Piper picks up the kitchen after breakfast and puts on her toque and mittens to get the firewood. She fills the wheelbarrow with oak logs and remembers to include the kindling and birch bark. The snow has started falling steadily, and Piper hopes her mother is safe.

After a light lunch, Piper enters the living room to do her homework. “Algebra, blah! How boring.” Piper places a few logs in the fireplace and sets the kindling ablaze. Soon, the logs are crackling nicely. Piper drapes a light blanket across her shoulders and sets to work on her studies. It’s not long until she drifts away into sleep between the algebra and the heat of the fire.

Piper’s eyes fly open due to a loud banging sound. She looks at the hall clock and sees it’s a quarter to five. “Mom? Is that you?” Her mother doesn’t answer. “Where is she? She left for the store this morning at ten thirty!” Piper hears the banging again and discovers it from a pine branch hitting the side of the house. The wind has picked up considerably. Piper’s heart pounds against her chest when the phone rings, and rushes toward it. “MOM!?!”

“Piper, darling! First of all, I’m alright. The storm came in so quickly that it caught everybody by surprise! Downtown traffic became unpassable in no time. Cars were stuck, just spinning their wheels. Do you remember Mrs. Dubois from church? Well I’m staying with her until the roads are clear. How are you doing? Do you have power?”

Piper turns on the outside light and sees a dark figure dart behind a snow drift. “Yes, I have power. I’m looking out the backdoor right now and see the wind is blowing hard. There’s a big drift across the driveway. In the morning, I’ll use the tractor to plow it out of the way for you.”

Madelyn stammers, “Please be careful! I don’t want you getting hurt.”

Piper chuckles into the phone, “Don’t worry, Mom. Dad taught me how to drive the tractor. I’ll be fine.” Her mother sounds a little calmer as she reminds Piper about the generator in the cellar. “ There’s some extra gas under the stairs. Okay then. I guess I’ll be seeing you sometime tomorrow. Love ya!”

“Love you to Mom.” After hanging up, Piper takes another look out the backdoor. Just beyond the casting of the backdoor light, Piper sees a pair of glowing green eyes reflected in the dark and thinks it must be a raccoon looking for shelter from the storm.

After a supper of a cheese and ham omelet and toast, Piper decides to check to see if the generator needs topping off. The wind howls, and the lights flicker.  Just as Piper reaches for the cellar door, they go out. “Damn! I was hoping that wouldn’t happen. Mom says there’s a flashlight in the junk drawer. Great! Maybe we need another little hook to hang that on, too!”  She feels around inside until she finds it and turns it on. The wind howls again, but this time, it sounds different, almost mechanical. Piper grabs the handle and jerks the door wide open.

Something about the size of a big dog sprints past the foot of the stairs, causing Piper to yelp. She slams the door and leans on it with her flashlight hand while turning the deadbolt with her other. Then she hears it. The fourth step from the bottom is the only one that squeaks. Something is climbing the stairs. Her eyes are wide and dilated with fear. Piper leans closer to the door to try and hear. Suddenly, there is a loud boom as if someone threw a five-pound bag of potatoes at the door. Piper scurries back so fast that she slams into the kitchen table, knocking over the ketchup bottle and sending the silverware flying. Quickly covering her face with the crook of her arm, the flashlight beam dances wildly in her shaking hand. “God! What was that thing? What am I going to do?”

Piper hears her father instructing her like he did many years ago. “What’s the first thing to do when a crisis arises?” Piper’s voice cracks with disbelief, “Daddy?”  The voice repeats, “What is the first thing we do when a crisis arises?”  Piper swallows hard and whispers, “Stay calm.” When he speaks again, Piper is sure her father has returned to save her. “What’s the second thing?” Piper responds with confidence, “Secure the area.” She jams one of the wooden chairs under the cellar door handle. Next, she locks all the windows and doors. Piper receives an impression of her father’s nightstand and heads upstairs. Pulling open the nightstand drawer, she finds a white envelope with a key inside. The tag on the key reads trunk. Knitting her eyebrows together, Piper thinks hard. She looks at the bedroom closet and thinks, “Your old military locker?” She slides open the closet doors and pulls the locker into the room. Her hands tremble as she unlocks it. Opening the lid, Piper finds a black turtleneck sweater, black toque, grease face paint, and night goggles. It doesn’t take her long to figure out she is supposed to use these items. Picking up the sweater, her eyes widen when she sees her father’s MRI .44magnum Desert Eagle.

Piper puts everything on the bed, including an extra clip of bullets. In the master bath, she puts on the sweater and covers her face with the black grease paint. Next, she tucks her blonde hair beneath the toque and puts on the night goggles. Shutting off the lights, Piper is amazed at how clearly she can see everything in the dark. Something catches her eye out the bedroom window. What looked like a huge snow drift behind the woodshed was actually a snow-covered spaceship. As she watched a door slide open, four more monsters descended into the storm. They huddled together momentarily before moving toward the house, their spaceship door closing.

Panic is gripping Piper’s heart! “Oh God! What do I do? What do I do?” But suddenly, she knows she needs to secure her position. Piper races through the house, shutting off every light until the only thing left is the fire’s glowing embers. She rushes down the hall to the downstairs bathroom and locks the door. Piper squats down in the tub, resting the heavy Desert Eagle on her knees. She waits.

The raging gale continues outside, but Piper can’t hear it. She only hears the sound of her own heart beating as she tries to remain calm. Piper keeps her breathing slow and steady, and then she hears the chair fall and the cellar door open.

At first, she could hear the creatures moving about the house. She knew they were looking for people. Finally, Piper hears small clicks and tweets as they communicate with one another. They come to a stop outside of the bathroom door. Piper manages not to flinch when the door knob is tested. Then there came a scratching sound and Piper knew the aliens were opening the lock.

When they finally get the door unlocked, they do nothing. Piper holds her breath to try to stay as still as possible. “They’re listening. I mustn’t move.”

The door creaks as it is slowly opened. Piper closes her eyes, afraid of what she will see, but forces them open again to be able to shoot. Long fingers wrap around the edge of the door, and the first creature appears. It is about three feet tall, though it is slightly bent over. The head looks too large for the rest of its body. The creature’s color is a shade of gray. Though its eyes are large, they are squinted as if it is trying to see in the dark. It waves its other thin arm with extended fingers back and forth as if trying to feel its way in the pitch-black room. The others stumble in behind their leader. The last alien stops in the doorway. Piper has an idea: if she shoots the one in the doorway first, the others will have a harder time escaping. The urge to shoot comes almost immediately, but she must refrain to be sure to kill them all.

Piper watches until they are almost in a perfectly straight line and pulls the trigger. The muzzle flash lights up the room, and the alien nearest her screams and shields its eyes. Piper turns her weapon on him next and feels something wet hit her face. In the chaos, Piper keeps firing, being deafened by the noise of the handgun and shrieks of pain. The Desert Eagle clicks three more times before Piper realizes it’s over. She steps out of the bathtub and slips in the goo covering the floor. Weeping, Piper walks into the kitchen and stands perfectly still. She removes the night goggles and sees the figure of a man standing before the fireplace, illuminated by the dying coals. “You did great, Kitten,” he said proudly and disappeared.

Shortly after Piper’s mother arrived home, the police cars began arriving, followed by shiny, black government sedans to record the incident of Mars Hill.

Men can’t win; 3 clear examples