Taken Over

   “It does,” I agreed.

   “God I was so foolish.” She sat silently for a long moment, her strawberry colored hair blowing lightly in the breeze. She tucked it loosely behind her ear. She was far more delicate than I, with pretty features, and a petite frame. She’d been perfect in high school, the golden girl with her manicured nails, styled hair, and high priced clothes. It was not the same girl sitting beside me now, though I noticed her nails were a pretty pink color. I smiled over the simple, small gesture to retain something from her old life. I knew how she felt; I was clinging to as much as I could too, but everyday it seemed as if there was less and less to hold onto. “It was so easy back then though,” she breathed.

   I thought back to those days, the ones where my mom was still alive, and I was dating Bret. The aliens had loomed over us my entire junior year, but after the first few months a false sense of security had settled over us. Even while the aliens had been stripping us of our rights, and our freedoms. We had all been so foolish, so silly to even remotely think they meant well, but hindsight was twenty twenty after all. And there was no changing the past, but we could still change the future.

   “I’m sorry for the way I was back then.”

   My gaze slid slowly toward her, I struggled to keep my disbelief hidden. “It’s ok.”

   “No, I was mean to you and I am sorry for that. It was just that…”

   “You like Bret.”

   Her lips quirked as she smiled softly. “Yeah, I do.”

   “And you were used to getting what you wanted.”

   She chuckled softly. “I certainly wasn’t used to losing a guy to someone like you. No offense.”

    I gri

   She shrugged indifferently, but sadness crept over her. “Cause he still loves you.”

   “But…”

   “It’s ok. I think he’ll come around one day, or I’ll move on. If we can ever find some cute survivors somewhere,” she added nonchalantly.

   “Je

   “Right now we all need each other. I understand that. When all of this first happened, I didn’t get that. I kept waiting to wake up, kept waiting for the punch line, kept waiting for it all not to be real. But there is no punch line, and all we have is each other. Trying to get Bret to notice me is no longer a priority.”

   I stared at her for a long moment, startled by how much she had grown up in these past few weeks. How much she had changed. But then, she had lost both of her parents in the attack. She didn’t say it, but I knew that she retained some hope they were still alive. Not that I blamed her. She hadn’t seen either of them die, didn’t even know if they had been frozen, and if Bishop’s blood type theory was correct then at least one of her parents, perhaps both, had escaped The Freezing. There was still a chance they might be alive.

   “If there is one thing I’ve learned, it’s that we don’t know how much time we have left. It could end today for all we know. Getting Bret to notice you may not be a priority, but I would at least tell him how you feel. I love Bret, he’s a great friend, but he can be a bit obtuse about some things.”

   “You mean like his firm belief that you will eventually get over Cade.”

   I tried to cover up my involuntary flinch over Cade’s name, but I knew she had seen it. “Yes, like that.”

   Je

   “No, it’s not.” I took hold of the hand she offered me, squeezing it tightly. I’d lost all my friends, I didn’t know what had become of one. But I’d just found a friend where I never thought I would and I was not surprised to realize that Je

   She gri

C HAPTER 4

   It was harder moving through the dark, especially without a flashlight, but I felt strangely safer with only the moon and stars to guide us. It was stupid to feel that way, we had been attacked more than once at night, but I couldn’t help it. Though it was harder to see, we made surprisingly good time and reached the edge of Plymouth before daybreak.

   Lloyd consulted the GPS. “We can cut through Myles Standish; use the state forest as cover. It’s only seven miles but the terrain will slow us down.”

   “And we’d…” Je

   I frowned at her, but it was Bret that asked the question. “And we’d what?”

   Je

   Her voice trailed off, the underlying hope beneath it nearly palpable. “Then they would go to your Aunt Lucy’s,” I finished for her.

   “Yes,” she breathed, tears shimmering in her bright eyes.

   “Where does she live?”

   “State road, it’s only four miles from the hospital, but…”

   “It’s on the opposite side of where we are,” Lloyd finished for her, his eyes narrowed on the display screen.

   “How opposite?” Bret inquired.

   “It will be five miles from the tip of the state park, apparently another four to the hospital after that,” Lloyd answered, his eyes narrowed on Je

   “How far is it to the hospital from the tip of the state park?”

   “Three point nine.”

   Bret’s breath hissed out of him, I grimaced. Je

   “Or another thirteen,” Lloyd finished.

   We grew silent; I could feel the tension in the air. “Well thirteen isn’t so bad,” I said softly.

   “That is not the mission!” Lloyd said sharply.

   “Lloyd…”

   “We were given explicit instructions on our goal, and our approach.”

   I was surprised by Lloyd’s insistence, but then again I had never been through boot camp, or military training. As far as he was concerned he had his orders and he was going to obey them. Je

   “We were told to take the safest and most direct route possible. This isn’t even on course.”

   My patience was quickly unraveling. Je

   “Our lives, the lives of many!” Lloyd interrupted angrily. “The needs of many greatly outweigh the needs of a few.”

   “Lloyd!” I said sharply, shocked by his words.

   His air of youthfulness vanished as he leveled me with a withering glare. My eyes widened slightly as I took an involuntary step back. “I am not the bad guy here. Youare the one that wanted to do this mission, and we willdo it.”