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Suddenly Andre gasped as Jack
finally levelled the airship out and he was then able to gaze forwards.

‘
Oh, God save them, those poor souls!’ Andre uttered in shock ‘just look at how many more Migrators are still to reach them!’

As they all began to
turn around and gaze forwards, they now all just stared as they looked at the Migrators still to reach the human’s defences.

T
he Migrators stretched for as far forwards as anyone could even see.

‘My God!’ uttered Stuart in complete shock
‘we don’t stand a chance!’

‘
Oh, Dad!’ uttered Jenny as she began to cry.

They were
all completely shocked now as the sheer massive numbers of Migrators still to reach their defences meant they could see little way all the people fighting so valiantly down on the ground, could possibly win their battle against such impossible odds.

‘Those poor beggars, there’s simp
ly no way they can defeat all
these
’ uttered Jack.

‘They may hold out until night time, but I don’t give them a hope in hells chance after that’ agreed Stuart as he just stared out over the mass of writhing, moving Migrators as they turned the whole landscape black
and somewhat appropriately he thought, blood red.

Stuart now held Jenny in his arms as she
looked fearful.

‘They
’re all going to die aren’t they?’ she uttered.

‘We don’t know that, Jenny, there may
yet be a way to stop these creatures’ he told her quietly.

‘The defences are holding at the moment’ remarked Alec positively as he tried to lighten the mood of everyone on board.

‘This must be m
an’s finest hour’ commented Andre thoughtfully.

‘Why’s that?’ puzzled Joan
.

Andre pointed back towards the battle.

‘Because we have everyone all fighting side by side’ he concluded proudly.

‘We have black, white, Asian, Muslims, Jews, Hindus, Christians, every colour, faith and walk of life and religious belief on Earth’ Andre commented soberly ‘and they’re all fighting side by side and bravely dying together.’

‘Shame it took something like this to make it happen though’ commented Jack thoughtfully.

‘We finally got it right just before we went extinct’ added Stuart with an ironic smile ‘our finest hour.’

Looking back
, they could still see the now only four heights of guns as they fired rapidly at the ever growing numbers of Migrators now in front of them. The Migrator bodies now piled high in front of the guns, but looking round the Migrator numbers still to be fought seem to now go on literally forever!

Even at the airship’s tremendous height they could still see no end to the numbers of Migrators left still to charge at the guns.

‘They’re going to take over the world aren’t they?’ commented Andre.

‘Look
ing down there, I reckon they already
have
’ replied Jack despondently.

‘And they haven’t
even started flying yet’ added Joan.

‘Thes
e things are just unstoppable. There’s no way we’ll ever win against these things. Just look at them, there must be millions and millions of them down there. Jack’s right, it looks to me like they’ve taken over the world already’ commented Alec solemnly, now sounding very depressed.

‘No, i
t’s not going to happen, Alec’ Tom smiled calmly as he looked down at the Migrators himself.

‘What’s that, Tom?
’ asked Stuart.

Tom looked at Jenny
and he just turned to her.

‘It’s all right, Jenny, we can still win this battle’ he assured her
confidently.

‘Yeah,
you and who’s army?’ commented Jack sarcastically.

‘I just need to reach roughly the centre of all the Migrators’ Tom replied.

‘But we still don’t ev
en know what it is you intend upon doing?’ puzzled Stuart.

‘You’d never
understand it even if I told you’ answered Tom quietly.

‘Try us!’ commented Stuart ‘we’re here watching what could be the end of mankind’s existence on Earth at the hands of some alien monster. Do think anything you say
now could surprise us?’

Tom just looked at him and smiled.

‘I think unknowingly
, you lot and your little airship will eventually save the world from these creatures’ Tom commented positively.

‘But how exactly
are we going to do that?’ puzzled Joan. ‘Now I’m all for ‘positive thinking’ but you have to separate that from being completely delusional’ she commented. ‘Quite how is this ‘miracle’ about to come about then?’ she asked.

‘By getting me
to where I have to go’ smiled Tom.

‘But you’re not making
any sense, man’ commented Jack.

‘It’s like the entire purpose of my life, Jack, was to reach this point’ explained Tom as Jack just shook his head
at him.

‘Just my luck to get lumbered with a complete nut job
right at the end of the world’ he uttered despondently. ‘I could have been in a bar somewhere on a Caribbean island with a beautiful girl on my arm, now
that
would be the way to go!’ he smiled.

‘You’re
here though aren’t you’ smiled Tom as they all now pondered on that reality.

‘Anywhere is better than being down there with
them
’ commented Jenny.

They had now been flying
in the airship for some time and the battle was now too far back for them to even see it anymore.

All they could see now was a very overcast and dull sky and the Migrators all moving below them, covering what seemed to be every inch of ground and every part of every building for as far as they could see.

Just then
, something whistled through the air as it just smacked on the underside of the airship’s cabin!

‘WHAT THE HELL WAS
THAT
?’ shouted Jack.

Just then
, something whistled through the air again and it grabbed onto Alec and pulled him towards the very edge of the passenger cabin and very nearly dragged him completely overboard!

‘CUT
ME FREE!’ screamed Alec as he panicked as the airship also started being dragged downwards!

Several of them rushed to grab one of the large knives
that Jack had ensured had been stashed on board and they all hacked at the hook like object that was still attached to the ground, until it eventually relinquished its grip and Alec fell to the floor just relieved to have been rescued.

‘I’M TAKING HER TO A
N EVEN HIGHER ALTITUDE!’ shouted Andre as he rapidly took to the controls.

‘Are you all right, Alec?’ asked Tom as he checked on his friend.

‘Yes, I think so, but blimey
, that was close. It almost dragged me overboard’ Alec commented as he blew a huge sigh of relief to still be onboard.

‘EVERYONE HOLD ON! IT’S GOING TO BE STEEP!’ shouted Andre.

‘EVERYONE KEEP AWAY FROM THE SIDES
, IN CASE THEY SEND UP ANYMORE OF THOSE THINGS!’ shouted Stuart as everyone crawled quickly into the centre of the airship’s cabin as they all just lay on the floor and held on the best they could.

After a few minutes
Andre had the airship levelled up again.

‘Is everyone OK?’ he asked
looking very concerned.

‘Yes’ they all gasped back in relief.

‘They’re evolving aren’t they
?’ commented Joan quietly to Stuart as he just grimly nodded his head.

‘I reckon we’re all right to look over s
ides again now’ commented Andre ‘I doubt if they can reach up here.’

Then as they gaz
ed all around them they were even more shocked.

‘Is it me or does it look
worse the higher we get?’ asked Joan as she looked all around her.

‘It looks like they cover every inch o
f ground now doesn’t it?’ nodded Stuart.

‘I wonder where they
really came from?’ pondered Alec.

‘From outer space of course’ answered Stuart.

‘Reall
y?’ queried Alec.

‘Their spaceship is massive, it’s parked right at the other end as for some reason they
only seem to travel out of it in a single direction’ pondered Stuart.

‘Perhaps they’re going all round the world to get back to it
again’ suggested Alec.

‘I wouldn’t be a bit surprised’ nodded Jack. ‘You think the building is definitely their space vehicle then, Stuart?’ he asked
curiously.

‘Don’t you?’ Stuart
smiled back ‘I reckon we couldn’t detect it even as massive as it is, as they can prevent our satellites and stuff working just the same as they do with everything else of ours.’

‘It’s hard to imagine what kind of
propulsion system could possibly get something that large into space’ considered Joan.

‘It suggest
s they’re technically way ahead of us as’ added Andre.

‘Another ten minutes and that will probably do it’ commented Tom as he
calmly changed the subject.

‘If you can start going lower, Andre, please’ asked Tom.

‘You’re joking, Monsieur? Have you not just witnessed your own friend almost being dragged over the side?’ queried Andre now looking
quite astonished.

‘Well, be fine, Andre
, I assure you’ replied Tom calmly.

‘What is it you are going to do again?’ questioned Joan
‘you’re going to just pray or something?’

‘I’
m going to destroy the Migrators of course’ replied Tom in a calm, matter of fact manner.

‘Oh I wish I could believe that!’ uttered Joan.

‘You’re going to destroy the Migrators’ laughed Stuart ironically ‘quite
how
exactly?’

‘How low do you need
me to go exactly?’ Andre suddenly interrupted.

‘Just low enough for me to get down there
, onto the ground’ smiled Tom.

‘You
are
joking? You can’t be really
serious
about going down there?’ asked Joan, looking round at Tom as if he’d gone completely mad.

‘No, I’m not mad
, Joan’ smiled Tom ‘I know exactly what I’m doing.’

As they went lower
, so the high numbers of Migrators came into view once again.

‘Oh, you can’t really be serious, Tom, they’ll kill you instantly
if you show your face down there, look there are simply millions of the buggers’ uttered Alec.

‘Yes and only one of me
’ laughed Tom ‘and yet, I’m more dangerous to them than they’ll ever know.’

‘Alec
’s right, Tom, you can’t be serious about going through with this?’ argued Stuart.

‘I know now what my destiny always was’ smiled Tom ‘I guess I
really knew it the moment I met the Pope.’

‘You met the Pope?’ puzzled Andre.

‘If you head for that bare area over there
, Andre, then that’s perfect’ suggested Tom as he pointed the way. ‘How do I get off this thing by the way?’ he queried.

‘There’s a rope ladder, Tom, but why on earth would you want to use it?’ puzzled Andre, now looking fairly alarmed.

‘Look, don’t do this, Tom, its madness
’ suggested Jack ‘whatever plan you think you have, it’ll
never
work.’

‘Dad, d
on’t let him do this’ insisted Jenny as Tom readied himself to climb down the rope ladder as the airship dropped lower.

‘It’ll be all right, Jen
ny, you’ll see’ Tom assured her ‘remember what Jack told you’ he smiled.

‘Well I
don’t remember saying someone should commit suicide by doing something as crazy as
this
’ commented Jack.

‘No, of co
urse not’ smiled Tom ‘you said to Jenny ‘even in the midst of the worst hell on Earth, you’ll
still
find something good.’

‘H
ow the hell did you know I said that?’ puzzled Jack.

‘Oh, I don’t k
now about this?’ agonised Joan as she now ran her fingers tensely through her hair.

Tom smiled now as Jack helped Andre to allow the ai
rship to move over the clear patch of land Tom had spotted.

‘Jack, Andre’ smiled Tom ‘look afte
r yourselves and don’t crash this airship whatever you do!’

‘You’re welcome, my f
riend’ Jack replied as he went over to shake Tom’s hand.

‘Stuart,
we can’t really let him do this, can we?’ questioned Joan as she felt increasingly uncomfortable with what they were about to do.

‘What choice have we, Joan?’ replied Stuart
. ‘The world currently has ‘no hope’ as far as I can see, maybe this is the hope we need?’ he pondered.

‘
But you can’t really believe that?’ questioned Joan. ‘Shouldn’t we stop him?’ she replied, looking on in anguish.

‘But if not this? What else
can offer us any hope of ever defeating these monsters?’ questioned Stuart, looking tired and stressed out himself. ‘Maybe man’s last throw of the dice
is
down to his belief? For if not that, what else has he?’

‘DAD?’ now shouted Jenny ‘you can’t be serious
about this? You have to stop him, Dad’ she uttered with tears now running down her face.

Then she turned towards Alec.

‘Alec? Y
ou told me Tom was your best friend, you can’t let him do this, you just
can’t
!’ she pleaded.