THEY CAME Part 4
I struggled to release my rescuer’s grip. They were so strong, nothing I did helped. I was drug backward and kept low. When it was clear I wouldn’t scream out or fight back, they released me. I couldn’t see how tall anyone was because we were on the ground, but the man who had saved me from myself placed one finger to his lips, then gestured for me to follow.
We went around to the back of an abandoned cowboy store. From the front door, I could see rows of boots and trench coats. No one dared to loot any of the store. They were all closely monitored. The aliens knew we would need supplies and made sure they were the ones to give it, even if it was meager. That group of humans must have tried their luck and failed. My thoughts kept returning to that little girl. I wanted to go back but couldn’t.
The man stood up now to his full, almost six-foot height. Dirty brown hair pulled back into a pony tail still hung in his mud streaked face. All of the four people with us dressed in a menagerie of different clothes, pants, and overshirts hanging from soiled shirts. I didn’t look like the resistance was doing too well.
He still didn’t speak to me, just kept a finger to his mouth. Gun fire erupted from where we had been. Screams and high-pitched screeches could barely be heard over it. I tried to run around to the front, but he grabbed me and held me tight again. I looked up into his face. He slowly shook his head, no. The other held their guns at the ready surrounding us.
No sooner had the fire fight started. It ended. A single shot rang out, and then all was quiet. The man let me go for the most part but held my wrist. He led me back around to the front. What I saw was a shock, to say the least.
All the aliens were dead. A group of about twenty humans had attacked and killed them somehow. Three were currently working on releasing the humans. The little girl who plagued my mind stood stock still looking down at her dead father while one of them fiddled with the lock on her chains. She no longer cried or blinked for that matter.
A blonde older woman walked over to her and took her in her arms. The girl let her but still kept her gaze on her father. She did so until a group of men surrounded him in order to block her view. Her tears began again.
A yank on my arm drew my attention away. Someone was talking to me. “Huh? Wha-?”
“Are you ok, ma’am? Are you hurt?” His mild voice could have come from anyone. It was so normal.
I blinked rapidly. “No, I’m not hurt. I’m ok. What just happened?”
“We took out one of their recon groups. We heard there was a small group of people and that they were headed this way. We got here as soon as we could, but not soon enough.” His eyes briefly wandered over to the man on the ground. “We knew there was a gifted among them but had no idea it was a child.”
“Would you have helped them even if there wasn’t a… gifted with them?” My anger grew. What if they would have let them all be taken or killed? What kind of resistance is that?
He smiled. His teeth were strangely white. “Of course, we would have saved them. No human deserves to be their slave.” He reached out his hand after adjusting his rifle. “Hi, I’m Doug.”
I rubbed my hand on my pants before extending it to him. “Hi, I’m Debby.” It wasn’t my name, but I didn’t know these people. When he gave me my hand back, I walked over to one of the deceased aliens. I had to see how they killed it. Something like this shouldn’t even be possible, not with their suits. They all lay on their faces, and from what I could see, there wasn’t a single hole in them. Some of the metal has been dinged, but no bullets made it through.
Doug used his foot to roll one over for me. That’s when I saw how they did it. These aliens couldn’t function without a face, and that was the only thing not truly covered in armor. Their face shields didn’t have any metal, and now his alien didn’t have a face.
