Voltaic

**Voltaic** is an Singaporean science fiction action novel written by Zachary Zander. It is the first novel in the main Interference Pentalogy subseries and the entire Interference series. This book chronicles the survival story of Chicago resident Adam Colton, and his friends Zoe Taylor and Jake Ranieri, after the G-23 extraterrestrials launch an attack on the city of Chicago.

## Plot

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Adam Colton and Giacobbe "Jake" Ranieri arrive at Jake and Zoey "Zoe" Taylor's engagement party at Zoe's apartment. As the party goes on, electrical appliances suddenly go ablaze, killing some guests at the apartment. Evacuation procedures are announced. After cutting the power to stop other appliances from catching fire, Zoe leads the guests out to the body-ridden corridor, following the evacuation protocol.

The survivors escape to the lobby, as rescue arrives. Guests flee as they head into rescuers' helicopters. Unfortunately, an alien hops onto the aircraft, scraping at it and taking it down as it explodes while crashing onto the ground. After the accident, Adam, Jake and Zoe take shelter at a nearby building to shield themselves from the heat released by the blast. Meanwhile, aliens walk pass, forcing the trio to remain silent until the aliens go past them.

The trio then head back to the apartment tower, going down to the underground carpark. They get into Adam's car, fleeing from the building. They are pursued by an alien in the process, but eventually outrun it. They all agree to leave the city and head for Minnesota, but are stopped by a massive jam on the interstate. It is revealed that the government has locked down the city, planning to use a "fishing rod" strategy to lure the aliens to the city, where its occupants are, and stay within it so that the military can take them down effectively.

The trio go on foot, running towards the nearest train station. They encounter an alien on the way, which avoids Adam but targets his friends. Using a rifle he had picked up from a dead man on the road, he shoots the alien dead. The trio arrive at the train station. Before reaching the platform, Adam is able to somehow detect the smell of alien blood from far, later discovering the body of an alien lies on the station platform. They then get on the train, as Jake starts it up, heading back to the apartment to retrieve Zoe's phone to call for help.

At the apartment later, Adam uses Zoe's phone to call a refugee center hotline. However, the refugee center only accepts groups with children or elderly, as they are running out of space. Coincidentally, they hear the cry of an elderly woman coming from the unit next door. Adam leads the trio into the neighbor's apartment, finding a mutilated man being thrown out of the bedroom, onto the floor. The alien who had attacked him exits the room, facing off with the trio as it avoids Adam just as another had done previously. The alien leaps over Adam, before prancing onto Zoe, crushing her arm downwards.

Adam shoots the alien dead with his rifle, helping Zoe up as they head into the room. They find many bodies in the room, also discovering the elderly woman, Pamela, who had been weeping, as her husband was pinned under a broken bed. They attempt to pull him out, but hear the distant sound of aliens heading for them from outside. Thus, he encourages them to abandon him. Leaving the apartment, they find aliens coming from them from both sides. Thus, they escape via the service elevator lobby just before the aliens could get to them. At the ground floor, they sprint out of the building.

Four aliens pursue the group, two of which are shot down by Adam. They manage to flee and go back to the train station, but dozens of aliens join the original two that had been chasing them. As they get inside the train, Jake closes the doors and starts it up. However, the aliens attempt to break through the door windows. Thus, Pamela grabs Adam's rifle and shoots all of them dead, avenging her husband. The train departs from the station. The train arrives at its destination, as the group gets off and heads to the Willis Tower, where the refugee camp is located below. They make it to the lobby, but an alien unsuspectedly attacks them, heading for Zoe. Seeing this, Pamela jumps in front of Zoe, shielding her as she is fatally impaled.

The group heads down to the refugee camp, after Adam kills off the alien that had slain Pamela, coincidentally meeting Pamela's family, who leave to take some time to process her death. The trio then rests in the camp for the night. The next morning, they get up to eat, sitting beside a coughing man, Larry. Zoe later discovers that he is her long-lost childhood "neighborhood brother", as the two reunite.

Two days later, Adam heads to the largest hall in the camp after being selected to attend a briefing. The camp directors explain their plans to escape by using ferries at Navy Pier that would bring them out of the city. However, someone asserts that he hadn't seen any ferries just hours ago, just before he had arrived at the camp. Adam heads back to join his and Larry's group of refugees. After much discussion, they come to the conclusion that the camp directors had something to do with the deaths of several camp volunteers and staff members that had occurred in the past few days.

The two groups divert from the main group of refugees, having planned their own escape route. However, just as they are about to leave, the camp is inundated by aliens. Larry stays behind to look for one of his acquaintances, but tells Adam's group to stick to his plan and escape. Adam brings Pamela's family along, but Pamela's daughter-in-law, Stephanie is killed in the process. The group flee to a nearby train station to seek shelter, where the power cuts in and out, enabling and disabling the turnstiles repeatedly. As a group of aliens head for them, they rush into the station through the turnstile. However, the power comes back on just as the aliens reach Pamela's son, Christopher, who is still on the other side of the turnstile, outside the station concourse. The alien is shot by Adam, but not before killing Christopher.

Adam uses a portable radio that Larry had given him earlier in the camp to send out an SOS signal. Eventually, they are responded to by a rescue organisation named Valor, which Larry had also informed them about earlier on. Jake operates another train for the last time as he leads the group towards the Tribune East Tower, where they had been instructed by Valor to meet at. They get off at the nearest station to the tower, heading towards the building. Finally, they arrive at the tower, only to see havoc being wreaked.

The group find survivors being attacked by aliens, then discover that the elevators in the building are not working. They decide to climb the stairs to get to the roof, eventually reaching it to witness a queue of survivors waiting to board the helicopter. It is soon their turn to get on, but there is not enough space for all five of the group members to go on the same helicopter. Jake offers to stay behind, after the helicopter pilots promise that they will be reunited at one of Valor's facilities later. However, as the helicopter departs from the building, an explosion rocks the building violently, as it collapses under the impact, with Jake presumably killed. Not long after, a massive alien ship releases the Voltaic Beam onto the Willis Tower, sparking fires all over the city while the central wave of energy expands from the building, obliterating everything in its way. It also cuts power out in the helicopter, although it is restored after the effects of the Voltaic Beam cease to go on. The group then escape the city successfully, but without Jake.