High School Terrans
Chapter 22

Across town, Dan arrived sitting in his car parking it behind Morgan’s across from a two story office building. The street was completely deserted where there wasn’t even a car that had driven by for the last ten minutes. He thought back having still seen all of the anti Terran protesters rallying across the street from the school.

“I thought they would have quit by now,” he said.

“Nope, they are still in full force,” Nicholas replied. “The only way to stop them is fight fire with fire.”

“You feel like you are interested, Dan?” Morgan asked.

Dan took a second look across the street and took a look back at the other Terran students some with their heads down walking through the front entrance of the school.

“I will do whatever I can to help.”

“Good, meet us tonight,” Morgan said, nodding. “I will text you the address.”

Dan soon received a text message from Morgan about where they were to meet. They all got out of their cars walking towards each other standing looking at their target.

“What is this place?′ Dan asked.

“This is one of their headquarters for their group,” Morgan answered. “All you have to do is unlock the doors and we can get inside. Once we’re in we can replace out all the names of anti-Terran sympathizers and flush them out.”

“Okay, sounds simple enough.”

They all walked over to the door where Dan intently concentrated on the lock hearing a small click.

“Good job,” Tyler said, patting him on the back.

They all got inside where Tyler went straight to the nearest computer firing it up.

“It’s password protected, figured as much, but that shouldn’t be a problem.”

Tyler placed his hand on the hard drive as the monitor sped through hundreds of letter combinations until the desktop suddenly appeared. The glow of the computer’s monitor was the only light that shined amid the darkness as they stood watching Tyler pull up a file listing the names of the all anti-Terran volunteers who had joined. They quickly turned their heads hearing a creak from the front door opening.

“I could have sworn I locked this,” a male voice said.

“What do we do?” Dan whispered quickly.

The man quickly turned flipping on the overhead lights pulling out his handgun from his desk drawer. He was surprised to see it was nothing more than a group of teenagers fiddling around in front of a computer.

“What are you kids doing in here?” he said, approaching them. “This building is private property and right now you are trespassing.”

The man glanced at the computer seeing the whole list of names looking back at Tyler.

“What in the world? That computer is supposed to be password protected.”

“Wasn’t nobody supposed to be back here?” Dan asked.

“Guess we were wrong,” Nicholas said.

“I’m calling the cops,” the man said, picking up his phone.

“Sorry, can’t let you do that,” Morgan said, stepping forward grinning.

The man looked back and forth at all of them and back at the computer. “You’re all Terrans, aren’t you?” he said, pointing the gun at them. “Step away from the computer.”

“You think you can stop all four of us?”

Morgan jerked his head forward throwing the man on the ground letting his gun fall by his side. The man quickly rose back up seeing Morgan levitating the gun pointing it directly at the man.

“Morgan, what the hell are you doing?” Dan questioned

“Doing what must be done,” he said, glancing back. “You think he’s just going to let us go?” Dan looked on seeing Nicholas and Tyler watch Morgan with stern looks on their faces standing stoic.

“What are you two doing?”

“He’s right, Dan,” Nicholas said. “This is the only way we can stop them from coming after our kind.”

“But what happens if you do?” Dan said, “I mean you can’t just shoot him.”

“Didn’t take much for you to try and kill that man in the park who tried to come after you and Grace,” Nicholas said. “How is this any different?”

“This is who we are,” Tyler said smiling. “You think we were just going to continue playing nice and co-exist with the humans?”

“We more far more superior than they are,” Morgan said. “It’s time you got with the program.” Dan’s forehead furrowed looking pensive looking back and forth at Morgan, Nicholas and Tyler, and the frightened protester.

“Please, I have a family at home,” the man said, holding his hands in earnest. “You don’t want to do this. I know you all are upset and you have every right to be. Many of us are just afraid of what could happen to our people.”

Tyler pulled out the sheets he needed from the printer that carried the list of names of all the individuals that formed the anti-Terran league.

“Got what we needed,” Tyler said, folding up the list in his hand.

“Enough of this,” Morgan said, shooting the gun letting the bullet fly.

“Nooooo!” Dan yelled, reaching his hand out.

However, it was too late to stop it seeing the man fall to the ground with the bullet hitting his stomach. Dan rushed to his side kneeling down in front of him touching his stomach feeling the blood on his hands. It was at that moment the shock that Dan felt ran through his body realizing how far off the rails things could become if he didn’t stop himself now.

“What are you doing?” Morgan said, looking peeved. “Leave him.”

“I refuse to become you,” Dan said solemnly, staring up at him.

“Fine, suit yourself.”

“Congratulations, now get the three of you out of there before you get blown up,” Peter said in Morgan’s head.

“Time to go!”

The three of them turned running across the street leaving without even giving Dan a second thought to look back as Dan knelled over the wounded man. They all hopped back in Morgan’s car where the car raced down the street.

“You’re going to be okay, you hear me?”

“So I guess not all Terrans are bad after all,” the man said laughing, coughing. Dan was about to raise his hand over the man’s stomach to try and get the bullet out, but acutely he could hear a beeping sound coming from somewhere in the office.

“We have to get out of here now!”

He quickly hoisted the man up making him cry out in pain where Dan and the Terran protester ran out just as the blast from the exploding front door hit their backs pushing them across the street. Dan looked back seeing the windows exploding one by one as the roof began to collapse into the fiery inferno that had been created. Dan gently laid the protester’s head down on the grass guiding his hand over his stomach searching for the bullet. He stopped and opened his hand wide seeing the bullet fly up into his waiting hand.

Peter had watched the whole scene play out sitting on a park bench across the way holding a remote detonator in his hand. It didn’t all go as well as he would have planned it but was an acceptable loss; however, there was now a witness if the man would live.

Dan picked the man up and gently took him to his car placing him in the passenger seat. He ran around hopping into the driver’s seat and turned on his ignition before revving up his car to speed down the street.

“Nearest hospital is a few miles away,” he said, taking a look at the man. “Hold on, okay?”

Dan could see it was falling in and out of consciousness with his eyes, half closed. His car screeched to a halt in front of the emergency room where he got out and slowly helped the man inside the front doors.

“I need a nurse!!” Dan exclaimed.

The closest nurse came walking by from the station seeing Dan propping the man up. “He’s been shot. Please take care of him.” Dan gently sat him down on a gurney as the nurse started to examine him.

“How did he get shot?” the nurse said, turning around.

However, Dan had already turned and left driving quickly away. It was late but he didn’t care. His eyes were opened. It was the fear that he could have turned into someone he didn’t recognize that stayed on his mind.