Midnight Disaster ~FINALIST Watty Awards 2012~

Chapter 33 (Revised 4/17/2020)

Cameron was quiet, too quiet. I couldn't say I blamed him. If someone had just told me what I had said, I'd be out of words too.

"Did I make the wrong choice?" I asked quietly, reaching up to wipe more of the alien's blood off my cheek as a way of not having to look into his face again.

Clarissa reached down, putting an arm over my shoulder. "Come on," she said, easing me to my feet.

She led me easily across the room, Cameron trotting behind. I appreciated the gesture, but it didn't escape me that neither of them had answered.

Clarissa sat me down in the place where Cameron and I had been sleeping. Cameron sat next to me, brushing the hair from my eyes. "Maya?"

I closed my eyes and looked to the floor, hoping to trap the tears in the corners of my eyes. I didn't want to cry. Not after all of this. The thought came to me again that these people were depending on me, and I had let them down. Kelly told me I was the one with the power to save them, and I'd had that.

Miles' deal had been more than generous, but I had thrown it away.

Now, I wasn't really sure why I had done it.

"Did I make the wrong choice?" I asked again, slowly. I wasn't sure what I would do if they once again ignored the question.

"No," Clarissa said finally.

I peered up at her through my eyelashes. I had to see the emotion there, to see if she was really telling the truth. If she lied to me right now, it would hurt.

"Who's to say they wouldn't eventually come back and finish off what they started once we all moved on with our lives?" Clarissa asked, plucking a napkin from her back pocket. She sat down, wiping some of the blood off my face as she added, "As long as those creatures are on our planet, we're always going to be in danger."

"Miles said he doesn't want to hurt me or you," I said to Cameron. "For everything we did for him."

He didn't speak, but his gaze shifted to my shoulder, and he didn't need to.

"You did the right thing," Clarissa assured me, her ice blue eyes boring into mine.

So why didn't I feel like it?

"They're going to try to get in here, to wipe us all out, and then they're going to move on and do what they wanted to do to begin with," I whispered, staring off into the distance again.

"Not if we fight them off," Clarissa said.

I shook my head. "There were so many of them out there. They outnumber us, two to one at least."

"You got some shots in though," Clarissa said, pointing to the blood smears on my shirt.

"Only because Miles held them back. I would've been torn to shreds otherwise."

Cameron sighed and set his hand to my back. "I think for now, you need to rest. We'll brainstorm later."

It was probably true, but I didn't want to rest. At any moment, they could break in, turning this place into a bloodbath, and the only weapon we had was the foresight to make preparations.

"Are you hurt?" Cameron asked, pulling his hand away.

I shook my head. "I told you, it was the alien."

"I'm not so sure," he replied, pulling up the hem of my shirt. He gasped and dropped it instantly with a sticky plop.

"What is it?" I asked, trying to turn and see what had spooked him.

"Did you tell me the truth of everything that happened out there?" he asked.

I bobbed my head.

"There are scratches across your back. One of them got in a good shot."

I frowned. I felt no pain, but it was possible that in the mix of adrenaline when I knocked the alien unconscious that one of them could've gotten a blow in. Swallowing, I craned my arm, turning it to feel my back. My shirt was soaked, the blood coagulating around the gashes.

"Ew, I didn't even know," I said, once I pulled my hand back to study the blood.

"Clarissa, find us some bandages," Cameron said.

Clarissa nodded and went to rummage through the boxes. I stared at my hands, thinking. When had I gotten the cuts, and why hadn't I known? I shivered, goosebumps breaking across all my skin. The aliens moved so fast they could hurt us without us even knowing.

I closed my eyes, and when I did, all I could see was the inside of the community center bathed in blood.