Aliens Are Real: Part 2 (17 page)

With as few answers as he had before, he started the car and headed for
the house
. He did have homework to complete
,
and a shift to work the next day.

Honorio spread t
he map with Joseph’s notations
o
n
the table in their house.
He had added a few more marks over
the two weeks since he
had
started working at the fast food restaurant.
Malika stood beside Joseph
,
and read his notes with a thoughtful expression on her face.
Tyrone and Yumi both sat at the table.
Tyrone fidgeted with a device he
had
built while Yumi fumed.

Yumi understood
that
her reaction to the
day at the base
lacked reason and logic
.
She knew that Honorio merely pretended to be
interested in
Jasmine
,
but his actions bothered her.
The very thought of him breaking their arrangement for a human was ridiculous.
But, the look in his eyes when he gazed at Jasmine seemed too familiar, too affectionate.
Besides, he never looked at Yumi that way.

She realized that
had been
the root of the issue.
Honorio never gazed at her in admiration.
H
e
shot
glances at her,
b
ut his eyes held no fire when they met hers
.

Passion.
That was what humans wrote
and sang
about,
what they
yearned. Her people viewed passion as a weakness.
In human form, Yumi felt the human drive affect her.
Part of Yumi wanted to say she wasn’t affected.
Unfortunately, she knew that wasn’t true. Being in human form took away her insulation against feelings.

She noticed small details
,
like Honorio
’s gestures of affection toward
Jasmine.
She noticed
Jasmine’s
apathy toward
Honorio.
She noticed Tyrone’s glances in her direction.
She noticed her heart
would
beat quicke
r
when she caught his unguarded looks.

“Yumi.
”
Honorio had been trying to get her attention.

Yumi blinked
,
and focused her eyes on Honorio’s face.
“Yes?
”

“I asked if you had anything
to add.”

Yumi
had
missed everything th
at had been
said.
She berated herself for losing focus.

“I apologize
,
but can you
repeat
what you said?”

“Were you not listening?”
Malika asked with a scowl on her face.

Yumi blushed.

Malika threw her arms in the air.
“Perfect.
W
e have to rely on you
,
but you c
annot even focus on the mission.
”

Honorio held ou
t
his hands to stay the aggression.
“Before we start attacking each oth
er, let us get more information.
”

Malika calmed down, but still snarled.
“Yes.
Do tell us.
Were you thinking about painting your nails with Jasmine?”

“No.
It
was not important.
”
Yumi
looked at her hands
,
and considered what her hand would look like with nail polish coloring
the tips. She folded her hands.
“I apologize for my lapse in attention.”

Malika stormed
out of the room
.

Honorio closed his eyes for a moment then opened them again.
“If you look at the map, we know where the target is stored.” Honorio
pointed
to the blank spot on the map where the “temporary building” sat. “We can plan a quick entry and exit without notice.”

Yumi noted various places on the map where Joseph
had
added extra notes about patrols and weapons.

“
I will head to my job as usual but Tyrone, Malika and Joseph will be in the trunk. I will park out of sight
,
and
Tyrone will cut off main power to this section of the b
ase.” Honorio pointed out
the area around their target.
“We will
set up the diversion
,
then make ou
r
way to the target.
Tyrone will secure
it, then we get out immediately.
”

“No one seen, no one hurt, right boss?” Joseph slapped Honorio on the shoulder.

Malika had returned. She was standing in the doorway of the kitchen
.
“I cannot believe
we
are going to rely on Tyrone to g
ather the target safely.
”

Tyrone crossed his arms
,
but remained
silent. Honorio stepped toward
Malika.

“Thanks to him...
” Honorio
pointed to Tyrone.
“We know where to look.”

Malika, protested,
“How do we know he is right?”

“Joseph’s watch would only
have
be
eped
if it was near to the target,
”
Tyrone insisted.

“How do we know you did it right?
Is this going to blow up in our faces again like when you tried to fix her?” Malika pointed to Yumi.

Tyrone sulked.
“As I explained before, that would have worked if
the frequency stabilizer
had been bug free.”

Malika pounded the wall.
“I am not interested in your
excuses
!
”

“Lay off the kid,
” Joseph said, imitating a black and white movie they had watched the night before.
“
It was not his fault.
”

Malika clenched her fists.

“Malika, stand down,” Honorio ordered.

“Wh
atever!”
Malika
turned, and marched
toward
the living room.
“C
all me when you are ready to go.”

“
So, when are
we go
ing?”

“Tonight.
”

Yumi agreed
with a brief nod
. She
didn’t know how much longer the team could handle working together in human form.
We need
to get off
this planet quickly
for
the sake of
our
sanity.

Chapter 1
4

That night, Jasmine heard her phone ring.
She grabbed it and looked at the caller ID.
The screen showed “Dad”.

She pressed the talk button on her ringing phone
.
“Hello?”

“
Hey
Jasmine
.
I
have a huge favor to ask,” her dad said.

“What’s up
?”

“
I
’m starving
,
but I
can’t leave the base to get a meal right now.
Can you bring
me
some left
overs?
”

Jasmine
looked out the window and was mildly surprised
to see that it was getting dark
.
Being
as it was
the weekend
,
and
she was
done with her homework, she had
popped in some movies
. She was trying
to ignore the feeling in the back of
her
head that something was wrong.
She
was experiencing high levels of anxiety
,
but
she
had no reason to feel
that
way.

“Sure
,
D
ad.
I
’ll be there in about half an hour.”

“Thanks hun.”
With that, he
hung up.

Jasmine
looked in the fridge for something
appetizing that
she
could take
to
him
,
but
left
over turkey did not
seem adequate
.
She
wrote a short list of groceries
they
needed
,
then grabbed
her
purse
,
and jumped in
her
car.
She
drove to
a fast food joint
.
Five
minutes later
,
she
was munching
on fries as
she
headed towa
rd
the i
nterstate.

On
Butler Road
,
leading
to the
base,
a deer jumped in front of her car
. Jasmine
slammed on
her
brakes as
i
t froze directly in
her
path
, forcing her to
jerk
the steering wheel to the right
. Her car
skidded off the road into an undeveloped plot of land.
She
slowed
,
and finally came to a stop in the grass
just short of a stand of trees
.

Her
hands shook though they were
still
attached to the
steering wheel
.
Her
heart thumped madly in
her
chest.
She
threw the car in park
,
and collapsed forward, trying to catch her breath
.
She
stayed that way for several minutes until
her
heart and breathing slowed.

She
opened
her
car door
,
and walked around the car to survey for damage.
She
realized lady luck was on
her
side when
she
couldn’t find any major d
e
nts, smoke
, flattened tires
or
broken
lights
.
She
pulled out
a small flashlight, attached to a can of mace that her father insisted she carry at all times, and checked beneath the car for leaking fluids. There were none to be seen, and
the idling engine sounded normal.
She couldn’t smell anything weird – only the familiar fumes of the exhaust.
She shone her light on each tire to make sure there were no nicks or tears.
She
sighed with relief
,
then looked around
her
.

Her
headlights faced
the trees
,
and
she
noticed a car tucked back there.
It was a black sedan and looked very similar to Yumi’s car.
There was no license plate on the back
,
so
she
couldn’t confirm for sure in the dark
,
but
she
started to worry.

Yumi, are you all okay?

Yes, why do you ask?

I
’m just outside the base
,
and it looks like your car is off the road
in the trees.

It isn’t our car
.

Are you sure?

Yes,
Jasmine
.

I
’m glad you’re okay.

Thank you.

Yeah,
well, I’m a little shaken up right now, though
.
My
dad asked
me
to bring him dinner
,
and
I
almost hit a deer
! I
ended up off the side of the road
.

That is terrible, a
re you okay?

Yeah.
I
didn’t hit anything.
I
t
was
pretty scary
though
.

I
am
sorry to hear that you veered off the road
,
but
I
am glad that you are okay.
Are you stuck?

The ground’s pretty solid, I tore up the grass a bit, but I think I can manage.

That is good.
You should drop off the food
,
then head home.

Uh
...
.
Okay?

Drive Safely.
Good night, Jasmine.

Thanks. ’
Night Yumi
.

Her
conversation with Yumi was unsettling.
Yumi
seemed
distracted
,
and
Jasmine wondered what Yumi
was doing.
She
knew better than to try to understand
,
so
she
shrugged and returned to the driver’s seat.

With the door light on,
she
could see the remainder of
her
fries strewn about the passenger seat.
Thankfully,
her
dad’s food was in a separate bag
,
which remained closed through the bumpy ride.
She
grabbed as many fries as
she
could quickly scoop up and threw them back into the empty bag of food to throw away later.

She
put
her
car into reverse
,
and turned around
,
return
ing
to the road without incident
.
A
fter flashing her identification card, she
pulled on
to the
base.

“Thank you
Jasmine
.
”
He
r dad
said as he strode up to her.

“No problem,
”
she replied.

“Any big plans tonight?

Jasmine rolled her eyes.
“No.
Just watching movies
.
”

“By yourself?”
H
e
cocked an eyebrow.

She shrugged
.
“Yeah.
”

“Why don’t you call your friends and have them come over?”

She
shifted
her
feet and put
her
hands in
her
back pockets. “Naw.
I
’m pretty tired.”

“It’s not good for you to be alone all the time.”

“Dad, it’s fine.
I just felt like some quiet time tonight
.
”

Dad
opened his mouth to reply, but
was interrupted by an aide rushing up to him.

“Sir, part of our power grid is down
in
S
ector C.”

Jasmine saw the man’s wide eyes, tense posture and fidgeting hands.
She wondered what the fuss was about.

Her
dad turned
half-way
toward
the hallway,
“
Jasmine
,
I
need to go.
Head straight home. I’
ll see you
there.
”

Jasmine
waved to his back as he rushed down the hall.
She
turned around
,
and walked outside.
She
looked around
,
and saw
that
a portion of the base was dark.
She assumed the back
up generators would kick on at any moment.
S
he
was about to head to
her
car when
she
saw shadows creeping along the side of a small
building
,
then slip in the door.
She
looked around for someone to tell
,
but the area around the building was devoid of human life.

She
walked over to the door
through which
she
had seen the shadows creep
.
There was no power in
that
building
,
either.
She
reached into
her
purse
,
and pulled out
her little flashlight again
.
She
turned
it on,
and washed light around an empty hallway.
She
listened carefully
, slowly walking
down the hall.
Her
nerves were on edge
. S
he
jumped
at the smallest noises.

Common sense
arrived
as
she
reached the other side of the building.
She
was no
soldier.
She
had absolutely no traini
ng and
all she had was a can of mace
to protect her
self
,
if the shadows were bad guys.
Following them was stupid
.
S
he
needed to get outside before
she
was trapped.

A door behind
her
opened
.
S
he
whirled around.
She
shone
her
fla
shlight down the hallway toward
the noise
,
and saw a masked person put up an arm to block the light.
Two
more people came out of the stairway
.

Jasmine lurched forward.
“Stop!”

The three people looked at each other then back at her.

“
I
’m warning you,
I’m
armed,
”
she said.

“
Jasmine
?” the front person said.
The voice was familiar
,
even though it was muffled.