Jay nodded, and looked at the ground. They won't give up. Not from what I saw. They want Earth. They won't stop until they get it. But i can't tell her that. She'd just ask how I know. He sighed softly, and looked back up at the sky. "Yeah." He said softly.
Her eyes flicked to the sky and she noted how far the sun was in the sky, putting a tiny smile on her face, “Well, enough of they family thing, tell me what your craziest dreams were, what you wanted to be as a kid, happy things. It’s too early in the morning to think about death.”
"I…" He laughed softly. "I wanted to be an astronaut." He admitted, shaking his head. "Now…that seems so stupid." He said, sighing. "What did you want to be?"
“A movie star actually,” She replied, looking to the sky with a light laugh and a similar shake of her head, “I wanted the life of fame and fancy cars and parties. The fancy dresses, flawless makeup and effortless beauty.”
He laughed softly. "You would have done pretty well." He said softly. "At least, in my opinion. Although our paths would never have crossed." He sighed. "I wanted to be on the Mars mission. You know, the one they were planning? I wanted to be one of the first on a new planet." He shook his head. "Damn. Now I just want this one back."
Her face flushed and she shrugged, “I don’t know how well I would’ve done.” She sighed and nodded, glancing at him, “What I wouldn’t give to save this world from those parasites, maybe I could help make life better for whatever of the next generation is left.”
He sighed softly. I wish they were gone. But even if they were…the Killswitch operation would tear the remnants of civilization apart. "Yeah. But…they're up there." He pointed. "We're down here. There's nothing we can do. I, for one, don't want to go back there, and trust me when I say that you don't want to go there. Ever."
“What about rockets or something?” She asked only somewhat jokingly, “Couldn’t that maybe blow up their ships and we could be free from them?” Delia looked around and sighed, shrugging, “But I’m no rocket scientist and there’s no way to find any that still work.”
"I think most of those were already used, with little to no impact. In the early days, when the countries of Earth were still doing an organized attack…I was up in the ships. They…the aliens laughed. At our technology. I don't think anything short of their own weapons could destroy their ships. But i don't know." He shrugged slightly.
She sighed again, her mind hard at work as she continued along the road, almost running into the back of a beat up and clearly not useful anymore car. “The only way to get rid of them then is essentially a suicide mission, I don’t think they store any of their weapons on earth.”
Jay nodded. Not physical weapons, no… "Yeah. And I, for one, am not yet suicidal. Besides, how would we even get up there?" He pointed out. "And then if we got up there, we would have to find a way to get to the weapons, and…" He shook his head.
Delia looked at the sky and nodded, guessing they had another hour or so until the next drone was supposed to fly over, the one that hadn’t appeared last time, “There’s too many what ifs, it seems those parasites are here to stay until we figure out how to blow them up.” She shifted around her bag on her shoulder and sighed, “How many more miles do you think we have before we reach the next town exit? I’m hungry and honestly want to get a new change of clothes, preferably a pair of pants that won’t kill my leg like mine are now.”
Jay nodded. "Yeah." He looked around for a road sign. "Uhm…we should reach the next by noon, if we keep up this pace." He said with a small smile. "And I'm hungry too, but we'll need to keep an eye out for gangs, drones, aliens, etcetera." He said.
“How many times are you going to remind me? That’s just a given,” She replied with a roll of her eyes though she cracked a small smile, “Now, let’s keep going and go supply hunting when we reach the town, I already have a list of what I want in my head.”
He chuckled. "Sorry! Just want to make sure you don't forget." He said. He looked at an abandoned vehicle beside them, and sighed, turning back to the road. "Alright. I want a new shirt, and deodorant, though both of those will be difficult to find." He chuckled softly.
She shrugged, her smile turning into a small grin, “Not if you know where to look.” With that, she went quiet and picked up the pace as best she could with an injured leg, a while list of things to get in her head including more bandages and possibly some pain medicine for her leg.
Jay chuckled softly. "Ah. I might need you to help me, then." He said, matching her pace. "Because I've had this shirt for…" He shrugged. "I don't even know." He chuckled softly. All he knew was that he'd been wearing it for what felt like forever.
“It’s actually quite easy,” She said with a chuckled and a nod, “I understand the shirt thing too, I wore my other one for what seemed like years before I found this one.”
Jay laughed softly. "Yeah…they gave me this one. The aliens. While I was in their ship. I would already have gotten rid of it but…I had nothing else to wear, and i don't want to walk around shirtless." His mouth quirked in a small smile.
“You sure?” She asked with a grin, obviously joking though, “I mean, you’d probably get an amazing tan.” Her eyes wandered to the abandoned cars around them and she tried to decide if they were even worth raiding. If she was alone she would stop and check every one but with Jay she didn’t want to bore him or make him wait for her.
He snorted softly. "Yeah, but…" He rubbed the back of his neck. "I have scars from the alien ship that I would rather not…" He shook his head and took a deep breath.
Her eyes widened and she looked over at him, “You have scars from them? Those idiotic, stupid, jackass parasites.” She shook her head and looked to the ground, wondering if that’s why no one from her family had returned, maybe they had been killed in the ships. She couldn’t bear to face the face that she might never see her little brother again, even if she already knew it in the back of her mind.
He nodded, not looking at her. "Yeah. Also…they aren't exactly parasites. They look like humans. Disturbingly so." He said softly, looking at the ground, then back at the sky. "Speaking of…shouldn't the drone be along soon?" He didn't really want to talk about his experiences on the ship.
“They’re parasites in my eyes, no matter how human looking they are,” She replied, shaking her head as she looked to the shy to see if the drone was supposed to be around. “It’s supposed to be here any minute, but I want to get to the exit before we stop.” The drone flying over the day after it disappeared didn’t seem very plausible so she wasn’t too worried, but if it did come they would be right out in the open with no cover.
Jay sucked in air through his teeth. "I'm not sure that's a smart plan, Delia…but okay." He said with a shrug, scanning the sky for the drone.
Pointing to the exit in the distance, she glanced at him, “Is that it? It looks like a exit for a town and hopefully supplies.” She picked up the pace a little and kept her eyes on the sky, not trusting her own plan but really not wanting to stop and risk herself saying they should just camp where they were for the night.
Jay squinted slightly. "Uhm…yeah, that should be it." He said, unconsciously speeding up slightly. "I want to get there before the drone comes around. I mean, it can't see me, but…" But it can see you. Was the unspoken end of that sentence.
She nodded, understanding what he trailing off meant. The strange thing was, her gut was telling her she should move faster, that something even if it wasn’t a drone could spot them and they wouldn’t reach the exit. Following her instinct, she moved as fast as she was willing to with her broken leg.
Jay kept walking, as quick as possible. He didn't want the drone to see her, because then they'd likely send someone to investigate and kill her, and then…and then and then and then. It will never stop until they're dead or I am. He shuddered slightly.
Delia almost fell on her face once, but she caught herself with her makeshift crutches, glancing at Jay to see if he saw it. The exit ramp was only a few steps away when she heard the buzz of a drone, causing her to curse internally and move even faster, “Anywhere we can hide?” She asked as calmly as she could, trying not to draw attention to the approaching drone.