There was a reason the construction site was called Death Town.
If Death Town looked exactly like the place a serial killer would pick to turn into a murder-house, it's because it was the place a serial killer had turned into a murder-house. Back when my parents had been my age, some sick fuck had gone around picking up people's kids, and leaving their bodies in Death Town for the cops to find. The police rounded up suspects, but no one had ever been convicted for the murders. The local press called the guy the Construction Killer, and as far as anyone knew, the guy was still at large.
I'm not saying that Marco and I expected some crazy guy with an axe to jump out and carve us up into bite-sized pieces, but let's just say that the thought had crossed both our minds. Inside the half-built mall, at night, where it got as dark as a cave, with any and all light to see with coming from our phones, anything at all could come out at us. And yet, there we were, trying to track down my cousin, her best friend, and someone we didn't even like that much.
So, yeah. We were on edge.
"Jake."
I looked over at Marco. "What? What is it?"
Marco poked his head into a dark room. "Who do you think would win in a fight, between Batman and Spider-Man?"
That...was a good question. I moved past him to check another, larger room that could have been a food court. After some thought I said, "Batman."
Marco snorted. "No."
"Two words," I told him. "Body armor. Parker's webs wouldn't stick to his armor."
"Jake," Marco replied, "His webs stick to Iron Man's armor."
No one was in the food court. We moved on. "That's Iron Man. This is Batman."
Marco walked behind me. "Are you going to try and tell me that Bruce Wayne has better armor than Tony fucking Stark?"
I thought some more. "No. I guess not. But, Batman is crafty."
"Spidey-Sense."
"Yeah," I said, "but he's been known to ignore it."
We argued some more, but more to take our minds off of the idea of painful, violent death than anything. And, to be honest, the longer we spent looking for Tobias, Rachel, and Cassie, the more nervous we got. Eventually, we just stopped talking.
Until…
"Marco. I see lights."
"You do?"
He came around the corner behind me. I pointed ahead. There was a faint, blue glow emanating from down the hallway in front of us, shining around a doorway at the end. I started towards it. Marco reached out and grabbed me by the shoulder.
"Are you insane?"
I shook his hand off. "What?"
"You don't know what that is!" he whispered at me.
"It's light," I whispered back. "Light means people."
"Jake?"
"Yeah?"
"Who on Earth carries blue light with them?!" Marco hissed.
I shrugged. Marco rolled his eyes and shut off his phone's light. He pointed at mine. I stowed it in my pocket. Wordlessly, we crept up to the doorway, and peaked around it.
I knew what I was looking at instantly. Which, in hindsight, is kind of funny. I'd never laid eyes on one before, but I knew what I saw. And, even funnier, I was more scared of what Marco would say if I voiced what we were seeing, than I actually was of what was right in front of us.
Fortunately, Marco had never been one to keep his mouth shut.
"...That's a spaceship, isn't it?"
"Yep."
Marco quietly pinched himself. Then, he pinched me. I gritted my teeth and slapped his hand away.
"So...now what?" Marco asked me.
"Do you see anybody?" As an afterthought, I added, "Or any thing?"
"Nada."
"Fine." I walked out into the room. This must have been intended to be the main gathering area of the mall. You know how some of them have a massive, central area with a stage, for little shows or shitty, local bands that think they're the next Ramones or something? Imagine that, but blown to Hell and back, with a giant hole in the ceiling, and a spaceship that looked like a blue, chrome scorpion, with glowing blue eyes and missing its claws and legs, and you'll get a good idea about what we were dealing with.
After some hesitation, Marco followed me. This would later prove to be a thing. "How did this even get here?"
I pointed up at the ceiling. "You think it crashed?"
"Must have. It looks damaged." Indeed, there was a long, black burn along the side of the ship. Marco crossed his arms. "But, when? No way someone misses this thing falling from the sky. Where are the cops? And the first responders?"
"Come to think of it," I said, "where's the fire?"
"Come again?"
"Assuming it came from space," I said, "it would have hit Death Town burning hot from entering the atmosphere." I gave Marco a look. "Right?"
"Hell if I know," Marco said. "I'm taking anatomy, not physics!"
"Jake!"
Marco and I turned around. Rachel, Cassie, and a tall, lanky kid with brown, messy hair came out from the hallway. As a group, they all turned their heads away from us, and took in the spaceship.
The kid was Tobias. I gave him a little wave. He waved back, still staring at the ship. "What is that?"
"A spaceship."
Rachel actually laughed. "Sure. Okay."
"No, seriously," Tobias said, "what the hell is -"
The burned side of the ship suddenly opened. A door rose up towards the ruined ceiling, like the door of a Lamborghini. The soft blue light suddenly grew harsh, so bright that we all had to shield our eyes against it. I could just barely make out a shadow moving from the back of the ship. Something was coming out.
"Run!" I shouted.
Marco was the quickest. He turned around and made it two steps before an actual, honest-to-God laser beam flew past his shoulder and burned a hole in the wall in front of him.
[Freeze.]
I stopped. We all stopped. Marco raises his hands in the air. We all followed his example, save one. Rachel shook her head, not in defiance, but like a dog trying to dislodge a burr from its ear.
"Did you guys hear -"
[Do not speak.]
I blinked in confusion. I heard someone talking, but...not really. I heard speech, and understood it, but it was like I was hearing something else, in addition to the words. But I couldn't figure out what.
Clop-clop. Clop-clop.
That was a new sound. I couldn't identify that, either. But I saw Carrie's eyes widen. She whispered something to herself. It sounded like the word, "hoofs."
[Do not speak.] the voice said. [I will not ask again.]
I glared at Cassie. She shut up. And then, the alien revealed itself.
It resembled a human man, from the waist up. And that was where the similarities ended. On top of its head were two tentacle-things, each ending in a large, glaring green eye. The...stalks? The eye stalks turned this way and that, taking in their surroundings. Two more eyes stared at us directly, over two slits that could have been nostrils if you squinted. For reasons only God could know, the alien did not possess a mouth. Its waist ended in a horse's body, centaur-style, with four powerful legs ending in hooves.
Two things drew my eyes, though. First, instead of a horse tail, it had a tail longer than the rest of its body, one that ended in a sharp, boney blade. And second, in a weak pair of arms ending in four-fingered hands, it carried a pistol straight out of science fiction. It held its tail down and low to the ground, blade pointed up. It kept the pistol facing towards us.
Also, the entirety of the alien's body was covered in short, blue fur.
The alien pointed its pistol at me. [Name.]
Again, the voice-that-was-not-a- voice. I gulped. "J-Jake."
The pistol moved to Rachel. [And you?]
"Rachel."
One by one, we gave him our names. This seemed to frustrate him. The voice got angrier. [No!] it said. [You're real names! Your call signs!]
We looked at each other. Tobias said, "I'm sorry, but we -"
The pistol fired. Tobias flinched as the beam went between his legs. He didn't move, though. I was impressed. If I'd been him, I'd have dropped to my knees and cried. With no sense of shame.
[Do you know who I am, Yeerk?]
Tobias shook his head. "No. I don't."
"What's a Yeerk?" Rachel asked.
[Do not toy with me! I am Prince Elfangor! I -]
Suddenly, the alien dropped to its knees. (His? Did Prince refer to a male of his species? Did I care?) And we saw that Prince Elfangor was injured. Like the spaceship, he had a long, black burn across his side. Unlike his spaceship, he was bleeding. Green blood oozed slowly from his wound.
Cassie took a step forward. The pistol came up. She stopped.
"You're hurt," I said.
"Please, let us help you," Cassie said to Elfangor. "We can bandage you, at least." Cassie's parents were both veterinarians, and she helps her dad run a non-profit clinic for injured, wild animals. She was more than capable of patching Elfangor up, and she'd rip apart her own shirt if she had to.
Some of us had other ideas. "Let's bail," Tobias said.
"I'm with Tobias," Marco said.
Tobias blinked. "That's a first."
"Don't be dicks." A Rachel line, from Cassie. That made up Rachel's mind, if nothing else. She stepped up next to Cassie. Elfangor swung his pistol from Cassie to her. We all tensed. But he didn't shoot.
"Please," Cassie begged.
Elfangor stared at her. [Why should I trust you?]
Cassie said nothing. Rachel also said nothing. Finally, I said, "Because, Prince Elfangor, you'll die if you don't."
[There are worse things in this galaxy than death, "Jake."]
"We mean you no harm," Rachel said. "Honest."
"Look, dude," Marco added. "If you hadn't threatened to shoot us if we moved, we'd have left you as far behind us as we could put you."
"Yeah." Tobias jerked his thumb at Marco. "He was halfway to the door before the rest of us could blink."
"Oh, fuck you, Tobias."
[Enough.] Elfangor lowered his gun. [Tend to my wounds, if you wish. I'll die before you can turn me, either way.]
I almost asked him what he meant, but Cassie was at his side before I could "I won't let that happen," she said to Elfangor. Rachel joined her. Elfangor's eye stalks locked eyes with Cassie, while the main eyes watched Rachel. But, Elfangor said nothing.
Without a word, Cassie removed her shirt, and Rachel handed over her own. Tobias removed his and offered Cassie a pocket knife. I tossed Rachel my shirt and, to even his own surprise, Marco gave Cassie his shirt. After a few minutes, Cassie had three, wadded-up shirts pressed into Elfangor's wounds, with two more sliced up and woven into a makeshift sling to hold the shirts in place.
[Thank you.] Elfangor said. [All of you. Your kindness is...unexpected.]
"You're welcome," said Marco.
[What does your species call itself?]
"Humans," Tobias said. "Or humanity."
[Then, know that you humans have brought me peace.] Elfangor shifted, and he almost seemed to relax. [If the rest of your kind is like you, maybe your world will survive what is coming.]
"What?" I said. "What's coming? Who are you? What are you?"
[I am Prince Elfangor-Sirinial-Shamtul, commander of the Andalitian One-Hundred-and-Ninth War Fleet.] All four of Elfangor's eyes dropped to the ground. [Former commander. My fleet was destroyed defending your species from annihilation, in orbit above your world.]
"Fighting, whatever it was you called us?" Rachel, despite the situation, was modestly covering herself. "'Yeerks?'"
[Yes.]
"What are Yeerks?" Cassie asked.
[The Yeerks are a race of spacefaring conquerors.] Elfangor told us. [They have destroyed dozens of peaceful species. The Veeran. The Hork-Bajir. And now, they have come to destroy you.]
