I didn’t like where the conversation was headed. “Please don’t go to war with Earth,” I blurted out. I couldn’t sit idly by and keep my mouth closed about the issue.
“Amery,” Kyle warned me to be quiet. Like I was going to listen now.
“Leaders, please just listen to me. Everyone outside the Department is innocent, they can’t get caught up in a war between our planets. Please don’t do this. Humans are good, they aren’t all like the Department, you have to believe me.”
I looked to Garrick for some backup but his gaze was fixated on the flashing lights on the panel. He looked a world away, he probably was.
The line finally crackled back to life. “We will take that under advisement.”
“That’s all you can say? People will die if you retaliate.” My anger levels were rising. The thought of people like my parents, Lola, Lochie, everyone at school being hurt was like a hot poker piercing through my heart.
“We will do what we must to save our people,” our leader shot back, speaking so sternly there was no mistaking his authority. “None of us want bloodshed over this. However, the Department have made it clear they don’t care either way.”
Garrick glared at me, silently warning me to stay quiet. I didn’t have anything else to say, clearly my opinion counted for nothing. And I thought only the Department had the power to make me feel that way.
“Satellite,” the voice continued. “Stay alert for our decision. We will keep you informed. You must be ready for immediate action.”
“Yes, sir.”
He flipped a switch and the buzzing faded down to a low hum. Just as he took a deep breath and was about to tell me off, someone knocked on the front door. We all looked at each other, wondering who could be at Kyle’s house. As far as we knew, he didn’t have any friends that would casually drop by. He kept to himself for a reason.
My first thought was the Department had found us. With all their resources, they could have tracked us there even though we thought we had taken evasive action. We could have been just moments away from being hauled back to the Department with our death sentences back on the table.
“Wait here,” he ordered us before he disappeared out the door. Garrick and I waited all of a second before hurrying over to the window and pulling back the heavy drapes. We couldn’t see the front stoop from our vantage point but I didn’t have to. I knew who was at the door. My panic subsided – a little.
“Him? Why is he here?” Garrick moaned at seeing Lochie’s car.
I didn’t dare tell him I had invited Lochie and was about to tell him my deepest, darkest secret. I was going to break all the rules of the project by exposing us. I doubted that would go down well, despite the project no longer existing.
“I told him I was here,” I replied before hurrying out. I needed to get to Lochie before Kyle had a chance to drop him on the ground in a chokehold and demand to know what he knew. I probably only had seconds before that happened.
“Hey, Lochie,” I greeted him, trying to ascertain his mood just by a simple glance. He seemed worried, it only made the knot in my stomach clench even tighter. Still, he was just as breathtaking as when I had last seen him – asleep in his bed, sleeping like an angel. The memory made me feel all warm on the inside.
Kyle stood back from the door, looking between us. “He’s my friend, it’s okay,” I tried to assure him. I hoped Lochie didn’t notice I failed to say boyfriend. He would understand when I explained the project rules.
I was acutely aware of Garrick lingering in the living room behind me. The way Lochie kept flicking his eyes toward him said that he was too. I needed to do something to ensure everyone played together nicely.
“Kyle, this is Lochie. Lochie, Kyle,” I made the introductions quickly and they shook hands awkwardly. My two worlds were colliding and I was more than nervous. It could be an absolute train wreck. Or… it could make things a whole lot easier.
“Do I know you from somewhere?” Lochie asked, squinting as he tried to place Kyle’s face. I wasn’t about to help him out and say he probably saw him at an Originals meeting.
“You look familiar too,” Kyle replied before shrugging. “I guess we both know Amery so that’s probably how we’ve seen each other before.” Yeah, let’s go with that. He turned his attention back to me, putting on a fake smile. “Amery, what is your friend doing here?”
“No reason,” I said casually. I took Lochie by the arm and pulled him inside so I could close the door. The last thing we needed was the neighbors watching our soap opera play out. I leaned in closer to Lochie so I could whisper. “Thanks for coming, we need to talk.”
He nodded, his crystal blue eyes gazing at me intently. He looked exhausted and weary, probably from my disappearing act. I dreaded telling him the truth. He wouldn’t gaze at me so lovingly anymore. His eyes would grow darker the more I talked before they went cold on me altogether. It was only a matter of time before he truly hated what I was.
“I’ve been so worried about you, Ame,” Lochie whispered gently, a little lopsided smile threatening to turn his lips upward. “When you weren’t there, I thought the worst. Where have you been?”
“I had a meeting that went for longer than expected.” Just a white lie, right? “I’m so sorry for disappearing. I didn’t want to but I had to go. I didn’t want to wake you.” I would have said so much more if there weren’t two sets of ears pretending they weren’t listening to every word we said.
“I wouldn’t have minded.”
“I know. You just looked so-”
“Oh my God,” Garrick gasped, cutting me off. I was about to suggest we go outside to the backyard for some privacy but he wasn’t listening to us anymore. Garrick and Kyle were standing in front of the television set in the corner.
“This is bad,” Kyle groaned. “This is so very, very bad.”
I exchanged a look of confusion with Lochie as we quickly crossed the room to join them. The knot had turned into a thick dread. Once Kyle was worried, I was instantly on high alert.
They were watching a special news update, the words Breaking News continually scrolling across the screen. One look at the headlines and I could feel my entire world cave in around me.
My face flashed up on the screen, along with my full name. Garrick’s face followed after a few more images. The names and photos continued to rotate around in a loop.
The newsreader spoke in serious tones. “These are the faces of aliens, sent to Earth to infiltrate unsuspecting communities with the sole intent of destroying the human race. We can exclusively reveal the secret plan to rid Earth of humans so they can take over our planet.”
“This must be what the Originals were planning,” Kyle whispered, his eyes wide open as they remained glued to the screen. “They’ve exposed the entire project.”
“Not just the project, all of the members too,” Garrick added. Seeing our own faces staring back at us with our names in bold letters was like a nightmare. The word alien in ugly green writing at the top. An idiot would know what they were talking about without even needing to hear the broadcaster.
“What seems like a science fiction movie,” the stern face continued. “Is real, verified independently by our producers. The aliens aren’t just coming, they’re already here and have been for the past seventeen years.”
His mouth continued to move but I couldn’t hear anything anymore. It seemed like everything was going in slow motion, my sight starting to blacken at the edges. Was this what a heart attack felt like? Was the ground about to open up and swallow me whole? I kind of wished it would. Our secret was out, everyone would know we weren’t really human. What would our friends say? Our school mates? Our teachers?
I turned to Lochie, his features twisted with confusion before turning into something else – anger. “Amery-”
“Lochie, let me explain,” I begged. He started moving for the door. I matched him step for step. I wasn’t going to let him get away, not without explaining everything. I g
rabbed at his arm to stop him as he reached the door.
Why couldn’t Garrick have left the television off? Why couldn’t it have been announced just ten minutes later? Ten minutes and I would have been the one to tell Lochie. I would have been the one to explain everything, not have all the words twisted around by the Originals.
“Is it true? Are you an alien?” Lochie demanded, his voice wavering between hurt and disbelief.
I couldn’t hold his stare, I couldn’t look him in the eyes a moment longer. “It’s true. But I was going to tell you, that’s why I asked you to come here. I swear, Lochie, I was going-”
“You lied to me.”
“I didn’t want to, I had to. I was trying to protect you.” My feeble excuse sounded pathetic even to my own ears. I wouldn’t have believed me if I was the one hearing it.
“You were trying to protect yourself,” he spat the words at me like they tasted horrible in his mouth. I couldn’t speak because I knew he was right. I didn’t tell Lochie because I was afraid of having this very conversation. I kept my secret so I didn’t get hurt but all I did was delay Lochie’s hurt.
Lochie shot me one last scathing look before heading out the door. The moment he was gone from my side, I felt the hollow emptiness of being without him. I couldn’t live like that. I chased after him, desperately wishing he would listen to me.
“Lochie, please, just let me explain. Please, Lochie.”
He swatted me away like I was a fly, making a beeline for his car parked across the road.
“Lochie, you have to listen to me.”
He reached his car and the door flew open. “I don’t have to listen to anything you say. You are nothing but a liar and I don’t want to hear any more of your lies.”
He threw himself in the car and slammed the door. I stood like a fool, my mouth hanging open from the shock of it all. I watched him drive off, not even blinking until I couldn’t see his car anymore.
Lochie hated me. Pure and simple. I had months to tell him the truth and I didn’t. Perhaps before we went to bed together he might have been able to accept what I was. But finding out the way he did, through a breaking news story, he didn’t have a chance of believing me now.
And he wouldn’t be the only one. The whole world knew my secret, all of our secrets. The Originals had made sure they wouldn’t be the only ones in the race to hunt us down. Through spreading their propaganda, they were recruiting millions of faithful followers in a kill or be killed pursuit of us. A few thousand aliens didn’t stand a chance against the whole world.
But I didn’t care about that. My whole world was crumbling around me. My everything, the only guy who always made my heart storm in my chest, hated me. The look on his face, the genuinely loathing glare he gave me, only made my blood run cold. Every time I closed my eyes I saw that look. I saw what I did to him.
There was no place safe anymore. I couldn’t run into Lochie’s arms, I couldn’t pretend like I was a normal person. I knew in my gut nothing would ever be the same again.
CONQUER
“The heavens call to you, and circle about you, displaying to you their eternal splendors, and your eye gazes only to earth.”
- Dante.
CHAPTER 1
Tap, Tap, Tap. I nervously tapped my pencil against the table, trying to keep my hands occupied. When was the meeting going to start? I was more than impatient as everyone around me was making small talk amongst themselves. Everyone was acting so calm. Were they really? Or was it just a front? Whatever it was, they were better at acting than I was.
Kyle sat at my left, not talking. He hadn’t said much since we arrived, nor in the week since we had received the last message from our leaders. Whatever he was feeling, he was keeping the details close to his chest.
“I got you orange juice, is that okay?” Garrick asked as he placed the glass in front of me.
“Yeah, thanks.” I didn’t care if it was orange juice or poison, I didn’t have a stomach for either. He took the seat to my right, completely surrounding me with grumps.
“You have to get over him,” Garrick groaned. “Seriously, he’s not worth it.”
He was talking about Lochie, he didn’t even need to say his name to send the pain shooting through my chest again. In fact, he rarely said his name. When talking about my ex-boyfriend, he usually referred to him as the idiot or the loser. He still wasn’t over their argument.
“It’s easier said than done,” I replied with a sigh, continuing to tap my pencil against the table. “How do you just forget about someone who you hurt?”
“You were too good for him to begin with.”
I didn’t bother arguing. Garrick would never be able to understand why I was so hung up on the guy.
I hadn’t heard from Lochie since he found out I was an alien. I tried to call him every day, I even showed up at his house. He wouldn’t see me, he wouldn’t even answer the door. His car was parked in the driveway, I knew he was there.
It had been the longest week of my life without him. And for other reasons too. After hearing the Department had cancelled Project Integrate, the leaders of planet Trucon had some serious decisions to make. They needed to leave their planet before the asteroid destroyed it and Earth was the closest planet that most resembled their own. With no more project, there was no longer any chance of being readily accepted by humans.
But the problems with the Department were soon eclipsed when the organization known as the Originals publicly exposed every single member of the project. Our photos and names were splashed across every media available – television, newspapers, the internet, radio, even billboards. There was nobody left on Earth who didn’t know there were aliens walking amongst them.
It didn’t matter that the information the Originals gave was mostly false. According to their propaganda, they warned everyone we were only on Earth to wipe out the human race. We were secretly infiltrating until we had full control. That was the exact opposite of what we wanted, but nobody was listening to the truth.
The meeting today was supposed to help us form a plan. All the members of the project, besides Garrick and myself, were still locked up in the prison we referred to as the complex. They were at the mercy of the Department and could be killed on any given day. We had to get them out.
Over the past seventeen years, our leaders on Trucon installed spies on Earth to secretly keep an eye on us. These spies, known as satellites, were unknown to the Department and lived covertly in the community. They were experts at blending in. Kyle was one of those satellites, and the only one we knew in the entire room.
Looking around the seats at everyone, I could never have guessed there were so many satellites on Earth. This was the first time they had all been together since leaving Trucon, my guess would be there was just over a hundred. Kyle had only known about forty of them.
There was no hierarchy among the satellites so there was nobody actually in charge of the meeting. If it didn’t start soon, I was going to do it myself.
We were supposed to be waiting for our leaders to dial in but they didn’t exactly adhere to Earth time. If they ever did make it to Earth, they were going to have to invest in a watch each. I would buy them myself if it meant meetings would start on time.
“It’s going to be okay,” Garrick whispered in my ear. Clearly I wasn’t doing a good job of looking perfectly fine like the rest of them.
“I know, I just wish they’d get on with it.”
We were interrupted as a microphone squealed, sending feedback echoing around the room. We were in an underground bunker, half a mile beneath the dirt and grass of Portview so nobody else could hear it, thankfully.
The loud booming voice of our leaders finally started talking. “Satellites, do you read?”
A woman who appeared to be in her early fifties spoke for us, she was the closest to the microphone. “We read and are ready for your instructions.”
The disembodied voice continued. “Your first priority is to ensure the sa
fety of our project members. You must devise a way to take custody of them. You know the behavior of those on Earth better than us, you are well equipped to undertake this task.”
“May we use force?” The woman asked calmly.
“Do what you must. The Department is no longer our ally. You will take custody of our members and keep them safe.”
Nodding heads and faint murmurs passed through everybody in the room. Even though I couldn’t hear what they were saying, I was pretty sure they agreed. Without the project members, our integration had absolutely no chance of happening.
“Your second priority is to remain safe yourselves. We are preparing our ships and are rallying our troops. We have taken the Department’s actions as a declaration of war. We will retaliate the same.”
The knot in my stomach pulled together even tighter. The last thing I wanted to hear was the word war. With all wars came casualties. Earth was the only planet I knew, being delivered here when I was only a baby. I didn’t want anyone to get caught up in the carnage. The fight was between our leaders and the government Department, anybody else was innocent.
“Sir, if we are to be accepted by humans, wouldn’t a war perpetuate the lies already being told about us?” The woman asked carefully. I now knew why she had volunteered to be the speaker, she was diplomatic and firm at the same time.
The loud voice came back instantly. “The Department is preventing us from coming to Earth. We only wish to integrate and will land by force. Only then can we start to rebuild our relationship with humans.”
Project Integrate Series Boxed Set Page 43