Everglow: Friend From Far Away

31 - The Race Begins

Fischer winced slightly as he opened his eyes. The dark of night had been replaced by the soft glow of the morning sunrise. The light licked at the tops of the tree branches as the sun slowly rose into the sky. The air was just as cool as last night, the fire struggling to stay alive as its fuel source began to run out. He went to rub his eyes, but stopped when he realised that he couldn't move his arm. Looking down, he saw Ko's head resting on it. She was half lying on him and fast asleep. He let out a small chuckle as he ran his free hand over her head.

Looking around, the sky was a ghastly shade of grey and white. The area around them was quite foggy, it being difficult to see even a hundred meters in any direction. That was going to make driving a bit hard.

The police wouldn't be far away. They'd be checking all the security cameras in Munich to figure out what way they went. And it wouldn't be long before they were back on their trail.

"Ko? Hey Ko?" Fischer whispered, gently shaking her head.

"We need to go buddy. C'mon, you gotta wake up."

Her eyelids started to flicker up and down as she slowly regained her consciousness. Through blurry vision, she could just start to make out Fischer's head looking down at her, a smile across his face. That was a nice sight to wake to.

"Hey there, sleepy. You feeling any better?" He asked softly. Ko stumbled around on his arm, trying to regain her structure. She sat up slowly and rubbed her weary eyes.

"Hey. . . yea. A bit. Thankyou for last night. It really helped," she cooed, holding her cloak tightly.

"Of course. I think we both needed it," he replied. "Anyway, we better start driving. I don't know how far away the cops are, but I bet it's closer than we'd like."

Ko nodded her head slowly. Fischer could've sworn he saw something in her eyes. A sense of fear. He could hardly blame her. Looking down at his phone, it said the time was eight twenty seven am.

"I might give Mira a call. I just wanna make sure she's doing alright after everything. And let her know what's going on," he exclaimed, dialing her number. Ko nodded as she watched what little flame remained in the fire pit.

'Ring'

'Ring'

He waited there for a few seconds. She was taking a long time to answer.

Maybe she was still asleep? Unlikely, normally she got up at around seven o'clock.

The ringing continued. Fischer was just about to leave a text instead when the ringing stopped and the other end crackled to life.

"Hey Mira. Sorry I couldn't talk to you earlier, Ko and I are. . . well. . . in a bit of trouble-"

"Hello Fischer."

He froze mid sentence.

That wasn't Mira's voice.

"H-hello? Who is this?" He faltered, now clutching the phone with two hands. Ko had noticed his sudden change in tone and he now had her full attention. She looked over at him with concern and confusion written all over her face.

"I don't think you have any idea how much of a chore it's been to try and get a hold of you Mr Emerald. I must say, you're quite elusive-"

"Who are you? Where's Mira?" Fischer exclaimed, anger now starting to form in his words.

"Of course, where are my manners? My name is Johannes Kimvick. I'm the CEO of a little company called the USETRD or United States ExtraTerrestrial Research Department."