Part 05: Saviors From the Stars
The Leviathan floated onward deep inside the Atlantic Ocean. Toward where, Alex didn't really care anymore. Sam and Clover seemed determined to drag her all across the entire planet, and they had been since leaving London almost three weeks ago. The wound on her leg didn't seem to be healing very well, despite the quick surgery that had helped close the wound before leaving London. Even stranger, her muscles felt like they were getting weaker by the day. Before her arms quivered if she stood too long... now it seemed like all of her limbs shook constantly.
"I'm getting sick of sitting in this walking metal deathtrap..." Alex grumbled, looking around at the all too familiar steel walls that had been her almost constant home for the last three weeks. "I don't even know why we're out here. I know I'm not a hundred percent, but shouldn't we still be trying to help the war effort or something?"
"Chill out Alex, nothing's happening in the war right now. We're fine." Clover replied from the co-pilot's seat. Alex didn't trust it... there was something in her voice, something hidden. Why wouldn't they tell her what was really going on? She wasn't a crybaby anymore, she was a grown woman damnit. A soldier. She'd seen as much action and bloodshed as either of them.
"Yeah, just relax and try to enjoy yourself." Sam agreed, looking back at her with a soft smile. "We can go anywhere you want to. Is there anywhere you've always wanted to go?"
"I'm DONE relaxing!" Alex shouted more vehemently than she'd intended as she jumped up to a standing position. She leaned heavily against her crutches, shaking in both weakness and rage as she glared down at her two stunned friends. "I want to help fight! Mandy gave her life to beat one of these things... if I have to give mine to help beat the rest, then I wanna do it!"
"Alex, calm down..." Sam began.
"No! I want off this thing!" Alex shot back sharply. "I haven't even seen the sun in weeks! We only surface at night, and then only for an hour or two! It's like you think I'm too much of a baby to face the Zardexians!"
"No, it's nothing like..." Clover was interrupted this time.
"Enough!" Alex shuddered in rage, but her already weak muscles lost hold of the crutches. She collapsed to the floor face first with a heavy thump, yelping in pain as her wounded leg connected with the panel.
"Alex!" Sam and Clover jumped to their feet and moved to help her, but Alex pushed them both away, prying herself carefully off the floor.
"No! I can do it!" Alex snapped. She reached for her crutches and grabbed them, trying to use them to climb to her feet. It took her several minutes of grunting and struggling. She could see Sam and Clover watching her, tears coming to their eyes as they watched her jelly-like muscles try to work. Finally she climbed to her feet, panting and leaning heavily on her crutches.
Without a word Alex turned to head into the back, toward the bedroom she'd claimed as her own. She plopped down on her bed on her stomach, burying her face in her pillow. They didn't trust her... they were keeping something from her. Why were they babying her like this? And why were her limbs getting so weak? What was happening to her...?
She lay on the bed, her eyes suddenly feeling kind of heavy. She was pretty tired... her display in the cockpit had taken its toll on her. She felt her eyelids closing of their own accord, beginning to lull her into a light sleep. The soft waving of the ship under the water suddenly gave way to the tremor-inducing stomp of the Leviathan's limbs on solid ground. It barely registered though, she was too tired to care...
Her eyes opened halfway when the door to her bedroom opened. She saw Sam and Clover standing in the door, looking at her. "What's going on...?" Alex asked softly.
"Come on... we're going out." Sam told her softly.
"Okay... let me..." Alex reached for her crutches, but was stopped by Sam and Clover grabbing her arms. They each slung one of her arms over their shoulders, hefting her up off the bed. Alex moved her good leg against the floor as they carried her out of the bedroom and toward the elevator that would carry them down to ground level.
Alex squinted painfully as the bright afternoon sunlight assaulted her eyes. She blinked and looked around as her friends carried her out of the giant steel monster. The grass on the ground was lush and green, with a dense forest surrounding them on every side except the one that contained the ocean they'd crawled out of.
"It's like... there is no war..." Alex said softly, looking around at the green forest around her. "It's like there are no HUMANS..."
"Yeah..." Sam said softly. She nodded at Clover and they both sat down on the lush grass, still holding Alex between them. They held her up so she could look around at the beautiful forest to her heart's content. Of course, it really didn't make her heart very content...
"What's wrong with me girls...?" Alex asked softly. Sam and Clover looked down at her, since she was lying against both of them on the grass. "Tell me what's going on."
Sam gulped and exchanged a glance with Clover, then looked away at the grass as she spoke. "When the Zardexian stabbed you in the leg... it pumped a toxin into your body that makes you emit special pheromones that they can sense miles away..." She hesitated, so Clover continued.
"It's also a powerful sedative... more like a virus really. It makes your muscles weaker and weaker until... they stop moving..." Clover told her. Alex stared at her for a few moments, then turned to look up at the sky again. Clover and Sam watched her face, but she was careful not to show any emotion. She just stared at the soft white clouds drifting serenely overhead.
"Guess I'll find out... where Mandy is huh?" Alex quipped humorlessly, not looking away form the clouds. She felt both of her friends hug her tightly from each side, holding her tightly in their arms. "Do you think she'll still be crazy? Do you think... she'll be depressed?"
Sam smiled slightly. "No... I'm sure she's happy. And she'll probably be even happier when she sees you there with her." She stroked Alex's arm tenderly. Alex smiled slightly. Clover remained strangely silent, but Alex didn't notice. Her mind was already floating in an abyss of thoughts of where she would be going soon.
"You think so?" Alex asked.
"I know so." Sam told her. Alex nodded and gulped. This would have been the perfect place to die... in the arms of her friends and with the promise that the woman she believed she might have loved would be waiting for her. But fate, these days, was rarely so kind. All three girls stared up at the sky as a shadow emerged from the clouds, a dark, sleek ship of the kind they'd seen two times so far.
"Time to go..." Sam muttered darkly. She and Clover stood up quickly, pulling Alex up with them. But suddenly a shining crimson laser fired forth from the ship, tearing into the Leviathan's steel hull. The behemoth swayed back on its hind legs as the laser punched straight through to the other side to disappear into the ocean.
"Run!" Clover screamed as the massive machine began to sway dangerously forward. Sam and Clover charged across the field toward the forest as fast as they could, carrying Alex between them. The Leviathan tumbled to the ground, the massive steel frame sending up a cloud of dirt and dust that reduced visibility to absolute zero. Sam and Clover charged into the trees, weaving through them, though their progress was seriously hindered by having to carry Alex.
"Put me down..." Alex told them.
"Not a chance!" Clover replied quickly.
"As long as you're carrying me, they can follow you." Alex reminded her. Sam and Clover came to a stop, looking at her through the thick dirt cloud that still encompassed them. "You said they can smell me miles away... as long as you drag me with you, they'll stay on your tails. So just... put me down..." Alex told them. Sam and Clover looked at each other, then sat down with her as the dirt began to settle around them. "What are you doing?"
"If you're going, so are we." Sam told her.
"Yeah, leaving you alone isn't even an option." Clover told her.
"Girls..." Alex muttered under her breath. She might have spoken more, but the shadow of the Zardexian ship fell over them from over the trees above them. They looked up to watch the ship move toward them, looking like a ship Death himself might bring to reap a few souls. Sam and Clover huddled close to her, watching the ship descend past the top of the tree line.
"I love you girls..." Alex whispered softly.
"Ssshhh..." Sam replied, holding her close as the ship moved closer. The Zardexians weren't taking any chances this time. A shining crimson light began to shine from the nose of the ship, growing brighter with each passing second. Sam and Clover closed their eyes, but Alex just watched as the power built up at the edge of the ship, ready to rip through them.
Suddenly a golden light broke through the clouds far overhead, plunging through the Zardexian vessel and vaporizing the trees beneath it. The ship turned off course, the energy at its nose dissipating as it plunged down toward the Earth away from them. The impact sent a tremor through the ground, with the deafening sound of crushing steel and snapping mighty oak trees.
"What was that...?" Sam looked up in surprise where the golden light had come from.
"Maybe it was God...?" Clover quipped humorously. As they watched a ball of shimmering golden lights broke through the clouds, hovering down toward them without any sign of an engine on its massive shining frame. Indeed, to the girls it did look heaven-sent... but they knew it wasn't. Because it also looked familiar, from a time before all of this began.
"It's a giant cumquat." Alex quipped softly. Truth be told she didn't feel like she could care about it anymore. The adrenaline from being chased must have taken its toll on her, because her eyelids were growing heavier by the second. "Or... rutabaga..." She muttered softly as her eyes closed.
"Alex? ALEX!" Sam and Clover shouted as a shroud of darkness engulfed Alex's senses. She couldn't see, couldn't hear, couldn't feel... but somehow, she could sense. An aura... somewhere... a violet haze that shifted in a never-ending pattern. Alex tried to move toward it... but she didn't know how. Could she even move? Where was she? WHAT was she?
Suddenly images flashed in her mind... memories. She remember sitting in the van with Mandy, after the second nuclear bomb had flown right over their heads. They'd been lucky to be so far away, because it and the one before it had left most of California completely uninhabitable, either from being a smoldering crater, or being completely irradiated. They'd been scared... but they'd continued their mission in the van... a mission to find Mandy's sister... and a second mission neither had anticipated with each other...
"Alex... I love you." Mandy's voice echoed in her mind, carried forth from the past. She remembered when they stopped... the kiss they'd shared, that quickly evolved into something more... when the world ceased to be a concern and they'd had nothing but each other to focus on. The feel of Mandy's body... the touch of her lips... why was this all coming back? To torture her?
The memories faded when her eyes began to open to a sight that many a drunkard had witnessed before. Little green men staring down at her with bright lights shining from behind their bulbous heads. The difference was, she was pretty sure this was real. The aliens smiled down at her with as kind an expression as one could give with an alien face.
"Welcome back." One of them told her in their strange, high-pitched and scratchy voices. "It looks like we arrived just in time to administer the anti-toxin." Alex blinked and reached up to rub her eyes, still feeling a bit weak. She felt like speaking, but she was interrupted by a pair of impossibly high-pitched yells.
"Alex!" Sam and Clover charged into the room and engulfed her in a pair of tight hugs. "Oh man I'm so glad you made it!" Sam told her with tears running down her cheeks. "I was sure that was it..."
"Alex, don't ever do that to us again." Clover agreed enthusiastically. The little green aliens watched from the sidelines, smiling idly to themselves.
"You... saved me..." Alex said softly, looking at the little green men. "Thank you..." To be honest she felt like screaming. She was sure she'd felt Mandy in that darkness... but she tried to push it out of her mind. No matter how comforting it had been to feel her presence again, she was here now and with her best friends in the world.
"We still owe you for saving us from GOOPER." One of the aliens replied. "We were merely returning the favor." Alex smiled gratefully, content with that, but Sam looked curious as she wiped the tears of joy away from her cheeks.
"You had an antidote to their toxin... have you met the Zardexians before?" Sam asked.
"Unfortunately, yes." One of the aliens replied again. "Many centuries ago they laid siege to OUR world as they have now attacked yours. They infiltrated our society with a forerunner at first, then when they'd weakened our defenses, moved in for the kill."
"But we were able to capture some of their technology and turn it against them, resulting in a stalemate that lasted for centuries." Another alien finished. "Finally, we fought them off... and they must have found their way to your world upon giving up on ours." The three spies were stunned at this news.
"You BEAT them!?" Clover exclaimed. "You actually beat them off!?"
"That's great!" Alex shouted. "We're saved!" Clover and Alex hugged each other in celebration, but one of the aliens held up his hand to halt their celebration.
"We cannot fight your war for you..." The alien said apologetically. "And we didn't beat them... we simply held them at a stalemate until they gave up. It would take more power than we have in all our technology to truly defeat them all."
"What are you talking about? You kicked their ass down there!" Clover exclaimed.
"That was just a small vessel, a scout to see how you well respond to force. The main fleet hasn't arrived yet." The aliens told them. Sam, Alex and Clover exchanged steady glances, gulping. "We cannot defeat their main fighters... but we are here to help you. We can transport you and as many of your species as we can fit through space to our home world many light years away. Its environment is almost identical to Earth's." He offered.
Before either of the others could respond, Sam cut in. "And how did you know they were attacking us if your home is so far away? Were you just in the neighborhood?" She asked curiously. The aliens turned to stare at her in unison, while Alex and Clover looked at her in surprise.
"Sam, what's with the accusing tone?" Clover asked. "They just saved our butts."
"Yeah Sam, way to show your gratitude." Alex added.
"Yeah... sorry. I guess the years of fighting have just made me too suspicious." Sam nodded apologetically to their saviors, putting one hand to her forehead.
"Completely understandable." One of the aliens replied. "What do you say to our offer?" He asked. Alex and Clover both looked at Sam, who was staring at the aliens with a studying gaze. The aliens stared back coolly, with genuine seeming concern in their eyes. Finally Sam closed her eyes and put one hand to her chin.
"This isn't really a decision we can make for the rest of the human race." Sam answered finally. "We should get back to the Greenland Second Base to consult with Pam and the others."
The aliens nodded. "You can rest while we make our way there. There are refreshments and beds in the next room." He gestured as the wall opened, revealing one huge bed and several platters full of delicious looking food ranging from oatmeal to succulent looking steaks. "Please, make yourselves at home." He nodded and turned to leave with his companions, the door closing behind them.
"Don't mind if we do." Clover grinned, pulling one of Alex's arms around her shoulders to help her over to the table since her crutches were missing. "Come on Alex, it's time to celebrate your new life with an old treat. I haven't had a nice steak since... man, at LEAST ten years ago." She helped Alex sit down in one of the chairs, then sat down in one of her own, pulling a steak up in front of her.
Alex dug into a plate of mashed potatoes and corn, savoring its taste in her mouth. "Mmm... this is great!" Alex exclaimed digging in and shoveling more into her mouth until she noticed Sam was still standing in the other room, staring at the door suspiciously. "Sam? Are you still being totally paranoid about the people who saved us?" She asked.
"Sam, calm down, get in here and have some sushi or something. It might be the last time we ever get food like this." Clover told her.
"I've got a riddle for you girls." Sam finally followed Clover and Alex into the dining room/bedroom. "How do a bunch of aliens who supposedly haven't been around since the early zeros know what I'm talking about when I mention a military base that wasn't built until 2007?" Clover and Alex stopped eating to stare at her in surprise when they realized she was right.
"Do you... do you think they're working with the Zardexians or something?" Alex asked.
"If they're in league with the Zardexians, they're sure going to great lengths to prove they're not. We SAW them shoot down one of the Zardexian ships." Clover pointed out. "And they even cured Alex, why would they bother if they were plotting to betray us in the end anyway?"
"That's a good point..." Sam mused. "But even if they're not in league with the Zardexians, there's got to be more to their presence here than they're letting on. Didn't you notice how they froze when I asked why they just happened to be in the neighborhood?" The three girls fell silent, trying to think of a suitable explanation for the mysteries surrounding their old green friends.
Finally Clover spoke, waving a fried chicken leg in front of her. "Well whatever their reason for being here, they've done nothing but help us. Why are we questioning them like this? They're feeding us, giving us a comfortable bed, saving Alex's life, and they're offering to get us off of this doomed dustball of a planet. So they have their own reasons for being here, so what? We ALL have our own reasons for being here. None of us is here just to 'fight for right'. We're fighting to survive."
"I agree with Clover." Alex stated. "What do we have to lose by trusting them? Whether they're lying or not, we'd be dead by now without them anyway." She stated. Sam studied them for a few moments, then smiled.
"You're right girls..." Sam looked down when her stomach started growling quite loudly. She blushed while Alex and Clover gave her teasing smiles. "Alright alright, make room at the table." Her friends scooted aside so she could sit down and fix herself a plate of the most delectable food she'd seen since the Imperium of Christ had first taken over.
They ate their fill with light companionable chatter filling the air. It wasn't hard to imagine they were back on the WOOHP jet in the old days, contemplating the current mission they were being ferried toward. When they'd eaten their fill fifteen minutes later they all retired to a huge bed on the other side of the room, lying side by side on top of the blankets, staring at the ceiling.
"How're you feeling Alex?" Clover asked.
"Still a little woozy... and like I'm about to barf, but I don't think that's toxin-related." Alex smiled slightly. Clover smiled back and leaned back on the bed again, letting out a deep sigh of contentment. In just a few minutes the girls rolled closer together so that they were in a small pile, with Sam and Clover both lying against Alex.
Alex didn't mind... she liked the closeness. She just wished Mandy were here... she was missing her deeply... but she couldn't afford to. Mandy was gone, there was no changing that now. Enough of stupid thoughts and childish flights of fantasy. Reality was nightmarish enough.
All three girls lifted their heads a while later when the door of their small bedroom opened again. "We have arrived at the base." One of the aliens told them. Sam and Clover climbed up from the bed and turned to help Alex, but the alien walked forward and held out what looked like a pair of high-tech crutches. "To help you move."
"Wow, thank you." Alex took the crutches and stood up. They worked like normal, but it seemed like they had special shock absorbers near the bottom that both adjusted to her height and helped prevent her from bruising her underarms as she walked. It was a small example of alien technology, but impressive to her nonetheless.
The spies turned to follow the little alien out of the bedroom once Alex was ready. "You know, it occurred to me that we don't really know anything about you. Not even your names." Sam told the small alien as they walked.
"We are Argathins from the planet Argath." The small alien replied. "My name is Ay-Leex." The alien told them. Alex blinked. It was still downright creepy really. Last time they were here they revealed their spy supervisor Jay-Ri.
"Hey... you wouldn't happen to be a girl would you?" Alex asked. Ay-Leex, Sam and Clover all turned to stare at her, causing an intense blush to spread across her face. "I mean... uh... aaahhahah..." She laughed nervously and rubbed the back of her neck. "Sorry..."
Ay-Leex gestured for them to follow him into the bridge of the ship, where they walked up to a screen on the front that showed an image of the Greenland military base. "The base you wanted to come to is down below... but we're at a loss as to why you would want to come here." He told them. The spies blinked at him, then turned to really get a good look at the screen. Flecks of red dotted the snow in front of the base, and bullet holes decorated the outside.
"No..." Sam muttered. "They must've been attacked... Ay-Leex, can we go down and see what happened?"
"Of course. But we cannot stay too long. Our ships are not designed to stand the cold." The little alien nodded to one of his/her companions, who brought the ship down to a soft landing on the snow. Ay-Leex led them through the ship to a door, taking them out toward the base. Sam ran up to the door of the base, looking around at it.
"That's strange... there's no sign of forced entry." Sam noted.
"Maybe they were caught off guard." Clover replied. Sam turned to head inside, with Clover, Alex, and Ay-Leex trailing behind. They all stopped when they entered the front hallway. Bodies littered the hallway, riddled with bullet-holes rather than showing any signs of a Zardexian attack. Further inside they found just more of the same.
"This was all done by humans..." Sam whispered, as though a loud sound might awaken the dead to eat them alive. "No sign of any Zardexians at all."
"Maybe it was Zardexians disguised as humans?" Clover replied.
"Why would they bother? It's not like we have any weapons that can fight them anyway." Sam sighed. Alex turned away from the grizzly scenes, but only found more equally grizzly ones behind her.
"I need to get outta here... ate too much food for this..." Alex turned to hobble her away out of the main chamber, finding a relatively clean hallway beyond that led to the barracks. It was a major relief to her stomach, so she moved a little further down before leaning against the steel wall and closing her eyes. This was all they needed, a war with both aliens AND crazy people.
Alex opened her eyes when she heard a soft whispering vibrate through the steel wall. She couldn't make out what it was saying, but she managed to track it to a small weapons' closet further down the hall. The whispering seemed to get louder when she stepped in front of the door.
"H... hello?" Alex asked, rapping her knuckles lightly on the door. The whispering grew more frantic and harried. "Hey, I'm not here to hurt you, I promise..." Alex slowly gripped the doorknob. "I'm coming in..." She pulled the door open slowly. The barrel of a 45-millimeter handgun was pointed straight at her head, but beyond it she saw a familiar face. "Kira?"
The girl Alex had saved during the opening battle of the war blinked, staring at her through tear-streaked eyes. Her forearms and the front of her military fatigues were spotted with dried blood. Her eyes showed that she hadn't slept at all, perhaps for a few days. And her shaking limbs betrayed her malnourishment. "G... get away from me... I don't wanna fight..." She gulped frantically.
"Hey... it's me, Alex." Alex held up her arms, standing on one foot and letting her crutches fall to the floor. She didn't move for several minutes, letting the girl slowly recognize her.
Finally she lowered the gun before dropping it to the floor. "A... Alex!?" She charged forward and engulfed her in a tight hug. "Alex!" She sobbed into her shoulder lightly as Alex held her close.
"Kira... what happened here? Who attacked you?" Alex asked.
"G... General Reynolds... she... she went insane." Kira gulped frantically. "She kept... ranting and raving about human-shaped aliens... she led so many people to die... she KILLED so many..." By now the girl was getting frantic, so Alex stroked her back slowly.
"Ssshhhh... try to calm down." Alex told her softly. Kira gulped and nodded shakily.
"F... Finally th... they tried to mutiny and take the base from her... b... but she had a following... there was a gunfight..." She dissolved into hysteria again, so Alex stopped prompting her to talk and just held her. She looked to the side when she heard Sam's footsteps coming down the hall toward them.
"Pam..." Alex was cut off.
"I know, I was listening." Sam replied. "Take her to the Argathin ship while me, Clover and Ay-Leex conduct a sweep for more survivors... and maybe we can see who came out on top." Sam leaned down to pick up Alex's crutches for her. Alex nodded and took her crutches. It was hard to move with them while Kira remained up against her, but she wasn't about to push the girl away. She remembered the first time she'd been caught in battle...
She still hadn't fully recovered from that shock. But she lived, as they would hopefully for a while to come.
TO BE CONTINUED
The Leviathan floated onward deep inside the Atlantic Ocean. Toward where, Alex didn't really care anymore. Sam and Clover seemed determined to drag her all across the entire planet, and they had been since leaving London almost three weeks ago. The wound on her leg didn't seem to be healing very well, despite the quick surgery that had helped close the wound before leaving London. Even stranger, her muscles felt like they were getting weaker by the day. Before her arms quivered if she stood too long... now it seemed like all of her limbs shook constantly.
"I'm getting sick of sitting in this walking metal deathtrap..." Alex grumbled, looking around at the all too familiar steel walls that had been her almost constant home for the last three weeks. "I don't even know why we're out here. I know I'm not a hundred percent, but shouldn't we still be trying to help the war effort or something?"
"Chill out Alex, nothing's happening in the war right now. We're fine." Clover replied from the co-pilot's seat. Alex didn't trust it... there was something in her voice, something hidden. Why wouldn't they tell her what was really going on? She wasn't a crybaby anymore, she was a grown woman damnit. A soldier. She'd seen as much action and bloodshed as either of them.
"Yeah, just relax and try to enjoy yourself." Sam agreed, looking back at her with a soft smile. "We can go anywhere you want to. Is there anywhere you've always wanted to go?"
"I'm DONE relaxing!" Alex shouted more vehemently than she'd intended as she jumped up to a standing position. She leaned heavily against her crutches, shaking in both weakness and rage as she glared down at her two stunned friends. "I want to help fight! Mandy gave her life to beat one of these things... if I have to give mine to help beat the rest, then I wanna do it!"
"Alex, calm down..." Sam began.
"No! I want off this thing!" Alex shot back sharply. "I haven't even seen the sun in weeks! We only surface at night, and then only for an hour or two! It's like you think I'm too much of a baby to face the Zardexians!"
"No, it's nothing like..." Clover was interrupted this time.
"Enough!" Alex shuddered in rage, but her already weak muscles lost hold of the crutches. She collapsed to the floor face first with a heavy thump, yelping in pain as her wounded leg connected with the panel.
"Alex!" Sam and Clover jumped to their feet and moved to help her, but Alex pushed them both away, prying herself carefully off the floor.
"No! I can do it!" Alex snapped. She reached for her crutches and grabbed them, trying to use them to climb to her feet. It took her several minutes of grunting and struggling. She could see Sam and Clover watching her, tears coming to their eyes as they watched her jelly-like muscles try to work. Finally she climbed to her feet, panting and leaning heavily on her crutches.
Without a word Alex turned to head into the back, toward the bedroom she'd claimed as her own. She plopped down on her bed on her stomach, burying her face in her pillow. They didn't trust her... they were keeping something from her. Why were they babying her like this? And why were her limbs getting so weak? What was happening to her...?
She lay on the bed, her eyes suddenly feeling kind of heavy. She was pretty tired... her display in the cockpit had taken its toll on her. She felt her eyelids closing of their own accord, beginning to lull her into a light sleep. The soft waving of the ship under the water suddenly gave way to the tremor-inducing stomp of the Leviathan's limbs on solid ground. It barely registered though, she was too tired to care...
Her eyes opened halfway when the door to her bedroom opened. She saw Sam and Clover standing in the door, looking at her. "What's going on...?" Alex asked softly.
"Come on... we're going out." Sam told her softly.
"Okay... let me..." Alex reached for her crutches, but was stopped by Sam and Clover grabbing her arms. They each slung one of her arms over their shoulders, hefting her up off the bed. Alex moved her good leg against the floor as they carried her out of the bedroom and toward the elevator that would carry them down to ground level.
Alex squinted painfully as the bright afternoon sunlight assaulted her eyes. She blinked and looked around as her friends carried her out of the giant steel monster. The grass on the ground was lush and green, with a dense forest surrounding them on every side except the one that contained the ocean they'd crawled out of.
"It's like... there is no war..." Alex said softly, looking around at the green forest around her. "It's like there are no HUMANS..."
"Yeah..." Sam said softly. She nodded at Clover and they both sat down on the lush grass, still holding Alex between them. They held her up so she could look around at the beautiful forest to her heart's content. Of course, it really didn't make her heart very content...
"What's wrong with me girls...?" Alex asked softly. Sam and Clover looked down at her, since she was lying against both of them on the grass. "Tell me what's going on."
Sam gulped and exchanged a glance with Clover, then looked away at the grass as she spoke. "When the Zardexian stabbed you in the leg... it pumped a toxin into your body that makes you emit special pheromones that they can sense miles away..." She hesitated, so Clover continued.
"It's also a powerful sedative... more like a virus really. It makes your muscles weaker and weaker until... they stop moving..." Clover told her. Alex stared at her for a few moments, then turned to look up at the sky again. Clover and Sam watched her face, but she was careful not to show any emotion. She just stared at the soft white clouds drifting serenely overhead.
"Guess I'll find out... where Mandy is huh?" Alex quipped humorlessly, not looking away form the clouds. She felt both of her friends hug her tightly from each side, holding her tightly in their arms. "Do you think she'll still be crazy? Do you think... she'll be depressed?"
Sam smiled slightly. "No... I'm sure she's happy. And she'll probably be even happier when she sees you there with her." She stroked Alex's arm tenderly. Alex smiled slightly. Clover remained strangely silent, but Alex didn't notice. Her mind was already floating in an abyss of thoughts of where she would be going soon.
"You think so?" Alex asked.
"I know so." Sam told her. Alex nodded and gulped. This would have been the perfect place to die... in the arms of her friends and with the promise that the woman she believed she might have loved would be waiting for her. But fate, these days, was rarely so kind. All three girls stared up at the sky as a shadow emerged from the clouds, a dark, sleek ship of the kind they'd seen two times so far.
"Time to go..." Sam muttered darkly. She and Clover stood up quickly, pulling Alex up with them. But suddenly a shining crimson laser fired forth from the ship, tearing into the Leviathan's steel hull. The behemoth swayed back on its hind legs as the laser punched straight through to the other side to disappear into the ocean.
"Run!" Clover screamed as the massive machine began to sway dangerously forward. Sam and Clover charged across the field toward the forest as fast as they could, carrying Alex between them. The Leviathan tumbled to the ground, the massive steel frame sending up a cloud of dirt and dust that reduced visibility to absolute zero. Sam and Clover charged into the trees, weaving through them, though their progress was seriously hindered by having to carry Alex.
"Put me down..." Alex told them.
"Not a chance!" Clover replied quickly.
"As long as you're carrying me, they can follow you." Alex reminded her. Sam and Clover came to a stop, looking at her through the thick dirt cloud that still encompassed them. "You said they can smell me miles away... as long as you drag me with you, they'll stay on your tails. So just... put me down..." Alex told them. Sam and Clover looked at each other, then sat down with her as the dirt began to settle around them. "What are you doing?"
"If you're going, so are we." Sam told her.
"Yeah, leaving you alone isn't even an option." Clover told her.
"Girls..." Alex muttered under her breath. She might have spoken more, but the shadow of the Zardexian ship fell over them from over the trees above them. They looked up to watch the ship move toward them, looking like a ship Death himself might bring to reap a few souls. Sam and Clover huddled close to her, watching the ship descend past the top of the tree line.
"I love you girls..." Alex whispered softly.
"Ssshhh..." Sam replied, holding her close as the ship moved closer. The Zardexians weren't taking any chances this time. A shining crimson light began to shine from the nose of the ship, growing brighter with each passing second. Sam and Clover closed their eyes, but Alex just watched as the power built up at the edge of the ship, ready to rip through them.
Suddenly a golden light broke through the clouds far overhead, plunging through the Zardexian vessel and vaporizing the trees beneath it. The ship turned off course, the energy at its nose dissipating as it plunged down toward the Earth away from them. The impact sent a tremor through the ground, with the deafening sound of crushing steel and snapping mighty oak trees.
"What was that...?" Sam looked up in surprise where the golden light had come from.
"Maybe it was God...?" Clover quipped humorously. As they watched a ball of shimmering golden lights broke through the clouds, hovering down toward them without any sign of an engine on its massive shining frame. Indeed, to the girls it did look heaven-sent... but they knew it wasn't. Because it also looked familiar, from a time before all of this began.
"It's a giant cumquat." Alex quipped softly. Truth be told she didn't feel like she could care about it anymore. The adrenaline from being chased must have taken its toll on her, because her eyelids were growing heavier by the second. "Or... rutabaga..." She muttered softly as her eyes closed.
"Alex? ALEX!" Sam and Clover shouted as a shroud of darkness engulfed Alex's senses. She couldn't see, couldn't hear, couldn't feel... but somehow, she could sense. An aura... somewhere... a violet haze that shifted in a never-ending pattern. Alex tried to move toward it... but she didn't know how. Could she even move? Where was she? WHAT was she?
Suddenly images flashed in her mind... memories. She remember sitting in the van with Mandy, after the second nuclear bomb had flown right over their heads. They'd been lucky to be so far away, because it and the one before it had left most of California completely uninhabitable, either from being a smoldering crater, or being completely irradiated. They'd been scared... but they'd continued their mission in the van... a mission to find Mandy's sister... and a second mission neither had anticipated with each other...
"Alex... I love you." Mandy's voice echoed in her mind, carried forth from the past. She remembered when they stopped... the kiss they'd shared, that quickly evolved into something more... when the world ceased to be a concern and they'd had nothing but each other to focus on. The feel of Mandy's body... the touch of her lips... why was this all coming back? To torture her?
The memories faded when her eyes began to open to a sight that many a drunkard had witnessed before. Little green men staring down at her with bright lights shining from behind their bulbous heads. The difference was, she was pretty sure this was real. The aliens smiled down at her with as kind an expression as one could give with an alien face.
"Welcome back." One of them told her in their strange, high-pitched and scratchy voices. "It looks like we arrived just in time to administer the anti-toxin." Alex blinked and reached up to rub her eyes, still feeling a bit weak. She felt like speaking, but she was interrupted by a pair of impossibly high-pitched yells.
"Alex!" Sam and Clover charged into the room and engulfed her in a pair of tight hugs. "Oh man I'm so glad you made it!" Sam told her with tears running down her cheeks. "I was sure that was it..."
"Alex, don't ever do that to us again." Clover agreed enthusiastically. The little green aliens watched from the sidelines, smiling idly to themselves.
"You... saved me..." Alex said softly, looking at the little green men. "Thank you..." To be honest she felt like screaming. She was sure she'd felt Mandy in that darkness... but she tried to push it out of her mind. No matter how comforting it had been to feel her presence again, she was here now and with her best friends in the world.
"We still owe you for saving us from GOOPER." One of the aliens replied. "We were merely returning the favor." Alex smiled gratefully, content with that, but Sam looked curious as she wiped the tears of joy away from her cheeks.
"You had an antidote to their toxin... have you met the Zardexians before?" Sam asked.
"Unfortunately, yes." One of the aliens replied again. "Many centuries ago they laid siege to OUR world as they have now attacked yours. They infiltrated our society with a forerunner at first, then when they'd weakened our defenses, moved in for the kill."
"But we were able to capture some of their technology and turn it against them, resulting in a stalemate that lasted for centuries." Another alien finished. "Finally, we fought them off... and they must have found their way to your world upon giving up on ours." The three spies were stunned at this news.
"You BEAT them!?" Clover exclaimed. "You actually beat them off!?"
"That's great!" Alex shouted. "We're saved!" Clover and Alex hugged each other in celebration, but one of the aliens held up his hand to halt their celebration.
"We cannot fight your war for you..." The alien said apologetically. "And we didn't beat them... we simply held them at a stalemate until they gave up. It would take more power than we have in all our technology to truly defeat them all."
"What are you talking about? You kicked their ass down there!" Clover exclaimed.
"That was just a small vessel, a scout to see how you well respond to force. The main fleet hasn't arrived yet." The aliens told them. Sam, Alex and Clover exchanged steady glances, gulping. "We cannot defeat their main fighters... but we are here to help you. We can transport you and as many of your species as we can fit through space to our home world many light years away. Its environment is almost identical to Earth's." He offered.
Before either of the others could respond, Sam cut in. "And how did you know they were attacking us if your home is so far away? Were you just in the neighborhood?" She asked curiously. The aliens turned to stare at her in unison, while Alex and Clover looked at her in surprise.
"Sam, what's with the accusing tone?" Clover asked. "They just saved our butts."
"Yeah Sam, way to show your gratitude." Alex added.
"Yeah... sorry. I guess the years of fighting have just made me too suspicious." Sam nodded apologetically to their saviors, putting one hand to her forehead.
"Completely understandable." One of the aliens replied. "What do you say to our offer?" He asked. Alex and Clover both looked at Sam, who was staring at the aliens with a studying gaze. The aliens stared back coolly, with genuine seeming concern in their eyes. Finally Sam closed her eyes and put one hand to her chin.
"This isn't really a decision we can make for the rest of the human race." Sam answered finally. "We should get back to the Greenland Second Base to consult with Pam and the others."
The aliens nodded. "You can rest while we make our way there. There are refreshments and beds in the next room." He gestured as the wall opened, revealing one huge bed and several platters full of delicious looking food ranging from oatmeal to succulent looking steaks. "Please, make yourselves at home." He nodded and turned to leave with his companions, the door closing behind them.
"Don't mind if we do." Clover grinned, pulling one of Alex's arms around her shoulders to help her over to the table since her crutches were missing. "Come on Alex, it's time to celebrate your new life with an old treat. I haven't had a nice steak since... man, at LEAST ten years ago." She helped Alex sit down in one of the chairs, then sat down in one of her own, pulling a steak up in front of her.
Alex dug into a plate of mashed potatoes and corn, savoring its taste in her mouth. "Mmm... this is great!" Alex exclaimed digging in and shoveling more into her mouth until she noticed Sam was still standing in the other room, staring at the door suspiciously. "Sam? Are you still being totally paranoid about the people who saved us?" She asked.
"Sam, calm down, get in here and have some sushi or something. It might be the last time we ever get food like this." Clover told her.
"I've got a riddle for you girls." Sam finally followed Clover and Alex into the dining room/bedroom. "How do a bunch of aliens who supposedly haven't been around since the early zeros know what I'm talking about when I mention a military base that wasn't built until 2007?" Clover and Alex stopped eating to stare at her in surprise when they realized she was right.
"Do you... do you think they're working with the Zardexians or something?" Alex asked.
"If they're in league with the Zardexians, they're sure going to great lengths to prove they're not. We SAW them shoot down one of the Zardexian ships." Clover pointed out. "And they even cured Alex, why would they bother if they were plotting to betray us in the end anyway?"
"That's a good point..." Sam mused. "But even if they're not in league with the Zardexians, there's got to be more to their presence here than they're letting on. Didn't you notice how they froze when I asked why they just happened to be in the neighborhood?" The three girls fell silent, trying to think of a suitable explanation for the mysteries surrounding their old green friends.
Finally Clover spoke, waving a fried chicken leg in front of her. "Well whatever their reason for being here, they've done nothing but help us. Why are we questioning them like this? They're feeding us, giving us a comfortable bed, saving Alex's life, and they're offering to get us off of this doomed dustball of a planet. So they have their own reasons for being here, so what? We ALL have our own reasons for being here. None of us is here just to 'fight for right'. We're fighting to survive."
"I agree with Clover." Alex stated. "What do we have to lose by trusting them? Whether they're lying or not, we'd be dead by now without them anyway." She stated. Sam studied them for a few moments, then smiled.
"You're right girls..." Sam looked down when her stomach started growling quite loudly. She blushed while Alex and Clover gave her teasing smiles. "Alright alright, make room at the table." Her friends scooted aside so she could sit down and fix herself a plate of the most delectable food she'd seen since the Imperium of Christ had first taken over.
They ate their fill with light companionable chatter filling the air. It wasn't hard to imagine they were back on the WOOHP jet in the old days, contemplating the current mission they were being ferried toward. When they'd eaten their fill fifteen minutes later they all retired to a huge bed on the other side of the room, lying side by side on top of the blankets, staring at the ceiling.
"How're you feeling Alex?" Clover asked.
"Still a little woozy... and like I'm about to barf, but I don't think that's toxin-related." Alex smiled slightly. Clover smiled back and leaned back on the bed again, letting out a deep sigh of contentment. In just a few minutes the girls rolled closer together so that they were in a small pile, with Sam and Clover both lying against Alex.
Alex didn't mind... she liked the closeness. She just wished Mandy were here... she was missing her deeply... but she couldn't afford to. Mandy was gone, there was no changing that now. Enough of stupid thoughts and childish flights of fantasy. Reality was nightmarish enough.
All three girls lifted their heads a while later when the door of their small bedroom opened again. "We have arrived at the base." One of the aliens told them. Sam and Clover climbed up from the bed and turned to help Alex, but the alien walked forward and held out what looked like a pair of high-tech crutches. "To help you move."
"Wow, thank you." Alex took the crutches and stood up. They worked like normal, but it seemed like they had special shock absorbers near the bottom that both adjusted to her height and helped prevent her from bruising her underarms as she walked. It was a small example of alien technology, but impressive to her nonetheless.
The spies turned to follow the little alien out of the bedroom once Alex was ready. "You know, it occurred to me that we don't really know anything about you. Not even your names." Sam told the small alien as they walked.
"We are Argathins from the planet Argath." The small alien replied. "My name is Ay-Leex." The alien told them. Alex blinked. It was still downright creepy really. Last time they were here they revealed their spy supervisor Jay-Ri.
"Hey... you wouldn't happen to be a girl would you?" Alex asked. Ay-Leex, Sam and Clover all turned to stare at her, causing an intense blush to spread across her face. "I mean... uh... aaahhahah..." She laughed nervously and rubbed the back of her neck. "Sorry..."
Ay-Leex gestured for them to follow him into the bridge of the ship, where they walked up to a screen on the front that showed an image of the Greenland military base. "The base you wanted to come to is down below... but we're at a loss as to why you would want to come here." He told them. The spies blinked at him, then turned to really get a good look at the screen. Flecks of red dotted the snow in front of the base, and bullet holes decorated the outside.
"No..." Sam muttered. "They must've been attacked... Ay-Leex, can we go down and see what happened?"
"Of course. But we cannot stay too long. Our ships are not designed to stand the cold." The little alien nodded to one of his/her companions, who brought the ship down to a soft landing on the snow. Ay-Leex led them through the ship to a door, taking them out toward the base. Sam ran up to the door of the base, looking around at it.
"That's strange... there's no sign of forced entry." Sam noted.
"Maybe they were caught off guard." Clover replied. Sam turned to head inside, with Clover, Alex, and Ay-Leex trailing behind. They all stopped when they entered the front hallway. Bodies littered the hallway, riddled with bullet-holes rather than showing any signs of a Zardexian attack. Further inside they found just more of the same.
"This was all done by humans..." Sam whispered, as though a loud sound might awaken the dead to eat them alive. "No sign of any Zardexians at all."
"Maybe it was Zardexians disguised as humans?" Clover replied.
"Why would they bother? It's not like we have any weapons that can fight them anyway." Sam sighed. Alex turned away from the grizzly scenes, but only found more equally grizzly ones behind her.
"I need to get outta here... ate too much food for this..." Alex turned to hobble her away out of the main chamber, finding a relatively clean hallway beyond that led to the barracks. It was a major relief to her stomach, so she moved a little further down before leaning against the steel wall and closing her eyes. This was all they needed, a war with both aliens AND crazy people.
Alex opened her eyes when she heard a soft whispering vibrate through the steel wall. She couldn't make out what it was saying, but she managed to track it to a small weapons' closet further down the hall. The whispering seemed to get louder when she stepped in front of the door.
"H... hello?" Alex asked, rapping her knuckles lightly on the door. The whispering grew more frantic and harried. "Hey, I'm not here to hurt you, I promise..." Alex slowly gripped the doorknob. "I'm coming in..." She pulled the door open slowly. The barrel of a 45-millimeter handgun was pointed straight at her head, but beyond it she saw a familiar face. "Kira?"
The girl Alex had saved during the opening battle of the war blinked, staring at her through tear-streaked eyes. Her forearms and the front of her military fatigues were spotted with dried blood. Her eyes showed that she hadn't slept at all, perhaps for a few days. And her shaking limbs betrayed her malnourishment. "G... get away from me... I don't wanna fight..." She gulped frantically.
"Hey... it's me, Alex." Alex held up her arms, standing on one foot and letting her crutches fall to the floor. She didn't move for several minutes, letting the girl slowly recognize her.
Finally she lowered the gun before dropping it to the floor. "A... Alex!?" She charged forward and engulfed her in a tight hug. "Alex!" She sobbed into her shoulder lightly as Alex held her close.
"Kira... what happened here? Who attacked you?" Alex asked.
"G... General Reynolds... she... she went insane." Kira gulped frantically. "She kept... ranting and raving about human-shaped aliens... she led so many people to die... she KILLED so many..." By now the girl was getting frantic, so Alex stroked her back slowly.
"Ssshhhh... try to calm down." Alex told her softly. Kira gulped and nodded shakily.
"F... Finally th... they tried to mutiny and take the base from her... b... but she had a following... there was a gunfight..." She dissolved into hysteria again, so Alex stopped prompting her to talk and just held her. She looked to the side when she heard Sam's footsteps coming down the hall toward them.
"Pam..." Alex was cut off.
"I know, I was listening." Sam replied. "Take her to the Argathin ship while me, Clover and Ay-Leex conduct a sweep for more survivors... and maybe we can see who came out on top." Sam leaned down to pick up Alex's crutches for her. Alex nodded and took her crutches. It was hard to move with them while Kira remained up against her, but she wasn't about to push the girl away. She remembered the first time she'd been caught in battle...
She still hadn't fully recovered from that shock. But she lived, as they would hopefully for a while to come.
TO BE CONTINUED