once before, on a run back from the roof. They had defended on the four dead humans that lay in front of Steve and his flat. He hadn't let them in and his punishment was to watch their remains desecrated. 

Jonathan scanned the room. The back wall towards what remained of the stair case was rubble and plaster. To his right much the same. Towards the ceiling on this side there was a ago large enough for a creature to scuttle in but he was confident that he'd have time before they went on a proper hunt. 

To his right was a corridor that ran to the left wing of the building. He rose up and slowly crept down the long winding path. His feet barely made a sound, only the sweat squelching in the bottom of his show have him away. 

At the end of the corridor was a door. He pulled the handle down and revealed several steps down into a murky darkness. 

"Hello?" He called. "I'm human and I'm coming down." He licked his lips. He knew go hostile people could be. How hostile he had been himself. To turn away kids had broken his heart, let alone the parents who wanted to keep them safe. 

"Hello?" A little voice called back. She sounded young but clearly had a grown up manner. "Mister?" 

Jonathan stepped down the stairs. He took one at a time, ready to turn away and bolt it out of the room should this be a cruel trap. 

He made it to the bottom of the stairs without an attack from the source of the voice or any hidden conspirators. 

Now he was underground he could see faint lights from dying candles in the far corner of the room. 

He did a quick head count; two female adults, one old and sick, she didn't look like she had long, a young attractive woman, she looked like she was holding it together but as Jonathan started to approach her, he noticed the flickering of fear in her eyes. She wasn't the most confident in the group. 

Just then a little girl came up to him, a smile on her face wider than any smile he'd seen. His heart broke at her innocence. 

"Are you going to be Lily's boyfriend she's very scared at the moment and she needs a knight in shining armour and you could be him and we could get rescued and then we won't need to be scared or hungry or frightened anymore."

16th January 2014 (00:39 and 23:19)

The Lord Giveth and He Also Takes it Back 

"The scientists call it extra terrestrial. The religious call it Gods reckoning. The spiritual call it The Earths Revenge. The scared call it a threat. The brave call it a challenge. The stupid call it a hoax. The alien lovers call it a long time coming. 

"But, dear children, it is non of these. It is simply..." He looks around the room. His church. At the faces who stare back at him who have put their faith in him. Trust his promises to save them all. "The end." There is an outbreak of middle class muttering. They can't believe their trusted leader is threatening them with the unwanted sudden prospect of death. He holds up his hand, drags it in the air above their heads, bringing a hush back to the group. "Children, we knew this. We have always known it and we are the ones to survive." 

He walks down the steps approaching the audience. He strokes the cheek of a young girl in the front row and let's his finger linger on her soft skin. "When God told Noah that he needed to build an ark, he warned him of the flood that would drown his fellow man." He continued down the aisles, looking to each patron individually. "Drown all those who were not like minded to Noah and his family. When Gods creatures came to us, they came in a torrent of rain. Not on the day of the Red Dawn, but for months prior, there had been floods in almost every Asian country, all across Europe, the UK, even my own home could not stand the Great Storm. But no one realised, because no one is pure enough." He had reached the back doors. Every member of the church has their necks craned tightly so thatcher can get a good view of their hailed leader. 

"But that is not the case with me. I am worthy, and I have saved you all from your doom." A round of applause rippled across the room into a thunderous clap. Again he held up his hand and bought silence to the group. "When God first drowned the Earth, it was enough to kill the impure. But now, he must do more and so he send his Creatures, his fallen angels to rid the world of evil. And we must help." The group cheered in agreement. 

The man walks to the front of the room, slowly, taking in the adoring faces. The fans he craved for so long. "We must fight with the fallen, side by side to rid the world of evil. Those who are not hear in this room, who were not able to make it here with us today, are the unworthy. God gave them the chance to repent, and they ignored their creature." 

"Here here!" Cried a man from the crowd, a few echoes of appreciation rang through the group. 

"So we shall take the Lords work and help him complete his grim task." He smiled. "For the good of mankind."

15th January 2014 (19:51)

Darling We've Got to Get Out of the City, We Need to Breath Some Cleaner Air 

Our feet crunch on the debris of the overhanging building as we jog through the empty streets. Every few buildings we pass we have to cut through, the empty remains to geth past. Darting in and out of shops and restaurants, passing the rotting corpses, we realise how bad things have been. 

All that is left are the bodies that were too damaged for the monsters to eat and the empty shell of their old lives. We stop for breath when we can, take cover behind a desk or upturned display cabinet. We eat what little food we have and hide from the creatures when they pass us. Looming high above our heads. Their claws, big enough to crush our heads in one go. 

My husband try's to tell me it's alright, but I can see in his eyes that it's not. I can see for myself that it's not. 

"Everything will be ok Steve, really, the army will be here any day now." 

"No Jonathan. It won't, look at this place. Let's just go back to my parents, we were safe there." 

"And what? Starve to death. We need to get out of the city and wait for the rally to rescue us. We're much more likely to find food and be safe away from the cities. They only attack the cities." 

It's the same argument that we've had over and over again. Four days out in the open and we've been going round and round in circles. There is no safe way out, it's like they've trapped us. They seem to be more and more frequent too, it's as though they've realised there's , people left alive. 

We must be the only ones, up until this point, all we've seen are corpses and skeletons. 

I don't think we're going to survive. I don't think I want to survive. If Jonathan was dead, I'd give up.

14th January 2014 (23:10)

A Brotherly Goodbye

Crawling to the ridge of the hill, the solider poked the barrel of his rifle ahead of him, the silencer lengthening the already impressive sized gun but another few inches. The soldier peered down the scope, tracking the two creature in her sites. 

"What do you see soldier?" Whispered the sergeant. 

"Two Charlies at twelve o clock sir." She said back in hushed tones. 

"Take them out." 

She lined up the gun, taking in account the wind which whistled through the long grass from the west. She a line the gun so that it would whilst through the creatures soft spot and give her enough time to aim at his companion before they were both dead. She stared at them. All the power she felt in her finger, all the suffers she knew that the creatures had caused since they landed all those days ago. She couldn't pull the trigger. So,etching about the relatively small size of the creatures told her that it wasn't right. 

They looked like child creatures, not yet fully grown to their full length. Not yet killers. 

"Hold it soldier." She peeked away from the scope to look to her sergeant curious as to why she was being to hold by the the most blood thirsty superior she had ever trained and fought under. 

"They're not creatures corporal. They're human." He pointed the pair out. "See how they're standing facing each other, they're talking. And they're the smallest monsters I've seen if they're not. 

He stood up and started to make a his way down the hillside, keeping low to the long grass. 

The corporal followed her superior, as was expected of her. They made thei way closer to the two men, for as they got closer she saw that they were men. When they feared that they might run off if they say two army personal walking towards them, they got down in the mud and crawled on their stomachs to the two men. 

Once they were in ear shot, the reason for their arrival at the designated "high danger" line became clear. 

"Jimmy, pick up his feet and chuck him in this ditch. You've already done the bloody hard pat now will you please finish up cleaning up the mess you've made!" 

"But Danny. They smell and you know we shouldn't be here. What if the army come back." 

"Look Jim. Here's the only place we can hide the bodies ok? You want to go anywhere else we'll get caught, when this all blows over and they find two dead bodies with flesh on them," he paused for a moment whilst Jimmy stopped whispering. The older man, who had been called Danny wiped his hand on his brow. The corporal could see the light from the flood lights glistening on the sweat. "Yes Jimmy in I said flesh. You saw those things, you saw what they did to Ma and if we get caught with bodies we'll get caught for everything and that won't make Ma too happy now will it." 

The corporal glanced sideways to her sergeant. He gave a firm shake of his head. <em>don't interrupt. They can't let us know that we hear.</em> The corporal found this very difficult to to do. She had joined the army to make a difference and now she had to lie back and wait for two murderers walk away. 

Just then, she heard the thud of a body being dropped into a hole in the ground. The diggers started covering the body over and before long they were patting the top of the hole down. 

From beyond the flood lights came a wail. The corporal barely flinched. She had heard the scream far too many times to care anymore, this close to the danger zone and you'd be bound to hear them. The brothers did jumped but she could tell their souls had been hardened by another kind of traumatic event. Probably one that they caused themselves. 

"Hey Danny, do you think they'll be able to like stop the monsters? It's just I heard that they were really hard to kill." 

"Yeah, Jim. They say they are. Apparently, or so Big Al says, they've got just the thing to get rid of the monsters and they're working on it now, even as we speak." 

"No way! Really?" There was a sense of true joy in the mans voice. 

"Well, so Big Al says anyway." 

Another scream, much closer this time. And more ominous. 

The sergeant tapped the corporal on the elbow. He told her to run, to tell the CDs,prof the damaged we'd be in very soon. An attack was on the way. 

She turned to start her crawl back and she snapped a branch. Suddenly the men were frozen to the spot. She could imagine their beady eyes I'm the dark, searching for their prey. 

Another scream, right above them, the monsters were sacking the lights. They were going to make the humans blind. Suddenly she heard the sergeants voice. 

"Sir I implore you to reconsider shooting us. The creatures are coming and we will all surely die if we are left outside." 

"Not all of us. Not if they have some snack to chew on before their main." He gestured towards the barracks. Prang raised his gun at the sergeant and pulled the trigger. The echoing bang was met with a chorus of blood curdling screams the rolled over the grassy hillside. "Now then. A girl soldier. Not too many of them. What you a lesbian?" 

"Put the gun down." She told him sternly. Pointing her own gun right back at him. Jimmy, the younger brother pulled out a gun and pointed it down at the corporal. Danny shrugged his shoulders, as if to say sorry. 

"Looks like you're out numbered love." He walked towards her, apparently ignorant to the screams of the predatorial creatures wailing and crying to one another. "Now normally I'd take my time to kill a jumped up royalist pig scum like you. But I've got to take care of my family." The lights of the barracks had come on in a blinding, dazzling flash of light and men were casting shadows as they ran into position. "My little brother needs to be safe. Sorry love, but family comes first." 

And with that he shot the corporal. And a creature took his head from his torso. jimmy was not long after his older brother.

13th January 2014 (23:35)

The Little Ones

I wish my mummy and daddy were still alive. They'd protect me. 

My daddy was big and strong and my mummy was always there to kiss me better whenever I got hurt. My daddy would beat those mean and scary monsters up and me and mummy would cheer and shout when he won. 

Then we'd get in our jammas and watch a film. We always have a big bag of popcorn but daddy eats the most of it. And them at them end when there's all bits of popcorn all over his shirt me and mummy poke his belly because he's fat. But we love him anyway. 

I was going to have a little baby brother too but he died as we'll with mummy and my daddy. Mummy said that I'd have to be a good big sister and look after him and play with him nicely. And she said that her and daddy loved me so much and that having a baby brother was going to be a great treat for me. 

My daddy had four brothers growing up. And a sister but she died when she was only little. My mummy didn't have any brothers or sisters and she said that she would have liked some so I guess that means that I will as well. 

When the bad monsters came I was at ballet and my mummy and my daddy and my brother who was in mummy's tummy were driving over to get me and we were going to go to the cinema to watch a film on the bigger tv that they have there and we were going to have pizza and ice cream afterwards and daddy said that I could have lots and lots of ice cream because I had been a good girl all week when mummy wasn't feeling very well because my brother was being sick all the time and mummy had to be sick as well. 

But I never got to go to the cinema because then the bad nesters came and my mummy and my daddy and my little baby brother were killed because someone hit into their car and the car rolled off of the road and then they were trapped and then they died and then the monsters came and now I'm just with the other little girls from my ballet and my ballet teacher who is very pretty and is called Lily and she is very nice to all of us. 

She tells us not to be scared that the bad monsters can't get us because we hide out underneath the hall in the basement bit and we are safe because the monsters will never find us. 

When she first a told us this I said that my mummy and daddy weren't safe and now my mummy and daddy and baby brother were dead. She gave me the biggest squeeze after that and kissed me head and told me that I was very smart which I liked. 

The other little girls aren't as brave as me and I have to talk to them a lot otherwise they cry but they like me and I like them. Their mummies and daddies are dead as we'll apart from Harriet's mummy who is with us but she has a bad sore leg and she isn't awake a lot of the time. 

Sometimes we hear the monsters, they have a very scary voice and we have to be really really really quiet when they come otherwise they might try and scare us. So when they come we have to close our eyes and make sure ours mouths are zipped otherwise they might try and jump out on us. My daddy used to try and scare me and he'd jump out behind doorways to try and make me jump but this isn't like when my daddy used to to do, this is really scary. 

Hopefully the monsters will go away soon because I am really hungry and we need to go to the shops to get more food. My teacher Lily says there might not be any food in the shops but I don't believe her because the helps always have food. I think she's just being silly with me.

12th January 2014 (17:05)

First Ones Out Hurt the Most

The men and women gathered closely to the fire. Their bodies shrouded most of the light and the crumbling walls around them did the rest. The wind howled and the rain, the first to fall since the Red Dawn spattered gently on the makeshift roof that they had constructed out old car doors and plastic sheeting. 

They shivered despite the warmth of the fire, fear was nestled deep inside their souls and although there hadn't been sighting of one of the creatures anywhere near them since the city had fallen, they knew there were no guarantees. 

"Mine was my mother. Two days after the Red Dawn. I came over to hers, it was the first time I'd ,a aged to get out of my own apartment. The roof had collapsed in and she was there, trapped under it. She was 96 years old. She never should have died like that." The lady held back her tears and a man, her partner perhaps, gripped her shoulder. 

"None of them did." The man, the unofficial leader of the surviving pack raised his canteen to the open ceiling, up to the fractured sky. "To the First Ones. May their memory live on longer than the creatures do." 

The were mutters from the group, a few chuckles from those who had seen too much death to care anymore. "Any luck with the radio Mark?" 

"None. Same message as every other fucking day." Mark kicked the radio away from him, it skidded across the debris to land upside down on the sheeting. "Stay in your homes. Over and over and over. None of us even have a fucking home anymore. Bullshit."

"Well..." Mark gave a dirty look at the source of the voice. A girl no more than sixteen stared back at him, her timid eyes tinged with despair. "My brother, he works out in the country. Maybe they're not under attack there? The creatures they're only in the cities for now. Maybe he's..." 

"What?! Alive?" Mark spat back. He stood up and started walking away from the group. "Everyone's dead or like us. I don't know what's worse." He kicked the radio again as he left, cracking the casing before he slipped out of the ruined back wall.

11th January 2014 (11:11)

A New Monster

The electrodes dug deep. Deep into he heart of the alien flesh and pumped 10,000 volts deep into the core of the creature. It awoke the monster and it wailed. Like a dying whale it's screams haunted the onlookers. It's body did not shake. The electricity surged through its veins and supercharging its heart. 

The doctor pushed the leaver further forward. Sparks flurried like unfurled flag. The wails of the monster grew loader and soon it was all you could hear. Drowning out the whirring of the machines, of the pencil scratchings of the scientists of the shock gasps. There was nothing but the sound of the dying monster. 

But the experiment was not yet over. 

From behind the protective screen, cladded in radiation suits, crept two scientists. One carried  large spear. They edged closer and closer to their marker, a white line drawn on the thick concrete floor. They turned to the doctor. Their superior gave a nod of his greying head. 

The pair lifted the spear like object, high above their heads. They held it there, quivering under the weight. The electricity raced through the creature, it's screams ringing loud in everyone's hearts. This was it. 

They thrust down hard, stabbing the metal against the armoured skin of the creature. Every test before hadn't been a success. Every attempt resulted in dead scientists, broken spears and an ever more powerful and fearful enemy. 

But the spear dug in deep. It ripped the creatures flesh and tore it apart. The screams stopped. An explosion of mucus erupted to the ceiling, covering everything in the room. It's acidic nature ate through the metal and the concrete. But the the creature was dead. 

Scurrying quickly behind the screen the scientists tore off the melting suits. Their skin was saved for the most part. A few tinged patches and bald spots but at least they hadn't ended up as their dead companions. The greying doctor approached them, wins smile on his face. Finally a speck of hope in his old heart. 

He turned to face the crowd, the scientists who risked their lives. 

"Gentleman. Ladies. There is a way to win this thing."

10th January 2014 (23:55)

Not having sex, it's the end of the world. 

When two bodies are locked in passionate love making like ours were that day, hidden away in the stock cupboard, nothing in the world could tear us apart. 

Nothing of this world at least. When the Burning Red descended from the sky it was as though the world stood still. Collectively every ham took a deep breath, and held it. For a moment the world was silent and all I could hear was the thud thud thud of her heart and the gentle pulse of her thighs wrapped around me. 

And then the world exhaled. The days changed, and suddenly, we're here. 10 days into the end of human kind and all I can think about is having sex one last time. And then another. 

I need help.

9th January 2014 (23:46)

A Beggars Letter 

Our weapons were no match for theirs. Our bullets fell short of their target, pierced the armour playing but never scratched flesh. 

Our men fell in droves. They fell on to feast on the bodies of the fallen. 

Even now I can hear the flesh being torn from the dead. A blood curdling slurp as skin is picked meticulously from flesh and a chomp and grind as a nothing creature tucks into a limb. The slurps of the bone marrow, an entire human eaten within minutes and they're hungry for more. 

They are known as many names. Each country took to calling them something different. We are only known as one thing to them. Dinner. 

And there is nothing we can do. Get out of the cities and they will find us in the country. Go underground and they'll spoke us out like rodents. Go out to sea and they will sink our ships where they moor. 

If they have a weakness, I am yet to learn it. 

Each hour they take more of the world. Each day another billion are dead, eaten and the left overs are all that remains, rotting in the radiation of the burnt out atmosphere.  

Since the first contact, at the start of the year, what feels like a different life, we have been powerless. 

This creature that I send to you now, is the only thing we have. We need your help doctor. Otherwise, humans won't live on Earth for very much longer.

8th January 2014 (23:50)

The Prosico Brothers

I wipe my brow again. Sweat drips heavily from the back of my hand but my mouth is bone dry. I can feel the breath rattling around my chest, but my head feels light and starved of oxygen. 

It's funny the effects the barrel of a gun staring you in the eye can have on you. 

I risk a look into my brothers eye. He's more scared than I am. And so he should be, he knows where the knife is hid. Lucky for me I kept well out of all that business and now, just as long as he tells them, I'll live guilt free. 

"George. I ain't gunna ask you again. Why'd you hide the knife George." 

"I don't know what you're on about Dan. Honestly." 

"No George. See, I know you took it, same way that I knew where the diamonds were." Danny Fareli. That son of a bitch dares to talk to my big brother that way. Now if the tables were turned. Well. He'd be dead, and so would his idiot brother. Of course, I don't say this, I just grit my teeth and try and ignore it. I did have a gun pointed at my face after all. "No Heorge. We can't have you running around with incriminating evidence of my brother can we. Not when every copper is looking for the bugger that stabbed Alex. So, let's do this again. You're going to give us back the knife, or else I will kill your brother, go cross the road and kill your sister and your Ma and the I'm going to kill you." 

George whimpered. My brother the two bit gangsta reduced to years by a foreigner with a gun. 

I find my self staring a little too much at Danny and he notices. 

"Sorry about this Steve. I know it's a hard time paying for siblings mistakes.

 Cleaning up after this one," he gestured to Jim, "for days!" 

"Oh eye" is all I can summon without it being companied  by a torrent of abuse. 

"But you understand. Family comes first." 

I break eye contact with him, something about his open mockery of 

Alex's death rattles me more than any gun threat could. 

"Got nothing to say Dteve? I thought you were the chatty Prosico?" 

"No," I mutter. "That was Alex." 

Danny takes a powerful step towards and suddenly he is clutching the folds of my shirt. "Don't mock me, boy." 

He aims the gun at my head, ramming it into the side of my head. "George!" He shouts at the top of his voice. "No more games, where is the ducking knife!" George didn't say anything for a long time and then his voice cracked a word. The another.

George walked over and bent down at his rivals ear and heard his last ever words. In less than thirty seconds time my only surviving brother would be dead. 

George raised the gun and fired, one, two, three, four, five, six, empty. 

"Danny! Com'on." I beg him, "please with everything's that's going on, we're all under attack! It's not us against you, it's us against them. The attackers. We need to work together and fight back!" 

"No Steve. Family comes first." Danny raises the gun, aims down the sights and gently squeezes the trigger.

7th January (23:55)

Landing

I have for so long dreamed of walking amongst the humans and for them to greet me with open arms. 

I have dreamt for my brothers and I to walk free on the Earth and to learn what it is to be human. To be loved. 

But when my brothers came, they did not welcome us with open arms. They feared us. Loathed out presence, maimed and tortured us. We were reduced to mere science, creatures they could poke and prod rather than their equals. 

The humans we had for so long revered showed their true colours. Showed their true heart and now I know what they are. Monsters.

They attack us and make us fear our own shadows and yet all we have ever wanted is love. 

But no more, not today. We will launch our attack on those who turned their back on us. We will leave their world as barren as their souls. 

When the red sky dawns then the humans shall know their folly. Then they shall know the true cost of their betrayal.

6th January 2014 (00:39 7th January ( Internet was down))

A Poncho for My Bed 

Thud thud thud. The boots pounded on the concrete floor. Thud thud thud. The hand wraps on the metal door. 

Salutes and attention. At ease soldier and sit reps sir. 

The world is under attack. An unknown assailant. Video footage from across the globe. A red light, a burning sky, deteriorating atmosphere, scorched skin and ashend Earth. And then, nothing. 

The blackness hangs like black treacle and masks their decent.

From the stars they fall, in pods of four. To kill all humans, and take the planet for their own. 

We must fight back. And the fight starts here.

5th January 2014 (22:05)

Mamma 

In 1963, I gave birth for the first time. It was a horrid October afternoon and we were all huddled down in the living room listening to the rain and trying to concentrate of the television set. It wasn't much use. 

My husband at the time was sitting down withe just until he got tired enough to go to bed. This was back when he still worked the night shift. 6 weeks on, 6 weeks off. 

This was very well planned on his part as it meant that he could be with both me and the new born for a full month and a half.

Right as the credits started to roll on the tedious documentary that Tony had out on, I went into labour.

Tony rushed me to the hospital in his beaten up van and practically flew me through the hospital doors and intobed.

Tony had spared to expensive. We had gone private and that meant that we could have a private room with plenty of space. I didn't feel rushed and is truly believe it made for a much calmer situation. 

14 hours later and I had a beautiful son. I had never been in so much pain and I never believed that I would be able to bring life into this world. But as I held my new baby, my little baby Danny in my arms, I knew I was going to be the best mama possible to him.

He was so precious, I could hold him in my arms for hours and he wouldn't get heavy. I fell in love the second I saw him. 

Tony cried. I had never seen him cry before. But when he held his son we couldn't stop himself. 

He had to go to work straight after he was born. He left me in the hospital and worked 18 hours straight on now more than an hours sleep. I was ever so proud. 

He came back to the hospital, kissed me on my head and whispered in baby Danny's ear; "we love you more than anything, son." And then, kissing me again he added "I love you mama Ferrilli." 

I miss him more than anything.

4th January 2014 (23:35)

Camping 

The fire crackled in the makeshift put as a new log burnt up. The orange blaze flickered on the faces of the boys and their father as they peered over it. 

They spoke in between mouthfuls of soup or dripping bread but the conversation never strayed far from the subject of food. 

They had been out in the mountains for almost a week and they had another three nights to go. They were up the highest they had been and the freezing cold winds whipped horridly at their faces. They were grateful for the warms soup and the fire to keep the worst of the chill away but they were all in deep agreement that a pizza and central heating would be a much more preferable scenario. 

"Well I don't know about you lot but I'm just happy to be here." Ever since their grandfather passed away their father had been a lot more hands on. They didn't often see him aside from their weekends with him and this was a nice change that they all enjoyed. 

"Us too dad." Brandon, the eldest, was always the first to speak. 

"Thanks boys." They say in silence for a minute or so as they chewed and slurped not their soup. "Right, I've gotta take a leak. Anyone want anything from the tents while I'm up. Brandon, Will, another beer? George, a coke?" 

"No thanks dad." 

"You sure Will?" 

"Yes dad." 

As their father trudged off into the distance Brandon ripped off a bit more bread and started pointing it at Will. 

"What's your problem with him?" 

"Nothing." His brother muttered back, avoiding eye contact. 

"Yeah you do, you've been off with him the whole trip and it's really starting to get on my nerves a bit." 

"Leave it Bran," George chipped in. All he got in return was a sharp look from his brothers. 

"I just don't like the way he springs all this on us and expects us to drop everything cos he wants to make an effort with us." 

"So this is all because you can't be with Megan. What worried she'll run back to Derren if you're not there every second of the day?" 

Will stared hard into the flames. 

"BOYS!" They heard their fathers voice off in the distance. Behind the rocks and from across the valley. His voice bounced across the empty surroundings like a Ping pong ball. A few seconds of silence and then again "BOYS!" There was more urgency in his tone when he called again and all three of his sons went running to his fathers aid. 

The ran off in the direction he had headed knowing that he wouldn't have gone to far. 

"I swear... If he..." George panted as he tried to get the final words out in one hit. "If he has done another poo and he's calling us to show us it again.... I'm not gunna be happy!" The three of them laughed as they ran but as they clambered over a low rock their laughter stopped in their throat.

In the horizon, the sky burned red. Darker than any sunset and more sickly than any colour on Earth. The sheer sight of it reduced George to his knees. 

Their father was a little way ahead of them, arresting himself on a rock lest he collapse like his youngest son. 

"Dad..." Will began. 

"...what is that?" Brandon asked. Just then the sky flickered and the red light became the sky. Suddenly Brandon was sweating as though it were a summers day. 

"Run..." Their father said. Almost inaudible at first. "Run." He repeated and the boys knew he wasn't joking. They had only ever seen their father scared once before in their lives and that was when their mum had kicked him out of the house. This made that time look like the happiest he had ever been. "GO!" He bellowed. 

They turned and ran but they ha no idea where to. The only way was down and their car was at least an hours hike down treehouse pathways and slippery slopes. 

The burning sky was on them before they moved an inch. 

Before they knew it, everything was black.

3rd January 2014 (23:25)

Attack!

"I really love you man... You know that yeah? Like..." A waft of sick pulls at my nose hairs and threatens to linger all night. I turn away, breath the grease filled air if the chippy and laugh.

"I know mate. Com'on let's get you back to Ella, she'll never forgive me if I leave you out here all night." 

"You're.... You're..." I pat him on the back and hoist his arm around my shoulder. His legs are weak and I drag him more than walk with him. "Man... Good." He seems to sober up long enough to point into the sky and with a drunken eureka he proclaims " A good man!" Before his head slumps against his chest and he's collapsing forward before I have the chance to stop him. He lands with a thud. 

"Some stag-do Tommy." I say as I sit down on the floor next to him. Plenty past experiences have taught me that he'll be up fairly soon, few minutes on the cold ground is just what the doctor ordered.

I look up to the sky and watch the stars. The moon is half fall and starting to fade out behind the clouds that threaten to turn the stars off. 

Tommy mumbles to himself in his unconscious state and I shift myself to make sure he wasn't drowning in his own sick. I could imagine the best man speech being given a kick up the arse if if let the groom die. Not exactly fulfilling the job description. 

I try and suppress a yawn but I can feel that it is already coming. The tiredness of the worst week of my life comes at me luck a truck. There's no escaping the impact and suddenly I'm lost to sleep. 

Before I know it there's a fiery redness in the sky, brighter than the sun and more blinding that any light. The wholes sky was a wash with the flames and it devoured the clouds like cotton candy.  

I could feel the burning pin prickly heat and the swear dropped from my brow. 

I am suddenly away of someone screaming my name. 

I turn and see Karen, mouthing something. My ears can't focus. There's a beating dream and... Engines engines louder and more powerful than anything I've ever experience. It feels like a wave pressing down on me and I struggle to breath. 

"Jacob, run!" It almost comes from within my head. Karens voice who I have longed so dearly to hear again. Paniced and fearful. 

We scope Tommy up. Adrenaline making him lighter than his fat load might suggest. 

And then we're running for cover.

2nd January 2014 (20:55)

The Farelli Brothers

"What do you mean you've lost it?!" He smacked jimmy hard across the cheek with the back of his hand. "How could you have lost it, it was tied to your god damn hand for Christs sake!" 

"I'm sorry Danny. I don't know what I can say." 

"What you can say Jim... What you can say is that you haven't lost my god damn diamond and that this was all just a big mis-fucking-understanding!" Danny strikes Jommy again, harder this time, sending him clattering off the back of his chair clutching at his throbbing red cheek. 

The office was a tip. The guys who had robbed Jimmy had come for more than just the diamonds. The diamonds were nothing to Danny in truth, collateral damage that he could blame someone for. What he had lost was much more valuable to him. 

"Are you crying?" Danny peered down at his little brother. He was an idiot, Danny knew it, he had always known it. He beat up enough kids when they were younger because of it. But he loved him despite all his faults. 

Danny held out a hand for his brother, and lifted him off the floor. He squeezed his shoulder tight and settled him down in his own chair. "I'' sorry Jim. You know my temper." 

Jimmy sat in silence and just nodded. 

"You know I don't mean it. Not against you. It's those thieving bas'tads. They took it Jim." 

"I know Danny, I'm sorry, I didn't think they'd be able to get me out of those cuffs, I thought it's be alright tied to me. It's just I'm so tired Dan. Marbella has been keeping me up all night she's teething' you know?" 

"I know Jim. But it's not the diamonds I'm worried about. It's the knife." 

"The knife?" Jim asked with a complete air of innocence. Danny smiled at him, he was a fully grown adult, a wife and a kid but he was still his kid brother. 

"Yeah Jim. The knife...." Danny passed the office searching under the papers that were strewn amongst his desk. He knew it wouldn't be there, he'd checked countless times already. "When I had you kill Alex Prosico last week...." Danny waved his hands in front if his body, trying to grasp the words from mid air. "I hadn't had a chance to clean it properly Jim. His bloods all over it and now they have it." 

"Who Dan? What?" 

"The Prosico's and if they go to the police Jim, they'll have you locked up before your daughters first tooth makes it's way through her gums." 

Jimmy started to cry. 

"Jim, we're gunna have to do the job for them. It's the only way." 

"But we promised ma we wouldn't rob no more banks." He sobbed. 

"I know we did Jim," he said as he patted his baby brother on the back. "I know we did."