101 Ways to Skin a Hoodie

Chapter 8

 I sit up and rub the back of my head. I can feel a slight bump, but it recedes under my touch. My headache is completely gone as well. Aruetta and Marckus are standing around me. Marckus' mouth is slightly agape, and Aruetta is wearing a grim face.

I get to my feet and ask; "How long was I out?"

"Only about five minutes, why? Are you feeling okay?" Aruetta responds with a level tone.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I just had a nice, long talk with an old acquaintance.

...

"But to answer your question from earlier, yes. If you can get me to the building I can save your planet."

Aruetta takes a step back, and then a few more forward, wrapping her arms around me. I embrace her back, and Marckus shakes his head. I think I hear him mutter something about young people before he returns to the tent.

"You know, if you still really want to know, I can tell you about all the stuff that happened before we met." I speak into Aruetta's ear softly.

She untangles her arms from mine and looks into my eyes, searching for something. I don't know what she finds when she responds; "Actually... no. I have a feeling that soon we won't have a chance to see each other anymore, so I think that it's fine if we don't let our lives intersect anymore than they have to. You have your regrets, and I have mine. We can lean on each other for support, but at the same time we need to be self actualizing. If we had known each other as children, I think that we could have been the closest friends ever, but, well, I don't even know what planet you're from."

There's a slight pause, and then I burst into laughter, Aruetta following suit. Once it's died down a bit I manage to sputter out; "Earth. I come from Earth. Just not this one. I mean, how would I have known what New York even was." We burst into laughter once more, and this causes Marckus to poke his head out from the tent flap. We find his large disembodied head fairly humorous as well, but try our best to stifle our laughter.

"Come on, girls. We should be relatively safe at a border area, but they are looking for us, and we should really go over the plan one more time."

Our jovial attitude fades as we follow Marckus back into the tent, and we sit down in our previous arrangements.

Marckus begins; "Alright, so we're going to do this, yes?" I nod. "Good. I'm not too privy as to the how or why you have decided to help us, but if you're confident that you can get rid of these creatures that have stolen our planet then I can't help but be a bit giddy. Unless you're just completely crazy.

"Assuming that you aren't, then we need a plan to get you to the Empire State building in relative safety. As I just said, we should be safe here until nightfall, so we have that amount of time to get ready. This entails doing whatever maintenance we can on the plane before flying and... well that's it really."

"Um, question." I raise my hand a very short distance in this low-ceilinged tent. "Why are we attacking at night? Earlier you said that there wasn't as much crime at night, so they wouldn't have a reason to leave the Empire State building, right?"

"That's a fair criticism, and really it's a 50/50 chance as to whether this plan is optimal or not. Personally though, I think that they'll think that we'll think that they won't be as active at night, so they'll expect us to be on the move at night, and thus have more guards patrolling the city."

...

"Sorry, that was fairly confusing I suppose. Here, another reason is that if they don't find us in the city overnight, then they'll probably expand their search across the river, and then this hideout is in jeopardy, so we really only have tonight anyway."