The Call of the Others

Chapter 15

Alice hid behind Joe. So it’s okay if I get eaten, as long as she gets to be safe? he thought.

He wanted to approach the creature that had potentially saved their lives, so he inched closer. Maybe having Alice back wasn’t as good as he had thought. And Cassandra…was dead.

“What’s wrong with its leg?” Alice whispered in his ear.

“What?” Joe studied it. “It always looks like that. I think…”

It was kind of bent at a weird angle. Hmm…

“Okay, I know what a broken leg looks like, and that’s a broken leg,” Cary piped up.

“What are we supposed to do?” Martin asked, sitting because he was so exhausted from puking.

Joe shrugged. “Fix it.”

The thing looked at them with scared eyes. They were big and black and shiny.

Charles came it a bit closer to it and whispered, “Do you think it’s going to eat us?”

“No,” Cary said. “I was in the cage with it while Cassandra was....you know, and it didn’t hurt me once. I think.”

“You think?” Martin said. “Well, then, call in the medics!”

“We are underneath a hospital,” Alice said, stepping farther away from Joe’s protection.

“We’re underneath a hospital!” Charles said, having a “eureka!” moment. “One sec.”

He ran off. The group heard the door at the entrance open and quickly shut. Then commotion, then silence. Soon Charles was back with them, pushing a cart of medical supplies.

“Let’s fix an alien leg!” he said excitedly.

“What the heck? How’d you get this?” Joe asked.

“The emergency room,” Charles replied nonchalantly, handing Joe a roll of gauze.

“But—but somebody needed that!” Martin exclaimed.

“Nah…They were drinking coffee and smoking.”

“Oh. Okay,” Joe said. “Then let’s get to business.”

“Who knows how to set an alien leg?” Cary asked.

“How’d they set yours?” Charles said to Cary.

“In surgery. When I was unconscious.”

“Wait, Charles, can’t you? You set mine,” Martin pointed out.

“But this is an alien leg.”

“Oh, for goodness sakes, I’ll do it,” Preston muttered, walking to the alien. He gently tugged on the things leg, and it made a moaning sound. It sounded human.

“See? They’re just like us. Just like Cassandra said,” Preston commented, returning to the group.

“Crap! We have to go back to the group!” Martin said, standing up.

Cary gasped. “They’re going to freaking kill us! We killed two of our companions—not one, TWO!!!!” He held up his fingers, amazed at the death count.

“But we have to come back. Fix the leg,” Joe pointed out.

“What will we say, though?” Martin asked.

“Oh, you know. We found aliens, let them loose in the city, and accidently killed two people,” Charles said, shrugging.

“Will stop bringing up their deaths like it was nothing?!” Preston shouted suddenly. “She died. She died. For us! The little bastards who aren’t even grateful!”

“Well, when you put it that way…” Charles muttered.

“Be nice,” Joe whispered. “He has a point.”

“I know. Sarcasm’s just how I deal with things. I do,” Charles whispered back, “kinda miss her.”

“Should we bring”—Cary struggled in determining its gender—“it with us?”

“It’s a boy.” Joe had no idea how he knew that. But he did.

“Should we bring him with us, then? Jeez.”

“I don’t think that’s a bright idea.”

“What if the other aliens killed them all?”

“Would you care then?!” Preston snapped.

“Preston, we care, too. Just shut up for two seconds about our guilt and wretchedness!”

Charles studied the ceiling. “I guess there’s really only one way to find out.”

The six started to head out into the open world, secretly terrified of what they might find.