On a ladder in front of one shop, an alien with an apron was fiddling with a sign, tying a knot with a thick cord. Then he pulled from his shirt a thin black rod, pointed it at the knot, and began to mutter. After a long moment, the knot changed from soft brown to a shiny jade.
“That!” Jeff whispered excitedly in her ear. “That’s what we need – a wand!”
Suzy ignored him, then stifled a gasp as a new alien appeared around the corner of the street riding on the back of a furry orange spider like the one they had seen on the news. She shuddered as its six legs carried it past her.
“We need to hurry back to everyone else. This is freaking me-” Suzy broke off. The spider had disappeared. A white Nissan was parked in its place, the alien rider now sitting on its roof. He leapt to the ground, shouting.
Across the bustling street, aliens screamed. A few ran for cover; others froze, confused. After a minute, a few began sidling toward the car, their thin black rods held out in front of them. One of them said a garbled word, and a ripple shot from the rod to the car.
The alarm went off.
Pandemonium erupted. Aliens scattered in every direction, running into each other, shouting. Through the cacophony, Suzy made out the distinctive clatter of wood on stone. She squinted at the bustling feet. “Jeff!” She whispered, pointing.
Someone had dropped a wand.
Beside her, she felt Jeff tense. “I’m going to get it,” he whispered.
“What? No!”
“Now or never,” he said, and began to stand. Suzy grabbed him and yanked him back down.
“No!” she started to say, when another voice shouted, “Thia! Kshumu!”
A wooden rowboat was just rounding a bend in the river upstream. Three warriors were sitting in it with a fourth standing at the prow, pointing his wand straight at her.
“Run!” Jeff yelled, leaping over the lip of the bank and onto the alien street.
Suzy jumped up after him. Across the street, aliens were recoiling in horror as Jeff ran straight for the Nissan, its alarm still blaring. He seemed to stumble as he drew close, dropping to one knee; then he was up again and running down a side street, past a little alien who clutched his lizard to his chest in fear.
“Jeff! Where are you going!?” She yelled through gritted teeth. He didn’t answer, and Suzy ran after him for all she was worth. Down narrow, cobbled streets, between rows of two-story wooden buildings, past alien after alien in their wraparound shirts and short pants.
The aliens stopped to stare; they screamed in alarm. Another alien on an orange spider almost fell off when Jeff spooked his mount coming around a corner. A two-headed dog roared out a challenge from an open window as Suzy passed. She gritted her teeth and kept running.
Once they were past the river street, the buildings became more spaced out, with long, high walls enclosing grounds around each one. Running down the streets between the walls like a rat in a maze, the orange sky pressing down from above, she felt a wave of claustrophobia.
And then, abruptly, as she followed Jeff around a corner, they were out of the maze. Jeff skidded to a stop.
They were standing on the edge of a field of close-cropped, bright blue grass. Spread out across the field were a number of white arches, like rounded soccer goals, maybe nine or ten feet tall. On the other side of the field was a low, wide building, next to which a handful of young-looking aliens were standing, chatting with each other.
“Whoa. That’s some BLUE grass.” Jeff wiped sweat off his forehead, gasping for breath. “Do you think that building is their school?”
“I don’t know,” Suzy panted. She raised a fist, wanting to punch Jeff, then let it drop. “Why did you bolt? I said ‘Let’s make our way back to the school.’ So you just run crazy all over their city? Do you even know how to get back to the school now? And did you do some good reconnaissance,” she made air quotes, “while you were running?”
“I’m sure we can find it. And yeah, actually, I DID do some reconnaissance. Plus,” he held up a hand to silence her, “I got this.”
Jeff was holding up a wand. It was about 10-inches long, black, slightly tapered, perfectly straight.
“What are-” she started to say, but then the alien kids across the field noticed them and started shouting.
Jeff took off running again.
“Not again!” She yelled and sprinted after him along the edge of the field.
To her side, the back walls of enclosed gardens streaked past. To her other side, she could see the blue field with the alien kids, who were still pointing and shouting. And ahead of her, trees.
Jeff reached the end of the field, and without a pause, he charged through the underbrush and out of sight into a dim forest. Suzy plowed through the bushes in his wake. After only a few feet, the undergrowth thinned, and she could run unobstructed. She could see Jeff a pace or two ahead of her. Narrowing her eyes, she put on a burst of speed, reached out, and grabbed his arm, pulling him to a stop.
“Stop!” she almost screamed. “Just STOP! We don’t know where we’re going, and you’re going to get us killed!”
They stood glaring at each other in the dimness under the trees, panting. After a minute, her breathing slowed. She looked around at the forest. “So now what?” she asked. “How do we get back to the school?”
