“We thought they were angelic messengers. We were wrong."
The creatures arrived on June 6th, 2026, by the hundreds of thousands, silently drifting down out of the sky, hovering at a geostationary orbit for three months all over the planet, taking up positions. No one knew what they wanted...why they came...or why they wouldn't just go away.
And then, three months later, the unthinkable happened. They suddenly came to life, hunting us down. We called them gorgons - after the mythical creature Medusa - because their eyes had the power to paralyze us with just one look. Once we were immobilized, they would consume us at their leisure, leaving us to feel every excruciating bite. There was no escape, no hiding from their relentless pursuit. The best defense was to run.
By the end of 2026, 85% of humanity was killed off.
Andrew Shipley is just an ordinary man thrust into an extraordinary nightmare of dystopian post-apocalyptic proportions. The alien invasion leaves Planet Earth a ghost town eking out an existence in the shadows. As chaos erupts, hope dwindles for Andrew, his wife Melissa, his sons Cameron and Rutty, and his daughter Sissy. Will they make it?
“We thought they were angelic messengers. We were wrong."
The creatures arrived on June 6th, 2026, by the hundreds of thousands, silently drifting down out of the sky, hovering at a geostationary orbit for three months all over the planet, taking up positions. No one knew what they wanted...why they came...or why they wouldn't just go away.
And then, three months later, the unthinkable happened. They suddenly came to life, hunting us down. We called them gorgons - after the mythical creature Medusa - because their eyes had the power to paralyze us with just one look. Once we were immobilized, they would consume us at their leisure, leaving us to feel every excruciating bite. There was no escape, no hiding from their relentless pursuit. The best defense was to run.
By the end of 2026, 85% of humanity was killed off.
Andrew Shipley is just an ordinary man thrust into an extraordinary nightmare of dystopian post-apocalyptic proportions. The alien invasion leaves Planet Earth a ghost town eking out an existence in the shadows. As chaos erupts, hope dwindles for Andrew, his wife Melissa, his sons Cameron and Rutty, and his daughter Sissy. Will they make it?
Friday, May 8th, 2026
It was just like any other day.
Ever since 9/11, we had been hailed as heroes. No one ever really forgot, I guess, and it was nice to hear the random, scattered “thank you for your service” being tossed our way as we walked around in our firefighter gear. We participated in parades. We helped new moms secure their kids’ car seats. We put out the fires, played together, laughed together, hung out together, and waited together for the next alarm.
Oh, there was work, of course. We had a fire down the street from the department a few months ago that was a real burner. Took down most of the building, and it was some poor lady’s antique shop full of irreplaceable trinkets that she’d never find again. Poor lady. Died of a broken heart a week later. Guess she lost her reason for living.
Our reason for living was saving lives.
But, I had to admit, as a firefighter at East Golden Pond Fire Department, we had a lot of fun being life savers. Between trying to save antique shops and getting cats out of trees, we maintained our equipment. Performed routine public safety inspections for the likes of businesses as well as apartment complexes. Provided training in CPR. All with all the paperwork associated with that kind of stuff, there was always tons to do.
But as much as I loved being a firefighter, what I really truly loved was coming home to my family. Those twenty-four hour on shifts could be murder; it was the forty-eight hour off shifts for three or four days in a row that I lived for. That allowed me to spend plenty of time with Melissa and the kiddos.
Ah, Melissa.What can I say about my beautiful wife?We had grown up together, and my family was friends with her family. It was meant to be, I guess. We married on March 10th 2012, amidst all the jokes that the world was going to end that year, what with the Mayan calendar predictions. Proved them wrong for sure, I thought, as I drove home. She was a special lady, and always had been. She was still smoking, even though she promised to give it up. All things in due time. I could love her through that. She worked part-time at Canine Club Dog Training and Animal Care when I was home, but not the whole time I was home of course, or we’d never last. We’d be two ships passing in the night.
No: she just loved animals, and that gave her a chance to spend some time with a few of them.We had talked off and on about getting a dog, but couldn’t ever settle on which one we wanted. The kids – and Melissa – desperately wanted a Jack Russell Terrier just so they could call him “Jack.” How incredibly original. Canine Club would sometimes have them up for adoption, but no Jack Russells, she said, were to be found within a hundred miles. That’s because I knew who had already snatched the last one up. Me. She just didn’t know the surprise was coming yet.
Melissa and I had a big church RV picnic coming up with Mount Pleasant Baptist Church tomorrow, and we were in charge of planning it with Mick and his wife. Why we agreed to do that when we were flying out the very next day to Seattle was beyond me, but whatever.
Mick Thomas was my best friend, and he was the best guy you could tease for having two first names. If your name is Mick and Thomas, you’re going to get teased. So I’d call him ‘Micky,’ ‘Tommy,’ ‘Tom-O,’ and my personal favorite, ‘Mickarino.’ There were others. Every day was a new name. He dealt with it pretty well. He and his wife Samantha lived two doors down off of Old Dover Road in Blue Spring Kentucky, where the only real concerns we had were whether our kids were safe biking down the road to see their kids. It wasn’t the ‘ruralest’ of roads. And the kids loved to bike down to New Skinner cemetery where I have repeatedly warned them not to go.
But Cameron has a thick skull, Rutty does what Cameron does, and only Sissy really listens to me.
Where do I start with my kids. Let’s see.I’ll start with the boys first, and save the best for last.
We waited a long time to have kids. Not that we really wanted it that way, but it was definitely how it worked out.Melissa wanted them more than I did, but we both had some issues with fertility and had to go to a clinic to address them. We tried and tried and tried. And then, just when I was ready to give up, Melissa called me in to the bathroom in our previous home and said, “come here.”
I didn’t think anything; just trudged up the stairs and saw her standing in front of the mirror holding something. She turned and showed it to me. It had one strong line and one faint.
“That’s pregnant. That’s pregnant, honey!” I shouted. She started to protest, stating that she had seen others in pregnancy apps and communities also showing their own results and finding out that they were not in fact pregnant. But I refuted it and insisted. That was January 2019, and our lives were about to change forever. I swept her up in my arms and twirled her around as we both screamed in glee. Seven years after getting married, we were finally pregnant. About time, too. I was thirty-three and she was thirty. About damn time. Then, we sneezed, and all of the sudden, we seemed to have two more of them.We planned for Sissy, but not exactly for Rutty. No matter how you sliced it though, we were darn happy.
Cameron Alex, our oldest, was born October 16th 2019. He was perfect in every way with all of his little digits. Just a wrinkly little alien with an oblong head who cried and cried. But when he softened, man he was a happy baby and could just make us giggle.
Cameron is six, and he’s in First Grade at Trigg County Primary School. When he’s done there, he’ll move right over to Trigg County Intermediate School which is…in the same building, really. And then, when he finishes middle school, he’ll move right over about a hundred feet to Trigg County High School. All of them are practically in the same building, right off Main Street and, appropriately enough, School Street. It’s nice having them all together, and it’s only a ten minute drive from us, curving up Old Dover Road. Cameron is strong-willed, obstinate, and knows what he wants. He does not like being in trouble, but he seems to get in it plenty. I swear that kid would do excellently in the military or something.
Wyatt Rutledge is almost three – he’ll be three next month. He wants to do everything that Cameron does, except he does it with a binky. We’ve been trying to ween him off of that for almost a year now, but he still likes them.The dentist said that they will warp his teeth, so we had definitely been trying for a while. We called Wyatt “Rutty” for short, because he always seemed to get himself into some kind of rut. Once he got his head stuck in a Lego container. Another time he put his hand on the burner and got a bad burn. Still another time he got tangled up in the shower curtain and couldn’t find his way out. But he was laughing through all of it. And yet one more time he locked himself in our car in the garage with the keys inside. Took us forever to find the spare key fob. Little stinker. He’s ‘Wyatt Rutledge Shipley’ when he’s in trouble, which is often. But he’s too cute to be mad at for long. Cameron is strong-willed yet organized; Rutty is obedient yet foolhardy. He’s still in preschool. Melissa says that, out of Cameron and Wyatt, Wyatt reminds her most of me. Cameron thinks so too. He’s an adorable little guy, and fun to wrestle with.
Sissy is my little ‘teaspoon.’ That’s what I call her. Her real name is Adelynn Hope, and that’s what we call her when she is in trouble, so we never call her that. And since the boys are boys and they gang up on her, we’re constantly addressing her as “Sissy” to them. For example, “It’s not nice to tease Sissy.” Or, “Cameron Alex Shipley! Don’t put gum in Sissy’s hair!” Or, “Rutty, Sissy likes applesauce, can you share some with her?” At which point Rutty nods his head and flings applesauce in her hair. Sigh.“Have a kid” they said. “It’ll be fun,” they said. But I love ‘em. Sissy is rock solid and is a fighter. She’s interested in all things not of this planet, and says she might be an astronaut someday. She mostly stays indoors and I have to beat her with a stick to shoo her outside and go join the boys who are always running around landing in mud.
Our big church RV picnic is coming up here this Saturday, and then we fly out to Seattle on Sunday the 10th to go visit my parents for a few days. And then, for Memorial Day weekend, the older kids are heading down to Camp Sycamore Creek with Mick’s kids, so it’ll just be Rutty and Melissa and me for three days together. That ought to be fun.
But Seattle?We’re all really looking forward to that. Dad isn’t getting any younger, and Mom is having a hard time keeping his memory alert and savvy. A trip up there with the load of us will keep us on our toes as well as bring some much needed energy and emotion his way to hopefully give him a bit longer. The doctors say his dementia is getting worse, and gave him another year. Hopefully, pops will hold out a bit longer. We’ll see. Melissa hates flying, so that part would be hard, but we were looking forward to the rest for sure.
• • • • •
I pulled in the driveway. I love this Toyota Sienna. Never thought I’d be a minivan owner. We got it in 2024 because I always liked the new models, and I loved that it was the 2025 model and that it was a hybrid. This thing has always run super quiet, which conveniently allowed me to sneak in and surprise Melissa and the kids, bursting in the door and seeing their eyes go wide. I compromised and got forest green, since that’s Melissa’s favorite color. Blue would have been nicer, but whatever…at least she let me get tinted windows, as much as I could get by law.
I grabbed my things and walked up to the front door, opening it wide. 6:31pm.Dinner wafted out to me through the screen door so I knew what was on the menu even before I got in. Mac n’ cheese. I loved Melissa’s mac n’ cheese, and thankfully, it was one of the three things in total that my picky kids would eat. Cameron says he’s not picky, but he is almost as picky as Rutty.Rutty would eat mac n’ cheese for breakfast, lunch and dinner if you let him. Sissy eats everything. That’s why she’s the best. We joke with Cameron and Rutty that we’re going to trade the kids back in for the new model of child that actually eats something. We called it “Kid Model 3000.” They always cried out, “No!”
The way I saw it, parenting is like going from work to work. One is thankful and they give you a check. The other is thankless and you are a bank. So about the only thing they have in common is that money changes hand. But there’s nothing that work could offer me that would ever compare to being with my kids, frankly. I’m big and strong to them, and so they’re all determined to take me down, especially Sissy. She knows her dad is a softie and can’t dispense his full strength against her; he loves her too much. I was looking forward to the trip to Seattle, and the upcoming church picnic, and taking some time off of work to be with family: both sides of it. Nana and Pop-pop couldn’t wait to see our kids, and they loved Melissa as their own.
But for now, it was our time, and it was our family.
“Daddy’s home!” I said as I threw open the door, and instantly three young voices screamed “Daddy!” and ran for me. Sissy reached me first, and affixed herself to my leg. “Hi Teaspoon!” I squealed, bending over to kiss her head and gently tug on her ponytail.
“Hi Daddy!How was your day? Did you fight any fires today?”
“Uh, no, not today kiddo – pretty easy day for daddy.”
Next up, my little penguin. Rutty tended to make a silly, stuttery penguin noise these days, and the sound reverberated off of his binky. “Hey nugget!How’s my little penguin? Come here you,” I said, lifting him up. “Hey! I am so hungry right now…I would love to nibble on a binky, anyone know where I can find one?” He stopped his penguin noises, and the sudden change in altitude made him squeal. He looked at me wide-eyed, smiling behind his pacifier.
“Where is it?I know I saw one around here somewhere,” I said, looking all around him and then locking eyes on the delicate piece of rubber and plastic in his mouth as he smiled fully, his eyes widening even more in alarm, knowing the inevitable was about to happen. “There’s one! Nom nom nom,” I said, as I tried to eat it out of his mouth, and then started eating his arm, hand, neck, and chest, prompting giggles. “Somebody needs a change, I can smell it. Pee-ew! Go get me a diaper, punkin’ seed.” I put Rutty down and play-swatted him on the diaper before he scampered off.
The two society finches we owned, affectionately named Beep and Boop, were chirping joyfully in their cage and flitting about.
“Hey dad,” came another voice.
“Hey, Cameron, how’s my little man?”
Cameron didn’t answer; he just came over and gave me a big high-five with a grin. I tugged on his baseball hat and fist-bumped him next. “How was your day, bub?”
“Good!I won the Glow Run.”
“You did? Great job, buddy! How many laps?”
“Six,” Cameron said proudly, holding up five fingers.
I stopped short, looking at his hand and then back to him.
“I mean, six,” he said, lifting up another finger.
“That’s more like it,” I laughed. “Nice work, kiddo! Did you beat Conner?”
He nodded.Conner, Mick’s son, was in the same grade and had the same teacher. They also had a sister Sissy’s age, Hadley, so that worked out nicely. Rutty was the only one without a match, but he was okay with it. He would always be surrounded by coloring books and his favorite friend was his mama, because she was the one who read books to him.
I heard a slight cough from the kitchen, but I couldn’t see Melissa yet. I knew that cough though, and I could smell it before I rounded the corner.
“Pre-dinner mint?” I asked, leaning my head around the corner.
“Stop,” she smiled. “I’m down to less than ten per day, that oughta count for something, right?” she said, as she looked at me with eyebrows up for approval.
I smiled back to her. She was trying. I had to give her that. “Yes, hon, it does,” I said, setting my polo shirt on the counter. I was still in my uniform pants and T-shirt. All of them needed to be washed, and her nose crinkled at the smell.
“Bet you’re glad mac n’ cheese smells stronger than sweat or cigarettes right now, huh?” I said, wrapping my eyes around her from behind and kissing her neck.
“Yeah, definitely, and – hey! Stop that.Andrew!” she giggled, crinkling her neck as I tickled it with my lips. She laughed again and slapped me lightly with her spatula. “The kids are gonna see. Stop! I’m gonna fling a bunch of cheesy shells at you if you don’t stop. Then we’ll see who smells worse.”
I laughed into her neck and cradled her. “I love you, every day, more and more, over and over. You’re doing good. I’m proud of you, sweetheart.”
She wrapped her arms back around me and turned into a hug. I kissed her. “Welcome home, stinky.”
“Good to be home, stinky.” I kissed her again.
“Ew!Were you guys kissing again?Gross.”
We both turned to Cameron. He rolled his eyes. “What, you mean like this? Kissing like this?” I asked, and then buried my face in Melissa’s. Cameron noisily rolled his eyes and made a disgusted sound, tramping off as Rutty walked in again, somehow now naked.
“Hey!” laughed Melissa. “What happened to your clothes, penguin?”
“I didn’t want them!” Rutty said, just standing there and smiling up at us behind his binky.Somewhere, a dirty diaper had been discarded, and the hunt was on to find it before dinnertime.
“Your turn,” she said to me. I nodded and ran off, sniffing. I could hear her laugh over my shoulder.
• • • • •
“Okay, okay, how ‘bout this one?” I asked. The kids were all picking at their mac n’ cheese, and I swore to myself this would be the last dad joke I told them today. Rutty was in his high chair in a new diaper, and he had been cleaned up, but luckily this was bath night, because he had more cheesy shells stuck to his chest than he had in his stomach.
“Two trees got arrested in the town I live in,” I said. “I heard they’ve been doing some shady business.”
Cameron and Sissy looked at each other while we waited.
“Oh!Because the trees give shade!” Sissy shouted. Cameron rolled his eyes and slapped a hand over his brow.
There it is. Good job, Sissy.
“One more daddy, that one sucked,” Cameron insisted.
“Hey, watch your mouth, buster,” Melissa said. “We don’t really say that yet. Give it a few more years.” Cameron tilted his head to one side and then raised an eyebrow.
“Okay, okay, just one more and then it’s bath time. Okay.” I cleared my throat, thinking. “Ah!Okay. How ‘bout this one. How many ears does Captain Kirk have?”
“Who’s Captain Kirk?” Rutty asked, crinkling his nose and tilting his head dramatically.Now his one eyebrow was up, just like Spock. Melissa erupted into laughter.
Even Cameron giggled. “Yeah, who’s Captain Kirk.”
“Never mind,” I said. “Three ears!The left ear, the right ear, and the final frontier!”
Dramatic and punishing silence. They had no idea what I was talking about, and I’m sure were questioning my very existence right now. However, Rutty, always the gentleman, scratched his head and said through a smile, “Daddy, you’re silly.”
“No, you’re silly,” I protested. “You guys don’t get it? Forget it.You’re too young. I’ll explain some other day.”
“No, you!” Rutty snickered, and then the others chimed in, pointing at each other and insisting that they were silly, all accelerating in speed.Finally, Cameron figured he got more than everyone else, and threw his fists up in victory. “I win!”
“You win.Okay, kids, off to the bath. Sissy gets the shower.”
“Yay!” she shouted, and ran off to our bedroom to use our shower.
“Boys, I bet you can’t beat me to the bathroom. You can’t. I’m gonna win. Watch,” I threatened. Cameron zipped past me, ripping his clothes off on the way and then diving into the guest bathroom down the hall. Melissa lifted Rutty out of his high chair and then I tried to pick up speed as he scampered toward me. Then, it was the perfect time to feign a leg cramp.
“Ow!Leg cramp! Oh no! Now I’ll never make it! What ever will I do??” I cried, dramatically falling to the ground and writhing in pain theatrically. Rutty climbed over me, uncaring and giggling, making his way over Mount Daddy to the bathroom to be with brother. Didn’t even bother to look back.
I tossed a playful glance toward Melissa as she began to clean up. She blew me a kiss.
• • • • •
Bathtime over, the kids were in their jammies.
“Okay, who picks the book tonight? Mama, who picks the book, did Cameron pick it last night?”
“Uh, no, I think Rutty did!” I heard her call out from the kitchen.
Rutty scowled. He was already holding one of his favorites out to me, and wanted me to do that one.
“Llama Llama Red Pajama again?” I whined incredulously. He smiled and nodded. “Didn’t we do that last night and the previous night and the previous night and the previous night and the previous night and the…”
Cameron stopped me. “Dad! It’s okay.He can have that one. I can wait.”
I tousled Cameron’s hair. “Aw, that’s nice of you, bub. Really nice to let Rutty choose again. Hear that, Penguin? Brother says you can have it again. Okay, climb up.”
Both boys climbed up onto me, one on each arm, which makes it generally impossible to flip the pages, so they helped. We poured through the Anna Dewdney book for the three thousand eighty seventh time, complete with dramatic voices and captivating storytelling.Rutty was still on a bottle here and there, and any time I tried to don any kind of accent, British or otherwise, while reading, he would jerk the bottle out of his mouth with a grunt and yell “Normal!” Apparently I was forbidden from reading stories to him in other accents.
We flipped the last page, and both boys, washed and smelling fresh and clean, ran off to brush their teeth. Or, well, Cameron ran off to brush his teeth, and Rutty ran off to suck the toothpaste off of the toothbrush and report back that his teeth were clean. He didn’t have many anyway; they were all tiny, adorable stubs.
We said our prayers together, which Cameron always seemed to want to rush through.Rutty always got right into the spirit of it, folding his hands and bowing his head as he had been taught in Sunday school. Cameron had the same teacher, so I don’t know why he didn’t get into it. All things in due time. After all, this was hard-headed Cameron we were talking about.
Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep. If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take.And if I fart and stink the room, I pray that Mommy won’t come soon, we sneakily added, as was our daddy-sons routine, with ensuing snickers.
I tickled them and tucked them in, Rutty in his little toddler bed on the floor, Cameron, above, in his big boy bed. He whisked up the ladder into his bed, and snuggled up tight. I kissed both of them on the foreheads. “I love you so much, kiddo,” I repeated to each.
“I love you daddy, mmmwah,” said Rutty, and projected his lips out as if they were a volcano. I bent down to kiss him once again.
“Love you, dad,” said Cameron, and then he got up to give me one more hug.
One was never enough hugs for Cameron. He was a hugger, and he always wanted more hugs. We embraced, I play-slapped him frantically as he play-slapped me back, and then I pushed him over into his bed. He fell with a clunk, accepted it and pretended to be dazed, and then snuggled up again.
“Night, my sons,” I said. I had just turned off the light to their room to head out, when I heard Cameron stir.
“Oh!” he said, sitting up. “Final front-ear! I get it now.”
“Nice job, bub. Good night, kiddo,” I said, blowing him a kiss.
I walked out of there with a smile, turned out the lights, and pulled a blanket up over Beep and Boop’s cage.
Just like any other day.
In this prequel to the Dissonance series, we are introduced to the Shipley family in the last days before the alien invasion that changed the course of their lives. Andrew's first-person narration gives a very personal account of the personalities of his wife Melissa and their three young children. His voice comes across as really authentic in describing their daily routines, the thousand small things that make up their day, and his genuine love for his family. This makes the story very compelling even before the aliens come, so it feels very natural to care about these characters and how they do in the face of an unimaginable threat to humanity.
Aaron Ryan does a great job in escalating the tension at just the right pace as the whole world and the family of four try to understand who the aliens are and what they want. Finding out information about what is happening at the same time as the characters is truly exciting and compelling. There is precisely the right amount of detail concerning the logistics of survival that is really well balanced with action scenes and emotional moments between the characters that further establish who they are and move the narrative forward.
The resilience the characters show in adapting to the brutality of their new existence is poignant and inspiring. It is worth mentioning that most of the characters have Christian values and their faith forms a considerable part of how they navigate the world and relate to each other. While I personally am not a part of that faith, that layer of the story was still relatable and it made sense for these particular characters. As a non-believer, it inspired me to think about how one's faith or lack thereof would help one come to terms with something as existentially devastating as an alien invasion that lasts for years and results in so much death and destruction.
What I would have been liked to see more of is Melissa's character, who she is outside of her family and faith, although it makes sense that we only see her through Andrew's eyes. It would also have been really interesting to see some more scenes of daily life in the Blockade - the dinner table as a contrast to pre-gorgon times, or the children learning, but here again I understand that the narration needs to be focused through Andrew's eyes and time needs to be passing as well.
Following this family from their dinner table full of smiles, innocence, and some pretty rad dad jokes, to a ferocious fight for their lives in a broken world, is a truly emotional and action-packed ride.