Chapter 20
Katie stares at the black watch on her wrist. Her eyes widen as she says, “Oh dang, it’s almost time to eat.” Our group has spent the last couple hours training in the Bullseye Room. She sets her daggers back on the table and calls out, “You guys can follow me.”
As we leave the course behind, each of us set down our weapons and follow her to the hatch door. One by one, we take turns climbing down the ladder; joining Cano at the bottom. Once we’re back in the dark tunnel, Katie leads us towards the Z Room. Along the side of the tunnel are small lanterns that weren’t there before. They provide only enough light to see a few feet ahead.
When we reach the lit up basement, we step inside to a full room. Everyone else is already sitting on top of rolled out sleeping bags. No one pays any attention to our group walking through as they chat amongst themselves.
Katie spins around a few yards in front of the shelves. She raises her voice to talk over the noise. “Grab a sleeping bag and lay it out. This is where you will eat and sleep, so try not to make a mess.”
We all move over to the wooden shelves, stepping over legs along the way. I pull out three of the remaining sleeping bags and pass them back to Travis, Jace, and Luke. Before walking away, I make sure to grab an extra bag for Ty. Travis leads the way to an empty corner big enough for the three of us. As I roll out a sleeping bag, my eyes search through the crowd for any sign of Ty. I don’t see him, Allie, Lilly - or any other kids for that matter.
“Where do you think Ty is?” I whisper to Travis, who is already sitting on his laid out sleeping bag with Cano by his side.
He glances around the room before replying, “I don’t know. He’s probably playing with the other kids still."
I bite my inner lip, chewing it, while laying out the sleeping bag next to Travis. Until today, Ty hasn’t been out of my eyesight for more than a few minutes; at least not since the invasion. As I become worried, I whisper, “I’m going to go search for him.”
I take a step towards the door. Before I can get any further Colonel Kirk Samuels walks in, followed by Chris and the kids. When Ty finds me across the room his face lights up. With Allie and Lilly following behind, Ty cuts through the crowd. He races over to me and wraps his small arms around my waist.
“Hi mom! Guess what.” Ty shouts excitedly. His blue eyes gleaming up at me.
“I have an announcement.” Colonel Kirk Samuels states loudly.
“Tell me in a second. I want to hear what the Colonel has to say.” I whisper back.
He drops his arms and sighs loudly. “Fine.”
Everyone in the rooms sits down immediately. The room falls silent while everyone listens quietly to Colonel Kirk Samuels. “I have been in contact with my friend at NASA. James and his assistant, Ruth, have informed me that in order to find out their weaknesses we must capture one alive. But if we can figure out how to kill one of these things, they can work with that.”
The room erupts with voices asking all types of questions;
“How are we supposed to capture one?”
“What if it kills us?”
“Who’s going to risk their lives to do that?”
I shake my head, listening to people panicking. Then suddenly, I remember something. The night they attacked us in the woods none of them went near the river. In fact, it seemed like they avoided it. What if that’s their weakness? Water.
“What about water?” I ask. The surrounding chaos, drowns out my voice. I raise my voice to the top of my lungs and yell, “What about water?”
The room falls silent again. Everyone shifting their eyes in my direction. A few give me a surprised expression, like they had forgotten about the newcomers.
“You can grab a drink when we’re all done.” Chad replies. Even though he cleaned off the blood, his nose it still visibly hurt. It’s swelled up, almost doubling in size. Underneath his eyes has begun bruising a blue-black color, bringing out the dark green in his eyes.
“That’s not what I meant. Have anybody here tried using water to fight back with?”
The crowd shakes their heads as they look around at one another. Some mumble “No,” and stare at me. As I walk towards the front, I say, “When the Grey Ones attacked us last night in the woods none of them would get in the water. Not even when we tried to use the river for the kids to escape.”
“That doesn’t mean anything.” Chad says quickly.
I shrug my shoulders, “Maybe it does, maybe it doesn’t. I’m just telling you what happened.”
“Thank you for your input Isabelle. We’ll look into it.” Colonel Kirk Samuels says.
“Dinner’s ready.” A voice calls out from the entrance.
A group of six young men and women walk in carrying grilled fish on platters, and a few large bowls of mashed potatoes. My mouth waters when they walk past me to where a few plastic folding tables have been set up. I can tell the thin, white, creamy substance is boxed mashed potatoes. Even still, my stomach growls at the sight and smell of food.
I hop in the line and stare ahead at the meal. I’m only a few people from the front, allowing me to eye which fish I want. They are grilled whole, with only the head cut off. When the first person leaves behind the head, only grabbing the body, I decide to take it for Cano to eat.
Ty tugs on the back of my shirt, “Mom, can I tell you now?”
“Tell me what?”
“When we were playing earlier, guess what I found?”
“What did you find?” I ask, stepping forward. It’s my turn to grab a plate next.
“A secret door that leads out to the river! Well, actually I didn’t find it. Joey, my friend, he showed it to me.”
As I grab a plastic plate, I reply, “That’s cool, tiger. You’ll have to show me sometime.”
“Okay!”
After dinner, Chris informs me that the Colonel would like us to meet him back in the Radio Room. I move quickly to clean up the mess so I can get over there. While picking up the dirty napkins on the floor, I wonder if he found out something about water being their weakness. I don’t know why else he would call us back.
“Slow down, he’ll wait for us.” Travis says jokingly. He picks up Ty’s plate and passes his unfinished food to Cano.
His short tail wags excitedly at the scraps. Without sniffing the food, he scarfs down the half eaten fish. I watch impatiently while he licks the plastic plate clean. I want to get to the Radio Room, I need to know what’s going on. My foot taps rapidly as I shift my eyes back and forth from the door to Travis. His lips form a small smile before taking the plate away from the dog.
Once our group is ready to go I lead the way down the dark tunnel, with a flashlight in hand. When I reach the open door, I find Chris and the Colonel sitting at the wooden table next to Kay and Billy. An Oregon state map is spread out with a grey pin sticking out of our exact location. Chris looks up and smiles at us. Quietly, we stand together and wait at the wooden table’s edge. After a few more seconds of silence, Colonel Kirk Samuels looks up from the table.
“We’re putting together a team to catch one of these aliens. Before, I wouldn’t have asked newcomers, at least not until we had more training time together, but unfortunately a lot of our Guerrillas have up and left in the last week without even so much as a goodbye. So, I’m asking you because we don’t have many soldiers left. Are you guys in?” He makes eye contact with each of us while waiting for a response. His eyes lingering the longest on Travis.
We glance around at one another, nodding in agreement. I lock my eyes with him and ask, “What do you need us to do?”
“Staff Sergeant Chris Lee and I will be talking strategies tonight while we assemble a team. Once we have everything planned out, we will come to you.” He says. When he sits back down, his head leans over the map again. He lets out a heavy breath as his fingers slide over greyed out cities. After a few more seconds his shift back up at us. “You’re dismissed.”
Without hesitating, eve
ryone turns and walks out the room. Everyone except me. I stay in place, focused on him. “Ahem. Colonel Kirk Samuels, I wasn’t lying about the river. They wouldn’t go near it. Water could be their weakness.”
“I already looked into it.” He states while drawing circles in a few areas on the map.
“What do you mean?” I ask, surprised.
“I talked to James about the possibility of water being their weakness. He said that when his family was attacked, and killed, by the Grey Ones it was raining. It didn’t stop them one bit. So water can’t be their weakness.” He circles another spot on the map then turns to Chris. “These are the areas we will focus on.”
“How did you get in contact with him? I thought all the phones were down?”
“Not the solar powered cell phones.” He replies, lifting one up. “Is there anything else, or can we get back to work now?”
When I don’t respond, they begin to whisper back and forth amongst themselves. I march back out the brick archway. Stepping into the dark tunnel, I switch on the flashlight and peek around. The light beams on Jace, who’s standing a few yards up. My feet echo as I walk up to where he is all alone in the dark.
“What’re you doing?” I ask, stepping up to his shoulder.
“Look at her. Now I know why she wasn’t interested in me. She already had her eyes on someone else.” He says with a gruff voice.
I follow his line of vision, to where is Travis talking to Heather. I can’t hear what he’s saying, but Heather has a wide grin and giggles like a little schoolgirl. In between them, Cano’s body seems tense as he watches her closely. She laughs at one of Travis’s jokes, then playfully punches him in the arm. In an instant, Cano goes from staring to snarling and barking at her ferociously. Travis hurries to grab his chain collar before he has a chance to attack.
“Come on.” I say, pulling Jace’s arm.
Travis tugs back on Cano’s collar, repeating, “No Cano. No.”
“What’s the problem here?” I ask. I step up to them, with Jace trudging behind. Her body tenses at the sound of my voice. I bite my bottom lip to stop myself from laughing. She was obviously trying to flirt with Travis, but Cano wasn’t having that. He doesn’t like her, and neither do I.
I pat Cano’s big head and say, “Heel Cano.” Immediately, he sits down beside me and stares at her. Faint growls continue to rise from his throat.
“Heather and I were just talking and Cano freaked out.” Travis says, scratching his beard. He always complains that his beard gets itchier the longer he goes without washing it. And it’s been days since the last time he was able wash with soap.
“Well, he’s protective of what’s his and he’ll destroy anyone that comes after what he loves.” I reply with a smirk as my eyes with Heather’s. As she glares at me, I continue, “You’ll be okay as long as you don’t do anything else to make him mad.”
“Sounds like a crazy bitch if you ask me.” She mutters, her cheeks becoming red.
“Then you might want to be careful, huh?” I whisper. Still smiling, I lace my fingers with Travis’s.
“Whatever.” Heather replies. She walks back down the tunnel, towards the Radio Room.
When we begin heading in the other direction, Cano chases after us. Behind us, Jace trying again with her. “You come here often?”
“What was all that?” Travis asks.
“What do you mean?” I try to sound nonchalant. Up ahead, Lilly is playing flashlight tag with the kids, including Ty.
“It’s been a while since I’ve seen you jealous.”
“I’m not jealous of her.”
“Come on, you can admit it.”
“I just don’t like some little girl trying to flirt with you.”
“I don’t think she was flirting with me.”
“Please, you’re so naïve sometimes. Ugh, and you were just standing there, joking around with her.”
Suddenly, Travis yanks my arm to the side; pulling me into the empty Fire Room.
“What’re you doing?” I ask.
He doesn’t respond. Instead, he presses his soft lips against mine. My heart skips a beat, like this is our first kiss all over again. When he wraps his buff arms around my waist, pulling me in closer, I lose my breath. I can feel the butterflies fluttering wildly in my stomach when he pushes my back up against a wall. His hands slip around my hips and lifts me higher.
We freeze at the sounds of laughter from the playing children that are skipping past the open door. Cano chases after them playfully, his nails scraping the cemented tunnel floor.
Once it has quieted down again, Travis carries me to a darkened corner of the small basement, kissing me the whole way. With one arm wrapped around my back, squeezing me to his muscular chest, he lays me down against the cold floor. Our bodies intertwine in a guilty pleasure that has been needed and wanted for so long.
My fingers hold the front of my shirt together in the center as we slip back into the semi lit Z Room. I tiptoe over the sleeping bodies and quietly make my way to my backpack. As I pull out the only shirt, I can’t help but think how exhausted I am. Even though my bed is on a cement basement floor, surrounded by strangers, I can’t wait to fall asleep.
I wear the shirt from yesterday, that has finally dried after swimming in the river, and sneak across the room to where Ty has passed out. A flashlight in his hand shines across the floor onto Cano’s black hair. Their chests move up and down in unison as they sleep peacefully.
When I lay down on the sleeping bag, I rest my head on Travis’ chest. As I listen to his heartbeat, my mind floods with the wonders of what could be waiting for us tomorrow. I have a feeling that we’re going to need all of our strength and energy to capture a Grey One.