Another Way

~Chapter 2~

I shove the creamed can corn into my mouth waiting for Alexa to return home from helping old Mr.Deely with his laundry. It was around curfew (9:30pm) when Alexa finally came threw the front door. I nearly topple over the coffee table in our living room, when I hear the click of the lock and the jingle of her keys, so I rush to meet her.
She huffs and puffs with arms full of grocery bags as she shuffles on in, and I hop in to aid her with the heavy load. Where did she get all this food?
"YOU should be in bed miss," Alexa exclaims as we set the bags on the kitchen counters.
"I know it's just... I've missed you all day," I shove my hands into my sweatshirt pocket. "The power went out today."
Alexa pauses, with cans of tomato soup in her grasp. "The same thing happened to the hospital today as well, and it has three generators."
I want to tell her about the image on Rachel's phone, but what seems to be begging to be freed from my thoughts is: Why was Alexa at the hospital?
"You were at the hospital?"
She nods slowly with a pained expression taking form on her face.
"Why?" I don't really want to rush to conclusions, but what if she thought she was showing signs of Ender?
Alexa rests her palms on the counter top with her shoulders stiffening like when she's in deep thought. Then she turns around to face me, with tears leaking from her eyes and her nose turning cherry red from crying. I didn't need an explanation to why she was welling up. She was finally showing signs of Ender. Which means, that within a month her brain will be infested with Ender telling the rest of her body to liquefy into mush, then terminate her life forever. I would be alone in this dying world, and then eventually I would perish along side her.

~~~
The candle light illuminates my bedroom with an eerie glow, as I hear footsteps scuff outside my door. I tug the covers up to my quivering chin, and even though I'm 13 doesn't mean my fear of the dark has suddenly evaporated into thin air. The door creaks open slowly and a figure appears in the door frame. I wait for the figure to snatch me from my bed or traumatize me with it's horrid fangs, but the person just stands there.
"Can't sleep?" Alexa whispers. Thank god it's not a murderer coming to kill me.
"Ya," I tell her, sitting up on my matress.
She comes forward into my room then says,"Did you hear a noise?" Great, I wasn't imagining anything.
I jump out from under my cozy covers and rush to Alexa's side for her comforting ora.
She side steps away from me then says,"Please... Jillian, I don't want you to get infected. I'm going to do everything in my power to hold off the disease from you until... well... you know where I'm going with this."
I nod, then mimic her gesture of keeping the distance between us. This is NOT suppose to happen yet! Alexa getting sick isn't suppose to take place till we're saved by the aliens and then, everyone is given the cure and we live forever happy, healthy and strong. She can't die! I won't be able to live without her. For almost a year now, Alexa has been my "mom", since our parents died 11 months ago from Ender. I miss them everyday, and right now missing Alexa isn't an option, because she can not leave me alone in our dying world.
I'm ripped from my thoughts as a loud static fills our apartment. Both Alexa and I follow the sound towards our living room, to find our television screen lined with colored bars like when a station was off the air. We peak at each other with questioning looks as to why our tv is working. Hasn't the power been out for a couple weeks, or have we been miss informed? Alexa kneels in front of the screen, with her night robe spread behind her back like a cape on a superhero. I crouch beside her as the same mysterious image from Rachel's phone flashes on the screen.
"What's this?" Alexa cocks her head.
"It's the same picture from Rachel's phone."
We sit like this for an hour or less, before the picture steadies into a crest like before, but one I've never seen or learned about from school. The walls on the screen didn't look like plaster found in an average home or building, but more like... plastic. I gawk at the sight of the image and wonder if the Prime Minister is trying to get power grids up and going so he could deliver a message to us.
A couple minutes after the image had cleared, a stern looking man with a well fitted black outfit and with his hair shaved off to a buzz, sits down. Definitely not the Prime Minister. He doesn't directly exert his eyes to the camera filming the broadcast but sucks in a slow, exaggerated breath clearly visible to all the eyes watching. Alexa's breath hitches beside me and even my own pulse begins to quicken. Whoever this is, doesn't come baring good news.
We silently watch as the man glances up.
This single moment in my life will be etched into my very soul forever. Alexa scrambles up to stand as her breathing swallows her whole, but my own body is to paralyzed with shock that I couldn't calm the anxiety boiling within both of us. His... his... his... eyes... they're, just... black pits. Screams and shouts fill our apartment building as the entire city -no, the whole world- relizes that this... was the aliens.
《"Residents of earth, I mean not to frighten you."》His words echo in my ears, as the apartment calms into a mere whisper.
《"Today at 22:15 earth hrs, our Savior Earth team reached your atmosphere. Threw out your earth day we had tried contacting you but failed, and now we wish to give you the terms my kind has agreed to give you since we were unable to earlier."》 I know whatever he is going to say will be nothing but terrible news. Without meaning to, I scramble towards Alexa and bury my face into her arm letting the tears flow. What if what Rachel told me earlier about how they couldn't save us all could be... true?
《"If your fellow earth leaders accept our terms then... only ten of you humans will be treated and cared for then brought back to our home planet, Zaul, for future earth generations to live on.》I no longer can hear the man's words throughly between Alexa's and mine sobs, but bits and pieces I overhear like, five young diverse males and five females between ages 12 and 14, a draw to determine those selected few and that any threats or harm come to those selected few will be sent to an earth detention center.
The one thing I know for sure is that I'm not going to abandon my sister even I get that 1% chance of living, and nothing is going to alter my choice. Nothing.