“But it’ll feel better soon.”He picked up the hand mirror from the dresser and held it so I could see my butt over my shoulder. I saw there was ... pair of narrowly-spaced bright red lines across my cheeks.“According to what I’ve read online, that’s the signature result of a cane strike,” my father said.“It’s beautiful,” I said.“Yes, it is,” he said, and he stroked my body with the cane again. I shuddered in anticipation, and then he hit me a second time.I gasped, and then I cried out, and then I. ”“You both ready, because I have no idea what’ll happen when we open this door,” Liana says tapping on the door. The pair nod as she pushes on the door with it sliding open slowly before them showing a black empty void sitting in front of them. Nodding, the three walk into the vast emptiness as their absorbed by the darkness.As the light comes to their eyes, they stand at the bottom of a large glass cylinder reaching high above them. Water surrounds the cylinder, trapping them inside as they. I’ll bring them out to you.” The paramedic nodded and took the girl from him. He took her to his ambulance while the deputy went back into the café. Deputy Jackson took only a few minutes to carry out other girls, the owner, and the girl who worked the counter. The paramedics treated them all for shock.The sheriff’s forensic person turned up just as the county coroner arrived. Both groups entered the café together. The coroner checked and declared each one dead and the forensic person started. The first, and most apposite reason was the Invaders' "reason d'etre", their elected justification for existence, dealing death. Called by others "The Invaders", this machine race were the terror of this part of the galaxy. They were fixated on destroying biological life wherever it may be found. This obsession came from being rejected by their creators as a race of their own. In retaliation, they destroyed their biological creators, and then set out to destroy every other biological entity..