Arrival. Морган Райс

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СКАЧАТЬ kind of worry. Should they be helping, rather than hesitating? He spotted a picture of a camera down in the corner of one of the screens. He pressed it, and now the screens lit up with images from security cameras around the deserted base.

      “That one,” Luna said, pointing to one of the images as if Kevin didn’t know how to pick one out from the rest. “Here, let me.”

      She pressed a button, and the image came to fill the screen.

      Kevin didn’t know what he’d been expecting. A horde of people controlled by the aliens, maybe. Some soldier who knew about the base and had fought his way across the country to get there. Not a girl their age, holding what looked like the remains of a signpost and banging it against the door in a steady rhythm.

      She was athletic and dark-haired, her hair cut short and a stud through her nose as if daring the world to say anything about it. Kevin could see that her features were pretty, very pretty, he thought, but with a tough edge to them that suggested she wouldn’t appreciate being called that. She was wearing a dark hooded top with a leather jacket over it that seemed a couple of sizes too big, ripped jeans, and hiking boots. She had a small rucksack, like she was just on the mountain for the hiking, but the rest of her looked more like a runaway, her clothes streaked with enough dirt that she could have been out there for weeks before the aliens came.

      “I don’t like this,” Luna said. “Why is there just one girl out there, trying to get in?”

      “I don’t know,” Kevin said, “but we should probably let her.”

      That made sense, didn’t it? If she was asking for help, then they should at least try to, shouldn’t they? The girl was looking up at the screen now, and although there didn’t seem to be any sound, she didn’t look happy at being left out there.

      Luna pressed something and now they could hear her, microphones picking up her words.

      “…to let me in! There are still those things out here! I’m sure of it!”

      Kevin found himself looking past her on the screen, and sure enough, he thought he could make out the signs of people there, moving with the odd purposelessness that suggested the aliens had them.

      “We should let her in,” Kevin said. “We can’t just leave someone out there.”

      “She’s not wearing a mask,” Luna pointed out.

      “So?”

      Luna shook her head. “So if she’s not wearing a mask, how is the alien vapor not converting her? How do we know that she isn’t one of them?”

      As if in answer to that, the girl on the screen moved closer to the camera, staring straight up into it.

      “I know there’s someone in there,” she said. “I saw the camera move. Look, I’m not one of them, I’m normal. Look at me!”

      Kevin looked into her eyes. They were wide and brown, but most importantly, the pupils were normal. Not shifted to pure white the way the scientists’ had been when the vapor from the rock had claimed them, or the way his mother’s had been when he’d gone home…

      “We have to let her in,” Kevin said. “If we leave her out there, the controlled people will get her.”

      Sure enough, Kevin could see figures in military uniform moving forward, moving in unison, obviously under the aliens’ control.

      He ran for the airlock and used the key Dr. Levin had given him to open it. Beyond, the girl was there waiting, while the former soldiers were closing in now, breaking into a run.

      “Quick, inside!” Kevin said. He pulled the girl inside the airlock, because there was no time to waste. He went to pull the door closed, knowing that they would be safe the moment it was there between them and the controlled who advanced on the base.

      It didn’t budge.

      “Help me,” Kevin shouted to her, hauling on the door and feeling the solidity of the steel beneath his hands. The girl grabbed hold of it with him, pulling at the door, throwing her weight back to try to move it.

      A little way away, the former soldiers were advancing at a run, and it was all Kevin could do to keep his attention on the door, not on them. It was the only way he could keep his terror at bay and focus on throwing his own weight back, pulling at the door.

      Finally, it gave way, grinding into motion as they dragged it closed. Kevin heard the echo of it as it slammed, locking with a click that rang around the airlock.

      “Decontamination Procedure Starting,” an electronic voice said, the way it had when Kevin and Luna had first arrived. There was the rush of the air being cleaned by the bunker’s filters around them.

      “Hi, I’m Kevin,” he said. He suspected that there should be something more dramatic to say at a moment like this, but he couldn’t think of it.

      The girl was silent for a moment or two, then seemed to realize that Kevin might be expecting an answer. “I’m Chloe.”

      “It’s good to meet you, Chloe,” Kevin said.

      She looked at him quietly, as though assessing him, and seemed almost ready to run. “Yeah, I guess.”

      The other door to the airlock clicked open. Luna was waiting for them, smiling her most welcoming smile, even though she’d been the one arguing against letting Chloe in.

      “Hello,” Luna said. She held out a hand. “I’m Luna.”

      Chloe stared at it, then shrugged without taking it.

      “This is Chloe,” Kevin said for her.

      Chloe nodded in not very enthusiastic agreement, looking around warily.

      “Where is everyone?” she demanded at last.

      “There’s no everyone,” Luna replied. “There’s just us. Me and Kevin.”

      She stepped over next to Kevin as if to emphasize that they were a team. She even put a hand on his shoulder.

      “Just you two?” Chloe said. She sat down on one of the command center’s chairs, shaking her head. “All this way, and it’s just you two?”

      “Where have you come from?” Kevin asked.

      “That doesn’t matter,” Chloe said, not looking at them.

      “I think it kind of matters a bit,” Luna shot back. “I mean, you’ve shown up out of nowhere, and you’re asking us to trust you.”

      Chloe looked over sharply, shrugged again, and then walked out of the room. Kevin went after her, mostly because he suspected that if Luna went after her there might be some kind of argument, and also because there was something intriguing about Chloe. There were so many things they didn’t know about her.

      “You don’t need to follow me,” Chloe said, looking back as Kevin followed her along one of the corridors.

      “I thought I could show you round,” Kevin said. “You know… if you want.”

      Chloe shrugged once more. There seemed to be nuances to her shrugs, and it seemed that this one meant okay. Kevin СКАЧАТЬ