Apex by Adam Moon

all wrong, buddy; I think we’re your last hope.”
    The general averted his gaze. “You might be right about that. Let’s stop this bickering and get ready for whatever the hell might be coming for us.”
    “If you don’t know who or what it is, how can you prepare to defend against it?”
    “We can’t. All we can do is to make sure we’re as capable as humanly possible when it gets here.”
    Melanie said, “I think you mean superhumanly possible.”
    The general nodded. He was clearly outside his comfort zone.
    They were all abundantly aware that it wouldn’t take much of a nudge to convince him to try and take them to Fort Collins, just to be done with the headache.
    But that was easier said than done.

    Aftermath
     
    There were people wandering around the streets of Denver, like zombies. They were shell-shocked, or maybe just unable to comprehend the extent of what had just happened to their city. They were a lost people wandering the memory of their ruined city.
    A lady walked by , mumbling that Mile High stadium was gone.
    Jack heard a couple of guys whispering that the President had been killed.
    A teenage girl pointed at him and laughed. Only then did he realize he was still wearing his silly superhero costume. He ignored the embarrassment though. He had too much to do to worry about his attire.
    A few low rumbles shook the ground. Jack had no idea what caused them until an old bearded man pointed to the Rockies and said that they were the sounds of landslides too big to fathom. Jack tried to ask him where the nearest hotel was but the guy laughed in his face and said, “I don’t know, kid, but I’m sure there are plenty of vacancies these days.” Then he danced down the street to the music of a million car alarms.
    Jack found a dead man, sitting with his back to a Laundromat, but he hadn’t been killed by the laser. He’d been shot and robbed. His shoes were missing and his open wallet was by his hip, all contents removed. A photo of a woman flapped in the breeze beside it.
    It was a pointless crime. What good was cash during the apocalypse?
    He had to avoid a couple of streets because of the thick smoke coming from the ruined buildings.
    After an hour he felt like he would never find help. People were too distracted by their own catastrophes to care about his problems.
    Unfortunately, the first hotel he came across was a two story building and it had crumbled under its own weight. It would be impossible to pick through that much rubble.
    He yelled, “Mom, it’s Jack. Are you under there?”
    He heard nothing but distant car alarms and screams. There was no way anyone was alive under that mess so he moved on, with dread in his heart.
    He saw a large crowd of people around the next corner. He was afraid to approach but his curiosity got the better of him.
    It became pretty obvious what they were all staring at. One of the murderous contraptions stood erect in the center of the mob. Jack got an ominous tingle in his gut when he got close enough to make out more details. It was metallic and way bigger than the television portrayed. It had a large display screen about eight feet up that was black and still. Whatever had scrolled across that display was gone now. He hoped the screen would stay blank forever, if it was in fact a display. Maybe it was a lens for a camera, watching them all, waiting for the right time to strike again. The thought mobilized him and he moved on. But before he did, he heard a gravely male voice say, “It’s alien, God Dammit. Just look at that thing. If that thing’s Korean, I’ll eat my hat.”
    A softer male voice argued, “There’s no such thing as aliens. Maybe it’s the Chinese.”
    “You’re an idiot.”
    Jack wanted to stay and hear the discussion but there was something frightening about being around so many scared human beings. It was like a powder keg just hoping for a spark.

    Human Weaponry
     
    Dan explained to the general that none of them had quite