I originally did this for an English project. It is my own alternate ending. I might continue it but not sure. It all depends on what you think.
I do not own The Host or any of its characters
"Ian?" I murmured sill deprived from sleep.
I looked through the cracks in the ceiling noticing the blackness of outside, and those three familiar stars that seem gaze upon me. I didn't need a clock to tell me that it was still early in the morning, but as for the what day, or even what month it is, I wouldn't be able to tell. Every day here seemed to blend together, it seems as though I was having déjà vu every day, but still, I couldn't help but smile.
But, this particular morning was different; I was restless throughout the night. Some thing was bothering me; I had this strange feeling that something was going to happen today, something that will not only change me but everybody that lived in these caves.
"Ian?" I called once again. As I looked around the room, the star illuminating it enough that I could see, I noticed that Ian was nowhere to be found. It was unusual for him to be awake so early, usually when he fell asleep, he slept until dawn. But I needed to talk to him; I needed to tell him that I can sense that something would happen. I decided to wait for him. Confusion swept across my face, as I stood up from the mattress. It has been 30 minutes and Ian had not returned.
"Ian?" I whispered out into the hall outside our room. I could hear the faint echoes of my voice. I decided to look in the kitchen, but as I was walking, I saw at the corner of my eye that Jared too was not in his room. Melanie had a relaxed face as she slept. I decided not to wake her until it was absolutely necessary.
I have been searching for them for quite some time and I was starting to worry. I went rigid as the image of Ian and Jared getting captured. I knew I was over thinking it, possibly becoming delusional, but I couldn't help but think about it. What if – what if Ian and Jared did get caught? What if the Seekers captured them and inserted a soul into their bodies? What if the Seekers asked them to lead to where we, I traitorous soul, and 35 humans were hiding? What would happen to us?
As I was contemplating this possibility I was searching the rooms where the bath and the latrines are held. I was overlooking the edge where the beauty of the waterfalls glistened in the dim artificial light. The sound of the heavy falls crashing against the rocks sounded like music to my ears. I relaxed from my rigid pose as I let the music of the falls sweep through me. It sounded sweet yet ominous.
I don't know how long I stood there listening, but I thought I heard something in the distance. I listened closely trying to block out the falls behind me. I was right, I heard voices, and I thought I heard a muffled scream, as if the person's mouth was being covered with someone's hand.
I ran to where I heard the noise, trying to be quick but at the same time quiet. In one of the rooms where the vegetables were being grown I saw Ian and Jared and…Jamie? They were hovering over a man that I did not recognise. I saw Jared pour something liquid into a cloth and place it in front of the man's face, his body went limp. I instantly knew what the liquid was, chloroform.
"Jamie! What is wrong with you?! What were you thinking?!" I heard Jared yell exasperated.
I slowly processed the scene in front of me, standing in front of me were Jared and Ian looking murderously angry, and then there was Jamie with an extremely guilty and frightened face. It looked as though he was ready to crawl into a corner. But as I looked at the unconsciously man on the ground, it seemed as though I had met him before. His facial features reminded me of Melanie and Jamie… As I thought about, this realization dawned upon me. No it couldn't be…How did he get here? Was he Melanie and Jamie's…father? Mr. Stryder?
"I'm sorry!" Jamie's voice squeaked as he broke out into violet sobs.
He was their father, I recognized him from Melanie's memories. As I stood there too shocked to move, the sound of Jamie crying violently broke me from my thoughts. Watching him like that was unbearable, I was so use to seeing him always joyful and excited, but seeing him now was heartbreaking. I felt to need to comfort him, so I decided to make my presence known.
"Hey! Stop it! Leave him alone!" I yelled. They spun around to face me, shock written on their faces.
"Wanda! I'm so sorry" Jamie cried while running into my open arms. He buried his face into my shoulder while his sobs continued.
"What's going on?" I demanded, looking at Ian.
They were both silent as Ian looked at Jared with his mouth shut in to a thin line while, Jared was staring at the man on the floor.
"What is going on here? Why is he here? How did he get here?" The questions were flowing out of my mouth rapidly.
I hadn't noticed that Jamie had stopped crying. I waited impatiently for an answer as I looked at the three men, they were staring at something behind me. I followed the direction of their eyes and there was…Melanie. She was staring at her father, unconscious on the ground with a blank face.
"Melanie" Her name pierced through the silence. As soon as she heard it, she ran back the way she came. We all started to run to catch up to her but Jared stopped us.
"Wait. The kid and I will go, you two stay here", his gaze fell to Jamie, "he has a lot of explaining to do anyways." With that they bolted to where Melanie had run to.
I turned toward Ian and saw that his back was to me, and was watching Mr. Stryder intently.
I put my hand on his shoulder. "What happened?" I whispered.
He sighed reluctantly. "That's Melanie's and Jamie's…father."
"I know", I stated. "But what I don't know is why he's here? How did he get here?"
"Jamie brought him here."
I stared at him too shocked to answer. How did Jamie bring him here? How could he bring him here? After a few moments of looking at him incredulously I shook my head, as if to clear my mind.
"What!" He cringed.
"Wanda. Calm Down, okay? I will tell you everything." I didn't notice that I was trembling until Ian wrapped his arms around me. I relaxed into his embrace.
"Okay, I'm calm, now explain." I demanded.
He sighed again. "Well last night, maybe an hour or two after everyone was asleep; Jared woke me up saying Jamie wasn't in his room, and that he couldn't find him anywhere. We didn't want to wake anyone, because at the time we thought it was just a misunderstanding. So when we couldn't find him we…panicked." He paused overplaying tonight events. "We saw light traces of foot prints in the sand and it led to where we left the Jeep. But when we got there it was gone. Jared and I were arguing whether or not to go after him or to just wait. We ended up waiting because we had no clue to where he went, he didn't have a reason to go out of the caves in the middle of the night and steal the car. He can barely drive!"
I stood there traumatized; I felt my knees go weak and had to sit down on the ground. Ian followed after me wrapping an arm around my shoulders. Even though his story already happened and that everyone was safe I couldn't help but feel the fear.
Once he saw I had relaxed slightly, he continued. "We were about to go back into the cave and wake everyone, but stopped when we saw the Jeep approached. We saw Jamie and some guy in it. We thought that the Seekers had got to him and he was leading them to where we were. But before we got out he shone the flashlight to his eyes and they were normal. Jared and I just stood there shocked, wondering how did he manage to go and get one of the souls and not get caught."
"What an idiot. What was he thinking? He could've gotten caught!" I shrieked, I didn't care if anyone heard me anymore, I was mortified.
"Yeah that's what I was thinking…"
"Anything else happen?"
"Well he managed to knock the guy out with the chloroform that was left in the hospital. But when we were interrogating him, his dad woke up, I'm guessing Jamie didn't use enough chloroform. That's why he was awake when we were dragging him here."
"What's going to happen to him now? And why did Jamie do it?"
"Well Jamie said that ever since we managed to get the souls out of Lacey's and Candy's and bodies, and send their souls to a different planet, that he was thinking of doing the same thing to get his dad back." He paused, thinking, "As for what's going to happen to him, I'm guessing that Doc is going to try to get him back. But as for Jamie's punishment, I don't know. I doubt that Jeb will do anything harsh as to go and shoot him, like he threatened Kyle when he brought Jodi's body back."
"Wow"
"Yeah…there's more" Did I detect a hint of…joy in his voice?
"More! Are you kidding me? What more could there be?" I was in hysterics, what else could there be to add to this.
"Well when Jamie came back, we were kind of ambushed I guess."
"Ambushed! What?! By who?! And if you were ambushed why are you here? Let me see your eyes! Oh god, you're a soul now aren't you?! You're a Seeker and you've led the rest here!" I started sobbing uncontrollably. Why did this have to happen now? Why Ian, Jamie and even Jared? Why them?
"Wanda! Wanda! Calm down. You're being hysterical." He pulled out a flashlight from his pocket and pointed it to his eyes. "Look. See. Still me. No Seeker in here."
I let out a sigh of relief. "Okay then how were you ambushed and still here?"
"Like I said we were kind of ambushed. Beside why would I tell you we were ambushed if I were a Seeker? Wouldn't that make you suspicious and suspect we were Seekers?" He tone held amusement as a reaction to my outburst. I thought I heard him mumble incoherent words about overreacting and lack of sleep causing craziness. I decided not to ask him about that.
"You still haven't answered my question. How were you ambushed and still here?" I waited impatiently for an answer.
"When we were walking into the caves we heard a click and it sound like a shotgun. So we turned around and there were about 22 people surrounding us, all of them had guns held up towards us." He heard my gasp and quickly added "But they were all human, well except one of them"
My emotions were all over the place in such a short time. I felt confusion, shock, terror, curiosity, and relief. But overall confusion over ruled the rest. "Humans, 22 humans? I thought that everyone in this cave were the last humans on earth? What do you mean except one of them?"
He laughed at my expression. The nerve of him! I was so confused, and even terrified, and he laughs at me! "Apparently were not the only ones. Well after we explained that we were human, and of course he – the leader – checked our eyes, he told us that there we many more humans out there. His group of 22, and 36 others. And for your last question they had a soul with them. Can you believe it, a soul! He's like you, he helps the humans. Says he's 'gone native'." He paused to laugh at the memory of meeting this soul. His name is…uh…oh yeah its Burns Living Flowers…from….uh man I forget."
Burns Living Flowers. My eyes widened at the name. He was from the Fire World planet – how unexpected.
"Fire World?" I asked.
"Yeah! Fire World. That's where he's from"
Later that day, Doc performed the operation of removing the soul out of Melanie's father. After a few hours of trying to wake him up, by calling his name, reliving some of the memories that they shared, he finally woke up. His eye started to twitch, while his lips curled up at the ends. He burst out laughing at one of the memories that was being told to him by Melanie and Jamie. I haven't seen Jamie so happy until that moment. When he saw his father alive and well he was euphoric. Turns out that the soul that was occupying Mr. Stryder was having a difficult time trying to get rid of him. Which is why he woke up when the soul was taken out from his body and place d inside of the cryotank?
We also had learned that Mrs. Stryder had died a few years ago.
As for the other humans, we not sure where there headed, or where they are we just hope them the best. All we wish for is love and safety. As I lay on my bed with Ian beside me in a peaceful slumber, I gaze upon the cracks in the ceiling, where those three familiar stars greet me once again. And as I stare at them I wish that everything would be alright.
"Goodnight stars" Were the last words I murmured as I fell into a peaceful sleep, awaiting a new day.
Is it good? Bad? Should i continue it?