A.R.: Beyond the Universe
Chapter 5 - The Attack

It takes 3 days before Alex get’s a reply to his email. All it says is: “Why the interest?” Alex replies that he has had several dreams, the latest closely describing the missing stars, just like what is found on the website. He hits the send button.

Almost immediately, he gets a response: “Please call ASAP” followed by a long list of numbers.

Alex finds it odd that the numbers are not the normal seven numbers, but several more. He goes to the phone, picks up the receiver, and dials the numbers. After several rings, the very soft sound of a woman’s voice answers.

“Are you the one asking about the prophecy?”

“Yes.”

“We need to meet. Wait there at home. I’ll send transportation immediately.”

“Transportation?” asks Alex.

“Yes, Mr. Rogers. It will arrive shortly.”

“How did you know my last name? I never said it. Who are you?”

“All in good time. For now, we have to meet; you need to be protected.”

“Protected? From what?”

“Transportation will pick you up in 20 minutes. You will be driven to a private location where you will board another transport. En route, you will receive more information. You will be gone for an extended period. Do not pack-we’ll have everything you need here. And yes, you can and should bring your dog. He is an important part of this. Do you understand?”

“Yes, but…” Click. The woman hangs up.

“They’ve got to be kidding,” he tells MacGuyver. He looks at the clock and sees that it’s almost 8:00 p.m. Time for a little snack. As he heads for the kitchen, MacGuyver quickly catches on and follows him closely, anticipating his evening snack. Alex looks down at the dog and gives him a dog bone from the pantry. The dog snatches it up and trots to a corner to eat his treat. Alex opens the freezer and gets out the ice cream. He goes back to the pantry and opens the box with the ice cream cones in it. He opens the inside bag, removes the clip that keeps it sealed, and pulls out a cone. It has been several years since he had ice cream cones at home. On his last trip to the grocery store, he passed the display of ice cream cones and made the decision to get himself a treat. He found an ice cream flavor that would make a pretty good cone--it is called “Moose Tracks.” It is vanilla ice cream with ripples of fudge and drops of chocolate covered peanut butter--all the stuff a growing 50 year-old-man needs.

He opens the ice cream container, grabs a spoon, and fills the cone. Then he puts the remaining cones back in the pantry, replaces the cover to the ice cream, puts it back in the freezer, and goes back to his recliner. The ice cream cone is rather small. He has just enough time to finish the cone before he hears the front door bell ring.

Alex gets up and opens the door to see two men and a woman standing there.

“Mr. Rogers?”

“Yes…”

“Are you ready?” asks the woman.

“Ready? Ready for what?” Alex responds.

“My employer talked to you earlier. Are you ready to leave?”

“She was serious?”

“Yes, Mr. Rogers. We need to leave now before you are traced. Get the dog and let’s go. My orders are to bring you and the dog, nothing else.”

At that point, the two men behind her walk into the house and wait just behind where Alex is standing. “Get your dog, Mr. Rogers. We need to go NOW!” the woman quickly states. Alex senses urgency in her voice. That is when he notices two more men outside standing in the front yard with what appear to be large guns drawn. They are just standing there and watching, and not looking at the house but away from it, as if looking for something or someone else to show up. He turns to see that the two men inside his house also have rather odd-looking, large revolvers drawn.

Alex is realizing that these people are serious and starts to wonder what he has gotten himself into. He heads to the back room where he knows MacGuyver has gone after his evening snack. He bends down, picks up the surprised dog, and grabs his leash. He starts to fill a plastic bag with dog food. “I’ll take care of it,” one of the men tells him.

Stunned, Alex heads back to the living room and grabs his jacket, while still holding his dog and the leash. He tries to grab his set of keys. “No need, sir. We’ll be staying here until you get back. You won’t need them.”

The man turns to open the front door. Just as the door starts to open, a small window at the top of the door shatters, then another.

“We have shots! Check the trees!” yells the man to a mic on his wrist and dives away from the door into Alex, knocking him & MacGuyver to the floor.

The man pushed Alex and MacGuyver away from the front door and tries to close it, but get shot in the shoulder. He grabs the door and forces it closed.

“You OK?” he asks.

“What happened?” the woman asks, as she comes from the back of the house, carrying a small bundle of items.

“We got shot at!!!” Alex yells. “Why is someone trying to shoot at me?”

“They are not trying to shoot at you, Mr. Rogers. They want to shoot us and take you” the woman answers.

“Take me? What for?”

“That we do not know. We were told you would be in danger, to pick you up and get you to safety. Red One, what do you see out there?” she asks to her mic on her wrist.

“We have at least four shooters in the trees, two on roofs” came a reply in her earpiece.

“Keep them busy. We’re going to make a run for the car. Do not let them take Mr. Rogers. Understand?” she responds.

“Affirmative” the man responds. “Count to ten and run for it. We’ll do what we can.”

Outside the house, the two men standing guard have taken defensive positions, designed to allow them to shoot in many directions. From the front seat of the large SUV emerges another man, gun drawn. Several shots hit the vehicle near him. He crouches down to protect himself. He slowly raises his head just enough to look over the SUV to see if he can see anything in the dark and the trees. He barely has enough time to duck when he sees a flask of light in a tree across the street. As the bullet whizzes past his head, he raises his gun and fires. A sound of something heavy falling through the tree catches his ears.

“Ten!” yells one of the guards protecting the front of the house. The door swings open and the two men start running for the SUV, followed closely by Alex with MacGuyver and the woman. One of the two men falls dead in his track half way to the car. The other man dives to the car for protection. The woman grabs Alex by his shoulder and pushes him to the ground just as several more bullets zip past him, creating small craters in the house’s siding and lawn.

MacGuyver, being thrown loose when Alex hit the ground, tries to run back to the front door of the house. Several places on the ground in front of him explode and the little dog changes his mind and makes a quick 180-degree turn, running as fast as his little legs will carry him. He heads straight for Alex and the open back door of the SUV. Alex sees MacGuyver, makes a jump for the SUV and dives in, followed quickly by MacGuyver, who starts hi leap 5 feet from the SUV and lands on Alex. A Man already in the back seat slams the door shut.

“Get in here” he yells to the woman, who dives into the open front door and slams it shut behind her.

“Get us out of here!” she yells to the driver.

The windows of the SUV are being pelted by bullets, but the glass does not break. The men in the yard are returning fire as the driver sends the car racing down the street. Alex is thrown into the floor as the car violently goes backwards leaving the driveway. The driver slams on the brakes and the front of the car swings around. Before the car can come to a stop, the driver slams his foot on the accelerator and the huge engine roars to life. All four tires send smoke into the air as they spin on the pavement, until they get some traction and the car speeds down the street.

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