Oh No, Aliens

Hadley woke up and couldn’t remember where she was. She’d been dreaming about home but this room didn’t look familiar. Then she remembered where she was and everything that had happened and she sat up, looking around to find Jack sleeping in the chair by the window. The last thing she remembered was watching that dumb movie where Jim Carrey tried to be God. She got up and made the bed, then went about her morning routine until Jack woke up.

“How are you feeling today?” she asked.

“Better. My arm still hurts but I’m getting my strength back.”

“Good. Then I think we can get back on the road tomorrow,” Hadley said. “It’s creepy, with no other people around here.”

“At least it means no one is trying to car jack us again.” Jack stood up and stretched. Hadley had located a laundry room, so she gathered up the dirty clothes and washed them. She hadn’t packed very much for this little misadventure; she was running out of clean clothes. She could hear Jack upstairs taking a shower so she also did the dishes and scrounged up some lunch. She had no idea if the people who owned this place were ever coming back, or if they were even alive. But she’d feel bad if she left the place a mess.

Jack was sprawled across the bed in a pair of ratty sweatpants when she returned.

“What yoga pose is that?” she asked. “Roadkill?”

“Ha ha.” Jack lifted his arm off of his face. “I don’t have all my energy back yet.”

“Well here’s a turkey club to speed things up.”

“You don’t have to keep cooking for me.”

“Making a sandwich isn’t exactly cooking, and anyway you can’t actually live off of Twizzlers and chocolate bars. You need to eat real food sometimes.”

She set a plate of deli turkey on the floor for Hershey, since they were running low on cat food. He sniffed it and then gobbled it down greedily. Then she changed Jack’s bandage again, checking to make sure there was still no sign of infection.

“This is going to leave a pretty nasty scar,” she remarked, reaching for some fresh gauze.

“It’ll make for a great story.”

Hadley carefully wrapped the gauze around his arm. “Just don’t overdo it. If you break my carefully done stitches I’m going to kick your ass.”

“Yes, ma’am. I’ve seen you and that taser in action.”

Hadley rifled through the cupboard where she’d found the movies, since there wasn’t much else to do. She put something on without even looking to see what it was. Jack was still taking up most of the bed with his droopy starfish routine, so she shoved his legs out of her way so she could sit down.

“Did you really put on Friday the 13th?” he asked, sitting up.

“I guess so.” Hadley clicked play. “Kinda weird that a B and B even has this movie.”

“I told you, this house is haunted. Why else would they have a movie about Jason mass murdering camp counselors in the cupboard.”

“Mrs. Voorhees.”

Jack looked at her blankly. Hadley gestured with the remote. “Jason wasn’t the killer in the first Friday the 13th. His mom was. Jeez, Jack, if we were living in the world of Scream instead of War of the Worlds right now you’d be dead for getting your horror trivia wrong.”

“Well look at you, secret horror nerd.”

Hadley smiled slightly. “Goth phase, remember? That’s part of where my teenage troubles came from. But I did become something of a horror film buff.”

“If you don’t mind my asking, why exactly inspired the whole goth girl thing? It doesn’t seem very...you.”

“I don’t know, I guess I was just trying to be different from what is ‘me.’ I was homeschooled during elementary school, and then in eighth grade I really wanted to go into town and go to school with everyone else. I got teased for being a weird farm girl, so eventually I thought if I made myself as not farm girl as possible, they’d stop making fun of me. But as we both know, that little social experiment failed spectacularly. I was also just gawky and awkward and all the other girls bloomed before me so I guess I thought if I dressed different from everyone else it would distract people from that. I was just doomed to be a bully target no matter what.”

She shrugged. “I went back to homeschooling halfway through junior year, dressed like myself again, finally grew into my body a little bit, and then went off to New York for college. I feel mostly good about myself now, I think. I can’t always tell, honestly.”

Hershey hopped into her lap, kneading her leg and head butting her chin.

“You just had lunch a couple hours ago,” Hadley laughed, scratching his chin. “You can’t be ready for dinner already.”

Hershey just meowed and head butted her again, eventually falling asleep on her chest.

“Guess I won’t be moving for a while,” Hadley remarked.

“I can make dinner tonight,” Jack offered.

“You’re in recovery.”

“I think I can make it to the kitchen and back.” Jack rolled his eyes.

“By make dinner I hope you mean actual food and not snacks,” she called after him. She laid back on the bed, Hershey’s purring rumbling through her ribs. Jack eventually made his way back up with what looked like a catering platter covered in cheese, crackers, fruit slices and salami.

“I just kinda grabbed a little of everything,” he admitted. Hershey finally woke up and they had to fend him away from their dinner, tossing scraps of meat to him so he’d stop trying to shove his head into the middle of the plate. They fell asleep at some point in the middle of watching a cheesy romcom, which was all that was left of the movies Hadley had found. She woke up draped horizontally across the bed, her legs dangling over the edge. Jack was sort of scrunched into a ball, facedown in a pillow. Hadley nudged him awake.

“If you’re feeling up to it, I think we can get moving,” she said. He nodded and pushed himself up. Hadley suppressed a giggle and he frowned.

“What?”

“Your hair. It’s all...poofed.” Hadley started laughing. “You look like a cockatoo,” she wheezed.

“Cockatoos are very smart birds,” Jack grumbled, trying to smooth down his tousled hair while Hadley clutched her sides. Once she’s recovered, she triple checked to make sure they hadn’t forgotten anything, and they walked outside to the truck.

“I’ll drive the rest of the way,” Hadley said. “We don’t have too far left to go, and you shouldn’t be behind the wheel in case you get dizzy again.”

They set off down the road again, Hadley humming and tapping her fingers on the steering wheel. She was in high spirits being so much closer to home, until she spotted another car in the rear view mirror. They had appeared rather abruptly, driving like a bat out of hell right on their tail.

“Uh, Jack?” Hadley said slowly. “This might sound crazy, but I kinda think that car is coming after us.”

Jack twisted in his seat to look and cursed.

“Shit,” he said. “There’s a Leon Air logo on the hood.”

Hadley didn’t get a chance to respond because the car behind them accelerated, hitting the back of the truck. She jerked the wheel but the truck spun, skidding across the asphalt and coming to a violent stop with one wheel in a small ditch. Hadley was knocked forward and banged her forehead on the steering wheel, wincing. The Leon Air car stopped and three guys in dark suits got out and walked toward them.