“Stay here, let me show you something,” said Darren, while standing up and walking to the table to grab some papers.
Jacob stood up quickly as Darren walked back towards him, losing his balance, and falling back onto the sofa, as wave of light headedness overtook him.
“Wow kid, you better take’er easy. We found you near death on that rooftop,” said a large bearded man as he made his way over from the table.
“Jacob, this is Orm a friend of mine, and over there is Dawn.” Said Darren as he gestured over to a woman still intently focused on the papers on the table.
Briefly looking up and over from her work at the table. Dawn looked at Jacob and gave him a quick nod before returning to her task.
“You’ll warm up to her,” said Orm, as he held out his large hand for Jacob to shake. “Either way, pleased to finally meet ya kid. You have been out for over a day; wasn’t sure you were gonna make it for a while there,” Orm continued while firmly shaking Jacobs hand.
“Nice to meet you too,” said Jake.
“Better get that out,” said Orm, as he turned Jacobs, seemingly tiny hand over to better see the IV.
“I will let you take care of that. Meet you guys at the table,” said Darren as he walked back across the room.
“He never did have a stomach for this,” said Orm, followed by a chuckle. “This will take a second. You can turn away if needles and such make ya queasy.”
Sitting on the table in front of Jacob, Orm took off his small backpack and placed it beside him before pulling a small first aid bag from the sack. Turning around as Orm began to clean the area and remove the IV, Jacob again focused on the couple still sleeping behind him for comfort.
“Ah, I forgot to introduce you to our hosts. Back there is Tom and Maggie, they own this place and were kind enough to offer us refuge. Poor fellers have been up for days, good to see they are finally getting some rest.” Said Orm, as he finished taking out the IV and put a small bandage over the site.
“Is it done?” Asked Jacob, as he cautiously turned around.
“Yeah, all good kid,” said Orm with another low chuckle. “C’mon Darren wants to show ya something.” Orm continued, as he tapped Jacob on the leg before standing and making his way to the table.
Slowly standing up to ensure he had his footing, Jacob stood paused for a moment before he felt confident enough to make the walk over to the table. Standing beside Orm and Darren, Jacob looked at the scattered maps and photographs laying over the tabletop. Darren nudged Jacob on the arm, before handing him a picture of the ring orbiting Issa. Staring at the photo in amazement for a moment, Jacob focused on the close-up image of the strange ring. Finding Teros in the distance background of the photo, he observed in amazement at the scale of the object. Even in the highly magnified grainy picture, the buildings and city lights lining the inner surface of the ring were evident.
“That photo was taken at the observatory outside of town the night before the invasion” Said Darren.
“Is that their... Is that them?” Asked Jacob.
“We believe so kid,” said Orm, as he handed Jacob more photos of the ring.
“It’s like they have a whole city built in that thing,” said Jacob.
“Yeah, it's pretty wild,” said Darren, in a low voice.
“Why are they taking people?” Asked Jacob, as he continued to look through photos.
“Can’t say for sure, but they only seem take the young and healthy,” said Darren.
“What do they do with the others?”
“I think you already know the answer to that,” said Dawn, joining into the conversation as she looked up from the maps she was drawing on.
Dawn stared across the table at Jacob for a moment while tapping her pencil on the table, with a look that cut right through him as if she were analysing his very soul. Uncomfortable, Jacob began to look down at the table and move some of the pictures around. As if he was looking for a specific one. Laughter suddenly started filling the awkward silence, as Dawn, Orm and Darren all busted out and started chucking at once.
“I’m just messing with you kid,” said Dawn, as she reached over the table to shake Jacobs hand.
Looking up from the table towards a now smiling face, Jacob felt the tention ease as he took Dawns hand. Feeling a warm blush across his face, Jacob was a little embarrassed at the situation as he felt Orms hand on his shoulder.
“Told ya you would warm up to her,” said Orm, as he gave Jacobs shoulder a comforting squeeze.
“Okay guys, now that we are all acquainted, we really need to get moving. Should be dark enough by now, and if we make good time, we can be out of the city by sunrise,” said Darren.
“Where are we going?” Said Jacab.
“Dawn has spent a lot of time in these mountains Kid, says she’s seen a military base built into the hills north of here. If we can make it there, we should be safe.” Said Orm.
“Yeah... I just hope it’s still there, so we can get help and get back in this fight. You know join the resistance or something like that,” said Darren.
“Alright, enough of that talk, someone needs to go and wake Tom and Maggie.” Said Dawn as she laid a large map of the city and surrounding area over the table.
Tracing out a path through the city, Dawn showed Jacob the plan to make it to the river and follow it up into the mountains towards the base, marked by a pencilled in ‘X’ deep in the forest.
“There is a small mining operation here nobody in town knows about. Its military, I remember seeing it last summer
