The Faculty II: The Last Invasion

Sir Casey

Night was supposed to be peaceful, serene and comforting. Somehow, the stars twinkling against the backdrop of vast space seemed lonely and cold. No, not lonely. Some of those stars were plants and on those planets, there were others. Others like Mary Beth, others like Riva. How many more others existed and lived oblivious to the insignificant humans going about their lives?

Casey sighed and turned his eyes away from the window to look at the back seat. Stokley had finally cried herself to sleep and was now curled up on her share of the chair, forehead resting against the side. Riva was asleep as well, her neck craned back against the headrest. Through the thick layer of eye shadow, Casey could just make out the nearly translucent, aqua eyelids.

He resituated himself in his seat to glance sideways at Zeke. He had a dull expression on his face, resting his wrist on the steering wheel and barely watching the road. "Getting tired?" Casey asked with a touch of concern, his eyes moving to the dashboard's clock. The older boy had been driving for four hours now, and he certainly looked tired.

Zeke grunted and tore his eyes away from the long stretch of endless highway. "Nope, I'm fine." He jammed his chin in the direction of the cup holder containing two emptied paper cups. "Twenty-four ounces of that gas station crap coffee will keep me going for awhile. Go ahead and catch some Z's, when you wake up, we can switch."

Casey nodded slowly, turning in his seat to stare once more out of the passenger window. He doubted he could sleep, though his body felt exhausted. Or rather, he felt mentally exhausted after this unbearably long day. It had started out with the plan to trade Mary Beth for Delilah, then Miss Levinson and Henry had been killed and here they were, at the close of the day, driving to Illinois.

Casey could still hardly believe that Zeke's plan had worked. When they had been on the road for over an hour, the question had occurred to Stokely what it was that killed the two Atlantians. The older male had laughed and explained that he had given them straight coffee, simply using a small amount of water to create the drink. He'd only received a round of blank stares in return.

"Coffee is naturally a dehydrator," he had informed them, "I added some espresso shots, too. Then, I added some scat to the water to be extra sure." Casey still found it ironic that America's favorite drink had been the demise of the race that had hoped to enslave them. He also found it humorous, though he didn't laugh. Besides stunting growth, apparently coffee demised hostile alien races. He'd stick to drinking soda.

Stokely had fallen asleep after only two hours of driving, her worry for Stan driving her to the utter brink of exhaustion. Her sleep was restless for she often murmured worriedly and shifted continually to different positions. None of her companions could blame her for her worry. Having Stan in Marian's clutches nagged at each of them, but especially Zeke for he knew her cruelness best.

Riva had remained mostly silent for the ride, staring out of the window with her miscolored eyes. It was until Zeke had wanted an answer to the question that had bugged him since the start of their road trip. How did she know where Marian would be taking Stan? Riva looked up, an almost guilty look on her face, before launching into her story.

Riva was not the only Littoral to escape the enslavement of the Atlantians, there had been one other. His name was Hydo, and in terms of Earth time, he was several years older than Riva. "He was a close friend of mine," Riva said with a sad smile, "but he couldn't stand being under control of the Atlantians anymore." He'd made plans to escape, though the punishment is a torturous death, and put them into motion. Riva sighed, "It's where Marybeth got the idea to come to Earth. That's where Hydo decided to escape to. With such primitive technology, it would be difficult to trace him here."

Zeke quirked an eyebrow, "Our technology isn't that primitive."

Riva simply laughed.

Marybeth had sensed Hydo's presence when she arrived, and gone to meet him. She left him be for he had adjusted well to human life and vowed not to interfere in her invasion of the planet as long as he still retained his freedom. Upon going through Marybeth's records, Riva had stumbled across the entry detailing the Atlantian's visit to Hydo, including his address at the time. Riva guessed that Marian had bullied Hydo into helping them out in their rescue attempt for Marybeth, or that they'd simply reactivated the slug in his mind.

Thus, armed with a handful of skat pens and directions from map quest, they had headed out to save the world again. Casey found it a bit redundant, and not to mention annoying. It was his senior year of high school; this was supposed to be the best year free of worry or stress. A year to sail through the academics well enough to get into a decent college. But no, he and a handful of teenagers were the unlikely heroes of Earth and ridiculed for their claims.

Casey blew air from his mouth, shifting the bangs from his gaze. He needed to get some rest; his mind and body needed the sleep to prepare for the battle ahead. He felt as though he needed a week's worth of pure relaxation, and yet he couldn't get himself to even take a few hours of rest. His mind was awake, churning and worrying. What if Marian had already killed Stan? Would they be able to win Earth's freedom again? And what about Delilah? She'd been the bargaining chip. Would she pay a price for the deal going south?

Despite the way she treated him like dirt, he worried for her. Even though Stokes told him that she was getting exactly what she deserved, a part of him wanted to be her rescuer, the knight in shining armor. Resting his chin on the cast wrapped around his forearm, he thought he certainly didn't look the part of a hero.

He forced his eyes closed, blocking out the view of cornfields flashing by and endless interstate. Sleep. Forget Delilah. Forget Marian. Forget everything and just sleep. Casey found his mind beginning to cloud as the exhaustion finally won over, and his last thought was Delilah racing to his arms, calling him Sir Casey. He slept with a smile on his face.

A.N.: I last updated this in Febuary. I'm so so so sorry. The bad news: I'm starting college in less than a week and it will be insane. I don't know when I'll get a chance to write, though I am going to be a writing major. The good news: I just saved a bunch of money on my car insurance. (Had to throw that one in) I'd say there's probably going to be three, maybe four, more chapters until the end. Whoot!