Terrestrial Alien ✔

Chapter 70: Escape Area 51

Trigger warning for guns.

⁠—

The room is a storm of glass, and Joshua stands in the center of it with his monster, cradling that deadly face in his hands.

"Let's get out of here..." He says to Sundo, and he spares a glance around them. "Now."

He releases him, stepping back as the alien tests his unsteady footing on the disordered table. Before he can slip, Sundo bounds off of the table, padding onto the ground beside Joshua with his tail curling behind him.

The sound of glass under-heel cracks behind Joshua, and he whips around with a start, his hand grabbing for Sundo's pelt.

It's Marlowe. Paralyzed in the doorway, face and neck littered with bloody cuts, lab coat shining with glass under the fluorescent strip above them. Their foot is backed to inch away from Joshua and Sundo, a silent retreat, but the broken window betrayed them.

Marlowe stares at Joshua like he's a stranger they're just understanding for the first time. When they look to Sundo, their expression twists into something between queasiness and fear. It's jarring when compared to the excitement with which they'd approached him about his alienness before.

Caught by both Joshua and Sundo, Marlowe swallows, smoothing shaky hands over their lab coat. They spend a great deal staring at Sundo, unable to tear their gaze away.

Gesturing an unsteady hand, they stammer as they ask, "S-so, he... he turns inside-out."

Joshua is caught off-guard. Of all the things, it's not what he expected Marlowe to say.

A jittery, almost hysterical laugh bubbles up behind his sternum, and he has to wrestle it down before it makes its way out. He presses his lips together, and he can't stop himself from sparing an amused glance to Sundo. He's really never thought of it that way before.

"In a way, yeah," he grants in a musing sort of way.

He threads his other hand into the dark hair behind the alien's ear and feels his own heart rate trip. He doesn't quite know whose boundaries he's testing with this: The monster's or his own.

The creature gives him a sideways glance, rumbling something in his throat. He doesn't sound annoyed, but Joshua lets go immediately anyway, face feeling warm and heart speeding in his chest.

Marlowe doesn't say anything more right away like Joshua expects, and a beat of weighted, awkward silence stretches thin amongst them. The time crunch presses in on Joshua again, and he glances from Sundo to Marlowe to the door behind Marlowe.

Sundo catches his eyes again and tilts his mask-like face to the side, giving Joshua a pressing look.

"I know, I know..." He mutters to him, before looking to Marlowe again. Apprehensively, "Marlowe, we need to go."

It occurs to him that he really doesn't know if the renegade assistant is going to try and stop them or not. He hopes they won't, he feels deep down that they won't, but then... can he really trust that feeling?

He has no illusions as to the nature of Marlowe's divided loyalties. They've always been a wild card. And here they stand, blocking the way out.

When it comes down to it, where does this assistant's loyalty truly lie?

Marlowe looks as though they've been expecting this, and a bit of that queasiness has returned. They hold their arms around themself, gripping their sleeves in their hands.

"I know."

Joshua takes a slow step forward, his brow tense. "Then you're going to have to let us pass."