The New World

~ Chapter VII ~

That was the most vulnerable I've been with Archer since we started talking to each other, seeing that I'm not a very vulnerable person myself. After we had that conversation, we started talking about the plans for the next day and what they were expecting. The whole day was going to be a day of setting up equipment to detect any strange activity in the nearby forest, and waiting until the evening to see if something approaches. We'll see if their plans to find those "aliens" actually works. The plan was to hide in the rental car just in case anything dangerous happened and we can drive off easily.

After Archer went over the plans with me, he agreed to sit back and watch a movie while I try my best to go to sleep on the firm hotel mattress. The whole time I was thinking, What was I getting myself into?

***

The next day, we woke up at four in the next morning (a crazy time to be up, I'll tell you that), and we got up to get ready to go to the Jedediah Smith Redwood Forest just a few miles south of Crescent City. The aliens were supposedly expected to land there among the redwood trees of the forest later that evening around seven. With my croggy sleepy eyes wondering why we were even up this early, I got up, brushed my teeth, got dressed into something warm, and rode along with Archer and his dad to the forest.

When we got there, the skies were still pretty dark and gloomy, and the trees were super tall and ominous, almost like we were in a different world. Archer's dad parked the car right outside the forest gates, opening his car door and coming out to open the door for the both of us. Right then, the crisp morning air hit me like a wall and I felt like I could barely see anything it was so dark. All I saw were dark silhouettes of tall trees and grass in the cold mist of the morning.

"You kids ready to spot some aliens?" Archer's dad boomed as soon as we stepped foot outside. All I could do was grumble, both from tiredness and utter disbelief that these two fools were serious about this whole alien thing. Reed of course responded with glee. "As ready as I'll ever be!"

While Archer was helping his dad set up the alien equipment, I leaned against the rental car door, feet on the ground, phone in hand. I was using my phone to search about missing people cases in the area in hopes of finding any info on Arian, but I had no luck. A lot of the cases were old and closed along time ago. And I was beginning to question if coming to Crescent City was even a good idea.

After an hour of standing and searching for literally nothing, I hopped back into the back of the car and turned on the radio. On the radio was overrated pop music I never listened to so I ended up turning it off. I was so irritated. Staring at my phone, I thought, How am I supposed to find information on Arian if I'm stuck in the alien car with the alien dad and the alien Reed listening to bad alien pop music? I should be at a local police station right now trying to get some kind of lead. Maybe I can sneak out if I stay quiet? But I have no idea where I am right now and barely have enough money saved to request an Uber.

Archer came out of the huddle he had been in with his for a while and noticed I was in the car, staring at my phone. He knocked on the car window, and I grudgingly rolled the window down. "What do you want, Reed?"
He had a concerned look on his face and said, "I was just seeing if you were ok. I wanted to show you what me and my dad have been working on, if you're not too busy."
"I think I'd rather stay in the car." I wasn't in the mood for more alien nonsense and baboonery. I wanted results and didn't want to waste anymore time in the alien forest.
"What's wrong?" His eyebrows were even more furrowed than before.
"I'm trying to find information of the Arian case on my phone. I'm hoping to get a lead, a clue, just anything useful." I couldn't hide the frustration in my voice.
"You still don't believe she was abducted?" His worried look turned into a disappointed frown. And truthfully, I didn't know what else to say to him.
"I told you Archer, this whole thing is just crazy. I can see why you and your dad may believe in those theories. To the average gullible person, those theories can actually be pretty believable. But I know better. Really think for a minute. Why would there be full fledged aliens roaming the earth collecting human bodies? I mean you showed me the possible ships and what they look like. You showed me the mental. You even showed me the potential star maps they may have came from. But come on. Aliens? Really?"
He just sighed, shook his head, and walked away. I mean what else was I gonna tell him. I don't believe in aliens dude. Never have. Never will. But I do believe Arian is findable. I just need help finding her, but I don't need this.