Home Alone

by Mel Todd

  ~Let me go up and I'll call you. If anything happens, go home, Jessi. Promise me.~

  Green cat eyes looked up at him. For a moment he thought she'd refuse and he had bad visions of her attacking the social worker as they took him off to a temporary placement.

  ~I promise.~ She said and settled down, disappearing into the shadows in the grass. He sighed with relief, left the pack with her, and with the keys in his sweating hand, he headed towards the back door.

  Climbing onto the deck he peered around to look in the sliding glass door but it looked empty. With slow and careful movements, he really didn't want to drop the keys, he put the key in the lock and turned it, then slid open the door.

  Stuffy cool air flowed out and he sighed. He could sense no one was in the house. The need to get clean, put on real clothes, and get food clawed at him but he couldn't afford to do any of that.

  ~Come on in, Jessi.~ He sent as he headed to the kitchen. He washed his hands as they were almost brown with dirt. Even as he finished, he felt Jessi drop the bag at his feet and head to the bathroom. She came out a few minutes later with one of McKenna's long t-shirts on. They pulled food out of the fridge and sat on the floor eating it, so hungry they didn't even try to talk.

  He listened as they ate, alert to any sound, but he didn't hear anything. They ate until they were stuffed. They put everything back in the fridge then filled the pack with some bars and fruit. Charley stopped long enough to brush his teeth, wash his face, and grab a blanket for them to curl up on. Then they both headed to the door. He locked it behind them so very carefully and then they headed for the ditch, their stress melting off as they reached it.

  Jessi didn't even complain, being more than willing to sleep. Charley laid out the blanket, stripped and then one white wolf and one black jaguar curled up and fell asleep.

  The dream this time was different. Jamie wasn't there and it felt like an arm was missing but they also weren't in the field; instead, it looked like what he'd seen in the movies for army people. There were lots of bunk beds but instead of green, everything was black and red. The beds were all different sizes. Some were really small, like smaller than human Jessi while others were big enough two JD's would fit.

  He and Jessi sat at in two chairs staring out a window. When he focused on it, he thought his heart would stop except, as usual, he couldn't affect this body, this version of him. Outside the window, part of his mind corrected with the words translucent bulkhead, a planet hung in the middle of blackness with stars. The planet had circles around it, made up of bits of things that reflected light. It looked pretty and strange at the same time but he thought he could have stared at it forever.

  “Report to your Commander at once.” The voice seemed to be everywhere but only Charley and Jessi stood up, which meant it had only been sent to them. Leaving the window looking onto space, they turned smoothly and headed towards the small room their Commander stayed in.

  “Reporting as ordered.” The words Charley said weren’t in English. For the first time it dawned on him, as he heard the words come out of his mouth, that they weren’t in any language he’d ever heard.

  The same male, he wasn't human and Charley didn't think he'd ever been human, looked up at where they stood at attention, just inside the door to his office. Against the far wall was a bed that had been collapsed to lay against the wall, giving a bit more space for the large male who worked at a shiny desk that he touched as he looked up and the image on it changed.

  “With your third in the infirmary due to an accident during training, it is inefficient to send you to more squad tactics practice. His skills are such that he will be repaired and returned to you shortly. We have word of your fourth but it may be a while until that Kaylid is ready to join your group. The skill set presented is odd and we are still evaluating its effect on squad and battalion dynamics. Until then you have new assignments.”

  He clicked an area on the desktop and a square light appeared in the link board in his mind. Something he’d never seen happen before.

  “I’ve sent the information to you. I expect your normal excellence with this assignment. Dismissed.” With that he glanced back down at his table.

  Charley found himself walking back to the window with the planet hanging in the center, having no desire to move or leave. He just wanted to look out the window for a while.

  He glanced at Jessi and saw her own confusion. With a half shrug he poked at the light while connected to Jessi. Information flowed up in front of them, in the same place as when they were in the field.

  A grunt from her told him she saw the same thing. They began reading. The words were big, things he didn’t know how to pronounce but he seemed to understand what they said. He could feel Jessi panicking a bit, but that only seeped in via their private channel, the deep one that let him see through her eyes if needed to.

  Assignment: Provide body guard protection to Elentrin ambassadors.

  He didn’t want to examine what that meant but the body, the not-him knew.

  Target Information: Probable population worldwide 970 million. Estimated Kaylid’s created - 1.5 million. Probable deaths prior to arrival .5 million. All Kaylid will be rabid, attacking their families and neighbors. The Ambassadors will be there to rescue them and take their afflicted population away. The commander will force them into humanoid form. You will make sure they remain docile. Examples may be made as needed. The ones that pass examination will be loaded into the transport ships for wiping and training.

  Bodyguard duties will include: scanning possible Kaylid, dispose of any that do not meet basic requirements as directed by Commander. Provide examples of what an uncontrolled Kaylid could do and other duties as requested by Elentrin or Commander.

  Population fragmented into multiple countries and languages.

  Most spoken: Mandarin, English, Arabic, Spanish and French. These will be loaded into your cortex and assimilate over the remaining trip.

  Charley reread that last section three times, each time the words didn’t change. He forced the body to look out the window again and he stared at the planet hanging in the sky, now with a menace it hadn’t contained before.

  Jessi, whining pulled him out of the not-dream. He rocked her shoulder, then shifted into human, pulling on a long t-shirt as she did the same.

  “I thought they were dreams. Weird, kinda cool, but dreams.” He had to strain to hear her, her voice was so low.

  “Me too. But I think maybe I’ve seen that planet in pictures.” Charley wrapped his arms around his legs, resting his head on his knees. “Those numbers didn’t look right. I thought there were more zeros, but it was just something McKenna and JD were taking about one day. In the newspaper. I’m probably wrong.” He closed his eyes, the information tumbling around in his brain.

  “Do we tell someone?” Her voice broke a little and he almost didn’t reply, but he needed to say it.

  “Who? The only people who might believe us, were taken from us.” Those words broke the dam and Jessi threw her arms around him as he cried, her tears mingling with his.

  It took a while before the tears stopped and Jessi sat back, wiping her nose on the T-shirt. “So what do we do?” Her voice thick and clogged from crying. “What if it is important and we forget it?”

  Charley gnawed on his lip thinking. “I know.” He grabbed the backpack and dug until he pulled out McKenna’s phone. They’d carefully kept it off but now he powered it up and typed in the passcode. “We can leave a voice memo. Then when, or if, we think they should know we can use this if we don’t remember.”

  Part of him thought he’d never forget, but then so much of it didn’t make sense now. There were words he didn’t want to understand the meanings of and numbers that he didn’t know if he read correctly. They both talked, putting in everything they remembered, and it took them what seemed like longer than the not-dream took. But they listened to it, making faces at how their voices sounded in the tunnel, but declared it good. He powered it ba
ck off and stretched.

  “Food?”

  Jessi nodded. They pulled on clothes and headed up to the house, being wary as they looked for any new cars but enjoying the cool wind brought by the dark clouds hanging over the Sierra’s.

  15

  Killing Time

  Two large children's clothing lines are rolling out with a new line dubbed "Called Kids" and "Wild Child". This clothing has subtle snaps down the sides and is extra durable so that if children shift they can easily get out of the clothes and it can withstand the damage better. A line aimed at teenagers is rumored to be out by Christmas. ~ TNN Fashion

  They checked out the house as normal but this time the emptiness struck him as safe. They slipped in the back door and Jessi took McKenna’s master bathroom while he went to his. After using the toilet like a human, something he’d never be able to take for granted again, he showered and brushed his teeth. Just these simple actions made him feel better.

  He headed out to the kitchen and pulled out some food for them, even as he frowned at how fast they were going through things he didn’t have to cook. But that was not happening again. Even the thought of messing with the stove until he was much older made him sick to his stomach so chimichangas worked for breakfast. He put two in the microwave and put six more on the counter. That should give them enough to eat.

  Waiting for the microwave, he pulled the phone out of his pocket. After that morning he hadn’t been able to leave it there, so he left it on and plugged it in. It beeped saying it was charging and he left it there, tucked out of the way.

  Jessi emerged dressed in another of McKenna’s shirts, her dark hair wet from the shower. She also looked a bit more relaxed.

  He handed her one of the chimichangas solemnly as he took them from the microwave and put in the next ones. They ate in silence until the food was gone, then Jessi looked outside and sighed.

  “Do you think we can watch TV for a bit, then go play? I wanted to see if I could find that rabbit again.”

  Charley shrugged. “Sure.” They curled up watching TV for a bit, though nothing scary at all. After Alien he didn't trust sci-fi movies. A few hours later they stepped out and locked up. He hid the key with the clothes as he shifted.

  Soon enough the two of there were out playing. He poked at the link for Jamie but he never responded. It felt wrong to be out here without him. He almost suggested they see if they could get close enough to the hospital to talk to him but he didn’t know where they took him. It could be anywhere.

  Charley focused on helping Jessi hunt instead of giving into the fear and worry that flashed through him. Jessi didn’t catch the rabbit, but the exercise tired her out. He had noticed that playing as animals wore them out faster than playing as human ever had.

  Jessi shook herself and looked up.

  ~It’s raining. I don’t wanna get wet. Nap?~

  ~Yeah, I could sleep a bit. I’m not super hungry, are you?~

  ~Nah, just a nap.~

  They trotted back, Jessi twitching her fur with every drop that landed until they scrambled back into the pipe and back to where they had put the blanket. He collapsed on it with relief and closed his eyes. She curled up next to him and they fell asleep.

  “Would you like to explain to me exactly why you haven’t tracked down your fourth? You know this assignment will require your squad a full strength. Why haven’t you filled the last position?” The familiar male stood in front of them and Charley found himself at attention.

  “Sorry, Master Instructor, that Kaylid has not presented them self to us at this time.”

  “Well maybe you should find them? You can’t wait forever. Our leaders will not allow the reclamation of our seeded Kaylid with fragmented squads. Get that fourth before we deploy.” He glared at them and then turned and stalked away, a long white stripe down his back turning into a pure white tail.

  “Move to bodyguard training.” The voice said in and out of their head and they found themselves moving. This training only had six people and they felt an odd disconnect, knowing half their squad was missing. The training grabbed both of them and even if Jessi had been bored, which he didn’t sense, they seemed to have no option but to learn. They learned how to see weapons, scan a room, and track body language. That part fascinated him, not only because of what they were learning, but the variety of beings displayed. Humans were presented but so were so many different species, both in the half animal forms he was familiar with, and in the other two forms.

  Lost in learning, the wetness tugging at his fur didn’t make sense. He kept looking down at the adult body. It was a body that he knew wasn’t his but still seemed like his. There was no water. Pushing the thought away, he focused on lesson and then choked, coughing as water went in his nose.

  Blinking his eyes as he lifted his head, he snorted out the water than had invaded his nose. The pipe they were in had water flowing through it and it was rising quickly.

  ~Jessi!~ He jerked around to see her stumbling to her feet, still in cat form.

  ~Charley, what is going on?~

  He shifted, not caring about nudity and grabbed their two bags. “Head to the house now. Run as fast as you can. I’m coming after you.” Jessi took off out of the pipe at a run, splashing through water that already hit her knee joints. He splashed out after her, crouched bent over, and moving slower. Even in the time it took him to get to the end of the pipe, the water had risen noticeably. He stood up and the water in the ditch crested around his knees. Standing up, he climbed out of the ditch and saw Jessi’s dark form headed to the house, her tail lashing as the rain pelted down.

  The entire area lit up when lighting struck and he flinched as the thunder came right on the heels of it, cracking and rolling across the sky like angry gods. The rain poured so hard he only could find the house because he knew where it was, having spent the last few weeks mapping out every inch of this land. The wet ground made the walk less painful than it might have been. All the grass was soft and flexible and the stones sank into the mud.

  Jessi wanted for him at the back door, drenched, tail lashing and ears laid back. Lightning struck again and they both flinched. He fumbled for the key in the clothes and got the door unlocked. They slipped in and shut the door just as another huge crack of lighting hit so close he could smell it. The background hum of electricity in the house disappeared and the low lights in the kitchen all winked out.

  ~Charley?~ Her voice quavered in his head and he put his hand on her head.

  “It’s just the electricity. I’ll get us some jerky and we can curl up.” He tried to convince himself of that as he headed to his room to grab some clothes. In the rainy late afternoon, with cracks of lighting that illuminated the strangest things, the house had looming shadows and sounds that he couldn’t place. By the time he pulled on some clothes he jumped at every sound.

  A hand touched his arm and he almost screamed, spinning around to see Jessi standing there, one of McKenna’s night shirts covering her to her mid-calf.

  “I don’t like this,” her voice wobbled, and another flash of light let him see her lips trembling.

  “Yeah. Go get some blankets and curl up. I’ll be there in a minute.” She sniffed hard and nodded. He just wanted adults, someone to tell them it would be alright.

  Something rattled against the windows and the door and Charley felt his heart start to race. They hadn’t checked before they came in here. They didn’t look at what cars were out front. What if the men came back? They should have never come here.

  More sounds and creaks and groans had him trying to breathe as his head pounded so hard he almost couldn’t see.

  I won’t let them take us.

  He headed to the gun safe and with shaking fingers entered the code. Each sound made him jump and he had to do it twice before it unlocked and showed McKenna's guns laying there.

  She had told him she carried two, a nine m-something for work and something with the numbers thirty-eight in it for back up. Over all Charley didn
’t care that much about guns but now he’d never seen anything so pretty. He picked up the smaller one, the one she said was her back up piece. Just holding it made him feel better and with it held awkwardly in both hands he headed to the kitchen.

  Glancing into the living room he saw Jessi swaddled in blankets. It helped and, feeling silly, he put the gun down on the counter. He grabbed jerky, granola bars, and peanut butter. He headed to the piled of blankets that contained the girl and dropped down next to her.

  “Here. I got us some stuff to eat.” She nodded, her eyes fastened on the raging storm outside. Charley wanted to cuddle in with her. Try and make them both feel better. He didn’t know what else to do to help. With a sigh he got up and headed back to the kitchen to get some water for both of them. As odd as it sounded, all the fear made him thirsty. The water in the tap still worked, so he filled two glasses and headed back to Jessi.

  A loud bang by the door that lead to the kitchen made him jump and he dropped one of the glasses. It hit the ground with a crack of plastic on wood, spilling water everywhere. He looked at the door and in the dim light the cloud cover allowed in, he saw the knob turn. Panicked, he dropped the other glass. The men in black taking McKenna flashing through his mind.

  ~Jessi, RUN~ he shouted in his mind. Her head jerked over to him as he grabbed for the gun, fumbling it and trying to hold it. He cocked the hammer back, heard it click and pointed it at the door as he rested it on the counter. Part of him was aware of Jessi’s sob of panic as she ran to the bedroom. Unable to breathe or to swallow, he focused on the door. It swung open with a jerk and he panicked, pulling the trigger as he tried to hold the weapon up. The pistol fired and the recoil knocked it out of his hand as he looked at the person standing in the door.