by Laura Pohl
She takes a deep breath before answering. “Yeah.” She narrows her eyes. “You heard us arguing?”
I shrug slightly. “Sorry about that.”
“It’s fine,” she says, but she doesn’t look like it’s fine. “It’s just another stupid argument. I told Violet that this was dangerous. But she didn’t listen to me.”
“Andy, we can’t hole up in here forever.”
Her eyes flash a darker color. “I am aware. You didn’t shut up about it till you got your way. Happy now?”
I shift my weight, taken aback. “Don’t you want to find out what our enemy is like?”
“I already know what it’s like. And that’s all I need to know.”
She turns away and sits on her bed, the light of her laptop illuminating her face.
I leave, not knowing what else to say.
Chapter 36
When I get to the lab the next day, everyone is already there.
“Surprise meeting?” I ask, eyebrows raised.
Violet acknowledges me with a nod. She has her blond hair in a tight braid, and her sharp eyes examine everything in the room. “Actually, yes.” She gets straight to the point. “So, good news. Avani’s brain scans work. Bad news…”
“We need medical supplies to keep the alien sedated while I run more extensive tests,” Avani says. “We’re practically out of morphine, and I don’t want to risk it waking up.”
“But it’s in a cryogenic chamber,” Rayen says. “Shouldn’t the cold keep it under?”
Avani shrugs. “I’m starting the brain scans now, and I’ve been injecting the morphine directly into its eye to keep it totally under, but I want to have everything we might need at the ready.”
Flint nods in agreement.
“I thought we might get supplies for everyone,” Violet says. “Just in case…” She goes quiet for a moment, then continues. “I want to make an expedition. Me, Brooklyn, and Flint head to the town of Caliente. It’s a one-day trip, maximum. They have a hospital that might not have been raided.”
“Isn’t that dangerous?” Rayen asks. “You can be seen.”
Violet blushes a deep red but does her best to hide her consternation. “I know, but I don’t want anybody else to leave.”
“I can go,” I blurt out. “It’s no trouble.”
“No offense, Clover, but I’d rather have you here,” Violet says. “You don’t know the area like we do. Brooklyn and Flint can cover my back.”
She says that last part like she’s trying to reassure herself, instead of us. An unnerving feeling creeps into my stomach. I don’t like the idea of splitting up.
“Maybe we could wait and see how the scans go,” I suggest, but I know that my argument is weak.
Violet shakes her head, like I knew she would. “We’ve all sacrificed a lot to get here. I’m not going to let this opportunity go to waste. If Avani says we need more supplies, we go get them.”
Then I understand what she’s thinking. It’s dangerous for her to go, of course. But she feels guilty about the fact that they’ve stayed here for so long—and she doesn’t want to be responsible for anyone else’s death but her own.
“I don’t like this,” Rayen says, shaking her head. “It’s stupid exposing yourself this way.”
“I’ll be driving,” Violet says. “That’s all.”
I look at the others. Flint has his mouth set in a straight line, and I can tell that he’s no more pleased about this than I am.
Finally, Rayen nods. “All right. But you’re taking ammo and the short-circuit disks,” she turns to Flint. “Those will work, right?”
He nods. “They’ll buy us enough time to escape.”
Violet nods again. “That’s all I need.” She turns to Rayen. “You’re in command here while I’m gone. Stay on full alert. And Avani, don’t you dare leave that thing’s side.”
We all nod. The orders are simple enough. Violet and Rayen leave the room talking about the best guns and truck to take, and Flint follows them.
Brooklyn and Avani exchange a significant look. Then Avani mouths “go” to Brooklyn, and she leaves. Avani pulls me aside.
“Hey, Clover?” she says calmly. But her eyes dart from side to side, as if she’s nervous. “You remember the blood-scanning machine that we were talking about the other day?”
“Sure,” I say, my hands in my pockets. I never came back to check the results. “Why?”
“Someone used the machine,” she says. “It wasn’t you, by any chance?”
“No.” The lie rolls easily off my tongue. She’s acting so strangely that I really don’t want to tell her that I was the one who double-checked her on this. “Isn’t it broken?”
Avani shifts her weight to her other leg. “Something happened. The analysis worked—it showed two different sets of DNA.”
“But that’s good, isn’t it? Maybe we can do the tests again and isolate the factor that allows us to be invisible. Right?”
“Yeah…” But she’s distracted. There’s something in her eyes that I thought was tiredness at first, but it’s something else entirely.
I freeze when I realize that I know what it is.
Fear.
“There was a problem with the analysis,” she says.
“What happened to the blood?”
“It looks ordinary. But once I broke down the DNA coding and filed the genetic profile…” She goes quiet.
“Avani?”
“Well, you see…” she says dryly. “It wasn’t human.”
Chapter 37
My blood. Flint’s blood. It can’t be.
I’m not sure what to believe anymore.
My blood isn’t human.
But I am human. I know this. I am as human as can be.
A doctor cut my umbilical cord when I was born. I learned my first words. I lost my first tooth while eating a hamburger at Wendy’s. I got my period when I was twelve. I had my first kiss at fifteen, the same year I lost my virginity, both with Noah. All parts of me are entirely, and completely, human.
That machine is lying.
Something must have happened, or something must have changed. The blood in that machine is not mine.
I ran away as soon as Avani told me, leaving her to the alien creature, trying to wrap my head around this new information. Now I stand in the room with the spaceship, my head spinning. It doesn’t make sense. Sputnik sits by my side, waiting, as if she knows that I need her. I burrow my hands into her fur, hugging her tightly next to my body.
A noise behind me makes me turn. Rayen stops next to the pile of bricks, her expression indecipherable as she looks at the ship.
“Strange, isn’t it?” she finally says. “Seven months ago, I wouldn’t have believed in life beyond Earth.”
“You didn’t?” I ask.
“You did?”
I nod. “The universe is too big to not be hiding things.”
Rayen smiles at that. She has her hands in the pockets of her hoodie. “That would almost be poetic, if it weren’t for the present circumstances.”
“This is the first and only time that I’ve regretted being right.”
Rayen laughs, the sound echoing through the room. Then she looks at me. “You okay?”
I nod, slowly. I don’t know if I’ll ever be okay. Maybe I’m getting there. And I’m going to get my answers. “How are things down at the lab?”
“Avani is running the brain scans,” she says. “We should head back. It’s not like we’re going to be able to open that spaceship just by staring at it.”
The moment she says that, though, something changes. The reflective surface that I was so intently staring at gives off a strange, multicolored wave, then settles back to silver.
“Did you see that?” I jump to my feet.
Rayen raises her eyebrows, which means
that I’m not going crazy. I hold my breath. The wave of color feels familiar somehow, like a signal boosting in the back of my mind.
I approach the ship carefully, pressing my ear to the hull. The silence that had always penetrated this room is interrupted now by a low humming.
I turn to Rayen, and she nods. She can hear it, too.
I walk beneath the spaceship, Sputnik following behind me. I concentrate on the sound, which gets louder and louder as I work my way toward the rear. The humming gets even louder, and I’m almost running now.
Rayen is right behind me, the dog between us, and we both spot something that wasn’t there before. It’s a glowing panel on the bottom of the ship, pulsing with energy.
I touch my hand to it and bite back a scream. “It burns!”
“Do you have something you can touch it with?”
My hand hurts from the shock, but I search through my pockets. There are a couple of keys and some gum that I stole from the pantry. I dig deeper and pull out Andy’s gloves.
My heart pulses with adrenaline as I slide the gloves onto my hands for protection. They’re soft and cushioned and, slowly, I press my hand to the panel.
This time, there is no burning shock. Instead, the panel lights up, and I step back, blinded by white light.
I hear Rayen say something, but I’m disoriented. It takes a minute for my eyes to focus as the light fades. Then a sleek, silver ramp slides from the spaceship down to the floor.
I glance at Rayen. She looks as stunned as I am, and Sputnik starts barking in the direction of the ramp. Neither of us hesitate as we move closer and climb it.
The spaceship is even more impressive from the inside. The ramp leads into what appears to be the main control room. There’s a big chair in the center, with six smaller operating stations, and countless panels and lights. The whole thing is made from the same silver material, but here it bursts with a hundred different colors—as if, beneath all the silver, hues of red, pink, and blue are dancing.
A panel lights up before us, all white and blue. This is technology like I’ve never seen before.
“Interuniversal identity print complete,” a voice says. Somehow, I know it’s not speaking English—but my brain understands it. “Welcome home.”
I hold my breath and look down at the gloves I’m wearing, the gloves that hold a secret.
And everything spins—the spaceship, the blackout, the aliens, and, at the center of it all, the one girl who doesn’t fit.
I don’t totally understand, but I think I have an inkling of what’s happening.
Suddenly, Rayen’s walkie-talkie crackles on.
“Avani,” Rayen says. “You have to see something—”
“Whatever it is, it’s not important,” Avani cuts in. “I need you!” Her voice is panicky.
“What happened?”
“I think the brain scans woke it up,” she says.
“It’s awake?” Rayen exclaims.
“Shut up!” says Avani. “That’s not the problem. The scans are.”
I snatch the walkie-talkie from Rayen’s hands. “What the hell, Avani?” I demand. “What’s going on? Is it out of containment?”
“The brain scans, Clover,” she says. “They show that these aliens are not individuals. They’re a hive.”
The line goes quiet.
“They have a hive mind,” Avani repeats frantically. “The rest of them are probably coming here right now.”
Chapter 38
I grab one of Rayen’s stun guns on our way to the lab. My heart is beating so fast that I think it might burst out of my chest any second.
We arrive to find Avani in a panic, and it’s obvious that she’s not going to be able to take charge here. A plan is already forming in my head.
“Avani, hole up here in the lab,” I tell her. “Stay with Sputnik. We’re going to take care of this.”
I look at Rayen. She looks tough enough to take on a hundred aliens.
“Any ideas?” she asks me.
“Me, you, and Andy take this thing to the old compound.” I gesture with my head toward the alien that’s lying in its chamber. “Barricade ourselves in. And don’t let these fuckers get in our house.”
“The warehouse,” Rayen says. “It’ll work.”
I nod. Avani takes Sputnik by the collar, bringing her inside the lab. I can’t let myself get emotional about leaving her again. Rayen grabs the alien gun, and it lights up in her hands. We don’t have time to be surprised that it’s suddenly working.
Rayen grins at me. I find myself grinning back at her.
Andy barges in a few minutes later as Rayen and I are wheeling the alien out, still holding it in the chamber. We probably won’t be able to plug the chamber in once we’re inside the warehouse, but it should stay cold for a couple of hours. There’s no time to wrap my head around whatever just happened with the spaceship, so I push it out of my mind. Right now, we have to get ourselves out of this crisis.
“We have ten minutes until they get here,” Andy announces. “Where are you taking this thing?”
“Old compound,” Rayen and I reply in unison.
Rayen picks up fifteen or so short-circuit disks, but that won’t be nearly enough. Then she hands Andy a stun gun.
“Why are you giving me this?” Andy asks, half whining. “You know I can’t shoot.”
“Well, Andy, it’s time to play some real-life Counter-Strike,” Rayen says as she hands her another gun.
Andy looks terrified. I just hope that she doesn’t shoot herself, or us, in the foot.
And then we’re out of the lab, running, wheeling the alien in its cryogenic chamber through the corridors as fast as we can. It doesn’t look like much of a menace anymore, with half its legs cut off. Andy guides us with her tablet in hand, accessing the security system and locking doors, trying to put as many things in our favor as we can.
The warehouse is darker and even older than I imagined it would be. It’s filled with row after row of shelves and metal racks that are at least fifteen feet high, each of them holding dozens of boxes.
Rayen closes the door behind us and Andy taps a button on her tablet. The metal locks slide together, and we’re shut inside with the monster.
“Sealed all the entrances,” Andy confirms, clutching the stun gun and opening something else on her tablet. “Three minutes.”
She types rapidly.
“One minute,” she says. “They’re heading straight toward the signal. I also set up a program that reproduces sound and brain waves, so they’ll be a little disoriented. Let’s hope Avani’s brain-wave theory is right.”
“Awesome,” I say.
“Turns out there’s actually an advantage to having a nerd in the group.” She turns to us. “Just don’t get me killed.”
The tablet’s screen lights up. There’s a countdown going.
Ten. I blink, my heart racing. Nine. Eight. I empty my mind. Seven.
I’ve been here before. I know how to fight this.
Six.
I’m not afraid.
Five.
It’s true.
Four.
I release the safety on my gun.
Three. Two. One.
I can hear them coming, or maybe it’s my imagination. But I’m highly attuned to the sound of their metal legs clicking on the ground.
This time, I’m ready for them.
The warehouse door is blasted open by something similar to a bomb. I shield my eyes from the sudden explosion of light, and Rayen signals for us to split up. Silently, I tiptoe to the left.
I glimpse the broken door and the glint of metal just beyond it. Five aliens stand in the doorway, and there’s no other way out of here. But we can’t risk them breaching the main compound—our home.
They walk inside and I hold my bre
ath. They split up, taking their time. I try to track them with my eyes, but now I can only see two of them, their expressions completely blank. Maybe Andy’s device works, and they really are disoriented.
I still don’t understand how they think. The one that we kidnapped is obviously sending brain signals for help. The only thing I can hope for is that they don’t know our numbers or where exactly we are.
If all their knowledge and thoughts really are shared, then we’ve been compromised, and Avani won’t be safe for long. I cross my fingers that that’s not the case.
I turn my head slowly, only to see one of them standing close by. I take a sharp intake of breath, squeezing myself against the racks. The alien looks straight at me, and I don’t dare move or breathe. This one has a teenager’s face, which makes it creepier than the others. Its eyes seem to be focused on me, but I’m not sure if they can actually see anything.
It continues down the aisle toward me, its six legs moving slowly, turning it in all directions, as if it’s homing in on a signal. I squeeze myself tighter, trying to make myself smaller as it walks past me.
I slide one of the short-circuit disks out of the pocket of my jacket. Without taking my eyes off the alien, I turn and aim at its legs.
A terrible screech echoes through the compound as the circuit buzzes, frying all the wires inside its legs. The creature screams again as its legs give out, and it falls to the floor. But there’s no movement in its mouth or eyes, and it’s like I’m only hearing the screeching inside my brain.
It screams louder, and I recognize a distress signal—it’s hurt. It occurs to me that the aliens can probably repair themselves. If they can alter their own biology, then I’m sure there’s a lot more that they can do. This is my only opening, and I need to take it.
I rest my stunner rifle on my shoulder and aim straight for the middle of its head. It falls back from the impact, and for a second, I let myself breathe. It’s out. They are not invincible. They have a weak spot. I approach it carefully, as silently as I can. Its legs are still buzzing with electricity.
“Rayen,” I whisper over the comm unit. “I think mine is dead.”