To the Left

Chapter 9

Oh my God, I don't know what to do. What does this mean? Why don't Lefts show up on the scanners? I'm starting to panic now, and I can feel my breathing kicking up again. Eli puts a hand on my shoulder. "Listen, Ruby. Think about what matters now. That's surviving right now, right?" I nod. "Good. Okay, we're going to go look out the window and see if we see any more active soldiers." We creep to the window and look out, scanning the streets. I'm horrified to see bodies leaning out of windows and crumpled on the ground where they were left by the soldier's guns. Luckily enough, I don't see any alien fighters, so they must have moved on to another part of the city.

"Okay, Eli. We know I'm safe. You'll be safe with me because I can-I can sneak up on them if they try to attack you with the targeting system. I know you can fight too, so that's good." I take a few steps forward, then turn around, brushing a piece of hair out of my face impatiently. "We need to do something with what we know. If these alien guys are targeting multiple cities, then maybe we could stop them because they can't target me?"

Eli shakes his head. "No way. If people know that the guns don't target Lefts, then they know you're a Left. I can't let you be in danger, Ruby. I'm not letting that happen." "That's a nice sentiment, and I appreciate it, but people still need to know there's a weakness to their system. Maybe we don't say it was me who was a Left, but one of the aliens was using their left hand to fire the gun? I don't know. It's not like anyone's an expert on this sort of thing." Eli nods. "At least that way you're not a direct target. But who would we go to? Everyone here who could help us is a Right, and therefore dead. Should we scour the buildings outside for survivors?" I agree with him, albeit a little worried that we would come across more soldiers, but we can't exactly stay here.

We walk outside, ducking behind the walls and peering around corners. We flinch at the slightest sound, but it's deathly quiet. We look inside buildings, but all we find is the dead. "There's no one here." Eli speaks in the silence, and I look at him. "So what now?" Suddenly, I see a movement in the street. It's the aliens! "Get down!" I yell at Eli, terrified he's going to show up on their scanners. Luckily enough, none of them seem to notice we're still alive and they press a series of buttons on their guns. A shadow descends on the streets, and along with it, a metal circle that affixes itself to the ground. The soldiers step into it, and suddenly, metal walls expand around it and fall just as quickly. This time, when the walls fall, the soldiers are gone.

"What happened to them?" Eli turns to me. "I think they went back up to the ship." I point up, noting how a door on the bottom of the ship opens up. Thinking fast, I turn to Eli. "Here's the thing. I'm not going to show up on the scanners, right? What if we sneak onto the ship and find a way to shut it down before more are killed?" Eli turns to me, a light shining in his eyes. "Exactly! Also, what if we wear the armor of the aliens we knocked out? That way we can hide on the ship in plain sight!" I agree, and we run back to the building we were in and don their armor. Surprisingly, it's only a little big on us and we walk back to the circle on the ground. "Is it really that easy? Can we get on the ship just like that?" I ask, and Eli just shrugs his shoulders. "We don't really have much of another option. Let's do it." We step on the circle, and I jump as the metal walls fly up around us. Suddenly, light flashes in my eyes, and before I know it, I'm standing in the middle of an unfamiliar room. Eli stands next to me, stumbling slightly from the foreign experience. "That was weird." "Definitely. Let's go find an engine room or something we can dismantle." I laugh at that, finding myself strangely missing the way his helmet hides the way his eyes shine when he laughs. Why did I never notice that before? Why am I noticing that now? Regardless of that, we need to focus if we're going to survive. We walk out of the room to meet our fate on board the ship.