He nodded. “For now. But you need to include us. We’re not going to stand around like a bunch of stooges.”
She stared at him. He was right. She had taken their guns, their security blankets. She had no reason to further devalue them. “I’m worried that they might need additional equipment or, that once they have what they need, they’ll take it to a safe place where they can wire everything together. Can you figure out a way to guard this area in case we lose track of them? They’ll be headed this way, probably.”
“Yes, ma’am. We can do that,” Sgt. Blevins said.
“Thank you.” She held the soft case in her hand and shoved the trunk lid down. “Now, I have to get this to Neil.” She jogged off in Neil’s direction, surprised that she remembered how to get back. Maybe it was easier to get around than she thought. That is until phases eight and nine got added, which would make it one huge twisted mess.
When she arrived to where she and Neil had been standing earlier, Neil wasn’t there.
***
“Do you have what you need yet?” she asked.
He held up a chassis with electronics he’d collected. “I could use more power, but this will have to do. If they’re anywhere in the galaxy, they’ll have wave receptors scanning everything. Although…” he peered at the sky.
“Familiar?” Kek-ta said.
“I won’t know right away. Are you still receiving surges from the bio-accelerator?”
“They’re separated by a lot of time. I can’t tell if it’s over or is going to kick-in again.” She reached for him. “You know my programming is different than yours.”
Chit-Chit-ta touched Kek-ta’s cheek, then scratched her ear.
“Oh,” she said, “I like your touch.”
“I’ve got to set this up first,” he said.
Kek-ta scanned the area while Chit-Chit-ta used some cord to braid a carrier for his equipment. She admired his muscle tone, his ability to produce a container from whatever was at hand. And she admired his sexual organs, pulled tightly near his body to keep warm. She reached toward him, but he swung around and threw his gear over his shoulder.
“They’re watching us,” he said. “The ones you think are kind, and one of the scientists.” He glanced back at her.
Kek-ta followed his attention and reached for his hand again. “I’m scared. We’ve got to go. Do you have everything you need?”
“Soon,” he said. “I wish we could separate. You shouldn’t be in this much danger. I don’t trust them like you do.”
“I don’t think we should separate at all. We stay together. We must. What would I do without your protection?”
“Your mating instinct is telling you that. But even if one of us lives there’s still hope.”
“Not if we’re alone here,” Kek-ta said.
“How long is gestation? Do you know?”
“I sense that the bio-accelerator will adjust everything we do for a while. If my memory is correct, gestation will slowly increase over the next few cycles of the sun. You should know that. You were part of the design team, you said. Still, I don’t know what will happen now, just that we must act as quickly as possible to assure our race carries forward.”
Chit-Chit-ta stopped what he was doing, took her hand, and stared at her.
What was he thinking?
CHAPTER 7
NEIL SNEAKED AROUND THE SIDE of the sand-colored home with the one-and-a-half story entrance. The little two-faced monkey-like creatures were weirding him out. He couldn’t tell which face was the real one half the time, so it always looked as though they were staring back at him as he stared at them. Even when they made a sound, both mouths appeared to move. Freaky. Bonnie had crouched behind a robotic lawnmower in the rear of the building where the aliens had collected their electronics. Neil wished they could trade places. He’d have an easier time identifying the equipment the aliens collected than she would. His phone vibrated and he pulled it to his ear. “Mavra.”
“Where’d you go?”
“Walk out into the cleared area about thirty feet and look to your right. The little devils took the antenna back to their stash. Approach with caution, but I want that microphone even more now than before. Their mouths keep going as though they’re having a continual conversation, and we’re missing it.”
“You really think we can decipher their language? You have software on your computer for that?”
“I do, but we may need something bigger than my handheld with the flip screen.”
“You can port it through the university and use your three-sixty headset,” she said.
“I love it when you talk tech,” Neil said. “Hold on.” through the phone, he heard her stop walking.
“What is it?” she said.
“One of those guys twisted his head clear around. I think I know which is the dummy face now. Just hold still. He’s looking past me, so he must have seen you coming, or heard you.” Neil waited another few seconds until the alien went back to his pile of gear. “Stay low, but keep coming.” His phone vibrated and he switched over to talk with Bonnie. “Go.”
“They’re wrapping all that stuff in wire as though they’re going to carry it away,” Bonnie whispered.
“Gotcha,” Neil said. He switched back to Mavra. “They’re preparing for a change of location. Be ready to follow them.”
“Sgt. Blevins and his men are spread out at the entrance waiting for this. I’ll let them know to be on the lookout.”
“Good move.” He switched back to Bonnie. “Just stay on them. We can’t lose them now that we know they have something up their sleeve.”
“I’m a little afraid of them, so I’ll be glad when they head out. It looks as though they’ve grown a few more inches, too. Is that even possible? Can they grow that fast? I haven’t seen them eat.”
“They could be born with so much protein that they don’t need to eat for a while. We can only guess,” Neil said.
“It’s still scary.”
“Later,” Neil said as he switched his phone off. He sat on the ground with his legs tucked beneath him in case he had to get up and move quickly. Mavra set the case next to him. He unzipped it slowly, making as little noise as possible. He turned and kissed her on the lips, “Thanks,” and focused back inside the bag. He pulled everything he needed from the case, strapped the mic to his wrist using a Velcro strap, then used his cell phone as a link between the mic and his computer back at the car. An easy setup and he was good to go. “I’ll get some of this recorded first,” he said. He reached up and the noises began to come in. As much as their conversation sounded like gibberish to Neil, he had to admit that what the little guys said used repeated sounds just like any other language. He anticipated that he’d learn what they were up to soon enough, depending on where the creatures led them next.
“Let me listen,” Mavra said. She pulled the ear bud from Neil’s ear.
He cocked his head at her, but she ignored the look and held the ear bud to her ear. “Yikes. Those two are talking up a storm.”
“That’s a good thing,” Neil said. We need every bit of their language we can handle.
She handed the bud back to him and he placed it into his ear.
“Can you find someone from the language department of the university we could talk to eventually? Even a grad student would do.”
“We don’t have clearance to discuss this with anyone, remember. We signed the security paperwork,” she said.
“That’s right. Shit. I hate to do this, but you’ll have to talk with Harkins.”
“He’s going to want to know where these guys are.” Mavra stared at him.
Neil thought for a moment. “Fine. Lie to him. Tell him they’re at the edge of the campus. Let him race over there for a while. He’ll get pissed, but he’ll be out of our way, hopefully long enough for us to get a drop on these guys.”
Mavra agreed and retreated a few feet away from Neil.
Just as she appeared to get the general on the ph
one, the aliens picked up their equipment. They had braided a bunch of what looked like wire and rope together into a makeshift backpack. It looked like one of the aliens helped the other one put it on its back. “Holy shit,” Neil said.
Mavra leaned closer to him. Her eyes got wide and she lipped, “What the fuck?”
The aliens headed along the rear of the houses toward a grove of trees at the edge of the cleared area. They had to go right past Neil, but kept their distance. Their jibber-jabber hardly stopped, except at one moment when both aliens turned to look directly at him. Neither one spoke for a few seconds. They kept walking, and when they turned back around, neither face looked at Neil. The talking resumed. “That was freaky,” he said, echoing Bonnie’s earlier reaction. He got up and looked over at Mavra.
She shrugged. “We’ll see you when you arrive, Sir.” She pressed END and stood.
Neil still held his hand with the microphone attached facing the aliens who were now rushing away. “We’d better get going. The strangest thing happened, though.”
“What’s that?”
“They looked right at me as though trying to evaluate my interest in them. It was like they knew they were smarter than me, and I posed no danger to them. I didn’t like it at all.”
“It may be true,” she said.
“We’re going to find out.” Neil’s right eye searched for Bonnie who tentatively stood from behind the robot mower. He waved for her to join them and she jogged over.
The aliens had gained some distance, and as soon as Neil and Mavra headed in their direction, they saw Blevins and his guys running toward them. “I don’t like this,” Mavra said.
“I thought they were going to spread out over there and stay out of our hair,” Neil said.
Blevins halted in front of Mavra, shaking his head. “You can’t do that,” he said.
“What?”
“Lie to Harkins. He called me right away and asked where we were, and I told him. He swore then said you’d lied to him about your whereabouts. He’s sending troops.”
“Fuck,” Neil said. He turned to Bonnie. “Stay with them until Harkins comes. We’re following those things.”
“We’re supposed to go with you,” Blevins said. “We were told not to let you out of our sight. General’s orders.”
Neil pointed toward the aliens. “James can come with us, but we’ve got to get going or we’ll lose them, and no number of soldiers will find them. Trust me.”
Blevins nodded. “That works. We’ll keep this area protected.” He let his attention settle on Neil for a moment. “And we’ll see what we can do to slow the rest of the soldiers down.”
Neil smiled at him. “You’re a good man,” he said. After a few minutes of fast walking, he, Mavra, and James entered the edge of the woods. Luckily for Neil he could keep an eye on the aliens and still watch where he was going. Mavra and Sgt. James weren’t so lucky. He heard them behind him either stumbling or asking, “Where’d they go?”
The aliens didn’t appear taller to Neil so much as they were bulkier and, what helped with their appearance was that they walked more upright. If it hadn’t been for their two faces, strange number of thumbs, and claw-like feet, they’d have looked like cave men slouching forward as they walked deeper into the trees.
The afternoon sun spread shadows long and deep into the woods, but Neil had little problem following the aliens until they walked up the rise of a swell and scurried down into it, then didn’t come back out. And they stopped chattering. He extended both his arms to his sides to stop Mavra and Sgt. James. “They’ve stopped.”
“Where are they?” Mavra said.
Neil crouched so that his head evened up with hers and pointed toward the gulley they had holed up in. “In that swell. We can probably surround them, but be very quiet and careful.” He glanced into the trees. “I’m sure they can climb, too, so watch the trees.” He motioned for the two of them to circumvent the area where the aliens had stopped.
As Mavra and James moved away, Neil decided to climb a tree to get a better view. According to his recorder, they were still in the gulley. When their talking stopped, it made him nervous. All he heard was rustling. He’d get sap on his hands as he climbed, but the easiest tree nearby was a pine tree with its branches sticking out every few feet from one another, like a ladder. He checked his pocket for gloves, but didn’t have any. With a firm grip on two different branches, he hoisted himself up and into the tree.
Mavra and Sgt. James advanced slowly and cautiously at a safe and non-threatening distance from the aliens. When Mavra looked up at Neil, he nodded and continued climbing with as little disturbance as possible.
At about twenty feet up the tree, Neil got a good look at the aliens. Their gear lay on the ground still wrapped in its braided backpack. The two creatures were together, wrapped in each other’s arms, their bodies rocking. Neil turned his head as soon as he realized they were copulating. “Oh, for goodness sake,” he whispered. “This can’t be good.”
After the aliens pulled apart, one of them quickly helped the other one strap on the backpack again. Once secure, they leaped out of the swell and dashed into the woods.
“No, no, no,” Neil said as he lowered himself from the tree as fast as he could. Finally, he jumped down, catching his jacket on a branch, which yanked it up along with his arm. “Crap.” He rubbed his shoulder, which had been pulled hard from the drop. His fingers stuck to his jacket, and the microphone stuck straight up. He pushed the mic down so that it ran along his hand again. He rubbed his hands together, but they felt as though they were covered in half-dried glue. His phone vibrated. He pulled it out of his pocket using only two fingers of one hand and hitting the SEND button with the index finger of his other hand. “Jesus Christ,” he answered. “I know. I saw them,” he said before Mavra had a chance to talk.
“Were they resting for a moment?”
“They were screwing.”
“What?”
“You heard me. I don’t know what they’re doing here, but they are about to produce more two-faced little bastards. And we have no idea what their gestation period is. I’m starting to wonder if they are just here to repopulate the Earth, albeit with technology already in place and ready for use. Maybe all our worry over alien ships waiting for a signal is off base.”
“Now who’s full of wild-ass ideas? Let’s stay on track and follow them. That’s the only way we figure out the truth,” she said. “Have you kept an eye on them?”
“I lost them for a second, but I know where they’re headed. I can get a fix on them using the mic as long as they keep talking.” Neil sprinted around the gulley and in the direction they had trudged away. Lucky they didn’t appear to be in a big hurry. Both his eyes worked overtime scanning in opposite directions, while every once in a while making sure he wasn’t going to trip over anything or get hung up in underbrush. Finally, he caught sight of one of them in a tree up ahead. He brought both eyes around to search the area completely. The second monkey must be there somewhere. Carefully, he called Mavra. “I’m about three hundred yards west of where we just were. The sun’s dropping fast, so get over here. I’m worried that once the sun sets, we’ll have a tough time keeping track of them. And we have no idea what kind of night vision they have.”
“Maybe Harkins’ men would be helpful,” she said. “They’ve got to have night vision equipment.”
“They’ll want to capture these guys. And if they do, we won’t know what they’re up to. We’ve got to give them space,” Neil said.
“Agreed,” she said.
“We can observe them in a monkey cage,” Sgt. James said somewhere near Mavra.
“Shush,” she said.
“I’m glad we took his gun away,” Neil said.
“The ones coming all have guns,” Mavra said. “What do we do about them?”
Neil thought about what she asked. Both sides of his brain worked in their own special ways to provide suggestions.
“Well?”
“If these aliens are as intelligent as we think, maybe we should try to reason with them? Communicate with them,” Neil said.
“They might be able to learn our language faster than we can learn theirs,” she responded. “I like it.”
Neil glanced around the forest. “It’s going to be dark soon. I can only see one of them up in the tree, and it looks like it has the antenna with it.” He looked around using his right eye, while his left remained on the alien in the tree. “The other one isn’t visible yet.” He held the cell phone in front of his face. “I guess now’s the time to go in.” Then he ended the call.
In small steps, Neil approached the trunk of the tree where the alien focused on setting up the antenna. The other alien must be close at hand. Neil took a few steps and then stopped and listened, then took a few more steps. At this pace, he approached the tree.
A branch snapped and Neil became aware that the alien was close by. Perhaps the alien stalked Neil as well. He let his attention move out from his immediate area to see if Mavra or James approached. The microphone still collected sound, but most of it came from wind or small animals, mice or birds. He switched the recorder off and reached up to pull the ear bud out when the alien jumped from the bushes.
***
Kek-ta fiddled with the antenna as Chit-Chit-ta had instructed. Her heart raced, but she wasn’t sure why. Yes, she was frightened. They were being chased after all, hunted down. But there was also the mating time. Was her body still excited or did something more programmed happen? Had the bio-accelerator transferred its activity to the potential fetus? She glanced around and saw Chit-Chit-ta stalking the tall alien. It appeared to have little sight once the sun descended, luckily for Chit-Chit-ta.
She fiddled a bit more, tying and then untying the transmitter antenna to keep the tall alien’s attention. She could tell it was suspicious by the way its head moved around, how its eyes shifted.
Chit-Chit-ta crept up slowly. She admired his stealth movements. She could still feel their close embrace and their mating motion. She let her mind wander for a moment, then went back to her false activity. When she saw Chit-Chit-ta leap into the open near the alien, she halted what she was doing and quickly stuffed the antenna back into the pack. The alien spoke in what sounded as a nonthreatening tone, but she couldn’t understand it. How could she tell if it was an attempt at communication or a warning? She watched as they prepared to scuffle.
Backyard Aliens Page 7