Evaluate: A Spo novella (Alien Cadets) by Garrett Corrie

Author:Garrett, Corrie [Garrett, Corrie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2016-02-15T23:00:00+00:00

Part 4

When the shaking stopped, Aaron felt like he’d been beaten. His neck popped when he turned his head, and he felt the beginnings of a bad headache, but he didn’t feel nauseated or disoriented. Hopefully, he’d avoided a concussion.

The silence was eerie. A palm tree had crashed onto an SUV in front of them, and the asphalt sparkled with a constellation of fresh glass. He saw no people, heard no sirens.

“Don’t move,” Vanessa said softly. “No one move. There are live power lines wrapped around the blades.”

“Are you sure?” Aaron craned his head to try to look behind them.

“Seriously, don’t move. Don’t touch anything metal.”

He tried to turn just his head. He groaned and rubbed his neck carefully.

“How are you doing?” she asked.

“I’m okay.”

“I’m fine, in case you were wondering,” David added.

“Any of us could be electrocuted if we complete a circuit, so we can’t touch the doors,” Vanessa said. “David, you too, don’t touch anything.” This would have been the perfect time for Aaron to run, and a great place to do it, if only the power lines weren’t involved.

Eto and the linguist looked perfectly collected, though they’d been bounced around as well. Their reactions were as uncanny as the sudden silence.

Vanessa gingerly leaned to the side to remove her phone from her pocket without touching anything.

“No service. I can’t call 911.”

“I am 911,” Aaron said, though his voice didn’t sound entirely steady. Perhaps he did have a concussion.

Eto pulled out a phone and used it to call someone. He spoke in his own language, but Aaron assumed he was requesting help.

“Since when do aliens use phones? And why does yours work and not hers?” he asked.

Eto looked at his phone. “Your satellite communication systems are adequate. Why should we build another? I believe I am on a different network. Perhaps that is why mine works.”

Silence fell again.

Aaron didn’t know what to do. The backup that Eto had called would be here when they got out, assuming they didn’t get electrocuted before that. Whatever opportunity Vanessa had been looking for was gone, unless someone could get to them before Eto’s backup.

“That felt like a bad one,” Aaron commented. “But the terminal next to us doesn’t look too damaged. Maybe crashing made it feel worse than it was.”

“Maybe.”

Aaron heard a siren in the distance, and he breathed a sigh of relief. It didn’t matter if it was coming for them. It probably wasn’t. But to him, that sound was imbued with all the good their city had to offer. It was the sound of organization, prioritization, and service.

With every day that passed, it felt like humanity moved closer to the brink of dissolution, but as long as there were sirens, things went on. Sirens meant there were people who weren’t shirking their duties. People who were determined to preserve what was left of their city. Doctors were preparing for patients, and victims, at least some of them, were hearing voices call out to them.

Aaron bounced his knee, his adrenaline from the crash beginning to surge.

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