After they’d eaten their fill of what they could find in Sigrid’s cabinets, they decided to wander through town. They walked through the streets, checking the buildings for any sign of people.
“Nothing,” James called from where he was peering into a dark coffee shop window. He joined Sigrid and Leo where they were standing in the middle of the street. Sandy was with them too, sniffing along the curb as they walked. “You know, this is kind of cool.”
Sigrid raised her eyebrows at him. “We’ve been abandoned in the middle of an alien invasion and you think this is cool?”
“Well, obviously not that part, but . . . you know what I mean.” James moved to stand in the middle of an intersection. “Usually at this time of day this street is packed with cars. Now, it’s like the town is ours.”
“Yeah, I get it,” Leo said. “No parents around, no teachers. Even having no phones or TVs or anything . . . it’s different. It feels like the world is on pause.”
They wandered through the high school again, this time taking their time. They checked out the teachers’ lounge—decidedly not as interesting as the three of them had thought it would be—and climbed up into the rafters of the auditorium just because they could. They spent about an hour shooting hoops in the gym.
After they were done at the school, they circled through the streets back to Sigrid’s house. It was a small town, so there wasn’t much to explore.
As they rounded a corner, they heard a crash coming from up the street. They froze. Sandy must have heard it too—she bared her teeth and began growling lowly. Sigrid tried to shush her.
Two men were standing in front of an electronics store down the street. One of them had wound a jacket around his fist and had punched it through the glass window. The other one hoisted a stuffed backpack over his shoulder. As he moved, his shirt shifted to reveal a gun tucked into his jeans. The first guy cleared the glass away to unlock the door, letting them in. A bell jingled as the door swung open, and Leo was half expecting to hear the shrill sound of an alarm.
“Easy girl,” Sigrid whispered to Sandy, who was still growling. Leo didn’t blame her—the guys looked like bad news.
The men were still inside the building and didn’t seem to have noticed them. Leo grabbed James and Sigrid by the arms, pulling them backward with him. “Let’s take a different route back,” he said. He figured the looters were more interested in grabbing things than having any kind of confrontation, but he wasn’t about to find out.
Sigrid looked shaky as she nodded in agreement. They crept across the intersection to keep moving down the street they’d come from. Sandy followed closely behind but didn’t make a sound. Leo was thankful—he didn’t know what he would do if they ran into some bad company like that.
***
They got back to Sigrid’s house as the sun began to set. Though no one had said anything, Leo could tell the others felt just as spooked by the looters as he had. Without discussing, they all made sure the doors and windows to the house were locked. They pulled blinds and curtains closed and tossed towels over windows that didn’t have coverings.
Dinner was another round of searching the pantry shelves for anything that didn’t need to be cooked to be eaten. This meal was noticeably less fun and carefree as their lunch had been. Leo felt foolish now for thinking the three of them were the only people left in the entire town. And it certainly hadn’t occurred to him till now that anyone left might not have the best intentions.
He tried to remind himself that staying here was still the right idea. We don’t know what’s out there, he told himself as he chewed on a granola bar. There could be more people like that out in the woods. At least we’re safe here in the house.
Sigrid got up to pour some dog food into Sandy’s bowl. Since none of the water worked in the house anymore, she’d brought in a pack of water bottles from the garage. She was pouring a bottle into Sandy’s water dish when they heard another crash of glass in the distance. She jumped, spilling water all over the floor.
Leo and James locked eyes, frozen in place. Leo felt his heart pound in his chest. The broken glass wasn’t in Sigrid’s house, but it had been close.
They rushed to the front window, each of them peering out through the blinds. The setting sun had cast long shadows across the fronts of the houses across the street. Leo couldn’t see much.
“There!” James whispered, pointing to the right.
Leo moved to a different window where he could get a better view. Sure enough, the same looters were breaking into a front door two houses down across the street. He noticed the house next to that one also had broken glass in the door. “Looks like they’re making their way down that side of the street,” he said. “It’s getting dark—they’ll probably quit for the night soon.”
“What if they have some kind of lights?” Sigrid whispered.
“I can barely see as it is. If they had lights, they’d be using them already.” It wasn’t the most convincing argument, but it was all they had to go with.
Sigrid and James nodded, but Leo could tell no one felt reassured. As the sun went down, they lit a few candles and kept them away from the windows to be safe. Sigrid brought down armfuls of pillows and blankets into the living room for the three of them to sleep. Leo dragged a recliner over to the front door, propping it between the door and the staircase. James and Sigrid moved the kitchen table to block the side door.
Leo could feel that something among them had shifted. This place no longer seemed as safe as they’d thought it would be. He cleared his throat, and the other two turned to him. “I, uh, wonder if we should leave for the Air Force base tomorrow morning after all.”
James nodded, looking relieved. “How far away is the base?”
“They said it would be over an hour in the transport vehicles,” said Sigrid. “So maybe seventy, eighty miles west?”
“If we make good time, we could probably get there within a day on bikes,” Leo said. He looked at Sigrid. “Do you have a bike?”
“Yeah, but I also have a dog,” she reminded them. “I’m not leaving her behind.”
“How about one of those little trailers that you can tow behind a bike?” James suggested. “They look like tents? Usually people put little kids in them?”
“Great idea.” Sigrid snapped her fingers. “I know where I can get one. A family I babysit for has one. I have a key to their house, and I know the mom wouldn’t mind if I borrowed it.”
“All right,” Leo said. “We’ll leave first thing tomorrow morning.” He felt better knowing what they were going to do next, even if it was riding bikes for eight or nine hours while towing an elderly dog.
They spent the rest of the evening getting ready for the trip. Sigrid emptied her backpack of her schoolbooks and found extra bags for Leo and James. Leo stuffed one backpack full of energy bars and peanut butter sandwiches. He saw James putting cans of soda in another.
“You know that’s going to be warm. And not very, like, nutritious or whatever.”
James looked at him and blinked. “You’re right. I hadn’t thought about that.” He put the cans on the counter and loaded the water bottles instead.
After they were finished, they sat in the nest of blankets and pillows in the living room—Sigrid on the couch, James and Leo on the floor.
“I’ve been wondering,” James said. “Why us?”
Sigrid shifted to lie down on the couch. “Why Earth?”
“Yeah.”
“Maybe they know we’re the only other planet out there with life,” she suggested.
“But what are the odds that only two planets in the entire universe have life?” Leo asked. “I feel like if we know there are at least two out there, that just means there’s probably more.”
“And why attack us?” Sigrid asked.
“I mean, can we really even call it an attack?” said James. “It’s not like they bombed us.”
Sigrid snorted. “Nope, just wiped out our means of transportation and communication.”
“But they might have just wanted to neutralize us. Doesn’t seem like they’re out to destroy us.”
“How comforting.”
“Well, James is right that it could’ve been worse,” said Leo, shrugging. “And for all we know, they might be talking with the government right now, coming up with some sort of peaceful compromise. It’s not like we’d hear about it in our newsfeeds anymore anyway.”
The candles went out, and with nothing else to do they decided to go to sleep. It was strange, Leo thought to himself as he stared up at the ceiling, with the power being knocked out noises in the house seemed even louder than usual. They all jumped any time the wind caused a tree branch to scratch on the roof.
At one point in the middle of the night, the house creaked as it shifted. Sigrid had yelped in surprise, and Leo felt his heart pounding in his chest.
Even though he was with two other people, Leo realized that without technology to help them learn what was going on, he felt entirely alone.