David Wess - Prologue

[CaptainCamulusCanaan]

TWO MONTHS BEFORE THE ARRIVAL OF THE VISITORS...

The patrol car raced down the streets of Baltimore, sirens blaring. The tires squealed as they stopped in front of the Bank of America. Two more units flew by and secured the rear of the bank. David Wess' partner went in first and David followed him. At the counter with the tellers there was an armed man wearing sunglasses and a sack of money which one of the tellers was filling.

"DROP THE GUN NOW, DIRTBAG!!" David's partner, Officer Ben Deke, shouted.

The robber turned and fired killing him. Wess returned fire, but the robber rushed him, shrugging off his wounds. He grabbed Wess' gun and tried to wrestle it from him. They went to the floor. Wess was able to shoot the suspect in the eye. For a split second he saw a second eye underneath the injured one. Looked like a Lizard's eye. The suspect jumped off and ran. Wess rolled to his stomach, trying to get a shot, but he was already gone.

A WEEK LATER...

David Wess sat on the bed in his apartment arguing with himself about whether or not he'd gone off the deep in, which was rather ironic. He'd been looking into the guy with the lizard eye at the bank robbery a week ago and it had led him to a UFO/alien abduction forum. He'd always thought those freaks were a bunch of whack jobs with overactive imaginations and a pathological need for attention.

But here he was, knee deep in posts about reptilian extraterrestrials who could morph into humans.

Suddenly he heard a crash come from the living room. He grabbed his Glock 22, shoved in into the back of his waistband and grabbed his Remington 870. Carefully he opened the door to his bedroom and peered out into the front of the apartment. Five men with odd curved blades were ransacking his place.

He flung open the bedroom door and began blasting away at the intruders. He took out three of them before the other two realized what was happening and dove for cover. David slammed his bedroom door closed again and barricaded it as he reloaded. Before he'd fallen to the ground, David had seen the gaping wound he'd put into one of the intruders chests, and under the human facade was reptilian skin. It was them.

Suddenly one of the curved blades slash through his bedroom door and the back half of the chest of drawers he'd shoved against it. Then the heavy oak chest was shoved over by a single powerful kick from the lizard man on the other side.

David racked the slide of his twelve gauge and fired, tearing this invaders chest open like he had the other three. His body suddenly burst into flames and disintegrated. He charged through the hole in his bedroom door and scanned for the last of the alien intruders, but he was gone and the other three bodies had disintegrated like the one who tried to rip through his door.

"Great" he sighed, "how am I going to explain this to my landlord"

[CaptainCamulusCanaan]

A joint post between David Wess and Linette Geraud

David sat in the rubble that used to be his home. He was going insane. He had too talk to someone about this. He picked up the phone and started to call his Captain. But without evidence, he'd think he was a loon and probably kick him off the force. He couldn't do that. Then he remembered Linette. She was a woman he'd met a few years back. She'd been a PI who'd stumbled onto something big about a Baltimore drug lord and he'd been assigned to her protection detail when she'd received death threats trying to prevent her from testifying. She'd helped to put him away for life without parole.

FLASHBACK - THREE YEARS BEFORE THE V'S ARRIVE

David pulled the unmarked police car into the driveway of the safehouse.

"Stay here for a moment" he said to his passenger, Ms Linette Geraud, and the other plainclothes policeman in the backseat "I'm gonna go check inside real quick."

Linette nodded, feeling a bit irritated. It wasn't at the policemen but at the inconvenience of having to go into protective custody at the moment. Linette was all for hunting down the perps who were sending death notices to her and giving them a taste of her wrath but cooler heads prevailed. Sure she was worried, and a little frightened at first but her fright turned to anger. It took some convincing from everyone for her to go into hiding. Her father and mother; her brothers. Philip and his family; all told her that it would keep everyone safe if she were to go into hiding until the trials were over. Linette saw the sense in it and her family were under the watchful eyes of the authorities, it was just so inconvienient though. Ah well, she'll have to make the best of a bad situation.

David came back out and motioned for the two in the car to come into the house.

Linette got out after the other policeman got out and she hurried into the safehouse. "Well... home sweet home, until after the trial is done and over with. " Linette said with a wry smile. "I wonder if this place needs a bit of fixing up around here, I need something to occupy my time doing something." She chuckled. "Besides playing cards and chess. Any tools in the garage here, so I can maybe tune up a car or something?"

"I'll check with the Captain" David replied.

Linette smiled, she went and put away the things she brought with her for the stay in hiding. Once that was taken care of she came out to where David was at. "Do any of you play chess or cards?" she asked with a smile. As she waited for an answer, Linette checked out the cupboards and fridge to see what was stored there.

During the time she spent in the safehouse, Linette struck up a friendship with David Wess, of all the men who were there to guard her, David was the most approachable.

END FLASHBACK -

SIX WEEKS BEFORE THE V'S ARRIVE

He dialed her number, hoping it was current. They had become friends after the trial, but kinda drifted apart.

Linette had just sat down to her solitary dinner, about to take a bite when her cellphone rang. She looked at the number listed on her cell and she raised her eyebrow. It had been awhile since she had seen this number listed. Flipping it open Linette answered, "Hello David, it been a long while. How're things going?" she asked.

"Not great. I need to talk about something. But it needs to be in person, can't tell you over the phone."

"All right, you can come over to my place and we can talk. Are you able to come to my place or do you need me to come pick you up?" Linette asked. From the tone of his voice, she could tell that something was wrong but wasn't certain what it was.

"No, thanks. I'll be there in twenty minutes."

TWENTY MINUTES LATER

David walked up the stairs to the door of Linette's apartment and rung the doorbell. He was dressed in a white button up, shirt with a brown leather jacket and a pair of navy cargo pants. Around his shoulder was a messenger bag and in the driveway was his Honda Rebel.

The door was opened immediately and Linette let David in. "You look exhausted, what happened?" She led him through the kitchen and into the living-room. "Have a seat and take a load off your feet." she said indicating a couch and a comfortable looking chair near the tv. "Is there anything I can get you?"

"No, thank you." He said sitting down on the couch "You're gonna think I'm crazy when I tell you this..."

He paused not sure how to continue.

"Two weeks ago my partner was shot while we were responding to a bank robbery. I fired at the suspect, but he shook them off and charged at me. Next thing I know we're on the floor and he's trying to take my gun. I try to shoot him again in the forehead, but I miss and the bullet slices open his right eye. Or what should have been his eye. But instead of seeing his exposed retina, I saw another eyeball under there. One that looked like a lizard eye."

He pulled his laptop out of his messenger bag. He paused and looked at Linette for a moment, trying to gauge her reaction. He opened it and pulled up the forum thread on reptilian aliens he'd saved to his hard drive. He set the laptop down on the coffee table and turned the screen towards her.

"I followed leads on the internet until I got here. Then as I was reading that thread five more of whatever killed my partner broke into my apartment and tried to kill me. Underneath a facade of human skin were reptilian aliens like that guy describes killing his wife and family" he gestured towards the laptop. Their bodies disintegrated as soon as they died though. They took these odd pills, I guess trying to erase any evidence of their existence. But they left this."

He pulled one of the odd blades from his bag.

"If I go to my superiors with this story, I'm asking for a section 8, but I need someone to help me find out who and what these things are and why their here. Can you help me...please?"

Linette listened to David's story, and watched the thread, her face un-readable, once she was finished with it she turned to David,

"I'm sorry about your partner, that's not a good thing to have happened. Are you certain about what you saw? This could be some hoax, with someone not wanting to be caught so put a mask beneath another mask to hide their identity. These things, as you say that came in and attacked why did they attack you and could they have been from a previous case you worked on?" Linette asked.

She examined the blade David pulled out. it was odd looking but there were some gangs out there who made their own unique weapons as a status symbol for themselves. "And they exploded exactly how and what from?" This seemed like something out of a science fiction story, And her skeptism could be seen on her face. It just seemed utterly too fantastic. However... Linette looked at David she knew him to be someone who didn't lie.

"I'll help you out but... in truth it sounds rather preposterous. No hard feelings meant on my part." Linette said.

"None taken. I don't believe it myself. I feel like I'm going insane. I just want to get to the bottom of this so I'll know one way or the other. The men in my apartment...it seemed like they burned themselves...but more rapid. Like they were being dissolved. I'm not sure why they were there. One of them got away though."

"And I think you are very lucky to be alive, David." Linette sat down next to him, looking at her friend."I'm sorry I've not been in touch with you for a while." she said quietly.

"Me too" he said with a small grin. The memories of all the recent craziness gave way to ones of happier times.

[CaptainCamulusCanaan]

TEN HOURS BEFORE THE V'S ARRIVE

After two weeks of getting no where with his attempt to track down the man who killed his partner or the one who had broken into his apartment, he ran into both of them by pure accident. They pulled up to a grocery store on Baltimore street as he was exiting the burger joint across the way. He got in his car and called Linette. It was busy. He settled in for the wait for them to come back out.

Thirty minutes later they did each carrying a large brown paper grocery bag which they placed in the trunk before getting back in the car and heading off south bound. David followed them until they parked in front of an abandoned warehouse. David went a couple blocks down and walked back towards the building.

He stopped just short of the entrance and pulled his Colt 1911-A1 out of the small of the back holster he carried it in. His grandfather had purchased it when he returned to the states following his service as a tank gunner during WWII. He'd passed it on to David's father, and he had given to David when he graduated from the police academy. He carried it off-duty because it was easier to conceal than his .40 caliber glock. He checked the chamber and charged in.

"Freeze!" he shouted and his voice echoed in the empty building.

The two men turned to face him and the one who'd attacked him in his apartment pulled a knife and charged towards him. David fired three times into his chest and once at his head. He dropped to his knees and pulled a small white capsule out of his pocket. He fired again at his hand, knocking the capsule out, and at his head. He slumped to the ground, lifeless. David looked around. The other man had escaped during the brief fight.

David pulled his folding knife out of his pocket and flicked it open. Kneeling next to the dead man he cut the skin off his cheek to reveal the reptilian face under the human facade. He hoisted him up and carried him back to his car.