Hybrid .4 (Book One of The Upgrade Trilogy)

We are Burning Down

Only seconds later, I was woken up by an alarm.

I'd been paralyzed of fear in my nightmare, which I hadn't realized at the time was a vision, and it was the exact wake-up call I needed. Hearing the blaring ripped me back into the real world, and the landing was harder than it should've been. The noise I heard registered slowly, and I thought for it was that stupid alarm clock I used when I got up for school at 6 am. Thank God it wasn't.

The alarm had the same effect on my peers. All four were sitting up in their bunks, looking startled and dazed. had her ears covered, hair was out of control, dropped out of her bed, and had his head under his pillow, mumbling something I couldn't understand.

Although my vision was blurry, I could see someone coming inside. It was one of the who had agreed to let us sleep here. Her name was Christine. "Are you guys okay?"

"You didn't tell us about the security system..." I laid back, already half-asleep.

"I'm so sorry, I have no idea what that is." Christine sounded worried. "We'll try to turn it off, you guys can try to go back to bed."

Kyle sighed. "No, we're already awake now, might as well see what it is."

I felt like throwing up. I had no idea what time it was, but it was definitely still dark out. I felt like I'd been up in space, and now my body was getting used to gravity again. But still, I dragged myself onto the cold floor, and pushed up onto two feet. I knew that what Kyle says goes, and I'm not one to ignore my friends.

Although, maybe that part about Kyle getting his way isn't so true anymore.

As it turns out, it wasn't a ship alarm that woke us up, it was a car alarm.

Only a few feet across from us, a sleek black car had slammed into a tree. I'm no engineer, but the damage looked unfixable. Especially the front half.

But the car wasn't the thing that interested us. It was the people that came out directly out of it.

"....Everyone okay?"

"Yeah, we're alright. Thanks."

"No thanks to you."

Like a rescue team, we all rushed over to help. I took a quick count of who was outside: Me, Kyle, Lilly, Heidi, Eric, Christine, and two other guys named Dwight and Ross. Eight of us, but sixteen if you included everyone who stayed inside. There were three people who'd been inside the car: two guys, and one girl. In total, that made nineteen 0.4, but that number would decrease very soon.

Lilly helped the girl, who collapsed just as she reached her. "Oh my God!"

"Hands up where I can see them!" Dwight ordered, holding up a gun toward the strangers.

"Dude, put that away!" Ross scowled. "They're just kids!"

One of the guys stepped forward, holding his hands up. He had messy hair and the biggest brown eyes I'd ever seen."Hey, listen! We don't want any trouble! Please, we're not armed!"

"He's right, man. These guys don't even have pocket knives." Eric backed the visitors up.

Dwight lowered his weapon. "I'm sorry, you just startled us."

"We didn't mean to. It was my friend's fault." The guy turned to glare at his friend, who had blonde hair and striking gray eyes.

"Look, it's fine." I spoke up, looking over at the boy with blonde hair. "Just...tell us what happened."