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‘Christ, Tom! You nearly scared me half
to death suddenly shouting out like that, what do think you were doing?’ complained Alec.

Tom though, just grabbed his hand and Stuart’s next to him.

‘Form a circle!’ he ordered as they all a
t first just shrugged their shoulders.

‘Oh
brother what’s going on now?’ groaned Joan.

‘What? Are we having a séance now?’ commented Jac
k ‘all right I’m up for a laugh’ he added as he grabbed hold of Stuart’s hand. ‘No squeezing too tight’ he joked as Stuart just shook his head at him and then laughed.

Jenny
immediately chose to sit next to Alec and she just smiled away at him as she quickly grabbed hold of his hand and then Andre just shrugged his shoulders and sat next to her and held her other hand.

‘Oh what the hell’
shrugged Joan as she finally sat down and completed the circle.

The moment all their h
ands were connected they simply all ‘
knew
’ exactly why Tom was there.

‘How the hell did you do that?’ uttered Stua
rt as he immediately broke free ‘Christ! It was like an instant download right into my head!’

‘What the hell happened?’ queried Jack
‘wow, this is awesome technology! If this is some sort of secret, experimental communication system our government is working on, then it’s truly amazing!’

‘That was incredible
!’ smiled Joan ‘I know your name, where you come from in England and exactly why you’re here. You’re here to reach the very centre of the Migrators, but why?’ she puzzled.

‘Even
I
don’t really know that yet’ Tom shook his head ‘I just know I have to get there that’s all and it’s vitally important’ he shrugged.

Alec meanwhile, was quite tak
en with Jenny and he just sat there still holding onto her hand.

‘I think you can let go
of my hand now’ she giggled as Alec suddenly looked embarrassed as he finally released his grip.

‘But how exactly does this work?’ puzzled Stuart ‘it’s fascinating’ he enthused.

‘To be honest
, I don’t even know that myself yet’ shrugged Tom.

‘Maybe they feel this technology could influence the Migrators
somehow?’ pondered Jack.

‘
Who exactly do you work for? Is it for British Intelligence?’ queried Jack.

‘No, it’s nothing like that, I don’t work for anyone’ shrugged Tom.

‘You don’t want to tell us, Monsieur, we understand, you are not allowed to say’ nodded Andre.

‘I’m still not sure about this’ shrugged Stuart ‘even with this experimental
‘mind control’ or ‘hypnotism’ thing your may have going on, just the same I don’t fancy us dropping you off in the middle of the Migrators.’

‘No, neither do I’ agreed Joan.

‘But you know that you
must
!’ insisted Tom.

Jack looked worried now as unusually
for him he just sat there in silence.

‘What’s
wrong, Jack?’ asked Joan.

‘No, I was just thinking
, that soon we might want to grab any opportunity we can against these things, however unlikely it may seem’ then he looked up. ‘You all know as well as I do our defences won’t hold the Migrators for very long. Let’s face it, we’ll do well to last until nightfall. We won’t be able to see a thing then. So unless they stop at night, we’ll be done for then’ he commented sincerely.

‘I know’ nodded Stuart ‘and the moment they start flyi
ng we’ll be in even bigger trouble everywhere then, as nowhere in the world will then be safe from them.’

‘Flying?’ que
ried Alec ‘I didn’t realise the Migrators could fly?’

‘Not yet, Monsieur, but soon’ nodded Andre as he looked
quite worried.

‘Christ! Then we
really are done for!’ uttered Alec just saying out aloud what they were really all thinking.

‘You should see them, Alec, I’ve never s
een anything like it in my life’ uttered Jack as he described the Migrator’s relentless advance. ‘They cover entire buildings and blacken or redden the entire ground. There are simply
millions
of them out there now. I seriously wonder how any defences can stop the advance of these things, especially when you realise how virtually indestructible their bodies are.’

‘
But can’t our armies just nuke them or fire our rockets at them?’ queried Alec.

‘They’ve tried everything, Alec’ explained Stuart
. ‘The Migrators can turn off our electricity and even make lighting a fire impossible. No generators work, no battery run devices work, we can’t even light a fire or a candle to see anything at night, absolutely
nothing
works around these things’ explained Stuart ‘and we’ve tried every kind of weapon you could imagine against them, guns, nuclear missiles, conventional missiles, germ warfare to insecticides. Simply
nothing
works against the Migrators. They are virtually indestructible!
’

‘These creatures a
re simply designed for warfare’ nodded Andre ‘whereas we aren’t.’

‘We even wondered if certain metals may block w
hatever it is they use to neutralise our electricity. We hoped we may be able to encase our electrical devices in a certain metal casings that may make them work, but nothing we’ve tried works yet’ explained Joan.

‘That’s why we’re rest
ricted to old technology like basically firing super sharp spears at them’ explained Stuart.

‘NASA recently designed a
n air pressure engine that powers both our weapons and my transport’ explained Jack.

‘And what
is
your transport?’ puzzled Tom.

‘
Oh yes, you don’t know do you?’ smiled Jack ‘it’s a blimp!’

‘What’s that?’
Tom puzzled.

‘He means an airship’ smiled Stuart ‘you’ll have to excuse him
, he’s speaking American’ he laughed.

‘Both me and Andre pilot it’ Jack
smiled.

‘I wondered how you could fly something
over the Migrators’ smiled Tom, but then he appeared more serious ‘but there’s no time to loose, we must leave immediately.’

‘Hold your horses!’ smil
ed Stuart ‘we can’t leave today its beginning to get dark.’

‘So
? You can fly in the dark surely?’ puzzled Tom.

‘Yes, but w
e can’t see where we are going because the Migrators stop us from lighting up any lights’ he explained.

‘Not to mention somehow blocking out any light from the night sky over the dead zone’ added Joan.

‘They can block out the night sky?’ queried Tom.

‘Yes’ nodded Andre ‘so you se
e, we can’t see anything at all at night.’

‘
In the pitch dark, the airship could just sail into the ground and that would end your mission a bit quickly wouldn’t it’ added Jack as he looked at Tom curiously.

‘We’ll leave
at first light tomorrow if that’s all right with you?’ suggested Stuart.

Tom went to speak
, but then he paused for a moment as he gazed out into the distance.

‘Do you speak to General Iram at all?’ he
then asked.

‘Yes, I speak to him quite often’ exp
lained Stuart ‘why?’

‘Because he needs to know the Migr
ators are planning to attack our wall defences just before dawn tomorrow. They will extend the dead zone area this evening, but will withhold letting you know that fact in an attempt to fool you into thinking that the hidden barrier still exists so as to keep our people prisoners there’ Tom informed them.

‘But why would they do that?’ puzzled Jack.

‘Because
they know the moment your lights go out you will know they are coming. I think it takes them time to extend their hidden barrier, that’s why we need to get our trapped people out somehow before dawn’ explained Tom.

‘Are you telling me the
invisible barrier is no longer there?’ puzzled Stuart.

‘Yes
!’ smiled Tom.

‘Are you
absolutely
sure
about this, Tom, as we don’t want to tell people it’s safe only for them to end up being disintegrated?’ queried Stuart.

‘No, it’s safe
, but we will need to hurry to get all the people through, before the Migrators attack us just before dawn tomorrow’ emphasised Tom urgently
.

‘Christ! Then we need to get this message ou
t and passed all along the line immediately’ announced Stuart as he jumped up and ran off to tell one of the Captains in charge.

Then he paused for moment.

‘That’s why we could all
see the people trapped inside’ he suddenly realised ‘it’s because the invisible barrier is no longer there! Oh, what an idiot! I should have realised this before, it’s so obvious’ uttered Stuart as he now ran up to the defence wall.

‘TELL ALL THE TRAPPED PEOPLE THE
INVISIBLE BARRIER IS NO LONGER WORKING!’ Stuart now shouted.

Immediately, the
soldiers began shouting to the people to come forwards, but they were all too afraid to move.

‘TELL THE
M TO THROW SOMETHING AT THE MIGRATOR’S WALL IF THEY DON’T BELIEVE US!’ Stuart shouted.

Soon after
, a few of the trapped people threw bits of wood at the spot where the invisible barrier was and they all became excited as nothing at all happened!

Seconds later
, it was a veritable stampede as people all rushed towards the defence walls as the soldiers all opened up gaps for them to climb through!

A message was soon passed to General Iram who immediately called for every vehicle possible to be driven through to pick people up and bring them through
just as quickly as possible.

‘No
troops are to leave the defence walls!’ he ordered as many soldiers then ran back to their posts.

General Iram had ordered a special observation post to be built where he could use a loud hailer
and he now manned this himself as he gave out the orders.

‘W
e need every available volunteer to drive any truck, van, anything we can lay our hands on, but we must get the people trapped in the dead zone through before the lights suddenly go out!’ he announced urgently. ‘Pass this message all the way down the line!’ he ordered.

In a mass movement of people that must have resembled something from the Bible’s
‘Exodus’ over a million people were rapidly moved through gaps in the defence wall to the relative safety on the other side. In a stroke of extra good luck, General O’Dowd’s horses that had all bolted upon the onset of battle also came through. So many people were able to hitch a ride on horseback to further speed up the process.

‘The horses all knew where the inv
isible barrier was’ one man informed them as he made his way through to the other side.

Stuart overheard him and just shook his head.

‘Then we could have
just used animals to tell us where the hidden barrier was all along? Oh gosh, why didn’t we think of that?’ he smiled.

In truth, the whole process took until late into the night until no one else could be found and the order was then given to
then close up the defences once more and make them fully secure.

Just before the walls were sealed though, General Iram suddenly had an idea. He was watching the people all coming through and looking up ahead at the potential battlefield.

‘LEAVE ALL THE VEHICLES ON THE OTHER SIDE!’ he ordered.

‘I beg your
pardon, General?’ queried the sergeant.

‘The vehicles will be of no use to us anyway once the Migrators stop them working
, so they might just as well form obstacles out there on the battlefield to slow them all down’ he explained.

‘That’s a brilliant idea
, General’ smiled the sergeant ‘I’ll pass that instruction all along the line’ he nodded.

‘Leave them well out though’ added the General ‘we don’t want the Migrators using them to leap over the defence walls.’

‘Will do, Sir, I’l
l pass that along’ saluted the sergeant before he immediately dashed off.

As he watched the endless lines of p
eople all moving through, Stuart just shook his head and then just smiled at Tom.

‘
I don’t know how you knew this, Tom, but you’ve saved an awful lot of lives out there today.’

‘We were just lucky, Stuart’ nodded Tom ‘now we need to warn General Iram how the Migrators intend to attack
us just before dawn tomorrow
. So remember, that means
previous to that, you will have no lights with which to even be able to see them coming’ he explained.

‘Oh Christ
!’ uttered Stuart ‘then we’ll need to tell General Iram straight away!’

‘Hold on!’ suddenly interrupte
d Joan as she now stared at Tom ‘quite how do you know all this stuff?’

‘Tom just breathed out a large sigh as he wondered just wh
at to tell them.

‘He just
does
!’ answered Alec. ‘Don’t ask me how he does it, but if he says this will happen, then it
will
happen’ he insisted.

‘Well that’s good enough for me after what you did earlier, Tom’ nodded Stuart ‘I
certainly don’t want to take any chances’ he smiled.

‘Our only hope
then is to set up some traps that will fire off automatically in order to alert our troops and slow the Migrators down. We need to instruct our troops to be ready so the very moment they hear the traps go off they will need to fire off their guns and keep them firing non-stop’ suggested Jack urgently.