The Watcher [Alien Nation #1]

Chapter 21

The alien was getting impatient. It paced up and down between her and Josh's struggling form, turning to hiss at her occasionally, making indecipherable gestures with its head that made its single horn flash in the afternoon light.

It was waiting, seeing how blue Josh's face would have to get, how much his eyes would have to bulge, before she couldn't bear it.

Jules set her jaw and held the data core close. The alien was going to have a long wait, in that case.

On the ground behind her, Erri's breathing was slowing, deepening, from the frantic wheeze it had been a minute ago. If he could stand, maybe Josh would have a chance.

Without warning, the alien made a lunge for Jules. She clutched the data core tighter to her chest as she flinched, and the alien stalked off, hissing and clicking to itself. It didn't dare get too close, though, on account of the pistol she'd taken from Erri's second holster that Jules had aimed at it. The Zenith was too heavy to hold in one hand. She wasn't sure if the bullet would even pierce the alien's exoskeleton—but it didn't have to know that.

The alien seemed to decide on a new tactic. It turned to its subordinate and spat a few growled words, then turned to Jules. Waiting, watching.

Josh let out a gurgle as the second alien actually hoisted him off the ground by the neck and gave him a shake, his legs flailing as he scrabbled at the hard flesh of the alien's arm.

Jules covered her mouth to muffle her sob as the alien's claws went right through his throat.

Stars above, that alien soldier actually looked surprised that its talons had pierced the soft flesh of Josh's neck. The last thing she saw before her eyes blurred with tears was the soldier looking at the blood dripping from its hands before the leader floored it with a punch to the jaw and started laying into it with hisses and shrieks and whistles and clicks as the soldier just sat there, accepting its commander's rage.

She should be feeling some of that rage, too. She should shoot the aliens right now, make them bleed like they made Josh bleed, if they had blood to spill.

Instead, she sat on the beach and watched the sand turn red.