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‘But this
can’t
be him? He’s just a skinny teenager?’ uttered the General in surprise.

‘It’s him, Sir, we
’ve checked!’ nodded the army officer.

‘OK
, that’ll be all I guess’ muttered General Iram as the officer then left.

Genera
l Iram now sat down and lit a large cigar as he then just looked curiously at the two teenage boys.

‘I just h
eard from the President’ he uttered ‘he told me to expect you, though God knows why?’ stated the General staring at them both.

‘Oh, he’s probably heard from the Pope’ replied Tom.

‘He heard from who?’ puzzled General Iram
.

‘The Pope’ repeated Tom as the General just stared blankly at him ‘you know? Pope Paul?’ Tom smiled.

‘Yes, I know who the damn Pope is kid, I just want to know what he’s got to do with anything?’ puzzled the General.

‘It’s a long story’ uttered Tom not really sure where to start.

‘
Well it’s already too long for me son’ grumbled the General. ‘Look, we must have got our wires crossed or something. I received a phone call from the President telling me a young man fitting your description was coming here to help us fend off these damn monsters we now have marching ever closer towards us?’ the General stated angrily ‘and now
you
turn up!’

‘Don’t be fooled by my appearanc
e, General’ smiled Tom.

‘Well, I’m a bit busy here,
son, so what have you got for me, a new weapon, a new insecticide or germ bomb, something that can actually kill these things? Have you brought me some kind of Kryptonite that’ll kill them? Something that actually
works
on these creatures, tell me what?’ insisted the General forcefully.

‘No, nothing like that’ Tom
replied shaking his head.

‘Then why is the President so keen on
sending you here?’ puzzled the General ‘because it sure in hell beats me?’

‘As I say he might have heard from the Pope’ repeated Tom.

‘The Pope
?’ repeated General Iram ‘I’m here fighting God knows what, from God knows where, and all he sends me is some damn Bible basher!
SERGEANT
!’ he screamed ‘GET THESE NUT JOBS OUT OF MY SIGHT!’

Just then though, Tom leaned across the table and just touched the General’s hand.

‘If you could just write me a note asking for people to do just as I ask’ smiled Tom.

General Iram just stopped what he was doing.

Just then some soldiers came in to drag Alec and Tom away
, but the General now stopped them.

He just stared at Tom
now.

‘Who the hell are you?’ he asked.

‘I’m no one’ smiled Tom ‘but I need a way to reach the very centre of the Migrators,
General, is there any way I can get there?’

‘You’ll need to speak to Professor Keys and his friends, I’ll scribble you a note’ replied the General
as he quickly wrote on a piece of headed notepaper before he handed it to him.

Just as he went to leave, Tom suddenly turned back again.

‘Oh
and you’ll need to strengthen the western defences, they’re a bit short of guns there’ he smiled.

‘What? Are you some kind of military strategist too then?’ queried the General.

When Tom didn’t repl
y the General just stared at Alec who just shrugged his shoulders.

‘Don’t ask me
, I’m an accountant!’ Alec grinned.

The Ge
neral just huffed.

‘OK Sergeant, if you could show these two out please I have work to be getting on with’ he ordered a
s he immediately continued marking out the maps in front of him again.

After they had been shown outside
, Alec looked at Tom and just laughed.

‘I don’t know what’s come over you, you’re just acting
really, really,
weird
!’ and then he laughed.

‘We need
to find these people able to get me in there somehow’ muttered Tom as he just stared at the mass of people all around them.

‘But how are we to find them in the middle of all this
lot?’ queried Alec as he stared all around him.

‘We
’ll just have to start asking people I guess’ smiled Tom as he began to stop people as they rushed around.

After half an hour of having no luck though
, Alec just shook his head.

‘This is just hopeless!’ he uttered ‘I’m going to ask the soldiers, one of
them
must know surely?’

‘Good idea’ smiled Tom and aft
er ten minutes they struck lucky.

‘Oh yes,
Professor Keys and the others are in one of the large army tents over there somewhere’ an older soldier informed them.

‘Brilliant, thanks!’ Tom beamed as he immediately headed in the direction the soldier had pointed.

Alec
then quickly scurried after him.

‘I don’t get this
, Tom, why do we need to get anywhere near these creature things? Surely if we had any sense we’d be rushing precisely in the opposite direction like all the sensible people?’

‘You
know sometimes when you just instinctively ‘know’ when something is right?’ replied Tom as he continued walking fast.

‘Not really, but carry on’ Alec replied
as he just shook his head.

‘Well this is it’ answered Tom
.

W
hen he finally came across some large army tents he then began asking for Professor Keys.

Eventually someone
pointed to the right tent and Tom immediately headed straight for it.

‘I hope you know what you are doing, Tom, I don’t fancy ending up in
side a Mexican jail’ uttered Alec looking worried as Tom just laughed at him.

‘We have potentially millions of indestructible alie
ns on the rampage and all you can worry about is ending up in a Mexican jail?’

‘Well, I
’ve heard some bad things about them’ replied Alec as he shivered at the very thought of it.

‘
Back at General Iram’s makeshift headquarters it was his time to inspect the progress on the building of the huge wall defences and the deployment of the guns mounted up on them. So followed by a host of military men he came marching on through to board an army Jeep.

There were literally hundreds of thousands of men and women now working on the giant defences that in turn were to be manned by now over a million army personnel once completed.

Military men and women had been flown in from over a hundred and sixty different countries from all over the world, all determined to make a stand against the Migrators and finally stop their advance.

Upon arriving at the Western defence side General Iram rubbed his chin in thought
as he considered what Tom had suggested
.

‘Hmmm, have some more guns put on the Western wall will you and some more beyond it to pick off any Migrators that might breech it. In fact, do that all along the line if you can’ he suggested.

‘Yes, Sir’ his s
ergeant replied as he quickly saluted him before he ran off to pass on his orders.

Alec and Tom had finally made it to the tent shared by Stuart, Joa
n, Jenny, Jack and now also Andre.

Tom now poked his head through the tent flaps and just peaked inside.

‘Professor Keys?’ he asked.

‘Yes, who’s
asking?’ asked Stuart as he came out to meet him.

‘My name is Tom
and this is my friend Alec’ Tom smiled as he shook the Professor’s hand.

‘Oh yes, I have
this
!’ smiled Tom as he suddenly remembered the note he had obtained from General Iram.

Stuart gave them both
a quizzical look before he then gazed down to read the piece of headed notepaper General Iram had given Tom.

‘T
his is an order from General Iram for us to do anything you ask. Is this some kind of joke on false notepaper or something?’ queried Stuart as he looked at them both suspiciously.

‘It’s no joke’ Tom assured him.

Just then
, Joan appeared and Stuart immediately handed her the note.

‘Is this for real
do you think?’ asked Stuart as Joan now read through it.

‘T
his is asking us to do anything you request?’ she puzzled.

‘Yes’ replied Tom
‘well, not
anything
exactly’ he smiled. ‘I need to somehow reach the centre of the Migrators and the General told me you have some kind of transport that would allow me to do that? Something that I presume, must work even in the dead zone?’ queried Tom.

‘You kn
ow about the dead zone?’ puzzled Stuart.

‘Well, yes’ replied Tom cautiously ‘I thought everyone
knew about the dead zone by now?’ he smiled.

‘Yes, they probably do’ nodded Joan as she held out her hand. ‘I’m Professor Mellows by the way, but you can call me Joan’ she smiled
as she shook Tom’s hand.

‘Oh, I’m Tom and this
is my good friend Alec’ Tom smiled as he introduced Alec to her.

‘And I’m Jenny!’ she smiled
as she poked her head out from an inner section of the large army tent.

‘Oh yes,
she’s my daughter’ added Stuart, with a smile.

‘He’s
Stuart by the way’ giggled Jenny ‘you’ll have to forgive him he has no social skills’ she smiled.

‘Well, what do you expect,
he’s a scientist, they’re not very good with social graces are they’ Joan joked.

‘Are you a scientist too?’ smiled Jenny as she
directed her question directly towards Alec.

Alec
now looked quite embarrassed as he began to blush bright red.

‘Oh, no, I’m…no, I’m nothing like
that
’ he finally stammered out a reply.

‘And I’m Jack
by the way and this is our new friend, Andre’ smiled Jack as the two men suddenly appeared from the two back sections of the tent.

‘Andre’s
French, but don’t let that put you off’ joked Jack as Andre just smiled at him and shook his head.

‘I understand you are looking for some transport
, Monsieur?’ queried Andre.

‘Yes, to get to the very centre of the Migrators’ explained Tom.

‘Why?’ queried Joan looking at Tom suspiciously.

‘
I don’t know why anyone would want to go anywhere near these monsters, let alone get to their very midst?’ puzzled Jack.

‘I thin
k we need to know more if we are to risk our very lives taking you there, Monsieur’ added Andre.

‘He has a direct order from General Iram’ explained Stuart, handing the letter to Jack and Andre to read.

‘What, p
rint if off on the internet did you?’ asked Jack looking at Tom with a sceptical eye.

‘No, I’m not that clever’ smiled Tom.

‘Yeah, I can vouch for
that
!’ laughed Alec.

‘Thanks
a lot, mate’ commented Tom sarcastically.

‘You’re welcome’ smiled Alec.

Tom now looked a little pained.

‘To be honest it’s really hard for me to explain any of this’ he shrugged.

‘Let’s all sit down and have a cup of tea
and discuss it’ suggested Stuart with a smile.

‘Ah, the Englishman’s answer to everything’ chuckled A
ndre ‘the world could be crumbling down all around him and what does an Englishman do? He makes himself a cup of tea!’ Andre smiled and everyone laughed.

Truth was
though it
was
very difficult for Tom to explain what he was doing there, as he was still trying to come to terms with it himself.

‘I don’t know how to explain all this’ uttered Tom truthfully ‘I just know I need to reach the very centre of the Migrators and then just stand there on the ground amongst them’ he explained.

‘But you’ll
get killed!’ uttered Jenny looking very concerned as Tom just shrugged his shoulders.

‘You’re not going to do that as well are you?’ she asked Alec.

‘Not bloody likely!’ he replied firmly.

Then he just looked over at Tom before he tried to explain for him.

‘Tom believes that every time he prays for something it comes true, he’s been able to do it for as long as I’ve known him’ explained Alec.

‘And how long have you known him, just out of curiosity?’ asked Joan.

‘All my life
!’ smiled Alec.

‘So
let me get this straight, the future of mankind relies on you saying a prayer?’ puzzled Stuart as he now just stared at Tom.

‘J
oin the club then’ chuckled Jack ‘almost everyone in the world is just praying for some help right now.’

‘I realise that, but I’m somehow different’ answered Tom
truthfully.

‘You’re
different
?’ responded Joan sceptically. ‘So you’re expecting us to simply drop you off in the middle of these monsters so you can say a prayer? No way!’ she uttered.

‘Order from General Iram or not, I ain’t doing it’ Jack told Tom firmly.

‘It would
just be suicide, Monsieur’ agreed Andre, shaking his head in disapproval.

Just then though
, something happened to Tom and he became quite excited.

‘EVERYONE
JUST HOLD HANDS!’ he suddenly shouted.