Chapter Nine ~ On the Outside Again

 
Carolyn and Lucas pulled up to the hotel, their hearts still pounding in their chests. They drove around back and stashed the truck so it couldn't be seen from the street.
 
Everyone inside had been watching at the windows and before the two were even out of the vehicle, the rest of the group was standing at the back entrance, holding the door open with obvious relief on their faces.
 
Jilly grabbed a hold of Lucas and hung on around his neck as they walked inside. Rob hugged Carolyn and put his arm around her shoulders and steered her towards the front lobby.
 
“What happened, tell us everything,” Natalie urged when they got settled onto the couches. “What were you able to find out?”
 
Carolyn and Lucas exchanged glances and Lucas gestured to her "You go ahead, you'll tell it better than me”'
 
She took a deep breath and with a sad, troubled look on her face, she told the story. Of how they easily made it onto the transport and flew all the way to an enormous space station that was hidden behind the moon. How Lucas was taken with hundreds of others and locked in a cage and that every single person up there was going to be sold into alien slavery. She paused at the moment to let it all sink in. No one said anything. Rob looked like he wanted to throw up but was so transfixed that he couldn't move.
 
“Well, how'd ya get yourselves outta there?” Manny finally asked.
 
“Lucas brought smoke and stink bombs from the novelty store where he hid while he was waiting for the sirens. He used those to cause a distraction when they were moving his group and we made it back to the ship that we flew there on. We almost got caught but Lucas hit a guy in the head and it gave us enough time to get on board and I used autopilot and we made it back to the airport and escaped to our truck before anyone caught us.”
 
“You hit someone?” Jilly exclaimed. “Did you kill him?”
 
“No, I didn't kill him. Of course not. I just knocked him out long enough for us to get away.”
 
“I knew it. I just knew it” Rob managed to say. “I wanted to think I was just being overly dramatic but I wasn't. If I wasn't feeling like I was going into shock I would probably be throwing up right now.”
 
“I wish I could make it better than it is,” Carolyn said. “But I can't. And I don't know what to do now that we know. We don't know if they are going to keep taking people until there aren't any more of us, or if they reach a certain quota then leave.”
 
“And you saw real aliens? Like in the movies? Were they green with antennas?” Jilly asked.
 
“No, I didn't see any antennas and none of them were green. Though one of them was a little blue. But that's totally beside the point. They were taking people away on spaceships. Into space. Never to be seen again. And if it weren't for the fact that we all are immune to whatever they are spraying on us, that would be happening to us too. And there isn't a goddamn thing we can do about it!” Lucas jumped up from the couch and stormed out of the room.
 
Jilly looked taken aback. “I'm sorry,” she said. “I didn't mean to make him that mad.”
 
“It's not you,” Carolyn assured her. “It's what's happening. He feels powerless and that's a terrible feeling.”
 
“What can we do?” Jilly asked. “We must be able to do something? Can't we stop them? Like, blow up their ship or something?”
 
“Their ship is huge. It's as big as a city. I couldn't even see all of it when we were flying into the hangar bay. Where would we get a bomb big enough to destroy it? And how would we get it there?”
 
Jilly shrugged her shoulders. “I don't know but maybe we could figure it out. You guys are all so smart. And don't we have to do something? We can't just let them do this. There are still thousands of people in just our city. And how many more all over the world? We have to save them!”
 
Everyone was nodding and frowning at the same time. “I think we need to go back to Frankie and tell her what we found,” Carolyn said. “Maybe together we can figure something out. At this point, I'm just happy to have made it out of that spaceship alive.”
 
“I think we definitely need to get back to Frankie's place,” Rob said “They have resources we don't have access to and we can contact other immune communities who may have ideas that we don't think of.”
 
“Let's do that,” Jilly said and jumped up. “I'll go tell Lucas. We should go right away” and she ran off to find her brother.
 
Carolyn stood up and looked at Natalie. “Do you and Manny want to come with us? It may be your only chance to get out of here if we don't make it back.”
 
“I think we had better stay here for the time being,” Natalie said. “We're safe in here and we have plenty of food. From what you told us, it's not as safe where you are going especially for people our age, it's better we lay low where we are right now.”
 
“Well you're certainly right about it not being safe out there” Carolyn agreed. “I will see if Rob can show you how to use the computer so we can keep you updated on whatever is going to happen no matter what. I want to make sure you both are alright.”
 
Natalie stood up as well and hugged her. “I know you do, dear. We'll both be fine as long as long as we stay alert. We're tough cookies you know. We'll survive this.”
 
“We all will,” Carolyn said. “I'm sure of it.
 
Natalie looked a bit misty-eyed then shook it off and told Carolyn to stock up on food from behind the counter. “We have so much more than we need,” she said. "Manny gets as much as he can and we've put together quite a backlog. Fill up the truck.”
 
“Oh thank you so much. We won't take much but enough to make sure if something happens and we have to hide out for a few days we won't starve.”
 
The four of them packed up their belongings and took a half dozen boxes of food and said "see you soon" instead of goodbye before piling into the truck and heading towards the road where they had passed through the barrier.

Lucas continued to be in a bad mood, sitting in the backseat staring out the window. Rob sat next to him staring out the other window lost in thought. As Carolyn drove, Jilly kept throwing out possible ideas about how to "make the aliens go away".

"How about we have Rob make a computer virus and send it up to them and the whole ship will explode?"
"I can't make a PC talk to a MAC without specialized software," Rob said, still staring out the window.
"They did it in the movies," Jilly pointed out.
"Exactly," Rob said. "In the movies."
"Maybe they'll catch some terrible disease they aren't immune too and all die."
"Also only in the movies."
"Well is there anything in the movies that could work in real life too?"  
"I'll have to give it some thought."
Jilly crossed her arms and stared grumpily out the window.
The truck bumped along as Carolyn wove in and out of the giant weeds that had grown up on the highway. "Here's the exit," she announced. "Let's hope we can just slide right out of here as easily as we slid in."
Everyone sat up and watched as they took the off ramp and turned left and headed towards what they were hoping was still the electronic door in the barrier. There was no one on the road ahead and they could see where they had gone through last time. There were some crates off to one side and a military jeep parked across the way.  
"I can't see anyone but keep your eyes peeled just in case," Carolyn said.  
"It looks abandoned at the moment," Lucas said. "I hope it's not something that has to be turned on and off."
 
"That's what I was worried about." Carolyn slowed the truck down to a crawl as they approached the cross over. Ever so slowly she inched forward. The truck hit a pothole and everyone grabbed for the handle hanging above their door but they kept rolling forward.
"Just a couple more feet... almost there," Carolyn said through clenched teeth.
"Please oh please oh please oh please" Jilly chanted
The truck made a buzzing sound and lit up blue for a fraction of a second and they rolled through to the other side.
Everyone cheered and moods instantly improved.
Carolyn pushed the pedal down and they sped along the highway.
"Do you remember how to get back?" Rob asked.
"I think so," Carolyn answered, "but if you see me about to miss a turn, go ahead and give me a shout."
"Will do," Rob assured her and leaned back and watched the world fly by.

                                   ****

Carolyn only needed Rob to remind her of one turn before they were bouncing down the dirt road toward the compound. They made it halfway before 2 large guards that no one recognized stepped into the road and pointed their guns at them. Carolyn pulled up alongside and stopped.
"Hey there," she said smiling. "Can you tell Frankie that Carolyn and friends have returned?"
The guard did not return the smile. "What do you want?"
"I want you to tell Frankie that we're back. And maybe tell George too. He'll be glad to see us."
One guard looked at the other and nodded. The second guard grabbed his walkie off his waist and turned away from them to talk.
He mumbled and nodded several times and then turned and said "They're OK to go in."
The first guard frowned even more deeply but stepped aside and waved them on.
"Frankie must have found these guys by putting up a want ad for mean-looking giants with no sense of humor." Carolyn joked.
Everyone in the car chuckled. Jilly was already leaning left and right and trying to get the first look at the compound. As soon as she saw it she pointed and announced "There it is! We're back!"
They drove all the way up to the first building and parked by the door. Rob practically crawled over Lucas trying to get out quickly.
"Slow down there," Lucas grunted.
"Oh sorry," Rob said but continued to beeline it towards the door. He swung it open and collided head-on with Sylvia who was on the other side. They both stopped and looked embarrassed but couldn't stop smiling. Jilly pushed past them. "Come on you too. Go grin at each other out of everyone else's way."
They both looked even more embarrassed as they turned and continued inside mumbling "sorry".
Frankie came bustling down the hall. "There you all are! Oh goodness, how great to see all of you in one piece. Come, let's take you down to the rec room and you can tell us all about what you've learned. Rob hinted over the computer that there was some very important news but didn't elaborate. I can't wait to hear."
As they headed towards the TV room, others joined the group including Ethan, Kyle, and Pat. Pat sidled up to Jilly and they gave each other a fist bump followed by a finger wave.
"You are beyond cool," Lucas said, rolling his eyes as he passed them.
"You're just jealous."
"That's it, you found me out."
Once everyone was seated Lucas said, "You go ahead Carolyn, you're much better telling it."
And Carolyn once again told the whole story. From how they got inside the barrier, to meeting Natalie and Manny and finding out about the secondary gas and how it made people walk to the airport and get on board a spaceship that took them away. There was not a sound from anyone as she continued to tell them about how they made a plan to get on board the transport to find out where the affected were being taken and what was happening to them.
She described how both of them managed to actually get on board and fly all the way to a giant ship behind the moon where Lucas and the affected were put into cages so aliens could buy them to use as slaves.
She waited a moment after imparting that last bit of information but no one moved or spoke. You could have heard a pin drop. The looks on their faces ran the gamut between shock and horror.
Finally, Ethan asked in a cracked whisper "How did you get out of there?"
Lucas couldn't help himself, he started telling how he created a distraction with things he took with him and how they ran all the way to the hangar bay where they almost got caught and he hit a guy in the head so they had time to autopilot the transport back to earth.

And here they were.
Stunned silence hung in the air so thick you could feel it.
Frankie finally said, "Well of all the things I could have thought were going on, this was not even on the radar." She took a deep breath. "I'm actually at a loss."
"So are we," Carolyn said.
"We have to find a way to save everyone" Jilly insisted "There has to be a way."
"The military is in cahoots with them," Rob said. "They are working alongside them and allowing this to happen. I'm wondering if we can hack into someplace that might give us some information about what's really going on and why they are doing this. Maybe find out if they are going along willingly or if they have no choice."
"I know a guy!" Kyle suddenly said. "I've been talking with him over the computer lines that Rob set up for us. He's military but one of the immune and he said he left the base where he was stationed as soon as this all went down but he never gave me an explanation and I never asked. Maybe he can give us some info."
"That's a good place to start," Frankie said. "Maybe Rob and you can talk to him and see if there is any way to get into their computers."
"I'd be happy to," said Rob "Shall we give it a try?"
"Absolutely," Kyle said, pushing himself off the couch.
As they were leaving Rob paused and turned to ask Sylvia if she'd like to join them, but she was already standing up and heading their way. Rob smiled his goofy smile and she smiled back at him and they practically skipped out of the room. Jilly rolled her eyes. "They are ridiculous!"
"So no matter what we find out, I don't have a clue if there is even a snowflake's chance in hell we could figure out a way to stop what's going on," Carolyn said, bringing everybody back to the problem at hand.
"Were you able to find out anything about any weapons capabilities of the aliens?" Frankie asked then followed it up with "I can't believe I just asked that."
"There was no indication that there were guns of any kind except those being carried by our own people. Which doesn't mean anything because every different alien I saw was there to make a purchase and they were being guided around by our military. I never saw who was actually running the show. So for all I know they could be armed with laser cannons, pulse rifles, or phasers set to kill."
"You've been watching too much TV," Lucas noted.
"You'd think that but there are actual real live aliens scooping humans up and taking them away so I'm allowed some speculation based on previous sci-fi viewing experiences."
"I'll give you that," he said with a sigh.
The conversation turned to different ideas about ways they could thwart the invaders and then onto a philosophical discussion about whether they should maybe just try to save themselves which ultimately led back to how they would feel deeply guilty if they didn't at least try to figure out something to save their fellow humans.

                                   ****

Down in the computer room Rob, Sylvia, and Kyle were gathered around the screen talking with Kyle's friend Captain Joe Wexler who was telling them his story.

"The higher-ups, mostly Generals, though I think there was a Colonel or two in there, came and took us all into a large auditorium a few days before this whole thing went down." He had white-blond hair, very light blue eyes, and a slow southern drawl that was easy on the ears. "They told us aliens were coming and that if the military cooperated with them, some of us could be saved. The General gave us the option of going along with 'em in which case we could also save our close family. But if we didn't feel like we could morally do that, that was fine but we had to stay locked up on the base and weren't allowed to talk to anyone on the outside. I have no family which is why I joined up in the first place. So I went with my conscience and said I could not participate so I was taken away with the others who voted like me. They took away our phones and we were locked in a huge holding room with barred windows near the back of our base. We were there for a couple of days, well-fed and taken care of but we had no idea what was going to happen." He took a deep breath and continued.
"The day of the arrival, there was a tremendous commotion on the base. We could see out the window and see the giant ships appear in the sky. I gotta tell you, everyone was scared to death and most of the people in the holding cells stayed huddled up next to the far walls but I couldn't help myself, I had to watch. I figured if I was going to die I'd want to see it coming.
Nothing happened for a couple of hours. I could hear people on the other side of the walls running around trying to make sure everything was set up for whatever was coming next. After a bit, everyone started to relax because death didn't seem quite so imminent. They started moving away from the walls and peeking out the windows. That was right about the time that they released the gas. It came pouring in the barred windows that were slightly open. Choking, stinking thick white smoke. I fell on the floor trying to keep from breathing it in, I think I threw up once but I was pretty sure that was the end of the line. Then it just sort of evaporated and when I could see again I saw that everyone in the room with me was still laying on the floor passed out. I was still trying to catch my breath as I ran around trying to help them. That's when a loud siren went off and everyone suddenly got to their feet and walked to the front door where they just stood there waiting. I tried to talk to them but they were in some sort of trance. All of them. I was the only one who was awake.
Then I heard the main door opening and every person in the room surged forward, taking me with them. They pushed out into the hallway, down the hall to the outer door that may I add was being held open by my direct superior, Captain Greyson who obviously was unaffected by the smoke like me. I just kept my head down and followed the group as they marched across the lawn and through the gate in the chain link fence that was propped open but being monitored by some low ranking soldiers. They all obviously knew this was going to happen.
As I walked with the group we were joined by other sleepwalkers. They just kept appearing and joining our group. I kept checking and realized no one from the base was with us. We were on our own. So when I felt like we had gotten far enough away, I made a run for it. Ran down some side street, into an alley, and hid behind a dumpster until I was sure no one was going to chase after me. When it looked like I was in the clear I found a market down the street and holed up in the back room for a few days, totally freaked out, not knowing what to do. I finally got a little braver and started wandering around seeing what I could find and it wasn't long before I met a few other people who were like me and then eventually we met up with this group and eventually found a safe place to hide."
"Well, now we know why the military is cooperating. They are saving themselves and throwing everybody else into slavery." Rob said with a sigh.
"I'm not sure they had much choice in the matter. Even though there was not a lot of talk about weaponry, I got the impression that if they did not cooperate it wouldn't have changed what was going to happen. And for most of the higher-ups, there was no way they were going to allow their spouses and kids to be taken away." Joe rubbed his brow. "So this is where we are. I just would have rathered to go down fighting than be saved because I was hiding out in someone's barn."
Carolyn had come down the hall and was standing behind them.
"That's our hope," she said. "That we can fight. That we can stop this. Somehow. Though we haven't exactly got it worked out yet."
"Seriously?" Joe said, suddenly looking a little less pained. "Do you actually have people who want to try to fight back? I love the people I'm with right now, but most of them are just happy to stay below the radar until this is all over. I would love to help. I will help. Just tell me what I can do."
"Is there any way you still have access to any military files? Did they lock you out?" Rob wanted to know.
"I still have full access," Joe said "I logged onto my account the first day we managed to get back online out here. No one bothered to shut down my account probably because they were assuming I would be a sleepwalker like the rest of them so they didn't bother. But what good will it do?"
"I'm not sure," said Rob "But maybe if you give me access I can look around and see if I can hack any deeper into other files and find something we can use."
"Sure I can do that, just tell me what to do."
Rob launched into an explanation of how to get him access and everyone else excused themselves and headed back down the hall to get something to eat, except Sylvia who slid into the chair next to Rob "Do you mind if I stay?" she asked
Rob stopped talking and grinned "I would love for you to stay."
"I was hoping you would say that," she grinned back.
They both kept grinning at each other until Joe cleared his throat "Um guys? I'm still over here, not feeling awkward at all."
"Oh sorry," Rob said, turning several shades of red. "Um, OK, now where were we?"
And suddenly he was all business hoping he could find something that would give them a tactical advantage and maybe find a way to stop all of this from continuing much longer.