RIM OF THE WORLD

• [6] Later, Lou

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I shoot up out of my bed, Gabriel not far behind as a loud bang and a bunch of clatters wakes us.
"Sh!" I whisper, mouthing 'aliens' after. He nods and grabs my hand, pulling me from our bed and to the door. Before he could open it, Dariush swings it open with Alex and Zhenzhen behind him.

"We gotta go." Gabriel states, nodding at the group as if he was saying 'pack your shit we're moving'.

"Damn Croft, you gots sum legs." Dariush bites his lip as his eyes trail up and down my exposed skin.

"Come on, dude!" Gabriel whisper-shouts, standing protectively infront of me and slamming the door.

He turns around and glares at me, "put some pants on!"

"Yes dadd-"

"Don't say it." He grabs his bag and walks to the bathroom.

"DoN't sAY iT!" I repeat his words in a weird voice, flinging my arms about.
After I finish my hissy-fit, I grab a pair of jeans and a large hoodie that I found laying on the ground. I slipped some red high tops on my feet as well.

"You decent this time?" I hear through the bathroom door.

"Would it matter?"

He opens it and stops abruptly. "Is that.. my jumper?"

"Oh. I don't know, I found it on the floor. If you want it back I unde-"

"Nonononono. Keep it. You look cute." He smiles before returning to packing things in his bag.
I stand there - a blushing mess - and look down at my feet. Did he just call me cute? Awwww. I smile to myself before pulling myself together. I grab my backpack and sling it over my shoulder, opening the door and walking out into the kitchen.

"You guys ready?" I whisper shout as loud as I can, earning positive hums in response. Alex, Zhen, Dariush and Gabriel all stand in a circle, me in the middle.
"Let's go." I take my bow and arrow and keep it at the ready, I nod my head towards the door, signalling that they should go first.

My steps were almost impossibly silent, my bow always kept drawn. The group and I were creeping through the clothes lines that hung around Gabriel's place.
I swing my head around as I hear a noise from behind me, I tighten my grip on the weapon.
I walk closer and closer to the sound, until finally I see movement. I draw the bow to my chin, ready to release.
'Meow'
I exhale a breath and release my aiming grip on the bow, lowering it slightly. It was only a tabby cat. I sigh in relief and turn around to the group. Except, they weren't there.
"Guys?!" I whisper-shout. I run to where they just were, no one.
Shitty Titties.

"Lou!" I hear someone - Alex - cry out in relief. I follow the sound, but stop abruptly when I see guns pointed at the group. I crouch so I'm out of eye-shot and draw my bow again.

"Hold on, so you know this guy?" Gabriel shouts, walking towards the men in anger, but quickly get pushed back by the guns. Gabriel's head flicks around, he must be looking for me.
Finally,  his eyes land on me, I shake my head, trying to tell him to not show that I'm here. I think he gets the message.

"Do we know him? Hell yeah, we know him!" Dariush shouts, "we go way back!  Lou, my negro. You know me, we're like this," he puts his fingers close together, "I wanted to free... Alex was the one who was like 'leave him in there' and I was the one like 'dude, lets free him. Aight? He's a human!'" Dariush stumbles on his words. "Do you mind if you could just tell these handsome men, the ones... pointing the shot guns in our faces to, you know, not do that?"

Lou - or whatever his name is - nods to his boys, "Alright, I don't think anyone needs to get hurt tonight."

I let out a relieved breath of air, but never letting go of my drawn bow.

"But Alex," he continues, "Would you be so kind as to giving me that." Lou nods to the key hanging around Alex's neck.

"This is our only shot at defeating the aliens.." Alex explains.

"Yeah," Lou exhales, "That'll mean someone will pay a lot of money for it."

I tighten the grip of my bow, keeping it aimed straight for Lous chest. He walks towards the gang, "give me the key." He repeats.

"I can't." Alex says, dropping his arms and standing up taller while tucking the key in his shirt, "I made a promise."

"Alex, Alex give him he key. Enough, alright?" Dariush urges.

"You can give me the key and just.. walk away. Or I can cut your head off and take it from the stump." Lou growls this time, holding up a sharp knife. He walks faster towards Alex, but I shoot.

I exhale a breath and let go of the bow string, the arrow flies through the sky. It heads straight for the chest and hits it with impact. I load up another arrow from my quiver, already aiming at the two other men. All heads fling around to me as I charge towards them. But then, the alien jumps out of nowhere. His growl so ferocious that it makes my skin crawl.
"Run!" I shout, dragging whoever I could to start running,

I pant as we stop near the edge of a pool that has a large tarmac covering it. The boys try to find a way to escape, but there is a large fence covering our way of exit. I swing my head towards the other side of the pool when I notice Gabriel isn't there.

"Gabriel!" I shout, the boys and Zhenzhen start to shout too.

"Zhenzhen! Throw me the glow sticks!" He shouts back. My heart stops for a second, then continues to thump at an odd pattern. Nonononono.
Zhenzhen does as she's asked, and throws the glow socks over. I don't yell for him to come back over, it's like I'm frozen. All I can do is watch. Tears fill my eyes and my vision gets blurry.
I watch as Gabriel snaps the glow sticks to life, then waving them about and shouting at the monster. It's head snaps over to Gabriel, then it's body slowly follows.

Gabe runs into the tarmac, slipping every now and then. The monster crawls forward, following the glowing sticks. Then, Gabriel runs off the the mat just as the alien sinks due to its weight. I hit Gabriel in the arm, my brows furrowed.

"Ouch!"

I sniffle, then devour him in a hug.

"You wanker." I whimper, "You fucking scared me, Gabriel."

"It's okay, it's okay," he whispers into my hair, his hands combing through it, "I'm here now, I got you."

Dariush coughs to break up the moment, "we gotta go."

I wipe my tears and nod, running along with them.

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