Getting Home

by Stephanie Perry Moore

  We didn’t have a blanket, but we did have clothes from our suitcases that we draped around ourselves. I balled up a sweatshirt to rest my head on. Across from us were Allison and John.

  “Let’s get some rest, guys,” John said. “We’ll head out in the morning for our next leg.” He handed Allison half a granola bar, but she groaned and turned her head away.

  “My stomach is upset again,” Allison mumbled. “And I have a headache. Every time it’s about to rain, I get a headache.”

  “Don’t say that,” I said to her. I didn’t want to add freezing fall rain to our long walk tomorrow.

  “At least we have shelter for tonight,” John said.

  Sure enough, within a few minutes lightning was striking and thunder was roaring. John and Colby walked over to the windows to look outside. Huge drops of rain poured down.

  The floor in the hallway was concrete. It wasn’t comfortable, but at least it was dry. I fell asleep to the sound of the rain pounding against the roof.

  Chapter 5

  “You sure taking a bath will be okay?” I asked Allison the next day. We were walking toward a pond near the restrooms. She’d gotten up early because she wasn’t feeling well and went for a walk. She found the pond and thought it would be a good chance for us to wash up before leaving.

  “It looked safe to me,” Allison said. “Besides, we’ve been walking for a few days now—I need to clean up. And it’s probably a good idea to collect water where we can before we leave.”

  I frowned. “Yeah, but we don’t know what might be in there . . .” I couldn’t stop picturing snakes, leeches, all sorts of things that might give us trouble.

  Allison didn’t seem worried. As soon as we got to the water, I had to admit it looked incredibly inviting. Probably because I hadn’t showered in days.

  The thing about southern temperatures was that it could be hot one day and cold the next. Thankfully, this was a warm day even for October.

  “We need to be quick about it, though,” Allison said.

  “You don’t have to tell me.” We pulled off our shoes and socks and rolled our pants up to our knees. Just bending down and splashing water on my face was refreshing. As we waded into the pond, she told me about how she and John met. It was a nice distraction from the cold water. “. . . And then I just knew he was the one,” she finished.

  We were quiet for a few moments, splashing the water onto our arms and faces. Then she turned to me and said, “What about you? You don’t have a boyfriend, do you?”

  I shook my head. I wanted to tell her I wasn’t thinking about boyfriends right now, but she kept giving me a strange look.

  “It’s okay to like Colby,” she said.

  I felt heat rush into my cheeks. “Who says I do?” I shot back.

  She gave me a teasing smile. “It’s pretty obvious. You two seem to respond to each other. John and I even talked about it last night.”

  “Really,” I said, not sure what to do with that piece of information.

  Before I could ask her anything else, Allison threw up into the water.

  When she straightened up, she sighed and wiped at the back of her mouth. “Sorry.”

  “That’s all right,” I said. “Are you okay?”

  “No,” she said. “I think I’m pregnant.”

  I stared at her. “Oh my gosh. That’s . . . great.”

  “It’s not great. Now’s not the right time,” Allison said. “It wasn’t a good time even before this alien invasion happened, and now—I really don’t know what to do.”

  “What does John think?”

  “John doesn’t know yet.”

  Before I could say anything else, I heard rustling in the trees behind us. I spun around in the water, searching for any sign of a person or animal. “Did you hear that?”

  But Allison was barely paying attention. “I don’t hear anything, Bailey.” She was looking down at the water, but I could see tears spilling over her cheeks. “I have to figure out how to tell John.”

  I tried to give her some space, walking along the bank of the pond while I scanned the trees for any sign of someone. But the rustling seemed to have stopped. When Allison was feeling better and we decided to head back, I still felt a little nervous. It was like somebody had been watching us.

  I didn’t have time to continue dwelling on it. Allison was upset about the pregnancy, and I focused on trying to make her feel better. When we got back to the restroom building, the guys were waiting for us outside. Colby and Blake were sitting together at the picnic table, and it looked like Colby was checking over Blake’s ankle. I headed toward them while Allison pulled John aside.

  I couldn’t hear exactly what they were saying, but by the looks of their faces they were arguing. Allison began to cry again, while John just looked panicked.

  Suddenly Allison took off running. John started after her but stopped after a few steps. He ran his hands through his hair. Then he looked over at us, as if we could help him.

  “I’ll go find her,” I said.

  “Bailey!” John called after me. I turned to look at him. “Tell her I’m sorry.”

  “Why don’t you tell her that yourself?”

  “Right about now, she doesn’t wanna hear from me.”

  I rolled my eyes at him and jogged off to find Allison. I hoped she would want to hear from me. Even though I didn’t know her that well, I felt her sadness and wanted to help if I could.

  I didn’t know which way she went, so I just went back toward the pond, figuring it was as good of a place to start as any. It wasn’t until I got closer that I remembered feeling like someone had been watching us there. Before I could give it a second thought, I heard a stifled scream.

  I followed the sound, breaking into a run. When I got to the pond, I saw Allison struggling to break away from a frantic-looking older man. “Just tell us what you want from us!” he yelled at her. “Tell us why you came here!”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about!” cried Allison.

  “You think you can fool me by disguising yourself as a human? I know you’re an alien! I know the Visitors are walking among us.”

  “I’m not an alien,” Allison protested. “I swear!”

  “You don’t wanna make me angry,” he growled. “You’re not going to outsmart me. Tell me what your plan is, or I’ll make you regret you ever came to Earth!”

  Chapter 6

  “Hey—leave her alone!” I shouted.

  My voice echoed through the trees, making the attacker pause. He turned around to look in the direction of my voice. I bent down to pick up the nearest heavy stick. “I said leave her alone!”

  When he saw me waving the stick at him, he let go of Allison and dashed away. I lowered the stick and ran up to Allison, asking if she was okay.

  “There y’all are,” John said, rushing over to Allison. Colby was right behind him. “What happened? I heard screaming.”

  “We’re okay,” Allison said. “Some guy thought I was an alien. He was completely freaking out. I’m not sure what he would’ve done if Bailey hadn’t chased him off.”

  John hugged her tightly. “It’s my fault. I’m sorry I upset you so much,” he said to her. “You wouldn’t have run off alone like that if hadn’t freaked out at you. And you, Bailey,” he looked over at me. “I let you go get her. It should’ve been me.”

  “I think this guy’s been following us, though,” I said. “When we were cleaning up earlier, I felt like somebody was watching us. If I would’ve gone with my first instinct, maybe I would’ve told you guys. Maybe I would’ve been more on the lookout . . .”

  Allison reached over to squeeze my hand. “This wasn’t your fault. You’re the whole reason I didn’t get hurt!”

  I let out a shaky breath and finally dropped the stick I’d been holding. I couldn’t be strong anymore. I couldn’t act like I had it all together. I couldn’t pretend everything was fine. What if the guy came back or we ran into others like him? I felt more afraid
of that than of any actual aliens.

  “Let’s just get out of here,” I said, my throat tight.

  Colby caught up to me as I walked back to the campsite. “I ain’t even gonna ask if you’re okay because I can tell you’re not,” he said quietly. “But you’re not alone, all right? If we all stick together, this kind of thing won’t happen again.”

  Hearing him say that, I felt some of my strength being restored.

  ***

  We were walking up a steep hill when we heard someone hollering for help. We picked up our speed and when we reached the top, we noticed a bridge at the bottom of the other side of the hill. A man was standing down there, near where an SUV was hanging over the edge of the bridge, just about to tip over and fall into the river.

  “Please help me!” the man cried when he saw us. “My family’s inside.”

  We jogged down to get to them. A woman was sitting in the front seat and a girl around my age was in the back. They looked terrified.

  “Stay calm,” John said to the man. “I’ve got some rope. We can use that to pull them up.”

  “That car weighs a lot more than we do,” Colby pointed out. “We’ll need to anchor the rope to something sturdy.”

  I looked around. The road on either side of the bridge was narrow, but on the other side was a line of tall oak trees. “How about one of those trees?” I suggested.

  It didn’t take long for us to secure one end of the rope to a tree and the other end to the SUV. Then we each lined up to grab a section of the rope. Blake’s ankle was still bothering him, so I made him sit off to the side.

  With each of us pulling on the rope, we quickly made progress. Colby stood at the end as the anchor. He was tugging the hardest, and he groaned with each flex of his arms. The SUV’s front wheels began to roll backward, and soon the whole vehicle was securely back on the bridge.

  “Oh, thank you!” the man said. He rushed over to get to the SUV while the rest of us took some deep breaths.

  Colby walked out of his stance, shaking his hands.

  Then I heard a strange cracking sound. My first thought was that it was another attack from the Visitors, but when I turned toward the sound it was coming from, I realized it was something else.

  The tree we’d tied the rope to must have been dead in the center. The weight from the car and us pulling had caused it to crack.

  And the tree was tipping over right in Colby’s direction.

  Chapter 7

  “Colby!” I shouted.

  Instincts kicked in when I saw the tree falling toward him. I sprinted toward him, tackling him to the ground a few feet away. We rolled as we hit the ground, and the tree just missed us.

  “Bailey!” Blake shouted. I could hear him, Allison, and John rushing over to us, but I was still trying to get my bearings.

  I had fallen on top of Colby, and when I moved to push myself up I got caught in his dark eyes. He was staring back at me. His arms had wrapped around me. It felt like we were in a bubble. Sounds were rushing all around me—I could hear the others trying to ask us if we were okay.

  I’d never felt this way with a boy before. Feeling a little freaked out, I got up and dashed back to the car. I told myself it was because I wanted to make sure the others were okay, but I mostly just wanted to get some space from Colby. I didn’t know what to think of what I was feeling. In its own way, it was more surprising than anything else that had happened to me in the last few days.

  Allison reached for me as I came over. “Are you all right?” she asked.

  I nodded, breathless.

  She seemed to notice that I needed some space, so she led John over to check on the family. Blake hovered around me with wide eyes, clearly worried but not sure what he could do. I couldn’t say anything to him yet. I didn’t even know what I could do right now.

  Colby slowly got up from the ground and came over to us.

  “Thank you,” he said. “I didn’t even notice the tree. It would’ve landed right on me if you hadn’t reacted so fast.”

  Blake grinned up at Colby as if he was his personal hero. “You saved me and my sister on the bus,” he said. “Now she saved you. So we’re even.”

  Colby smirked at him. “I don’t know. I still feel like I owe a big debt to her.”

  Blake didn’t seem to notice the tension between Colby and me. But the way Colby was staring at me made my heart kick into a rapid pace. I heard Allison call for Blake to come over, but it sounded much farther away than it should have been. I barely noticed Blake wander away from us.

  “Like my brother said, you’ve already done the same. You owe me nothing,” I said quietly. Colby just kept staring down at me.

  Is he going to kiss me? I couldn’t help but wonder. That thought made my stomach twist into knots. I still wasn’t sure how to react if he did make a move.

  I cleared my throat and took a step back. “We should make sure the others are okay,” I said, dropping my eyes. I turned to follow after Blake.

  I could feel Colby’s disappointment, but I didn’t know what else to do. Besides, I needed to focus on getting my brother home, and Colby was starting to be a distraction I did not need.

  Allison must have noticed the entire exchange. As I joined the others, she gave me a look and I shook my head to say I didn’t want to talk about it right now.

  Thankfully, we had something else to keep everyone’s attention.

  “Thank you all for your help,” the dad said after his family had climbed out of the SUV. “My name is Dennis and this is my wife Greta. Our daughter over there is Daphne.”

  We each introduced ourselves. I couldn’t help but notice that Daphne stared up at Colby the entire time.

  “How did you guys manage to get your SUV over the edge of the bridge anyway?” John asked.

  “When the news first came out about the alien lights,” Dennis explained, “we heard about a nearby emergency shelter the Army was setting up. We packed up everything we could and headed out immediately. We were making good time until that blast yesterday morning.”

  “People think it was an EMP,” Allison said.

  Greta nodded. “We heard the same thing.”

  “We had too much with us to carry on foot and we didn’t want to leave the SUV in case there was a chance of getting it working again eventually, so we’ve been trying to push the SUV along. We made it to the top of the hill, and I thought it would be easy for us to put it in neutral and let the girls ride inside on the way down.”

  He shook his head. “What a stupid mistake. I’m so grateful you folks came along when you did.”

  “Yeah, that was amazing,” Daphne said, stepping closer to Colby. I couldn’t help but grit my teeth.

  “You mentioned a shelter,” Allison said. “Where is it?”

  “It’s at the community college in Merrimont,” Dennis explained.

  Merrimont was only a few miles north of Montgomery. If it was going to get me closer to my dad, I was for it. I wanted to see my dad again, hug him, and let him know how much I missed him. How sorry I was for being angry with him. And how I was thankful for him, even when I’d been distant.

  So we all got behind Dennis and Greta’s SUV and took turns helping to push it up the gravel road. Even Blake wanted to help push, but I told him it would put too much strain on his ankle.

  For a while we talked about the big elephant in the sky—the alien invasion. But no one had real answers. Just more of the same questions: where are they, and what do they want?

  Finally Dennis said, “You know, I was so afraid of what this attack might mean, but today, after my family was dangling off a bridge and strangers coming in to help us, I’m not worried anymore. None of us knows what the future holds. But we can live each day with gratitude.”

  I nodded at what Dennis said but then frowned when I noticed Daphne was walking next to Colby again.

  “Who cares about aliens when you got big, strong guys around to make sure you’re okay?” Daphne said, feeling on Col
by’s shoulder. “Oh, you got muscles. You’re strong. You play football or something?”

  I just rolled my eyes. Did she have to be so obvious?

  “I used to, yeah, but it’s not just guys who can be the heroes. She saved me earlier.” Colby pointed at me.

  Daphne gave me a fake smile. “Yeah, that’s great that your sister was there.”

  Really? I thought to myself.

  Colby snorted. “Uh, she’s not my sister.”

  Daphne gave an innocent shrug, but I saw right through it.

  “Oh, well I just assumed she was,” she said. “I mean, why else would she wanna save you like that? You only get that kind of courage when it’s someone you care about. You know, like a family member.”

  Colby looked over at me with a smirk. “Oh, yeah? Bailey, do you think of me like a brother?”

  I didn’t know how to respond. With all that was going on in the world, I couldn’t believe I was on front street about my feelings.

  I rolled my eyes at Daphne again and picked up my pace. Every step I took away from Colby bothered me on the inside, but I wasn’t ready to let him know I liked him.

  Chapter 8

  “Wait up, Bailey. Let me talk to you,” Colby said, catching me off guard.

  I kept walking and didn’t say anything.

  He sped up to catch up to me. “You’re mad.”

  “How could you tell?” I answered sarcastically.

  “Oh, so it’s gonna be like that?”

  “How’s it supposed to be, Colby? This girl is all over you and you’re not doing anything to discourage it.”

  “Why do you even care?” he asked with a wide grin. He reached over and nudged my arm.

  I stumbled over a way to answer him, and that only made him grin even more.

  “Look, I’m not trying to get you to admit anything here. I don’t even know what I’m feeling either, but it’s clear something’s going on between us. I mean, you saved my life!”

  “I would’ve done that for anybody.”

  “Yeah, maybe you would’ve. But you did it for me, and it matters. I’m always saving someone else. My grandma. Working a couple extra hours to bring more money into the house for her. Or my teammates. Before I joined the team, they had no chance at the state title. I started playing when I was a freshman, and now we’re on the radar. Ever since then, everyone at my school has expected me to lead the team to State every year.”