by Sarah Carter
“Yeah,” Derrick answers. “Just slide it to the side.”
He does and then takes a deep breath. “Okay, let’s do this.” He holds up the gun. His hand is slightly shaking.
Derrick comes up next to him. “Relax. You have to relax.”
Nodding, Connor says, “Okay.” He holds up the gun. Eyeing up the site, Connor shoots. The bullet ricochets off the side.
“Try again,” Derrick instructs.
He takes a deep breath and shoots. The bullet hits the tree trunk this time. “Well, at least I didn’t miss.”
“You need to practice,” Derrick declares. “That’s what everyone has to do.”
Connor nods again. He holds up the gun and shoots. They practice for an hour; by the end, Connor is much better. Lexi doesn’t need to practice that much. She finally lets out a sigh. “All right, I think we are set.”
“Try to not kill anyone,” Derrick statues. “I would hate to see you guys in jail.”
“That’s not going to happen,” Lexi says. “It’s a protection thing. We have other ways to protect ourselves. This is just in case.”
“I really want you to be smart about this,” Derrick emphasizes. “You can seriously kill someone with a gun. One bullet. That’s all it takes.”
Lexi nods. “I know. We will be careful.”
“That’s good to hear,” Derrick sighs.
“We should go though,” Lexi declares. “We have to be somewhere soon.”
“Try to not get arrested, okay?”
She half laughs. “I don’t think getting arrested is a worry.”
“Be safe,” he states.
Nodding, Lexi puts the gun and the rest of the bullets away. She stands up. “Let’s go.”
The walk back is silent. When they get to their cars, Derrick turns to them. “Do you guys think you have it?”
“I think we will be okay,” Connor answers. “Thank you.”
“No problem,” Derrick replies. “Get rid of the gun as soon as you don’t need it. Wipe your prints off of everything.”
“We will,” Lexi agrees.
Derrick nods. “See you guys later.”
They all get in their cars. Connor turns to Lexi. “Are you ready to go meet them?”
“We need to go pick up Lana and Ashe,” Lexi instructs. “Then we can go.”
Chapter 14
An hour later, Ashe, Lana, Lexi, and Connor are all sitting in Connor’s car. They are parked on the side of the road. “Do you have the address?” Ashe asks. Lexi holds it up. “Well, I think we should go do this then. Better to get it over with.”
“Do they know we are coming?” Lana inquires.
“I have no idea,” Lexi answers. “I can’t imagine that they would think that I would come alone.”
“Probably not,” Lana says.
Connor tightens his grip on the steering wheel. “Let’s do this then.”
“We need to take Highway J,” Lexi declares. “Here, these are the directions.”
He takes them. “This is in the middle of nowhere.”
“Hopefully we aren’t being lead to a slaughter,” Ashe mumbles.
Lexi spins around. “Oh, that makes us all feel so much better.”
“We have a gun and all of your powers,” Connor states. “I think we will be okay. Anyway, if they wanted to do something, wouldn’t they have by now?”
“That’s what I’ve been thinking,” Lexi says.
Ashe lets out a deep breath. “We should go.”
Putting the car into drive, Connor says, “Here we go.”
No one says a word the whole trip. Lexi’s stomach is turning; she is so nervous. They get onto an old, back road, and it suddenly becomes gravel. “Well, this is definitely secluded,” Lana whispers.
“I’m getting this out,” Lexi says, grabbing the gun. She pulls out the clip and makes sure it’s loaded. After that, she makes sure that the safety is on and sticks it on the back of her pants. Pulling her shirt back over it, Lexi knows it’s not visible.
Finally, they come to a driveway and turn down it. There is an old barn house a ways ahead. Connor slows down. They don’t see anyone or any movement. Slowly, he creeps forward. Suddenly, the car dies. Everything turns off. “What in the hell,” Connor mutters. He tries to start the car again, and there’s no power.
Everyone is quiet. “I guess they know we are here,” Ashe whispers.
“What do we do?” Lana asks.
Lexi sighs. “I guess we should go.” No one moves, so Lexi finally opens her door. Everyone follows suit. They get out. There is no noise. No noise of animals or birds.
“It’s eery quiet,” Lana points out.
Lexi spins in a circle. “It’s like there is no life.”
“What do we do?” Ashe asks.
“Go to the door and knock I guess,” Lexi replies. “What else is there for us to do?”
They all stop and stare at the house. “Oh, screw this,” Ashe finally says. He walks up to the porch and puts his foot on the first step.
Suddenly, the whole house is lit up. There’s flood lights everywhere. “What in the hell,” Connor gasps.
The front door opens, and Yosiv is standing there. “You came,” he says.
“Yeah,” Lexi replies slowly.
“We mean no harm,” Yosiv declares. “Come inside.”
With some hesitation, they all walk forward. When they get to the door, Yosiv steps aside. Lexi is the first to walk inside. Her eyes instantly scan around. They are in a foyer. Not very big. There are six people standing there. Two of them are guys in their forties. There’s a woman in her thirties. And three teenagers. They are all standing there, staring at Lexi. She stops, and Connor bumps into her.
“Sorry,” he stammers.
They all get into the house, and Yosiv shuts the door. He walks in front of them. “We welcome you.”
“Uh, thanks,” Lexi replies.
He waves to the people in front of him. “Let us introduce ourselves.”
The first guy says, “My name is Andrew. I’ve known about the Neturu for over twenty years.”
“Longer than I’ve been alive,” Lexi gasps. He nods.
The next guy declares, “My name is Jenkins. I lead this group.”
“What do you call yourselves?” Ashe inquires.
“We don’t have a name,” Jenkins replies. “We just watch.”
“Creepy,” Lana mumbles.
The woman is the next to speak. “My name is Elizabeth. I’m the engineer.”
“You’re an engineer?” Connor says.
She smiles, “Yes, I know the Neturu technology. I have integrated it with our own human technology.”
“You understand our technology,” Lexi stammers. “We are so much more advanced.”
“I have a very high IQ,” Elizabeth states. “I’ve also been studying this for fifteen years.”
Lexi puts her hand to her chest. “You got this all from my mother?”
“Yes,” Elizabeth answers. “We got all that we have before she lost it. So, you have technology that we don’t have now. We left your mother thirty years ago. Once she started the experiments. We couldn’t stand by her anymore. She thought we disbanded. We didn’t. We went into hiding.”
“I’m surprised that she believed you,” Lexi replies. “She was beyond a genius.”
“She couldn’t see past herself,” Jenkins states. “She very well could have known we were still around, but she felt threatened by nothing.”
Smiling, Lexi says, “I beg to differ. I threatened her.”
Jenkins smirks. “We don’t know much about how she died, but we know you killed her.”
“I don’t remember anything,” Lexi declares. “I blocked out my own memories.”
He raises an eyebrow. “I didn’t know you could do that.”
“I didn’t either,” Lexi says. “I don’t know how I did it. I came through myself when I was thirty something. I told her that. I, somehow, came out of my two year
old self and killed her.”
“Interesting,” Jenkins murmurs.
Ashe steps forward. “Why have you not told anyone about us?”
Elizabeth crosses her arms and answers, “What good would it do? The human race couldn’t handle it. Nuclear weapons are the most powerful weapon that the humans have. The last thing we need to do is have them start using them. Countries would blame each other. They would bomb one another thinking that they were on the Neturu side. Fingers are hovering over the buttons already without the fear of the Neturu. Could you imagine if there was some greater threat?”
“We could deactivate every nuclear weapon on this planet,” Lexi replies. “In one action.”
“Really?” Yosiv gasps.
She nods. “Yes. But, we believe that war would still break out. They would have no way to detect us, and we look human. So, they would just attack each other. And like you said, they would accuse each other of siding with us. It’s just a bad idea. Even if the Neturu left, the human race wouldn’t believe it. They’re just not ready.”
“No,” Jenkins agrees. “They aren’t.”
The one of the two teenage girls says, “Maybe in a few hundred years, but not now.”
“Who are you?” Ashe asks.
“My name is Denina,” she replies. “This is Tamesha and John.” She points to the other two teenagers. “Our parents have been part of this group since its beginning. They thought it would be good for us to be here.”
“Someone our own age,” Lana says. Denina nods. “That’s cool.”
Lexi looks at them. “What do you want from us?”
“There is a different group who is going to out you,” Yosiv declares. “Their leader broke from us. He believes that the humans have the right to know. We have to stop them.”
“Why not go to my dad?” Lexi asks. “He could stop them.”
Elizabeth shakes her head. “We don’t want the Neturu to know about us. We think it’s only fair. You could erase our memories.”
“That’s true,” Lexi says.
Tamesha smiles. “You aren’t a bad species. You live with us peacefully.”
“That is our goal,” Lexi replies. “We just want to be able to live our lives.”
“That’s why we need to stop this other group,” John finally says. “They must be stopped.”
“Maybe we should get my father involved,” Lexi suggests.
Yosiv shakes his head. “We want to try and do this on our own. That’s why we need your help.”
“Can they stop my powers?” Lexi asks.
Jenkins reaches into his pocket. He pulls out a stone. “This is from your planet.”
Lexi reaches out her hand and takes it. It’s the same blue stone that Yosiv had. “This stops my powers?”
“Yes,” Jenkins answers. “It will also stop shapeshifting, but it’s not 100% all of the time.”
“It’s Jiub Kryptonite,” Lana gasps.
“Sort of,” he agrees.
Lexi puts her hand to her chest. “How do I not know about this? How do the Neturu don’t know about this?”
“It’s something the Kenga knew about. Your mother got it from the man that was your father, technically.”
“Do you know anything about him?” Lexi asks.
Denina nods. “His name was Jirahd. He was a soldier but was standing up against the Kenga king. He was part of the resistance. There were Kenga that didn’t want the war. They did what they could, but it wasn’t enough. Your father was killed in an attack one night. Your mom promised him that she would protect his family, but the Neturu refused to bring any Kenga with. So, they were left behind.”
“That is horrible,” Ashe states. “I can’t believe that we would do that.”
“I think the council was a lot different back then,” Lexi says. “They were at war. We were leaving the only planet that we had ever been on. It was our home. I didn’t think they thought that it was a good idea to bring the Kenga with. They would just die out. There wouldn’t be any way for their species to breed beyond a few generations. We weren’t there. No one was except my mother, and now she’s gone.”
“It still seems so wrong.”
Lexi shakes her head. “We can’t change the past. We need to concentrate on the future.” She holds up the stone. “How many are there of these?”
Jenkins answers, “A total of seven. We have six.”
“The other group has the other one?”
“Yes, the leader is named Robert,” Andrew declares. “They are a group of three. The two others are engineers that know the Neturu technology and science.”
“What do they have?” Connor asks.
Andrew looks at him. “How much do you even know?”
“Not much. That’s why I am curious. No better to judge than a human that just found out.” He shrugs his shoulders.
Eyeing him a little bit, Andrew nods. “He has videos of your ships. He has video of you shapeshifting.”
“But that isn’t anything good CGI couldn’t take care of,” Connor rebuttals.
“Ashe, show him,” Lana instructs, nudging her head towards him.
Ashe looks at Connor and then shifts into a tiger. Connor jumps back. “Whoa! Holy cow!”
Growling, Ashe steps towards him. Connor backs up against the wall. Ashe continues to creep forward. Starting to lose the color in his face, Connor’s eyes widen. Lexi laughs. “Ease up there, tiger. Don’t worry, Connor. He knows exactly what he's doing. Unless he wanted to eat you when he was normal, he’s just messing with you right now.”
Shifting back to himself, Ashe laughs. “Sorry, man. I haven’t really been able to do that with anyone who didn’t know what we were.”
He puts his hand on his chest and gasps. “Dude. That isn’t funny.”
“Sorry about that,” Ashe laughs, slapping Connor on the back. “I promise I know exactly what’s going on. I was just messing with you.”
“So, they have video of that?” Connor stammers, looking at Andrew.
Andrew nods. “Yeah and of the ships.”
“Let’s go in and get it,” Ashe exclaims, slamming his fist into his hand.
“I don’t think it’s going to be as easy as that,” Jenkins replies. “They do have weapons.”
Lexi shakes her head. “Do they have Neturu weapons?”
“Yes,” he answers. “They do. They have the guns that shoot electrical bursts.”
She frowns. “That’s bad.”
“Can’t you steal suits from a ship,” Ashe suggests, looking at her.
“Suits? What suits?” Connor says.
Thinking about it, Lexi replies, “We have suits that protect us against most of the Neturu weaponry, but only the highest guard members have them. There aren’t a lot of them. Someone is bound to notice that they are gone.”
“But it’s you,” Ashe exclaims. “All you would have to do is shut everything down and jump in there and grab them.”
Her eyes roll back. “Do you not think that my dad my suspect that it’s me.”
“We will be your alibis,” Ashe says. “We will totally say you were with us. Why would he suspect you? Don’t you think he would assume if you needed them, you would just tell him.”
“I guess.”
“You turn to your parents about everything,” Ashe states. “They would never suspect that you would do something behind their backs. Not something like this.”
Lexi nods. “That’s true. I can get them.”
“That’s wonderful,” Andrew says. “We need your help.”
“What can you tell me about this group?” Lexi asks. “Like specifics.”
Jenkins crosses his arms and sighs. “The leader to the group is Jose. There is also Tanya. She’s an engineer.”
“Just the two,” Ashe scoffs. “That’s easy.”
He shakes his head. “No, is also another one. But those two run the show. Davey is the tech guy. He has all the videos.”
“How do you plan to stop them?” L
ana inquires. She puts her hands out. “I mean, video can be copied and stored in a hundred places.”
Andrew replies, “They have it on one master computer so it doesn’t get out.”
“Where is that?” Lexi asks.
“In a mansion in Alaska,” Andrew answers.
Ashe jerks back. “We have to go to Alaska!”
With a nod, he says, “Yes. We will get you there, though.”
“I have a tracking chip in me,” Lexi replies. “My father will notice where I am.”
“Can we go and visit your aunt and uncle?” Lana replies. “Then it won’t be so weird.”
Lexi bites her lip. “Uncle Mason knows that Connor knows, so that may work.”
“We need to do this as soon as possible,” Elizabeth urges. “This can’t get out.”
“Do they know you were contacting me?” Lexi asks. She waves her hand to the side. “If we can surprise them, that would be best.”
Jenkins shakes his head. “No, we always swore we wouldn’t make contact. It wasn’t until we saw that you showed your powers to a human that we did anything.”
“Well then, we will really need to keep this a secret,” Lexi declares. “We can’t let them know I'm involved.”
“That’s why we met way out here,” Temesha states. “They don't know about this place.”
“The gun was really unnecessary,” Andrew sighs.
She reaches behind her and pulls it out. “How do you know I had it?”
“We have sensors,” he replies. “You can give it to us if you’d like.”
Connor steps forward. “Maybe we should keep it.”
“Do you have experience with guns?” Jenkins asks. “You could seriously hurt someone.”
“Yeah, I don’t think I want to keep it,” Lexi sighs. “If my dad found out...it would be disastrous.” She hands the gun to Andrew, and he takes it.
“We weren’t planning on hurting you,” he states. “But, we understand why you were cautious.”
Lexi shrugs and shakes her head. “Well, we didn’t know, and what if my powers didn’t work. We didn’t want to be sitting ducks. I’m still not sure what we are going to do if this other group has a stone.”
“I think we need to sit down and have a plan,” Jenkins suggests.
“What if I told my dad about this other group but not you guys?” Lexi says. “I mean, they could handle it.”