When They Come

That night, Alex was sweaty and hot. She felt like she was coming down with a fever. Her clothes were now bloody and soaked with sweat.

The rest of the day, Alex had tried to contact Addir. She had mainly just shouted his name. But it hadn’t worked. She just sounded like someone who was crazy.

John told her where they were and sure enough, they were in some sort of abandoned factory several hours from her home. And the Saimiens. He watched Alex as she grew quite pale and started to sweat buckets and began to get nervous.

Alex hadn’t vomited yet. Which was a bonus she supposed, but she still felt like it. It was terrible. The sick feeling in her stomach, the nausea, the sweat. She felt like this was some sort of torture. She probably deserved it.

But did Addir have to administer it? Probably. He was a mystery. A mystery Alex didn’t care about for the time being. She just wanted to be done with whatever was going on with her.

“Hey, when you patched me up, did you see anything out of the ordinary?” Alex asked, the question finally arising.

“What do you mean by ‘out of the ordinary’?” John asked, cocking an eyebrow.

“Well, like some sort of silver liquid that didn’t look like normal blood,” Alex said slowly, remembering the liquid and looked at her hand.

John screwed up his face in concentration. “I don’t think so,” It must have evaporated or something,”

“Well, does blood evaporate?” Alex asked.

“I think it might dry up, but evaporate? I don’t think so,” John mused.

“The silvery stuff felt like the same thickness of blood,” Alex said. “It might have been Addir’s blood,” She shuddered. Something clicked in her head. “Or, it might have been the teeth,” Alex said shakily.

“Teeth?” John repeated, eyes wide.

“When he bit me, his canines fell out and into my bite,” Alex said.

“Gross!” John crinkled his nose. “What kind of alien would do that?”

“Exactly what I said,” Alex nodded. “And I really hate to admit it, but it might be the teeth. Because listen, it could be possible. Out of everything that’s happened, it's still on the table along with aliens invading! The stuff that used to just be in movies,” Alex pointed out.

John ran a hand through his hair. “You’re right,” He sighed. “I can’t argue with what’s happened in the past few months,”

Alex tossed and turned on the ground. She was hot and tired. Her sickness hadn’t worn off and nagged at her. Her mind flashed with visons and fragments of things she couldn’t grasp.

It was like her brain was reeling through different types of movies all at once. She truly was sick. It was probably that cursed bite. There wasn’t a whole lot of stuff known about the Saimiens so this could be one for the records.

Rolling over and staggering up, Alex held her stomach and started to walk. Where? She wasn’t sure. She just went. Alex was careful not to wake John as she slinked around him. He was such a good friend. Being there for her at this time. The loyalty was immense.

Her stomach gave a jolt of pain and Alex was quick to wretch into the nearest clump of foliage. As her vision started to blur, Alex could have sworn that silver substance laced the plants instead of any food she had eaten. So, it wasn’t a food issue. Yep, sickness it was. But Alex couldn’t think of that now. She’d passed out again.

“Alex? Alex! Wake up!” A voice called to her.

Alex turned to lay on her back and squinted in the daylight. John was standing over her, a worried expression on her face. She sighed and sat up.

“What time is it?” She asked, rubbing her eyes.

“Eight in the morning,” John replied.

Alex checked her phone. 34 hours left.

“Can I ask why you were over here?” John inquired, holding out his hand to help Alex up.

Alex took it and was helped to her feet. “Well, I couldn’t sleep. I took a walk. Then I threw up over—oh my gosh,” Alex gasped.

The foliage she had thrown up on, it was different. It didn’t have silver liquid dripping from its leaves, but it was coated in black. It seemed like a different kind of plant altogether, and only a little of its green showed.

“This is really disgusting,” John commented flatly. “All this talk about this stuff is gonna make me toss my breakfast,”

“But look!” Alex pointed to the plant. “It wasn’t like that when it happened,” She explained. “Last night—here’s more gross stuff but—I could have sworn it was silver. Like the teeth. Oh gosh, am I gonna end up like that?!” Alex cried panicked.

“Calm down. We don’t know that. What we do know is, we need a plan to destroy this ‘machine’ you described. So, let’s just get our minds off of…silver plants turning into black plants and focus on the whole world getting annihilated. Ok?”

Alex looked at it, committing it to memory and then turned to John. “Right. Sorry,” She said with a smile.

“Right so, wanna try reaching out to Addir? Honestly, he’s kinda our best bet right now,” Her friend asked.

Alex frowned. “You know it didn’t work the last ten times, right?” She raised an eyebrow at him.

“Just try,” John urged.

“Mmm, fine. Just, don’t take me to a mental hospital,” Alex said slowly. She already felt embarrassed. “Umm, Addir? Are you there? Please, however you talked to me yesterday, I need you to pick up your brain phone and answer me. Anything…? Hello…? For crying out loud, Addir if you can hear me, get your butt over here now!” Alex shouted. She felt embarrassed and hungry. Alex wouldn’t risk her sanity just to call a stupid alien!

Everything was silent until a twig snapping and shattered the silence. Alex and John looked around, confused at where the sound came from.

A dark shadow passed over them. Alex and John looked up. To their horror and surprise, Addir was poking his head over a caved-in part of the roof. He dropped down and landed a few feet away.

“You called?” He said with a smirk, two new canines already replacing the old ones.

Alex sighed, frustrated. “It took you long enough!”