Codename Alpha

Chapter 15

"Anyways, as our listeners in West Germany can certainly attest to, this morning's spyplane scare certainly has everyone on edge." We eventually arrived at the entrance to the forest which we had been through several hours ago. "As of yet, there has been no word through official channels as to who's plane it actually was - theories suspect NATO, the Warsaw Pact, and maybe even the Arabs. One thing's certain: nobody seems to know for sure, and nobody's itching to find out."

Jack turned the car into a road without hesitation, understandably glad to finally be out the forest.

"That, in conjunction with the new signal that's jamming amateur frequencies, has led to some pretty wild speculation amongst radio hobbyists around here. As if it couldn't get any more interesting, something else happened that's much to the chagrin of our resident conspiracy theorist here at the station, too. I'll let him take over for this one." Suddenly, the voice on the car's radio changed from a lower tone to a somewhat higher one who seemed to enunciate more clearly.

"Ah, thank you, McCarthy. Now, our little operation here in Norwich, amateur as it may be, was veritably flooded with reports of the German Air Force shooting down something in the air over Bavaria. Coincidentally, there's been a chemical spill at a rail depot in this little area in Bavaria - oh, I just did a thing - called Neuburg an der Donau, which just so happens to be the area that many of our correspondents think the aircraft crashed. Currently, the police there have set up an exclusion zone that's still expanding as we speak. Certainly something to think about. Gas leak? Or a crazed communist pilot on the loose?"

The truck came around a bend in the road, and we were now where we had been hours ago, running into the forest.

"Or, perhaps, was ET himself shot down by the West Germans? With that in mind, I'd like to suggest something to our listeners in Germany. If by chance you encounter ET on his travels, give him a warm welcome for us, and do help him phone home. Nonetheless, it's getting quite late... I think it's about time we sign off for today. This has been your Nightly Norwich News Hour, we'll speak to you again tomorrow." Abruptly, the radio cut off, now replaced with static.

"Oh wow, that was... sudden," Jack commented. "The novelty of listening to aliens talk has started to wear off, honestly." He suddenly reeled back. "Wow, how's that for a sentence you never thought you'd say?"

Suddenly, Marine piped up. "Wait, Jack, are you even driving in the right lane?"

He swore and then swerved off the road into the dirt, quickly pressing down on the brake. "No, that was like... muscle memory or something."

Suddenly, a bright light appeared in the rear view mirror to the left. "Looks like you actually made the right choice," I said, as another car passed by in the lane that we had been in.

"So they drive on the same side of the road as us. I hope their road signs look similar to ours as well," Jack said as he maneuvered the car back onto the road. "I'm going to hazard a guess now that they do. They're designed to get the point across as effectively and wordlessley as possible, and I doubt that'd be any different here."

"So far, they've got better drivers than anyone I ever saw back home," Marine said. "Although, a sample size of one is a pretty narrow one to rely on."

"The results there could be a little skewed," Jack said as he began driving the truck down the road, close to where we had nearly been seen by the other car passing by earlier today. "So, what's the actual plan? Do we just drive north for a few days and then make a giant u-turn and come back? I guess to get us started on that, I'll drive along these little sideroads," he said, as he turned the truck from the main asphalt road onto a dirt one that we had probably walked down at some point. I noticed that he even used the turn signal - Jack was getting a hang of the truck pretty quickly.

"Do that. And yes, I think that'd probably work. We've got enough supplies to last us the week until the shuttle arrives. The main concern here is that we absolutely need to be at that radio tower when the shuttle is in orbit, or else the whole thing is screwed and we're done for." I sighed. "That's a pretty narrow angle of opportunity but it's the only one we've got. Now... the police here definitely have been notified that we stole one of their trucks. My guess is that they think we're either teenagers going for a joyride or criminals who are looking to resell this truck at some point. As such, they'll be keeping an eye on the main roads and all that for us, so we've got to try to stick to sideroads at all costs, boring as they may be. Unfortunately, from what we saw on top of that hill," I said, pointing towards the hill we had used to get a good vantage point of pretty much the whole area, "this place is fairly metropolitan."

I felt a sudden pain creep back into both of my wrists, but chose to ignore it for the time being. "Well, here's a thought. It was pretty dark when we crashed, right? Nobody at the crash site really got a good look at us. And... we saw earlier that this planet has devolved foxes living on it. Although I'm guessing, that probably extends to the rest of us." Jack shook his head. "Wow, I'm having trouble speaking. Anyways, earlier, when we nearly got run down in the street, those people simply saw bipedal versions of their wild animals running. Well, what I'm trying to say is that it's possible we looked like mascots or something, instead of actual aliens. To any alien looking at the broader situation, these would probably just seem like unrelated, isolated incidents. Their Air Force shoots down an aircraft, they find no aliens upon searching the wreck site, then later in the day a bunch of people see giant animals going about, and then a truck gets stolen from a mine, presumably by delenquints."