I'M DONE!!!!
And now...I quit. *collapses*
Wordcount: 50,025
Wordcount plus original story from January: 61,894
Over the Rockies in colorado streaked a rare sight in the sky as the sun was starting to peek over the horizon.
"Hey, Tony, look at that!"
Two hikers stopped to look up at the lighted ball of fire that was glowing as it fell across the sky. It was coming down a little too close. A couple of seconds later, the ground under them shook and there was a loud explosion sound that knocked the two hikers off of their feet entirely. They were scared that they were the ones that had been hit.
When all was silent, Jim who was the braver of the two took off his pack and climbed a tree. "I can see the smoke from it, it's pretty close to here."
"What was it? A meteor?" his friend Tony asked, getting up off the ground. "Probably. Hey," Jim said, sliding down the tree. "If we find that we can sell it on ebay or something. Those are pretty rare if there's any of it left intact."
"I don't know," said Tony, thinking about walking into a forest fire.
"Come on, you wanted an adventure didn't you? That's why we're out here." Jim started out before Tony could object. His friend shrugged his shoulders and took off after him, adjusting his pack as he went. "It's not far from here."
The burning twisted wreck of the ship was lighting up that part of the dark forest around it. It was still brighter than the sun that was trying to come up in the east, giving everything a flickering glow around it. There was a slight movement coming away from it. A bruised Yuyu was moving as far away from the wreck as he could. He somehow had gotten Mara out and was dragging her by the arm along the ground. She was still unconscious. Both of them were a bit singed and battered around. Yuyu stopped at the end of his strength and fell to his little knees in the dewy grass around him. He was breathing a bit hard from the exertion.
The ship suddenly exploded in a fireball that incinerated it completely. Yuyu threw himself down in the grass, covering his head with his hands. There wasn't anything left of the ship after that except a few twisted metal parts and the trees on fire around it. They had gotten out just in time.
Yuyu had only been able to save Mara and her purse of things from when they had escaped. On his belt, he also had a gun weapon, what his people called an anerum. He had no idea what they were going to do next but at least they were there. He prodded Mara a bit against her shoulder. "Please get up," he was saying.
Voices, there were voices coming towards them. Yuyu panicked as they came closer. He tried to rouse Mara but had no success. He couldn't tell what was coming after them but he knew it couldn't be good.
"Over here," said Jim. "Whoa, would you look at that!" His friend, Tony joined him on the forest ridge looking down. They could see the line of broken trees caused by the object coming out of the sky. Where it hit, there was a large impression on the ground and fire all around it. They stared at it for a few minutes. "I'm no expert," said Tony with a gulp. "But that looks a bit bigger than a meteor."
"Oh don't be ridiculous," said Jim, shrugging off the idea his friend was implying. "It's probably some sort of government satelite. We should check it out."
"Why?"
"You never know, there might be a reward or something for finding it." Jim was already picking his way down the side of the hill towards the wreck. "Or we could get into big trouble!" called Tony after him as he slowly followed.
Jim got to the wreck first. "Wow," he said, surveying that there wasn't much left of it. He kept his distance from the fire which was slowly going out because of the wet dew around it. He turned to see where Tony was at but stopped short. There was a rustle in the grass of something moving away. Jim blinked, wondering if his eyes were playing tricks on him. There in the grass lay a body.
"There's someone down here!" he called up to Tony who started down the hill a bit faster at that. Jim came up to her side, setting down his pack. It was a girl. She had bruises and a few cuts all over her. She was dressed in a white pair of pants and a white half shirt that was tied in the front. On her sides were different colored blotches of some sort. Her clothes were torn and dirty and there was an odor hanging over her that said she had gotten a bit closer than Jim had been to that fire. Jim picked up her hand carefully. "She's still alive," he said as his friend reached them. "Use your cell, call that ranger station we stopped at awhile back. They've got to get an ambulance down here or something." Tony ran off to the top of the ridge so he could get a signal while Jim opened his pack and got a couple of blankets out.
The girl's eyes slowly opened. "Hey! Hi there," said Jim, trying to get her attention. "You're going to be ok. What's your name miss?"
She didn't seem to hear, still mostly in shock. Jim arranged the blanket around her, trying to keep her warm. "Don't worry, help is on the way."
Mara's lips formed a small smile, still staring up at the sky. So blue, she thought. So blue...and I'm still here.
Her eyes closed again, not hearing Jim calling at her to stay awake. She didn't remember much after that.
From the long grass in the woods, two white eyes looked out, hiding and very quiet.
Everything was white when Mara's eyes opened again. She remembered vaguely being carried around and people talking at her but she couldn't remember what had happened. She blinked her eyes a few times, trying get them to focus. When they did, she found herself in a white hospital room. She was laying in the hospital bed on a couple of very soft pillows. There was a plastic nose piece for oxygen in her nose. She tried to move and groaned. Every inch of her was sore. Her clothes were gone too, she was in a hospital gown.
"She's awake," a nurse called who had stuck her head in when she heard Mara groan. "Hey there," she smiled pleasantly, coming to Mara's bedside. "How are you feeling?"
Mara looked at her still a bit confused. "Huh?"
The nurse was taking her pulse. "You had a close scrape out there in the woods. If those hikers hadn't found you..."
Mara put a hand to her forehead, finding a small bandage above her eyebrow. "Hikers?" she said, trying to remember. The doctor was coming in and the nurse left to let him talk to her. He was a pleasant looking indian man with a long white coat and a stethoscope hanging onto his neck. "How are you feeling?" he asked.
"Sore," replied Mara.
"Glad to see you come back to us," he said, sitting on the side of the bed with his clipboard in hand. "Do you remember anything?"
"I...I was..." Mara began, trying to think. The ship, she was on the ship coming back from Aodru and...
She looked at the doctor realizing how crazy that would sound. "I can't really remember."
"Don't worry," he said understandingly. "After something like that, I'm sure it would be better not to remember much."
"What happened?" she asked. “Where am I?”
The doctor checked over the report on her chart. "You’re in a hospital in Pueblo, Colorado. From what I was told, some hikers found you in the woods near some sort of crash site. The authorities are checking into it to make sure there wasn't anyone else hurt but they haven't said anything yet."
Mara's ears pricked up at the word authorities. If they had found Yuyu...
"Was there anyone else?" she asked carefully. "No, not that they've found yet." He stood and carefully checked her arms and legs to make sure she was doing ok. "You're a very lucky girl." He patted her hand. "And if you remember anything and need to talk to someone, Nurse Janet is right out by the desk. Ok?"
Mara nodded, leaning back into the pillows till he was gone. She looked at the sunlight streaming through the window onto the bed. A smile crossed her face. I'm back, she thought. I'm back on earth, I'm home. I can call my parents and see my sister. She almost cried at the thought of that.
But what happened to Yuyu? She got herself up to sitting position when her nurse wasn't looking. She found out that her ribs were bare, the sticky plants had been taken off. Amazingly, her ribs were the only thing that didn't feel sore on her whole body. Another thought was plaguing her mind. What if the authorities figured out it was a spaceship that crashed? What if they had the alien plants and were examining them as she was sitting there. They might be back for her and if they had Yuyu, she might be in the same trouble as before.
Mara waited till her nurse was occupied and slowly got out of bed. She found her old clothes from her ordeal in the closet. At least they hadn't taken those from her. She also found a coat in the other closet that probably belonged to the previous occupant of the hospital room.
She slipped out of the room and down the stairs to the ground floor. Nobody noticed her in time and nobody stopped her as she walked out the front of the hospital.
The nurse went in to check on her a little while later and found an empty bed. They did a hospital wide search, but it was too late. She was already gone.
In the woods, Yuyu was still hiding. There were more men here now. He'd never been this close to this many humans before. It would have been fascinating to watch them if he wasn't terrified that they would find him. He had removed himself to farther away from the wreck. The place was crawling with humans all dressed in various white and blue outfits. Some of them were testing parts of the twisted metal, others were keeping around the perimeter as if to keep others out. Yuyu was far enough away that they hadn't discovered him yet. The other humans from before had come and taken Mara away. At first, Yuyu had thought about shooting them but it seemed like the other humans were treating her for her injuries so he let them go. Now he was alone in the forest. At least it wasn't too warm, he liked the cold and he had heard stories of places on earth where the sun shone so brightly that there was nothing but sand. A Vyiad could never survive such an environment.
The humans were starting to unroll a large strip of tape around the outside of where the wreck had crashed and a couple of noisy flying machines were coming in to land. Yuyu slipped back into the shadows of the sun overhead and started to move away farther. They were probably going to catalogue the wreck for awhile.
He walked slowly through the woods, keeping in the shadows. The foliage was so different than his own planet. It was so lush and green. He didn’t know how they could all grow here in the same area without fighting with each other. He shouldered the long strap of Mara’s purse on his shoulder and held his crystal close to his chest. He wasn’t sure where he was going to go.
Mara jumped out of the vehicle and said thank you to the driver before shutting the door. They drove back down the road and out of site. Mara was left standing on the side of the road in the woods. She had hitchhiked to the spot where the papers were saying something had come down last night. She was a few miles away from it so that she wouldn’t be discovered. The person who had picked her up had looked at her a bit strangely but hadn’t asked any questions.
Mara walked along the road, heading towards where all the helicopters were landing in the middle of the woods. She had heard the police had cordoned off the area and were not releasing any statements about what had come down. Everyone was saying in town that it had been a secret government project or something and they were trying to keep it under wraps. Mara was hoping beyond all hope that Yuyu had survived and that they had not found him. She shuddered to think of what her own kind could do to aliens. It would rather be like what she had gone through when she was kidnapped. Mara didn’t wish that on anyone, especially Yuyu who had saved her life multiple times.
She snuck up carefully through the woods, glad for her boots and denim jacket. She hid in the bushes, surveying the scene.
There were people everywhere. The police and the military were closing off the area and stringing tape across everywhere to make a perimeter. There were people in white and red hazard suits inspecting and testing the wreck. It didn’t look much like a ship now, just bits of metal and charred trees.
Mara held her breath as two officers were coming towards her hiding place and talking. “When they’re done, we’ll cart it back to Washington. Under cover of night of course.”
“Are they sure it’s not ours?” the other one asked.
“As sure as they can be. I sure would have liked to have seen it when it came down. At least we might have a witness, they found some girl out here that looked like she might have been hit by it or at least been close to it when it crashed. After we finish up here, I’m going to the hospital to see how she’s doing.”
His radio squawked. “Jones here, go ahead,” he said. The report that Mara had disappeared came over it from the hospital. He scowled, “Acknowledged.” He turned to the other soldier. “Better put out an APB on that Jane Doe with her description. We didn’t even get her name she was unconscious the whole time. The doctor should have been smart enough to notify me when she woke up.”
They walked off and Mara let out the breath she had been holding. Now they would be looking for her. She was going to have to get out of Colorado. She slowly backed up and left the area before she could be discovered.
As she walked back to the road, she turned the matter over in her head. They hadn’t mentioned finding any aliens or any alien remains if it was a worse case scenario. She was going to have to try and find a way back home...if home was still there. She had no idea of how long she had been gone.
There was a slight rustle in the leaves far over to her left. Mara stopped short. Was it a soldier come to find her and take her away? She grabbed a stick off the ground. The rustling continued. “Ok, show yourself,” she said with more courage than she felt. A soft whistle sounded. “Friend,” echoed in her head as the computer translated for her. Yuyu walked out of the bushes looking about as relieved as an alien can look.
“Yuyu!” Mara said and then covered her mouth, hoping there hadn’t been anyone within earshot. She almost didn’t care as she ran to him and caught him up in a hug. He was surprised and unaccustomed to such an action but he found that he didn’t mind. “You are together and in one piece,” he said, patting one of her arms to make sure it was true. “So are you, oh it’s so good to see you,” she said as she released him. She was on her knees hugging him. He handed over the purse with both hands. “Oh, you’re wonderful,” she said, digging out the journal and giving him another hug. “Listen we’ve got to get away from here before they find us.” Yuyu seemed to understand and the two of them started away into the woods. A couple of miles away at the crash site, humans milled around trying to make sense of it all of a story they knew nothing about.
We made it somehow out of the woods and out of Colorado without being found. There was some money in the purse we had snatched from the human exhibit on Aodru and I used it to get us away from there.
All was not well however. When we came to find my family and my house, they were gone. I had been gone longer than I thought. The time dilation of space travel had advanced my time away to fifteen years. My siblings were grown and gone and my parents had moved away. I questioned the neighbors discreetly without them finding out why I was asking and they said that ever since their daughter had disappeared, they hadn’t been the same. After talking to them, I cried in secret. Even Yuyu didn’t know why I was so sad, but he seemed to want to help with it.
We’ve been in hiding ever since. The government hasn’t found us and still hasn’t found a reason why something crashed in Colorado. It is just another unsolved case for them and another alien myth story for blogs everywhere. That was five years ago. I am older now and taking classes to become a translator. The alien scientists were more clever than they knew. The computer in my head can translate human languages too.
Yuyu has gotten accustomed to living on earth. He loves learning all of the new things around him. But I always have to keep him hidden. There is still the danger of being found and ending up an experiment like I was. He has gotten pretty proficient at understanding English too. He’s actually got a job fixing computers. I’m the front person for that but he’s the one that does the fixing. Exceedingly simple was the words he used. I’ve gotten good at talking back in his own language as well.
No other aliens have visited to try and track us down. I hope that we threw a big enough wrench into their plans that they will stay away for good, but time will tell. Yuyu was so distraught at losing his crystal when I lost my journal so we took off to find it with a tracking device he made. I am much relieved that it did not fall into the wrong hands. I do still miss my parents. I have not been able to find them despite my best efforts. I have grown up too fast. But it was quite an adventure and I am glad that I have survived it.
That was the end of it. Mark looked up at the clock realizing it would be time for bed soon. He was very happy that he got to read the end of the story. He still couldn’t believe that she had given it to him. If he gave it to the wrong people, they could go hunt her down. It gave him a feeling of responsibility. As he went to get up, the back cover of the book fell open in front of him. There was an inscription written in pen on the back there.
I, Mara Tate, do hereby bequeath this journal to one Mark Garrick for safekeeping. May you enjoy my story.
It was signed underneath it with her full name, Jennifer Mara Tate. Next to it was a curious black square with the symbol inside of it. A rainbow in black with an X through it. Yuyu’s signature. “Wow,” said Mark aloud. He couldn’t wait to show this to James tomorrow at school. He was going to flip.
“Lights out!” his mom called up the stairs. Mark put the book in his side table as his mom came up to turn off the lights. Mark looked at her, remembering what Mara had said about her own parents. How would he have fared if he never saw his parents again? He surprised his mom by running up to her and hugging her around the waist. “Wha? What’s that for?” his mom said, hugging him back. “Nothing, just thanks for being my mom,” he said. She looked like she was going to cry, so he let her go and tried to be cool again. “Goodnight, sweetheart,” she said with a smile, flipping off the light and going back down the stairs. Mark smiled too as he jumped into bed.
Opening his table drawer, he pulled out the journal and James’ flashlight. The story wasn’t quite finished. He had had an idea. Taking out a pen, he opened to a blank page right after Mara’s ending. He still had his part of the story to add to it.
My name is Mark Garrick and this is my story...
A week later, Mark and James skateboarded up to the library again after school. “That alien report was amazing,” James was saying as they jumped off their boards and pushed through the glass double doors to the library. “You had the whole class’s attention. You’ll get an A for sure.”
“I hope so, I worked hard on that,” said Mark. “It’s a bit hard to show both sides to the argument when you know for sure there are aliens.” They both waved to Miss Eva who was checking out books at the counter. She was in a blue tie dye dress today. “Why are we here anyway?” asked James. “There is no more reports due for at least two weeks.”
Mark dragged him to the way back in between the books and shelves. They were pretty much alone back there. “I got to thinking, you know about that journal.”
“Yeah. I liked that you added our story to it too, that rocks.”
“But it didn’t seem fair to keep it to ourselves.”
James looked confused. “What do you mean? She gave it to you, didn’t she?”
Mark pulled it out of his bookbag. “Yeah but...I don’t know, it’s like there is no point to having a book you’ve already read and nobody else can read it. Wouldn’t it be better if other people could read it?”
James caught on and gasped. “You’re going to hide it in the library again?” he shot Miss Eva a look to make sure she wasn’t watching them as Mark looked along the row of books for a good spot. “You realize you’ll probably never see it again. Don’t do this!”
“I thought of that,” said Mark as he stuck it inconspicuously in a slot in between two books. The flowered print still stuck out against the brown and gray covers it was between. “Don’t worry, I know what I’m doing. And anyway, it’s my book, I can do with it as I please.”
He started to leave with James trailing behind making frustrated strangled noises as he was trying to get him to turn back to get the book. Mark looked back for a second and saw a girl from his class looking along the same bookshelf they had just been at.
“See?” he poked James and pointed as the girl pulled the flowered book out of the shelf. She opened it with interest. The back cover opened up and below Mara’s inscription were the words PASS THIS ON written in big bold letters of ink. She looked around to make sure nobody was looking and slipped it into her bag. Mark smiled and hefted his skateboard as he and his friend pushed their way out of the library and into the sunshine.
Miss Eva looked up as they left with a smile. She watched the girl who had taken the book. Somehow she felt that she was going to see a lot of that book from now on.
Wordcount: 50,025
Wordcount plus original story from January: 61,894
Over the Rockies in colorado streaked a rare sight in the sky as the sun was starting to peek over the horizon.
"Hey, Tony, look at that!"
Two hikers stopped to look up at the lighted ball of fire that was glowing as it fell across the sky. It was coming down a little too close. A couple of seconds later, the ground under them shook and there was a loud explosion sound that knocked the two hikers off of their feet entirely. They were scared that they were the ones that had been hit.
When all was silent, Jim who was the braver of the two took off his pack and climbed a tree. "I can see the smoke from it, it's pretty close to here."
"What was it? A meteor?" his friend Tony asked, getting up off the ground. "Probably. Hey," Jim said, sliding down the tree. "If we find that we can sell it on ebay or something. Those are pretty rare if there's any of it left intact."
"I don't know," said Tony, thinking about walking into a forest fire.
"Come on, you wanted an adventure didn't you? That's why we're out here." Jim started out before Tony could object. His friend shrugged his shoulders and took off after him, adjusting his pack as he went. "It's not far from here."
The burning twisted wreck of the ship was lighting up that part of the dark forest around it. It was still brighter than the sun that was trying to come up in the east, giving everything a flickering glow around it. There was a slight movement coming away from it. A bruised Yuyu was moving as far away from the wreck as he could. He somehow had gotten Mara out and was dragging her by the arm along the ground. She was still unconscious. Both of them were a bit singed and battered around. Yuyu stopped at the end of his strength and fell to his little knees in the dewy grass around him. He was breathing a bit hard from the exertion.
The ship suddenly exploded in a fireball that incinerated it completely. Yuyu threw himself down in the grass, covering his head with his hands. There wasn't anything left of the ship after that except a few twisted metal parts and the trees on fire around it. They had gotten out just in time.
Yuyu had only been able to save Mara and her purse of things from when they had escaped. On his belt, he also had a gun weapon, what his people called an anerum. He had no idea what they were going to do next but at least they were there. He prodded Mara a bit against her shoulder. "Please get up," he was saying.
Voices, there were voices coming towards them. Yuyu panicked as they came closer. He tried to rouse Mara but had no success. He couldn't tell what was coming after them but he knew it couldn't be good.
"Over here," said Jim. "Whoa, would you look at that!" His friend, Tony joined him on the forest ridge looking down. They could see the line of broken trees caused by the object coming out of the sky. Where it hit, there was a large impression on the ground and fire all around it. They stared at it for a few minutes. "I'm no expert," said Tony with a gulp. "But that looks a bit bigger than a meteor."
"Oh don't be ridiculous," said Jim, shrugging off the idea his friend was implying. "It's probably some sort of government satelite. We should check it out."
"Why?"
"You never know, there might be a reward or something for finding it." Jim was already picking his way down the side of the hill towards the wreck. "Or we could get into big trouble!" called Tony after him as he slowly followed.
Jim got to the wreck first. "Wow," he said, surveying that there wasn't much left of it. He kept his distance from the fire which was slowly going out because of the wet dew around it. He turned to see where Tony was at but stopped short. There was a rustle in the grass of something moving away. Jim blinked, wondering if his eyes were playing tricks on him. There in the grass lay a body.
"There's someone down here!" he called up to Tony who started down the hill a bit faster at that. Jim came up to her side, setting down his pack. It was a girl. She had bruises and a few cuts all over her. She was dressed in a white pair of pants and a white half shirt that was tied in the front. On her sides were different colored blotches of some sort. Her clothes were torn and dirty and there was an odor hanging over her that said she had gotten a bit closer than Jim had been to that fire. Jim picked up her hand carefully. "She's still alive," he said as his friend reached them. "Use your cell, call that ranger station we stopped at awhile back. They've got to get an ambulance down here or something." Tony ran off to the top of the ridge so he could get a signal while Jim opened his pack and got a couple of blankets out.
The girl's eyes slowly opened. "Hey! Hi there," said Jim, trying to get her attention. "You're going to be ok. What's your name miss?"
She didn't seem to hear, still mostly in shock. Jim arranged the blanket around her, trying to keep her warm. "Don't worry, help is on the way."
Mara's lips formed a small smile, still staring up at the sky. So blue, she thought. So blue...and I'm still here.
Her eyes closed again, not hearing Jim calling at her to stay awake. She didn't remember much after that.
From the long grass in the woods, two white eyes looked out, hiding and very quiet.
Everything was white when Mara's eyes opened again. She remembered vaguely being carried around and people talking at her but she couldn't remember what had happened. She blinked her eyes a few times, trying get them to focus. When they did, she found herself in a white hospital room. She was laying in the hospital bed on a couple of very soft pillows. There was a plastic nose piece for oxygen in her nose. She tried to move and groaned. Every inch of her was sore. Her clothes were gone too, she was in a hospital gown.
"She's awake," a nurse called who had stuck her head in when she heard Mara groan. "Hey there," she smiled pleasantly, coming to Mara's bedside. "How are you feeling?"
Mara looked at her still a bit confused. "Huh?"
The nurse was taking her pulse. "You had a close scrape out there in the woods. If those hikers hadn't found you..."
Mara put a hand to her forehead, finding a small bandage above her eyebrow. "Hikers?" she said, trying to remember. The doctor was coming in and the nurse left to let him talk to her. He was a pleasant looking indian man with a long white coat and a stethoscope hanging onto his neck. "How are you feeling?" he asked.
"Sore," replied Mara.
"Glad to see you come back to us," he said, sitting on the side of the bed with his clipboard in hand. "Do you remember anything?"
"I...I was..." Mara began, trying to think. The ship, she was on the ship coming back from Aodru and...
She looked at the doctor realizing how crazy that would sound. "I can't really remember."
"Don't worry," he said understandingly. "After something like that, I'm sure it would be better not to remember much."
"What happened?" she asked. “Where am I?”
The doctor checked over the report on her chart. "You’re in a hospital in Pueblo, Colorado. From what I was told, some hikers found you in the woods near some sort of crash site. The authorities are checking into it to make sure there wasn't anyone else hurt but they haven't said anything yet."
Mara's ears pricked up at the word authorities. If they had found Yuyu...
"Was there anyone else?" she asked carefully. "No, not that they've found yet." He stood and carefully checked her arms and legs to make sure she was doing ok. "You're a very lucky girl." He patted her hand. "And if you remember anything and need to talk to someone, Nurse Janet is right out by the desk. Ok?"
Mara nodded, leaning back into the pillows till he was gone. She looked at the sunlight streaming through the window onto the bed. A smile crossed her face. I'm back, she thought. I'm back on earth, I'm home. I can call my parents and see my sister. She almost cried at the thought of that.
But what happened to Yuyu? She got herself up to sitting position when her nurse wasn't looking. She found out that her ribs were bare, the sticky plants had been taken off. Amazingly, her ribs were the only thing that didn't feel sore on her whole body. Another thought was plaguing her mind. What if the authorities figured out it was a spaceship that crashed? What if they had the alien plants and were examining them as she was sitting there. They might be back for her and if they had Yuyu, she might be in the same trouble as before.
Mara waited till her nurse was occupied and slowly got out of bed. She found her old clothes from her ordeal in the closet. At least they hadn't taken those from her. She also found a coat in the other closet that probably belonged to the previous occupant of the hospital room.
She slipped out of the room and down the stairs to the ground floor. Nobody noticed her in time and nobody stopped her as she walked out the front of the hospital.
The nurse went in to check on her a little while later and found an empty bed. They did a hospital wide search, but it was too late. She was already gone.
In the woods, Yuyu was still hiding. There were more men here now. He'd never been this close to this many humans before. It would have been fascinating to watch them if he wasn't terrified that they would find him. He had removed himself to farther away from the wreck. The place was crawling with humans all dressed in various white and blue outfits. Some of them were testing parts of the twisted metal, others were keeping around the perimeter as if to keep others out. Yuyu was far enough away that they hadn't discovered him yet. The other humans from before had come and taken Mara away. At first, Yuyu had thought about shooting them but it seemed like the other humans were treating her for her injuries so he let them go. Now he was alone in the forest. At least it wasn't too warm, he liked the cold and he had heard stories of places on earth where the sun shone so brightly that there was nothing but sand. A Vyiad could never survive such an environment.
The humans were starting to unroll a large strip of tape around the outside of where the wreck had crashed and a couple of noisy flying machines were coming in to land. Yuyu slipped back into the shadows of the sun overhead and started to move away farther. They were probably going to catalogue the wreck for awhile.
He walked slowly through the woods, keeping in the shadows. The foliage was so different than his own planet. It was so lush and green. He didn’t know how they could all grow here in the same area without fighting with each other. He shouldered the long strap of Mara’s purse on his shoulder and held his crystal close to his chest. He wasn’t sure where he was going to go.
Mara jumped out of the vehicle and said thank you to the driver before shutting the door. They drove back down the road and out of site. Mara was left standing on the side of the road in the woods. She had hitchhiked to the spot where the papers were saying something had come down last night. She was a few miles away from it so that she wouldn’t be discovered. The person who had picked her up had looked at her a bit strangely but hadn’t asked any questions.
Mara walked along the road, heading towards where all the helicopters were landing in the middle of the woods. She had heard the police had cordoned off the area and were not releasing any statements about what had come down. Everyone was saying in town that it had been a secret government project or something and they were trying to keep it under wraps. Mara was hoping beyond all hope that Yuyu had survived and that they had not found him. She shuddered to think of what her own kind could do to aliens. It would rather be like what she had gone through when she was kidnapped. Mara didn’t wish that on anyone, especially Yuyu who had saved her life multiple times.
She snuck up carefully through the woods, glad for her boots and denim jacket. She hid in the bushes, surveying the scene.
There were people everywhere. The police and the military were closing off the area and stringing tape across everywhere to make a perimeter. There were people in white and red hazard suits inspecting and testing the wreck. It didn’t look much like a ship now, just bits of metal and charred trees.
Mara held her breath as two officers were coming towards her hiding place and talking. “When they’re done, we’ll cart it back to Washington. Under cover of night of course.”
“Are they sure it’s not ours?” the other one asked.
“As sure as they can be. I sure would have liked to have seen it when it came down. At least we might have a witness, they found some girl out here that looked like she might have been hit by it or at least been close to it when it crashed. After we finish up here, I’m going to the hospital to see how she’s doing.”
His radio squawked. “Jones here, go ahead,” he said. The report that Mara had disappeared came over it from the hospital. He scowled, “Acknowledged.” He turned to the other soldier. “Better put out an APB on that Jane Doe with her description. We didn’t even get her name she was unconscious the whole time. The doctor should have been smart enough to notify me when she woke up.”
They walked off and Mara let out the breath she had been holding. Now they would be looking for her. She was going to have to get out of Colorado. She slowly backed up and left the area before she could be discovered.
As she walked back to the road, she turned the matter over in her head. They hadn’t mentioned finding any aliens or any alien remains if it was a worse case scenario. She was going to have to try and find a way back home...if home was still there. She had no idea of how long she had been gone.
There was a slight rustle in the leaves far over to her left. Mara stopped short. Was it a soldier come to find her and take her away? She grabbed a stick off the ground. The rustling continued. “Ok, show yourself,” she said with more courage than she felt. A soft whistle sounded. “Friend,” echoed in her head as the computer translated for her. Yuyu walked out of the bushes looking about as relieved as an alien can look.
“Yuyu!” Mara said and then covered her mouth, hoping there hadn’t been anyone within earshot. She almost didn’t care as she ran to him and caught him up in a hug. He was surprised and unaccustomed to such an action but he found that he didn’t mind. “You are together and in one piece,” he said, patting one of her arms to make sure it was true. “So are you, oh it’s so good to see you,” she said as she released him. She was on her knees hugging him. He handed over the purse with both hands. “Oh, you’re wonderful,” she said, digging out the journal and giving him another hug. “Listen we’ve got to get away from here before they find us.” Yuyu seemed to understand and the two of them started away into the woods. A couple of miles away at the crash site, humans milled around trying to make sense of it all of a story they knew nothing about.
We made it somehow out of the woods and out of Colorado without being found. There was some money in the purse we had snatched from the human exhibit on Aodru and I used it to get us away from there.
All was not well however. When we came to find my family and my house, they were gone. I had been gone longer than I thought. The time dilation of space travel had advanced my time away to fifteen years. My siblings were grown and gone and my parents had moved away. I questioned the neighbors discreetly without them finding out why I was asking and they said that ever since their daughter had disappeared, they hadn’t been the same. After talking to them, I cried in secret. Even Yuyu didn’t know why I was so sad, but he seemed to want to help with it.
We’ve been in hiding ever since. The government hasn’t found us and still hasn’t found a reason why something crashed in Colorado. It is just another unsolved case for them and another alien myth story for blogs everywhere. That was five years ago. I am older now and taking classes to become a translator. The alien scientists were more clever than they knew. The computer in my head can translate human languages too.
Yuyu has gotten accustomed to living on earth. He loves learning all of the new things around him. But I always have to keep him hidden. There is still the danger of being found and ending up an experiment like I was. He has gotten pretty proficient at understanding English too. He’s actually got a job fixing computers. I’m the front person for that but he’s the one that does the fixing. Exceedingly simple was the words he used. I’ve gotten good at talking back in his own language as well.
No other aliens have visited to try and track us down. I hope that we threw a big enough wrench into their plans that they will stay away for good, but time will tell. Yuyu was so distraught at losing his crystal when I lost my journal so we took off to find it with a tracking device he made. I am much relieved that it did not fall into the wrong hands. I do still miss my parents. I have not been able to find them despite my best efforts. I have grown up too fast. But it was quite an adventure and I am glad that I have survived it.
That was the end of it. Mark looked up at the clock realizing it would be time for bed soon. He was very happy that he got to read the end of the story. He still couldn’t believe that she had given it to him. If he gave it to the wrong people, they could go hunt her down. It gave him a feeling of responsibility. As he went to get up, the back cover of the book fell open in front of him. There was an inscription written in pen on the back there.
I, Mara Tate, do hereby bequeath this journal to one Mark Garrick for safekeeping. May you enjoy my story.
It was signed underneath it with her full name, Jennifer Mara Tate. Next to it was a curious black square with the symbol inside of it. A rainbow in black with an X through it. Yuyu’s signature. “Wow,” said Mark aloud. He couldn’t wait to show this to James tomorrow at school. He was going to flip.
“Lights out!” his mom called up the stairs. Mark put the book in his side table as his mom came up to turn off the lights. Mark looked at her, remembering what Mara had said about her own parents. How would he have fared if he never saw his parents again? He surprised his mom by running up to her and hugging her around the waist. “Wha? What’s that for?” his mom said, hugging him back. “Nothing, just thanks for being my mom,” he said. She looked like she was going to cry, so he let her go and tried to be cool again. “Goodnight, sweetheart,” she said with a smile, flipping off the light and going back down the stairs. Mark smiled too as he jumped into bed.
Opening his table drawer, he pulled out the journal and James’ flashlight. The story wasn’t quite finished. He had had an idea. Taking out a pen, he opened to a blank page right after Mara’s ending. He still had his part of the story to add to it.
My name is Mark Garrick and this is my story...
A week later, Mark and James skateboarded up to the library again after school. “That alien report was amazing,” James was saying as they jumped off their boards and pushed through the glass double doors to the library. “You had the whole class’s attention. You’ll get an A for sure.”
“I hope so, I worked hard on that,” said Mark. “It’s a bit hard to show both sides to the argument when you know for sure there are aliens.” They both waved to Miss Eva who was checking out books at the counter. She was in a blue tie dye dress today. “Why are we here anyway?” asked James. “There is no more reports due for at least two weeks.”
Mark dragged him to the way back in between the books and shelves. They were pretty much alone back there. “I got to thinking, you know about that journal.”
“Yeah. I liked that you added our story to it too, that rocks.”
“But it didn’t seem fair to keep it to ourselves.”
James looked confused. “What do you mean? She gave it to you, didn’t she?”
Mark pulled it out of his bookbag. “Yeah but...I don’t know, it’s like there is no point to having a book you’ve already read and nobody else can read it. Wouldn’t it be better if other people could read it?”
James caught on and gasped. “You’re going to hide it in the library again?” he shot Miss Eva a look to make sure she wasn’t watching them as Mark looked along the row of books for a good spot. “You realize you’ll probably never see it again. Don’t do this!”
“I thought of that,” said Mark as he stuck it inconspicuously in a slot in between two books. The flowered print still stuck out against the brown and gray covers it was between. “Don’t worry, I know what I’m doing. And anyway, it’s my book, I can do with it as I please.”
He started to leave with James trailing behind making frustrated strangled noises as he was trying to get him to turn back to get the book. Mark looked back for a second and saw a girl from his class looking along the same bookshelf they had just been at.
“See?” he poked James and pointed as the girl pulled the flowered book out of the shelf. She opened it with interest. The back cover opened up and below Mara’s inscription were the words PASS THIS ON written in big bold letters of ink. She looked around to make sure nobody was looking and slipped it into her bag. Mark smiled and hefted his skateboard as he and his friend pushed their way out of the library and into the sunshine.
Miss Eva looked up as they left with a smile. She watched the girl who had taken the book. Somehow she felt that she was going to see a lot of that book from now on.