Nathan Hystad: The Survivors: Books 1-3

“I honestly don’t know, but at least we have a plan for now. Too bad you didn’t have a jet to take us there with.” I laughed.

“I thought of that. Just heading down there myself and doing it. Vanessa was for it. But then we saw the ships, and I was too worried they would just shoot me down, and the whole mission would be screwed. Or at least my involvement in it. Plus, I would be dead,” Mary said solemnly. “I had no idea there was definitely anyone else coming. I just figured if Vanessa and I had been chosen that there must be more.”

“Were you in New York then? Was it your safety deposit box we found open?”

She fidgeted with the ring on her necklace. “That was me. I was close in Washington and took a boat there. Lots of those available where I was. It was only a matter of hours and I was there. I knew I would have to go there and had gone to that bank a couple times in the past two years. Bob gave me the letter to not open until the day they came. Of course I was angry at him for dying, and for telling me that insane story about aliens. I didn’t know what to think when I read it, telling me about a security box. Why wouldn’t I go and look at it? I stood there two years ago in that very bank and stared at that box for an hour. But for some reason, I didn’t open it.”

“How about Vanessa?” I asked.

“I guess she never got one there. Hers was in a local bank. Interesting how her story is always different than ours.” She looked at me, and I guessed she was trying to gauge my reaction.

I really had no idea if that made a lick of difference to our situation, but I was going to watch Vanessa a little more closely than the other two.

“Let’s go get some food and get out of here. We have a long trip ahead of us.” My stomach growled when I smelled the bacon and eggs wafting from down the hall. Carey had already forgotten about me as he ran out of sight.

Soon we were packed up and full from the wonderful meal. It felt great to have something like breakfast to share with other people; another seemingly small event that gave me motivation to keep going. Vanessa and Mary were in a four-door Jeep, and Ray and I kept our truck. The drive to Florida was over a thousand miles, so we had some ground to make up, especially since light was at a premium. We had no idea if the ships would find us at night, but we turned the CB off and they gave us a walkie-talkie so we could communicate with them as we drove.

“We’ll take the lead for the start. If you see anything, let us know and we’ll stop and pretend to be just another abandoned vehicle,” Mary said as she bent over to pet Carey. “See you in a bit, pup.”

Mary was used to taking charge, it appeared. I always figured a soldier was better at taking directions, but she seemed to be good at it. I knew I was in no position to take charge here. Her training was ideal for what we had to do.

“Sounds good. We’ll be in touch.” I smiled at them as Ray said the words.

In minutes, we were heading down the road, Washington just a blip in the rear-view mirror.

W e started the drive around seven thirty that morning, and after stopping for a bathroom break at around nine thirty, we had made some decent distance. A thousand miles on roads with non-moving traffic could take a long time. We decided to just try side roads for most of the trip, and so far, it was working really well. We cruised along some paved and some gravel roads on the way towards Richmond, Virginia. We stopped for a quick break as we neared the city, and by noon, we were fifty miles south of it, heading towards North Carolina.

Everything seemed to be going well, but we were really far from our goal; Peru seemed like an impossible distance. Ray was quiet this morning, and I drove while he manned the walkie-talkie.

“You okay, Ray?” I asked, worried about him.

“Yeah, I’m okay. Just letting it all sink in. Trying to wrap my head around what it all means.”

I felt like he was going to ask the question I was scared to know the answer to.

“If any of this is true, were Kate and Janine some sort of…” He paused and looked at me. “Aliens? I know it sounds crazy, but maybe it’s true.”

After everything I’d gone through with my wife – the secrets, and Janine’s cousin Bob being Mary’s dead husband too, Kate being at my wedding…it was all too much to not be something strangely unbelievable.

“I don’t know. I really don’t. How could they be aliens? How would aliens look like us? Is that why they died? Maybe they couldn’t survive here. There are so many questions I’m not sure we’ll get answers to. Will it change how I feel about my wife, or you about Kate? I think it will, but I honestly do feel like what I had was real in every way. It had to be.” Just remember that I’m sorry. Never forget this moment. Words from three years ago that I’d blocked out flowed into my head that moment, and tears formed in my eyes as I recalled the desperate look she’d given me. “She knew I was going to find out about her, and she apologized on her deathbed. I forgot the words until now.” Warm tears now flowed down my face, but I didn’t sob about it. I let them fall, and from here I would harden myself. She had to do what she did, for some reason, but I knew without a doubt that she had loved me.

“I think you’re right. But how messed up is it that we had alien women? Not even Kirk married one of them,” Ray joked.

I stayed silent for a moment, then burst out laughing. “We’re going to be friends for a long time. I love making jokes at the wrong time! That’s straight out of my playbook.”

The talkie cracked. “ Hey, boys. There’s a gas station just ahead. Let’s take a breather. Over.”

“Roger that. We’re right behind you,” Ray replied.

We followed them down the gravel road and turned left toward the highway. The Jeep slammed on its brakes and pulled up beside a car sitting there. We did the same and cut the engine when they did.

“ There’s a bogey in the sky coming this way from the west.”

The ship was coming in fast. Just when I thought it might pass over us, I saw the beam coming from it. The beam was red, not green, this time. My heart was racing as it came closer; its red light was cutting the ground up in chunks. Huge pieces of earth flew in its wake, cars exploded, and when it passed over the gas station, I had to cover my ears when the tanks blew. A mushroom cloud shot into the sky; the gray ship kept moving, red beam shredding the ground as it moved. Carey was barking as Ray and I sat watching the devastation with our mouths open.

“How are we ever going to stop them?” Ray whispered.

“I have no idea.” My heart was hammering in my chest, and I could feel the drip of sweat run down my back as I stared into the sky. As if to accent the danger we just missed out on, a large piece of metal fell right beside the truck, sticking into the road, fire burning around it.

“We better wait a moment longer in case there’s any more airborne flaming death waiting to fall on us,” I said. In a few moments, we got out of the truck, and Carey ran over to the Jeep and barked at Vanessa in the driver’s seat. I was sure he just wanted to see if they were okay, but she seemed hesitant to get out of the vehicle. He moved over and forgot what he was doing when Mary walked over to us, because she was obviously more interesting than the car door. We watched the line of fire spreading across the horizon for miles.

“Do you think they know we’re here? Why else would they have done this?” Ray asked.

“It could be they were demonstrating their power in case we saw what they’d done. They probably think we’re somewhere around this distance. Maybe they’re cutting a line down this side of the country to stop us from passing?” Mary answered. “I heard the generals arguing about whether these ships had weapons or not. They thought that they didn’t, that the reason they didn’t retaliate against Russia when they threw missiles at them was because they couldn’t. Boy, were they wrong. They just cut open the ground like a can opener, with a beam of frickin’ red light.”