Authors Note: Sorry it took so long to continue this. RL has been hard as of late and almost all encompassing. Will try to be more regular about writing now. Enjoy.. and please Review.

Chapter 3 - Alien

Alien.

It started to rain.

Lawson hated rain. It wasn't always this way, though. before he moved to Florida he positively loved the rain. How it's cold, piercing wetness could cleanse you to the bone and make you feel so alive.

But Florida rain is nothing like North West Pacific rain, that much he learned very quickly when he first moved here. Florida rain was warm and sticky and didn't piece you. It clung to you like a slimy residue, like algae to the glass of an aquarium that hasn't been cleaned in way too long.

Rain in the Pacific Northwest also had this way of making the rest of the world seem cleaner too. It cooled the air, making everything feel vibrant and sharp. In Florida it only made the air hotter and more humid afterwards then it had before, hence increasing the clingy-slimy effect tenfold.

Alien.

His day had already been stressful and unpleasant and, to be frank, shocking enough without the rain. With the rain, however, it added a whole new dimension to his mood.

Wasn't it bad enough that he was almost struck by a falling meteor, the last of many that had already lain waste to most of the state? Wasn't it bad enough that said meteor wasn't a meteor, per se, but actually an escape craft from an alien space ship which had been intent on, apparently, wiping out America's military complex and inflicting as much damage as possible to pave a way for invasion. Wasn't it bad enough that said escape craft had deposited two aliens pretty much right into his lap, one of which tried to kill him and the other which saved his life.

Wasn't it bad enough that all his perceptions of the universe had been blown away much like his city, burning away in plumes of dark sooty smoke that turned his daylight world almost into a hazy, dirty, and fire strewn hell of night.

Alien.

No, it wasn't bad enough.

It started rained.

Lawson grunted and turned away from the youngish woman.. Though woman may have been to strong a word. She was an alien, he tried to remind himself, as impossible as that still sounded to his shock-clouded lump of greymatter.

Alien.

He hadn't said a word since she had said that 'This wasn't Over', whatever the hell that meant. Sitka, or Raylana, or whatever/whoever she was had returned to the escape pod. The sound of her rustling through the insides could be heard as she, probably, searched for some wonder Alien Device that would scare the pants off of him even more.

Alien.

He could have ran, then. He could have thrown his arms up in the air and gibbered like some dyslexic teenage drama queen, running in circles. He could have ran away, trying to outrun this strange dream-come-nightmare. He could have ran and tried to contact the Authorities.. The Police... The Military.. The Boy scouts of America.

Immigration and Naturalization Services.

Alien.

His legs went a bit weak at the knees and he sunk back against the trunk of an oak. The tree,most of it's leaves stripped away by quick gale force winds from the fury of explosions earlier in the day didn't provide much protection from the rain.. but he didn't care about that anymore. Rain that is.

Alien.

He couldn't run. He couldn't even think straight. The past few hours, the past 30 minutes especially, had finally caught up with Lawson and rendered his brain a nice bowl of jello. The rain and the smoot, clinging to him, were no longer noticed.. He was going numb. Going cold.. shivering now with shock.

Alien.

He almost didn't feel the cool, smooth hand against his cheek. The long, delicate fingers which had, only minutes earlier, held a weapon and killed an alien monster, slide under his chin and lifted his now slack jaw.. bringing his bloodshot and almost glazed eyes to bare on hers.

"Are you okay?" Sitka asked in his diminutively soft voice, concern tinting the edges. "What happened.. you were fine a few minutes ago?"

Lawson wanted to get up and scream A few minutes ago his world had at least made some sense. A few minutes ago he hadn't had his world view shattered like some baseball flying through a stained-glass church window. A few minutes ago the world had been so much smaller.

He said nothing.

Her emerald eyes looked into his own.. His being that green-blue aquamarine that could shimmer like a rocky-mountain lake. Her head dipped once, and those eyes closed for a moment, only to return to his a moment later.. the same, but different.. as if her emerald had become more vibrant.. gold added to them if not in actual color then ambience.

"He is going into shock." she said.. But not she. Sitka's soft voice was now gone yet not. layered with that melodious duotone of her other personality that cut into the fog of Lawson's brain.. Raylana. "We must dispose of the pod so no one else finds it, then find cover. Do you understand this, human?" she asked him. "We need a place to hide. And a place for you to rest. Do you understand?"

Lawson could only nod, dumbly.

Taking this for a yes, Raylana stood straighter. If he was in the proper state of mind he would have seen that she was now carrying a large satchel, filled with things she had rummaged form the pod. Two Zats were stuck in her belt and the staff weapon she laid against the tree next to him.

Raylana reached into the satchel and withdrew a small cubic device. He hefted in her palm a moment.. Then threw it at the pod. It gracefully arced through the air, which considering its complete lack of aerodynamics would have been impressive if Lawson noticed such things at the moment, and attached with a magnetic sounding clink to the hull of the dented pod.

The device hummed.. lowly at first then building in decibels and frequency. it grew louder, higher in pitch, until it reached a mind altering crescendo.. The pod's metal surface glowed a bright white.. then the entire thing dissipated into nothingness.

Gone.

Raylana sighed, regretfully and sadly, then looked down at Lawson, her only companion in this strange world.

"Let us go." she said to him.

Not having anything to say, nor really able to say anything period, the shock-stricken Lawson numbly stood and started to lead the way through the trees.. back towards his familiar if damaged world..

Which didn't seem so familiar anymore.