THE TRIP

CHAPTER TWO: A TRIP DOWN MEMORY LANE

"Vivica!" A masculine voice called. He must have come through the back because she didn't hear him come in.
"I'll be done soon. Just give me a little..."
"Come into the house immediately!" Her dad ordered. It was odd. He never raised his tone at her or at least not in a long while. Ever since her mum died of cancer they've lived together and had each other's back. Her offense must have been either outrageous or he was being paranoid.
"What's going on?" She asked as calmly as possible. This wasn't due to an offense or paranoia. He looked like he had seen a ghost.
"The forest isn't safe anymore." He replied, still quite shaken. To her it definitely had to be a joke.
"Dad, we were supposed to go hunting! You promised?" She was almost raising her voice. "if this is a means to disappoint, it's not working."
"Sweetheart you will. But not today. Whatever's in there isn't something we can hunt." He walked to a dining chair and sat on it. She walked to him and looked closely, she saw the terror in his eyes. "What did you see out there, dad?" Her tone which was near furious now replaced with confusion.
"They aren't animals, they aren't humans either..." he paused, staring into space, "they looked calm though, not like we see in the movies, but... I think they were aliens." He looked up at her face and met the expression of disbelief he expected.
"If you don't want to go hunting, you should just say so dad." She gently shook her head and turned away. He continued nonetheless. "They were searching for something so seriously. I didn't feel safe so I ran back home." He explained, still looking terrified. If he was joking, this was way below the belt. He was scaring the daredevil out of her.
She loved the thrill of a hunt because sometimes they would encounter a predator and not a prey and she did well at handling such challenges, but if she encountered an alien it would be a different case and she knew it. Didn't he?
"Dad, if there are aliens lurking in the forest, we're far away from town," she paused as she realized, "if these things should head into town, we'll be the first people they see." She shivered. "What do we do?"
"I'll make a call to the inspector, but until then we're not going anywhere near..." He was interrupted by a knock on the door. He put an index finger across his lips as they walked gently towards the door. They could see the shadow of the tall stranger through the translucent glass. "It's the inspector." He whispered. She gave a sigh of relief even before he opened the door to man who wasn't a stranger after all.
Inspector Andrew was a close friend of Vivica's dad. He brought news to their doorstep or he called on phone where he and her dad will talk for a long time, sometimes laughing or with a serious business minded face. One of the days he called it was sadly to inform them of her mum's emergency.
"How have you been, James?" The inspector asked with a little tension in his tone.
"I've been good." Her father replied slowly, trying to be as normal as possible. The other officer who accompanied the inspector greeted casually. A bit too casually. Anyone would know something was wrong.
"Where's Vivica?" He asked. Vivica revealed herself.
"Good day, Mr. Andrew. It's been a while." She sounded quite happy to see him. After all, he was her (their) one way ticket out of the soon to be invaded house. If her dad was really serious about the aliens.
He gave a sigh of relief. "We've been experiencing teen abductions in town for about two weeks now. Until yesterday it didn't cross my mind that if we were beginning to experience such it would have knocked on your door. And you hadn't called in a while, so I came to be sure things were alright." He explained.
"How many teens have gone missing?" Her dad asked.
"We've registered up to fifty missing and we can't say exactly how it happened or where. The worst of it all, we've not received any call for a ransom. It could either be a murder case which I don't think is possible or there's something crazy going on." He sighed. "We've ordered the kids in town to stay indoors for now. I suggest you do the same" He took another look at Vivica and sighed. "Try as hard as you can", he added, then turned to go.
"I saw something in the forest earlier today when I went to check my traps before come to take Vivica for a hunt," he paused, "they weren't ordinary or at least not like anything I've seen in my life as a hunter."
The detective paused and returned his gaze to the man. "Can you give a description?" Mr. Andrew asked, giving a nod to the other officer who brought out a notepad and pencil.
"They were slimy, long fingers..." He was still trying to piece the image he saw earlier when he felt someone pull his sleeve rigously. It was Vivica, she was trying to get his attention. When he turned to her, she pointed towards the lake just a bit far away from the house. Through the trees, they could see a creature standing facing the lake. It fit her father's description. They walked quietly into the house and closed the door.
"That's exactly what I saw." Her dad explained. Now he was sure everything he had seen in there was real.
"How many of them did you see in there?" Mr. Andrew asked.
"About twenty... I think... or more."
Their voices trailed off as Vivica walked gently to the window. The figure still stood there not moving a muscle. It stood for a while before it shook its head, turned facing the house and let out a cry. From the bushes others emerged, heading towards the house.
"Oh my God! They're coming!" She shivered as she walked away from the window.
The two officers walked to the window to verify what she said. The creatures were really heading towards the house, but a rattling sound on the roof caused all of them to come to a halt. Something was walking on the roof. They grouped themselves together and kept their eyes fixed on the ceiling. Mr. Andrew and the other officer cocked their guns. As soon as the rattle was above their heads, everything was still.
In the blink of an eye the roof burst open, the sheets crumbled to the floor but everyone had taken cover, dust filled the air, then everything stopped. Each of them stood up with his hand over his nose and mouth, coughing underneath. They waved the dust with their free hands in an attempt to meet each other.
They finally found each other but Vivica was nowhere to be found. Her dad cried out while the two men stood in shock. She had been abducted.

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She woke up and looked around. It was dark and she was on the ground. She couldn't be sure where she was, but due to the wind and the smell of the air she knew she was out in the open. Everywhere was pitch black, she guessed it could be due to the absence of the moon but where had the stars gone too?
She stood up and made an attempt to walk around, but bumped into a metallic bar. She touched it, there were many of them so it could only mean one thing. She was in a cage.
"Who's there?" She yelled. "Is there anyone there?" "Help!" She called over and over again but there was no response. She walked away from the bars, she felt it would be safer since nothing could easily reach her from a safe distance. She heard footsteps on dried leaves, together making a rustling sound. Someone was coming, no two people, no three. The third person was dragged along.
"Dad! Dad!" She called out, but there was no response. The entrance to the cage swung open and the other figure was thrown into the cage, then the door was shut and the other two people (or things) walked away. She got on her knees and crept towards the place she thought the figure dropped. She felt her way to it. "Dad are you okay?"
"I'm not your daddy." The voice replied with a little tease tone.
"Who... are you?" She asked, backing away gently.
"Martin. My name's Martin." He replied. "May I know who's asking?"
"I'm Vivica." She was a bit calm though it was too dark to see what he looked like. "How did you get here?"
She heard a rustling sound. He was sitting up. "I was on the bus with some other students, we were returning from a field trip when our vehicles failed. We saw the driver head out to check the fault, then we heard a loud cry and our roof was split in two, and one after the other we were picked out. Some of us tried to use the emergency exit but it wouldn't respond. I blacked out... Woke up here." He explained. "Like you." He added with tease in his tone.
"How do we get out?"
"Get out?" He laughed. "We're never getting out. The ones who tried to, returned and refused to try it a second time cause they have no idea where we are. We're surrounded by water." He paused. "We're on an island."
"So no one's trying to get out of here?" She cut in immediately.
"Can I give my response in the morning? I'm a bit tired. Besides, once you're used to the area you won't want to leave." He replied.
"What do you mean?" She asked furiously. "You've been separated from your family, you've just been beaten till you can barely walk."
"Beaten?" He chuckled. "I was training just like I had been doing since the second day I arrived."
"Training? What for? The alien invasion?" She asked sarcastically. She was really mad at his relaxation in the midst of a situation like this.
"Training to develop my powers."
"What powers?"
"Tomorrow's your lucky day I guess." With that reply he laid down and turned deaf ears to everything else. Especially her unending questions. She stopped the questions and lay down to sleep too. He sighed.
She was awakened by a strange smell in the air. She jumped to her feet. They were surrounded by flames.
The flames illuminated the cage so she could spot Martin lying there with the fire all over his body but not a single detail of his hair seemed bothered and he was also sleeping comfortably.
"Wake up!" She yelled but he didn't respond. She stretched her hand forward to touch him but the heat made her retreat. She kept screaming and calling his name and also calling out for help, but he didn't flinch neither did anyone come to their -or her- rescue. She tried walking around him to find a way to wake him when she spotted a small rod on the ground. She picked it up and walked close to him, then struck the earth above his head, still he didn't respond. She became furious. She went closer and kicked his leg angrily, jumping away immediately to avoid the fire. He jerked up from his enflamed sleep.
"What's going on?!" He asked. The flame on his body had quenched by itself, almost like his body sucked it up (but they were still surrounded by flames). He stood up and the ashes of his clothes fell of his body, he turned around immediately.
"Look away!" He ordered. "Are you hurt?"
"Yes, I'll live." She replied, then tilted her head. "Powers huh?"