Aliens Are Real: Part 2 (18 page)

“Who are you?”
Jasmine was deeply disturbed that the shadows knew her name.

The same familiar voice became rough.
“
Jasmine
, run!”

The rest of the group ran out the door.
The person in front ripped off his mask
.

She
realized that
she
was looking at Honorio.
“What are you doing here?”

“Run, you fool, run!”

Her
feet held still.

Yumi, w
hy is Honorio on base in a mask?

Jasmine
, you are in danger.
Run.
There was a definite sense of emergency in Yumi’s emotions.

Why am
I
in danger?

There are explosives in the basement.
You must leave the building
now
.

E
xplosives?
! Why?!
Jasmine started to
run
for the door.

R
un first!
I
will explain later!

With the sense of urgency mounting quickly,
Jasmine sped up
, and followed Honorio, who was almost out the door.
Unfortunately,
she
was too slow.
She
felt a vibration in the floor that turned into a roar
.
S
he
looked down to see the vinyl begin to fracture beneath
her
feet.

She sc
reamed as the floor crumbled.
“Help!”
She
stumbled as
she
tried to escape the collapsing floor.
She felt her
self descending.
She
reached up in effort to grab onto something stable
,
and caught a pipe in the
floor. B
ut the combination of
her
weight and the structural damage from the blast ripped it from its anchors.

She
hit the floor hard and all was black.

***

Honorio heard the floor crumble behind him.
He looked over his shoulder
,
and saw Jasmine drop out of sight.
“Lightning
!
” He
whispered
.

He
signaled
the others.
We have a problem
,

What
is the
problem?
Yumi asked.

Jasmine did no
t get out in time
.

Good
riddance!
Malika said.

Malika!
Yumi gasped.

Get on with the mission
,
w
e won’t get another shot.
Malika continued.

Honorio wrestled within himself. They had precious few minutes before the airmen would organize. They had to be in and out before that happened. His thought that Jasmine was probably hurt and possibly dying sorted his decision.

We cann
ot let her die as a result of our
actions.
Then he turned around and carefully moved to the hole in the floor.

Yumi shouted in Jasmine’s mind.
Jasmine
?
Please answer
me
!
Jasmine
, wake up!

Yumi?

Thank the stars
Open your eyes.
Please
Jasmine
,
l
et everyone know you are alive.

She
struggled to remember how to work
her
body.
She
worked on
her
right eye first
,
and accomplished a flutter.
She
then focused on
her
left eye and managed to open it a crack.
Finally,
she
blinked
, and stared
into Honorio’s dark, chocolate eyes through the veil of blood flowing from a gash on
her
forehead.
He was quite a bit higher on a floor above the one upon which she was lying.
Flames slowly consumed the beams and ceiling dividing
them
.
She
could see the indecision and agony on his face.
Then again, he was alien
,
so the expression
she
saw could have been celebration.

Congratulations Honorio!
You finally got rid of
me
!
she thought to herself.

She
tried to stand up
,
but
her
whole body refused to comply.
She
la
y
flat on
her
back
,
disoriented.
She
could only gaze above
her
into the eyes of the biggest jerk
she
had ever known.

Looking through the gaping hole in the ceiling,
she
remembered that the floor had collapsed beneath
her
.
That’s really good for
my
ego
,
she
deadpanned to
her
self.
I guess I need to lose some weight.
She thought.

Lose weight?
You’re just fine.
Yumi said.

No, I mean, um.
I don’t know what I mean
. Her mind felt fuzzy.
Coherent thought
abandoned her
.

Jasmine saw Tyrone’s
face
,
unusually
pale at the
moment
and
Joseph
who
stood with Honorio
, above her
.
They both
looked at Honorio, their leader, of course.
The decision would fall on his shoulders.
She
groaned as
she
closed
her
eyes.
She
was as good as dead.

“
Jasmine
!”

She
snapped open
her
eyes again
.
Honorio
was
kneeling
at
the edge of the ceiling above, shouting
her
name.

“We go now!” he
shouted
at the group.

He jumped up and disappeared from
her
sight.
The rest of the group,
jaws hanging open, stared in the direction Honorio
had ru
n.
Then, they too were gone.

What a nice good-bye
she
thought.
Then
her
vision blurred as
she
started to cry.
She
realized that
she
was scared
,
and
she
didn’t want to die.
The panic pulled
her
out of
her
haze slightly.
The pain
her
mind had been ignoring
overwhelmed
her
senses.
The ceiling groaned and
she
knew it would drop on
her
at any moment.
Self-
preservation
flooded
her
body with adrenaline
,
and
she
tried to get up again.
She
slowly rolled toward
her
right side onto
her
stomach in the rubble.
As
she
put
her
scratched and bleeding arms beneath
her
self
to lift
her
weight,
she
screamed out in agony
,
and collapsed to the floor again.
She
rolled onto
her
back, cradled
her
left arm to
her
chest
,
and moaned from a deep core of
her
being
she
didn’t know existed.

What a perfect time to have
my
first broken bon
e,
she thought to Yumi.

Are you sure it’s broken?

I
’m n
ot sure
,
but it hurts really bad,
she replied.

The numerous batch
es of stitches as a child
ha
dn’t prepare
d
her
for the agony of trying to use a broken arm.
Her
arm throbbed even as
she
tried to stabilize it against
her
body.
What did
Dad
teach
me
about first aid?
Her
muddled mind tried to fight off the shock as
she
struggled to recall anything beyond keeping it still.
A stick!
She
remembered that
she
can make a splint if
she
had
a stick.
She
looked around for a second in
her
bewildered haze.

Dummy, there aren’t trees in buildings
,
she
scolded her
self.

W
hy
do you want
tree
s
in buildings?
Yumi asked.

I
need a stick,
Jasmine
replied.

Yumi
pause
d for a long while
.
Do you have a concussion?
Is that why you want a stick?

She almost laughed at the absurd situation, then replied,
I
need to splint
my
arm
.

Oh
!

Another long, loud groan from the ceiling made
her
pu
sh the pain to another part of her
brain
and tried
to rise again.
She
sweat
ed
and pant
ed
from her exertion
.
Her
ribs protested every breath as
she
braced
her
left arm to
her
chest
,
and tried to rise again without moving it.
She
maneuvered
her
body so
she
was
on
her
knees, bracing
her
self to stand up.

Her
concentration broke as
she
saw a flash to
her
right
,
and
she
turned
her
head to follow it.
Twenty yards behind
her
,
she
spotted Joseph facing away from
her
.
He looked left
, the
n
right
,
and turned in a circle.
As he locked eyes with
her
,
she
saw bewilderment stun him.

He paused a second.
“
Jasmine
?”

Who else would it be?
Her
rebellious mind screamed at him.

A piece of ceiling pulled away from the flames above
,
and crashed between
them
.
Joseph
jerked back into action
, ru
n
ning
just past
her
again before stopping
to turn
around.
The bewilderment on his face made him look silly.
She
started to laugh a high pitched, hysterical laugh before the agony in
her
sides stopped
her
short.

He yelled down the hall.
“This way!
I
found
Jasmine
!”

He tried to help
her
up
,
but in his haste, he banged
her
left arm
,
and hit
her
ribs.
She
yelped loudly as
her
vision faded to black and
her
body turned to rubber.
She
slowly slid to the floor.
She
felt
Joseph’s
gentle hands cradle
her
head until
she
was safely on the floor.
She
didn’t want to lose consciousness
,
but
she
was losing the battle.
From
her
horizontal position,
she
saw the dust kick up from
Joseph’s
sneakers
as he ran down the hall again.

Alone.
I
am alone again.
I
do everything alone
,
so why not die alone?
Jasmine reflected inwardly, then it donned on her.
I did
everything alone until
I
met Yumi
.

The tears filled
her
eyes again
,
as
she
thought
of
her
friend.
She
had finally found a friend
, well, friends including Alex, Tasha and Abigail,
that
she
desperately wanted to keep.
She
finally felt like
she
belonged somewhere even if Honorio and Malika didn’t want
her
there.

I
don’t want to die!
In
her
mind
, she shouted
to the heavens and eternity.

We
will not let you die.
Please remain calm.
My team
knows where you are.

“
I
don’t want to die,
”
she
whispered over and over as
her
whole body protested each breath and utterance.

Through
her
haz
y
vision,
she
saw legs running toward
her
with blurring speed.

Joseph
stopped a few yards in front of
her
, walked to
her
side
,
and kneeled down.
“They are almost here.
Hold on
Jasmine
.”
He brushed a stray lock of hair out of
her
face
.