I am no stranger to late nights and early mornings. Many a day’s forcing myself to get up and get to work. I’m not a coffee drinker, but coffee is my friend once I get to work. My alarm isn’t going off, but I can tell with my eyes closed, that it is light out already and I can’t be late. Like many times before, I probably shut the alarm off and fell back to sleep. I have a second alarm on my cell phone, set to go off when I have to physically leave the house. Between the two alarms, I always make it to work on time, even if I don’t have the time to eat. I don’t hear my phone going off, so if I get up now, maybe I can still eat something or grab it on the way. I force myself awake and start to come out of that sleep-deprived fog.

Cracking my eyes open, I am still disoriented from not getting enough sleep. Like waking up in a hotel, in a different bed, confused, trying to get to the bathroom. I am standing, staring at the ground, not in my bed, but outside. I raise my eyes to look, trying to get a grasp on my surroundings and shake the fog from my thoughts.

A few giant green men things are standing there in the field, with their backs to me, like some big fat ‘Hulks’. About as wide as they are tall. I see little green alien men dragging children to where these hulks stand. There are straps and hooks all over the backs of these hulks. It takes two or three of these little green men to pick up a child. Strapping a belt around the kids’ chest and under his arms, only to hang the kid like a piece of meat on one of the hooks.

Looking at the scene with all of the commotion, these midgets running around dragging kids. I feel anger burn deep within my soul, rising, as I watch. I realize that I am looking at Jenn, strapped to one of these hulks. I see that camouflaged pointy little shit from before. He is directing the activities. He notices me looking at him and is now directing a couple of the smaller green men, yelling at them while pointing at me.

Somewhere in the depths of my mind, memories of water safety instruction come to the surface. I don’t have a whistle, but I bring my hands up taking the biggest breath that I can. Sticking my fingers in my mouth, I sound an alarm with all that I am.

With the ear-piercing whistle sounding, time seems to stand still for the tick of a clock. The scene across the archery field pauses, as everything halts for that moment. As if my actions force the movement of time to resume. I force myself forward like a sprinter at his mark.

Two of these little green alien things are charging me. That pointy shit is yelling, trying to herd the hulks and the rest of the little green men back into the forest. Every one of them dropping whatever they were doing and breaking into a run for the tree line.

Sprinting forward, I grab a bow out of one of its stands. One of these goblins is charging me head-on and the other is going wide to my left. I shift my grip on the bow to hold it like a baseball bat. As we come together, the goblin screams out its battle cry. Jumping at me in a full run, with dagger downward in each hand, as if to bury them and tear me open on the way down. I come down square on his face with a two-handed overhead tennis serve smash. Stopping it dead in midair and driving it into the ground, breaking the bow in the process.

The other goblin screaming in rage, I whirl to face the second attacker. Holding half the bow in my right hand, it is still connected to its other half. Grabbing the bowstring with my left hand, I pull my hands apart, finding and grabbing the end of the other half of the bow.

This goblin charges and is trying to attack my legs. With a weapon in each of my hands, it is too much for the little short sword it wields. Dual-wielding the two halves of the bow, I block its first strike, smashing its head in with my second weapon, before it can respond. Not waiting to see the results, I charge towards where I had seen Jenn.

The kidnappers are now moving as a pack, with that little shit driving them on from behind. Turning to see me charging, he pulls a thin rod out of his belt. Points it before the herd, speaks, and breaks it in his grasp. Silently, something like a tear in space occurs and opens to a darker landscape beyond.

Turning back to me, knowing that he has won. This little shit goblin commander gives me the biggest wickedest grin I have ever seen, just as he goes wide-eyed with the realization that I am upon him, caving in his skull.

“Thump” Like the hollow sound of a melon. I smash his head as I run by.

The herd running before me is starting to exit through the portal, but I am faster. The goblins are now leading the way before the herd, being faster than these monster size green hulks following behind. I run past one of these hulks to catch onto the back of the one with Jenn. If I am six-foot, then these are eight to ten and just as wide. I grab onto straps and the flesh of its back, to climb my way up. It keeps running like a pack animal not caring what I am doing.

I grab onto the strap holding Jenn to the hook. Lift it off and let her drop. Looking back to see where she has landed, she has rolled unconsciously to a stop. As if moving in slow motion, I see people chasing after us, still more than twenty or thirty feet away. I throw off another child, then a third. Still climbing around on this monster's back, I struggle to free another as I feel us pass through into the dark.

Six children I throw off this thing’s back. It doesn’t seem to care what I am doing as I jump off and onto the next. Still, they run, now trailing farther behind, as they are outpaced by the goblins. The distance growing between the two groups.

Like a trail of breadcrumbs, I throw the children off each hulk. As the last child drops, I drop to the ground myself. Crouching, I watch as the herd keeps running away.

The children that I see are still out. I pick up the last child I freed and start a cautious jog back the way I came. I come to the second child and pick her up as well. Approaching the third, I am not sure what I am going to do. I cannot carry them all. I untie the three and try to wake them, but they are out. I manage to gather all three in my arms and continue to head back.

Coming to the fourth, I set the three down and untie the child. The four are out, definitely drugged somehow. I can see a fifth in the distance. I take better surveillance of the area, trying to decide what to do.

The surrounding area looks to be very similar to that of Community Farms. It is night at the moment, or maybe just darker here. I carry two of the children to where the fifth is laying and untie that child. They are not tied up, just straps around their chests to hang them from the hooks.

I go back for the other two and bring them to lay by the fifth. I can see two more in the direction I am heading; I need to find a better way back.

Keeping a watchful eye, one of the goblins is coming back. In the distance, running back this way, it looks like this one has a spear and is scanning the ground for tracks. I could run, but I will not. I need to put this thing down and not let it warn the others.

Looking at the children laying on the ground, I decide that I cannot let it get away. Maybe I can get behind it, and keep it from running back. I leave the children and head about twenty feet diagonally, off to the side, towards the goblin, and wait.

As the goblin gets closer, it spots the children laying on the ground. As I was hoping, it stops scanning the ground and runs right up to them, ignoring everything else. When it passes me, I come out of hiding behind some random small shrub. Too small for it to conceal me, but large enough that I am not noticed. I match the goblin's steps and come up behind it.

I was thinking that I would grab it from behind, in a choke hold, and quietly choke it to death. In reality, it heard me as I approached, turned on me snarling. I haymakered it to death, punching it once in the face “Thud”.

I don’t want the children to see the body, so I pull it off to the side. I check it, to see if there is anything I can use. It has stuff, but it just looks meaningless to me, except for a small dagger almost too small for me to use.

Back to the children, I gather the three smallest and head for the sixth. Go back for the other two, and bring them all together. The seventh is close by, but the eighth is not. I decide to gather two and continue back until I locate another. I keep repeating this process, but it is taking longer each time. I now have a gathering of ten.

My time has run out as I now see a group of twenty to thirty goblins gathering behind me. They are about fifty feet away and starting to organize. Some hard reality checks are starting to cross my mind. I don’t think I’m going to make it. I think of the children I have gathered and the ones I have not yet found. It would be kind of selfish and I could run, but I won’t. Maybe I would have just knowing what could happen, but not when they are right there before me. I need to save as many as I can. It is kind of harsh, but if I try and protect these children here too much, they will use them against me and I will lose them all. Against my better judgment, I step away from the children. Walking forward towards the goblins, I take about ten steps and stop, waiting for them to make the first move.