Headlights cut across the flat expanse of the pitch black desert. Rob stared through the window and tried to track where they were going. He noticed a pale green reflection of the woman driving floating like a ghost on the windshield.
“Who are you with?
“You wouldn’t know.”
“I know them all.”
“Government Department on Extraterrestrials.”
“GDET. You guys lost funding in the last Congressional Oversight meeting.”
“We were absorbed by the Treasury.”
“Secret Service? Is the President in on this?”
“In on what?”
“Does he know they are coming?”
Jodi glanced in the rearview mirror.
“No one is coming. We’re not being followed.”
“Not them. THEM. All Caps. Isn’t that why you came for me?”
Her hand gripped the wheel until her knuckles turned white.
“Our instructions were to deliver you to DC. Everything else is need to know. And I need to know who killed my partner.”
“I’m sorry about him.”
“There were two others.”
“I’m sorry about them too. But,” he said. “I am need to know. Or rather I know.”
“You know? What do you know?”
“I know that this is all about. Except the men in black. If they weren’t with you, who are they with?”
“Another government? Rogue CIA? Maybe you’re late on the electric bill. We were just here to pick you up.”
Rob adjusted in his seat as he absorbed the information.
“Do you know who I am?”
“Robinson Crow, amateur astronomer, 28 year old grad student with an Internet hobby on UFO’s and aliens, and an overactive imagination.”
“Close. I’m a multiple abductee.”
“What’s that?”
“You know, alien abduction. Unidentified Flying Objects. I have been visited?”
He smiles at her frown.
“No one believes me at first. Except your bosses. Someone at GDET knows. They know what it means,” he said with pride.
“It means you had a lousy childhood. It means you have low self esteem. It means my partner died for some stupid make believe BS.”
Rob sank lower into the seat.
“You don’t believe me? Have you ever seen a UFO?”
She shook her head.
“And you work for GDET? They never took you to Nevada? I thought that would be an initiation ritual for you guys.”
“I’ve been to the SETI set up, but my division is tasked like the US Marshals. We’re highly specialized.”
“Crap, even I’ve been to Nevada. I wasn’t supposed to be there of course, but I went. What kind of agent are you?”
“I’m a delivery person. I show up when you have to get there asap.”
“Absolutely, positively, huh?”
“And need to know.”
“Can you pull over?”
“Why?”
“I have to…pee. You need to know I have to pee.”
She keeps the van cranked up to ninety and smirks at him.
“Right. Nice.”
“I had a huge bottle of water just before you showed up. Seriously we’re lucky I didn’t leave a long trail when all the shooting started.”
“Just relax Mr. Crow, you’re safe with me.”
“Could you just pull over and let me out?”
“You’re not going anywhere,” she said.
The van motor made a high pitched coughing sound and seized up. Jodi gripped the wheel and wrestled the van to the side of the road.
“Did you do that?” he asked.
“We have gas. Have-” her eyes popped open. “Get out! Get out now!”
She shoved him through the passenger door and scrambled out behind him.
They scrabbled through the scrub brush, Jodi pushed him forward ahead of her.
“Get down!” she screamed.
The van exploded.
The concussion blast radiated out and slammed them both off of their feet. Debris rained down from the night sky.
Rob sat up and shook off the effects of the explosion. His ears were ringing and dirt smudged his face. He patted a smoking spot on the shoulder of his shirt.
He couldn’t see Jodi.
“Agent Johnson?”
She loomed up out of the darkness behind him.
“Are you hurt?”
“What did you do?” he asked and tried to stand. She held his arm but they were both so shaky it was hard to tell who was holding who up.
“Kill switch, remote, I think. It’s a good bet they know where we are.”
“And by they you mean the men in black?”
“More men in black.”
“They were way more fun in the movie. Forget me sticks beat bombs any day.”
She led him back toward the road, but angled away from the van so they could gain some distance.
“We better keep moving.”
“Where are we going?” he asked.
“No time for questions. We need to put some distance between us and their van.”
“There’s always time for questions,” said Rob.
“You ask too many questions.”
She kept them off the road but marched parallel to the black ribbon in the darkness.
“That’s why they picked me.”
“For your multiple abductions?”
“You know,” he said. “I never considered that, but you could be right. No. GDET picked me.”
“I don’t know anything about it.”
“About what?”
“All of this. Any of this. My partner’s dead, someone tried to blow us up. I’ve shot people tonight. I’ve never drawn my weapon before,” she said.
“You’re holding up very well,” he said. “Except for the gunshots and explosions, I feel very protected.”
“I’m just supposed to get you to a plane.
They walked in silence under the canopy of winking stars. Rob paused and stared in wonder.
“We could get picked up out here,” he said.
Jodi walked past him and kept going.
“Are you going to phone home?” she snarked.
“I don’t think I can. You want me to try?”
She shrugged her shoulders.
“Knock yourself out, flyboy.”
Rob closed his eyes for moment and tried to center his thoughts. He pictured a ship in his mind, tried to reach past the cobwebs of foggy memory to reconstruct what he could remember from abductions. He hummed, tried to match the frequency and thrumming of the engines through the smooth walls of the alien vessels. He thought a very simple command, help, and opened his eyes.
“Did it work?”
“I don’t know. We’ll see.”
He sat down beside a small scrub brush and twirled a piece of grass between his fingers. Jodi walked back to stand over him.
“Do we have to wait here? We’re a little close to the van.”
“I’m not a homing beacon. This is where I told them I’d be.”
“Tell them to follow you. I don’t like it.”
Rob was about to argue when he caught a flash of light out of the corner of his eye. Something blazed through the night sky, lights dancing as it swept across the horizon.
“Look,” he pointed.
Two bright circles bobbed and hovered across the terrain. They swept past the van and twirled back, like predators seeking out the metal on the sand.
Rob jumped up and waved his hands.
“Hey! Over here!”
He started running toward the lights.
“No!” shouted Jodi. She took off after him and tackled him to the ground.
“Those are Apaches,” she hissed.
The lights shot away from the van and raced across the desert floor toward
Rob and Jodi.
“I suppose they’re not with you,” he sighed.
“Run,” she screamed as she shoved him up.
He took off away from the van. Jodi pounded the sand behind him, her breath echoed in his ear.
The spotlights bisected their trail as it the roar of the helicopter drew closer. The lights blazed across them and settled back. A minigun whirled and bullets shredded the dirt in front of them. Rob tripped and sprawled. Jodi crashed over him and knocked her head against a rock.
“Are you hurt,” she gasped and held a hand to leaking wound to her forehead.
“Not yet,” he shouted over the whirring blades.
“Good,” she said and collapsed across his lap.
A spotlight zeroed in on them. Rob could see the pilots through the windshield as the minigun adjusted to aim directly at them.
The sky cracked with an explosion of screeching metal as a giant black saucer crashed into the hovering helicopter. It spun out of control and smashed into the ground in a fireball that lit up the surroundings.
“We regret to inform you your son was killed in a training accident,” Rob grunted.
He waved at the saucer.
Rob rolled Jodi over and checked her head and her pulse.
He stood up and started walking toward the saucer.
“Hey!” he screamed. “Thanks for coming.”
The lights outside of the saucer twirled around in a pattern that made him smile. A streak of fire split the sky. A rocket exploded into the spacecraft. Rob screamed.
The second Apache hovered into view. It fired a full volley of five more rockets into the black saucer. Rob shrieked as they plowed into the UFO and created a series of expanding explosions.
He leaped back toward Jodi and covered her body with his. The UFO turned on end and smashed into the ground. Metal and flaming debris rained down over them.
Jodi started to come too with Rob across her.
“Get off me, pervert,” she grunted and tried to elbow him away.
“I think we’re in trouble,” he said and rolled off of her.
Jodi noticed the Apache spin around to target them. She sat up and pulled her gun as it approached. Her finger clenched the trigger and sent three shots into the helicopter canopy.
The pilot jerked the stick as the chopper spun out of control and smashed down next to the blazing remains of the saucer.
Jodi pulled a fresh magazine out and slammed it home.
“How long was I out?
“Just a few minutes.”
“What did I miss?”
Rob pointed to the large pile of flaming debris.
“That was our ride.”
“Another helicopter? I only saw two.”
“UFO.”
She studied him for a moment and touched the tender gash on her forehead.
“Maybe I’m not the only one who took a mild concussion,” she said.
“Come on,” she climbed up and offered him a hand. “I guess we’re walking.”
Jodi and Rob stirred up dust walking down the dirt road.
A mud covered pick up truck pulled over onto the shoulder and they hopped in back.
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