by H. J. Lawson
Once we get out of the grass, we’re at the edge of a highway. It’s littered with a ton of cars at a standstill. People inside the cars are honking at other cars, and some have abandoned their vehicles to stare up at the spaceship, which is getting bigger the closer we get to it.
A woman getting out of her car catches my attention.
“Excuse me. Miss?”
She turns towards me and I see a baby in the back seat. The baby reminds me of the baby I left with the sick mother in the train station. Maybe I shouldn’t have left the helpless baby with a mom infected with the virus.
I wonder if the baby caught the virus or if it’s already dead. Will this baby also die? I shudder at the thought a baby getting a virus, through damn aliens, sending down an evil bug to wipe us out. Babies which haven’t even had a chance to live. How many more innocent lives are going to be lost?
“What do you want?” the woman asks me in a hurry.
“Is your car working?” I ask.
“The power in the cars stopped working. Nothing is working.” Carefully, she takes the crying baby out of the car and coos at it to calm down. She holds her baby close to her chest and looks at us with caution.
“Mom. How does that bag of dirt work?” It’s worth a shot, even if I sound nuts like her.
Everyone is silent except for my mom who’s smiling. She takes out a small bag of dirt and hands it to the baby’s mother.
“This will help keep your baby healthy,” Mom says. Now that I have a closer look, I see it’s dried herbs and not a bag of dirt. “Cook one teaspoon and mix it with water. If your baby is anything like mine, mix it with chocolate milk. She’ll drink it all up. Each teaspoon lasts six months. But, if you or the baby already have the virus, then there isn’t anything you can do. There is no cure.”
The woman nods. “Thank you.” She then hurries off with her baby into the abyss of people.
Everyone in our group stares at my mom in astonishment. One of the pilots asks, “Does that really work?”
“Of course it does. My eldest daughter gave it to me.” She hands out little bags to everyone in the group except AJ. “Of course, Paige and Willow don’t need it. I’ve been giving it to them all their lives.”
“Mom, give some to AJ.”
“No, his type is what brought the virus here. I’m not giving him anything. I will never give anything to a shadow.”
I roll my eyes and turn my back to her so she doesn’t see me slip my bag to AJ. “It’s fine. Take mine.”
“But you need it.”
“No, apparently I don’t. I’ve been given it my whole life.”
AJ takes my hand and we head toward the city, not knowing what lies ahead. The warmth of AJ’s skin washes over me with a feeling I’ve never experienced before. It certainly feels right. The impending doom of what’s going to happen temporarily leaves me, as if everything is at peace with my hand in his.
I look at him to see he’s smiling at me. I blush and manage a smile back, walking ahead hand in hand toward the unknown.
Chapter Eighteen
As we approach the city, I notice all the lights are off. The city has been plunged into darkness as the sun has been replaced with the moon. The only lights are the ones from the spaceship, which make the surroundings look scary.
My mom notices me holding hands with AJ and pulls me away from him.
“Paige! Stay away from that shadow!”
“He’s not a shadow!” I try to defend AJ.
“They are coming and soon will be here! And he’s one of them, Paige.” She gives me that look. “We have to hide as soon as possible, before they get to us.”
She grabs ahold of mine and Willow’s hands, and starts running, dragging us forward. AJ and Tilley follow us closely, breathing loudly in panic.
Somehow my mother has become the leader, probably because she knows more than we do. She’s most likely our last hope to stay safe.
The city doesn’t seem that far anymore. We get closer by each minute. I am getting tired of running so much.
At last we’re there, and I wish we weren’t.
When we get into the city, I can see how people are looting the powerless stores. Nice opportunity to get stuff for free, I think with disgust.
Some looters are struggling to get the goods out of the stores without getting into a fight with others.
A gunshot goes off.
I reach for my sword, ready to attack. Damn it’s gone! I had to leave it at the army base. I grab my gun. My mother has her gun ready, too.
It makes me feel safer.
Suddenly, a blinding light comes down from the spaceship, making everyone leap out of the stores in a panic. I no longer feel safe.
The looters frantically head into the apartment blocks, and we follow them. We are in a desperate need of a hiding place. Everyone’s shouting in the commotion. The people lock the doors of their apartments, yelling at all of us to get away from them. Some of them even try to force us out of the apartment building.
“Mom!” Willow screams, clinging to our mother, trying hard not to get lost in the crowd. During all the commotion, I notice the white lights from the spaceship turn into black shadows. Just as my mom told us all these years, the Shadows are here.
I shiver as I stare at the spaceship. Everyone else is staring back it with wonder and horror.
All these years my mother wasn't really insane - there really are aliens. I shake my head as I imagine it. Does this mean Brooke could really be alive? Probably. Willow has seen her. Even if I consider my mom to be crazy, Willow isn’t, so I’ve got to at least believe her. But the latest happenings have made me change my opinions about my mother as well.
I break my gaze from the spaceship. I look for my mom and see she has already made it across the street, heading towards other apartment buildings. The president’s daughter, Tilley, is right by her side, while AJ and I are still on the other side of the road.
AJ is still here, I realize with pleasure. He hasn’t left me, his warm hand is still in mine, and it feels it like it has always belonged there.
For a second my mom looks down to see she’s holding Tilley’s hand. She panics, realizing it’s the wrong person. Looking around frantically, she tries to see where we are. Luckily Willow is at her side. She must have taken Tilley’s hand instead of mine.
“Paige!” My mom shouts as she catches a glimpse of AJ and me. “Run!”
She starts to make her way across the road, but she stops short. The lights from the spaceship turn heavy black, as if they are filled with something. My mom lets out a wild howling scream as she sees the black mass.
It’s the dark Shadows she has been terrified of her whole life. The Shadows, which she protected us from since we were small children. It was all pure truth. If only I had known back then …
“Paige!” My mom’s screams seem to tear holes in my ears. “Paige, hide! You’ve got to hide! Quickly!” That is something she has taught Willow and me since we were little. To hide from the Shadows. I am so used to it, now I can do it almost instinctively.
She turns away, dragging Tilley and Willow with her. I also move in the direction of my mother, but AJ pulls me away, stopping me just in time from almost stepping into a black cloud that looks like tiny metal fillings joined together in one mass.
I step back from the black mass; right in front of my eyes the Shadows are forming. I feel AJ pull me forcefully away from them.
“Run, Paige! Don’t stop!” I feel AJ’s hand tighten around my wrist as he yells. We run together as fast as we can in the darkness.
I glance over my shoulder before we turn down a side street and see now the Shadow Men stand in the main street. I take a moment longer to look at them, as they start to divide and multiply and become more in number. Each Shadow man creates an army of Shadows.
One of them turns and looks at me.
There are hollow pits where its eyes should be, and a hollow black space for the mouth. The Shadow lets out a horr
ifying howl, as all the other Shadows turn and see me. All of them start howling and screaming, filling the night with mortifying noise.
Petrified, I am unable to move. I shiver, looking at the Shadow Men, who are looking back at me and screaming.
AJ pulls me forward into an apartment building, almost making me trip on the ground. There’s no time to speak, but I feel so happy and grateful to have him by my side. I really need him right now.
We must hide as soon as possible. If only we could get into one of these damn apartments. Desperately, we bang on the doors on the ground floor.
“Open the doors, please, help us!” No one answers and we don’t have much time to wait, so we run up the stairs. We bang on the doors on our way, but no one lets us in. I understand why; people are in terror and scared beyond imagination. I don’t blame them, even though I would open the door to help others if I was in their place.
There is only one door left. Together, we climb onto the roof.
“AJ, we are trapped,” I say, panting, trying to bring my breathing back to normal. “If the Shadows can climb the stairs, then we’ll have nowhere to go!”
AJ is worried and silent. Apparently, he agrees with me. He looks around for a hiding place, but there is nothing on the roof, just an empty area. I look at the top of the other buildings, which are close, but seem too far to jump and land on.
I start doing calculations of the distance between our roof and the other buildings, and become surer by the second that the distance is farther than any long jump I’ve ever made. Bending down, I look over the edge of our roof towards the ground. I barely see the Shadows moving – it’s so dark I almost can’t see anything, but there is definitely some movement out there.
More spaceships line the horizon.
They are becoming more and more in number. Black beams pour down from them. Soon they will be over the whole city. It’s just a matter of time.
“AJ, how are we going to get away?” I ask, mostly wondering aloud, as I am pretty sure AJ doesn’t have an answer to this one. The Shadows duplicate so fast there is barely any time left for thinking.
AJ looks back and forth between the roof tops, like he’s planning something. Most likely he’s calculating the distance, like I was doing a minute ago.
Deep inside my mind I know we will have to make the jump if it’s the only way to get away from the Shadows. I know we will do anything we can to escape those monstrous creatures. I hold out hope that maybe the Shadows won’t come up on the roof. They would have been here by now, right?
My mom always made us aware that the Shadows are very, very bad, and now I do believe her. She was right to hide us away from them. She would hide us away in the smallest hiding space she could find in our house. The smaller, the better, like the small basement or a closet. We would stay inside for hours, until the sun rose.
“AJ. Do you think are they scared of sunlight?” I ask.
AJ gives a nervous chuckle. “I don’t think they are vampires.”
I smile. Despite the terror and panic, AJ still forces himself to be brave and even to make jokes.
“Then why are we safe in the daytime? And why didn’t they come to Rosehill?”
“Well, Rosehill is one of the safest places in the world. Even a stray cat couldn't get on the property without correct passes, approval, and screening.”
“I guess you’re right,” I say, smiling, appreciating his try for good humor.
I hope they have stopped looking for me. I play with my bracelet nervously. Maybe they couldn’t find me once Willow and I left our home to go to Rosehill. They wouldn’t have known where I was, like witness protection. And Brooke? Had she known where I was all along? So many questions swirl in my mind, but I have to concentrate right now and think about how to escape.
And only that.
Chapter Nineteen
AJ raises his finger to his lips. I listen. There is a faint sound, like waves of the ocean. I know we are too far away from the ocean to hear waves, yet that’s exactly what it sounds like – water washing over the city, slowly flowing up the steps of the apartment building we just ran through. I keep my breath, listening to the soft sound of the waves, which fill the building and shake it to its core.
“Paige, do you hear them?”
I look at AJ. I know what he means. Shadows are in the building. We have to think fast. It’s just a matter of minutes until they will be on the roof with us.
“Paige, we have to jump.”
I freeze. I know we have to jump, but the long distance between the rooftops makes me shaky.
“Paige, I know it’s scary, but the Shadows are even scarier. Believe me,” AJ tries to be persuasive. I know I must not be a baby. I know this is our last chance. I look in AJ’s eyes. He is so full of determination. I must also be brave. Slowly, I nod.
My body jolts as the roof door starts to shake. Obviously, they are behind it and trying to open it. The metal door slowly molds into a new shape, as if the Shadows are pushing it from behind.
“They are trying to get through the door!” Half-whispering, half shouting, I feel my voice trembling with terror. Being trapped on the roof makes us so helpless. The prospect of jumping terrifies me, even though it’s the only way to escape.
AJ takes my hand, and warmness pours inside of me. I start to feel more secure and in control. I feel like I can make the jump with him, even if the calculations say otherwise.
“Jumping is better than staying with them here,” AJ says quickly, as we start running towards the edge of the roof. We take a big leap, and everything appears in slow motion. The roof of the opposite building slowly gets nearer and nearer. A little bit more force, and we’ll land on it. I try to push myself forward, and somehow our hands are separated mid-flight.
Now I’m all alone in the air and panic rises up in my throat. I’m sure I won’t make it without holding his hand. I try to remember the calculations between the two rooftops. I don’t have much time. Either I’ll fall or I’ll make it.
The heavy metal door bursts of its hinges behind us and flies though the sky. I can clearly hear its wheezing sound as it comes at me. I instinctively duck, just as I harshly land on the other rooftop.
I look down and see bloody hands and knees, but I don’t feel any pain. Yet. I’m probably in shock. I see AJ right by my side. A wave of relief covers me, as I realize we both made it.
The black mass of atoms fills the opposite roof, the one we were on a minute ago. And it starts to acquire a new shape. As we stare, we watch the mass start to turn into a bridge.
“Oh, no,” I softly moan, realizing they can morph into anything. AJ just stares at them and shakes his head, as if telling them not to dare. The Shadows pause. I hold my breath, hoping after hope they’ll retreat. But they soon resume building their bridge.
“Paige,” AJ tells me softly, slowly, “they aren’t going to stop.”
I know he’s right. I know we still have to make more jumps over the rooftops, and thankfully the next is not far. Without a word, we hold hands and leap to the next roof. The only good thing in this entire nightmare is that we are together. It gives me strength and hope, as well as some kind of security.
We jump from rooftop to rooftop, and it seems an endless process. The Shadows are following us, but our jumping is faster than they can build a bridge every time.
After several jumps, we come to a halt on one of the roofs. The next building is too far to reach. There is a road between the two buildings, and it means we must jump over the road. It is impossible. Even if we try really hard, we’ll fall to our deaths.
“AJ, we won’t make it this time.”
He nods, looking back to see how close the Shadows are to us.
“Paige, we need to get down from here. Let’s find the roof door.”
I look around frantically and notice a fire escape.
“I have a better idea,” I say, getting hopeful. Quickly, we start going down the metal frame.
Halfway down I s
pot a window that might be unlocked. AJ quickly understands my intention and together we open it.
I look down towards the street. What I see makes me freeze: people are in the street surrounded by the black mass. They are fighting to get out of it, but it’s impossible. They seem like prisoners, stuck in a dense wave, swaying around slowly and helplessly.
I quickly squeeze through the window, and when I am safely inside, AJ climbs in after me. We look around. It seems to be a little boy’s bedroom, judging by the blue walls, furniture and toys. The door flings open, making me wish I had my sword.
As I look ahead with wide eyes, an Asian boy stands in front of me, his mouth gaping with terror. As I let out a breath to speak, the kid screams.
“Daddy! Daddy! Help!”
AJ is fast to grab the kid and cover his mouth to muffle his screams.
“Hey, look, kid, we’re not going to hurt you,” he says as the boy tries to escape. AJ carries the boy forward, out of the bedroom, and stops as the boy’s parents run toward us.
“We mean no harm,” I say hurriedly, though I can clearly see disbelief on their faces. “Please stay quiet – we just want a place to hide.” They listen silently, so I continue, “There are aliens all over the place. They are coming into the buildings and taking people away. The only way to stay safe is to hide in a closet.”
The boy’s parents stare at me as if I’ve lost my mind. I feel stupid, talking about hiding in closets. My mother must have felt the same way for many years.
“Look out of the window and see for yourselves.”
Before they can, the building trembles. The wave of the Shadows is here.
Chapter Twenty
“You must get into a wardrobe and stay silent. You must hide there until morning,” I say in a hurry.
“But why a wardrobe? That’s ridiculous!” the dad says. I’m sure he thinks I’m insane.
“I guess because the Shadows see the wardrobe as a rock in the ocean,” AJ starts explaining. “It kind of makes them divert around it. To them it’s nothing but an object in the way of a vast sea.” AJ sounds like he’s reciting poetry.
