Project Integrate Series Boxed Set

by Campbell, Jamie

  Out of the corner of my eye I saw Lochie sneak down the stairs and knock on the front door, opening it like he just arrived. I managed to summon up a smile as he joined us. One look at the television and he was in just as much misery as the rest of us.

  “That’s pretty extreme, making everyone stay inside,” Lochie commented.

  “It’s standard procedure,” Dad explained, looking him up and down suspiciously. Had the agents all received training on what would happen in the event of an alien invasion? Had the Department planned for this the entire time? It was hard to know what was real and what was merely paranoia.

  “We should get to the bunker and see what we can do to help,” Garrick said, already moving toward the door. “Now’s the time for us to step up, Amery.”

  He pulled me into the foyer, like I should run straight to the bunker with him. “I can’t go, Garrick.”

  “You have to.”

  “No, I don’t. I’m not going to fight and hurt anyone. I won’t do it.”

  He stared at me for a long time, his gaze drilling into me. I refused to look away, holding steadfast and unblinking. He pursed his lips, trying to contain his anger and urgency.

  Garrick finally expelled the breath he was holding. “You need to pick a side, Amery. Are you a Truconian or human? You can’t be both, not anymore.”

  He stormed out the door, slamming it behind him so hard the windows shook on both sides. I was shaking a little myself. I had known all along there would come a time when I had to choose whether I was more alien than human or vice-versa. I just didn’t realize it would feel this horrible to decide.

  Lochie crept up behind me, wrapping me in his arms. “It will be alright,” he whispered, a sweet lie that was only said with the best of intentions.

  “I should go to the bunker,” I sighed, knowing it was inevitable.

  He stiffened behind me. “And help them?”

  “No, try to stop them. Somebody needs to talk some sense into them and it doesn’t seem like it’s going to be anyone else.”

  He let me go. “Let’s go then.”

  “You should go home and stay indoors like your government advises.”

  Lochie’s lips twisted into a grin. “You’re not the boss of me.”

  “It’s for your own safety, I don’t want anything happening to you. You heard the newsreader, they can’t guarantee anything once outside.”

  “Then you’re going to have to keep me safe then.”

  I fought the urge to put my hands on my hips and waggle a finger at him. I wondered if we would ever get the chance to grow old together and annoy each other for the rest of our lives. My actions later might be the deciding factor on that.

  “Fine,” I said, throwing my hands up in the air. “You win, you can come on a completely dangerous mission with me and probably get yourself killed.”

  “That’s the spirit!” He exclaimed before giving me a quick kiss on the cheek. We said goodbye to my parents, ignoring their protests, before heading out the doors.

  At least the news cameras had left their post and found bigger stories elsewhere. It was the first time I had seen the lawn completely empty since returning home.

  As we stepped off the porch, a dark cloud blocked out the sun. We both looked up at the same time. It wasn’t a cloud. The sky was completely covered with huge disc shaped objects. UFO’s went on for as far as I could see.

  These crafts were nothing like the ones Krom had arrived in. They were sleeker, larger, and covered with weapons. These were fighting machines, designed to take down an enemy.

  “Oh my God,” Lochie cursed under his breath. I was right there with him.

  “Is this really happening?” I asked, pinching myself to make sure I wasn’t in one of my nightmares. I didn’t wake up, that could only mean one thing: it was all real.

  “How many people did you say were on Trucon?”

  “I guess more than I thought.” The Department led us to believe there were perhaps a half million people back on my home planet. They made it seem like a small little community, desperate for survival on Earth.

  Based on the number of crafts in the air, and assuming each had to hold a few people at least, there had to be a minimum of ten thousand people in the air above us. And that was just a portion of their army.

  One thing became clear, Earth had no chance against them. The sleek ships had to be equipped with technology humans could only dream about. If that was just their transportation, what were their real weapons like? As curious as I was, I hoped we wouldn’t get a chance to find out.

  Holding Lochie’s hand, we wandered down the street with our faces upturned. It was difficult to take my eyes off the crafts when they moved so elegantly and silently across the sky. They cast long shadows across the road and houses.

  “They’re amazing,” I gushed under my breath. I felt a sense of pride in my people, which was weird considering I knew nothing about them.

  “They’re so quiet.”

  Our breathing was louder than the spacecrafts. How something that massive could move without a whisper was completely beyond me. I was in awe of the vehicles of war, unable to believe such beautiful things could be here to end the human race.

  The thought brought me crashing back to reality. “We should hurry up and get to the bunker.”

  Lochie led me back to his car and held the door for me while I got in. We were on the road in minutes. There was absolutely no traffic on the street. Shutters and gates that were usually open, were closed. All the shops were shut up tight and we didn’t see one soul as we travelled.

  “This is eerie,” I commented. It looked like the world had already ended. I never expected so many people to actually listen to the government’s advice to stay indoors. Their fear was obviously greater than their curiosity or necessity for provisions. I wondered how long they would follow the orders. A few days? Weeks? Surely they couldn’t hide away forever.

  “It won’t last for long,” Lochie replied. When I looked confused, he continued. “There is no way we can triumph against those spaceships. They’ll make quick work of winning.”

  “I don’t know if that’s a good or bad thing.”

  “Neither do I,” he sighed.

  We drove in silence for a time, all the traffic lights turning green as we approached. It was nice driving without traffic but it would have been better under different circumstances.

  I went through what I was going to say to Krom when I saw him. What could I say to convince him to call off the war against the humans? How could I make him listen to me? I really couldn’t think of anything good enough for the leader to take me seriously.

  Krom had listened to me in the past but it wasn’t like this then. He didn’t have to maintain the morale of an army. The chances of a seventeen year old changing his mind were slim to none. I hoped something great would come to me before I got there. Otherwise, I was completely stuffed.

  The sky erupted into a ball of light, a flash of blue beamed out like a camera flash. Lochie slammed on the brakes, we lurched forward with the sudden stop.

  “What is going on?” I gasped, peering out under the windshield. A bang so loud it broke one of the shop’s windows at the side of the road rang out, scaring me out of my mind. Lochie and I both clasped our ears, trying to drown out the noise. Even then, it was louder than was comfortable.

  The light subsided in the sky as debris started to fall from the area. A plane’s wing came sailing down to land only a half mile in front of the car. It was followed by more debris that used to be an airplane.

  One of the spacecrafts flew from the area, its lights flashing as it hurried away. It wasn’t that difficult to put two and two together. In a battle between a military plane and an alien craft, it was the invaders who had won.

  More debris fluttered to the ground, cascading down in a waterfall of flaming plastic and metal. There would be a body there somewhere, I hoped it wouldn’t land in front of us like the wing had.

  “
We need to hurry,” I said urgently. I wanted to be away from the wreckage more than I wanted to admit. The nausea was rising in my stomach, burning my throat.

  Lochie started the engine and went as fast as he could while dodging the debris across the road. I didn’t want to look in case I spotted what was left of the airplane pilot but at the same time I couldn’t look away. My heart leapt for the poor person who had lost their life in the sky above.

  We finally pulled up a short walk away from the bunker. I undid the seatbelt and took a few deep breaths. No great plan had come to me like I had hoped. The best I could do was to cross my fingers and pray for a miracle.

  CHAPTER 19

  “Miss Jones, what are you doing here?” Krom asked casually, like he hadn’t just ordered humans to be killed in the sky.

  “You need to call off the ships, they are killing people out there. All this needs to stop,” I said quickly, the words spilling out of my mouth with no filter from my brain. “The humans will never accept any of us if you keep going. You’re ruining all chances of integration.”

  Strong arms grabbed me from behind. I fought against them, refusing to be moved from my spot. The moment I left that room, my chances of getting back in were zero.

  “Let me go,” I grumbled, struggling to make it impossible for them to keep a hold of me.

  “Calm down,” he whispered into my ear. It was Kyle, I didn’t need to see his face to know.

  “I’m not going to calm down. Krom needs to listen to me, he’s ruining everything we’ve worked for.”

  Krom’s eyes flicked between Kyle and I. He seemed to be amused by the struggle going on in front of him. “Miss Jones, the humans have made it quite clear we are not welcome here. Our only course of action is to take what we need. I have given the Department every opportunity to work with us and they have only fought against us. They have left me with no choice.”

  “There’s always a choice,” I said through gritted teeth.

  “My choice is to protect our people, the same people that you belong to. You should remember your roots, Miss Jones. We are not doing this for fun, it is for our survival.”

  I didn’t believe him. In a choice between violence and peace, there was always a way to choose peace. Just because we couldn’t see that way now, it didn’t mean it didn’t exist. We needed to think harder, that’s all.

  “Come on, Amery,” Kyle said calmly. How could he be so calm in the middle of all this? “You should go.”

  I stomped my foot on the steel floor like a two year old. “I don’t want to go anywhere. I want you both to see sense. People are going to die, they’re already dying. You can change that, you can choose to integrate peacefully. Please, Krom, please don’t do this.”

  Krom gave a slight nod to Kyle and he gripped me tighter. Instead of dragging me away, Kyle used his height advantage to pick me up. He carried me back to the food hall where Lochie was waiting.

  He unceremoniously placed me on the ground, still holding my shoulders so I couldn’t run away. His calmness was now gone, anger in its place. “What the hell were you thinking, Amery? Nobody speaks to any of our leaders like that. He could have had you killed for that kind of an outburst. Your head, on the ground in an instant, just rolling around by itself.”

  “Let her go,” Lochie growled. He went to pull Kyle’s hands off me but stopped when Kyle beat him to it. He released me but didn’t move away. I took a step away myself, standing next to Lochie instead of the satellite.

  “Kyle, how can you believe in what’s going on?” I demanded, my anger matching his. “You’ve lived here for as long as I have, you know how these things work. We can’t live here together if this war continues.”

  “Because I’ve lived on Trucon, I know how much we need to leave the planet. Desperate times are tough for everyone but we have to resettle our people or they will be the ones dying. We tried doing it the right way and it didn’t work. The sooner you accept that, the better.”

  “Amery!” Garrick’s voice carried across the large dining hall. I groaned, he was exactly what I didn’t need right now. He ran over the moment he spotted us. “Amery, how could you be so stupid? You could have gotten yourself killed.”

  “Back off,” Lochie warned, putting himself between me and Garrick.

  “Lochie, calm down,” I whispered, placing a hand on his arm to stop him going forward any further. We were surrounded by people who considered us the enemy now, it wasn’t the time to pick a fight with Garrick.

  “What are you doing here, human?” Garrick almost spat the words at him. “This is no place for anyone who isn’t one of us.” He turned his attention back to me. “If you’re not with us, you need to leave. It won’t be safe to stay here.”

  Garrick softened slightly as he took a few breaths and looked me directly in the eyes. For just a moment I saw a glimmer of the Garrick I used to know. The one who I could talk to for hours in the complex, the one I trusted to help me escape from the horrible place, the one I had stayed cooped up with a tiny trailer for weeks on end.

  In the next moment, it was gone again. “Leave, Amery, seriously.”

  “I agree,” Kyle chimed in. “Come on, I’ll walk you out.”

  Defeated, I nodded and followed him out, keeping a grip on Lochie the entire way. We climbed the long steel ladder to reach the top. The lid to the bunker was locked tight behind us, ensuring we wouldn’t be returning anytime soon.

  I sat in the car in silence, my mind a windstorm of turbulence. I had failed – miserably. Nobody listened to me and I didn’t give them a reason to. It was blatantly apparent that if I was going to do anything to change the situation, it wasn’t going to be working from the inside.

  “Where do you want to go?” Lochie asked, heading toward town again. I noticed he hadn’t taken the same route as we took to get there, he was avoiding the debris from the plane crash.

  “Can we go to your house?” I asked. I couldn’t face my parents right now, they would only want a full report and I wasn’t ready to give it yet.

  “Of course we can.”

  We pulled up outside his house before I realized we had gone that far. I was suddenly nervous at seeing his mother again. The last time I saw her, she didn’t know what I really was. Neither did Lochie. Would she want her son being in love with an alien? I couldn’t imagine it would be something she would choose for her little boy.

  “Hey, don’t worry,” Lochie reassured me, as if reading my mind. My nerves must have been written all over my face. He pulled me close so I rested under his arm against his chest. It was difficult to believe anything bad could happen when I was that close to him. We stepped through the front door. “Mom, I’m home.”

  Mrs. Mercury emerged from the kitchen, wringing her hands on a cloth. “Thank goodness, I’ve been worried sick about you. Oh, you have a friend.” She stopped mid-step to stare at me. She was trying to maintain her composure but she was frazzled, she couldn’t hide it.

  “You remember Amery?” Lochie said happily, like he wasn’t just reintroducing his alien girlfriend to his mother. I wasn’t exactly the type to take home to meet your parents anymore. Once, I would have been perfect for doing that.

  She took a few tentative steps closer. I felt like reassuring her I wouldn’t bite. “Amery, of course. How are you?”

  “Fine, thank you, Mrs. Mercury.”

  “We’re going to hang here for a while, okay?” Lochie asked in the awkward silence.

  “I don’t have to stay if you’re not comfortable with it,” I added quickly. The last thing I wanted to do was hassle Mrs. Mercury in her own home. Everyone deserved a sanctuary.

  “Of course it’s fine,” she replied, smiling warmly at us. “Would you like some tea or water? I can make some snacks?”

  “Don’t put yourself out, Mom. We can take care of ourselves.” Lochie grinned before pulled me toward the stairs. “We’ll be upstairs.”

  “Keep the door open,” Mrs. Mercury called out after us.

&n
bsp; We sat in Lochie’s bedroom, it held so many memories for me – the bed especially. Even the model airplanes he made that sat on a shelf above it made it feel more homely.

  “So, what now?” Lochie asked. He had a sparkle to his eye that could only get me in trouble. I had to ignore all impulses to pounce on him.

  “Can I use your computer?” He nodded and joined me at his desk. The last time I had been desperate, I had logged onto the message boards dedicated to conspiracy theories and found a lifeline. Failing having any other idea, I was hoping for another miracle.

  The boards were going off about all kinds of weird and wonderful alien theories. Most were completely wrong, very few were actually on the side of the aliens. None offered me the solution I was looking for.

  A chat request came up from another program. It wasn’t directed at me, but Lochie. “You’ve got an admirer,” I pointed out. Looking closer, it was from a girl in our grade, Natalie.

  Lochie clicked through and he was taken to his Slam page. “Oh, my God,” he muttered as he took a look at the feed. The entire site was alive with talk about aliens. There were new pages and comments cropping up by the second.

  It was like watching a runaway train as the page kept refreshing. The computer couldn’t keep up with the level of activity. “What’s going on?” I asked, unable to take my eyes off the screen and not really expecting an answer.

  “Nobody can go anywhere, so they’re all online. Look at what they’re saying.”

  I tried to read some posts before the page refreshed and they were pushed to the bottom. I expected more horrible comments, all Lochie’s friends grumbling about what was going on, but they weren’t like that. They were actually defending us. I scrolled through the comments, disbelief washing through me: