Disclaimer: The Host and all of its characters belong to Stephenie Meyer.
A/N: I have been working on this one-shot for months now and I'm finally to the point where I'm satisfied with it. I hope you guys like it too! :) I got a small bit of the dialogue from the book, pages 87 – 88. And I allude to Invasion of the Body Snatchers (the original one directed by Don Siegel) a bit and you should check it out if you're as much of a science fiction nerd as I am. Please read and review!
Invasion!
Jebediah Stryder is not crazy. He knows that everyone thinks he is one tin-foil hat away from bonkers, but he really is perfectly sane. He's not paranoid either, something was definitely going on with one of his neighbors. Samuel Mertz had been a miserable bastard for the ten long years that Jeb had lived next door to him. He made it a point to let everyone he came into contact know just how much he hated them and why. Jeb couldn't even count the number of times that he had been stopped in his yard and had to listen to the man rant on about how his long hair annoyed Sam because he hated "those god damn hippies." But now he was being downright pleasant to everyone, smiling and waving and complimenting people on their lawns and gardens, and Jeb couldn't understand why he was the only one who thought it was strange. And now it seemed like the man had even made friends. He was having what appeared to be dinner parties almost twice a week, and there seemed to be a constant string of strangers attending them. No one went twice, except for the Ronins from down the street. And there was something really suspicious about these parties. Jeb would watch from a darkened window on the second floor of his home (but he swears it was a completely normal thing to do) as everyone left the party, shaking hands and laughing at each other's jokes. And they were all different, although he couldn't really explain why. They all looked exactly the same as they had when they entered Sam's house but something was off.
That was why he was currently sneaking around his neighbor's backyard in the dark. Sam was holding another one of his little parties and Jeb was determined to get to the bottom of it. Almost all of the lights on the first floor were on but the place looked deserted. The off-white table cloth in the dining room had been stained a dark red from an overturned wine glass and two of the chairs were on their sides as if there had been some kind of struggle. Stacks of dirty dishes were piled next to the kitchen sink, which was full of soapy water, and a door that led to the basement was wide open. He walked to the side of the house until he reached a basement window that was lit up from the inside.
He crouched down to look in the dusty window, his stomach tying itself up in knots. He didn't know what he was expecting to see, maybe a human body growing out of an enormous pea pod or an exact replica of himself lying on a pool table, but he was shocked at the image that greeted him. The three strangers, Jeb vaguely recognized them as an older couple and their teenage son from the next street over, were lying face down on separate metal tables. They were held down with dark leather straps, which were completely unnecessary because all three of them were unconscious. Melinda Ronin was standing over the female, gently stroking its hair while Sam stood on the opposite side of the table, holding a scalpel that glistened in the light. Barry Ronin was right next to him with a strange metal tank with red light at the top. Barry spun something on the side of the tank and the red light started to pulse, slowly turning green. Sam took this as some kind of signal and cut into the back of the woman's neck. Then he sprayed something onto the wound, effectively stopping the blood flow, widened the cut and placed his hand inside the wound. Barry opened the lid of the tank and tipped this… this alien thing into his cupped palm. It was small and thin, like some kind of writhing silver worm with hair-like fibers that billowed softly in the bright lights gathered around the table. Barry placed the thing inside of the hole Sam had made and then pulled his hand out quickly. Jeb watched in horror as Sam healed closed the wound and put a lotion on it that magically healed it.
Sam looked up to say something to Barry and that is when Jeb saw it. The light reflected off Sam's eyes in the most unnatural way, like there little circular pieces of metal embedded in his irises. He had been right, although he didn't feel the slight bit vindicated. There was something inside of his neighbor, a silver worm had crawled inside of his neck and taken control of his body. There were a million questions racing through Jeb's mind. Was Sam still in there or had he been completely erased by that thing? Was it inside of the Ronins too? Was that why they were holding all of these dinner parties, to insert more of these creatures into unsuspecting humans? He didn't feel like sticking around to find the answers, though. He jumped up, trying to be as quiet as possible so he wouldn't draw any attention to himself, and got back to his house as fast as he could. He locked his door behind him, although he wasn't sure if that would stop them, and went straight to his gun case. He unlocked it with shaky hands, pulled out his rifle, and went to sit at his kitchen table. He didn't know what to do. Obviously, he couldn't tell anyone. They already thought he was touched for simply thinking that something was off, they would certainly commit him if he started talking about aliens being inserted into the back of people's necks. He wondered just how many people Sam had put those things into, if there were other people in other cities doing the same thing. Were they all over the country? How far had this invasion gone?
He pinched himself to make sure he was awake, although he was desperately hoping that he had simply fallen asleep while watching the science fiction channel. He was disappointed when he realized that he would have to run now. He didn't think Sam or the Ronins had seen him but he couldn't take any chances. He didn't even have to think about where he would go; he knew that the caves he had stumbled upon so many years before would be the perfect place to hide. No one would be able to find it unless he showed them the way. He ran upstairs, rifle in hand, and started packing everything he had into the largest suitcase he owned.
After he had packed most of his belongings, numerous cases of water and some non-perishables into the bed of his truck, he sat and stared at his garage wall, debating what to do next. He knew he would have to tell others, warn them, but he didn't want to risk exposing himself to someone that had already been taken. But he knew he would have to take that risk for his family, even if it meant being taken himself. He wouldn't be able to live with himself if he did nothing while they were abducted.
He went to Magnolia's first because she was further away. He stopped at almost every small town he hit, stocking up on food and bottles of water. But every time he walked around in a strange town, he couldn't help watching the residents. He wondered if those strange worm-like things had reached this town yet, how many of the people there weren't themselves anymore. He couldn't stop himself from looking deeply into the eyes of everyone he came across, searching for that strange ring of reflective silver. He went to the pharmacies as well and tried to get as many over-the-counter drugs he could get his hands on, not wanting to have to leave the caves for any reason once he got there. But some of the shelves were completely bare, as if they simply didn't need antibiotics anymore. Those were the towns that gave him a creepy feeling, the stares of the clerks made the hair on the back of his neck stand up and he left quickly.
Maggie was gone by the time he reached Chicago. Her house was completely deserted, inches of dust covering every surface. He wasn't sure what to think. He knew that she had some kind of hide out near her house but she had never shown it to him. He didn't know if she had gotten wind of what was happening and locked herself in there or if she had been taken. He had half a mind to go searching around for her hiding place but decided it would draw too much attention to her. He didn't want to alert those aliens to her absence if she been able to slip away unnoticed.
He drove west, not bothering to stop anywhere this time. He thought it might raise someone's suspicions if they saw him driving through the same town, picking up large amounts of the same things, but going in the opposite direction. He didn't know if these aliens traveled and he wasn't really all that willing to find out. He made it to San Diego in a little less than two days. He drove nonstop, not bothering to sleep. Every time he closed his eyes, he could only see Sam placing that silver worm into the neck of that stranger. He had this irrational fear that if he fell asleep, they would be able to catch him and implant one of those things inside his brain. Or he would be replaced by a pod person. For the first time ever, he actually cursed all of the science fiction novels he had read for fueling his paranoia.
Trevor's eyes widened when he opened the door. "Jeb?" he asked. "Is everything all right?"
"No," Jeb said, stepping into the house. "Something's wrong."
He was about to tell his brother everything when his six year old nephew raced into the room and hugged his legs. "Uncle Jeb!" he said, smiling up at the old man.
"Hey kid," Jeb said, patting the boy on the head. They all looked normal but Jeb couldn't make any kind of assumptions. Either way, he didn't want to have this conversation in front of Jamie. He was too young, he wouldn't be able to understand. He pulled a five dollar bill out of his pocket and said, "I've got to talk to your father about something. Do you think you could go watch some TV for a little while?"
"Sure!" Jamie said, snatching the money out of Jeb's hands. His smile grew even bigger and Jeb could see that he was missing a couple teeth. He turned to go into the next room but Trevor put a hand on his shoulder to stop him.
"No, Jamie. You know it's your bedtime," he said. Jamie pouted but nodded and turned back towards the stairs. Trevor stopped him again and asked, "Isn't there something you'd like to say to Uncle Jeb?"
"Thanks, Uncle Jeb!" he said.
Jeb smiled at him and watched as his brother took him upstairs. He waited in the hallway, hoping that alerting his family and inviting them into his hideout wasn't a huge mistake. Once Trevor got back, he looked at Jeb warily and asked, "What's going on, Jeb?"
"Where's Linda?" Jeb asked, looking around. The house felt strange in her absence. He knew that she didn't like him much but she had always been pleasant to him. And she doted on her kids enough that she would want to be the one to put Jamie to bed.
"She's in Sacramento with her mother," Trevor said, leading Jeb down the hallway to the family room.
"Is everything alright?" Jeb asked. He assumed it wasn't a planned trip or else Trevor and the kids would have gone with her.
Trevor shrugged. "I don't know. She called last night and wanted all of us to come see her right away but Melanie has midterms and I didn't want her to miss them. Linda caught the first flight this morning but I haven't heard from her yet." It sounded pretty normal but it set off Jeb's suspicions. He knew from Trevor that Linda and her mother were never very close, the woman hadn't even gone to their wedding, so it was a little weird that she had needed to see the whole family right away. Once they had both sat down in opposite chairs, Trevor asked, "What's wrong?"
Jeb knew that Trevor thought the whole family was insane, the kind of crazy that wears tin foil hats and suspects that there are aliens in the toaster, so he realized that it would take a while to convince him that he was telling the truth. But he dived right into the story, anyways. He told him all about Sam, how he had been acting strange and actually interacting with other human beings and the surgery he had witnessed. Trevor listened silently, a smirk appearing on his face when Jeb mentioned the worm-like creature with thousands of strands of silver hair. "Right," Trevor said, interrupting Jeb before he could tell him about the place in the desert. "And how much did you have to drink before you saw this?"
Jeb scowled. "I wasn't drunk, Trevor, and I wasn't hallucinating. We need to hide, get away before they get us."
Trevor smiled. "You haven't been dropping acid again, have you?"
He sighed in annoyance. He gets in trouble once, over twenty years ago, and his family still can't let it go. "No! I'm serious, Trev. They are everywhere! There's no way to tell who has one of them inside of their brains. You can't trust anyone!"
Trevor ignored him and said, "I really hope you didn't drive all this way while you were on that stuff. You're lucky you didn't kill someone."
Jeb could tell that he wasn't going to get through to him yet. Besides, he didn't think that he would be able to get Trevor to come with him without Linda. He decided right then that he wasn't going to tell Trevor exactly where his hide-out was. He was almost certain that if he was right, if Linda came back as one of them, she would certainly alert the ones in charge to the fact that he was on to them and planning to get away. He grabbed a book off the end table next to him without even really looking at it and started to carve the shape of Picacho Peek on it. Under that, he put the lines of the other mountains near there, so instead of leading them exactly to the caves, they would simply walk in front of the entrance until Jeb could make sure that they were still human.
"Don't do that," Trevor said, trying to snatch the book away from him. Jeb kept it out of his reach and kept carving. "Linda will be angry!"
"Linda's mom asked you all to come up for a visit, right?" Jeb said, trying to share his suspicions with Trevor one more time. "Kind of strange, out of the blue? Got a little upset when only Linda would come? Tell you the truth, Trev, I don't think Linda will be minding anything much when she gets back. Oh, she might act like it, but you'll be able to tell the difference."
Trevor's face turned red as the blood rushed to his cheeks and Jeb could tell that he had gone too far. "That's enough, Jebediah! I don't know what's gotten into you, but I want you to get out of my house!"
But Jeb couldn't leave, not yet, not when they still didn't believe him. He had to make sure that his family stayed safe. "You have to come with me! You can't wait until it's too late!"
Trevor was on his feet now and looked like he was ready to drag Jeb out of the house if he didn't move. "Get out!"
Melanie came in the room then, attracted by all of the yelling, and Jeb pulled her close to his side. "Don't let them get you, honey. Follow the lines," he whispered, shoving the book into her hands. "Start at the beginning and follow the lines. Uncle Jeb'll keep a safe place for you."
That really set Trevor off. He never liked it when his family spouted off what he deemed "crazy talk" to his children. He grabbed Jeb's arm and pulled him to his feet. "Out!" he shouted, as he dragged Jeb to the door.
"Don't wait until it's too late! Follow -" Jeb shouted, the door getting slammed in his face before he could finish. He stood there for a long time, staring at the dark wood of his brother's front door. There was nothing he could do now. If he tried to get back in the house, Trevor was likely to cause a scene and Jeb didn't want to draw any more attention to himself. He finally moved when he caught the next door neighbors staring at him through their parted blinds. He walked back to his truck, ready to head southeast to Arizona, hoping that he had been able to get through to at least one of them.