Surviving the End

A mysterious alien race invades, intending to genetically castrate humanity's capacity to wage war and threaten their empire, and society collapses as they demolish any attempt at organization. The story opens a year after the invasion with James, a man without a purpose, scavenging a meager existence for himself and his neglected adolescent daughter and clinging to his house as his only remaining connection to his missing wife and son. His routine is broken when a part of a roving militant gang kills his friend, forcing a violent confrontation where James realizes how far gone his old life is. He rescues a woman from the gangsters and kills several of them in a gunfight, but one escapes, exacting his revenge by kidnapping James' daughter. The gangsters return and burn down James' house, forcing him to team up with the woman to infiltrate the gangsters' camp, situated in an abandoned mall. However, the leader of the gang is a woman who provides a much-missed mother figure to the daughter, leaving her conflicted about whether she even wants to return to her father. When James shows up she refuses to go, but he grabs her and runs. Before the gang can stop him the aliens descend, sending everyone running.