Морган Райс - Arrival

“Maybe you’re just not turning them on right,” Chloe said.

Luna gave her a pointed look.

“We can stay here as long as we need to, anyway,” Luna said. “We’re safe here. We talked about this yesterday, Kevin.”

They had, and it had been a comforting thought at the time, but was that it? Were the three of them just going to stay there for the rest of their lives?

“I might know about a place,” Chloe said, between mouthfuls of pancake.

“You just happen to know about somewhere?” Luna said. “The same way that you heard about here?”

To Kevin, she sounded suspicious. He wanted to give Chloe the benefit of the doubt, but Luna sounded much less like she trusted her.

Chloe put down her fork. “I heard about it on the way here from some people I met. I figured that this was closer, and safer. But if there’s no one here…”

“We’re here,” Luna said. “We’re safe here.”

“Are we?” Chloe demanded, looking around at Kevin as if for confirmation. “There’s supposed to be a group toward LA who are helping refugees gather together and stay safe. They call themselves the Survivors.”

“So you want us to go all the way to LA and look for these people?” Luna asked.

“What’s your plan? Just sit here and wait for things to get better?”

Kevin looked from one to the other, trying to work out the best way to keep all of this calm.

“We have enough food to last forever, and maybe we’ll get the radio working soon. We can’t just go out there when there could be anything.”

Chloe shook her head. “Things don’t get better. Trust me.”

“Trust you?” Luna said. “We don’t even know you. We’re staying here.”

Kevin knew that tone. It meant that Luna wasn’t backing down.

“Listen to the perfect little cheerleader, thinking she’s in charge,” Chloe shot back.

“You know nothing about me,” Luna insisted, in a dangerous tone of voice.

Kevin could barely work out why they were arguing. He’d been trying not to get involved, but now it seemed as though he might have to.

He stood to say something, but stopped, because pain shot through his head, along with something else, a feeling he hadn’t had in days now.

“Kevin?” Luna said. “Are you all right?”

Kevin shook his head. “I think… I think there’s another signal coming through.”

Numbers flashed through Kevin’s mind, bursting through it in rapid sequence, seeming almost to burn themselves onto his brain. They seemed too fast to hold onto, but Kevin knew he had to try. He grabbed for them…

Kevin woke, blinking up at the top bunk of the bed he’d chosen from the floor. His head ached like he’d been hit on it, but it wasn’t that. It was just the pain that came as his body tried to process an alien signal it couldn’t handle, trying vainly to grasp onto it. He put a hand to his nose and it came away stained by a thin stream of blood.

“Here,” Luna said, handing him a cloth.

“Thanks,” Kevin replied.

Chloe was watching him from the other side of the bunkbed, as though it was a barrier between her and Luna.

“Are you okay?” she asked. “What happened?”

“I told you what happened,” Luna said. Kevin could hear the annoyance there.

Chloe shook her head. “I want to hear it from him.”

Kevin swallowed. “I think… I think there’s a transmission.”

“I told you,” Luna said, with a certain satisfaction, then looked back to Kevin. “Wait, you think there’s one?”

Kevin could understand that uncertainty. Before, the transmissions had all been so clear.

“There weren’t any words,” Kevin said. “It was all numbers.”

“Like the first time,” Luna said.

Kevin nodded, struggling to sit up. When he blinked, he could see the numbers clearly, burning behind his eyelids, there whether he wanted to see them or not.

“So this is how it happens?” Chloe asked, sounding almost excited about it. “You get actual transmissions into your brain?”

“I get hints of things,” Kevin said, “but the actual transmissions come through NASA’s radio telescopes. I’m just able to translate them.”

“That’s… amazing,” Chloe said.

It was easy to forget that there were people out there who hadn’t seen him doing this plenty of times before.

“It’s not something fun,” Luna said. “You can see what it does to Kevin. And all the trouble that’s come from it too… not just the aliens coming here. We’ve had people threaten us, try to kill us, people not believe Kevin. Do you know what it’s like, not being believed when you’re telling the truth? Being told that you’re crazy?”

Chloe had been looking increasingly angry as Luna spoke, but once she said that, Chloe went quiet.

“Yeah,” she said softly. “Yeah, I do.”

She went and sat down on the corner of one of the other beds, and Kevin saw her fingers drumming together as though there was a lot she wanted to say, but didn’t. Kevin might have asked her what was wrong, but Luna was speaking to him again.

“So this means that there’s another message waiting?” she asked. “Another transmission from the aliens?”

Kevin nodded. “Not the ones who invaded, though. This felt more like the way it did with the other ones. The ones who tried to warn us.”

“I guessed that,” Luna said. “I mean, what are the invaders going to say now? Surrender and be destroyed, puny humans? Resistance is futile? What kind of aliens gloat when they’ve already beaten you?”

“Everyone else does,” Chloe muttered, then stood up and walked out.

Luna made a face at her retreating back. “What’s her problem?”

Kevin shook his head. “I don’t know. I get the feeling that something pretty bad happened before she came here.”

“You mean worse than the world being invaded by aliens?” Luna asked. “Or worse than being grabbed by a guy with a gun at a press conference?”

“I don’t know,” Kevin repeated. He got the feeling that he should probably go after Chloe, but he didn’t feel strong enough to do it yet, and in any case, he also had the feeling that Luna wouldn’t be happy with him if he did.

“I figured she would have told you,” Luna said. “I mean, you looked to be having a nice talk when I showed up before.”

It sounded almost jealous, but why would Luna be jealous? She had to know that she and Kevin would always be best friends, and nothing would come between that, right? And as for anything else… well, that would imply that Luna was interested in being more than just his friend, and Kevin couldn’t really believe that would ever happen.

“She didn’t really say much,” Kevin said. “Just that she ran away.”

“Looks like she’s good at that,” Luna said, with another pointed look toward the door.

“Luna,” Kevin said. “Can you at least try to be nice to her? I mean, I don’t know why you’re even mad at her. I’d have thought you’d get along.”

“Because we’re both girls?” Luna said.

“No!” Kevin said hurriedly. “I mean, because you’re both…” He tried to think of the right words. Would tough be right? Chloe certainly looked it, while Luna didn’t, but Kevin knew from experience that she was.

“We’re nothing alike,” Luna said. “She called me a cheerleader.”

She made it sound like an insult.

“Well, you were on the—”

“That’s not the point,” Luna said, but then stopped. “Okay, though. I’ll be nice. I guess if we’re all stuck in a bunker together, we’ll have to get along. But I’m doing this for you, not for her.”

“Thanks,” Kevin said.