Chapter 1

Aliens are invading. The Earth is doomed. The end of the world is a bad time to fall in love.

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Invasion is a YA alien invasion love story. If you love young romance, alien invasions, coming-of-age stories, and non-stop action, then grab Invasion today. You can find more of my work on my website.

Aliens are invading. The Earth is doomed. The end of the world is a bad time to fall in love.

Joshy is a normal kid from an average town suffering through a mediocre road trip with his family. He's positive this vacation will be just as bland and uninteresting as every one that came before it.

Then he meets Debra. She's everything he's ever wanted in a girl. She's smart, funny, and radiant. They love all the same things, right down to the same obscure comic books. There's a definite spark between them.

Literally.

The moment they finally kiss, a bolt of electricity from Debra's mouth knocks Joshy unconscious. He wakes up to a shocking truth.

Debra is an alien. Worse yet, another race called the Globorians are about to invade Earth and enslave all of humanity. Now, Joshy and Debra must race against time to stop the Globorian plot and save the planet before it's too late.

Paid subscribers can access the entire archive of this series from the beginning, along with other series and every article I’ve ever written. If you aren’t a paid subscriber, you can access the archive for free with a 7-day trial.

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Joshy Carter didn’t much like the idea of spending his summer traveling across the country with his parents. Not that he had much going on back home. He’d never had much success making friends, so there was nobody to miss. Still, his room had his PlayStation and his sleep—his precious, precious sleep—and solitude.

On the road there was nothing except for his family, his sister, and—

“The open road, Joshy!” his father, Bill, said. “There’s nothing like it.”

“Actually, there are tons of things like it. There’s nothing literally everywhere. This is the part I hate in video games. Endless nothingness until you reach a town. At least in games, you can fast travel. Can’t do that here, though. We gotta endure every excruciating second.”

      Josh folded his arms across his chest. “And I hate being called Joshy,” he added. “I’m eighteen years old. I’m not a child anymore. Like literally, I am no longer a child in the eyes of the government, even. Pretty much everywhere, I am an adult by any measure of the word.”

Joshy squeaked when he talked, and it made his mother Carole laugh. After all, that was the kind of child…adult…that Joshy was…the kind that people didn’t fear. He was kind of meek, and frankly uninteresting. The only thing he cared about was playing Fortnite.

Joshy played all day and night, hardly leaving his room except to eat. He dreamed of being a professional video game player, which was the kind of thing that wasn’t even possible a few years ago and now consumed the thoughts of millions.

“Would you lower the volume of that music,” Joshy said, looking over at his sister blaring K Pop from her phone. “I can hear it all the way over here.”

“Suck it up,” Leslie said.

“You’re gonna go deaf,” he replied.

“That’s future me’s problem,” she replied.

K Pop was a thing Leslie loved, so of course, it was stupid to Joshy. That didn’t make it any less fun or catchy. Most people couldn’t listen to it on repeat like she could, but to each their own. If Joshy could spend hours rotting his brain with computers, then Leslie could rot hers with Korean pop music. That was the American Way.

“This blows,” Joshy said with a deep sigh. “America is boring.”

While Joshy was dull and uninteresting, his sister was spectacular. Not only did she graduate two years early from high school and take an accelerated track at Stanford, but she was going to be the first in her family to graduate law school. If all went to plan, she would be the first in her family to be governor of California, too, though that would be true for most families. 

“That’s a horrible attitude, mister,” his mother said to him. “You should take a second to stop and enjoy these little moments. I would have killed to go on a road trip with my parents as a child.”

“That’s a lie, and you know it, mom,” Joshy scoffed. “Nobody has ever wanted to go on a road trip with their parents in the history of the universe.”

Leslie raised her hand. “I did. I mean, I took time off from summer school to be here, so your point has been disproven inside this very car.”

“You’re a bit of a know-it-all, did you know that?” Joshy said. “It’s really annoying.”

The voice inside the GPS blared through the car before Joshy and Leslie had a chance to argue more. “In two miles, stay left on Interstate 15 North.”

“We’re getting close, Joshy!” his father exclaimed. “Can you smell it? Vegas baby! Vegas!!!”

“No,” Joshy said. “Just no.”

 “I don’t see why you think Joshy would be excited about Vegas,” Leslie said. “It’s not like he can drink or gamble.” 

“As long as the room has internet and AC, I’ll be fine,” Josh said.

While there were many outrageous hotels in Vegas, made up like New York City or a glass pyramid or the Venetian canals, their differences were generally aesthetic. Inside, they all performed the same functions. There was a casino area, a shopping area, a restaurant area, and then the hotel itself, which depending on where you were in Vegas took on a different look.

At the Elara, it meant elegant white marble everywhere. The Elara was a timeshare complex attached to the shopping center of the Planet Hollywood Resort and Casino. It didn’t have a casino of its own and wasn’t affiliated with Planet Hollywood, though it glommed onto its popularity. The Elara, much like David S. Pumpkins, was its own thing.

Bill Carter pulled his minivan up to the front of the hotel and stepped out of the car. His bones ached from five hours of driving, and his back cracked as he arched it.

A valet in a red vest and bright smile ran up to him. “Your keys, sir?”

Bill pulled his keys close to his chest. “No. I’m sorry. I’m going to…self-park.”

“It’s complimentary, my friend,” the valet said with a smile. “There’s no charge for valet.”

Bill liked that idea. He was thrilled about it, actually. He never valeted his car in Los Angeles. After all, who had an extra $10 to pay the valet? Forget about it. But a free valet, well he could indulge in that. Those are the best types of splurges, Bill thought, the free kind.

“Quit talking with the valet and open the trunk!” Carole called to him, cranky from the long drive and ready to relax by the pool. 

Bill reached into his car and pushed the button to open the trunk. He thought it was quite extravagant to buy a car where the trunk opened by itself, but it was included in the base model price, so who was he to argue?

Before the trunk finished opening, a bellboy pulled up a luggage carrier to the car and loaded a large suitcase onto the carrier. It was heavy, and the bellman struggled with the massive weight, but he didn’t say anything, except to let out a soft grunt.

“I’m sorry,” Carole said. “Do you want any help with that?”

“It’s their job, mom,” Joshy said with a scowl. “Let them do their job.”

Joshy hadn’t yet learned the concepts of compassion or empathy. That was something that solidified with time, work, and sacrifice, none of which were things Joshy ever had to deal with much in his privileged life.

“I’m fine, ma’am,” the bellman said. “Please go to the front desk. I’ll meet you there.”

Joshy pulled a tattered backpack out of the trunk and flung it across his back. Then, he walked inside and up the escalator toward the front desk.

By the time Joshy’s parents joined him in the lobby of the hotel, he was already halfway through his fifth level of Angry Birds. It insulted his skill to play casual games, but his Nintendo Switch had lost power halfway through the trip, and he’d forgotten his car charger at home, so he was stuck until he got into his room.

“About time!” Joshy said in a huff when his parents stepped off the escalator.

“You could have helped them unload the car,” Leslie replied. “It would have gone a lot faster if you did.”

“Sure,” Joshy said, standing up. “But I can follow directions. He said to go to the lobby, so I went to the lobby.”

Now, you have to imagine Joshy, an eighteen-year-old human male, saying this, with all the sarcasm of an eighteen-year-old human male, dripping with testosterone and filled with the kind of wisdom only a teenager could confidently show, devoid of any irony in the fact that he truly knew nothing.

Bill stepped up to the front desk and pleasantries were exchanged. Once the keys were given and the platitudes traded, Joshy and his family were on their way up to their room, a rather luxurious suite filled with nice beds, cozy towels, and the like.

“You and your sister get this room,” Bill said, gesturing toward the room on their right as they walked into the suite. There were two queen beds inside, and little else. Then, he pointed toward a much larger room across from them, beyond the couch and dining room table. “Your mother and I get that one.”

“Not fair!” Joshy said, walking inside to see a kitchen, couch, and big screen TV mounted on the wall. “Why can’t I have my own room?”

“Because life isn’t fair,” Leslie replied. “It’s not like I’m happy about this either. You snore.”

“Do not,” Joshy argued, except he totally did. If he had any friends, they would all agree with Leslie.

“Well,” Carole said with a smile. “I’m ready to do a little lounging around. Who wants to go down to the pool?”

“Sounds nice,” Bill said, thumbing a wad of money in his wallet. He knew the odds of hitting it rich in Vegas were low, but that wasn’t going to stop him from trying. “I’ll come for a little bit. Then, I want to walk around.”

“Not me,” Leslie said. “I plan to lounge by the pool until dinner.”

The doorbell to the room rang. Bill ran to the door to welcome in the bellman, who pulled his luggage carrier inside and took all their suitcases off it. Once he was done, he stood there, smiling, for a good ten seconds without saying a word. It was quite awkward.

“I think he wants you to tip him, hun,” Carole said.

“Oh!” Bill replied. “I thought it was free. Isn’t this free?”

“Yes, sir, technically.”

Bill slapped the bellman on the shoulder. “Perfect! Then I’ll see you again soon. Have a great day.”

The bellman left, grumbling to himself. Bill was the third person in a row to stiff him. He hated his job and looked forward to the day he finished night school with a computer science degree. Nobody would stiff him then.

Joshy didn’t join his family at the pool when they filed out of the room. He wanted to get in some gaming first, so he plugged in his laptop and handily won three Fortnite battles. Then, he put on his swim trunks and went to the elevator that would take him down to the pool.

Joshy wasn’t a fan of most elevators, and he didn’t like this one any better. It was one of those fancy glass ones which looked down on the strip. He could see all the way down to Mandalay Bay at the bottom of the strip if he cared to look, which he didn’t.

His suite was on the fifteenth floor, which meant that he risked running into humans thirteen times before he reached the bottom. Of all the things Joshy disliked, humans were at the top of the list. They were rude, annoying, and smelled horrible. He hated elevators because it meant being trapped with humans in an enclosed space, and that meant he might have to interact with one. It was bad enough that humans existed around him, but the thought of having to engage with them was a fate worse than death.

Luckily, nobody entered the elevator while Joshy rode down to the pool. He took the circuitous route around the lobby of the hotel and toward a side door guarded by a burly security guard. Thumping techno music echoed through the glass.

His family was already at the pool and had been for some time, but Joshy needed some alone time before he joined them. He needed the serenity only video games could bring. Playing video games relaxed him. That was what his family never understood about his passion. It was quite hard being Joshy, but when he played video games, all of that melted away, and he was able to be somebody else for a while.

Joshy’s main problem was that he hated himself. He hated other people as well, but nobody as much as he hated himself. That was what stopped him from joining clubs, or flirting with girls, or existing like a normal human…he was always in his own way.

Of course, sometimes other people were in his way, too. In this instance, it was a tall, bearded, black man with a three-piece suit and rippling muscles who guarded the entrance to the pool area.

“I’m gonna need to see some ID,” the guard told him.

“Why? I’m a guest at this hotel,” Joshy said, pulling out his keycard.

“Gotta be twenty-one to use the pool.”

“Really?” Joshy said, raising his voice half an octave. That kind of thing happened all the time. It wasn’t the manliest thing in the universe, and it didn’t make him seem older than his eighteen years.

“Yeah,” the guard replied, holding up a clipboard. “Now, I’m really gonna need to see some ID.”

Joshy hadn’t cared much about using the pool when he left his room. He was doing so to placate his mother so she wouldn’t nag him later about not hanging out with his family. He was ready to turn around and head back to his room, until a group of bikini-clad, bronzed women pushed passed him and into the pool area.

Joshy peered into the pool area, past the glass, and saw dozens of beautiful women dancing rhythmically, gyrating, and…well, it was enough to make Joshy believe that while most humans sucked, those particular humans were fine with him.

“Come on,” he said, flinging his arms in the air. “I left it in my room, but I’m twenty-one, I promise I’m twenty-one.”

The bouncer chuckled. “Yeah, and I’m Otis Redding. Get lost, kid.”

Joshy couldn’t believe that he was trying to get closer to his parents, but he desperately wanted to get into that pool. It wasn’t enough to creepily stare at the bikini girls from the other side of the glass.

As the wheels started to turn in his head, Joshy watched his father stand up from his lounge chair, place his sunglasses in his pocket, and walk toward him.

“Look,” Joshy said. “That’s my dad right there. He’s got a bad heart, and I need to give him his pills.”

“Show ‘em to me,” the bouncer replied.

“Well, I don’t have them on me!” Joshy said.

Joshy’s father walked out of the pool and past the bouncer, smiling at him as he passed. Bill then made a beeline for the lobby that would lead him out of the hotel toward the casino. He had already wasted enough time on pleasantries, and now he needed to get down to business.

“Dad!” Joshy shouted.

Bill, startled, turned to him. “Oh, there you are, kid. I thought you were still upstairs.”

“No. I’m trying to get into the pool,” Joshy replied. “This guy won’t let me in. Says you have to be twenty-one to get inside.”

“To use a pool? That sounds stupid.”

“Rules are rules,” the bouncer replied. “I don’t make the rules. I enforce ‘em. We got a kiddie pool around back he can use.”

“The Gestapo had rules, too!” Joshy replied, furious.

“Alright, alright,” Joshy’s father replied, grabbing his arm. “Wish you had used a little more of that knowledge in history class, last year. Maybe then you wouldn’t have nearly flunked. You can come with me.”

“What!” Joshy whined. “Come on, dad, I don’t want to go with you. Do you see what’s in there? Come on. Tell him that I can go in.”

Bill looked through the glass toward the pool and saw the women dancing, the drinks flowing, and thought about how desperately he would have wanted to go inside if he were Joshy’s age…and knew he couldn’t let his son anywhere near that.

“Guard,” he said. “My son is eighteen. Don’t let him into that pool if you see him again.”

“DAD!”

“Will do, sir,” the guard said with a smile. “You can count on it.”

“Come on,” Bill said, pulling his son along. “You can ogle women later. That’ll be about all you do when you get to be my age.”