“I will make you,” Karuk said, his hands in his pockets.
He turned to Jenny. “Looks like he’s as dumb as you are. What part of You. Can’t. Touch. Me. Do you not understand?”
Jenny lunged forward with a large stick in her hand. “Don’t call me stupid!” She swung the heavy wooden stick at him.
Phil turned and caught it in his hand.
Just the opening that Karuk needed. He pulled his hands out, still covered in their gloves, and slammed his fist into Phil’s face.
It took one punch, and he was on the ground.
He shook his head. “I’m glad you did that, you dumb alien. Now I have all the proof I need that aliens are dangerous.” He pointed over his shoulder. “You didn’t even see the camera I put up in here months ago.”
Karuk and Jenny looked.
Sure enough, there was a small black dot on the wall.
Jenny screamed and came at him with her wooden stick. “How dare you, you worthless piece of shit! This is my home! Who do you think you are?”
Just then, the ground shook.
Jenny braced herself in the doorway. “Earthquake,” she said, dropping her heavy stick and hanging on.
Everything started shaking and Karuk crossed to the far side of her apartment, stepping over Phil.
He knew that sensation, and he was pretty certain it wasn’t an earthquake. He’d felt it enough times in his life, he could count the rhythm of it.
He pulled back the curtains, and light poured into the apartment. Light that seemed to have no origin, but snow and ice flew everywhere.
“That’s not a quake,” he said. He turned to Jenny. “They found me.”
“Who?” Jenny asked, crossing to the window.
“Vorjan House.”
14
“How did they find you?” Jenny asked, staring out her patio doors into the courtyard of the apartment complex. “And how in the hell are they landing in the middle of the courtyard?”
She said that as she watched, basically nothing, blow snow and debris up and around, but nothing was there. It was the craziest thing she’d ever seen. If she didn’t know better, she’d think it was some kind of gustnado or something equally crazy weather-related.
“Carefully, I would imagine,” Karuk said. The lights were visible, and the snow flew around like some kind of crazy rave, but then the lights stopped. Everything settled down, and it got quiet.
Too quiet.
Not even the nighttime noise could be heard.
Phil got up and started coming over to the window. “What is it?”
A singular square light appeared.
Out came four beings.
All of them built like Karuk, wearing armor and carrying weapons.
“Aliens! It’s aliens,” Phil cried out.
Karuk turned his head. Phil took a step backward. Still, he didn’t get far before Karuk punched him again in the face, this time sending him to the ground, unconscious.
