When They Come

Alex awoke when John banged on the side of the truck. She squeezed her eyes shut but opened them reluctantly. Addir was sitting up and watching Alex as she raised her upper half.

“Time?” John asked Alex.

She groaned and reached into her back pocket. Whipping out her phone, she read, “Fourteen hours left.” She looked up. “It does seem about eleven-ish at night.”

“That’s what your phone is for,” John said. “Now, if video games have taught me anything, its to study your adversaries before striking. In this case, we need to know the guards’ patrol patterns.”

Addir nodded. “Even I don’t know what they are,”

“Then what?” Alex asked, folding her arms.

“We find their weak spot and knock them out, making it easier for us to get by,” John replied. “That’s only if we have to,”

“Right,” Alex nodded. “So, give us like, and hour for us to memorize the patterns or…?”

“At most,” Addir answered. “We could probably just use thirty minutes, but if needed, an hour,”

“And if we get caught? Where’s the place we knock them out?” Alex inquired.

“Be hind the knee,” Addir responded.

“Right, split up and meet back in an hour or less,” John clarified.

Alex was perched on an apartment building, gazing down at the Saimiens below. Their pattern was weird. Every five minutes they’d pass her, going in the same direction. It was as if they were going in a big square.

Her ears picked up their chatter though she couldn’t understand what they were saying since they were speaking in their own tongue. It was a weird slew of hisses and snarls and Alex wondered how Addir could even form them.

She sighed and kept walking. She had to move to a different place in order to get a clearer picture of the pattern. Alex felt every vibration through her long legs and heard everything within a specific distance. She couldn’t ignore the coolness of having her senses dialed up to 11.

Heck, she could’ve used this in her fight against Cassandra. It would’ve left her with a few less bruises. Then again, you couldn’t tell she had any bruises or a wounded shoulder because of her new found healing factor. Alex smiled at the thought of seeing Cassandra’s terrified face once she saw Alex like this.

Alex shook her head. It wouldn’t’ve been a fair fight then. Everyone would have seen the Ice Queen an ice slushy and then rushed to the hospital. Then Alex would’ve been grounded for the rest of her life.

“Find anything, Alex?” Addir’s voice whispered in her mind.

Alex swore silently. “Addir you have me a heart attack!” Alex breathed. “Warn me next time!”

“Sorry,”

“But what I did find was that the guards travel in twos and seem to be going in one big square.” Alex replied, putting a hand to her chest to try and calm her heartbeat.

“I’ve found that too,” Addir answered.

“So, if you’ve seen the same thing, that means John may see the same thing. And if that’s the case, it means that they patrol in one big square and eventually meet up at some point,” Alex muttered to herself.

Alex’s phone buzzed. She looked at it. It was a text from John.

Meet back at the truck.

“Addir, John wants us back at the truck,”

Addir didn’t reply.

Alex swore again. She thought he’d stop with the mysterious disappearing. So…what was he doing? Panicked suddenly rose in her chest. Panic that wasn’t her own. It was Addir’s. She sensed it. He’d been caught. She could smell the panic radiating off of him.

Alex narrowed her eyes and leaped off the building. She silently touched the ground and took off down an unmonitored ally. Her heart thudded and her own panic caught in her throat. She didn’t know why she felt so compelled to save him, but the instinct was strong.

Alex slid across a street and dove into another passage that reeked of something Alex didn’t want to guess. Clawing up a drainpipe, Alex bounded across the roof of another building and leaped down the other side.

She landed in a shaded part of another ally, observing Addir and his adversaries with focused eyes. It was four against one. Not a fair fight. But adding one more to the mix…

Addir’s eyes shifted to her for one quick moment and the Saimiens looked to the darkness. They shouldn’t‘ even done that. Alex leaped our of the shadow and punched one of the Saimiens in the face. He staggered back and growled.

“Touch him and I’ll skin you,” Alex snarled.

“Just try, hybrid,” One challenged.

Alex smirked and attacked the challenger. She punched, kicked, and did whatever she thought she could and rolled him over with a quick movement. Digging her dog-like paw into the crook of the Saimien’s knee, she knocked him out cold. However that worked.

Addir joined in the fight, taking down his two while Alex flew to the one she punched. It was quick work for the both of them. As soon as Alex finished with her adversaries, she helped Addir and in five minutes, their enemies were unconscious in the shadows.

With a wild look in her eye, Alex looked upon them Saimiens then looked to Addir, panting.

“You came,” He smiled.

“Call it instinct,” Alex shrugged.

“Your fighting is…amazing,” Addir said.

“Thanks…I guess,” Alex grinned. “Now, John’s waiting for us. If you heard me before you were caught,”

Addir smirked. “Best not keep him waiting,”

John watched Addir and Alex slink out of the shadows, hair a mess and out of breath.

“Took you guys long enough,” John said, folding his arms.

“Someone got caught,” Alex said shrugging. “I’m not going to mention any Addir names but—“

“Hey!” Addir laughed.

“Well, now that we’re present and accounted for, I’ve found that the guards payroll a large square,”

Alex gasped sarcastically. “That’s groundbreaking!” She gasped dramatically. “Tell me something I don’t know,”

“If they meet up in a square, it also means that the place they gather will be left unguarded for a moment before they circle back around. We need to get into one of those squares so we can reach a chain. Addir, where’s the best place to board?” John asked, ignoring Alex’s comment.

“Anywhere,” He replied. “Like everything else, the generator is located in the center of the ship,”

“Wonderful,” Alex replied, crossing her arms. “Preference anyone?”

“The one closest to us, the south chain,” John pointed to the silver chain several blocks away.

“Ok, I’m going to sound stupid, but can’t we just go over the Saimiens? Our little scout mission was fun but there’s an easy way to do stuff,” Alex said, folding her arms.

John and Addir looked at her incredulously.

“I suppose that would work,” Addir nodded. “But what of John? He can’t run and jump like us and I’m afraid we don’t have anyone to bite him,”

“Yeah, no biting,” John shuddered.

“Care for a piggy back ride?” Alex asked with a smirk.

Addir and Alex ran over the roofs with John clinging onto Alex for dear life. It wasn’t that he was afraid of heights or anything, but the ground was moving too fast below him for his liking.

To Alex, John was now a featherweight compared to when she was fully human. It wasn’t that he was overweight or anything, but he was heavy to lift to Alex.

Alex had no trouble keeping pace with Addir as they made their way over the roofs and guards. It appears they forget to guard theirs roofs. Alex jumped over a gap and heard John make a noise. It made her want to laugh.

The chain was drawing nearer to them. Unfortunately, it wasn’t attached to a roof. It was anchored to the ground. A minor bump in the road.

Closer and closer Addir, Alex, and John came to reaching the chain they so desperately needed to reach. Until they finally made it. But they didn’t stop running. Addir and Alex took a running jump and soared through air, claws out.

Alex’s stomach lifted as she flew over the concrete below her. She let out a silent prayer of thanks as her talons closed around the cold steel of the chain. John was white-knuckling as he stared down at the ground and he loosed a breath as he made sure he was in one piece.

Alex chuckled softly as she watched John and began to haul herself up the chain.