by Lysa Daley
I pull the truck closer to our room. It takes us a couple of minutes to get my uncle, now wrapped up tight in a blanket, all squared away in the backseat.
Tom, who’s been missing-in-action since we arrived, appears out of nowhere. He leaps into the truck and settles down next to my uncle in the backseat.
Ruby volunteers to drive - which is a huge relief.
We head north up Interstate 5 past farmland, then forest, then more forest and some farmland.
The farther north we go, the sicker my uncle seems to become. I can only sit quietly and worry. We have no idea if we’re even headed in the right direction. Fitz said someone would be waiting. But waiting where? I pull out the burner cell phone he gave me but realize I don’t have a number to call.
All I know is that if we don’t get my uncle medical help soon, he’s not going to live for much longer.
After an hour of driving, Ruby says, “We need gas. This old truck is sucking it up. Any idea where we are?”
“Either on the California/Oregon border or the Oregon/California border,” I answer, trying to read an unwieldy paper map.
We lost the internet signal almost as soon as we left the motel. Now we have to navigate the old fashion way using a map I found in the glovebox.
It takes another ten miles before we find a gas station/taco stand/minimart in a dusty little patch of nothing on the side of the interstate.
Ruby slowly pulls the truck in. We idle just inside the parking lot cautiously looking around. There’s an old station wagon getting gas, and a beat up little hatchback parked next to the taco stand which probably belongs to an employee.
“What do you think?” she asks.
“Looks okay,” I nod.
“I’ll fill up the tank if you’ll run in and get me a diet soda?” Ruby offers.
“Deal,” I say and head into the minimart.
The clerk behind the counter is so white and bald he resembles a cue ball with squinty eyes. He doesn’t bother looking up from his newspaper as he grumbles, “Morning.”
“Good morning,” I say, heading toward the refrigerated case of sodas in the back. There must be 200 different types, but for the life of me, I can’t find a Diet Coke.
In the reflection of the glass door, I see a man and woman enter the store. Both are in black suits. Both are wearing dark sunglasses.
Uh oh.
I casually flip the hood on my Oakdale Prep sweatshirt up. Keeping my back to the dark suits, I try to nonchalantly make my way out of the store.
The male suit walks over to the coffee station and pours himself a decaf or something. The female suit slowly strolls around the store.
Maybe this is just a coincidence. Maybe these two work for the IRS or they’re funeral directors. Some other perfectly normal occupation that requires black suits.
I’m making the last turn down the candy aisle then it’s a straight shot out the front door.
Casually, the female suit strolls back to the counter.
It isn’t until I see her pull out a short but deadly sharp dagger made out of a strange red metal that I know for certain they’ve come for me.
Chapter 13
I’m not like normal human teenagers. If you cut me, I instantly heal. My skin just reseals itself like magic. As you can imagine, this comes in pretty handy.
Unless, of course, you cut me with the red steel forged from the Draconian sun.
Then, it becomes unclear if the cut will ever heal, evidenced by the bandaged wound I currently have on my shoulder. I got cut several days ago in a fight with the shapeshifting, bounty hunting Grail. It was the first time in my entire life that I didn’t instantly heal.
I avert my eyes, pretending I don’t see the short red blade and quicken my pace toward the door.
But the female agent darts forward, blocking my exit.
I retreat but find my path now blocked on the other side by the male agent, who points one of the futuristic alien guns at me.
“Astrid, I presume,” he greets me in a low voice.
“Hold yer horses now!” the nervous clerk calls out to us. “I don’t want no trouble in here. You clowns take your fighting outside.”
The male agent responds by pointing his weapon at the clerk and firing a stream of purple plasma. Lucky for baldy, it hits the rack of chips and cigarettes directly over the cash register. Terrified, the poor guy hits the deck as a shower of merchandise pours down on him.
I reach around my shoulder to grab BrightSky but realize that I don’t have her.
Again.
Why do I keep leaving her in the car? Stupid, stupid, stupid!
Both agents advance on me. I have no choice but to fight, to defend myself best I can.
The female agent grabs me from behind. She slings her arm around my neck, trying to choke me.
The male agent is two steps behind. He’s nearly reached me when the little bell on the front door tinkles.
As the arm tightens around my neck constricting my windpipe, my eyes flick toward the door where I see Ruby holding up the red umbrella.
“Astrid!” She throws it to me. “Brought you a little help!”
While the umbrella hangs in the air, I know this is my only chance.
I launch my elbow, high and hard, into the female agent’s head causing her to loosen her grip enough for me to stomp on her foot. Then I hook my leg around the back of her ankle, yank it forward causing her to slam to the ground.
The male agent takes a step back, fumbling with his weapon.
BrightSky sails into my hands. I circle the umbrella around my head transforming her into the badass gleaming sword of destruction that she is.
Immediately, the male agent backs up a couple more steps.
But the woman, still on the ground, lurches forward, trying to grab my leg. I bring the hard hilt of the sword down, nailing her square in the middle of her forehead, instantly knocking her unconscious.
The male agent looks uncertain until he remembers that he’s still holding the plasma gun. He aims it at me with a wry smile. “Drop the weapon, Princess.”
I pull BrightSky in front of me and shake my head. “I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”
Ruby has seen this before and gets out of the way.
“And why’s that?” His finger looks itchy on the trigger. “Pretty sure my gun trumps your fancy sword.”
“Don’t think it’s going to end as well as you think.”
Before I can say more, he fires.
The stream of purple plasma shoots out at me, and I feel BrightSky moving in my hand. The blade of alien metal deflects the plasma ricocheting it back at him.
It’s too late when he realizes he’s screwed. There’s no way he can get out of the way fast enough.
When the plasma hits him, he disintegrates right before our eyes, leaving nothing but a small pile of organic goo on the floor.
“Yuck.” Ruby wrinkles her nose.
“I tried to warn him.”
The crusty old clerk, back on his feet, peers over the counter. “And who’s going to clean that up?”
The sound of police sirens wails in the distance.
“Let’s go,” I say, grabbing a box of power bars, a six pack of water, two diet root beers (still can’t find the Diet Coke) and throws $60 on the counter which is about $50 too much.
“Hey!” the clerk calls after us. “What about your change!?”
“Keep it,” Ruby calls behind us as we bolt out the door.
“For your trouble,” I add.
I’m right behind Ruby as we book across the parking lot. For a heart-stopping moment, I’m worried that the agents got to my uncle.
Ten feet from the truck, Ruby comes screeching to a halt. “Astrid! There’s a killer dog in driver’s seat!”
In the front seat, the head of the biggest, snarliest pit bull you’ve ever seen looks out the window.
“That’s Tom,” I say, opening the door as he hops in the back.
“Your cat is no
w a dog?”
“Pretty much. He did his whole shapeshifting thing to keep people away.”
“What else can he change into?”
“I think whatever he wants.”
We pull out of the gas station as fast as we can.
Waiting at the second stop light, we do our best to look normal as we watch three police cars with their bubble gum lights twirling speed past us.
“That was close,” Ruby says. “Too close.”
“I wonder how the clerk is going to explain that big pile of goo on the floor?” I say.
“Uh oh,” Ruby says, glancing from the road into the rear view mirror and back.
“What’s wrong?”
“One of the cop cars just pulled a U-turn and is headed our way.”
Chapter 14
“Maybe they’re not following us,” I say, swiveling in my seat to get a better look at the state trooper’s car. Just as I do, they turn their siren on and speed up. “Oh yeah, they’re following us.”
“What are we going to do?” Ruby asks, her panic rising. “There’s no way we can explain the big blue alien under the blanket in the backseat.”
Something occurs to me. I reach up and feel around under the dashboard. My hand catches on a small raised bump a little bigger than a quarter. It almost feels like rubber, except it’s slightly warm and gently pulsing like it’s alive. Weird.
As I press it, a black glass panel, previously hidden underneath the ancient pushbutton radio, folds down. Alien technology integrated into good old fashion American workmanship.
"What is that?” Ruby asks, leaning sideways to get a better look at the panel.
“My uncle souped up this old bucket of bolts with a little space age technology,” I explain.
The trouble is I don’t know how to work the futuristic flat black panel with an alien keyboard built in. I just start pushing random buttons hoping something works. Which may not be such a great idea. Who knows - there might be a self-destruct button built in.
But, on the other hand, what choice do I have?
“When Jax first showed me this secret panel, he somehow pushed a bunch of buttons and got this rickety old truck to rocket forward in hyperdrive like something in a crazy Star Wars movie.”
As I fiddle around, the brown and gold state trooper sedan is quickly gaining on us.
“Great!” Ruby says, glancing in the mirror. “Do that! Make it go into hyperdrive.”
The trooper pulls next to us, keeping pace. He’s trying to wave us over to the side of the road.
Ruby stares straight ahead. “Avoid eye contact. Pretend you don’t see him.”
“Unfortunately, I don’t know how to make it go into hyperdrive,” I say, as the truck starts to rattle and shake. “Uh boy…”
“What did you do?” Ruby asks.
“I’m not sure.” The violent shaking gets so intense it feels like the car is going to break into a million pieces.
Then it stops. Instantly. And a fuzzy yellow glow surrounds the entire car.
“What just happened?” Ruby asks.
I see the state trooper react. His eyes go wide. He’s looking around like he lost us. Except, he’s still right next to us.
“Pull over!” I say.
“But they’ll see your uncle, and we’ll never get where we’re going.”
“Trust me,” I say, betting on a hunch. “Just pull over.”
Ruby shakes her head like I am 100% insane, but does it anyway. She pulls off onto the shoulder.
Meanwhile, the trooper just keeps going. Followed by two more state patrol cars pass right by us.
Ruby watches them go with wide eyes. “They passed us?”
“I think we’re invisible,” I smile, looking around at the golden light surrounding the car. “Instead of throwing us into hyper-drive, I made us invisible. It’s probably some sort of cloaking device.”
When we’re sure that the cops are long gone, Ruby gets out of the car and walks five feet away. Looking back at me from the edge of the road, she gasps and covers her mouth. “Oh my God! You made us invisible. That’s so cool!”
The invisibility cloak lasts about an hour, but that’s long enough for us to get off the interstate and make our way down a mashup of maze-like two-lane roads that twist and turn through the forests and farmlands of southern Oregon.
It doesn’t take long before the farms fade away, and it’s nothing but forest. Forest for a very, very long time.
Meanwhile, my uncle barely stirs in the backseat. Tom, back in cat form, is curled up next to him.
“Are you sure this is still the right way?” Ruby asks, slowing the truck and peering out the front windshield at the empty road before us.
I double check the map. “According to the coordinates, this is still the right way.”
The sun sinks low on the horizon behind us making it feel like we’re driving straight into a darkening gloom.
We must drive for a solid 45 minutes without passing a single car, a house or a store of any kind. As dusk fills the sky, we manage to startle a few stray deer munching on grass along the tree-lined roadside.
Soon, the smooth pavement gives way to crumbling and cracked blacktop. The already narrow road tightens around us even more. Eventually, even the crumbling blacktop gives up as well. Now, it’s just us and a plain old dirt road.
“I think we’re lost,” I finally admit. I’m re-examining the map for the tenth time when the truck slows.
“Look,” Ruby points out in front of us.
A quarter of a mile down the road there’s a dead-end. The road just stops, and the never-ending forest of pine trees engulfs everything around us.
“We’ve come to the end of the line,” Ruby slows the truck. “Maybe we turned down the wrong road?”
“There isn’t another road. Not for another fifty miles and that one cuts north to Idaho.” I say as tears fill my eyes.
The trouble is I’m confident that we’re in the exact spot of the coordinates. Maybe I was wrong the whole time. Maybe the sequence of numbers wasn’t longitude and latitude, and now I’ve dragged us into the middle of nowhere.
I gambled on the fact that there might be a hospital someplace out here, and I lost.
“Wait,” Ruby says, her eyes as big as saucers as she squints out the front windshield. “Something’s moving through the trees up there.”
She's right. Something is coming our way. Something big.
After a long, tense moment, a big brown head appears.
“Is that… ” Ruby gasps. “A grizzly bear?”
Grizzly bear, brown bear, polar bear; not exactly sure except for the fact that a really, really big bear is lumbering toward us.
“What do we do?” Ruby asks.
“Stay calm.”
The bear stops at the foot of our truck. Standing up on hind legs, his impressive jaws part and he lets out a ferocious roar.
Ruby throws the truck into reverse and starts to backup. After five yards, she slams on the breaks. “Oh my god, Astrid! Look behind us.”
I swivel to see two more brown bears coming at us from the woods. Great, now we're surrounded.
Tom leaps from the back seat into my lap. He puts his paws up on the window and cautiously observes the first bear. Tom cries to gets out and paws at the window.
“No way, buddy!” I say, protectively holding him. “You’re not going out there.”
“What does he want?” Ruby asks
“I think he wants to get out,” I reply.
“Those bears will eat him alive.”
But I think back to the fire at my old house and the massive beast who defeated the three Johnsons. That creature was like a cross between a rhinoceros and a Mack truck. That creature was Tom.
“No. I think he’ll be fine,” I say, rolling down the window so an impatient Tom can jump down onto the soft sandy dirt of the roadside.
All three bears have now clustered off to my side of the truck. The largest of the three lurches forw
ard, growling.
Tom takes a few steps towards them, then stops and begins the incredible metamorphosis that turns him from a cat into an identical brown bear. Except bigger than the other three.
“Holy cats,” Ruby can’t believe her eyes. “He really can turn himself into anything.”
Tom, the bear, now turn and runs off into the forest with the other bears.
“Look! Even as a bear, he still wears his red collar,” she notices.
“It seems to grow and shrink depending on what he’s become. I think he kind of likes the collar.”
I smile because he seems happy wandering off with the other animals.
“Did your cat just run away?” she asks.
“I sure hope not.” Anyway, I mostly hope he’ll be safe.
Ruby and I have been so busy watching the bear that we failed to notice a figure walking toward us through the evening mist of the forest. This time, it’s the figure of a man.
“I don't believe it,” I sputter in amazement. “How did he get here?”
It’s Jax.
Chapter 15
About six weeks before all this crazy alien stuff began, my uncle decided to spruce up his karate studio and repair a few things around our house. Basic stuff. So he hired a handyman named Jax. When I asked where he found this guy, he said he found him from an ad on Craigslist.
And, at first, Jax seemed like the world worst handyman. Or maybe it’s more accurate to say the slowest handyman ever. I was sort of surprised that my uber-efficient uncle didn't seem to notice or care.
Probably because Jax isn't actually a handyman. That was all a big fat lie. Instead, as it turns out, he's a former intergalactic soldier and weapons master from the Arcturus star system.
“What’s he doing here?” Ruby asks.
“I have no idea,” I reply, watching Jax walk toward us with his head tipped low and his eyes blazing. “Oh jeez, here he comes.”
“Does he look pissed?” Ruby asks.
He has good reason to be upset with me. Probably because I pretty much ditched him a day and a half ago. Though, he shouldn’t take it too personally. Leaving him to save my uncle had nothing to do with Jax.
