11 Hours

30 Minutes After

I woke up to everything around me on fire. To people crying and screaming for help. I looked over to the right of me and noticed my friends weren't there. I looked up above me and noticed a piece of the ceiling was about to fall on top of me. I quickly rolled over in the debris to the left of me and barely missed it. I sighed and slowly sat up straight. I looked at my arms and noticed there was blood and cuts all over them. Then I looked down and saw that my right leg had a huge gash going down the bottom of my thigh. I sighed then got up off the ground. I looked over to the left of me and saw someone just lying there with a metal rod through their neck. I stepped over the dead body and managed to find my way outside of the building. The only difference between outside and inside is that it was dark inside and it was bright outside. But I then noticed that the big sphere was parked right in front of our school. I suddenly saw a big, green, skinny thing with wings that had midnight blue spikes on the perimeter of them, peek from the opening of the sphere. It leaped out of the sphere and started to dart towards me. My eyes grew wide and I sprinted towards the forest behind the school. As I was running someone pulled my shirt and jerked me down to the ground behind a large pile of broken bricks. I looked over and I immediately recognized the guy.
" You...." I said.
" I know we got off on the wrong foot but I couldn't let you die like the rest of my friends," he said.
   I smiled and nodded my head. Suddenly his eyes got big and he opened his mouth, but before a word could slip out, a sharp, green, arm went right through his chest and came out of the other side of his body with his heart dangling from the tip of the arm. I gasped and slowly turned around. That big, green thing was right behind me. I screamed and grabbed one of the bricks from the pile behind me and threw it at the green thing's head. I quickly got up and darted towards the forest. I looked back and the green thing started making a high-pitched noise and took its arm from out of the guy's chest and ran towards me. I began to run faster, but I could hear the green thing's footsteps grow louder and louder. I looked back and he was right behind me with his arm out reaching for my head. I turned back around and saw a tree and I darted for it and leaped behind it landing in a pile of leaves and dirt. I scooched away from where I landed so the monster wouldn't hear me. I could hear it standing by the tree, growling softly. I tried to slow down my breathing so it wouldn't hear me. I suddenly stopped hearing the monster's growl. So I slowly scooted over to the other side of the tree and then someone popped up from the other side of the tree. I punched the person in the face before trying to see who it was.
" Ouch!" they yelled.
I looked at the person then gasped.
" Bryson?" I said.
" Alex?" he said covering his nose.
" Sorry about your nose," I said.
He rolled his eyes and nodded his head.
" Can't blame you," he said.
I sighed and put my hand on my forehead.
" Something wrong?" he asked.
" Yeah...everything," I said.
He sighed and sat next to me.
" What happened?" he asked.
" Some green thing was chasing me," I said.
Bryson looked at me as if I were insane.
" What?" he said.
" Yeah, I woke up in the school and then I see some green thing, then someone saves me but the green thing killed him," I said.
" Who was the person?" he asked.
I sighed and put my hand on his knee.
" It was one of your friends," I said.
Bryson stood up and looked at me in disbelief.
" You're kidding," he said.
" No, the monster thing stabbed him in his chest," I said.
   Bryson dropped the ground and buried his face in his knees. I started to hear quiet sobbing coming from him. I rolled my eyes and softly rubbed his back. He lifted his head from his knees and looked up at me.
" Why?" he asked.
" Why what?" I said as I continued to rub his back.
" Why are you doing....that?" he asked.
I looked over at my hand on his back and I slowly removed it.
" Sympathy," I said.
" Well you shouldn't have any for me," he said.
" Because you screwed me over like you've done to every girl in our school?" I asked.
" Yeah, exactly that," he said.
I sighed and got up off the ground. Bryson looked up at me while resting his head on the tree.
" We can't stay here forever, the green things will find us," I said.
" What green thing are you talking about?" he asked.
" The monster that killed your friend," I said.
Bryson put his hand on his chin and looked at me confusingly.
" It was like a giant grasshopper that stood on its hind legs, and it had green wings that were almost transparent," I said.
" I'm glad I haven't encountered it yet."
I quickly knocked on the tree next to me. Bryson looked at the tree then at me.
" The heck was that for?" he asked.
" You could jinx yourself, or even worse you could jinx us," I said.
He rolled his eyes and got up off the ground. I sighed and looked around the forest that we were in.
" So what are we going to do?" I asked.
" Run for our lives," said Bryson.
" And then what?" I asked.
He looked to his left and right and shrugged his shoulders.
" I dunno...run some more," he said.
" No, we need to do something about them," I said.
" Excuse me?!" he said.
" What? I am not gonna live my life running from the grasshopper aliens." I said.
" May I remind you that we just got back from saving the freaking world, and now you wanna save it again?" he said.
" Well, what else are we gonna do, sit around and wait to be eaten?" I said.
   He sighed and shook his head.
" No but I don't wanna save the world again," he said.
   I sighed and started to think about ways to drive these grasshoppers away. Then I remembered that Robert gave us wristbands to contact him if we were in trouble. I looked down at my wrist sighed in relief. Thank god I wore it to school. I double tapped on the screen, then I pressed the phone icon and pressed Robert's name.
" Why are you calling Robert?" Bryson asked.
" For help, maybe he knows about this," I said.
" Yeah, maybe he can do the job for us," he said.
I turned and looked at Bryson, then shook my head.
" Yeah, you're right," he said.
Robert finally picked up.
" Ye-llo," said Robert.
" Robert, it's Alex and Bryson....we need your help." I said.
" Jesus Christ, I didn't expect you to call me this fast." he laughed.
" Hey, set it to 3-D mode so we can see a 3-D version of him and he can see one of us," said Bryson.
I looked at my watch then I saw a button that said "3-D" in the right-hand corner of the screen so I pressed it.
The watch projected a blue screen then it transformed into a blue 3-D image of Robert.
" Can you see us?" I asked.
" Yeah.....why are you guys in the woods?" he asked.
" Well, that's kinda why I called," I said.
" Yep, some grasshopper aliens decided to come down here, blow our school up and take over the world," said Bryson.
" You know what...I think I heard about that. One of my guards recently informed me about it." said Robert.
" So why aren't you doing anything about it?" Bryson asked.
" Because I was waiting for you guys to call," he said.
Bryson and I rolled our eyes.
" Well I can help you on how to stop them, but I can't give you any weapons to kill them," he said.
" Spill Carter," said Bryson.
" According to my handy-dandy digital map they parked their ship right in front of your school," he said.
" Yeah, we already know that," I said.
" Well it's also their headquarters, and it's where they are making more of them," he said.
" Gross dude, they are literally smashing inside their ship," said Bryson.
" No, they're not smashing they are genetically modified, and they are literally making more with a high-tech machine," said Robert.
" What the-," I said.
" So how do we stop them?" Bryson asked.
" You need to go inside the ship, shut down the machine that's making more of them, and somehow convince them to fly back to their planet," he said.
" C'mon dude, how are gonna convince monster hoppers to fly back to their planet?" Bryson asked.
" Well dude it's either that or blow up the ship with you in it," Robert said.
I sighed then nodded my head.
" Well thanks for your help Robert, we've got it from here," I said.
Robert nodded his head, then the 3-D display cut off and went back into my watch.
   Bryson softly shoved me and threw his hands up.
" We've got it from here?!" said Bryson.
" What?" I said.
" We most definitely don't got it from here!" he said.
I sighed and rolled my eyes.
   I pressed my back up against the tree behind me and slowly slid down it. I looked up and noticed Bryson was awkwardly rubbing the back of his neck.
" You alright?" I asked.
His eyes got big and he quickly put his arm against his side.
" Y-yeah, why did you think something isn't ok?" he asked nervously.
I chuckled and sighed.
Bryson put his hand on his forehead and sighed.
" So, I guess this is like another mission," said Bryson.
I pressed my lips together as I turned and looked at him.
" So since we're here....together, we should probably talk about--"
" I'd rather not Bryson. We are in the middle of a crisis." I interrupted.
" Yeah, but that green, monster thing is gone," he said.
I rolled my eyes, but I suddenly saw a green, pointy arm pop from around the tree. I leaped up and nervously looked at Bryson.
" Bryson, walk towards me slowly," I whispered.
" Why?" he asked.
   The green, grasshopper alien leaped from around the corner screaming in a high-pitched noise. It sounded like a siren, but without the beautiful singing effect.
   I quickly grabbed a heavy log off the ground and swung it over my shoulder.
" Duck!" I yelled.
   Bryson swooped to the ground as the alien leaped over him. I quickly held onto the log and whacked the alien in the head. It let out a horrific cry as it fell to the ground. I dropped the log and slowly crept over to the unconscious creature. I heard footsteps behind me rummaging through the leaves. I turned my head and saw Bryson creeping behind me with a relatively thick stick in his hand.
" What are you doing?" I asked.
" That thing could still be alive. If it is, I will attempt to stab it with this stick," he replied.
I shook my head and continued to walk towards the alien. I stopped in my tracks and turned around facing Bryson.
" Why'd you stop? We gotta make sure that thing's dead," he said.
" Well....you have the stick--"
" And you assume that I'm gonna make sure it's dead?!" he said.
I looked at him and folded my arms.
" I am behind you for a reason," he said.
I snatched the stick out of Bryson's hand and crept towards the alien. As I came upon the monster, I looked at it in its cold, black eyes. Bryson put his hand on my shoulder and squeezed it.
" I know this is scary....but we don't have all day," he said.
   I scoffed at Bryson and smacked his hand off my shoulder. I slowly bent over and pointed the stick at the corner of the alien's head. I quickly poked its head and jumped back onto Bryson. He wrapped his arms around my waist as a natural reflex. The alien didn't move, so I tossed the stick to the ground. I looked down and realized Bryson's hands were still grasped around my waist. He must have seen me looking down at his hands because he suddenly let go and cleared his throat.
" So....it's dead. What do we do now?" he asked.
I glared at the alien then turned around.
" We need to get to their ship," I said.
" Well, we are at the edge of the forest, we can just walk there," he said.
   I squinted my eyes as I glared at Bryson.
" We can't just walk there Bryson."
I turned around and looked at the ship through the opening between the trees.
" We need an actual plan," I said.
" Well, now that you say that....do you have a plan?" he asked.
I put my hands on my hips and looked everywhere but him.
" Of course you don't have a plan." he sighed.
I looked at him and ran my tongue through the inside of my mouth.
" What do you mean by that exactly?" I asked.
" Well the same thing happened the other day....you suggested having a plan yet you didn't have one," he said.
" Well just because I suggest it doesn't mean I have to have one," I snapped back.
   Bryson rolled his eyes and picked up the stick that I threw to the ground and began to walk deeper into the forest. I quickly yanked a branch from off a tree and followed him.
" Where do you think you're going?" I asked.
" Into the forest." He replied.
I grabbed the back of his shirt and pulled him back towards me. He smacked my hand off of him and looked at me angrily.
" What now?!" He asked.
I folded my arms and sighed.
" I am not going to follow you into the forest without knowing why you're going into it," I said.
" I never asked you to come with me."
Bryson turned back around and headed towards the forest. I huffed and followed him.
" Knew you would follow me." He chuckled.
I scoffed at his little comment.
" Well, I think we should find camp somewhere." He said.
Then he spun around and pulled me closer to him and whispered into my ear.
" Then we can finally talk about us," he said.
I rolled my eyes and pushed him off of me.
" Don't play hard to get brown," he said. " That's a game you'll never win."
   As much as I hated it, Bryson gave me butterflies. I didn't wanna have feelings towards him because it felt so wrong, but the more and more I deny my feelings for him it felt even more wrong.
" You ok Brown? You're awfully quiet," he said.
" Peachy," I replied.
He laughed then ran his fingers through his hair. I loved it when he ran his fingers through his hair. Probably because I wanna run my fingers through his hair.

" Kay Brown looks like we have found ourselves camp," he said pointing to the left of him.
There was an old, run-down, wooden, two-story house in front of a ton of trees. And in front of it, there was a fire pit.
" Cosy," I said.
" Hey, this is the best we've got Brown," he said.
   We walked over to the entrance of the house and slowly pushed the door open. It was surprisingly clean inside the house. There was a kitchen on the far right side of the house with a yellow table with two seats in front. There was one room on the bottom floor and another on the top floor. I checked out the one on the top floor and Bryson checked out the room on the bottom. There was a master bed in the room I was in with a red and black, floral comforter on it. It had an old TV propped up on the dresser. I noticed that there was another door near the dresser. I slowly walked through it and I saw a sink, toilet, and a glass shower.
" Sweet," Bryson said.
I screamed, spun around, then punched Bryson in the stomach.
" Sorry Brown, I forgot how scary you are," he said while his arms were around his stomach.
   He gave me a side smirk then winked at me. I felt my face getting hot and sweat began to form. Bryson chuckled then put his hand on my face and cupped my cheeks.
" You're so adorable when you blush," he said.
   I rolled my eyes and walked out of the bathroom. I plopped onto the bed and laid down. Bryson walked over to the other side of the bed and laid beside me.
" So we sharing or what?" he asked.
I quickly sat up and looked at him.
" You are hilarious for even asking that," I said.
" I just wanna make sure you're safe at all times, Brown," he said.
   He put his hand on my thigh then sat up. Bryson put his right arm around my waist and moved me closer to him and used his left arm to grab my leg and put it on his.
" You're leg," he said.
" Yeah....I woke up and it was like that." I said.
He sighed and slowly rubbed my leg.
" We need to treat this," he said.
He got up off the bed and walked over to the door.
" Stay here," he said sternly.
   I nodded my head then he walked downstairs. I suddenly heard the door shut. I began to wonder why he went outside.
    A couple of minutes later Bryson came back inside and walked back up to the bedroom with a pile of wet leaves in his hands.
" What are those for?" I asked.
He put the leaves on the bed and sat in front of me.
" I watched a movie, and this girl healed someone's wounds using leaves," he said.
He began to grab one leaf at a time and placed them on top of my gash.
" Hopefully by morning you will be a little better," he said.
I looked at Bryson and smiled.
" Who knew you were such a doctor," I said.
He looked up at me then back down at my leg. He got up off the bed and walked out of the bedroom. I sighed then dozed off to sleep.

I woke up to soft lips pressed up against my cheek. I opened my eyes and Bryson was standing there hovering over me.
" I found some berries while you were sleeping, and killed two squirrels," he said.
   I was still half asleep so I just nodded my head. Bryson smiled then put one arm up under my legs then the other behind my back, and picked me up off the bed. I quickly wrapped my arms around him and rested my head on his shoulder.
" You're so cute," he whispered.
" What?" I said.
" You heard me Brown." he chuckled.
   Bryson carried me outside and sat me on one of the logs sitting around the firepit.
" What are you doing?" I asked.
" Well, it's time to start preparing dinner," he said.
I looked up at the sky and noticed the sun was going down.