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“... and I’m only coming along because we might pass close to Habitat 3-K where my brother lives now...” Bree says defiantly. “It may be my only chance to see him one last time...”
“Is he coming with us?” Taylor asks softly, glancing around for bystanders who might hear them right now. The least desirable of them were the invaders who they only ever knew as ‘aliens.’
Bree answers his question by shaking her head quickly while nervously biting on her lip and glancing past him with a similar look on her face, copying Taylor in doing so.
Taylor knows from the conversation he has had with his mother that the stuff he knows is things he cannot yet tell his friends. “Say nothing in case something goes wrong,” his mother had warned in hushed tones. “You’ll know when it is safe to talk about it. You cannot even tell Addie anything yet...”
~~~
TAYLOR STUDIES THE motley group sitting around him for a while, then he glances again at the newcomer, Bree, who seemed to be an interesting sort of person. I think I can grow to like Bree, Taylor thinks for a moment, even if she’s—no, they’re different from all other kids I’ve ever met...
“I went to fetch the food,” Addie grunts, holding out the bag they’d hidden earlier, “and I think your mother is looking for you, Taylor. She made the signal to let me know when I walked past. She also said you and I need to be there as soon as we can before the aliens arrive...”
Taylor nods once, then quietly says, “I suggest that all of you stay here. There’s a room behind that door no one visits, least of all the aliens, which means you won’t get not found by anyone.”
“What about you?” Addie asks.
“I’m going to check with Ma... She wants me with her. You know how she is,” Taylor says softly, glancing once over his shoulder, and then he shrugs a moment. “She’s always telling me stuff. I’ll tell you later about it...”
“What are they doing here?” Brianne asks, nodding towards the group of aliens.
Taylor glances over his shoulder, and stares with narrowed eyes at the eleven strange-looking creatures. Definitely not human, he thinks as he studies their behaviour. “Might they be here for a harvest?” Addie hisses under his breath. Taylor glances at his friend. The anger is so clear in the boy’s voice, and if the unfamiliar girl called Brianne wasn’t gripping onto him, then he might have bolted away towards the nearby group.
“Addie, hold your temper in check,” Taylor hisses. “Wait until they go, then we can discuss more of what I got planned...”
Addie, a boy of almost a half a decade younger than Taylor, was usually the more mature of the two of them, but for the first time in years he was acting out his anger.
Like when they took his grandpa, Taylor thinks. Few people knew about the day when Addie’s Pa had disappeared and because of it his grandpa had stepped in to look after a small boy. This world is becoming too dangerous for any of us...
It seemed to Taylor they all had a story to tell involving hardship, pain, loss and always having to run from danger. His mother had spoken of a world that was dangerous, but the danger had come from the actions of the humans living on Old Earth. Not the sort of danger he or the other youngsters around him faced every day.
That is why Taylor’s mother, and many others with her, had been plotting so extensively against the aliens. On the day when she had let her son come with her to one of the last meetings, a few of the elders claimed that there’s a safe place in some sort of cave, and that as many kids should go there. Or at least, that’s what his mother had told him to say to the other people he’d take with him when the day came for them to run.
“We need to complete all the details of what we’re going to do, Addie,” Taylor says. “You saw the growing fields from the roof. If I’m right, we need to go in the next few days... If we wait any longer, we may not have any time left to get out...”
“Was that why you wanted me to explain to you the layout?” Addie asks, relaxing somewhat before flopping down on the ground beside Brianne, who holds his arm for another few minutes, then let’s go when she’s certain that the boy won’t rush away. Taylor and Brianne’s eyes lock moment and Taylor receives a momentary smirk. Taylor smirks back for a few seconds before turning and walking away.
I guess she has made a claim on Addie. She’s the right person to make him happy, Taylor thinks as he searches the crowd of almost three hundred people, almost all the inhabitants of Habitat 4-C, standing close to one another with various levels of worry or anger on their faces. Every ten days the aliens come to the Habitats to do the culling. They’d select a few of the adults - usually the oldest or weakest - to take away. Taylor glances around to determine if more humans had vanished. He grunts under his breath when he notes the missing people. Old Grumps of the sweet shop was missing. Bessy, who was Ma’s best friend, was also missing. A few others whose name he doesn’t know but who he’d gone to see whenever Ma needed food or goods had gone too...
~~~
AS HE WALKS TOWARDS the main living quarters inside the Habitat, a hand halts Taylor in his pursuit when a hand grabs his hand rather forcefully. Taylor curses a moment and glares at the man beside him. “Your Ma wants you to go downstairs,” the man hisses under his breath, “and go now before they see you here...”
Before Taylor can react, the man vanishes into the shadows of the building. “Bring all your friends when you come see us,” the man says before completely vanishing from earshot as well. Taylor stands frozen in place as this wasn’t something he’d expected to happen to him. He glances around to make certain no one had seen the encounter. But the corridor, leading to the main living area of the Habitat, is void of anyone. Silence is the only thing that greets him when he listens for any footsteps from whoever the man is.
He jerks suddenly when a hand tucks at his sleeve. Taylor glances behind him to see five individuals standing in the shadows where the man had been minutes earlier.
“You look like you saw a ghost,” Addie grunts softly.
“I might as well have seen one...” Taylor says, then studies his friends. Five individuals stand around him. “This here is Sam,” Addie continues. “He arrived a few minutes after you left. Have you found food?”
“Not yet. Someone, and I’m uncertain who he is as I’ve never met him, stopped me just before you got here and told me to meet him at the next floor down,” Taylor answers. “He seems to know about all of you as he told me to bring all of you with me...”
“Did he give a name?” Joey asks.
“No, and he disappeared before I could ask questions,” Taylor says. “I think he left because he might have heard you coming, and that might be why he suggested for all of you to come too...”
“We best get going then,” Addie says. “So... downstairs. We both know that normally they don’t allow young people down there or in the sewers. So, what’s different now?”
“I think it’s the aliens,” Brianne whispers. “I’ve noticed it at our Habitat and earlier I noticed it here too. They seem... errr... eager. That’s the best way I can explain it. I can’t explain just yet why I feel this but...”
“I’d listen to her,” Kaylee blurts out. “She’s seldom wrong... or ever...”
“I guess Bree is our expert on what we should do right now,” Taylor says sarcastically. Brianne, Sam, and Kaylee all stare at him angrily for a moment, causing Taylor to sigh. “Also, he seemed to know my Ma,” Taylor says after a moment more of silence, then he adds, “and he claimed she wants me to go downstairs.”
“It could easily be a trap,” Addie suggests. “Things have been rather turbulent over the last several months, as you know full well. The... aliens... are too unpredictable on a good day...”
“Actually, I don’t think so,” Taylor says. “I got this feeling about it. Ma says that showing such feelings can be dangerous, but I’m willing to bet that’s why she asked me to go see her right now. I don’t know how else to explain this...”
“I think you explained it well enough,” Brianne whispers.
“I’d listen to her whenever she says something like that,” Sam adds after a few moments of them all being silent. “She’s seldom wrong—I take that back. She’s never wrong when she feels that something is going to happen. Bree asked to come with us because of it. And they insisted Kaylee came too...”
“I don’t want to leave my best friend behind,” Brianne says quietly. “Not when... errr... when we need to leave forever...”
Brianne grabs hold of Kaylee’s hand.
“If we’re going to do this, Taylor, I guess it’s all six of us going and not just you and me,” Addie says, nodding sideways at the girls. “Friendship is as important to you and as it is to them...”
“There are reasons certain things happen,” Brianne says. “I think this is one such situation. We may not know the outcome of events, but we can influence them...”
“I guess that means we’ve decided. Let’s go downstairs and find out why we got asked to go there,” Addie says.
“I guess you’re the leader of the group based on what you just said,” Taylor says, grinning broadly.
“I thought you’d lead us as you’re the oldest,” Sam says.
“Naah, I think Addie is much wiser than I am... even if he doesn’t know it too often,” Taylor says.
“You mean I’m more stubborn than you,” Addie says, smirking for a moment.
“We both know why,” Taylor says softly. “It’s because of—”
“Please don’t talk about it until we’re gone from here,” Addie whispers, frowning. Brianne glances behind her at him with a resolute stare, nodding once, then glancing back at Taylor, and then she glances past him towards the darker area next to the top of the stairway. “I think we need to go now,” she interjects. “We cannot stay here. Not if what went on bothers him...”
“It doesn’t to be honest,” Addie whispers. “But how do you know about the way I feel...?”
“I just do,” Brianne answers. “I guess I’ll have to explain it when we’re gone from here. We can talk later, Addie. If you like that...”
“I’d appreciate that,” Addie says softly, smiling briefly.
Taylor nods then motions towards the stairway, “Let’s go... Quickly. Before anyone sees us...”
Without waiting for any reactions, Taylor turns and walks away towards the stairway where he saw the man disappear earlier. The footsteps behind him tell him that his companions are as curious about the encounter now. They walk down the stairs and arrive in a darker corridor.
“Now where?” Addie grunts.
“I’m uncertain,” Taylor admits, then he glances in every way before he spots a faint light source in the distance to their left. He points and says, “I guess we’re being told where we need to go. I guess we need to be silent now, so no one notices we’re down here.”
As fast as they can and as silently as possible, they walk single file towards where they’d seen a light source. Someone else is near them, even if they weren’t certain of the individual’s identity...