War For The World

CHAPTER TWENTY

Alice ran over the moment all night. Lying in bed, staring up at the ceiling she replayed the events that had lead up to the kiss.

The talking. The espionage. The thrill of it all.

It made her blush, thinking about the way he had wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close. She had felt all warm inside, as if in that moment every problem was pushed to the side and it had been just the two of them.

And then came the embarrassment. The red heat of shame as she turned to see Marcus's face. He'd seemed genuinely heartbroken, catching them in the act. She knew she'd have to talk to him about it but now felt like the worse time to bring it up considering the revelations that followed suit.

Which brought her to the true reason she was lying in her bed during the middle of the day.

There was no solution. They'd ventured down into the archives and found no possible way to defeat the Martians. They'd sifted through the page they recovered numerous times by now and each time they found nothing new, no vague piece of information or clue that might lead them in the right direction.

All the page stated was that three months after the original invasion the Martian machines had simply ceased operations. Scientists that were unable to crack into the metal casings of the machines however upon inspection they'd found the most likely cause of death had been due to microorganisms.

Alice had laughed in shock reading over that line, and Hayden had let out a chuckle. The one thing that killed the Martians the first time over had simply been the earth itself, fighting back with viruses and bacteria.

Of course, the page went on to detail the mass cover up that happened. Technology from the crafts were recovered immediately and sent to top secret locations around the world for study. Anyone in the United Kingdom not willing to forget were killed, and those that lived were subject to experimental procedures utilising tech discovered form the craft. The results ranged 50/50 between memory loss and brain tumours.

It was horrible. The history of her great nation was riddled with non-consensual experiments and mass censorship.

She sat up finally, feeling a head rush kick in as she steadied herself. Now was no time to mope. She still had a spy to catch after all, and perhaps there was still some undiscovered way to beat these Martians the second-time round.

Alice was on her feet now. She surveyed the state of her room. Rubbish lay scattered across the floor and her bed sat unkempt and unmade. She shrugged, heroes had no time for cleaning rooms. She needed to get out there and do something, for staying holed up in her room all day would do nothing but increase her waistline.

The hallway outside her room was busy, and Alice almost immediately came to regret her decision the moment her door shut tight behind her.

Voices were bustling and people were shouting. Something must have happened on one of the fronts, for there was a mad dash to the main war room where General Sharpe stood stressed and in deep conversation. Alice could see the beads of sweat on his brow from here, she hadn't even noticed the grey hairs on his head until just now.

She chose not to follow the hustle and bustle of midday war strategizing. She'd tried such an angle before, coming out with nothing to show for it apart from a pat on the back and a coffee order.

Instead, Alice turned her focus to the other end of the hall where one of the doors to the science labs stood ajar. Though the thought of Marcus being in there made her insides squirm, she carried on. Now that Dr Malkins was their main target of interest she thought she might find something of interest hidden away in his science quarters.