by Alechia Dow
“Don’t hurt us.”
“Please, there are kids.”
The way they look at me like I’m a monster...it hurts.
“Look, you don’t know me,” my voice wobbles as I project it to be heard. I wish I were like Alice, that I’d say the right thing the right way. “But I’ve come from New York City. They moved some of us into housing. You’re safe there. Turn yourselves in. Even if they give you the vaccine, it won’t work the way they think. Save your kids. Save humanity. And this guy—” I shout as two more guards lunge for me. The man from the office steps into a patch of sunlight. “He found us, me and my Ilori rebel friend. He locked us up and refuses to let us leave. We don’t want to be here. My Ilori can save us all, and I’m gonna help him. Just...let us leave. Please.”
A woman with a stick in her hand and a little boy with beautiful round eyes cowering behind her hesitantly steps beside me. She hands me the stick. “Take this and put it through the handles of the doors. We’ll buy you some time.”
I take it, staring.
She sniffs and backs away. “I met him...the Ilori. He sang to us. To Josef. He said his name’s Morris and he’s not like what we thought. I...I believe her. Let’s give them a chance to save the world.”
At first the crowd mutters, but the woman lifts her head and her voice grows louder, stronger. “We were never going to last here. You all know this. They’ll be here any day, any moment. But this girl and that alien might save us. Shouldn’t we at least let them try? Shouldn’t we believe that it’s possible? Otherwise, what’s the point of living?”
“That’s not your call to make, Mira,” the man says to her with his eyes boring into mine, his guards spreading out behind him. “I am in charge here. I’m the leader.”
“Well, then...” Mira’s eyes flick around as the crowd comes to stand behind her. Her son holds her hand and juts his chin. “I think it’s time for new leadership.”
The crowd cheers, and I take that time to whip around and run through the room and past the two heavy doors. When they close behind me, I shove the stick through them just as she said and make my way down the escalator, where the doctor stands in my way.
“Here.” She holds out a few boxes of medicine. “They’ll help with the hypo. You need that.” I promptly shove them into my bra without shame. “Your car is about seven miles east. Good luck.”
“Tell them to surrender. Force them,” I advise. “And...and thank you.”
She nods and stares over my shoulder. “You better get going.”
For a moment, sheer awe of all the support and kindness threatens to pull me under. I want to cry and hug people. I want them to live and survive. To be happy. I was knocking on that basement hatch, and that mom, Mira, let me in. She did what I couldn’t.
I want to give her and her son everything I can. Maybe some books. Maybe my copy of Corduroy. But I can’t. The world relies on me right now.
As I sprint down the hallway, I vow that somehow, I’ll pay this forward. That I’ll somehow step up and do the same if I ever find myself in a similar situation.
I don’t look back. Finding the right hallway to Morris is tricky. It’s dark and there are no other cages or cells or prisons down here in this makeshift prison maze built within mall storage.
“Morris,” I call out. “Morris!”
No one answers.
“Please, Morris.”
I stumble through the walls and the halls. The pounding of feet behind me on the dirty pavement tells me at least one of the guards made it out. I turn back: there are two, maybe three, of them. I stop counting and twist around. They are more than a few paces behind me, not running, but cornering me.
“Morris.”
I turn another corner in the maze. Until there it is, the dirt-packed cell, with Morris inside.
“You caused a lot of trouble for us.” The man from the office that threw me in with the wolves stands at the opposite end of the hall. He slumps a bit, his face downcast.
“I’m not sorry.” I brush the tears from my eyes, seeing the way fear pinches the edges of his lips, and how tired he looks around his brows, as if he has aged years in hours.
“He’s a fucking alien.” His voice echoes down the hall and reverberates in my ears. “All this, for an alien who stole our world and wants to steal our bodies.”
“He’s my friend,” I say between pants. “He doesn’t know where we are. Neither do I. The longer you keep him here, the sooner they’ll come for him. You’re endangering them.” I point up to the main room. “Let me take him. Please.”
He eyes me with distaste. “My people demand we let you go. Said if anything happened to you, I’m out. These two here—” he points to his two guards “—are to make sure I do. But I won’t make it easy for you.”
“Just unlock the cell. I’ll carry him.” I pray that my strength holds up under his weight.
“Don’t come back, or we’ll kill you both.” His voice rattles my confidence, but I nod once anyway.
A guard steps closer to me. I point my gun at him, even though he keeps his hands in the air until he unlocks the cell.
“You’re gonna die. You know that, right?” The man shakes his head like I’m out of my mind.
“I’d rather die with a friend than with strangers who locked me up in a cage.”
“We were never going to hurt you.”
“Could’ve fooled me.” I try to keep my gun trained on him as I crouch beside Morris. I pull Morris’s arm but quickly realize I’ll need both hands for this. With the gun tucked into my waistband, I try to swing him onto my shoulder. He’s too heavy and falls back on the floor with a thud.
They snicker. I swipe at the sweat pouring off my face.
Think, Ellie, think. I shrug off the jean jacket and wrap it around Morris’s chest. I hope I don’t hurt him. “How do I get out of here?”
“They’ll escort you out.” He stalks off, leaving me with two guards. They eye me, but neither unlatches his gun.
I touch my gun. What should I do with it? Should I carry it or leave it where it is? My leggings are soaked in sweat and plastered to my skin around the gun. I take both of Morris’s arms and drag him out of the cell, hoping the jean jacket will cut down the friction for him.
One of the guards leads the way out. The other stays behind me as I pull Morris through the parking lot of the massive complex.
“The field we caught you in is over there,” a guard says, pointing. Then they turn their backs on me and walk away.
I exhale and twist Morris around, taking his legs under my arms and dragging him through the field. Sweat rolls off my back under the oppressive sun. So far, I’m not a fan of the West. And whose idea was it to put a massive mall in the middle of nowhere?
According to a book I read, you can tell which direction you’re going by the position of the sun. I squint up at it, but no other knowledge wiggles free from my mind, so I have no idea where we are.
With another breath, another shrug, and a good roll of my shoulders, I continue through the field. The complex is far off in the distance now, and my adrenaline is waning. The field is soft beneath my boots but I look down at Morris and become concerned that his head may get scratched or worse. I set him down and unbuckle my boots. I take my leggings off, slide the gun under my underwear band by my right hip, and wrap them around his head. And then I giggle, because he looks ridiculous and I don’t know what I’m doing. I’m hysterical.
How long can I keep this up? I haven’t eaten in a while and I’m so, so tired. And what if he never wakes up?
No. We’ve come this far, and I won’t abandon hope now.
If he dies, who will upload the song? Who will broadcast it? Who will save the humans? My dad? I know he said there were others, many others, but what if he alone is the key to our salvation?
A million thoughts run throu
gh my mind. He looks so innocent while he rests, which is exactly how I think of him when he’s awake, too. I know he’s attractive; I know if he were human, if he’d been here before everything happened, he’d have been on the soccer team or something, and have some sort of cheerleader-type girlfriend. He’s beautiful, and his smile, even though he’s still learning, is warm and lights up his face, and maybe even mine.
I do like him. More than like, if I’m honest.
It doesn’t make any sense. It takes forever for me to like anyone; in fact, this is the first time that a person I’ve liked feels the same. And his people killed and are imprisoning mine. Sure, he’s fighting it; now that I know him, I can’t imagine Morris going along with that, but still.
I pick up his legs again and drag him through the field. “Everything” by the Starry Eyed pops into my mind.
“Don’t say, don’t say you don’t love me. Don’t say, don’t say you don’t feel it. Because I can’t bear it. You are everything.” I’m singing quietly to distract myself from the pain and the exhaustion, and although my singing is okay, it’s not as good as Morris’s. I sing anyway, because my arms hurt, and my face burns. The sun never relents. My dress is torn, my thighs are rubbing together, the medicine boxes are cutting into my breasts, the gun is poking my hip, and my feet are drenched, slipping inside my boots. But I won’t stop or leave him. I’ll pull him all the way to California if I have to. It’s not only humanity that relies on him, but me. And I can’t lose him. I’ve lost everyone already.
Thinking about him makes butterflies flutter chaotically around my stomach. The thought of kissing him doesn’t seem so weird anymore, or all that scary, after fighting those wolves and handling that gun. A kiss doesn’t seem like it’ll end me.
Although, glancing at his lips, my heart races. I imagine his lips on mine, and it might just be the end of my world.
Figures the first person I fall for would be a rebellious alien with a penchant for David Bowie. I sure do know how to pick ’em.
The sun begins to let up, and I bring a hand to my forehead to assess the horizon. The sun will set soon. Thank God, because I need relief.
Another deep exhale, and I continue forward into the vast unknown. I sing, but my lips are chapped and my throat’s dry. By the time night falls, I’m still in the middle of tall grasses, and the car is nowhere in sight. I know I’m slow, but at this pace, I might die of dehydration before Morris wakes or I find the car.
My body shakes and aches, and my vision blurs. I can’t go on. I need to stop. My breath comes in short puffs. I set Morris down and reluctantly curl up beside him in the grass, weeds and a million insects I’d rather not think about. And snakes.
Oh God, there are probably so many snakes.
I close my eyes and fall into the sleep of someone who’s too tired to be afraid.
E! News
Allister Daniels, the lead singer of the Starry Eyed, is in some legal trouble after a wild night of celebrating his eighteenth birthday at the infamous LA club, Debauchery. Not only was there underage drinking, it’s been said that Allister made some real estate moves; winning the last three properties surrounding his current mansion in a game of poker. When asked, the orphan heartthrob responded via social media:
We had fun, we got drunk and I won some property. I assure you no one got hurt, no one got cheated, it was all about love. Don’t you all have much better things to talk about like...idk, the current administration, climate change or the constant degradation of humanity?
But that wasn’t the last we’d heard of the party. Possible flame and supermodel Tandi Larson left with tears in her eyes, telling our reporters that Allister’s acting as if the world is ending.
He’s not in his right mind. He keeps talking about “after they come” and needing to be prepared for something. When I told him he wasn’t making any sense, that our president is a nice guy who cares deeply about immigrants, no matter where they’re from, despite the media’s lies, his band kicked me out. I still can’t believe it!
Tandi was just the last of several rumored relationships the singer has had in the past months. We reached out to his other paramours to see if they shared Tandi’s concern, but none commented. So what do you think? Is Allister Daniels in trouble for a night of questionable illegal activities, or is he in mental peril? You tell us.
CHAPTER 21
“You Send Me”
—Aretha Franklin
M0Rr1S
Power returns to M0Rr1S’s body. Three percent flashes before his left eye, but he looks beyond it to the stars above him. Sleeping boosted his energy only 2 percent. Air sends wisps of dirt skittering across his cheeks. He’s outside? Something shifts beside him and drapes a leg across his. Ellie. In the moonlight, he can see that she’s pale, her lips are chapped, possibly dehydrated. And then he realizes that turning his head feels weird. He brings his hands up and touches material wrapped around his head. He unties it, trying not to disturb Ellie, and realizes it’s her pants. He sets them aside.
He likes the way she feels tangled up with him, how her breaths send warm air across his cheeks, her heart beats both steady and softly. He could lie like this forever, but they don’t have forever. Also, there are some pointy boxes coming from her chest that are poking him through her dress, and something metallic at her waist that feels heavy and strange.
How did she get him out? He tilts his head to look upside down, in the direction he thinks they came from, and he can see that she dragged him through the grass. And probably quite far. Janelle Baker, strong and determined. She saved his life. He sits up and gently lifts her head onto his lap.
Now that his head is above the grassline, he looks around to assess the situation. His mental GPS is a little off, but he can see their car is about five or six kilometers east from here. He takes a deep breath. His head is quiet, which means Brixton has decided on another path to find him. That’s troubling, but a concern for later.
M0Rr1S scoops Ellie into his arms and stands. A few small reptiles, snakes he thinks they’re called, hiss in the surrounding grass, but he ignores them. He’s the real predator.
His energy is low, but he is willing to go on reserves just to get out of here.
Shutting down helped him conserve his energy, but clearly depleted Ellie’s. He has no idea how she got him free, how they got away. She must have been terrified. Exhausted. But she didn’t leave him.
He brushes his lips against her hat before running to the car at full speed. His feet feel like they barely touch the ground. When he opens the car door, the air is stale and stifling. He sets Ellie inside, then grabs two bottles of juice from the back seat. Energy pours back into him with each gulp as he drains one. It doesn’t energize him like a charge would, but it makes his body stronger, lessens his aches, which he needs if he wants to not shut down again too soon.
He tucks the bottle under his arm, then gently nudges Ellie. When she doesn’t move, he begins to worry that she’s ill. He keeps a hand on her shoulder, feeling her pulse beneath his fingers as he shakes her.
She blearily opens her eyes. “Morris?” Her voice is raspy, and she licks her dry lips.
“Ellie.” His voice hitches as he holds the juice to her mouth.
She’s in a daze as she takes a slow sip. She sits there for a moment, silent, as she wakes. “Morris. I—”
“Shhh, just drink. Okay?” M0Rr1S holds the bottle for her until the juice is gone. Color returns to her face, and her eyes open once again.
“Still thirsty.”
“Don’t drink it all at once. Hold on.” He pulls out some crackers from the backpack and hands them to her.
She takes them and a bottle of water. “Thanks.”
He hovers over her. “Ellie, you saved my life. It’s I who should be thanking you.” There are stalks of grass poking from her hair and hat. Her face is streaked with sweat and dirt. But st
ill she shimmers.
“Well, you saved my life, too.” The corners of her mouth lift.
“Perhaps we’re even then.” He gazes out at the fields they laid in. It is not like home at all. Everything there is so tall and populated, but here...there’s nothing and no one. Only nature. Nature is engineered on his planet. Perhaps that’s why the emperor views Earth as a prize—a perfect destination.
Ellie nibbles on the cracker, distracting him. “Morris, I wouldn’t leave without you. I couldn’t...”
He turns back to her and plucks some grass from her hair. “Janelle Baker, you like me.” He strides around to the driver’s door and slides inside. He’s still got a smile on his face when he presses the ignition button, but the car sputters. “The battery. I forgot.” He slumps.
“Actually, you need energy, right?” Ellie tosses him a sideways glance.
“Yes. But there isn’t an energy source for me out here in this nothingness.”
“There’s a spare battery, though. We can connect you to the battery. All electrical energy is compatible, so it has to work.”
M0Rr1S perks up. “I know there’s energy in the battery, but I don’t know how to transfer it. How do we plug the battery into my panel?”
Ellie gives him a crooked smile. “Wires. Let’s grab the battery and your charger. And don’t worry about safety from the humans. I’ve got a gun.”
M0Rr1S glances at her. “You do?”
Her head droops a little. “I’ll tell you that story when we’re far away. But right now, I want to get out of here, and I want to get you charged before you pass out again.” She opens the door, and pauses. “Look away.”
He nods before doing as she asks. The sound of small boxes hitting the floor makes him want to turn his head, but he respects her wishes.