people who are sitting vacant in their homes like Rob? What are you going to do with them?'
'We're not going to do anything with them,' he answered. 'We don't need them.'
'So are you going to ship them off somewhere?'
'No.'
'Sterilise them? Stop us reproducing?'
'No. There's going to be a cull.'
'What?'
'I said there's going to be a cull. I thought you might have worked it out by now.'
For a few long seconds I didn't know how to react. I just stood there uselessly, shifting my weight uncomfortably from one foot to the other and staring at the creature in front of me.
'But how...?' I stammered. 'How are you going to...?'
'That's not important.'
'When?'
'It's already started. It will run land mass by land mass. There are probably one or two continents which have been completed by now. Things should start to happen here in the next few hours.'
The alien took a single step forward and, instinctively, I took one back.
'I'm sorry that it had to happen for you like this,' he said. I didn't know if his sorrow was genuine or manufactured. More to the point, I didn't care.
'So what you going to do about me?' I spat. 'If I'm not going to conform to your fucking program, what are you going to do about me?'
He answered quickly.
'Nothing.'
'What?' 'Nothing,' he repeated. 'There's no point, is there? What are you going to do? This isn't one of your science-fiction books or films, you know. There's nothing you can do to stop the inevitable. We're not going to catch a virus and die. You're not going to find a computer glitch and destroy our ships. There's absolutely nothing you can do except sit here and wait...'
What he said made it all the more harder for me to accept what was going to happen. There would have been more dignity in dying in battle, but it looked as though I wouldn't even be able to pick a fight. I felt like a lone tree left standing in the remains of a forest where thousands of others had been torn up by their roots to make way for a new city . And what could I do to stop this happening? Nothing. Absolutely fucking nothing.
'Sit back and watch,' he continued. 'You might be able to survive for a few weeks. Keep out of the way of the cull and find yourself somewhere remote and watch it happen. I've seen it happen elsewhere. It's exhilarating.'
'What is?'
'The change.'
That was enough for me. I had to get out. I was wasting precious time and I knew that I had to get back to Clare and Penny. But I couldn't leave Rob. I reached out and grabbed his lifeless hand.
'Don't waste your time with Robert, there's no point,' the alien said from a position just inches behind me. 'He can't hear you. He can't see you. And even if he could, he wouldn't know who you were or how to talk to you.'
I squeezed Rob's hand hard, hoping that I could force a reaction from him. There was nothing.
'Come on,' I pleaded. 'If I can fuck their programming up then so can you. Come on!'
I slapped his face. Nothing.
'This isn't doing either of you any good, Tom. I suggest that you get...'
'Fuck off!' I spat, turning round and glaring at the alien who continued to talk unabated.
'Do you want me to tell you exactly what's happened to him? Shall I tell you which parts of his brain have been disabled and which parts we've left operational? Will it help if I...?'
The creature's words trailed away into silence as I stood and stared up into his cold and emotionless face. His bright blue eyes stared back at me. He was on my property, how dare he tell me what to do? His kind had destroyed my brother, my girlfriend and just about everyone and everything else that meant anything to me. Memories of all that I'd lost clouded my mind. The loss of everything I had owned and everything I had been hurt like a thousand knives stabbing into my skin. And just for a second it was all this alien's fault. Just for a moment all of my hate, fear, frustration, pain, rage and terror was directed towards this one, despicable alien bastard. In a single movement I launched myself at him and knocked him flying across the room. Overbalanced by his bulbous head and struggling to pick himself up with his long, flailing limbs, he lay at my feet, cowering.
'Don't do