Rishaan

Monday

The atmosphere inside the command centre was tense – it felt like everyone was holding their breath, waiting for what would happen next. Martin had left the room to do whatever he could to get someone in the American government to delay their planned assault on Canadian soil. It was his homeland, after all.

My leg wouldn’t stop bouncing from all the nervous energy I was feeling which earned me a few frustrated glances.

All of the attention in the room was directed towards the giant screen in front of us, where everyone was watching and waiting for the next metaphorical bomb to drop. There hadn’t been any more sign of the two figures that had been running from rooftop to rooftop and with every passing minute, the newscaster was updating us with fresh casualty numbers.

The giant machine itself was only directly responsible for a small fraction of those. The drones that it distributed were the cause of most of them. It was an enemy that no-one had trained for and that our weapons were not designed to defeat. They were fast-moving, highly coordinated and were made of an alloy that could cut through most of our armours with ease. When you coupled this with an innate desire to kill every sentient being that they could find, it was little surprise that the figures were so high.

So many had gone missing in or near the city that it had begun to scare the American administration with the possibility that it could turn its way southwards towards their border.

“It’s back!” I heard someone shout, cutting through the tension.

Everyone turned their focus from the screen to where the shout had come from. As a low murmur began to fill the room, I lifted my eyebrows curiously, waiting to hear what the fuss was about.

“The feed from Sweden is back!” the same voice said. It was a guy shouting from one of the computer terminals at the back of the room, his face firm with concentration as he tapped and clicked away.

The right half of the giant screen blinked over to displaying the output of a separate camera, while the American news feeds remained on the lefthand side. The dark night’s sky shown in the new image told us that this wasn’t Canada anymore.

A collapsed alien machine filled that half of the screen, flood-lit by numerous banks of spotlights. The whole room stilled again. No one dared ask the question that we were all thinking. Was it really dead? Had it been defeated?

There were a few whispers of disbelief, but the silence stretched on for ten seconds or so before movement drew my attention.

Silhouetted shadows moved around the scene, shining more beams of light across its massive metallic form. It hit me that someone needed to tell Martin about this. If we had proof that the machines could be defeated without resorting to the American approach then maybe he could get them to call their strike off completely.

Without saying a word, I slipped from my chair and darted from the room. He’d shown me where his office was as a part of my induction tour and it took me longer than it should have to find it.

Raised voices were coming from inside as I approached the solid wooden door, muffled so that it wasn’t possible to understand what was being said. There was also a guard stationed outside who scowled and lifted an eyebrow at me as I drew near.

“Identification?” he asked in a thick accent, reaching out a hand to me.

I paused in surprise, then rifled through my pockets to find the ID card he was requesting.

“There’s something urgent I have to tell him,” I said as the guard studied the details on the small card. He nodded then knocked solidly on the door.

The raised voices in the office lowered for a moment before the door was heaved open by a livid-looking Martin, his wide eyes immediately turning to me.

“What?” he asked, the word curt and filled with frustration. I was taken aback but pressed on regardless.

“The Swedish feed is back,” I answered, unable to keep the grin from my lips. “The girls beat the machine, somehow.”

Martin lowered the phone down from his ear, his expression turning thoughtful. Then he stepped aside and gestured urgently for me to enter, “Get in here and tell me everything you know.”

Erin

My whole body felt like it was on fire. Everything was agony.

I tried to open my eyes, but they were heavy and refused to open more than a sliver. Even that much had been a mistake – there was a bright light shining in my face and I slammed my eyes shut again. I opted for a weak groan to communicate my extreme displeasure with my current situation.

Something shifted beside me and I cautiously reached out a hand to feel for whatever it was. My fingers brushed against long, soft hair, eliciting a whine from whoever it belonged to.

“Erin?” a croaky voice asked, though it sounded very much like Casey after she gets disturbed mid-sleep.

I cracked a smile and tried to open my eyes again. The light that had near-blinded me earlier turned out to be the glow of a mobile phone screen as it rested next to me. She had to dim the screen and slip it away into a pocket so that I could finally see a fuzzy outline of my girlfriend in the ensuing darkness.

“Hey,” I tried to say, but it came out as a whisper. My throat was seriously dry, and the pain along my back and inside my abdomen wasn’t letting up. I wondered why Muse hadn’t said anything to me yet.

‘You are still in dire need of rest, but you are out of the worst of it,’ the familiar voice of my symbiote said. ‘A lot of my focus is taken up with the repairs. I apologise.’

She soothed some of the pain away, allowing me to finally relax and I let out a sigh of relief. 

I could sense Casey moving again and, with my eyes open just a crack, I saw her come a little closer. Her soft fingers touched my cheek and slid to cradle my head with a tenderness that I’d become accustomed to.

Her cheek rubbed against mine and I closed my eyes again, enjoying her reassuring closeness. She was making me feel so protected and cared for with her presence and I could feel myself beginning to edge towards sleep again. Instead, I struggled against it and tried to remember what had happened – why I was injured.

When I tried to ask, all that came out was another rasping whisper and I felt her pull back from me.

“Oh, have some water,” she whispered, twisting to reach for a glass from the bedside table. “You’ve gotta be thirsty.”

Wait, bedside table?

My muscles were still protesting and I felt too weak to sit up fully. I had to loll my head from side to side to get a better look at where we were. From my recent experience of being in one, I could tell that it wasn’t a hospital ward.

The room didn’t look familiar, and in the dim light I couldn’t really make out all that much. There was a blacked-out window to my right and a large wooden door at the foot of my bed. It was closed, although a pale yellow light seeped in through a small gap underneath. This was the sole illumination for the entire room.

Once I’d taken managed to swallow a mouthful or two of the water, I was able to ask in a soft rasp, “W-where are we?”

She placed the glass back on the table then turned back to me and carefully ran her fingers through my hair. After a soft kiss on my cheek, she answered, “We’re at an airfield, babe. Sebastian is outside, too. We’ll all be leaving soon.”

I smiled and rested my head back on the pillow, her fingers beckoning me to sleep as she pulled them through my hair. Waves of exhaustion were washing over me again and I was struggling to keep my eyes open. Despite the pain, her comfort was all I needed. Before I passed out again, I managed to mumble a few words.

“I really love... you.”

I was awakened from my exhausted slumber by a jolt that ran through my body and my eyes snapped open in alarm. Immediately, I knew that I was somewhere else.

At first, I thought I was either drunk or sedated because the world was shifting and whirling around me. That feeling soon subsided as the sound of droning engines broke into my consciousness. No, the world around me was actually moving.

It took me a minute or so to find the strength to try to sit up and look around. The intense pain that flared at every nerve in my body was gone. Instead, it was replaced by a dull aching that made me groan with every jostle and bump. 

I knew that I was inside an aircraft of some kind, fastened onto a stretcher to stop me from falling onto the floor mid-flight. It was affixed somehow in the middle of the plane’s narrow fuselage. The blinds on either side were open and I was able to see ground lights moving past.

The jolt that I’d felt must have been our landing. Had I really slept through the entire flight back?

‘Yes, you have been unconscious for some time, but it gave me the opportunity to repair a large part of the damage that you sustained. I believe that I have repaired the worst of it,’ Muse whispered comfortingly inside my mind.

I couldn’t see either Casey or Sebastian nearby, but I hoped that my girlfriend had been able to sleep, too. She must have been so tired after everything we’d been through. With our early start, then the patrol with Jacques, being attacked with meteorites and then fighting our way through a horde of miniature death machines to face the giant one.

The next twenty or so minutes were spent with me discussing all of those things that had happened with Muse. She broke down what we did and how I could have been better prepared for what had happened. I got the impression that she was already devising a new training regimen for me. Ugh.

When we reached the hazier parts of my memory she filled in the gaps. Apparently, I’d summoned a freaking lightning bolt through my own body, which for sure hadn’t been done on purpose, but at least it had worked.

I had no doubt that if we hadn’t been able to stop it, that it would have just kept rampaging throughout the city until it found its way to bigger and bigger population centres as it sought to massacre everyone and everything.

Happy thoughts, Erin. Happy thoughts. It’s over – it’s done.

I slumped back on the stretcher, groaning at all of my aching muscles as the plane finally came to a stop and other people appeared to help me disembark from the plane. It was silly to me that they insisted I stay strapped onto the stretcher even though I was sure that I could walk on my own.

Casey was finally able to meet up with me again during a physical examination from a civilian doctor. She’d been looking me over to see how extensive my injuries were, although she thought we were pulling a prank on her when she saw how quickly I’d recovered… from being struck by lightning.

“No, no. That kind of injuries takes months to heal from. There is no way!”

When she’d peered under the bandages wrapped around my chest she’d gasped and winced. As I tried to get a better view of what had bothered her, I caught a glimpse of the fading fern-like scar that worked its way down my side from shoulder to hip.

The door opened at that moment, the familiar face of my girlfriend appearing through the gap.

“Hey,” I called out to her and beckoned for her to enter the room. The doctor was still examining the scarring, and I noticed Casey’s eyes immediately fixate on the sight of my exposed midriff. 

I scanned her up and down, taking a good look to see how she was getting on. She’d found a spare change of clothes somewhere and was wearing a pair of plain jeans with a white tank top. It was a simple outfit but it really showed off her figure. She settled a small bundle down on a chair to the side of the room, patting them as she looked at me. Oh, how I wanted to get out of the rest of the uniform I was still wearing.

“Hey, babe,” she answered back, the worry around her eyes still strong as she watched me. “How are you feeling?”

“Like I was hit by a bus,” I replied, the corners of my lips twitching into a smile. 

“That sounds like an improvement,” she sighed, her worry finally fading.

After taking my blood pressure, pulse and whatever else she felt the need to do, I was discharged by the doctor and allowed to change. She complained that I had no right being as healthy as I was considering what I’d been through, but I gave her a wink and told her to keep an eye on the news over the next few days.

The clothes smelled new and unwashed, but the t-shirt was soft and the jeans fit me without a problem. She must have found a shop in the airport that sold clothes. Sure enough, they had upmarket labels and I didn’t even want to think how much they must have cost her.

Casey spoke to someone at the airbase while I got changed and they’d arranged for a vehicle to pick us up. We met up with Sebastian while we waited and he pulled me into a hug when he saw me safe and well.

The next order of business was to find somewhere that I could charge my phone. All around the arrivals terminal were monitors showing cancelled flights. There were also one or two that were displaying the news, but they were all muted, their subtitles written in German. I wasn’t entirely sure what the presenters were discussing, but familiar scenes of giant alien machines were playing.

One of the videos even had a blurry scene of Casey and I fighting some of the drones in Sweden. Honestly, it just looked like really good CGI and there was no way I’d have believed any of this was possible if I hadn’t literally lived it.

It was a fruitless hunt for a charging port, but eventually, we were directed to a quiet lounge area that was empty of any other people. In fact, the whole terminal had been sparse of other passengers. Maybe the news that aliens were real was having a depressive effect on the airline industry.

I found a socket that I could use and curled up in an armchair to check my messages. There were many from Rishaan, demanding situation updates, and even a voice message from Martin asking for us to check in when we could. I smiled softly at their concern, but I couldn’t be bothered to reply except to say that we were fine.

Sebastian kicked back and sprawled out on a couch, guitar in hand, while Casey slipped into the seat with me, holding me in her lap. We ate some snacks and enjoyed the quiet, relaxing melodies that Sebastian played. After about half an hour I drifted back off to sleep, held in Casey’s arms.

---

The inky blackness of the horizon had already begun to glow a light pink by the time we were on our way back to the airbase. I was a little surprised to see Emilia driving an expensive-looking SUV but she was all smiles when she saw us, beaming at both Casey and I and insisting on giving us each a hug. She helped us to load our bags and belongings into the boot, all the while pressing us for details on what had happened in Sweden. Apparently, the members of the TDE had seen what had happened and were all gushing over how amazing we were to all of the military types.

That left me feeling a touch uneasy, honestly. I didn’t like that so much fuss was being made about what we’d done, but Casey was taking it all in her stride, even though she deflected most of the praise onto me. He kept to himself, allowing us to reunite without interruption, but when Emilia finally noticed Sebastian, her demeanour quickly changed to something I’d never seen from her before. She was all shy smiles and batted eyelashes and I groaned inwardly. He had another admirer.

When I cleared my throat and gave Casey a questioning eyebrow raise, she smirked back and shrugged. What are you gonna do?

We both hopped into the back of the car, with Emilia driving and Sebastian riding shotgun. Casey sat close to me, her fingers playing gently through the tresses of my hair. I felt super grimy and in definite need of a shower, but I did my best to enjoy her touches. She left me leaning into her as I drifted towards sleep, the sounds of quiet, excited conversation between Sebastian and Emilia turning into nonsense as I slipped into unconsciousness.

Sleep was giving Muse more time to heal as much of the damage that she could. My recovery was going better than she’d first anticipated which I put that down to her effectively being the architect of my entire body.

I was awoken just as we pulled into the airbase, only to find a huge crowd of people lined up in the courtyard.

“I guess they heard we were on our way back,” Casey commented, pressing her cheek up against the glass of the window.

“Are you celebrities now?” Sebastian asked, amusement in his voice.

I groaned, pulling my slightly-singed camouflage jacket up over my head – I really didn’t want to face all of this, but I felt arms wrap me up and gently tug the jacket down.

“It’ll be okay, babe. Just let me do the talking,” Casey whispered softly, leaning in for a kiss  – which I returned, of course. Duh.

It felt like it had been so long since I’d been able to just melt in her arms and I took full opportunity to do so. With my eyes closed, I couldn’t even see the mass of people around the vehicle as they began to clap and cheer for us.

I could hear Sebastian fist-pumping and cheering back, clearly enjoying himself, while Emilia brought us to a halt. We each filed out of the car and into the waiting crowd of civilian staff and the few personnel that had stayed behind. There must have been nearly a hundred people crammed into that small space, each one of them wanting to catch a glimpse of the superhuman saviours. Or something.

As we slowly made our way through the cramped throng of human bodies, we shook hands and got caught up in embraces. At one point I was nearly knocked off my feet as someone launched themselves at me.

“Erin! You’re back!” I heard the familiar voice of my sister shout in my ear, making me smile and wince. As I turned to return her hug. The sharp sting of tiny claws broke through the material of my jeans as the pest of a squirrel scrambled up my clothes to sit atop my head.

“Hey Rah, hey Sabina,” I answered back with a tired laugh. “Seems like someone decided to throw us a party. What's the occasion?”

She smirked, pulling back to look me over critically, “Yeah, apparently you’re kind of a big deal since you’re the first person to kill an alien death machine.”

Even though she was joking, I knew that there was an edge of truth to what she was saying. Oh, joy.

‘You should rest soon, Erin. A full day of sleep should allow me to get you back into fighting condition again,’ Muse commented in my mind, which was good because I really didn’t feel overly comfortable being the focus of everyone’s attention. Food first, though. I wondered where we could find some of that.

Casey was still nearby and she answered my glance with a faint nod. She shared a semi-awkward fist-bump with Sarah who carefully extracted the squirrel from my hair. I was dragged away politely from the impromptu celebration that Sebastian was swiftly taking over with my girlfriend intertwining her fingers with mine.

I hadn’t seen Rishaan or Martin yet. Even though I’d been checking the faces of everyone nearby, I still hadn’t been able to find them. Had they not come to welcome us back? Was something more important going on?

“You still look super tired, babe. Are you okay?” Casey asked, lifting my chin with a curled finger so that I looked into her eyes.

“Muse said I should sleep some more… but I'm hungry.”

She nodded, my words seeming to confirm her suspicions, but she broke into a warm smile.

“Then let’s go back to our room. I’m sure no-one will complain,” she answered back, surprising me by reaching down and then heaving me up into a princess carry. The cry of shock I let out was very feminine, but we both giggled as I wrapped my arms around her neck. Several people were watching us – Sarah included – as we departed and I gave them a small wave of my hand. At least they couldn’t see the blush that had risen on my cheeks.

“You got any food you can bring to our room?” I heard Casey shout back to Emilia. She answered back in the affirmative and said that it would be there within half an hour.

With everything arranged, we resumed our trek back to our cabin. I closed my eyes and leaned into the most wonderful woman in the world.