Chapter 3: Did Someone Call an Ambulance?

"It's down this way. We're close, but we need to get near enough to walk to it." Josh was concentrating on his surroundings, making turns while glancing at his arm to orient himself. "Let's try this next left and see if it gets us any closer." The road he selected was a narrow unpaved private drive, but so far none of the others they'd tried led in the right direction.

"What do you think her name is?" Cynthia asked, trying once more to uncover some private detail he hadn't revealed about his alien ward.

"I have no clue. She tried to speak, but it sounded more like a seal bark, like you'd hear at SeaWorld," Josh tried to explain, though Cynthia didn't seem to understand he had no additional information. "Actually it was a combination of rough growling barks and clicking sounds."

"I'll bet it's something powerful," Cynthia said, glancing into the distance, "something that would grab people's attention."

"I'm sure it would. As soon as she barked, 'Excuse me', it would get everyone's attention," Josh teased as another curve in the small road took them closer to where he wanted to go. "It looks like this is the right direction after all. It seems like a small farming spread. Call the other guys. If this is the right place we'll need to act fast."

"Don't worry, they're right behind us, just like they have been," Cynthia assured him, rolling her eyes theatrically.

"Yeah, I see a farm house in the distance," Josh said, not paying any attention to her slight putdown. "There's a car parked outside. It looks occupied. I'll go up and try to talk my way in. How about if you stay back and wave the others off. If you see me motion you in a particular direction, head off that way and see if you can uncover anything."

"Will do," she answered. "How far away is it?"

"I still haven't gotten a feel for how distance is represented, but it looks fairly close."

Josh parked a short distance away and left Cynthia behind while he walked to the house, taking in the surroundings as he approached. Instead of a farm it was a little house with only a small garden off to the side and an old abandoned shed around back. Still, the yard was nicely maintained. There were flowers cultivated along the front of the house and an older model car parked in front. Walking up the steps he knocked on the door. Hearing no response he was about to knock again when someone opened the door.

A woman wearing a simple gingham dress peered out. "Can I help you?" she asked guardedly, examining him curiously. She was pretty, though she clearly wasn't prepared for visitors. She had dark hair, grey eyes, long dark curling hair and looked vaguely Italian.

"Yeah, I'm sorry to disturb you, but I was wondering if you've noticed anything unusual around your house today? I saw something earlier and tracked it here. I thought it would be interesting if I could find it."

As he spoke, the woman's eyes grew darker and she closed the door a little more, blocking the view inside. "I'm sorry, but I haven't seen anything different. Now if you'll excuse me I'll—"

Josh, realizing she was hiding something, decided to take a chance. "I know you found something. I found something too, an alien creature who was incredibly sick. I'm trying to find the others who crashed here at the same time."

The woman glared at him, then came to a sudden decision. "I found one too. It was the oddest thing but I was afraid to approach it. I was terrified it would die if I left it alone, but I wasn't about to call an ambulance. Do you think you could do something for it?"

"Absolutely," Josh assured her. "I've been searching for the others. By getting them together we stand a better chance of understanding what to do, and if we can keep from alerting anyone we don't have to worry about being forced out of our homes. Authorities tend to take over properties while denying anything is happening."

"Yeah, I was worried about that myself," she admitted. "My name is Wanda Myers. The ... thing it came in is in the woods at the side of the house over there," she said, pointing towards a wooded area on the far side of the house.

"I brought some friends to help take care of it," Josh told her as he signaled the others. Cynthia waved back as Fred and Peter drove closer, having parked around the bend in the driveway. "We'll try to get their ship so some government satellite won't pick it up and send Special Forces agents descending on your property."

"I'm afraid it's deep in the underbrush. You'll need to clear out that area of the woods before you can remove it. Frankly, it's so well covered I doubt it'd be detectable."

"Hmm, I'll have to see it before I decide," Josh told her, considering it. "We don't know what it's made of. If it's constructed using any kind of metal, or has an unusual power source, it may be detectable through the trees."

"Actually it's partially embedded in the dirt. It would be easier if you just buried it completely. That way the earth would cover anything which might be observable, and the trees would cover the digging."

"That makes sense. Unfortunately I didn't think to bring any digging tools," Josh lamented as Peter parked his car in front of the house. They didn't get out, though, waiting to see what he wanted them to do.

"That's OK," Wanda told him with an easy smile as she opened the door wider and stepped out onto the small porch. "I've got all kinds of gardening tools. Let me show you where they are. If you want, your girlfriend and I can cover it while the rest of you take care of the poor creature."

Josh wasn't about to contradict her assumption about Cynthia, not wanting to waste any time, so he ignored the 'girlfriend' comment. "That sounds good. A wheelbarrow or two would help as they're very heavy. It would also help bury the craft if we can fill and dump a wheelbarrow full of dirt at a time."

Wanda led him to her garage where she kept her supplies and Josh waved the guys in to help. Cynthia came too, but stood back and frowned, disappointed they were wasting time in the woman's garage rather than examining exotic space aliens.

"I was worried it may be dangerous," Wanda told him, handing him a couple of shovels which he passed on to Fred. "It didn't really look like it was in any shape to attack, but you never know."

"We're also worried about cross contamination," Josh said. "While I doubt whatever made them sick would affect us, there's no telling how we may respond to the various foreign microscopic organisms, so we brought gloves, tarps and antiseptic to clean ourselves to be sure."

"Well I'm glad you're here now, 'cause that thought never even occurred to me," she admitted, helping him upright the wheelbarrow before leading them across the property to the woods she'd indicated before. Cynthia, looking upset she might miss something, ran back to move Josh's pickup so they wouldn't need to carry it—'person', she reminded herself—far.

Wanda led them into the woods, and after a little ways it was clear this craft hadn't landed as gracefully as the one on Josh's ranch. There were broken trees, mangled shrubs and a lot of upturned dirt. When they got close, Wanda stood back and pointed into a little recess covered with scattered debris.

"It's right in there," she told Josh, pointing out the best access, leading around a tree blocking the path. "I'll stay here and get started on burying the craft as best we can."

Josh turned to the others. "Fred, you and I will go in and check the alien and see what shape it's in. Peter, you get the wheelbarrow ready. Once we do whatever we can for it, we'll clear a path so you can help us load it on the truck. It'll be difficult transporting it in a wheelbarrow, but we'll see what we can manage."

They set to work trying to extract the creature trapped in its craft, still alive though it didn't seem to be doing as well as Josh's. It took them some time to get it into Josh's truck and for Fred and Peter to cover the craft rather haphazardly. Cynthia insisted on staying with the creature itself, hovering over it and trying to protect it while observing every little detail she could. They eventually decided that Wanda, despite her smaller size, was actually more help in carrying the creature than Peter was. Josh reflected that despite how helpful Wanda was, if each rescue was this difficult, they were going to have a hard time ahead of them.

"Man, that was SO cool!" Cynthia was dancing around in her seat, staring at the back of the truck. Since it would have attracted attention having her ride in the back, they secured and covered the back with a tarp so no one could glance in.

"I mean, it's alive! It's living and breathing and so freakin' awesome," she continued, addressing Josh as if to convince him of its importance.

"Do you think this one is female too?" she asked after a moment.

"I don't think so. Of course, I didn't actually examine it ... him, but I'm pretty convinced it's male—or at least whatever their version of male is. While mine had tiny breasts this one has even smaller ones, so it looks like we have at least that much in common with these ... whatever they are."

"Man, I'd love to see one walk. It's got to be so weird," she said, once again glancing at the shape she couldn't see in the back. "All those legs moving at once, it must be intimidating!"

Just then a phone rang. Josh knew it wasn't his since he'd removed the battery on his phone, so he glanced at Cynthia. She shrugged, picked up her bag and dug through it, extracting a ringing phone—the ringtone playing the Powerpuff Girls theme.

"Yeah?" she asked. She listened for a moment and then covered it with her hand, turning to address Josh.

"That was Fred, he's been listening to the police scanner and a call just went out. Someone reported that 'some strange monster is sick'. The dispatcher tried to get more details but the man wouldn't calm down, insisting that someone come and take care of it. They alerted the ambulance, advising them to report back if the caller was on drugs or a potential danger to himself or others."

"Damn, that's what I was afraid of," Josh swore as he slammed the steering wheel before stopping to consider the situation. "Tell Fred and Peter we're going to head them off. Unfortunately, I can't afford to be stopped with our friend in the back. Have Peter take the main road while Fred and I take the side roads. Hopefully, if there are any police around, they'll follow one of us while leaving the others free. If Peter can determine where the ambulance is, hopefully one of us can head it off and delay them somehow. That would give us more time to reach our... 'guests' before anyone gets there," he added, not wanting to say the word aliens in case it might be transmitted over the phone.

She spoke on her cellphone a little longer before turning back to Josh. "Fred got the address and calculated the ambulance's route. He assumes they'll leave soon, but their base station is close. Peter's going to try to intercept them on the main road, which should leave you clear to speed on the side streets. He suggests we leave him behind. He'll try to delay them as long as possible.

"Tell him to try staying out of trouble," Josh advised. "While we'd be screwed if we got stopped with our little friend, there's still no reason to risk ourselves if it won't win us much."

"Little my ass," Cynthia mumbled under her breath as she got back on the phone and relayed the information. "That beast was heavy!"

They'd spent a considerable time rescuing the second alien and burying his capsule, as well as the time Josh took warning Wanda about discussing what she'd discovered for everyone's safety: hers, Josh's and the aliens. As a result the sky was now overcast and the light was fading. What's more, they were approaching the township of Fairfield. While definitely not a large town, it was busier than the rest of the region and was dissected by multiple roads. Although it didn't have a hospital, it housed the regional medical center. If the ambulance encountered anything it couldn't handle, they'd take the patient almost sixty-eight miles to the nearest hospital. But that wasn't what Josh was worried about. He was afraid that once the EMT workers saw the alien, they'd call in the police and alert the state troopers. If that happened, the entire countryside would be covered in patrols in no time, and Josh's efforts to protect these 'people' would be destroyed.

Josh took a right turn without bothering to slow much, careening around the intersection and narrowly missing colliding with a couple of parked vehicles. He followed that with an immediate left at the next corner where the intersection was clearer and floored it. He quickly accelerated to seventy, having Cynthia watch for any sign of police while also monitoring her cell phone. Fred had veered off to the left, taking the other road bordering the main drag while Peter raced on ahead, veering in and out of the light traffic, hopefully drawing any police while trying to catch up to the ambulance. Being a small town the few commuters had already reached home, so there wasn't much traffic. What's more, the police who normally maintained speed traps were busy with more productive tasks. At least Josh hoped so.

"Peter sees the ambulance," Cynthia announced, leaning forward as she shared in his excitement. "He's going to try passing it and then slam on his brakes, causing them to veer off to avoid a collision. If he plans it right, they'll have to pull to a stop, and while they're checking whether everything is OK he'll take off, hoping they won't think to record his license number. If they do, he could always claim it was a simple teenage prank," she suggested, again holding the phone away from her face as she advised Josh. "As long as he's not tied into any other illegal behavior they'd give him a serious talking to, but are unlikely to arrest him or associate his actions with any other 'occurrences'."

"It won't buy us much time," Josh responded, glancing out the side window trying to see some flash of red light the next street over, but didn't slow down to look. "Hopefully it'll buy us enough if I can reason with the people who made the call. Otherwise our job will be much harder."

"Have you counted just how many need rescuing?" Cynthia asked, her curiosity still bubbling.

"No, I haven't. Those little lights are a little small to count with my fingers, and I'm not even sure they're all shown. I figure they only show those closest to us, so there may be more than it shows at any given time. But it seems they all landed near us, so that helps."

"But we don't know how many miles our total search perimeter is, do we?" Cynthia asked, beginning to grasp the complications they faced.

"No, but these two are the only ones south of my home, so once we drop these off we can head north for the rest. That will put us into the more desolate mountain areas."

Cynthia heard something, so listening to the phone she made a couple affirmative grunts before turning back to Josh. "Peter says he got away without anyone getting hurt. The EMTs were surprised but didn't overcorrect. I guess that's what all their training is for. He managed to get away, but has no idea whether they identified him or not. He says he hooted 'Go Woodchucks!' to support the prank claim."

"Clever, it may not help but at least it'll give them something to blame rather than the obvious 'alien invasion' which might have been their next guess," Josh teased. "Where's Peter going now?"

"He's turning off the main road. He doesn't want to be where they'll encounter him again. He wants to know if there's anything else he can do?"

"Not right now. See if he can get some more equipment, like mechanical dollies for lifting these things or pulleys to load their crafts. Spare drop phones and more latex gloves wouldn't hurt either."

Cynthia conveyed the information before signing off. "He said he'll see what he can find, but to call him if we need more help."

"Don't worry, we'll require plenty of help. Hopefully it won't involve bailing us out of jail."

"You know, you always ranted about the government spying on us before and like everyone else I thought you were nuts. But now, suddenly it all seems justified. Although there are no mysterious government forces lurking around yet, I'm in no hurry to see whether they actually exist or not."

"Well, hopefully we can pick everyone up before anyone thinks to alert them. That would be best, but given the numbers we're dealing with, the vast amount of territory, and the shocking appearance of our guests, I'm afraid it's only a limited amount of time before the news leaks out."

Josh kept driving as fast as he could manage; not slowing until they neared what he figured was the nearest turn off. He was again basing it on the graphics on his arm, which didn't show things like roads, forests or access routes. Fred's car was keeping up with them in the hopes that if the police noticed, they'd stop him first. Turning onto a dusty dirt road, Cynthia's phone rang again.

She listened for a moment before turning to Josh as they neared the end of the short private road and saw a small country house a short ways off. "That was Fred. He says he's going to turn around and camp out on the road heading out. That way, when the ambulance arrives, he can pretend to be leaving. He figures if he pretends to move aside, the road is so narrow he can hold them up even longer."