Part 20

Part 1

         Nathan couldn't even fathom how it was that they were able to run away. It wasn't like he regretted it – far from it, but he couldn’t understand how two seventeen-year-olds, barely able to drive, had made it out of the country and this close to the city without being pulled over by the police or having someone become suspicious of them.

As Emily put it, they looked old enough to be out by themselves, looked like any other couple. Except they weren’t.

         Nathan wasn’t sure at what point in their lifelong friendship they had decided to run away together, to a better life, to the city, but he knew they’d been planning it for years. He guessed it had started when he came out to the other kids at school and Emily was the only one who had still treated him like before. She hated how they ignored or teased him, and hated even more that he let them. But he couldn’t really be sure of when they first talked of leaving. In the end it didn’t really matter when they started planning it, only that three days ago they left, and here they were, in a seedy motel, pooling the rest of their money and hoping to find a place to rent.          

Part 8

Emily had only just woken up, and without even moving she was already very disconcerted. Right, so, she thought to herself. This is something new. I appear to be in a... Well. A room, I presume. And I’m... floating? No, surely not. Last time I checked I couldn’t float... Probably. So that means I’m lying flat, on a... bed? Yes, I think so, that makes more sense. And my arm, there’s something on my arm. In my arm, perhaps.

She opened one eye, and then the other slowly, prepared for a brightness that was not there. So, to recap, I’m lying on a bed, presumably in a room, not in a park, I don’t know how many beds there are in parks around here, but I’m guessing not many, and it’s very, very dark. By the sounds of it, no one else is in here, either. “Well, I’m glad I’ve got that cleared up. But now, what to do?” she said out loud, secretly wishing her pillow would respond with a sensible answer. Lord knew her brain couldn’t come up with one.

Part 3

There were, Nathan noted, several problems with Emily's suggestion.

Firstly, it was well past eleven pm.

Secondly, all the streetlights were out.

Thirdly, he had heard stories about this area, and none of them were favorable.

Of course neither of them had been here before, and it wasn't like they could just pretend to be tourists and ask for directions. People would ask questions. People were bound to ask questions about two teenagers who were hiding in a motel. There would be even more questions if they saw a teenager wander the streets in the dead of night and then go join another teenager in a seedy motel room. Not that Nathan wouldn’t look at the situation and come to the same conclusion, they just really didn’t need the questions at the moment.

As such, Emily's idea of going out on her own was ill advised at best. So, of course, she had to do it. She was such a stubborn girl.

Part 7

         

         Somewhere to the left, just behind her, a streetlight flickered on. At the same time another light, a few metres down the road to her right, and another, in the distance flickered into activity. The sudden light and shadows made Emily jump, and when she landed she remembered the ground feeling decidedly non-existent.

Part 16

                   One of the aliens is coming into my room; he’s talking to me. He’s got Nathan’s voice, God, that’s his face! Oh God! They’ve got Nathan too! Emily panicked. Or, what if Nathan is one of them?

Part 13

         

                   Nathan paused for a moment in his contemplations, wondering exactly where Emily had gotten to. She had said that she’d only be walking around the block. Surely the block couldn’t be that big. It’d be just their luck if someone had abducted her for her kidney or tried to kill her or something. They’d be in for it if they tried to take her kidney. For a girl who didn’t know what kidneys did, she was fiercely protective of hers, and liked elbowing other people in theirs.

Part 2

                   I think I'll go for a walk. He won't mind. See if I can find a pizza place or something around here. This place is supposed to have the highest murder rate per capita; Nathan keeps reminding me, he’s kinda hung up on that statistic. I suppose that’s kinda scary though, all those dead people. I’d hate to be a hospital worker, Emily thought. Might as well go out, though it’s not like I’ll miss anything interesting on the TV anyway. I don’t know why Nathan bothers; he won’t find any decent picture quality. It’s almost law for motels to have crap reception. “Alright, I’m going out for a walk around the block, I’ll find some pizza or something. Back soon!” 

Part 14

What do I do? What do I do? What do I do? Emily thought. Aliens. Aliens have taken me. They kidnapped me, they’ve taken my kidney, and now they'll do experiments on me! They might take my liver next! Then my brain!  No, I have to stay calm. What would Nathan do? He wouldn't have let this happen. Oh. What do I do?

         A creak from the other side of the room, followed by a sterile white glow, broke into her conscience. Something's happening.

Part 18

         “Get away alien!” Emily yelled, “Just leave me alone! I don’t want to be your human-pie or experiment or your bride or whatever you want me to be! Just put me back where you found me!”

Part 9

Nathan flipped through the TV channels absentmindedly, wondering if there was some law that said motels could only have crap TV reception. Or, he decided, flipping through four consecutive static channels, no reception at all.

Part 11

         This room, it smells like... antiseptic? Yeah, that’s antiseptic; nothing else smells quite like it. So that means I’m in a...Shit. A hospital or something. But I was just out on the road. Why am I here? Why a hospital if... Oh. My. God. Emily thought. They’ve taken my kidney, haven’t they? They drugged me in the street, then took my kidney, and now they’ve dumped me here. She moved a hand shakily down to where she presumed her kidneys to be, waiting to find the stitches in her skin. It shouldn’t have shocked her so much to find them there, just above her waist, but it did. So, to recap again, I’m in a room, no longer quite as dark now that I’ve removed that pillow, lying on a bed with something, I suppose a drip, stuck into my arm, with stitches where my right kidney should be, and the room is empty. I’m glad I’ve progressed this far. Floating would have been too much for me. Emily sighed; sarcasm just isn’t the same when the conversation is with yourself.

Part 15

         Nathan walked into the room, grinning as he saw Emily was awake, and quickly made for her bed.

         “I’m so glad you’re okay. I’ve been worried about you! They called me and told me to come straight away, but they wouldn’t tell me why. I was so worried you were dead or something.”

Part 6

That woman, Nathan thought to himself, will never learn. She’s so stubborn and pig headed. She just doesn’t get it. This area, it’s strange. Things happen here. It’s dangerous. Hasn’t she listened to me at all?

Part 12

“Where have you gone, Emily?” Nathan asked the TV remote seriously. “It doesn’t take this long to go for a walk, even if you were getting pizza.” People had often said he needed to go to bed earlier, but he never listened. He thought he was quite alert in the early hours of the morning.

Part 17

Nathan stared on in horror as Emily backed away, wincing in sympathy with her when she jumped at the obvious pain in her side. She shouldn’t even be moving after getting a gunshot wound like that.  The doctors had told him the wound was bad, they had told him Emily was on a drip, they hadn’t told him she’d react like this to him just being there. It’s like she thought he was an alien or something.

Part 4

“Oh honestly, Nathan,” Emily said, sighing in the direction of her concerned friend. “Were you even listening? I told you; I’ll be perfectly fine. Stop worrying about me. It’s just a short walk, just around the block. It’s not like I’ll be kidnapped or killed or something. I can defend myself, you know.”

“That’s not what I’m worried about,” Nathan replied, frowning at her retreating form, noting with something akin to surprise the bounce in her step. “You can’t defend yourself from everything.”

Part 10

         

         Emily tried to sit up. She could sit up – that wasn’t the problem, no restraints around her neck or arms or anything, though there definitely was something on her arm. The problem was that whenever she tried to sit up she felt something on her face. After a few moments of panic she remembered that she did in fact have hands, and brought them to her face to investigate.

It was a pillow.

Part 5

         

         It was dark, dark and slightly cold, but Emily didn’t mind. She grinned and skipped a few steps, pausing to inhale the smell of the city. Smoke and fumes, fire and petrol; to anyone else the smells would have been repulsive, but to her they were the smells of civilization. Of success. That was why they were here, after all, to get away and live the life that they wanted, free of discrimination and full of opportunities.

Part 19

         “Emily, it’s me. Nathan, your friend! Y’know, your friend, who isn’t an alien.  You’re in hospital, you’ve been shot, it was pretty bad, but they got the bullet out and stitched you back up.”

         “What? No! You’re an alien! You’re lying to me, that’s what aliens do! You lie.”  Emily replied, her eyes wide and distrustful.

         “I’m not green or bug-eyed, am I? You’ve still got your kidney, too. I bet that’s what you’re worried about. It is, isn’t it? Of all the things, your kidney.”

         “I am not worried about my kidney.” Nathan watched her draw a protective hand over her left side, “My kidney is fine.” She continued, her lips rising in a slight snarl.

         “Your kidneys, plural, with an ‘s’ are fine. Both of them. Still there. I promise. Who’d want your kidneys?”

         “Oh Nathan, it really is you!” Emily said, palpable relief in her voice. “No one could be as perceptive and comforting, yet as scathing as you!”          

“Nor anyone as melodramatic as you.” Nathan agreed. “Or as lucid after surgery. ”  he continued under his breath.

         “So wait, I’m in hospital. For a... gunshot wound? What happened to me?”

         “We were hoping you’d know, though the doctor thinks you might have some slight memory loss. You got shot in the stomach while you were out walking, we don’t know who by, though there were some cameras around, so people are going to look into it, and the dudes in the pizza shop heard and called the ambos when they saw you on the ground bleeding.”

         “So there was a pizza shop near by!”

         “Not the point.” Nathan sighed, wishing the pain relievers made her a bit more tired and controllable, or perhaps just a lot more asleep. “Stop moving. You’ll pull your stitches out and have to get them redone.”

         “You’d better tell me about this properly when I’m out of here.”

         “Yeah, as soon as I work us out of the debt we’ve just found ourselves in.” Nathan grinned bitterly. “Might’ve been better if we’d never left.”

         “Never say that. We came out here for adventure. That’s what we’ve found.”

         “Yeah, but –“

         “Shush. The aliens are coming again. I can hear them. And you’re next.” Emily grinned. Everything was going exactly to her plan. Everything. Her kidney would be back soon.