Transmission

Kevin wasn’t so sure it would be that easy. He hung up, calling Luna’s parents next since there was no way she would be able to do it without either stopping or crashing. He called her mom, then her dad, hearing the phone go through to voicemail each time.

“No answer,” he said.

Luna looked over at him. “Do you think that means—”

“Look out!” Kevin said, grabbing the wheel to pull them away from a knot of people who stepped onto the road to look at the sky. Their car skidded briefly, scraping along the side of the road before continuing on.

Luna fastened her grip on the wheel again, not saying anything now as she drove, faster and faster as her confidence grew. Kevin suspected that she should probably slow down a little, but he wasn’t going to be the one to tell her that right then, especially not when they still needed to get to his own mother.

It seemed to take forever before they pulled into Walnut Creek, and everything there seemed too quiet; eerily so. As Luna pulled the car up in front of Kevin’s house, it occurred to him that she shouldn’t have been able to. They should have been surrounded by reporters, all eager to photograph him doing something he shouldn’t be doing.

Instead, the street was empty.

“Where are they all?” Kevin wondered aloud.

“Do you want to be pestered by reporters?” Luna countered. “Probably they’re off covering everything that’s happening, or they decided to take cover. I would.”

“We will,” Kevin promised. Just as soon as they’d gotten their parents. “My mom should have seen us pull up.”

He went from the car over to the house, ringing the doorbell, and then banging on the door.

“Mom,” he shouted, “it’s not a reporter. It’s me, Kevin.”

He waited there for several seconds, not sure if the quiet was because his mother was hiding, or because it meant something more sinister. He dared to breathe a sigh of relief when he heard the click of the latch and the door started to open.

“Mom!” Kevin said, throwing his arms wide to hug her, not caring that it was an uncool thing to do. She stood there in front of him, smiling with her own arms open, looking safe, looking happy…

…Then Kevin saw her eyes, blank white and staring, and realized that his mother was grabbing, not hugging.

It was too late, he realized, a yawning pit opening up in his stomach.

The aliens had her.

CHAPTER TWENTY SIX

For a moment, Kevin just stood there, paralyzed by the grief he felt. He could feel tears starting to roll down his cheeks. They’d taken over his mom. They’d controlled her, like they’d controlled so many other people, but this was different, because it was his mom, not someone else. He felt angry, and sad, and guilty, all at once. He’d done this. He’d told them where to find the rock. He’d—

“Kevin, run!” Luna said, jerking him back from his mom.

He managed to jump back out of his mother’s grip, but she lurched forward after the two of them, breathing out the vapor that might convert them.

More figures came from the buildings all around, pouring from them in a way that said they’d been waiting for Kevin and Luna to arrive just so that they could do it. Some of them looked like reporters, with camera gear still strapped to them as they came for them. Kevin could see worse than that. Luna’s parents stood there, as blank-eyed and unseeing as the rest. The most terrifying thing was how normal they looked as they did it.

It was enough to send Kevin scrambling for the car. He made it as Luna took her place in the driver’s spot.

“Drive!” he yelled to Luna as he managed to fall into the passenger’s seat.

“Those… those are my parents,” Luna said, and despite her mask Kevin could see how pale her features were then, how upset she was.

“I know, Luna, but if we don’t get out of here, we’re going to end up like them, or worse.”

Luna looked over at him and Kevin could see the tears. Even so, Luna nodded, stepping on the gas pedal so the car lurched forward. Reporters bounced off the hood. Kevin was just grateful that it wasn’t Luna’s parents, even if the reporters got straight back up again.

They kept going more than a mile before they stopped, in the middle of a deserted lot where there was no sign of anyone. Luna turned off the engine and cried. Right then, Kevin knew how she felt. His mother was gone, taken by the aliens just like that. He’d tried to warn her. Had she not believed him, opened the door to someone? Had it just been too late?

Kevin didn’t know. Right then, it didn’t matter. His mom was gone, changed, and so were Luna’s parents. So was every adult they’d been able to trust. Dr. Levin. Ted. All of them were gone. The world felt like a much bigger, scarier place without them there to help.

He felt empty right then, in a way that made all the things he’d felt when he’d learned that he was going to die seem like nothing. Was this what his mother had felt, hearing that he was dying? This sense of loss?

“Promise me something,” Luna said between the tears. “Promise me that you won’t let me be like that.”