Midnight Disaster ~FINALIST Watty Awards 2012~

Chapter 27 (Revised 4/30/2019)

Outside, it was silent. The air was heavy with quiet as it sat around us like a giant picture backdrop.

"It's eerie," Cameron said, voice echoing.

"Something's not right," I agreed, focusing on the tingling sensation of the hair standing on end on the back of my neck.

"Let's be quick," Cameron said, jogging toward the car to get my phone. "If you hear anything wrong, come back. Don't try to fight it on your own."

"Okay," I agreed, going the opposite way.

Life in a small town meant there were plenty of boring moments. Plenty of times when I had sat in a quiet afternoon, enjoying the laidback feeling of the night. This was not one of those times. Even though I couldn't see anything particularly dangerous, I couldn't get rid of that feeling that danger was imminent.

My heart started to pound, and I took that as a sign to search harder, looking for anything that could be a weapon. In the distance was a forest so on this side of the building there were pebbles and twigs—not exactly weapons. Frowning, I kept walking, hoping against hope that I would be somewhat lucky, but after five minutes, I had still found nothing and had to admit defeat.

The door guy's words bounced in my throat, and I hugged myself as I decided to go find Cameron. The last thing I wanted was to be locked out of the Community center, to be stuck in this.

Cameron wasn't far from the car, his fingers wrapped around my phone as he scrawled through the messages.

By his face, it was hard to tell w hat he thought—was there good news in there or bad?

"Fiona write back?" I asked.

Cameron swallowed and dropped his hands to his sides, his massive fingers closing the flip phone in the process. "No," he said, voice too soft and sad.

"I'm sorry," I said, and I was.

This trip hadn't benefited either of us, and standing in the danger zone, I questioned my life choices.

"Let's get back inside," I suggested.

Cameron stared down at the ground.

"Cameron?" I asked, waving my hand in front of his face.

"I don't want to be trapped in there," he said, and I flinched, wondering if I heard him right.

"What?" I asked.

"We are responsible for Miles," he said. "Whatever he does to this town? That's going to be on us forever. We have to stop him, Maya, and we can't do that being locked away like this."

"Cameron, if it was just Miles, I would say sure, but we don't know how many of them are out there. There could be an entire invasion, hundreds of them, and we wouldn't stand a chance. Let's just go back inside and think up a plan. We've been out here long enough as it is, and if we wait much longer, we're going to get locked out."

Cameron looked at me, nostrils flaring as he breathed out. The look in his eyes told me he wanted to argue, but he was out of things to say, so against his better judgement, he nodded, shoulders slumping in defeat. The look broke something in me, and I reached out, hugging him tight.

I wanted to comfort him, to tell him everything would be okay, but I couldn't do that because the last thing I wanted to do was lie to Cameron. Who's to say things could ever be okay again?

"Okay," he said in my ear, and his voice was worse than the look on his face.

Cameron and I loved challenges—he always won them—but this was one that he couldn't win, but one that we needed to win all at the same time.

Just as we pulled out of the embrace, the sound of a snapping twig rang through the still air, from the side of the building that faced the forest. Cameron's eyes went wide as we glanced at one another.

"I'm going to check it out," he said.

"What? Are you crazy!" I whisper-yelled at him. "That's how every bimbo dies in a horror movie. We need to get back inside...now!"

"If it's an alien that close, he's going to beat us back to the door anyway," Cameron pointed out. "Might as well face this head on."

Then I knew there was no stopping him. He was challenging that despair, that sorrow, that uncertainty into anger and adrenaline, processing his new life without actually having to face the truth.

Resigned, I followed him.

"Stay here," Cameron ordered.

"We go together or you don't go at all," I said.

Cameron huffed but said nothing else as we walked together, creeping toward the bend in the building. When we reached it, we peered around, expecting to see a bloody creature waiting to tear us limb from limb. Around the corner, there was nothing.

"I-I don't get it," Cameron said at last.

"Me either," I said.

He shook his head, reaching up to ruffle his blonde hair. "Let's get back inside."

"Agreed," I said.

We turned to go back to the front of the building and froze instantly as we caught sight of an alien behind us. Turning again, there was another, and another—our backs were to the community center, three aliens surrounding us from all sides. In the sunlight, they looked worse—they were pale enough to see through, the blue lines of their veins visible beneath the splashes of red on their skin. Blue-green spikes stood on end on the backs of their necks and deep red-purple claws waited on the end of each finger.

Their teeth were perhaps the worst part, and all I could think of was the bite on my shoulder. It throbbed at the sight of Miles, anticipating the pain all over again, and I didn't want to imagine how much worse it could be to have three aliens chewing on me at the same time.

I glanced to the side, catching sight of the pillar of the building that hid the entrance from sight. If we could move just a few feet, we could slip back inside and out of the aliens' grip...granted the people inside hadn't already boarded it shut.

"We have to try to make a run for it," I said to Cameron.

"Yeah, but how?" Cameron asked, watching as one of the aliens took a step closer. "We have all of three minutes to figure it out before we become a meal."

I thought of the conversation between me and Cameron about their weaknesses, the fact that essentially, they had the same strength as humans, and I stopped looking at it as a fight between Cameron and I and three aliens. Rather, I saw it as a fight between Cameron and I and three bullies.

As if a silent cue passed between them, all three lunged at this, their line tightening like the worst game of Red Rover as they approached. When the smallest one approached me, my heart filled with so much adrenaline it hurt, and on an instinct I didn't know I had, I pulled my hand back to punch her in the stomach with all the force I possessed.

An unearthly gasp poured out of her mouth as she stopped moving, stunned. In the moment of delay, I used my palm to smack her in the face, causing her to crumple to the ground.

Cameron followed my cue, landing a punch for the first alien's jaw and then a kick to Miles' stomach. Although the first alien had gone down, Miles did not. He was crouched over, hands digging into his stomach.

We ran then, faster than we had ever run in one of our challenges. Pained, angry hisses and groans sounded behind us as the aliens climbed to their feet, but I refused to look over my shoulder, to see how close they were to catching us. The door was within sight, Cameron reaching it first. He pulled it open, darting inside before I joined him in it a minute later.

He slammed the door shut just as Miles rounded the corner. We rushed to put the door jam back into place before looking at each other, breathing with a new feeling rushing through our veins—victory because, for now at least, we had won.