The bus bounced along the highway; the only sound was the gentle hum of the wheels spinning on the pavement. Everyone sat in uncomfortable silence.
Carrie drove the bus, Shadick watching from the seat directly behind her. Zack was still sitting in his seat, his hand still wrapped around Shelia's. The two hadn't moved since they got back on the bus.
Jamie and Alice cuddled in their seat, both asleep and snoring softly.
Carrie wondered if something had happened deep within the tunnels between her brother and the tall, green-tinted alien beside him.
Carrie glanced at Joe. He was sitting in his seat, trying not to look at anyone. It was clear he was uncomfortable with Zack's sudden affection for Shelia. Carrie knew it wasn't really sudden. Her brother had been drawn to her since the day they captured her. Tammy had sensed it, too, which was why they had fought so much after Zack chose to let Shelia go with them.
Tammy saw it as a way of getting rid of Shelia, which was why she wanted to go out and find the sanctuary city. Knowing that everyone else wanted to also, Tammy had voted to stay, thinking they wouldn't suspect her as being the one who didn't want Shelia around.
Carrie was drawn to Shadick the same way her brother described it. After reading countless supernatural romance novels before the invasion, she started to wonder if the aliens had fated mates. She was too embarrassed to ask, so she remained silent.
Carrie glanced at Shadick through the large rearview mirror. He appeared to be watching her with interest. Making eye contact with him, she blushed at the embarrassment of being caught looking at him; she quickly looked away, her face getting redder, heat washing over it.
As soon as she looked away, trying to concentrate on the road, he chuckled softly. She was busted.
Driving up on a line of abandoned cars, she pulled the bus over.
"Pit stop!" she called back. "We also need to fill the tank and collect gas from these cars," she continued, trying not to make eye contact with Shadick again.
Everyone filed off the bus, Carrie being the first one. She stretched, working out her stiff muscles. She had been driving for nearly three hours. The second town they passed through getting to the tunnels was just up ahead. She wanted a full tank of gas before heading any further.
She watched as Zack pulled away from Shelia with reluctance, heading to the cars to fill the empty gas cans as Joe filled the bus's large tank. After the tank was full, they used the siphon hose to fill the cans back up, using the gas from the abandoned cars. There was no sense in wasting the gas that was sitting in the abandoned vehicles.
A sudden breeze blew, sweeping up dust devils that danced on the road. Shadick and Shelia stiffened, their hands going to their blasters.
"What is it?" Zack asked quietly. He didn't want to be overheard.
"There is a group of our people out here," both aliens said in unison. Their features were tense as they scanned the area.
Three large aliens came from out behind a large cargo van that was lying on its side in the ditch. Two males and a female. They had their blasters held up and aimed at the three male humans. Shelia stepped in front of Zack as Shadick did the same for Joe and Jamie. It was fortunate that the two brothers were standing next to each other.
The female, although her blaster was still aimed, was looking strangely at Joe, who was looking back at her with an odd look on his face.
The tallest of the two alien males spoke first. "You protect these humans?" he asked Shelia and Shadick, disgust in his tone.
Shadick looked between Zack and Shelia. "That one is her fated," he said, pointing to Zack and Sheila. "That one," he said, pointing to Carrie, "Is mine."
The tallest alien laughed. "You think these humans can be our mates?" he asked.
The female with them spoke up. It was clear she was shocked. "I think that one is mine," she said slowly, pointing to Joe. The female did the unexpected, shocking everyone. She re-holstered her blaster. "I will not harm my fated or anyone he cares about," she said firmly.
"I care about everyone here," Joe stated. "I care about my planet, my people, and my friends," he said evenly.
Joe watched along with his friends and the aliens with them as the young female alien tore her com unit off then, tossed it to the ground, then, pulling her blaster out, incinerated it.
The young female alien turned to the two with her. "If these two found their fated," she said, pointing to Shelia and Shadick, "and so did I, then we are destroying our future. Our fated are amongst them. I will no longer fight. I will help preserve them, so that others of our kind can find their fated," she finished, then put her blaster back in its holster.
The two aliens with her studied her, then finally became serious. "You are certain this one is your fated?" the tallest alien asked the shorter female.
She nodded. "I can feel it," she said quietly, looking down in embarrassment, her green-tinted skin darkening a shade.
Both alien men seemed to pale before pulling off their com unit and incinerating them with their own blasters.
The tallest male stepped forward two steps. "We will no longer fight against you. We thought we no longer had fated. Now we know that we do; we do not want to harm what we may find in our future," the tallest said firmly. The other male nodded in agreement. "I am Van," he introduced. "This is Rask and Nisa."
Zack stepped forward; he was the unofficial leader of their group. "I am Zack," he started. Then pointing to each member of his group, "My twin sister Carrie, Joe and his little brother Jamie, Alice, Jamie's girlfriend, Shadick and Shelia," he finished.
Nisa watched Joe; she was small for the aliens at only seven feet, which was two inches shorter than Shelia. Shadick was taller than all of the aliens present, at seven feet six inches.
"Do you have a vehicle?" Shelia asked them. Her voice was calm.
It was Nisa that answered. "We were brought down to patrol the area. They drop us down here and then pick us back up after our shift. They will be angry when they find out we destroyed our coms." She said. "A lot of our kind are doing that, destroying our com units."
Rask shrugged. "I guess we know why they are doing it now," he said, smiling at Nisa.
Joe was still not making a move toward Nisa, who looked embarrassed and shy. Shelia sighed and walked to her, trying to smile.
"Give him time. It took me nearly a moon cycle," Shelia told Nisa. "Shadick hasn't yet, but you can see the chemistry between the two of them. They will find each other soon enough. You must give it time," Shelia told her, smiling.
The three newcomers stood in a small cluster, unsure of what to do. Zack walked up to Shelia. "Can we trust them?" he asked her in a whisper.
Shelia studied the three new arrivals. "We can trust Nisa. She will not harm anyone. We cannot harm our fated. I do not know about the other two, though. Their actions say we can. I really don't know," she said quietly.
"Then we will trust them until we can't," Zack replied. "We need to keep an eye on them for a while until we know for sure that we can trust them." Then as if an afterthought, "Is that why you trusted Shadick right away? Because he is my sister's fated?" he asked.
"Yes, that is why," she said, smiling.
Zack got onto the bus, taking over for Carrie. "I think you should go talk to Shadick," he told his sister. "I will do the driving."
Carrie growled softly at her twin. She wasn't sure she wanted to talk to Shadick right now. He distracted her. A lot!
Zack scanned the growing crowd. "We're leaving. The gas tank is filled; everyone who is coming, get on the bus," he stated, giving the new arrivals a way out if they chose to stay. Jamie and Alice sat in their usual seat, cuddled up to each other. Shelia sat in the seat directly behind Zack while Shadick followed Carrie to a seat near the back of the bus.
Joe sat in the middle, staring out the window, avoiding everyone while the three new arrivals entered the bus; Nisa was sitting in the seat next to his.
Rask and Van entered last, looking at Zack. "May we join you?" It was Van that asked.
Zack nodded curtly. They entered, finding a seat near Nisa as Zack closed the bus door and continued through the second town, bumping as the wheel's gentle hum sounded as he drove toward the second town. They were only a few minutes away from the town's boundary line.
Carrie looked over at Van, which made Shadick bristle, jealousy radiating off of him. "What's going to happen if your people find you?"
"We don't know. None of the others who left have been found," Van explained. "I believe they have found their fated mates and are protecting them," he said, smiling between Carrie and Shadick before giving a quick glance toward Shelia and Zack.
"How many have left?" Carrie asked Van; she couldn't hide her curiosity. Shadick leaned forward, listening too.
Van thought about it for a moment. "The last count was four hundred and three," he said. "I guess it's four hundred and six now," he added, shrugging. "Finding your fated mate is treasured amongst our people," he explained.
Van studied Shadick. "You're the first high-ranking officer that I know of that left," he said, eyeing Shadick.
This caught Joe's attention. "You're high-ranking?" Joe asked Shadick. His voice was hard.
Shadick looked over at Joe, "Yes," he started. "I was second in command of the squad I left; as I said before, killing infants and children was too much to ask for me to do; I refused, then I left."
Rask looked at Shadick. "I know about that," he said. "After you left, the others refused to kill them too. They said you were right; children are too innocent."
Shadick's voice became hard. "Everyone is innocent. We invaded them. They did nothing wrong," he spat. Shadick breathed in, taking a cleansing breath. "What happened to my squad after I left?" Shadick asked, trying to calm his anger.
"Your squad stayed to protect the children from other squads that came to kill them. They all destroyed their coms and stayed behind to protect them. You had left, so you didn't see them rebel against their superiors when they were sent to bring your squad back." Rask explained.
"Then what happened?" Shadick asked, his curiosity peaking. This was all new information.
"They set in a new law. Children who are found are taken to the orphanage for your old squad to protect," he explained further.
"And the adults found with them?" Shadick asked, his jaw clenched, his voice like steel.
Rask, skin paled. "They kill them."
Shadick hissed, "This needs to stop. All of it," he whispered, seething. "Our people are acting like monsters!"
Rask and Van looked over at Nisa. "I agree," Van finally stated, then called up to Zack. "Stop the bus!" he called. Before getting up, he paused, then he looked at Rask. "I'm going back. I'm going to try and convince them to stop what they're doing. I'm going to tell them about Nisa finding her fated mate. You can stay here if you want, but the only way they will know why so many are destroying their coms and disappearing is because they find their fated mates." He explained, "It might end all of this if they knew our mates are among these people."
"And if they kill us?" Rask asked calmly.
Van sighed, taking a deep breath before he spoke. "Do you want your fated mate to die if she is amongst the humans?" Van asked. "I am willing to die to save mine," he stated firmly. "I'm going back to try and end this so I can save my fated mate if she is among the humans. I have to try."
Rask thought about it, then nodded in agreement, then got up to exit the bus.
Van scanned the small group. "When you get to where you are going, hide this bus. They will see it in our memories. They will most likely inject us with a truth serum. We will have no choice but to tell them everything we know. This will work in our favor, though. When they ask us what happened, we won't be able to withhold Nisa finding her fated mate," he explained. "And that he was human. They will have no choice but believe us because of the truth serum."
Zack opened the bus's narrow door, letting the two males out, not saying anything.
Rask stepped off the bus, Van right behind him. Van turned to Zack before he closed the bus's door.
"They will know what direction you are traveling. Go quickly and do not leave the bus where you are staying. They will look in that area first," he told Zack before turning and walking back toward the town they were supposed to patrol.
Zack watched through the rearview mirror as the two aliens disappeared as the bus got further and further away.