“No, you don’t understand. He’s part of a different race. He’s the reason we’re stuck on this planet. His people control those machines!” Lisa is yelling at me now, her eyes wide. I can’t tell if she’s about to break down and cry, or try to hit me.
“I know who he is, but he’s not here to hurt us.” In my mind, I finish that sentence with right now.
“What do you mean?” Hannah moves to stand by Lisa, her gaze glaring over Ival before she stares at me.
“There are worse people who are trying to hurt us, ones who control those awful creatures.” My heart starts to pound, and I panic knowing I might have to admit who Marduke is, and maybe admit that I’m pregnant.
How will they react? Will they call me a traitor? A slut? Ival has already told me I am, already admitted that Marduke’s race would view me as such.
“Who cares? They’re all the same!” Lisa cries.
“They’re not. Listen, I know it sounds crazy, but you can trust Ival.” I hug Logan to me tighter, a cold shiver running over me as it hits me that this conversation might not go the way I need it to.
“Why the hell do you trust him? What did he do after he sent me away?”
“He hurt me and I was bleeding and I was so scared. You said I would see Daddy, and I wanted to see him, but I wanted you to come with me. I didn’t want to go alone,” Logan whispers against my shoulder, but his voice carries to all of us.
I gulp, forced back into that awful memory of watching Logan bleeding out in my arms. His shaking voice and trembling body takes on a whole new meaning to me now. He might be scared of the creatures and machines, but there is a monster in this tunnel with us who he fears just as much.
“He won’t ever hurt you again, Logan, I promise,” I tell him, rubbing his back and hoping my promise offers him some comfort. There is no way I’ll leave Logan alone with Ival, not for any reason.
“He hurt Logan?” Lisa gasps.
“Please, he’s not going to hurt any of you,” Marduke speaks up from behind me, his hand resting on Logan’s head, whose tears are soaking my neck again. It breaks my heart to know he’s so distressed.
“How do you know?” Hannah crosses her arms over her chest but stumbles when Lisa pushes past her.
“Wait a minute,” she says to herself, peering carefully at Marduke. “I didn’t notice it back on Earth, and I hadn’t thought about it before, but…” She gasps then, her eyes staring directly into mine. “He’s one of them.” She states it, not asking me directly, but she’s gazing intently at me. I know she’s trying to figure out if I knew this already.
I nod, knowing there is no point lying about this. If it wasn’t going to be Marduke’s accent that gave him away, then it was going to be the fact that he and Ival are clearly related. Not to mention, Ival would have blurted it out anyway just to drive a wedge between Marduke and the others.
“But you… you were meant to be good. Hank and Mattie saved you,” Lisa accuses Marduke, the betrayal she’s feeling obvious.
“He is good, Lisa. He’s saved my life and Logan’s a bunch of times. He helped save Hank’s, too,” I rush to say.
“We do not have time for this. We have… to move,” Ival grunts.
“I’m not moving until someone tells me what the hell is going on,” Hannah snaps.
“This tunnel might be empty of water now, but it… won’t be for long,” Ival snaps, talking over Lisa, who I think was about to tell Hannah our story from the beginning.
“What?” Marduke asks Ival, but Hannah and Lisa are staring angrily at me.
“We have a lot of walking to do, over a… full day’s worth I would guess. Every three… days, there is a pressure valve that releases water into… here and the tunnels fills up completely. I am… unsure how much time we will have before… that happens. If we are unlucky, then it will… be soon and we will drown.”
That catches everyone’s attention.
“I want out of here right now!” Lisa demands.
There is no way for us to go back, not with the collapse of the building outside. We’re trapped in here, and I have helped put the others here in danger.
“What the hell, Mattie? You said this was safer than the bunkers! We weren’t going to drown in them!” Hannah snaps at me.
“This isn’t her fault; she didn’t know about the water. Neither of us did,” Marduke defends me.
“Yeah, like we can trust you,” Lisa snaps at him, but her eyes quickly stray to me. They don’t soften as they take me in, the friendship and love I saw earlier no longer present in her stare. She’s furious with me.
“Humans…” Ival angrily mutters to himself, switching to his own language, which causes the others to shiver and Marduke to tense up next to me.
Ival storms away, clearly eager to keep moving, and Marduke lightly pushes me to follow him.
I hold in the groan of pain at having to keep walking. My feet are aching, my back is sore, and the added weight of Logan in my arms isn’t helping any.
“Do you need me to hold him?” Marduke asks, his hand moving over the side of my face to brush some wayward hair from my eyes.
“Not yet, I’m not ready to let him go,” I admit.
He nods in understanding. “I don’t want him to be in this situation, but I am pleased to see him,” he says quietly.
While I feel Lisa and Hannah’s eyes on us, maybe even Hope’s as she grips onto Lisa, I glance at what is ahead of us, taking in the unchanging, damp tunnel. There are small lights along the ceiling, but they cast strange shadows along the walls and over us.
Hannah’s voice carries to us as we tread quickly through the tunnels. She demands I tell her everything, so I do.
I explain what happened to us on Earth after Lisa was taken away. I leave out the sex and attempt to make Ival appear not as awful, since I know that won’t help them to trust him. I speak of Roth and linger over stories of Hank. I hear Lisa crying over how dedicated he was to finding her again, and I decide to leave off the last story of how things left off with him. I change it so that he made it back to the camps, and that Marduke and I stayed in the forest.
My story puts Logan to sleep, and with my entire body aching, I hand him over to Marduke who carefully cradles him in his arms. Seeing him being so careful and protective of Logan makes my heart soar. He might be concerned about what type of father he will make, but I know he’ll be amazing.
I have left Hannah and Lisa speechless, so we walk for a long time in silence.
After what feels like hours later, Hannah voices her first question.
“You know Mum and Dad are dead, right?” Her voice cracks with her heartbreaking question. It opens up the dark hole living inside me, still waiting to consume me.
“Yes,” I whisper, my voice hitching. Marduke frees a hand from supporting Logan so he can grip onto mine, squeezing it in support.
“And you don’t care that he’s part of the reason for that?”
I take a deep, shaky breath and only speak once I feel I have control and won’t break down. “I hate that Mum and Dad were killed. I’d give anything for them to be alive, but I don’t blame Marduke.”
“But if his people hadn’t attacked Earth, then they would still be alive.”
“I know, but he didn’t personally set out to harm us. He’s a good man, and like I said before, he’s saved my life countless times. I don’t think it’s fair to judge an entire species on the actions of just a few.”
Marduke feels tense next to me, and this time, I squeeze his hand to give him support. I hope he doesn’t believe I blame him. I already know he’s placed enough guilt on himself without Hannah and Lisa placing more on him.
“Look, can we speak in private?” Lisa asks. I look back at her to see her staring pointedly at Marduke.
Ival has already rushed ahead, and since Logan is still soundly asleep, I nod at him to give us some time alone. He’s hesitant to leave, I can see it in his face, yet he doesn’t voice his complaint. He just stares at
me for a while in silence and then moves away, catching up to Ival. I have no doubt our voices will carry down the tunnel to him anyway.
When he’s far ahead of us, Hannah leans forward and whispers in my ear. “Are you crushing on him? Do you seriously have a crush on a freaking alien?” She doesn’t exactly sound judgmental, but I don’t hear excitement, either.
“Of course she’s not! As soon as she found out what he is, she would have never had feelings for him,” Lisa wrongly defends me.
“Actually, I do like Marduke a lot. I love him,” I admit, wincing as I prepare myself for the outburst that is sure to come.
Lisa doesn’t make me wait long. “No, you don’t, that is ridiculous. You could never love an alien, especially one who has invaded our homes and stolen us away. You’re mistaken.”
“I’m not, Lisa. I know it sounds—”
“Insane? Ludicrous? Seriously fucked up?” she yells, her voice sounding even louder as it echoes back to us.
“I’m sorry.” I shrug, not knowing what to say to her. If she’s reacting this way about me loving Marduke, I imagine she’s going to completely loathe me over the fact that I’m actually pregnant.
“Sorry that you’re in love with the enemy? Sorry that you’re betraying your own species? Sorry you’re a disgrace to your own family?” Lisa snaps, her sharp tone waking up Hope in her arms, who immediately starts crying. “I can’t be around you right now,” She says, glaring at me as she pushes me out of the way and storms off, still keeping her distance from Marduke and Ival.
I see him glance back at us, and even though I can’t see his expression from this far away, I assume he can see mine. I give him a small smile, hoping to express to him that I’m okay, although I’m far from it.
After I take several deep breaths and get control of the tears that are threatening to break loose, I turn back and glance at Hannah. “Your turn,” I say, but I see her staring at me in curiosity rather than with hatred or disgust like I’ve expected.
“You love him?” she asks me slowly.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
I take a deep breath. “Because he’s not just an alien to me. He’s a good man, a brave one, who is kind and sweet, and he cares about me. The first time I saw him in Vancouver, he was risking his life to save a young girl. He nearly died saving that stranger. He has risked his life over and over for me and Logan, and I feel safe in his arms.” I tell her the truth, hoping she won’t tear me apart when I feel so vulnerable.
“You forgot something else,” she says, her voice giving nothing away to her reaction to my declaration.
“What?” I whisper, fearful she’s about to yell at me. She’s going to tell me I’m an awful person and she hates me. I’m not sure I can lose any more people today, and definitely not Hannah. She’s the only family I have left. The only connection I have to Mum and Dad.
“You forgot that he’s incredibly hot. Look at those arms!” she whispers, smiling at me when I stare at her in disbelief. “What? I have eyes, you know? I can see why you’d like him. Did you see his eyes? I’ve never seen eyes so green and deep before; they’re really cool.”
I probably look like I’ve got a dislocated jaw from how wide my mouth is hanging open.
“That’s a really super attractive look, sis.”
“You… are... you’re serious?”
“Sure. I mean, look at his ass, too, not bad.”
I ignore that comment, instead still stuck in my shock. “Aren’t you going to yell at me? You were just talking about Mum and Dad before and—”
“Listen, I’ve been alone ever since the invasion. I just want my sister, and if she’s gone crazy, then okay. I can deal with that.”
“You think I’m crazy?”
“I know you’re crazy. You have been probably since you were born. I suspected you were crazy when you refused to wear that beautiful dress for Aunt Mary’s wedding when you were ten. I knew you were crazy when Jayden Hooper asked you out in the ninth grade and you turned him down. The hottest guy in your whole class, maybe even the whole school, asks you out and you say no.”
I snort, recalling the news of how I had turned down the Jayden Hooper and the shock over everyone’s faces. It’s a memory I have not thought about for years.
“I still don’t get why that was such a big deal.”
“Of course you don’t because you’re insane. Do you realise you never really had a boyfriend all through school? I told all my friends that you were a lesbian, and when you sent Mum those photos of you and Lisa when you first got to America, I showed them to the girls and said she was your girlfriend.”
I laugh quietly, knowing she would definitely have done something like that.
“I’ve never seen you with a guy, not unless it was a coach or someone you were not interested in. At some of the games I was forced to go to, I would see guys drooling over you, and you never noticed. I hated you for that because I never got as much attention as you, and I actually tried.”
“That’s not true, you always had a boyfriend. I don’t think you’ve been single since you were eight.” I snort again, remembering the heart attack Dad nearly had when she told them she was getting married to a boy she’d decided to start dating that day. They were apparently going to start having kids straight away because she wanted a baby by the weekend to play with. “Remember how much you used to worry Dad with all the boys that would hang around you? He never had to worry about that with me.”
Hannah laughs this time, but I also see her wiping away tears. “I miss Dad so much. Mum, too.”
“So do I.” I wrap my arm over her shoulder, bringing her in close to my side as we walk in silence again for a while.
“Dad would kill the alien for laying a hand on you, and not just because he’s an alien. Half the guys that stared at you longingly were on the receiving end of Dad’s glares, sometimes even his threats.”
“Really?” I smile, easily able to picture Dad doing that.
“Yep. He’d have a field day with that guy.” She nods ahead.
“What makes you think he’s laid any hands on me yet?”
“Because he touched you before and you didn’t even flinch. You’re used to his touch.”
I swallow my nerves, knowing I’m past comfortable with his touch.
“Listen, the point I’m trying to make here is that I’ve never seen you even look twice at a guy. I joked that you were a lesbian, but part of me always wondered. But then you never seemed to look at girls, either. I thought maybe you were broken. Knowing you like someone, even love someone, is sort of nice. I think Mum, after her initial heart attack, would sort of be over the moon right now. She’d be so excited and ask you a million questions.”
I smile sadly, knowing I’ll never get to hear a single one of those questions now.
“I hate that we’re here, I hate that I’m not even on Earth, and I’ll always dislike the aliens, but I can’t hate you. You were always weird to me, Mattie, so it makes sense that you’d fall for an alien.”
I laugh, squeezing her shoulder. “Thanks, Hannah.”
“Besides, you’re all I have left now. Lisa and her family were looking after me, but we’re true family. I can’t really talk shit to them like I can to you. And I can’t talk about Mum and Dad to them because they didn’t know them. They don’t understand.”
“I can’t believe they are gone. I keep seeing them in my mind. They’re back at home, like nothing has changed. I see Dad in the garage, working on his bike. Mum is sitting in the lounge, reading a book in peace. I can’t wrap my head around the fact that they’re gone forever,” I say, fresh tears making their way down my face.
“I know. I wasn’t even there when the invasion first hit us. I was at June’s house, and when we started hearing loud crashes, we raced outside. When I saw those…” a shiver runs over her body, “robots, I ran home. Mum was already frantic, looking for me, and Dad was trying to call you, but the phone lines were down. They though
t we should stay indoors, but then everyone in the street started to throw things in their cars. They were going to leave their houses and get away from the robots. Mum and Dad decided to do the same.
“We packed some clothes and food. We only took a few minutes and then we jumped in the car. It was chaotic and a mess. People and cars were everywhere, and then suddenly, the robots showed up. Everyone freaked, and the next thing I knew, we collided into a tree. None of us had seatbelts on. It didn’t even occur to us. We just got in the car and raced along.”
She takes a shaky breath before continuing. “I hit the seat in front, got a nasty bruise on my head, and I sprained my wrist since I held it out to stop me from moving forward. That’s it. But Mum and Dad were in the front seat. Mum flew out of the windshield, and she was so bloody and…” Hannah’s voice hitches and we stop walking.
We’re both sobbing now. I hate that she had to go through this just as much as I hate having to hear it now, but I don’t stop her. I hug her to me and encourage her to keep going because I realise she needs to get this out, and I need to hear it. I need to know about their final moments.
“Dad was still alive. He was stuck, and there was blood pooling over his chest. He asked me if Mum was all right, and I lied and said she was. He told me to take care of her and to never stop searching for you. He said he loved us, and that he was so proud of his girls. Then he shut his eyes and never opened them again.”
Her voice is barely comprehensible by the end. I’m surprised when Lisa’s arms wrap around us both, giving us her support.
Ival’s angry muttering is the only thing that drags us out of our moment. We all look up in time to see Marduke punching him in the arm.
“You guys are breaking my heart over here,” Lisa croaks out.
“Please don’t hate me,” I beg of her.
She shakes her head. “I don’t hate you, Mattie; I’m just disappointed. I don’t understand.” Even though I should be relieved she said she doesn’t hate me, I’m hurt by her disappointment in me.
“Come on, we better keep moving before the aliens grow horns or whatever happens when they get really angry,” Hannah mutters, her hand moving down to hold mine as we start walking again.
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