The Call of the Others

Chapter 13

“Well, come on! Let’s go!” Cary said, hobbling off into the tunnel.

“Don’t—what are you—COME BACK!” Martin shouted, racing after him.

The six remaining watched helplessly as the two vanished down on of the tunnel’s corridors, out of sight. Not knowing what else to do, the rest of the gang followed them. Alice, Cassandra noticed, went crying back to Joe, whispering, “I’m so scared.” Cassandra rolled her eyes and walked next to Preston. The tunnel was dim. To Cassandra, it was kind of like a cave, only made of dirt instead of rock. To Joe, it looked like the tunnels the alien had made in the summer. And that, to Joe, was very, very creepy.

 “Where are we? Check the map, Charles,” Cassandra said.

“Uh, from my half, it looks like we’re in—”

Then they were interrupted by a scream and the smell of vomit. Martin, they all thought.

“—the living facilities,” Charles finished.

“Hey, guys?” Cary shouted from out of sight. “I think we found the others!”

I was right. Cassandra broke into a run to see them.

Martin was still vomiting when Cassandra reached them. Cary was transfixed on what was in front of him, silent for once. Cassandra warily approached him and stood next to him. She saw three cages carved out of the tunnel walls. Strong metal bars held back…things. Weird things.

“The others,” Cassandra whispered.

The cages were labeled A, B, and C. A had two creatures inside; B held five, which snarled and hissed at them viciously. These had claws, fangs, you name it. They were all different shapes and sizes and colors. And, by the scratches on their skin, did not get along well with their prison mates. C held a weak-looking green alien, about Cary’s height, and an alien that prowled on all fours in circles around the green one. Still, Cassandra noticed a basic pattern between them: similar anatomical structures between humans or maybe even animals and them.

Maybe she was crazy for doing this, but she came closer to one of the cages.

“You—You’re just like I’d imagined you’d be,” she told the aliens.

“Cassandra, get back,” Cary commanded, his voice wavering.

She ignored him and narrowly missed a swipe from a creature pawing at her from beyond the bars. She heard the rest of her friends—well, posse—come behind her. They all gasped, and Joe muttered, “She was right.”

“Now what?” Charles asked.

“Now,” Cassandra said, looking all over the walls, “we set them free.”

“Um, Cassandra, I really don’t think that’s a good idea,” Martina (of all people) said.

“Let’s get out of here,” Preston said, tugging on her arm.

“And come all this way for nothing?”

“No, Cassandra,” Joe said, “they aren’t like us anymore. Their time is here changed them or something. They don’t just want to go home. They want vengeance.”

“How do you know? What, does your psychic link with one alien somehow make you an expert? I found these aliens, I found them.”

“Are you nuts?!” Cary said. “I’m getting the hell out of here!”

“Wait, we’ve got to let them go!”

“Cassandra! That’s a really bad, stupid idea,” Martina warned.

Cassandra saw something and ran to it—a lever.

“Cassandra, NO!” Martina shouted as Cassandra yanked the lever. A loud siren went off as the bars lifted out of the floor.

“Shit,” Cary squeaked.

The creatures within pawed at the ground, trying to escape even before the bars were fully up. Taking no chances, Charles yanked Joe and Alice with him back up to the entrance of the tunnel. Preston followed his example with Martin and Martina. The first creature escaped. Then the next one. And the next one.

“GUYS?!” Cary screamed, hobbling along on his crutches.

Cassandra’s eyes widened as she realized what she had done. She took one look at Cary and grabbed him by the scruff of his neck as the whole pack of aliens broke loose. She ran through the middle of the stampede as Cary screamed behind her. One creature clawed at Cassandra’s back. She groaned in pain, but still pushed through. She shoved Cary with tremendous force into cage C and pulled the lever, shutting him within, where the creatures couldn’t reach him. He watched in horror as one of them grabbed Cassandra and pulled her back, much like he saw the first visitor do to the sheriff. He heard her scream, and then stop screaming. The aliens left after that, racing up the tunnel to the surface. Cary closed his eyes and suffocated a scream. When he opened them, he saw Preston carefully tiptoeing out of a hiding spot in the wall and shout, “Guys…Cassandra’s dead.”