Hybrid: The Awakening

Chapter 17-Tristen

Date on Earth: Sunday, October 8

A beeping noise woke me up, and I rubbed my eyes tiredly. The day before had been exhausting, and I may or may not have reached my breaking point. I passed out the moment my head had hit the ground, thankfully managing to get some much needed sleep.

It took a moment for my vision to adjust. The rest of the group was already awake, Diana and Asher watching Tesha in apprehensiveness. I sat up and widened my eyes as a small hologram appeared above her sleeve.

Scooting closer, I tried to get a better look at it. Recognition came across me as its face came into view.

It was the Axone that had helped us rescue Diana, Lyzel.

The Axone looked fidgety, constantly looking away from whatever he was using to record.

"Tesha and her friends," Lyzel said. "I do not have a lot of time, but I hope this warning will reach you."

Warning?

"General Inugio has been creating multiple plans from the start," he continued. "His original idea was to lure the Chosen ones in with the captured girl, and trap them there. However, he knew that there was a possibility that the mission w-would f-f-fail s-"

The projection glitched and froze before disappearing.

"What happened?" I said, voice hitching at the end.

"We do not have good connection here on Earth," Tesha responded, popping the lower arm part of her armor off.

Diana groaned loudly. "So bad WiFi is a problem for aliens now too?"

"I do not know what 'WiFi' is," Tesha said, "but thankfully this is an easy fix. If I remember correctly, there is a button somewhere on the communication device that acts as backup, in case the other person is out of range. It uses a different method to send urgent messages."

She flipped over the armor piece and traced her finger along it.

"You know what button it is?" I asked her as she stared at it for a while. There were at least ten buttons situated on the back. Tesha frowned and shook her head.

"Why don't you just press all the buttons?" Asher pitched in. "One is bound to be right."

"That will not work," Tesha said. "If I press the wrong button, I might delete the message. But thank you for the idea."

"No problem," said Asher, but he sighed in frustration and sat down. Useless ideas were not going to solve the problem at hand.

I laid back down on my makeshift bed and closed my eyes, feeling the urge to fall back into the peacefulness of sleep.

While I was asleep, there were no aliens. No creepy ancient artifacts that I was apparently the host for.

There was no fear, something that I had way too much of for the last couple of days. Or weeks. I couldn't keep track anymore.

It was a miracle I hadn't had a panic attack yet, something that always seemed to sneak up on me at the least expected times. I had learned methods and tricks to keep myself calm, and it actually helped prevent them.

But with everything that had been happening recently, I didn't know how much longer my streak would last.

Especially with how close I was to breaking down yesterday. It was strange how running away from the cops had affected me more than running away from aliens, but I had to do breathing exercises the whole time I drove to keep myself from hyperventilating.