Read Online Alien Invasion and Other Inconveniences by Brian Yansky - Free Book Online

say she did. One small point.”
    “What?”
    “Betty’s dead.”
    “We can run,” I say. “We won’t fight them directly. When we get stronger, then we’ll fight.”
    “I can run, Tex. You just sort of walk fast.”
    I ignore this remark. “We steal a car.”
    “And go where?”
    “West,” I say. “We find the rebels and join them.”
    That’s when I know where we have to go. I feel it.
    “We go to Taos. There are a lot of places to hide in those mountains around Taos, and I know the area.”
    Michael says, “You might as well say the moon.”
    “Why would we want to go to the moon?”
    “Shut up,” he says.
    Sometimes he’s so easy to irritate it’s almost not worth the effort. Almost.
    “We get out of the cities. We get to a place where there aren’t that many of them. You heard what Lauren said.”
    Lauren told us that when she was bused south from Chicago, she didn’t see any aliens at all between cities. The country felt abandoned. But nothing was abandoned, of course. It was all taken from us.
    “So that’s your plan?” Michael says. “Steal a car and drive west? You must have thought long and hard to come up with so detailed a plan.”
    “Taos, New Mexico.” I feel like that’s where we need to go. I feel it strongly. It’s almost like I can hear something in Taos, a whisper, calling me. I sure don’t tell Michael about this because I know what he would say. “Shut up.”
    “It’s a long drive to Taos, right?”
    “It’s a long, hard, hot drive,” I admit. “But no worries. They’ll probably kill us before we can get off the grounds anyway.”
    “I’m guessing you weren’t on the debate team at your high school,” he says.
    A Handler comes in then, so I really do shut up.
    When I meet Lauren in line for dinner that night, she puts her arms around me and hugs me.
    “I’m sorry,” she says.
    I’m about to say that it isn’t a big deal, that I didn’t even really know Betty. But then I feel something very close to a tear on my cheek. Maybe it actually is a tear.
    I push the feeling away and get out of her hug. “I have something to tell all of you.”
    By then Michael and Lindsey have joined us. I tell them all everything I know. I leave out the source of my information about the rebels, but I tell them they’re out there and they killed a Sans.
    “How do you know all this?” Lauren says.
    “You just have to trust me.”
    I’ve chosen to make my escape pitch right as we sit down so that Michael’s mouth will be full. There’s so much food being stuffed in there that I know he won’t be able to object.
    “We’re not helpless, and they’re not invincible,” I say. “We’ve got to try to escape.”
    “You really think it’s possible?” Lauren says.
    “My dad used to say that ordinary people can do extraordinary things in extraordinary times. That’s where we are. I think it’s possible.”
    “We’ll need supplies,” Lindsey says.
    Lauren and I both look at her. She shrugs. “Anything is better than staying here.”
    Michael decides that he has to say something even if his mouth is mostly full. “They’re too strong, too fast.” He swallows. “It’s like we’re a high school football team going out to play the Super Bowl winners.”
    I’m pleased to see the girls aren’t impressed by this sports analogy.
    Lauren says, “I heard something today. Addyen told me that her husband will arrive soon. He’s on a ship a couple days away.”
    “So?” I say.
    “He’s not coming alone. He’s with a million aliens. A fleet of ships that’s going to land in just a few days.”
    “Frick,” Lindsey says.
    Michael actually stops eating.
    “It gets worse,” she says. “There are millions more behind them. I asked Addyen, and she said maybe thirty million less than a year away.”
    “So many?” I say. It’s like I’ve been punched in the gut. I have to take deep breaths.
    “It doesn’t matter,” Lindsey says.
    “It matters,” I say.