“So, what kind of accident was it?”
Syd sighed as if she was dreading telling the story. “I was on an ATV and slid in the mud. Totally wiped out.”
“Oh lordy! All by yourself.”
“Yeah…I got into a fight with my boyfriend and wanted to get away. Just stormed out of the house like an idiot. I was going to go to town and call my friend to come get me from there…I haven’t been able to get service all weekend…” she trailed off letting the rest become history.
“Well that’s just terrible.”
“I know. Stupid too.”
“Well…” the lady laughed not unkindly.
“My name is Sydney.”
“Oh, gosh! I’m sorry. I’m Francis. Everyone calls me Frankie though.”
“Thank you Frankie. I really appreciate your help.”
“I’m glad I can,” she said sitting a steaming cup of coffee on the counter. “Unfortunately, I don’t have any internet though.”
Chapter Three
“Oh…you don’t have internet?”
“No, I’m sorry,” Frankie said, not sounding sorry.
“Uh…”
“I do have a phone book,” she smiled over her cup at Sydney.
“My friend’s shop is in Chicago. Do you have a phone book for Chicago?”
“I don’t, I’m afraid.”
“Oh…”
“You can try information.”
“That’s right! Good idea.”
Frankie handed her an ancient looking cordless phone. It took a few moments for Sydney to figure out how to use it. She assumed that as a kid she used phones like this, but she had no memory of it. Instead, she used logic and pushed the talk button. She dialed 411 and put the phone to her ear and listened to silence. She scowled at the phone and tried again, figuring she had done something wrong. She pushed talk again and this time waited for a dial tone but heard nothing but silence again. “Um…”
“What’s wrong?” Frankie asked.
“Something might be wrong with your phone. Is it charged?’
“It should be. Let me see.”
Sydney handed it over and Frankie pushed some buttons, listened, and pushed some more buttons before shrugging and setting the phone down. “Service in the mountains is pretty spotty. It must have went out in the storm last night.”
Sydney refrained from cussing. “What can I do?”
“If you can wait a while, my friend will be here to take me to dinner,” Frankie smiled, looking a bit sly and mischievous.
“Does she have internet access?”
“He.”
“What?”
“My friend is my gentleman friend.”
“Oh!” Sydney grinned, both charmed and frustrated by the woman. “I see. Does he have the internet?”
“I doubt it. But we can give you a ride into Millville. You should be able to find a way to get the number there, right?”
“I would think so.” Sydney’s stomach tightened with a feeling of déjà vu. Despite finally being warm, she shivered. Stranded in Millville again. Great. Silently, Sydney cursed not memorizing any phone numbers. Even if she had tried though, she, Xander, and Shay had changed phone multiple times in the past…How long have I been gone? Sydney realized she had no idea. “What is today’s date?” Sydney croaked through a tight throat.
“Um, the 15th,” Frankie replied, sipping her coffee.
“Of…March?”
Frankie raised an amused eyebrow. “Did you hit your head?” she chuckled. “Of April.”
Sydney’s entire body went still. A month. I’ve been gone a month? Luckily, she’d had months of practicing at playing normal so she was able to take a breath, swallow, and force a smile. “April. I meant April.”
Frankie giggled but still looked a little worried about Sydney’s condition. After a moment she shook it off though. “George won’t be here for a while. Would you like to take a shower? I have some of my granddaughter’s clothes that will probably fit you.”
“That would be great actually.”
“Go on then. The last door on the left is the bathroom. On the other side is the guest bedroom. You should find some things in there.”
“Thank you again. I really appreciate everything.”
“Don’t mention it,” Frankie waved her off.
***
In the shower, Sydney stood under water as hot as she could stand it. She was stunned. A month. A month! So many things could have happened in a month. Her friends could be dead. The Dyians could have spread. Doc had said it took approximately twenty-eight days for most of them to hatch. So many could have hatched by now. If this is an invasion they could already be well on their way to taking over the world.
She found it hard to breath and she wrapped her arms around her middle and squeezed. “Shit, shit, shit,” she muttered to herself. Drops of water tickled as they fell off her lips. Streaks of mud and dirt ran down her body and into the drain and she tried to coax herself back into the moment. What good is feeling sorry for yourself? You can sit around imagining the worst, or you can do something. “Move forward,” she quoted Xander’s motto.
She wiped water and dirt out of her eyes and took another fortifying breath. “Do something.” She shook her hair out of her face and picked up a washcloth and soap. “Move forward.”
When Sydney was finally clean she stood in front of the bathroom mirror and checked her body for weird marks or injuries. Her ability to see her back was limited but she couldn’t find anything unusual. She seemed remarkably uninjured. Even her headache had evaporated—though her fingertips still ached mildly. Syd dried off and crept across the hall to the guest room with just a towel wrapped around her. She could hear Frankie in the kitchen cooking and her stomach shouted at her to get some food. She found a pair of jeans that were only a little too tight and a sweatshirt that helped cover up the fact that she had no bra. She didn’t usually go without a bra or panties, but not like she could do much about it.
Feeling more human—still slightly shaky—but better overall, Sydney returned to the kitchen. “I made you some soup,” Frankie smiled when she sat at the counter again.
“I really hate to trouble you so much.” The woman was extraordinarily nice but lingering paranoia caused Syd to question everything about her. She could be a pod person, her subconscious told her. Well, if she is, I am pretty sure I can take her.
“It’s no trouble. We all need some help at some point in our lives, right?”
“Right.”
“It must have been some fight with your boyfriend.”
Sydney wasn’t sure if it was a question, so it took her a moment to answer. “Yeah. It was. He…cheated. I caught him.”
“Oh, gosh. That’s terrible.”
“Yeah. Guys can be real jerks.”
“They can.”
“I hope your George isn’t though.”
“Oh! No! He’s wonderful!” Frankie gushed.
“Good. Glad to hear it.”
Frankie slid the bowl of soup towards her and Sydney picked up the spoon. Frankie looked so excited for her to eat it that it caused Syd to hesitate. “Go on! It’s my own recipe. George loves it!”
Realizing she didn’t have a lot of options—eat the food at the risk it was poisoned, or don’t eat it and look like a rude ass. Not to mention remain starving. If she wanted to kill me there are quicker ways to do it, right? Sydney poured a spoonful of noodles and chicken into her mouth and hoped for the best. If the best was not dying, Syd was in luck. But she had to work to not wince. The soup had no taste at all. It was so bland she was pretty sure it was just water. Tight lipped, she smiled at Frankie forcing a look of gratitude on her face. “It’s great!” she exclaimed, hoping she sounded more excited than she felt.
“Oh! I’m glad you like it,” Frankie nearly squealed. “Anytime George gets sick I bring him some.”
Wow, George either has no sense of taste or he’s the nicest boyfriend ever. “I bet! So…when will Geo
rge be here?”
“Soon. He’ll be here soon,” Frankie grinned at Sydney.
Chapter Four
Sydney didn’t know why her gut clenched at the thought of Frankie’s boyfriend showing up. She tried to tell herself it was just her habitual paranoia—but she also wasn’t sure if she was just paranoid about being paranoid or if there was a legitimate reason to be nervous about George. She continued to eat her soup in silence while Frankie cleaned up the kitchen.
Even though the hot liquid was tasteless, it warmed her on the inside as the shower had on the outside. She worried that she would throw up again so she ate slowly. What color would it be this time? She shuddered. The memory brought back the burnt, chemical taste of her vomit from this morning. She had rinsed thoroughly with some mouth wash she found in the bathroom, but it didn’t do much to override the invisible residue that she could feel coating her teeth.
I’m not sure I even want to know what that was, she shuddered again. If I was taken by aliens, did they feed me something? Poison me? Do experiments on me? Not for the first time, Sydney wondered about the Dyian that had been in her head. Was it still there? If so, surely it was dead by now since it hadn’t hatched and bust out of her Alien-style. And if it was dead, how wasn’t she sick? Granted, she didn’t feel great, but she felt better than she had leading up to the abduction. Her head had stopped hurting but her fingers still felt raw and her toes were still prickly. It felt as if her fingers had been slammed in a door. She wrapped them around the bowl hoping to reverse any damage that had been done to them.
The unfairness of her situation weighed her down like a wet blanket. What had she done to deserve everything that had happened to her? Why had she let herself get tricked by an evil, psychopath? And the catastrophes didn't end there. They had continued for months—and were still continuing. Just when she thought things couldn't get worse, they did. She wanted to go away. Pack Xander, Shay, and Zak up and leave. Get new identities and pretend none of this had ever happened.
But, Sydney knew that she wouldn’t be able to do that. Even if they tried, she couldn’t ignore everything that was happening. Alien creatures had been implanted in people and by now they were probably hatched or hatching and continuing the cycle. She had always made fun of the people on shows claiming they saw UFOs or aliens, but now she wondered if there actually was some truth to the stories. Something had taken her. She had no idea what connection the abductors had to the parasites living in people’s brains—but she assumed there had to be some connection. The magnitude of the situation left her light-headed and she came to a resolution. If nothing else, she was going to get the story out publically, maybe call the FBI, NSA, CIA, and any other agency that might help them. This was not something she and three friends could handle on their own. We should have gone to the media a long time ago.
She remembered admonishing Pan for posting about what was happening to him. At the time she had thought it was possible to hide from those who were after her, but now she knew better. If she had known then that hiding was pointless maybe she would have realized that getting the word out was a good idea. If the public knew what was going on maybe people could protect themselves. The government could help them. Maybe they could come up with some kind of vaccine or a way to stop the spread of the parasites. Sydney jumped when Frankie spoke.
“Are you all finished?”
She looked at her empty bowl and was surprised that she had eaten all the hot-water-soup. “Yeah, I am.” Frankie took her bowl and began washing it. “How long have you lived here?” she decided she should get to know the lady who was helping her. She hoped it would help her get over her paranoia.
“Here? Oh, about five years.”
“How long have you and George been together?”
Frankie giggled like a young girl. “I guess we’ve been steady for about ten years now.”
“Wow!” she wanted to ask why they didn’t get married or live together but realizing the question would be rude she managed to stop herself. “That’s a long time.”
“It would have been longer, but George’s wife only died six months before we became official.”
Sydney’s eye grew round and she was glad that Frankie was concentrating on the dishes. She took a sip of water, nearly choked on it, but managed to smile at Frankie's admission. “Well, that’s a…shame.”
Frankie gave her an amused look that she wasn’t sure how to interpret. “How long were you and your boyfriend together?”
“Huh?”
“The cheater.”
“Oh! About a year.”
“What’s his name?”
It took Syd a moment to think of a lie. “Mike.”
“Ah,” Frankie nodded wisely. “I’ve never met a Mike that wasn’t trouble.”
Sydney smiled and wondered if Frankie knew she was lying and was just messing with her now. “Well, I don’t know that I’ve met a lot…but this one sure was.”
Frankie looked up in the direction of the cabin door. “George is here.” A grin split the lady’s face from ear to ear.
Sydney hadn’t heard a thing and was mystified as to how Frankie knew anyone had arrived. “Great! I can get out of your hair soon then.”
“Shush! You’ve been no trouble at all. It’s nice to meet new people.”
A polite knock sounded at the door and Frankie hurried to answer it. She had to be at least eighty but she moved like a woman half her age and Sydney had to hurry to follow her. She didn’t realize how much she was expecting a monstrous alien to walk in the door until she was surprised by the perfectly normal, older gentleman that walked into the door. He was tall, the years had not bent him as one might expect. His hair was snow white, but thick and carefully combed and his face was heavily lined but kind. He beamed at Frankie.
Sydney couldn’t help smiling at the two of them. Frankie held onto George’s arm and gazed up at him as if he was Prince Charming himself. “Hello George!”
“Hello Love,” George patted her arm.
“Hello,” Sydney spoke softly.
Frankie jumped as if she had forgotten Syd was there. “Oh! Pardon me! George, this is Sydney. She’s had an accident and needs help.”
“Well, you came to the right place!” George held a hand out and Sydney took it. His grip was warm and strong. “What happened?” he asked looking at Frankie instead of Sydney.
“Man troubles,” Frankie answered with a wide smile.
Sydney felt like she should elaborate, but decided against it. The couple seemed harmless, but her unease was only growing and she was eager to get a move on. “If you could give me a ride into town I would really appreciate it. I just need to be able to find my friend’s phone number and call her to come get me.”
George smiled. “Well let’s go!” He swatted Frankie on the butt as she moved away to gather her coat and purse. She let out a little “Wooo!”
Embarrassed, Sydney looked away and started to put on her wet muddy shoes.
“Oh! Honey! You aren't going to wear those again are you?” Frankie asked her as George helped her with her coat.
“Well, yeah…I don’t have anything else.”
“In the guest closet. There should be some snow boots in there. My granddaughter won’t mind. There are probably some socks too. Help yourself.”
Relieved, Syd hurried to find them. Surprisingly, they fit perfectly and the warm woolen socks were a bonus. She returned to the front door and found Frankie and George standing quietly waiting on her. They both were smiling serenely and she felt her hair stand on end. I need to get away from these people. At best they are weird—at worst…? She didn’t really want to think anything that could jinx her. Instead, she followed the couple from the cabin and hoped for the best.
Xander
Xander and Shay leaned over the counter waiting for ET to talk. He, as much as Shay, wanted to grab the kid by the collar and shake him until he finally told his story. Instead, they both held silent and still until their patience paid o
ff. ET took a deep breath.
“There was a dig at a Quimbayan site, you guys know about that.”
It wasn’t a question but Shay and Xander nodded. From the corner of his eye, Xander saw Zak nod too.
“Well, everything seemed normal for a while. As normal as I figured an archaeological dig went. I have never been on one before. But nothing stood out as weird. They brushed the dirt. Took pictures. Bagged things up. Got really excited over what looked like rocks.”
The kid’s hands had started to shake and Xander pushed away from the counter. He retrieved beers from the fridge and passed them out. When Xander handed ET one, the kid stared at it for a moment and he figured this was the kid’s first beer. After a moment, ET twisted the cap off and took a big drink. Xander could tell he wanted to make a face at the taste, confirming his suspicion, but the kid managed to hold back the shudder.
“It didn’t get really bad for a while, it started like just another exciting find. They had found this one room that had fossils in it and something about it freaked them out. I managed to stay close so I could find out more by offering to run errands while I was translating.”
“The white people were from Columbia University, as guests of the Universitaria in Bogota. Their lead archeologist was Dr. Horowitz. They weren’t supposed to be leading the dig, but they just kept bullying their way into everything. It was making the Bogota people angry. They were complaining a lot and didn’t pay attention that I was around.”
ET barely looked at the rest of them as he talked. He kept his eyes on the beer and picked at the label. “They spoke about something being in the heads of the skeletons. Some kind of parasite or something. They were all scared and angry. The archaeologists from the States were more excited than scared, I think.”
ET finally looked at all of them with haunted eyes. “Things got really bad when Horowitz brought his friend in. Robards pissed everyone off more. He completely disregarded the Universitaria students and leads. He treated everyone like they were his staff.”
Show No Fear Page 3