Codes (Book 2)

Chapter 27: Claire

"I don't think we should trust her with this thing," Megan frowned, walking up to the front of the hovercraft. "Get up."

"Alright," I grumbled, walking to the back of the craft to occupy Megan's seat next to Kelly. I couldn't risk angering the Glitches now.

"Hey," I smiled softly at Kelly, who quickly looked away. Craning my neck, I glanced at the other Glitches, all of whom shot me fearful and distrustful looks in return.

"Look, you guys are driving me crazy," I finally sighed, vexed. "All I've done is help you, every step of the way. If that isn't enough to earn your trust, I don't know what is."

"I want to believe you...Viviana," said Iveya. "But you have to understand that it's good for us to be on our guard. From what we know of this evil alien Queen- and that isn't much- she's very tricky. There's no way of knowing for sure you aren't on her side."

"I guess you're right," I sighed. "But can we at least try to make this feel normal again?"

"Alright, fair enough," Megan nodded. "Everyone, stop staring at Cla-Viviana."

"Thanks, Megan," I smiled. Looking out the window, I was about to start playing with the Code of various objects out of habit before I pulled back my hand, realizing there was no Code. I felt so weak and useless without my Glitch powers, I hadn't even realized I was that dependent on them!

"So, you're President Arystenn, now, huh?" Justin interrupted my thoughts, poking me in the shoulder with a wide grin on his face. "Sounds boss."

"Yay!" I grinned sarcastically. "Behold me, the glorious Viviana Arystenn, ruler of a whopping eleven people!"

"Come on, it's not that bad!" Justin patted me on the back.

"Could it get any worse?" I groaned. "I'm an alien in a hovercraft on a dead planet with the last eleven humans in the universe and my crazed mother trying to kill me."

"Wait," I added after a couple of seconds. "I thought you were the pessimistic one!"

"I guess being a lost princess really changes your outlook."

"You bet," I grumbled. "Something good should really happen to us...it's about time!"

"I see the graffiti!" Megan yelled, pointing to something below us. However, I was too far from the window to be able to look at it. "I'm going down!" She yelled, and a couple of us cheered as she began to descend.

"That's something good," Justin shrugged. "We made it all the way here without having to dodge any alien grenades!"

"Don't jinx it," I said sourly as the Speedies began handing out large backpacks from the Module that contained four hours of oxygen, an airtight helmet, and a tall water bottle each.

"Good thing we decided to pack an extra just in case," Priya said as she tossed one to Cameron. The tired looking man muttered a word of thanks and slung it over his shoulder. As the hovercraft approached the ground, skidding to a stop a couple of yards in front of the telltale graffitied wall, we pulled our helmets over our heads and fastened them to our necks as tightly as possible.

The first thing I noticed when the hovercraft's hatch popped open and we began to file out was the stench. The awful odor of toxic waste, sewage, and decaying flesh easily penetrated the thick glass of my helmet, making my nostrils burn.

No wonder nothing could live here anymore.

"Alright, guys, the spaceship is behind that Burger King over there, in a special pod that only opens in the presence of Glitches," Cameron pointed to a dilapidated building on the opposite end of the street that was barely recognizable as the famous fast food place.

"I knew it was a good idea to bring him along!" Megan smiled victoriously as we followed him down the streets, walking as fast as we could. I could tell we all wanted to be away from the terrible smell as quickly as possible.

"So, how do you know all of this anyway?" Justin asked Cameron.

"Oh, everyone knew about the ship during the last couple of months before this town was destroyed. Williamson's Module and his Glitch plan was all anyone talked about! Anyway, here we are," he pointed to a commonplace looking manhole cover that lay slightly askew on the ground.

"It's...a sewer?" I raised an eyebrow.

"Of course not!" Cameron laughed. "One of you needs to touch it for it to activate. Go ahead an-"

He was interrupted by a loud gunshot from behind us. I whipped around to see a man dressed in a faded t-shirt and khakis crouching behind the rusty skeleton of a car, pointing a sick looking machine gun at us. He had just fired into the air, obviously some kind of a warning or signal.

As I looked around, I saw more people pop up from behind various discarded objects, all wielding various weapons, dressed in similar, ratty clothing, and wearing bandannas tied tightly over their noses and mouths. There were at least fifty of them, and they had us surrounded.

At least they looked fairly human.

"Don't ya dare move move, ya filthy alien scumbags," the first man, probably their leader, barked in a deep, rough voice. "There's far more of us than there is of you, and if ya so much as try to signal for help, we'll shoot!"

"Hey, Joe, calm down!" A woman walked up behind the guy- Joe- and tapped him roughly on the shoulder. "Those aren't aliens, they don't have those blue Aura things! Those are humans, they're survivors, like us!"

For once, I was grateful that my Aura was still a baby, and wasn't visible to humans unless it was in use.

"Impossible," Joe shook his head. "Those aliens be playing with our minds again. Ain't nobody survived the attack but us. Didn't ya see the radar this morning? That thing didn't find no single living soul on this planet except for us. Nothing. Nada."

"Wait a second...those could be Williamson's Program kids!" The woman gasped.

"Right!" Joe clapped his hands together with excitement. "Completely forgot about the old Program, I did. Thought that thing was doomed the minute they announced it! Hey, kids, are you the Glitches from the Program?" He walked over to us, putting down his gun.

"Yeah," I nodded, quite intimidated by the huge man.

"Great!" Joe boomed. "You're coming with us!" He patted me roughly on the back, motioning for us to follow him.

"Actually, we really have to get to-"

"Shh!" Cameron hissed, interrupting me. "No matter what you do, don't mention the spaceship. As far as we know, it's the only reliable way off the planet. I don't know about you, but this Joe guy seems shady to me. There's absolutely no way this many humans survived the Lessaenite attacks, and all in one place too. Something's going on here, and I don't want to give these people any more information than we have to."

"Yeah," I nodded, thankful that Joe hadn't heard us over the loud chatter of his group of survivors.

An ominous feeling began to settle over me as we marched through the silent streets. As I observed the scene, I noticed that Joe's people walked around us in a tight circle, as if to keep us from escaping. They seemed to be at ease, having casual conversations with each other and occasionally laughing, but they all had one hand resting on their gun, ready to pull it out at a moment's notice.

This couldn't be good.