The next morning, Jim was the first awake. Pam was in the same position that she was when she fell asleep that night. He stood up and tried not to wake Pam.

When he opened up the burnt door and heard:

“Hey babe.”

He felt his girlfriend gently turn him around and kiss him. He had to try not to smile. She spoke again.

“Thanks for last night…”

“What are you thanking me for?”

“Just for making me feel calm. I’m so lucky to have you.” She ran a finger down his chest and felt a shiver go down his spine.

“I wanted to make sure you were okay. I hated seeing you so scared.”

She smiled and hugged him.

“Come on, lets go outside,” he said and took her hand. They closed the door softly behind him and let Jon sleep. Jim felt his stomach rumble but he had to ignore it. He knew the tripods would be here soon and they would have to leave.

They looked around the basement. Walls were either down or burnt. They had to carefully step around rubble to make it to the stairs which were still standing. As they walked to what used to be the main floor of the house, they saw a propeller of an airplane still burning. All of the walls were down. They stepped around more rubble and they then saw the rest of the airplane split in half.

“I wonder if that airplane was the wailing we heard last night,” Pam asked.

“Probably—“

Jim was interrupted by a man rustling about in the aisles of the wrecked airplane. A woman came to retrieve the man.

“Excuse me, but do you have any clue what is going on?” Jim asked the woman.

“Come here, I can show you,” the woman said in her obvious Bostonian accent. Jim and Pam followed her to a news truck and opened the door. She turned on the TV in there and began to show them footage of New York. It showed the lightning striking in the same place over and over.

“I saw that! We were both there when that happened!” Jim said.

“Not like this. These tripods were obviously buried here in the ground, but who is driving the goddamn things?” She put the tape in slow motion and pointed to the lightning. As they looked closely, they saw something like a capsule in the lightning that made its way into the ground. Pam held Jim’s hand tighter and they looked at each other. The news reporter put the tape in fast forward now and pressed play when a tripod appeared on the screen. As the screen zoomed out, it showed around 20 tripods roaming around New York.

“Jim… you saw one of those?” Pam asked. Jim nodded his head and put his arm around Pam’s back. A chill ran up her spine.

“We called into L.A., Chicago, and Dallas. They were out. Then we called up to Paris, London, Rome, and Milan. They were out too. These tripods are everywhere. They must have killed thousands, maybe even millions already,” the woman explained. In the distance, they could hear a deep, moaning sound. Jim heard it earlier and recognized it immediately as one of the tripods.

“I’m getting out of here, and you should too,” the woman said and shut the news van’s door.

Pam looked at Jim. He saw the horror in her eyes.

“We have to find somewhere else to go,” Pam said. “We can’t stay here or else we will get killed too.”

“You go get Jon and I’ll start the car. And hurry!” Jim ran to the van, which was luckily not demolished, and Pam went to go wake up Jon. On Jon’s way out he noticed a gun lying amidst the rubble. When Pam wasn’t looking, he retrieved it thinking that it may come in handy later. In record time, they were back on the road again.

This time, Jim was driving this time and Jon was seated in the passenger seat. They needed to get back to Scranton. If the tripods were only attacking the major cities, then Scranton is defiantly out of target.

They had been driving for about an hour when Pam leaned up to the front seat. “Jim?” She looked uncomfortable.

“Yeah?”

“I have to pee.” They both let out a laugh and Jim pulled over his car. They opened the doors and stepped out of the car.

“Don’t let anybody see that we have a working car. They will fight us for it,” Jim said.

Pam put one hand on Jim’s shoulder and kissed his cheek. “That was for being such a great leader.” Jim blushed and Pam walked into the woods.

He owed all he knew about being a leader to Michael Scott. Just watch what he does and do the opposite.

Pam made her way out of sight of Jim and found herself in front of a river. She saw a dead body flowing in its currents. Then came another, then three more, and then around 30. She started breathing hard. She wanted to scream but nothing came out. She felt a hand on her shoulder and jumped. When she turned around, she saw it was only Jim. He watched as the bodies flowed down the river.

“Come on, let’s get away from here,” he said. He wrapped his arm around the shaken Pam and led her back to the car.

“Hey, Jon? Do you think you take over? I kind of want to sit in the back with Pam this time.”

“Sure,” Jon replied and winked at Jim. Jon took the wheel and Jim climbed in the back to join Pam.

***

Day began to change into night and Jim kept drifting in and out of sleep. When he first went into the backseat of the van, Pam turned from looking out the window to smile at Jim. She motioned him closer and she whispered in his ear.

“You know, last night whenever you were running, I couldn’t help but think you looked very manly … and very sexy, too.” Her hot breath in his ear made him want to grab her and kiss her passionately.

She rarely spoke like that, but when it did, it made his stomach flip. She giggled and he blushed. Jon turned back to face them.

“If you guys want to have sex, I could easily stop this car and let you go behind some trees or something,” he said. Jim and Pam turned red. They actually hadn’t had sex yet. Pam shyly told Jim at the beginning of their relationship that she really wanted to take things slow. Jim told her that he would wait until she was ready, but she would have to make the first move to let him know. Jim was thinking about this when he finally fell asleep.

***

“Jim? Jim, wake up now. JIM!”

Jim’s eyes jerked open. He peered out the car window and saw a crowd of people surrounding their car. They were all banging on the windows begging to get in. Jim turned to a now frightened Pam.

“I’m going to go have to go up to the front and drive. Stay brave.” Pam nodded her head and gave Jim’s hand one last squeeze. He took over the wheel.

“Put your seatbelts on!” he commanded and they all did so. One man banged his suitcase on the front window. Another big man jumped on the front of their car and held on, screaming to let them in.

“Get off the car!” Jim kept yelling at him. The man wouldn’t move, so he pressed the gas on full blast. The man flew off the car and landed in a puddle of water. One person got a rock and threw it at the front window. Pam screamed and held onto the seat of the car. Things got even more frightening when another man jumped on the front of the car. He grabbed onto the hole in the window and tried to extend it with his hands. Blood was spurting all over the window. Pam screamed again and closed her eyes at the sight. She was petrified. Another rock was thrown at Jim’s window, and then Pam’s. They shielded themselves and Pam continued screaming. More people were piling onto the car now.

“GET OFF!” Jim couldn’t see where he was going. He floored it again, but was unfortunate and ran into a power line pole. The doors to Jim and Jon’s side opened and people pulled them out. If only the van was new. It was so old that it didn’t even have auto lock doors. A man was now in the drivers’ seat. Pam was now screaming on the top of her lungs.

“Get out of the car, Pam!” he yelled back. As she leaned out of the window, a man leaned in and pushed her back in the car. She was crying now along with her constant screams. Somebody was climbing on top of the car which was causing it to shake. She was scared stiff. She got a look out of the window and saw Jim punching a man. The man got hit his head against the car and Jim fell down.

“JIM!” Pam cried out. She looked out the other window and saw Jon in a fist fight with a few other men. She watched as more people made their way into the car through the windows. Then, she heard a gunshot. Everything was silent.

She saw Jon was holding a gun.

“Everybody, back off!” She heard herself gasp when she saw another man holding a gun to Jon’s head. Jim was slowly standing up now and he saw what was happening.

“Drop the gun!” The man shouted Jon’s hand was shaking now.

“I just, I just want –” “DROP THE GUN!” Jon dropped the gun on the ground.

“I just want the girl,” he pleaded.

“Yeah, yeah, fine,” the man said and made his way into the car. Everybody who was in the car earlier had made their way out when it was shaking. One man bent down and picked up the gun that Jon had dropped. Jim opened the door and picked Pam up.

“It’s okay, I have you now, don’t worry, you’re with me and I love you,” Jim whispered to her while still holding her in his arms. Pam couldn’t respond because she was crying so hard. She held onto him with all her might. The three of them made their way into a diner Jon remembered passing earlier near the scene.