The Call of the Others

Chapter 14

“Cary!” Martina cried, pulling the lever to release him.

Preston knelt by Cassandra’s remains—a small pool of blood and a piece of torn fabric.

“She—she’s dead,” Cary whispered, visibly shaking as he came out of the cell.

Joe knelt next to Preston and put a hand on his shoulder. “Sorry, Preston,” he said.

Preston stood up and glared at everyone. “Are you? Are you really?” he asked. “You all hated her. Are any of you really sorry?”

Alice pursed her lips but remained quiet.

“Cary? She saved your life!”

“She also kind of lost it for me! If anything, I’m sorry I wasn’t the one to kill her.”

“Joe? Anything?”             

He looked at Alice. I am a weak, despicable human being, he thought, remaining silent.

“Great, just great,” Preston said with a catch in his voice.

“Now what?” Charles asked, sniffling.

He heard the click of a gun being loaded behind him.

“Now put your hands up and go against the wall,” Martina said, aiming the gun at his chest.

“What the hell?” Cary shouted.

“All of you! Go!” Martina bellowed, aiming her gun at all of them.

“What’s going to happen, man?” Cary whispered to Martin, who was vomiting profusely. “I’ve never been in a firing squad before!”

“This isn’t a firing squad, Cary,” Martina said as the group moved towards the wall. “I just need you to stay where you are.”

“Oh, well, this is just a suggestion, but saying ‘please’ works, too,” Charles said.

“Shut up.” Martina aimed at him.

“What are you doing?” Joe asked.

She pulled something out from underneath her shirt. It was a blue lanyard with a nametag attached to it. As strange as this was—no, actually, it fit perfectly—it reminded Joe of the nametag Mr. Woodward wore. It had a picture of her, but Joe couldn’t make out what the writing around it said.

“I’m in the secret branch of the army meant to deal with violent extra-terrestrial creatures.”

“Secret? Well, you’re doing a terrific job,” Charles said.  Is this a time to be sarcastic, Charles? Joe thought as Martina one-handedly aimed expertly at Charles’s forehead.

“They weren’t violent at first! You made them be this way!” Joe yelled.

“Oh really? How do you know?” Martina asked.

“Nelec—”

“Nelec was a fool. He deserved to die.”

Joe couldn’t argue with that logic.

“Who the heck are you?” Preston asked.

“After the little incident in the summer, I was sent undercover to keep an eye on you. You’re actually quite famous at the agency.”

Joe gulped.

“And it’s a good thing I did, because look at where we are now,” Martina said with a sick smile.

“Why didn’t you stop us or something?” Charles asked.

“Now you listen and you listen carefully,” Martina said, ignoring him, “you’re going to get out of here, get questioned by the FBI, and then pretend this never happened.”

“But there are, like, fifteen aliens up there running wild…” Alice pointed out.

“We’ll handle that. Okay,” Martina said, speaking into a walkie-talkie now, “HQ, I need some assistance with the six.”

Joe did a silent count—himself, Alice, Charles, Cary, Martin, and Preston. Six.

A static-y voice came from the walkie-talkie, saying, “I thought there were seven.”

“One’s dead. When can I—”

Suddenly, something long and thin snatched Martina across the waist and dragged into…into the solitary creature in cage C’s mouth. It licked its lips and smiled. It’s like a frog… Joe observed.

Cary looked at it, smiled, and said, “Good boy!”