"Why are we doing this again?" Camila complained, as they trekked further into the dark and cold desert. It was about half an hour after Alise, Tono, and Felix had made their little travel plans, and now the three of them, along with Camila, Sal, and Lola (not accompanied by Juana with didn't want to go where "The slithery things were,") were hiking to the very back edges of Tono's property in search of the meteor. Camila had very fiercely protested coming and yet went along after Alise reminded her that she owed her for coming to the party in the first place. Sal didn't complain, and actually preferred to go, not trusting the two girls to go alone with the drunken lunatics. Lola had invited herself along, for reasons none of them, not even Felix, understood.

"What would you say if I told you I forgot?" Alise smiled guiltily at Camila, and she glared back and sighed.

"I really wish I would have known we would be doing this. I'm ruining my good pairs of heels!"

Your ankles, too, Alise mentally noted. Every step Camila seemed to take resulted in her tripping or twisting in some way or another. After a few more minutes of this, Camila let out a irritated noise and stopped to take off the shoes.

"What are you doing?" Sal asked, looking at her strangely.

"What does it look like?" she snapped at him. "There's no way I'm walking any further in these! On the bright side, I hear sand's great for your skin."

"What, so you're gonna go walking barefoot in the damn desert?"

She smiled sarcastically at him. "Guess so."

Sal rolled his eyes and sighed.

"Tono!" he called up to the front of the group.

"What?" he called back. He, Felix, and Lola were about 30 or so feet in front of front of the other three and they stopped for a moment to hear what he was asking.

"How much further 'til we get there?"

Tono thought for a moment before yelling back. "Say quarter mile, give or take."

"Okay," Sal yelled and then looked to Camila and bent down in front of her. "Get on."

"What?" she asked, confused. She looked to Alise beside her, who just shrugged her shoulders.

"You're not walking barefoot. You're gonna get bite by something, and then I'm gonna be the one to have to run you back to the house. Get on."

Camila let out a small chuckle. "Whatever you say, soldier." He smirked. Sal did want to be a soldier, just like his father. He applied at the recruiting office in the city and was waiting to hear back from them. Alise and Camila supported him all the way, and yet both knew they would miss him terribly if he left them.

With her heels still in her right hand, Camila jumped onto Sal and squeaked as he stood up. Sal faced Alise and smiled as she laughed.

"I get the ride home!" she said giggling, and he rolled his eyes. He wouldn't admit it, but he liked the idea of that.

They walked for a little while longer, Camila still hanging onto Sal, but Felix was know carrying around Lola the same way. After she happened to look back at Sal and Camila, she hit him on the shoulder and asked him why he wasn't doing the same for her, calling him a selfish bastard, and then she started to tear up, saying he didn't love her and just wanted to get in her pants. And while most of what she said was likely true, Felix, not wanting to be outdone, let her jump on his back, instantly stopping her rant. He didn't have half the muscle Sal did, and he was visibly weak by the time Tono yelled, "There it is!" Sal let Camila off his back, and the five of them went to the edge of the hill that Tono was standing on, as he pointed to an object a very short distance away.

The meteor had landed roughly into the sand and a mass crater was surrounding that was easily 10 feet deep. It seemed to be cigar shaped, and it stuck out against the darkness of the night that surrounded it. The object itself was also very large. All the brush and plant life around it was brunt to a crisp. Alise couldn't see much else of what it looked like though. Then Felix let out a yell.

"Holy shit!" he screamed joyfully. "This is sick! I'm getting a closer look!"

Everyone looked at him.

"You're shittin' me, right?" Tono asked worriedly, not expecting his friend to want to get closer to the odd object. "God knows what that thing is! Something may come out a probe ya!"

Felix scoffed. "Well you all can wuss off if you want to, but I'm gonna investi-SHIT!"

Felix had been standing at the very edge of the hill and his sudden step forward caused the soft ground beneath him to crumble and him to fall forward. He latched onto the closest thing that was near him, which unfortunately was Alise, who was at least 40 pounds lighter than him and who did nothing, but fall down with him. The two fell down the inclined hill and rolled down the rest of the way, their momentum causing them to get dangerously close to the edge of the crater of the meteor. When they stopped rolling, neither of them got up.

"ALISE!" Sal cried, and Camila started shouting also. Tono and Lola just stared in shock. Sal seemed to spring into action and slid down the hill, hitting the ground running and taking off towards Alise. When he reached her, he bent down aside of her, and started to gently shake her. He noticed she had a large cut on her forehead. Felix started to stir next to him, but he didn't even notice.

"Alise! Alise!" he yelled, at her. She still didn't respond.

"ALISE!" he tried once more, and this time he slapped her face, not violently, but enough to get her to stir a little, which she did. She slowly opened her large brown eyes, and looked at him.

"Sal?" she said drowsily, she tried to sit up, but the world started to spin around her, so she put her head back down. Sal let out a sigh of relief.

"You okay?" he asked. She smirked.

"I feel like I got hit with a rock," she said tiredly. He laughed lightly.

"Well you kind of did, Brown."

"Great," she mumbled. She tried sitting up again, this time with more luck, and Sal helped her to her feet, but she stumbled and he caught her. She smiled, but then remembered something.

"Is he okay?" she said, regarding Felix who was continually stirring. Sal let out an irritated growl, but made sure Alise could stand on her own and walk over to him.

"Hey, asshole," he said hotly, "get up." Felix opened his eyes this time, and suddenly winced in pain.

"Dammit!" he cried out. "My leg!" He looked as if he was going to try and move it, but thought better of it. "I think it's broken, man! Sal, help me up! Aaa!" He hissed in pain.

"Get Tono to help you, 'cause I sure as hell am not."

"Why not?" Felix yelled, obviously pissed off.

"Cause you grabbed her as you fell!" he gestured over to Alise, who looked at the two. "She's hurt, and I gonna get her home."

"Hey, I didn't-"

"I don't care." Sal turned away from him and back to Alise. After hearing the exchange, she happened to glance down and remembered the meteor. She could get a better look at it now, and noticed that it seemed to be decorated in vine-like swirls. Something else was odd about it though. The top of the meteor seemed to be... opened. She didn't think much more of it though, because Sal then returned to her side. He tried to get her to walk, but every time she did, she'd get dizzy and had to stop. Sal smiled and bent down in front of her. She smirked, knowing what he meant, and she climbed slowly on his back. He stood up and she buried her face in his back. He chuckled.

"On the bright side, it looks like you're getting that ride you wanted," Sal said grinning, and she laughed, giving her a headache, and she thought better of doing it again. She looked up and saw Tono running past them to get to Felix behind them.

"Thanks by the way," she said to him.

"No prob-"

He was cut off abruptly by a loud noise. The two turned around and looked up. A large, comet like object with a blue stream following behind it was dashing across the sky. And it was heading right towards them.

"HIT THE DECK!" Sal yelled and the two fell to the ground and covered their heads. Hearing him, the other four people present did the same. The falling object flew over the hill where Camila and Lola were and smacked the ground with a sonic boom and a great, blinding flash of light. The ground around them shook, and Alise buried her face into the sand. They waited a moment. Nothing else happened.

"Are you okay?" she heard Sal asked her. She nodded her head.

"Was that another meteor?" she asked quietly.

Sal paused. "I don't know."

The two got to their feet and looked behind them to see Tono helping Felix walk with a large stick tied to his leg.

"What the HELL was THAT?" Tono yelled to them. They didn't respond.

The recent events were enough to wake Alise entirely up and she was able to walk on her own. Alise climbed up the sandy hill first, and Sal and Tono stayed behind to help Felix get up the hill as well. She came to see that Camila and Lola had their backs turned towards them. Camila turned around and saw Alise. She ran and embraced her, asking her if she was okay and Alise said yes. Camila turned again.

"Look," she said trembling a little, and she pointed to the desert that had walked on just minutes before.

It was ablaze. Plants were on fire, sand was thrown everywhere, and right in the middle of it all was another meteor, once again surrounded by a massive crater of sand. Alise even noticed some glass on the ground, and knew it was form the heat of meteor and the sand coming together. The guys finally made it up the hill and saw the scene in front of them.

"Wow," Tono said, barely a whisper in disbelief.

"What is it?" Lola asked, and she went to take her place beside a crippled Felix, who hardly noticed her presence.

"We should probably go now," Sal said, and there was a murmur of agreement. They started to walk a few steps out, when suddenly an ear-piercing noise ripped through the air. It sounded like the loud grinding of metal and it made everyone stop and put their hands over their ears in pain. After a moment or so, it stopped. They all looked up.

There was a large crash in front of them, and they couldn't believe their eyes.

In front of them was a large mechanical man.

It was at least 40 feet tall, and pitch black. Suddenly he looked down at the group menacingly with piercing red eyes and started to make a variety of clicking noises.

"RUN!" Sal yelled, and the group scattered.

Alise ran around the machine next to the Camila, and the two sprinted as fast as their legs could carry them. Alise glanced back to see the man only a couple feet behind them and yet he wasn't chasing them. She also saw that Felix was running pretty well considering his injuried leg, pure panic rushing through him. As Alise continued to wonder why it wasn't following, it started to chase them.

Spoke too soon! she was able to think through her panic.

Suddenly, Camila tripped and fell to the ground in front of the Alise. She wasn't going to leave her best friend, so she stopped in her rushed state to help her up.

"Quick!" she cried desperately, and she hoisted her friend to her feet and they started to run again, hoping the man didn't catch up to them.

It was too late, however. Alise looked over see the machine's arm about to swing. She pushed Camila to the ground.

And was smacked with pure force.

She was sent flying through the air, the wind blowing past her. Every part of her aching and was waiting the darkness of death to overtake her as she hit the ground.

But instead, she was caught, my another pair of mechanical hands.

She looked up at her catcher and expected to see the evil red eyes again. But she didn't.

She found she was looking into the bluest eyes she had ever seen before.

There's more to come! Please tell me what you think!

As always, I own nothing.

~Mel