Intergalactic Outlaws

Chapter Six - Alien habitats

No sooner had the end of the story come out of my mouth, did the traffic around us come to a sudden standstill. Thank the worlds above we'd been crawling at snail's pace or else I may have ended up jamming the bumper of my Mustang into the grey minivan in front of me. The radio cut off suddenly into a deafening silence.

I glanced out the window to observe the effects. Nobody jumped out of their cars, no horns sounded. Nobody was surprised with the turn of events. This had been an occurrence on an inconsistent routine for the past two days.

I didn't need to look over at Alana's phone screen when she sighed to know what message scrolled up the screen.

We know you are hiding here.

The radio had said that it had been worldwide the first time. The second, it had been the eastern hemisphere. It was like they, the Sesuilai, had slowly been zeroing in on us over the past two days. I didn't want to know how small the search radius was right then.

Alana's voice was so small I almost missed her question, "Is this them?"

"Yeah."

"I-I-I-" She stumbled over her next words, "I don't want to believe you, but I'm scared now."

"Me too," I confessed, my hands were shaking on the wheel. "They are going to find me and then I'm going to die."

I felt dizzy. My vision blurred as I swayed slightly.

***

When I came around, I was belted into a seat of a car with a squirming Holden tucked in my arms.

"Wha..." I mumbled, feeling fuzzy in the head.

"Hey," a voice had me rocketing up and smacking my head on the roof of the car, "are you okay?"

I twisted my head to the right and found a face staring at me. A young girl with huge green eyes staring at me. She was sitting at the steering wheel of the car, fingers tapping the vinyl in time with the song coming softly through the speakers.

Who...?

Where...?

Oh.

Oh.

Alana. New friend. Aliens. Coming. Parents. Gone.

I'm next.

"Sadie?"

"Sorry," I adjusted myself in my seat, not letting go of Holden, "I'm fine. What happened?"

"You fainted." She laughed in a coarse breathy way, "I'd have thought you'd have been better adjusted. I mean, you've known for your whole life, but I've had half an hour to adjust. I think I should have been the one fainting."

"What?"

The memories of tell her about aliens came to me and I felt the pit of stupidity inside me grow significantly.

"Oh. Right. I'm sorry," I offered her a sympathetic smile.

"It's fine," she returned my smile with a brilliant one of her own. "So? Aliens?"

I groaned internally, I'm so stupid, "Yeah."

"I have so many questions."

"So, do I. Like, how am I in the passenger seat?"

***

She did have so many questions. Nobody talks as much as person trying to unlock the secrets of the universe. Fortunately for me, I didn't know the answers to many of the first dozen questions, so she didn't attempt a second dozen. She ended up stewing in an irritated silence as she drove out of the city, following my directions.