by Fiona Roarke
“No worries. Were you able to bring the two prisoners in?”
“Yep. Easy. The other search team rounded up six more in the Eastern sector of our search grid, so we are down to seven escapees left roaming the woods.”
Wyatt looked around the lab for a clock. “What time is it?”
“Time to go back and get the rest of the alien wild bunch,” Axel said. “Are you ready to go?”
Wyatt tensed his abs, pleased to find the pain was nearly gone. He sat up as Gage moved closer to fiddle with the IV in his arm.
“Whatever you gave me is working great. Are you sure it isn’t some alien wonder drug?”
“I’m sure. Just good old earthling pain meds. You’re good to go, but I’d wear a vest. A second beanbag shot—or a hit from any other kind of projectile—to the same area would do serious damage to your insides, maybe the permanent kind.”
Wyatt nodded. “Got it.” He hated wearing a vest, but would do it. The idea of anything touching, let alone striking, his bruised belly once the pain returned made him a little nauseous.
Gage detached him from the IV. Wyatt slid to his feet. He felt pretty good, all things considered. Cam handed him the shackle rifle, or rather, the alien purple goo splatter gun, as he now thought of it.
“How long have I been out?”
Cam said, “Almost an hour.”
“So the search grid has moved further west?”
He nodded. “But we lucked out. Someone called in a complaint about animals foraging in some roadside garbage cans near a cabin on Old Pine Sap Road.”
Wyatt nodded. “That’s another mile further and in the same direction as we were headed.”
“And where we are headed now, if you’re up to it.”
“Are you up to it?” Valene asked. She sounded amused.
“Does a bear poop in the woods?” She giggled, as he expected.
Her brothers groaned at the joke, but filed out of the room one by one, smiling. Gage handed him a small envelope with two white pills inside. “Take these in a couple of hours. Don’t forget, okay? You want to stay ahead of the pain.”
Wyatt shoved them into his shirt pocket. “Right.”
Valene grabbed his hand. “I’ll remind him.”
He followed the group through the large area below the Big Bang Truck Stop and back out to the wooded area near the still chained and floating prison ship.
Diesel pointed to his SUV. “It’ll be faster if we take the rural route near the bauxite mine.” They all climbed in. Cam claimed shotgun once more and Valene sat between Axel and Wyatt in the back. All Wyatt could concentrate on was Valene’s leg pressed up against his and how much he wanted to kiss her, even at the expense of her three brothers beating the crap out of him for even thinking of it.
Cam turned in his seat to give Wyatt a narrow-eyed look. “We wouldn’t beat the crap out of you for just thinking it.”
Wyatt pushed out a frustrated sigh. “You really need to stay out of my head, bro.” Wyatt turned to stare out the window, pulling his leg away from Valene’s.
She immediately reconnected their thighs, pushing into him, and slid her soft fingers along his jawline so he faced her.
And then she kissed him…hard. She slipped her arms around his neck and kissed him harder.
Wyatt kissed her back like three of her brothers weren’t possibly wrathful alien witnesses within arm’s reach of his neck.
When she drew away, she whispered, “I love you, Wyatt. I’ve loved you since the first time I saw you shooting in that tournament. While you are still privy to all my deepest secrets, I intend to take full advantage and kiss you every chance I get. If my annoying brothers don’t like it, they can go suck a bushel of lemons dry.”
The annoying brothers in question all laughed. Diesel started the truck and they were on the road in no time. Valene laced their fingers and rested her head on Wyatt’s shoulder.
Wyatt had never been happier in his life and certainly not in the past two weeks. He thought about leaving Earth to live on an alien planet two galaxies away with the love of his life, knowing his family, his best friend Hunter, no one would ever find out what happened or why he’d disappeared.
The more he thought about it, the more he decided it was a viable option he should seriously consider—especially with Valene attached to his side.
The headlights of a vehicle coming up behind them occupied him for a few moments until they turned off the highway and onto the rural route. After a quarter of a mile, Diesel pulled into the drive of a nice home nestled another fifty feet into the woods.
A row of half a dozen trash cans, three of them turned on their sides with garbage strewn across the road, served as evidence that something odd had happened. While it was possible animals were to blame, it was unlikely, considering the bear-proof lids. Wyatt would have bet money only humanoid limbs and hands could open them up.
“Someone’s been dumpster diving for dinner.” Cam put his flashlight on the mess, following a few pieces of trash that formed a trail into the woods away from the cabin.
“Looks like they went that way.”
Wyatt heard the sound of crunching leaves behind them. He turned and flashed his light in that direction, but didn’t see anything. He also didn’t hear anything else. He’d spent the last two weeks waiting for Daphne Charlene to jump out and surprise him. What with alien criminals on the loose, it was no wonder he was jumpy. Stop being paranoid.
“What?” Diesel asked.
“Nothing. Thought I heard something.”
“Don’t flake out on me. You’re likely the only one of us that can hit our alien prisoners using only one shot. Plus, now that you’ve saved my life, I believe you have to keep doing it per some ancient proverb or something.”
Wyatt laughed, pushing out a breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding. “Great. Don’t memory erase me and I’ll do what I can to keep you alive from now on.”
A cloud descended over Diesel’s features. He didn’t frown so much as look saddened that a memory erasure was definitely in Wyatt’s future, no matter what anyone thought.
A horrendous unearthly shriek pierced the night air and jerked their attention to the task at hand. Someone—or something—crashed through the woods away from them, as if fleeing a horde of evil beings. The howling continued. Meanwhile, the crashing sounds became more distant as Wyatt led the way through the trees toward the racket.
In a small clearing, Wyatt discovered what had made the horrid noises. The alien was humanoid, but with longer arms than a human, lots of body hair and claws tipping the ends of four-fingered hands. The alien was caught in a steel trap. The smooth edge of the trap’s clamp, even without sharp illegal teeth, had broken through the alien’s hairy skin. Its ankle was covered in orange blood. The being’s eight claws were ragged and bled a dark orange substance as it tried to pull the smooth, strong jaws of the trap off its ensnared leg.
Wyatt shot it in the chest, instantly subduing the escapee. The clawed fingers went slack as the purple goo soaked into its chest hair. Diesel moved forward, using his foot to stomp on the lever and release the prisoner from the animal trap. He pointed his flashlight around the area, especially in the direction they’d heard what was presumably another fleeing convict who had abandoned the trapped furry orange-blooded alien.
Axel and Cam stayed with the shackled alien to dress its wound.
Diesel led the way further into the woods, with Valene between him and Wyatt as they carefully followed the trail of broken branches and tamped down forest floor until they came to a small gray alien half the size of the one with the fur and claws, but with a larger head. The alien panted as if exhausted and sat leaning against a fallen tree trunk, half rotted through at the other end. Wyatt thought it looked like a live version of Maxwell the Martian. Maybe it had been the model.
The gray alien put both skinny little arms in the air, hands displaying three long slim digits as if to indicate his surrender.
Wyatt s
hot it in the side and purple goo dribbled down its hip. The spindly arms dropped and the alien’s head went back against the fallen tree trunk. It stared glassily up into the canopy of the treetops with a goofy, happy smile on his extra-small mouth.
“Why is he smiling? Does the purple goo make them high or something?”
“No,” Diesel said. “The planet we hail from is very arid and hot with mostly sand on the majority of the land and super salty sea water when there is any. Potable water is scarce in most regions on Alpha-Prime and what few trees we have are rarely taller than we are. Most of the aliens who come to this planet are fascinated by Earth’s tall trees.”
“Huh.” He looked around for any clues that other aliens might be in the vicinity, but didn’t see any. “I’m going to circle the perimeter and ensure these are the only two here.”
Diesel nodded. “Be careful,” he said as he put a set of handcuffs on the alien’s slim wrists and began to lead him back to his captured compatriot.
By the time Wyatt completed his search and rejoined the group, they had carried the hairy alien to the dirt road next to the trash cans and tied a makeshift bandage—it looked like a light gray Maxwell the Martian T-Shirt from the truck stop—around its lower leg. Orange alien blood had soaked through the fabric in some spots.
Gage, still in his white lab coat, pulled up in a green panel van Wyatt had never seen before. The Big Bang Truck Stop logo was emblazoned in colorful paint on the side, but the open doors at the back revealed what could have been the interior of a human ambulance.
Cam and Axel helped him load up the hairy wounded alien, who lay atop a makeshift gurney that looked more like a tall military cot with wheels than a medical stretcher.
Gage handed Cam the keys to get the van started. The small gray alien went into the van next at Diesel’s short command. Valene’s oldest brother tossed his keys to Wyatt. “You’ll have to bring my SUV back, okay?”
“Sure thing.”
Valene slipped her arm into Wyatt’s. “I’ll go with Wyatt.”
Diesel didn’t look elated, but didn’t argue. “Bring my vehicle back to the truck stop, right?”
“Right,” Valene said.
“Pronto, right?”
“We’ll see,” she said. Diesel expression said he was displeased, but he didn’t say anything. He hopped into the van’s shotgun seat.
The back doors of the van slammed shut, Gage and Axel inside, and Cam drove the van back toward the highway a quarter mile away.
The moment the van was out of sight, Valene threw her arms around Wyatt’s neck and kissed him like they’d never get to kiss ever again. That might be true, so he hugged her tight, and kissed her back with a lot of enthusiasm.
He didn’t know how long they kissed, but they both came up for air suddenly when they were startled by a loud sound, like someone or something crashing through the woods at a high rate of speed. Wyatt put Valene behind him and raised the alien gun, ready to shoot.
The noise died down, stopped and started up again. After listening for a few seconds, it was clear that whatever was crashing around out there was now headed in the opposite direction.
“Should we follow it?” he asked Valene. He really wanted to follow it.
“No. Let’s go back and get my brothers. I don’t want you to go it alone with dangerous alien criminals.”
“Are you sure? I’m not a shy flower, you know.” He didn’t lower the gun, keeping it pointed in the direction of the receding noise.
“I know, but even you would agree that chasing a strange noise in the woods at night all on your lonesome is not the best use of your time.”
“Maybe.” He could barely hear the crashing now anyway, so he lowered his alien purple goo splatter gun and noted the direction of where he lost the sound. When they came out later with the group, they could start there.
“Please, let’s go back.” Valene pressed close. He kissed the top of her head. She tilted her face toward his and he kissed her mouth gently.
“Okay.”
Wyatt was in love with an alien girl. He kissed her again a little longer, but decided they should get out of here before their incandescent emotions ran rampant. He took her hand and they walked slowly back to Diesel’s SUV. He glanced around as he walked, searching for any sign of more aliens hiding and possibly watching them from the tree line.
Maybe the smart ones had scurried away, or perhaps they watched to ensure he and Valene were really leaving the area.
Either way, he couldn’t shake the feeling that someone, or something, kept track of them as they departed.
Wyatt raced Diesel’s SUV back to the truck stop as fast as possible, a little unsettled that they weren’t done with their search for escaped alien criminals, wishing he’d gone ahead and chased after the noise crashing through the woods.
A glance at Valene made him reconsider. He was thrilled to be finally in on Valene’s big secret. It was a doozy, but oddly not disquieting. Nowhere near some of the guesses he’d pondered, for example: mob-like criminal enterprise or witness protection family a discovery away from being moved to another city. Aliens from another planet had not been on his list of possibilities.
Alien or not, Wyatt loved Valene and the idea of moving two galaxies away to be with her forever was growing on him.
Chapter Seven
<^> <^> <^>
Valene and Wyatt made it back to the truck stop in record time. She didn’t know what had been crashing around in the woods, but was grateful Wyatt didn’t want to discover what or who it was all on his lonesome.
He’d barely parked the truck before hopping out to tell her brothers what they’d heard.
Wyatt sounded uncertain as his tale wound down. “Should I have chased the unseen someone?”
“No,” Diesel and Cam said at the same time.
“Too dangerous all alone,” Cam explained. “We need to operate like we did earlier in groups of no less than five. Trust me, you did the right thing. We’ll start there when we go out again if we don’t get any better information as to where they are.”
Cam held up his digital tablet. “We’ve reviewed the bios of the final five escapees. Indigo Smith and two of his favorite lackeys are still loose, along with two more like the hairy alien we captured earlier. It’s likely they’ve gone north, as it’s the least viable path, but also the one without people. We don’t know if they are all traveling together, but it’s possible.”
Diesel huffed. “We aren’t that lucky. I’d be willing to bet a paycheck that Indigo Smith and his minions are nowhere near the two hairy beasts from Galdaren.”
“Indigo Smith doesn’t have anyone on Earth to help him, does he?” Axel asked as if just now coming up with that odd query.
“How could he?” Diesel didn’t seem convinced it wasn’t possible.
“I don’t know, but I’m with Axel,” Cam said. “Indigo Smith seems to be able to do the impossible. Maybe we should check into an Earth connection.” He sounded especially on edge. It made sense, as he was the one in charge of security for the Big Bang Truck Stop, both upstairs and down.
Cam took his duties very seriously. “I mean, how is he loose and missing from the gulag ship where none of the prisoners were supposed to wake from their cryo-sleep chambers until arriving on XkR-9, the miserable gulag planet?”
Axel raised his hand in a semi-shrug. “It’s entirely possible that it was because of the excessive solar flares.”
“Excessive solar flares?” Diesel’s eyes narrowed. “Didn’t you say something about that a couple of weeks ago?”
“I did. I just didn’t think you were listening.” Axel managed a half smile, then sobered. “Speculation from Alpha-Prime is that excessive solar flares from the sun, apparently a common occurrence here, never happen in our galaxy and they’ve somehow messed with the operation of the cryo-pods carrying the alien prisoners.”
“Somehow messed with?”
“Okay, interfered. As in rendered the cryo-pods us
eless by spontaneously generating an out-of-cycle system check that rebooted each cryo-pod, allowing every one of the prisoners to thaw, wake up and for most of them escape. As a bonus, it also prevented the few guards tending them from accessing the information on their digital security devices until prisoners were racing past them into the woods behind the truck stop.”
Gage raised his hand. “I thought only some of the pods popped open.”
“Nope. Every single one opened up, but some of the prisoners—depending on their physiology—were more easily able to shake off the drugs from the cryo-freeze process. A handful never even made it out of their pods.”
“Not to be defeatist, but the only prisoner of the remaining five that I’m worried about is Indigo Smith. He’s smart, wily and could easily charm a little kid into giving up his whole stash of Halloween candy without the child shedding a tear.”
“Here’s a question,” Wyatt said. “Why aren’t the guards on the prison ship helping us search for the escapees? You’d think they would be prepared for this kind of thing.”
“Since the prisoners were supposed to be safely slumbering in cryo-pods, only three guards accompanied the ship,” Diesel explained. “They’re needed to guard the recaptured prisoners. Besides, none of them have ever been to Earth before. We’re better equipped for a ground search than they are.”
Wyatt nodded. “Makes sense. Are we going back out tonight?” he asked no one in particular.
He squeezed Valene’s fingers without looking at her. No one had noticed them canoodling and Valene was grateful. She hoped she could go back to Wyatt’s home and explain everything. Even if he didn’t get to remember it later. At least they could talk and discuss various what if scenarios. Then, once his memory was gone, she’d know what might have happened. A pain in her chest registered what it would be like to see Wyatt after his memory wipe. She shut that thought down. It was too painful to think about. If he lost his memory, she would be wise to never try to see him ever again. That made her eyes water. Stop it. Be positive.