Oh No, Aliens

Hadley asked if they had two rooms on opposite ends of the hotel, and the manager gave her a weird look.

“Ah, sorry. The two we have available are across the hall from each other. We’re doing some renovations.”

“Of course they are,” Hadley sighed.

“We weren’t even sure if we should stay open, considering the...”

“Alien invaders?” Hadley said helpfully.

“Right. We only stay because it seems confined to New York. We’re just a small town, I can’t imagine they’d want anything around here.”

Hadley took her key and Jack took his and they climbed the stairs to the second floor.

“Butts,” Hadley muttered to herself. “Maybe that’s what they’re after.”

“Are you seriously making a probe joke right now?”

“I’m sorry, who was it that took an alien-powered car that broke so then we had to get into a car with two Roman gods who smelled like feet and cheap weed? I’ll make all the probe jokes I want.”

She pushed open her door and dropped her bag on the bed before plugging her phone into the charger. It had started working again after they’d left the city, but she wasn’t sure how long that would last. Her bigger concern right now was the lack of a car. Of course something would have to go wrong. She sat on the bed, flipping aimlessly through channels on the tv without paying attention to what was actually on. It occasionally went fuzzy anyway. Hadley stood and began to pace instead, walking back and forth from one wall to the other. She felt like they should get back on the road, car or no car.

She made herself stop pacing and try some vocal warm up exercises to distract herself from the constant knots of terror she’d had in her stomach and her neck since the alien crafts first appeared. Jack appeared at her door a few hours later, offering her some junk food he’d gotten from the vending machines.

“I have gourmet snack chips and their finest Coca-Cola,” he said, dropping a pile of stuff on her bed. Hadley didn’t move to take any of it, feeling a childish impulse to ignore or refuse everything he ever said or did. Jack sighed after a moment.

“Look, I know you hate me but it probably can’t actually sustain you, so you should really eat something.”

“What do you care?” Hadley asked irritably. “You pretending to be a nice guy is really annoying.”

“That doesn’t make any sense.”

“I don’t care. Get out of my room.”

“Hadley-“

“Out.”

He sighed again. “Okay, fine.”

When he was gone Hadley stood there, not sure what to do now. Eventually she gave in and ate the snacks he’d brought her, then tossed and turned without sleeping a wink. They met up in the morning to check out, and went in search of a place to rent a car. They must have looked insane, walking around with their bags and a cat carrier in the middle of the apocalypse. Apparently the hits decided to keep on coming, because the car rental place was closed when they got there.

“Oh come on, are you kidding me?” Hadley almost kicked the door.

“We can always hitchhike to the next town,” Jack suggested.

“I don’t know if you’ve heard, but hitchhiking is actually dangerous,” Hadley snapped. “It’s bad enough that I’m dealing with aliens and you, I don’t need to add a serial killer into the mix.” She yanked her bag violently off the ground and stalked away. “There’s another small town just a few miles from here. We’ll walk.”

“I thought you didn’t want to walk with all our stuff,” Jack reminded her.

“Well I’m sure as hell not waiting until tomorrow to rent a car. We need to keep moving.”

He followed her as they walked along the freeway. They saw fewer cars than they had yesterday, and when they strolled into the town of Loper late that afternoon, it looked like a ghost town. It was even smaller than Briar Glen; more of a sleepy rest stop than an actual town. She wondered if some people had just skipped town because of the aliens.

“This is ridiculous,” Hadley grumbled. “We’re only in Pennsylvania and we’ve been on the road for two days.”

“There’s a gas station up ahead. Maybe there’ll be someone there who can give us directions or something.”

Hershey growled; a low, angry sound that Hadley knew meant the cat was spooked. His fur had puffed up. She stopped short, glancing around.

“Hey Hershey, what’s the matter?” Jack was peering worriedly into the carrier.

“He probably smelled or heard something and whatever it is, he doesn’t like it.” Hadley glanced behind them, feeling jittery. She thought she saw a flash of movement off in the distance, where the shadows had already lengthened as the sun set. It was setting fast.

“I think we should run,” she said quietly. Jack was too preoccupied with the cat to hear her, but she saw something move again. It was definitely headed in this direction and it was getting darker by the second.

“Jack,” she said loudly. “Run.”

“What?”

“Run.” They raced down the street as fast as they could to the gas station. They darted in and Hadley locked the bolt on the door.

“Get down,” she said, scrunching down behind a magazine rack. Jack followed suit.

“What’s the matter?” he asked.

“I saw something out there. And clearly Hershey noticed too, he’s freaking out.”

The cat was yowling like a demon was upon them, his ears flat against his skull.

“Jack, you’ve got to get him to quiet down,” Hadley said anxiously, peeking over the rack to scan the street. “Whatever’s out there might hear.”

“I’ve never seen him like this, I don’t think I can calm him down till that thing is gone.”

“Move him further from the door, and wrap a jacket around the carrier. It’ll muffle the noise and it might make him feel safer. But stay out of sight.”

Jack scooted back a couple of aisles, and Hershey’s growling quieted slightly. Hadley peeked out again into the gas station parking lot and swallowed a scream. It moved on four legs, though its feet didn’t resemble paws. They were more like long, misshapen hands. It had a long face, and strange, sunken eyes that didn’t seem to actually see anything. Its skin reminded her of the sinewy muscle you’d see if you skinned something alive; vaguely wet, reddish in color. It didn’t have a tail or any ears that she could see, but a bruise-colored tongue lolled out of its mouth. It had a lot of wicked looking teeth.

She ducked back down, her heart jackhammering in her chest. “Jack, there’s something outside,” she hissed. “Don’t let it see you.”

Jack belly-crawled back to where she was. He took one look at her face and carefully peered over the windowsill.

“What the fuck?” he whispered, quickly ducking back down. Hadley didn’t move, pressing her lips tight together to keep from making a sound as she heard something bump against the door. She held her breath, terrified that it was going to break through the glass and maul them to death. But after a few moments she thought she heard it walking away. They waited several tense minutes to peek out. There was no sign of the horrible thing.

“We shouldn’t go outside until morning,” Jack said, running a shaky hand through his hair. “We didn’t see this thing till it got dark, maybe it’s nocturnal or something.”

“Oh, do you think so, Professor?” Hadley asked acidly.

“Hey, easy, I’m just making an observation.”

“No one needs your dumb fucking observations.”

“I’m just tying to help,” he said, sounding frustrated. “I’ve been trying to help this whole time.”

“And what, you want a medal for it?”

He opened his mouth to reply but stopped, studying her for a moment. “I know some breathing exercises that you can do when you’re feeling stressed.”

“Breathing exercises. You know some breathing exercises. Well that’s great, Jack, that’s just amazing. That’s exactly what I need right now. Breathing exercises will fix it right up.”

“Hadley, you’re panicking,” he said, and his gentle tone sent a wave of irrational fury shooting through her.

“Of course I’m panicking!” she snarled. “I have no idea what’s happening to my family, I might never see them again. There are monsters prowling the fucking streets and I am trapped here, two thousand miles from my home, with one of the biggest assholes I have ever met in my entire life who has apparently morphed into some kind of hippy weirdo. You’re damn right I’m panicking, and I’m going to panic all I want because I think this situation warrants some fucking panic!”

Hadley gasped slightly, trying to suck air into her lungs. She was on the verge of hyperventilating and couldn’t make her heart slow down. She felt shaky and nauseous.

Jack disappeared for a moment and returned with Hershey, who had finally calmed down. The monster must really be gone.

“Here,” Jack said. “Pet Hershey, it’ll relax you. You need to breathe, okay? You’re going to pass out.”

Hershey seemed to sense her distress and hopped into her lap, kneading her leg. Hadley stroked his fur until she was able to stop gasping for air. Then she burst into tears, hugging the cat and burying her face in his fur. He made a slightly indignant noise but let her cry all over him for a few minutes, until her sobbing quieted into hiccups. Then he padded back into his carrier and groomed himself. Hadley wiped at her eyes, her cheeks tingly.

“Are you okay?” Jack asked.

“No,” she sniffed.

“Right, stupid question.”

Hadley dropped her head into her hands, staring at the floor while she collected her thoughts. Reluctantly she looked up.

“I’m sorry that I screamed at you,” she said, keeping her tone brisk to hide how awkward she felt. “We probably should stay here until morning, just in case that thing is still out there. We should get up early and keep walking. We need to track down another car.”

She rummaged in her bag for some water, pretending that she hadn’t just fallen to pieces. And she felt a little guilty for being so mean, but she wasn’t going to deal with that right now. It was stupid to hang onto her traumatic high school experience, but the chronic bullying had destroyed her self-esteem. Even if Jack was helping her now, she wasn’t quite ready to just get over it. She scrunched up in a little ball on the floor, using a few magazines as a pillow. She dozed off a little, but any time she heard a noise she’d immediately wake up again. Eventually she gave up and just lay there staring at the ceiling and waiting for the sun to come back up so they could get the hell out of there.