CHAPTER 11
Everyone I loved most in the world was in my adoptive parents’ bedroom. We crowded around, adrenalin running free and fast. When your life was at stake, you tended to wake up in the middle of the night quite quickly.
My birth parents had explained there was a warrant out for the arrest of all the Truconians. The authorities believed we were responsible for the illness rapidly spreading throughout the planet and were therefore highly dangerous. We were to be rounded up and imprisoned.
Nobody knew if there would be a trial or what would happen to us in the future. It was an act now and work out the details later kind of deal, so it seemed.
“We’ll split up,” my birth dad said decisively. “That way, if we get caught, it will only be some of us. They won’t get us all.”
“Amery, honey, you should go with Lochie,” Adoptive Mom said through a coughing fit.
“I’m not leaving you guys,” I replied. The thought of getting caught by the authorities was bad enough, but leaving all my parents was even worse.
My birth parents both turned to face me. My birth mother stepped forward to hold both of my hands and stared me in the eyes. “Little bug, it is best that you go with the human. As much as I don’t like admitting it, he will be able to keep you safer than we can right now.”
“We can keep you safe too,” I argued. Hearing her confession was startling and I knew it came from a sheer sense of panic. That was the scariest part of it.
She shook her head. “No, we have to split up. We don’t have any time to argue over this. Take the human and run, stay free and stay safe.”
“But-”
“We’ll all meet up in two days in French Forest, at noon. Okay?” Adoptive Dad asked. At least it was something.
“Fine. But I don’t like this. We should-”
A gentle hand was on my shoulder. I knew it belonged to Lochie without having to look. “Ame, we need to go. If they’re coming, it won’t be long.”
I silently pleaded with my parents but they were only looking at me with the same desperate expression. We were wasting time but I didn’t want to leave them.
“Mom, Dad…”
“Please go, Amery. We will be fine, I promise,” Birth Dad said levelly.
Lochie started pulling me away. I so badly wanted to stay but I let him move me anyway. I saw one last glimpse of my parents before following him willingly. I didn’t say goodbye to them because I couldn’t. I had to believe we would see each other again soon.
We didn’t have time to do anything except leave. I took nothing with me, barely stopping to put on shoes. I headed for Lochie’s car but stopped. “They’re going to be looking for all our vehicles, yours included. Everyone knows we’re together.”
“So we go on foot,” Lochie replied simply. Except it wasn’t so easy. He was still sick, it wouldn’t be good for him to be running around in the middle of the night.
“No.”
“Ame, come on. We don’t have a choice.”
“No, you drive home. I’ll go alone.”
He grabbed my arm, pulling me along the sidewalk. “That’s never going to happen so don’t waste your breath.”
My instincts were to argue but I wasn’t sure that was wise. The likelihood of Lochie doing what was good for him was zero at best. I followed after him without fighting until he realized I was obeying and let go of my arm. We kept up a slow jog down the road.
Lochie moved slower than either of us liked. His breaths were coming in short and sharp with a definite wheeze. I really wished he had gone home. In fact, he shouldn’t have come over in the first place. That way he would still be tucked up in bed without the knowledge of the arrest warrant. At least then he’d be safe.
We moved as fast as Lochie could through the streets, taking shortcuts whenever possible. I had lived in the same house my entire life, I knew the area like the back of my hand. Even in the darkness I could find my way around.
We had to find somewhere safe to hide out. There was no way Lochie could keep up the pace and he wouldn’t leave me to go alone. Running could only be an option for so long and I feared our time was rapidly running out.
If we managed to clear five blocks, there was an old shopping arcade that hadn’t been used in years. There was a possibility of hiding in the abandoned stores for a while if we could break in.
“We need to go right,” I stated at the next intersection. Lochie didn’t argue, trusting my judgment. That’s how I knew he really wasn’t feeling well.
By the time we got to the arcade, Lochie was gasping for breath. “What are we doing here?”
“Hiding.”
“Ame, we need to keep moving. We’re not far enough away yet.”
I found a smashed window and pulled at some of the glass until there was a gap big enough to climb through. It was only small and the edges were sharp but it would do. “What are the chances they’ll look in here?” I asked, stepping through.
Lochie followed me in, accepting my help to steady him as he did. It was pitch black in the abandoned store. All the furniture had been removed, leaving nothing but an empty shell. I guided Lochie to the far corner and helped him to sit down.
I did the same. I couldn’t see anything but hopefully that meant nothing could see us too. It was flawed logic but that’s all I had right at that point.
Lochie’s wheeze was loud in the quiet room. “Ame, this is wrong. I’m sorry.”
“It’s not you hunting down the aliens, there’s nothing to be sorry for.”
“Not for that, for slowing you down. You should be far away from here by now.”
I found his hands in the darkness and gave them a squeeze. “We’re a team, remember? You said we could do anything as long as we’re together.”
He let out a long sigh. “I can’t protect you, not like I could before.” I knew what it cost him to make that admission. Lochie was proud, stubborn, and pigheaded, he hated being weak. He hated to admit it even more.
“I’d rather be here with you than anywhere else in the world,” I replied, kissing his hand. It was clammy in my own. The thought of losing Lochie scared me infinitely more than being caught by the authorities. “I never said you had to protect me. It’s not why I keep you around.”
“But I want to protect you. Keeping you safe-”
“Is not your responsibility,” I finished for him before he could launch into some speech that would only tire him out further. “Right now, you need to let me protect you. You are sick, Lochie. If we kept running you would have been unable to breathe. So let’s just bunker down here until we can think of a plan. Okay?”
He squeezed my hands and I knew it took a lot of effort just for him to do that. “We need a good plan. I’m not letting them take you away from me again.”
“Neither am I,” I agreed.
Unfortunately, no matter how much I thought about it, I couldn’t think of a way out. We needed to move, but with every cop in the world looking for aliens, there was little chance I would be able to get away. My face had been too public since the arrival. Maybe some of the other aliens had a hope, but not me.
I snuggled into Lochie’s side, making sure not to put any pressure on his chest. He wrapped his arms around me, holding me close against him. Even though he said he couldn’t protect me, I still felt safe there. I always felt safe in his arms.
“Did you hear that?” Lochie suddenly whispered.
All my senses went on high alert as I strained to listen. There were some birds hooting in the distance, singing in the last remnants of the moonlight.
“It’s only birds,” I replied, crossing my fingers that I was right. There were too many noises I couldn’t identify in the darkness.
Time passed too fast. The sun started to peek over the horizon as shadows appeared through the window. They barely had time to register before figures crashed through the glass.
“Get down!”
“Show your hands!”
“Now! Move! Move! Move!”
/> The voices all shouted at us, belonging to several police officers. And they all held guns pointed our way. I shifted to move and follow their directions but Lochie was faster. Before I could do anything, he stood up and stepped in front of me, giving me a heart attack as all the guns pointed directly at his chest.
“You are not taking her,” he said, as if we actually had a choice about it. I managed to stand behind him without getting shot. I got the feeling the officers weren’t too conservative with their trigger fingers.
I did a quick calculation of our odds for getting out of there. We were in a corner, the police blocking the one and only exit route. It would take only a miracle to get out alive.
“Lochie, it’s okay,” I whispered.
He wasn’t listening to me. Either that or he was just choosing to ignore anything I had to say. “I’m not letting you take her anywhere.”
“Down on your knees, hands behind your head,” the officer closest to us shouted. Apparently he had the same opinion of our negotiation chances as I did.
“Lochie, do as they say. I’ll be okay.”
“You are not taking her,” he repeated.
“Get down, now!”
“Lochie…”
“She has done nothing wrong,” Lochie continued, oblivious to our chances of getting out of there. “She is not leaving with you.”
The police continued to yell orders and raised their guns further. There was no doubt they would shoot with only the slightest provocation. I could not let Lochie get in the way of their bullets. He was not going to get hurt because of me, I had caused him enough pain over the last few months.
I stepped out from behind him and placed my hands on my head before slowly kneeling down onto the floor. I stared at the ground as I spoke. “Don’t hurt him, just take me.”
“Amery!”
“Lochie, it’s okay. I need to do this.”
“Get up, they can’t-”
“I’ll be okay,” I insisted. I hoped I wasn’t lying about that too. I addressed the police next. “My name is Amery Jones and I am a Truconian. He is a human and has nothing to do with this. I was holding him hostage, he is here against his will.”
“Amery!” Lochie said angrily.
“Lochie, just… let me save you, for once.”
Everything happened so fast it was nothing more than a blur. Two police officers lunged for me, forcing me to lie on the floor. While one pressed his booted foot on my spine, the other handcuffed me. I clenched my jaw to stop myself yelping with the sudden pain. Another two of the police officers shuffled Lochie to the wall. They forcibly held him there as I was dragged to my feet and told to walk. He never stopped yelling for me.
I marched like a robot out of the abandoned store and was pushed into a black SUV. My new best friends flanked me on either side, making sure I didn’t try something funny. Like that was even possible in my tight steel handcuffs.
The car whisked me away before I could see what happened to Lochie. I hoped with all my heart they let him go. If he was arrested for trying to help me, I could never live with myself. He needed bed rest, not to rot away in a damp jail cell.
“What’s going to happen to him?” I asked, breaking the silence in the vehicle. My voice rung out with urgency. Someone had to listen to me. “I forced him to be there, he had nothing to do with hiding me. I made him, he was a hostage, nothing but a hostage. I thought it would save me from being arrested. You have to know he was innocent in everything. He told me to hand myself in and I refused.”
Everyone ignored me, they didn’t even glance my way. I should have known better than to expect an answer. I was a thing now, property of the federal government. You would think I should be used to it by now, after seventeen years of it. But I don’t think you ever could be, really. I had pretended I was free and convinced myself I was. Perhaps that was my downfall, I had become complacent.
I didn’t bother to ask anything more. We drove in silence for hours until the car pulled into a secure facility, a sign on the side marked it as ‘Scarlet Grove Correctional Facility’. I really was being arrested, my guilt apparently already decided.
We passed through three separate security checkpoints before arriving in the heart of the jail and pulling up inside a garage. Several guards awaited us, all pointing their weapons at the car.
The officer to my left pulled me roughly out of the vehicle. “Follow me.”
I did as I was told and trailed after him down the long corridors of the facility. It reminded me so much of the federal complex where I had been kept prisoner that all the oxygen left my lungs. I gasped for breath as the panic set in. There really was no way out of this. Any optimism I had was gone.
This was the end.
The check in process was a murky haze. Somewhere along the line I was stripped of my clothes and given an itchy pink and black striped jumpsuit to put on. I remembered two officers watching me change but I felt nothing, like I was watching the degradation happen to someone else.
It was a different set of officers that took me to my cell. I passed by the cold steel doors on my left and right, completely disconnected. I worried about Lochie, hoping he was home and in bed. I worried about my parents, both birth and adoptive. It was better to focus on them rather than my own circumstances. Yet both were just as frustrating. I needed answers.
“Welcome to your new home,” the guard sneered at me. His smile was so creepy it made me cringe.
He shoved me inside far enough so he could close the door and lock it. His footsteps disappeared down the corridor. My cell wasn’t nearly as luxurious as my cell had been in the complex. It was barely big enough to accommodate the steel bed fixed to the wall. The thin mattress and pillow were the only furnishings. The cell was definitely designed for punishment.
It was also tiny. The walls were at risk of closing in on me. The only air in the room came from a vent in the ceiling. If I stood under it, I could almost feel a breeze. There was barely enough oxygen to inflate my lungs. I was about two seconds away from having a full on panic attack.
But I couldn’t do that. I was in jail, but I wasn’t dead. I had to believe there was a way out. It had been the only thing keeping me going in the complex and I had been right then. I had to find a way out now too.
I sat on the edge of the bed and took a few deep breaths. My lungs could inflate when I concentrated. I pictured Lochie, remembered how good it felt to be with him. If I imagined it hard enough I could pretend that’s where I was. My heartbeat started to slow down as I calmed.
A thought occurred to me. I wasn’t just any old alien. I was a federal employee, official liaison to the humans. Perhaps I could use that in any way possible?
Moving to the door, I started banging on it. There was only a small slit in the entire thing but it was enough to yell through. “Guard, I need to talk to someone. Guards!”
I listened carefully, hoping to hear footsteps approaching. Surely there had to be someone around, we were supposed to be supervised considering we were such dangerous criminals.
“Guards! Please, I need to talk.”
“Amery?” The male voice stopped me. “Amery, is that you?”
“Garrick?” My heart sunk when I recognized the voice. “How did they get you?”
His voice was quiet, he couldn’t be in any of my adjoining cells. “I was with Ella, looking after her. They found me there and took me away.”
“I’m sorry,” I replied, the only thing I could do. He would be just as worried about Ella as I was about Lochie. We both knew the body count from the illness and the odds stacked up against the humans we loved.
“I am too. I want to kill these bastards,” Garrick spat the words out.
“Garrick, Amery?” The unmistakable voice of my birth mother. So they got her too. They must have blanketed our neighborhood to catch us all so quickly.
“Mom? Did they get Dad too?” I asked.
“We’re both here,” Birth Dad replied. “Are you okay? Did they hur
t you?”
“I’m fine. Are you?”
“We are uninjured,” he said. There was something comforting about having them all close by. I just wished we had been reunited under different circumstances.
I didn’t know what to say to them. Offering any assurances that we would be okay seemed stupid. I had no way of knowing the future just like they didn’t.
But I could make a promise. “I’m going to think of a way to get us out of here.”
Silence. Then Garrick’s small voice. “I know you will.”
It wasn’t just me now that needed to escape. I started my yelling campaign again, calling for guards until they couldn’t take it anymore and came for me.
It took almost an hour for them to cave. The same guard that had led me to the cell came to see what all the screaming was about. He peered in through the slot. “What are you yelling about?”
I stood in the middle of my cell. “I need to speak with someone. I have information that you will want to hear.” It was a lie but I figured there was no other way to speak with someone higher up the chain of command. I couldn’t do nothing when everyone was relying on me.
“What information?” The guard grunted back at me.
“Information on the disease.” Another lie. I was certainly racking them up. Desperate times, right?
We engaged in a staring competition before he finally sighed and opened the door. He cuffed my hands and led me back down the corridor.
“You know, these cuffs really aren’t necessary. You’re twice the size of me,” I pointed out. They really did seem like overkill. And they hurt really bad.
Mr. Personality ignored me, my comment not even warranting a grunt in reply. We went through several steel doors before we ended up in another room. There were two chairs and a table inside. The guard made sure I was cuffed to a bar on the table before leaving me alone.
The room had to be for interviews. It definitely wasn’t a cell and I had no idea what else they would use the space for. Prisons weren’t exactly my specialty. I hoped they never would be.
With my arm attached to the table, the only comfortable thing I could do was sit down. The seat was steel and cold, not exactly made for comfort. Which was probably the point. People weren’t supposed to stay long in this room. They were supposed to spill their inner secrets and be done with it.
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