When Joe woke up, he felt different. Life had been shifted, in his eyes, for the better. He was a hero, his dad was now there for him, and he got the girl he had been crushing on for some time. He couldn't help but smile as he lay on his back with his arms behind his head staring at the ceiling. After running the memories of the past few days through his mind he got up and got dressed. He walked down the hallway and into the kitchen to find a note from his Dad on the table.
Had to go to work early. Be back late. Have fun, be safe. Dad
Joe just grinned at it, it was like the usual note he wrote when he had to go to work early but the "Have fun, be safe" part was new. He set the note back on the table and went out the front door. The town looked much different. Quite a bit was burned. Half of houses stood here and there from where he could see. The garage on his own house was lost but he wasn't feeling too bad about it. He was hoping that it would lead to something that he could do with his Dad together by rebuilding it. Joe smirked at the idea looking at the charred part of his home. He looked away and found his bike at the bottom of the driveway, and rode it across the road to Charles house. He knocked and could hear someone shout to come in, like usual.
"Hey Joe!" Charles called to him from behind the kitchen table covered in food and surrounded by his siblings. "Your here great, the dead line for the film festive is coming up and I was hoping to get more filming in today, do you think you could get..." Charles was cut short by his mother who saw Joe walk up to the table.
"Hello Joe dear, would you like some lunch?"
"Um yeah, that would be great." How long did he sleep in? It made sense that he would sleep in late, he finally got home, washed and fell asleep sometime around four in the morning.
"Hope you and your father got some sleep after that crazy day yesterday." Said Charles' mother picking the youngest child up from a chair and wiped some food off his face.
"I was able to get some sleep, don't know about my dad though he went to work before I woke up."
"Your father is a hard worker, hope he doesn't stress himself out with fixing this town." Charles just stared at his mother with an annoyed face for being interrupted during all of Joe's conversation with Mrs. Kasnick.
"Well Joe is fine, so is his father," Charles confirmed to his mother and turned to talk to Joe, leaving her to roll her eyes and leave the room. "Now I need you to get your fathers camera and come back here. The others should be here soon."
A small grin grew on Joe's face for his best friend. They were lucky to still be alive and all he was thinking about was his movie. He sat down at the table with Charles and had lunch. They talked about last night. His family wasn't able to get back into town until the fires were stopped and got home very early in the morning, same as most of the town. Charles told how he had to help Martin find his parents so they could take him to the hospital for his leg and explain the situation to them, they freaked out, but that was expected.
"What happened to you? I thought you were dead or the air force took you or abducted."
Joe laughed at his mixed thoughts taking a sandwich from the plate Mrs. Kasnick set on the table. He was about to start his story when Cary, Preston, and Alice walked into the house. Cary entered first and was shouting about his bravery last night with Preston following and giving a look like the whole story was exaggerated. Alice was smiling at them when she walked in but when she looked at Joe her smile grew bigger and her cheeks gained a slight blush. Joe beamed at her as she walked to him and took the chair next to him. He turned to talk to her but Charles took all eyes on him when he shouted for everyone to shut up and told his siblings to beat it from the table so everyone had a seat.
"Joe was about to tell me what happened last night before you all barged in"
"You invited us, remember?" Preston added.
"Oh shut up so he can tell it, alright? I'm sure you want to hear it to since you wimped out."
"Hey!"
"You should have seen it! The whole town was blowing you and there was..."
"Cary! I said shut up!"
Joe told what happened and told it just like it really was. He didn't feel the need to exaggerate. He started with running to the graveyard and finding the monster's hideout by the cemetery, then saving Alice with Cary's help, as Joe was reminded, and being trapped by the monster. He explained how he connected with it and knew what it was thinking and feeling, and how it must have done the same to him. He told how it built a model with metal from the town and the cubes, made a ship, and flew away. Joe left out the more emotional side of the event with his Dad and Alice. He continued telling them about being questioned for two hours by the air force, and then released to go home.
"What kind of question did they ask?" Charles asked.
Joe opened his mouth to answer.
"Did you have to take test and stuff? Were you drugged so they could get answers?" Cary continued to rattle on with obscure questions. Charles let out a loud sigh and rolled his eyes. Preston looked around the table confused then asked where Martin was.
"He's in the hospital, remember?" Charles said giving him a stupid look.
"No, what happened?"
"We were hiding in this house then it blew up, he broke his leg and I fixed it, well tried, and his parents took him to the hospital last night."
"Oh, didn't know that."
"Of course not! You stayed behind because you thought we would die!" Cary interjected.
"Well it was good thing I stayed behind or your Dad," Preston turned to Joe, "Would have not of found you."
"You gave him the film?" Charles asked.
"Yeah, after he threatened to throw me in jail if I didn't tell him where Joe was."
"Does he still have it? Because I needed that and you gave it away!"
"And I never saw it!" Cary added.
The three of them continued to bicker as Joe thought over Preston's words. Was that how his Dad knew to find him? Joe wondered if he was looking for him at the shelter or if someone told him he was missing. Alice must have known what Joe was thinking. She leaned closer to him so she could be heard over the argument.
"My Dad told me last night, that your Dad stole an air force uniform to find you. I guess he used it to get my Dad from them to come find us."
"I wondered why he was wearing that last night." Joe wondered out loud.
"Joe," She leaned forward and grabbed his forearm, "He wants to thank you, my Dad, for saving me last night but never had the chance." She leaned in closer and Joe felt like his body completely shut down as she got even closer and kissed his cheek. "And so do I." She gave a small smile and leaned back in her chair just in time before Charles started to give orders.
"Alright, as Preston here so kindly reminded me that we can't film today because we have no Martin, our main actor," He stood up from the table, and Joe snapped out of his little coma. She just kissed him on the cheek, which proves that she likes him too, right?
"So that means that we need to see how quickly he can get back on his feet." Charles started for the door and the rest all stood from the table and followed him. Outside there was a mound of bikes and Joe detangled his from the bottom.
The ride to the hospital was mostly silent. The group rode slowly through town looking at all the damage inflicted upon the town. Houses were burned down, debris lay in the streets, and the worst was watching people dig through it all for belongings. Military personnel were still in town cleaning up their supplies spread through town and trying to help Lillian in any way possible. Joe looked at Alice as she watched people cleaning the remains of their houses and she looked like she was on the verge of tears. At that moment all Joe wanted to do was to hug her, and he didn't understand why.
When Joe reached the hospital he placed his bike in the bike rack with the rest of the group's and started to walk to the front door. As he grabbed the door to the hospital opened by Charles he felt a hand slip into his. He stopped in the doorway and Alice pulled him through smiling at him.
"Come on," She said still holding his hand, "Don't want Charles to get angry." Joe walked hand in hand with her following the others to the woman behind the front desk. Cary asked for Martin's room rather rudely and Joe thanked her after she gave them the room number. When they reached the room, Martin's lower left leg had a cast and he was a sleep.
"Oh no!" Charles shouted when he saw Martin. "We're never going to get my movie done on time! How can I direct someone who has to wobble around? What am I going to do about this?" He looked to the others and pointed at Martin.
"You could leave him alone." Martin must have woken up when Charles started complaining.
"Martin!" They all shouted.
He opened his eyes and grabbed his glasses from the bedside table. "Hey guys."
Joe spoke first. "How's your leg?"
Martin looked at Joe then looked at his hand still holding Alice's. Joe let go of her hand before anyone else noticed, and she must have had the same idea because he could've sworn that her hand started to let go of his first. He gave Joe a weird look then answered him. "It could be better, but it's alright and it doesn't hurt right now. "
"Really? That's great!" Charles said next "When you start walking again?"
"I was told I could get crutches and leave the hospital when my parents get back to check me out."
"No I mean WALKING, I need you to be the detective, you know, for my film?"
"When are your parents getting back?" Preston asked.
"An hour or two I think, they went back home to fix things up." Martin answered ignoring Charles.
"I guess we just have to wait for your parents now." Charles said a little frustrated and took the seat by Martin's bed.
"Sweet!" Cary had a very excited look of his face. "I've always wanted to play in a hospital!"
Everyone looked at him.
"Cary, what are you talking about?" Martin said concerned.
The group spent their time riding in the halls on gurneys, dressing up like doctors pretending to work there, and pushing Charles down a flight of stairs in a wheelchair. All resulted in them looking for a place to hide for the hospital guards. When Martins parents came and finally checked him out, all of them had managed to gain small cuts and bruises, but to them all it was worth it. Cary tried to make a joke telling them that it was funny that they were injured in a hospital; Charles just told him he was an idiot. They all walked outside to a nice, warm and sunny, summer afternoon. It was quickly ruined by someone shouting at them.
"THERE THEY ARE!"