“I’m okay,” I say instead, hoping my voice will ground him and prevent him from doing something stupid.
A cop sees us and makes his way over, a deep frown creasing his young face. One hand hovers just above his service weapon. Colin is still in uniform, and I think this is the only reason the cop hasn’t pulled his gun yet. Apprehension fills his voice: “What’s going on here?”
“These guys,” Colin points his gun at Jason and Ryan, “tried to rape her.” He nods at me.
I swallow hard at Colin’s unminced words. A shudder goes through me. To hear Ryan’s and Jason’s intentions spoken out loud makes it all so much more real. I fight nausea rising up.
“Is that true?” The young cop asks me.
I nod meekly while my eyes search around the gathering groups of teenagers starting to surround us. As stupid as this might sound, but the last thing I want is this trumpeted all over campus.
“That bitch attacked us…” Ryan starts.
Colin pushes his gun into the holster by his thigh; he grabs Ryan by the shirt. “Give me one more reason to beat the shit out of you. I dare you. No, I beg you.”
His nose almost touches Ryan’s, and with some satisfaction, I watch Ryan swallow miserably. He is scared to death of Colin.
“Whatever, man,” he says in his now nasal voice.
Blood is still pouring from his nose, I note happily. A smile wants to make its way over my lips, but I wince before they can curve.
“I’ll take them.” the cop offers.
Colin steps back and pulls out a mean-looking knife. The thing is almost as long as my forearm. Ryan’s eyes widen in alarm, but Colin only steps behind me and gently cuts the zip ties holding my hands together.
Immediate relief floods me. Even my ribs don’t seem to hurt that much anymore. Colin places his arm around my waist again, and I don’t mind it at all. It’s the opposite; it’s as if an electrical current surges through my body. My entire body seems to hum as our skin comes in contact with each other. I gasp and turn to him in surprise.
“I’ll take you to the hospital.” he offers.
The thought of somebody taking care of me and fussing over me is alluring, but at the same time, I know: “They’ll be busy with all the injured. Most of these people are hurt worse than me. Take me to Aunt Corinne’s office; she has an X-ray machine there.”
He looks at me and lifts an eyebrow in surprise. “The vet aunt?”
“The one and only,” I confirm.
“Are you sure?” He looks at me questioning, probably wondering if I suffered a concussion as well. One that might affect my reasoning ability.
I nod indulgently and lean harder against him than I need to because it feels good to lean on him and to have someone take care of me. And honestly, breathing still hurts, and breathing shouldn’t hurt. He guides me to a truck that I recognize as Martin’s and helps me into the passenger seat.
“Does that hurt?” He inquires, concerned.
“I’m good.” I lie and lean the seat back as far as it goes. But that hurts even more, so I put it back into an upright position while I watch Colin pull out his phone and call somebody. Probably Martin. Probably letting him know what’s going on.
I’m exhausted, but the thought of closing my eyes does not sound good to me. Instead, I take in Colin and wonder when he has become so good looking and why I’m only figuring this out now. Maybe I do have a concussion. Maybe my thinking is all warped. Ryan did slap me around quite a bit.
But suddenly there is something about him. The way he holds his shoulders back and stands so arrogantly straight. The way his dark hair looks in his short buzzcut. The way it makes the features of his face more prominent. His nose, that reminds me of pictures of Caesar, strong and masculine and working just right with his facial structure.
The way he curls his lips back on one side when he sneers. Oh, my God. I’m losing it. He better hurry up and take me to a doctor because I think I’m really going crazy thinking about all this mushy stuff. I never thought about anybody like this before. Never!
He smiles and gets back into the truck. “That was dad. Just letting him know what’s going on.”
“Where is he? Is he safe?” I ask stupidly, just to make conversation and not to think those confusing thoughts any longer.
“He is helping out at the hospital. The attack there has created chaos everywhere. And adding all the injured…” he trails off, realizing I’m injured too.
I break the silence. “You know where my aunt’s office is?”
“Not a clue.” He smiles.
And I wonder if this is why I’m acting so weird and why my thinking is so warped. He is never nice to me. Never. A shudder runs through my body at the thought of the possibility of being more injured than I thought. Maybe Colin is just pitying me? My face, oh God, Ryan did hit me in the face a few times. Or is it because I just don’t know how to handle a friendly and caring Colin? He did just save me.
It could also be some kind of hero-worship. But he looks so good in his uniform. Either way, I pull down the visor and scrutinize myself in the mirror. A loud hiss escapes me at the sight of my abused face. Out of my peripheral vision, I notice something come at me—a handkerchief. Colin is holding it out to me; there is pity in his eyes. I turn my gaze back to the mirror; tears sting my eyes; the last thing I want from Colin is pity.
Gently I dab the cut on the outer corner of my left eye until it stops bleeding, then I work my way over to a cut on my lips; again, I hiss, this time in pain. I pull my lip in and suck on it while dabbing my right cheek, where another cut is slowly dripping with blood.
“Here.” Colin hands me a water bottle, which I use to wet the handkerchief to clean my face even more.
When I’m finally satisfied and gather enough strength to peek into Colin’s eyes again, I nod and give him directions to my aunt’s office. Our town’s not big; the office is easy to find. When he starts the car and maneuvers it out of the parking lot, I ask what I have been wondering since he showed up. “How did you find me?”
He checks the mirrors before pulling out into the road. “You had barely left when I arrived. I talked to Blake. He said you were acting kind of ‘off.’”
He raises one hand to ward off my protests. “His words, not mine.”
He grins at me, and there is something unsettling in that grin. He usually smirks at me or makes faces; please don’t pity me, I think.
“Anyway, I thought I’d catch up with you and see what’s wrong. I was still quite a bit behind you when I saw you go into the gym; I just followed.”
His expression is tight again, and he faces the road. “I had no idea what I was walking into; I’m sorry, I should have run after you; this should have never happened.”
His entire posture is so tense that I can’t help myself but put my hand over his on the steering wheel. “It’s not your fault. I’m glad you came when you did. You know, Blake warned me, but I didn’t believe him.”
At the mention of his younger brother’s name, he moves his hand away from under mine, ever so subtle, but I notice. I pull mine back too, a little hurt. As the silence wears on, I add, “That’s the whole reason Blake was in California, to begin with, to protect me from Ryan.”
Colin looks at me for a second, and I can see his eyes cloud over as if he is erecting a wall. “Well, DD, I’m sure your boyfriend will be at your aunt’s in no time.”
I roll my eyes. Back to normal Colin, I guess. I hate it when he calls me DD, plus I don’t know why he keeps calling Blake my boyfriend. We never had anything going on. But my side hurts too much to argue with him right now; besides, we have greater worries. Which brings me to another topic. “How was Hawaii? How did you get away?”
He pulls into the parking lot at my aunt’s clinic and turns the truck off. I don’t think I will get an answer. Wordlessly he gets out, closes his door, comes around, opens mine, and helps me out.
“I’ll tell you all tonight. I don’t want to keep repeatin
g the story.” He shrugs his shoulders, and I get it; it’s not going to be a feel-good story. That’s why he doesn’t want to keep retelling it. He half carries me inside the clinic.
Sue-Ellen, my aunt’s receptionist, who has been around since the office opened thirty years ago, jumps up from her chair; at the sight of me. “Good heavens, child, what happened to you?”
“The end of the world, Sue, I have been telling you.” Miss Vanderhoof, the local cat lady, pipes up.
She owns at least twenty cats, and I don’t think a day goes by when she’s not in the office with one of them. By the meowing sound coming shrilly from the carrier by her side, I assume it’s her Siamese cat; that one never shuts up.
“Oh my, did you guys get into all the trouble in town?” Sue-Ellen reaches my other side and helps me walk.
“Something like that.” Colin mumbles.
I remember my manners and introduce everybody before I wince in pain.
“Why didn’t you take her to the hospital?” Sue-Ellen chides Colin.
Before he can defend himself, I say, “It’s overrun; this was faster. They are busy enough without me to fuss over.”
Chapter 25
A few hours later, we are finally back home. Thankfully, there is no phone center today; Martin must have canceled everybody, or maybe everybody stayed home after what happened in town.
Unfortunately, because of the attacks, every single restaurant and fast-food place is closed for the day, maybe permanently. And with no electricity, we can’t even cook. Martin manages to burn up some grilled cheese sandwiches on the barbeque, and the only reason I choke it down is that I’m starving.
A while later, while I dig into a bag of Cheetos, we exchange war stories. The men are generous and let me use the most comfortable chair in the house because of my injuries. Yeah, me. Turns out, my ribs aren’t broken, only badly bruised, as my aunt put it. But I still need to take it easy for a while. Breathing and talking hurt like a son of a bitch. She gave me painkillers and doctored my arms. I had forgotten how scratched up they were by the maniac. I received another round of antibiotics, although I barely finished one not too long ago, but my aunt wanted to be thorough.
“Ryan is such an ass. I told you.” Blake says and looks at me accusingly.
I avert his gaze because I’m ashamed not to have trusted him. “I know. I’m sorry I didn’t believe you.”
“Well, it all turned out okay, so let’s give it a rest,” Martin interjects and leans back on the couch.
He looks at Colin, who has finally been able to change out of his fatigues into black sweatpants and a black shirt which accentuates his biceps, and I have to force myself to look away before I start to drool like a dog.
“So, what’s the news with Hawaii?” Blake asks, stealing a generous handful of orange puffs from my bag.
“Hey,” I protest.
Colin stares out the window for a moment as if he is collecting his thoughts, which I guess he is. I impatiently tap my fingernails against the chair’s wood—tap, tap, tap. The sounds drive him crazy. I have known him for enough years to know his weak spots. And come on already, don’t make it so dramatic. What is it with him and the theatrics?
“I get it squirt, okay?” He looks at me, irritated, and I grin. I got under his skin. Somehow, it’s intensely satisfying.
“Hawaii is bad. Worse than you might think.” He finally says. I huff, and he gives me another irritated glare.
“The big island is completely sealed off; nothing gets in or out. There is this huge cloud, like the rain cloud, but bigger, much bigger and denser all around it, and nothing penetrates it.” He looks at his dad.
“The Air Force tried to fly drones in, they vanished. They tried helicopters, boats, even a freaking submarine. All vanished. Gone. One second on the radar, gone the next.” He makes an exploding gesture with his hand and looks thoughtfully at it.
His words slowly sink in. It’s not just that we can’t get in; people died. I can see it in the set of his jaw; he lost people who were close to him. I throw the bag of Cheetos at Blake; suddenly my appetite is gone.
“It’s not just Hawaii either. There are other islands like it. One is in South America -Madagascar. Then there are the Marshall Islands, and so on. All of them are on the south side of the globe.” He looks off into space before he collects himself.
“The worst part is the government knows this. They know we can’t get in, but they keep trying. They are sending more and more men and women to their deaths.” Colin sighs. “Utterly unnecessary deaths.”
“I have buddies, fighter pilots, and they swear, that high up, and I mean way high up, as in almost to the stratosphere high up, over the islands, they saw some kind of dark spacecraft.”
He pauses; uncertainty hangs over the room. None of us have the slightest clue on how to digest this information. We have suspected all along that whatever is happening is happening because of aliens. But to actually hear the word spacecraft has my stomach do funny things.
The silence wears on until Martin’s phone rings. He looks at it. “It’s professor Dunn.” He leaves the room while answering it.
“So, did you desert again then?” Blake asks his brother, not caring about orange crumbs flying this way and that, as he gestures with his hands.
Colin smiles wryly. “The less you know, the better.” He turns towards me. “How are those ribs there, Tinker Bell?”
“Man, that’s what we should have had for dinner,” Blake smirks, and I give him the finger.
“The pills helped. The pain is not as bad; breathing still hurts sometimes, though.” I explain.
“Yep, that’ll bug you for a few weeks. We’ll have to toughen you up a little, squirt.” Colin nods thoughtfully.
I frown at him. He has no idea of the training we have been through these last few weeks, but I refuse to rise to his bait. Instead, I pull out my phone and listen to the fifteen voice messages I have.
Just like I suspected, they are all pretty much the same and are from people I spoke to yesterday. My heart sinks a bit more. If the maniacs orchestrated a well-planned, coordinated attack, not only in one town but several, all over the United States, almost simultaneously, what does that say about their intelligence? And the other question, a far more important one, is: How do they communicate with each other over miles? Somehow, I doubt they are using phones.
“How can they communicate with each other over hundreds of miles?” I think out loud.
Blake looks up from his phone. “Come again?”
“I have several messages from people I talked to yesterday, all over the country, and they all reported attacks today, close to the same time as ours.”
Colin looks up with interest, and Blake frowns. “Me too; a lot of the people I talked to yesterday tried to call me today. Same thing.”
I nod. “So, my question is, how did they coordinate? Do maniacs use phones? And even if they do, how did the…” I stumble over the word; I still have difficulties coming to terms with this particular development. “….. dinosaurs get into this mix?”
“Nanobots.”
We turn towards the entry of the family room, from where Martin frowns at us. “That was the professor. He did some examinations on our turkey-saur, which by the way, is genuine… Hespero… whatever he called it.”
“Hesperonychus elizabethae.” I clarify, looking smug for having remembered it.
“How on Earth did you remember that?” Martin looks exasperated.
I shrug my shoulders, and Blake high fives me. “That’s why she is an ‘A’ student.”
I hiss in pain and lower my arm.
“Whatever.” Martin shakes his head. “The dinosaur,” he gives me a warning glare, which I choose to ignore.
“Hesperonychus elizabethae.” I throw in helpfully.
He sighs but ignores me. “Had some kind of nanobots in his brain. The professor thinks that this is how they control the dinosaurs and the maniacs to a certain degree.”
&
nbsp; Blake raises an eyebrow; I can tell that his mind is working just as furiously as mine. Martin’s words answer my earlier question. Although now another one pops up, who are they? I push the answer, wanting to emerge from this question back down. Way back down. I really don’t want to think about this right now.
“He wants us to get him a maniac.”
“Wait; what?” I exclaim.
“And he wants a live one.” Finishing his last sentence, Martin sits down.
“Well, that ought to be fun,” Colin exclaims with a grin. “But first, would you guys explain this dinosaur stuff to me?”
Now it’s my turn to be smug. “Oh yeah, I forgot, while you were playing surveillance, we have been fighting not only maniacs but dinosaurs as well.”
I don’t think I have ever been this satisfied in my entire life. The expression on his face is utterly priceless.
“You guys are playing with me, right?” Colin’s head whips from me to Blake before landing with a pleading expression on his dad.
“You haven’t heard? Or seen any?” Blake is surprised.
Colin shakes his head. “Nope, there was some talk about dangerous predators, but it was highly classified information. I guess it makes sense now.”
“Hah, I guess our experience finally outweighs the mighty warrior’s one.” I grin at Colin, who raises an eyebrow at me.
“Well, I suggest we all try to get a good night’s rest and call in the troops tomorrow morning. Tell everybody we’ll meet here at 0600 sharp. We are going hunting in the morning.” Martin orders, stretching himself.
Blake helps me out of the chair; at least we have the power back for the time being. It decided to come back on right after dinner (of course), and hopefully, it’ll last all night so we can get a decent night’s rest. God knows we deserve it.
I expect to fall asleep as soon as my head hits the pillow, but my mind is racing. Images of dinosaurs, maniacs, and mutilated children haunt me as soon as I close my eyes, only to be replaced by Ryan’s and Jason’s leering grins. My body shudders at the thought of what could have happened if Colin hadn’t shown up. I was utterly defenseless against those two.
The Rain | Part 1 | The Beginning Page 22