LUCAS’S P.O.V


    A lot has just happened in the last 5 minutes.


    1, Michael woke up. 2, The wolf finally decided to come back downstairs, and promptly fainted.


    When the wolf fainted, Vita hopped off the kitchen counter a d went to check if we''d just killed the thing.


    Vita kneeled beside Winter and put her finger on the wolf''s wrist, “These people spook easily, don''t you think?” She said, checking for a pulse.


    Winter''s eyes suddenly shot open. “OI, GET OFF ME!” She yelled, surprising Vita.


    “I just wanted to make sure you are oka-” Vita said.


    “I''m fine!” Winter said, lifting herself into a sitting position. “And I was stupid enough to think you guys weren''t real..”


    “Is everything okay over there?” Asked Michael. He didn''t have a very good view of what was happening since he was stuck lying down on top of the counter.


    “It''s under control,” Avera said.


    Winter tries to stand up again but almost fell back over while doing so.


    “Careful,” Vita said to her, offering her hand to help.


    “Just- Stay away from me” Winter said, bracing the wall to stand up. “Wasn''t there.. 5 of you guys?” She said,


    “There is, but Garrett is outside. Right now he is having the time of his life looking at all the different plants.” Vita said, pointing towards the kitchen door.


    “..looking at the different plants?” Winter said in confusion.


    “He''s a Biologist, plants are his thing.” Avera said.


    “A Biologist?” Winter asked.


    “Do you not know what a Biologist is? You guys are less advanced then I thought.” Avera said.


    “I know what a Biologist is, I''m not stupid!” Winter said back to Avera.


    “Well you were sure starting to sound retar-” Avera said before getting cut off by Michael.


    “HEY! Knock it off! I''d be dead if it wasn''t for this house, show some respect will you?” Michael shouted at Avera.


    “Thank you,” Winter said, “at least he understands.”


    Avera let out a sigh and looked at the wolf. “Look, we don''t want to be here. And we don''t even know how we got here.” Said avera. “So how about we take Michael''s advice and cooperate?”


    Winter gave us a hesitant look. Her tail swished back and forth, and her eyes darted between the four of us in the kitchen.


    “Alright..” Winter said quietly.


    “Really?” I said, “Thank you-”


    “Its not everyday you get the chance to help aliens..” Winter said, “I might as well take this opportunity.”


    Avera let out a sigh of relief. With Winter on our side, she was one less thing to worry about.


    “However… there is one thing I must do first. I''ve got a friend I can call, he might be able to help you guys.”


    “Woah woah woah,” Avera said, “We can''t be letting anyone else know about our presence here.”


    “Well my friend stands a chance helping, he works for Nasa.” said Winter.


    “What''s Nasa? Vita asked.


    “Sounds like a food-” said Michael, chiming in.If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.


    “Oh right, you don''t know what that is… It''s a space Agency funded by my government. Do you guys have something similar to that?” Winter said.


    “We all work for the Carlin Space Agency, I''m assuming it''s similar to Nasa.” Avera said.


    “Oh fuck him,” Michael groaned.


    “What?” Vita said in surprise.


    “My dad..” Michael said, “He can go screw himself,”


    “Excuse you?” Avera said.


    “Pruitt doesn''t care about Me… The only reason he put me on the mission is so I''d be out of his way.” He said, “And can I get moved off this counter? It''s making my back hurt even more..”


    “Well, Do you mind if we..?” Vita asked, looking at Winter.


    “I don''t mind, you can set him on the couch in the front room.” Responded Winter.


    Vita nodded, and she laid the stretcher out besides Michael. “Alright help me with this,” she said, looking at Avera.


    Vita grabbed Michael under his shoulders while Vita got his legs.


    “Careful on 3,” Vita said, “1.. 2.. 3, now!”


    They both lifted Michael and placed him onto the stretcher.


    “How much do you weigh, geez” Avera said when she let go of his legs.


    “Like 135kg (300 lbs) last time I checked, probably a bit less now with a quarter of my blood gone..” Michael said chuckling.(Authors note: some protogens are heavy bois)


    “So, is he not able to walk?” Winter asked, walking over to Michael.


    “His leg was full of shrapnel.” I said.


    “Really? I don''t feel much of anything” Michael said.


    “Yea the anesthesia is still wearing off, you''ll definitely be feeling it in an hour,” Vita said.


    “That''s great…” he said.


    “Alright, we''ll be right back.” Vita said, grabbing the end of the stretcher.


    Avera did the same and they both lifted the stretcher. They maneuvered it off the counter and slowly made their way out of the kitchen.


    With the 3 of them gone, it was now just Winter and I in the kitchen.


    It was a bit awkward between us considering last night''s events.


    “I should probably call my friend now, anyway” she said.


    “Uhm Alright… Is he nice?” I asked.


    “”Yeah, or at least to me, He''ll probably be nice to you guys..”


    “What do you mean probably?” I said.


    “When we were little kids we made a deal that if we ever met aliens, we''d be nice, My hope is he will remember that deal.”


    “Yeah, pointing a gun at me sure sounds nice-” I said.


    “Well you broke in!” She said in an annoyed voice.


    “Yea yeah, can you just call your friend now?” I asked her.


    Winter pulled a phone out of her pocket. Which was strikingly similar to ones protogens used. Although the ones we are accustomed to using are much more sleek than the clunky rectangle that Winter was holding.


    She tapped the screen a couple times and brought the phone up to her ear.


    The phone rang for a bit of time until someone answered.


    “Can you call later? I''m busy right now with paperwork-” The voice said.


    “Wait! This is important-” Winter said.


    “If this is about the interview, I''m sorry that didn''t go well. I''ve been trying to talk to my superiors to get you at the very least an internship, but right now I really gotta g-” The voice on the phone said.


    “Forget the interview, this has nothing to do with it!” Wintered yelled at the phone, “You need to get to my house ASAP.”


    “That''s a 5 hour drive from Houston…” said the voice.


    “Book a flight or something, this is more than worth being out of work for a day.” Said Winter.


    “Are you okay? You''re starting to worry me.” Said winter''s friend.


    “Oscar, I''m fine. Just come to my house and you''ll see for yourself, and bring your ATV” Winter said into the phone. (*ATV/Four Wheeler is a small all terrain vehicle used on rough terrain)


    “Why do I need to bring my- You know what? Fine. I''ll be there when I can, I really need to go now, goodbye.” the voice said.


    The phone beeped and I''m assuming that meant the call ended.


    Winter let out a sigh of relief and out the phone back into her pocket.


    “So… Your friend''s name is Oscar?” I asked.


    “Yep, we''ve known each other since we were little. I Understand that you don''t want any more people to know about you, but this will be worth it.” She said, running her hand through the fur on her head.


    A few moments after Winter said this, Garrett pushed the back door opened and peered into the kitchen.


    “You will NOT believe all the plants I''ve fou-” he said, before noticing Winter.


    “Oh! Hi there-” he said, giving a small wave towards winter.


    “Hi…” She said, raising her hand slightly.


    “There''s Michael?” Garrett asked.


    “He''s in the front room,” I said, pointing in its direction. “He woke up, and Vita put him in there so it''d be comfier.”


    “That''s good, I''ll go and check on him real quick. When I get back I do have a bunch of questions I want to ask you.” He said, closing the door behind him.


    His jumpsuit was covered in dirt and what looked to be grass stains.


    “Great now there is gonna be dirt for me to clean up-” Winter said, crossing her arms.


    “Don''t worry, our boots and flight suit don''t track foreign materials, it is for preventing cross contamination-” I said, showing Winter the heel of my boot.


    “That''s neat… how does that even work?” asked Winter.


    “The pressure lining in our flight suits is infused with a special material that helps to repel organic compounds. Our jumpsuits on the other hand are only made to keep our bodies at a cooler temperature, and adding that repellant lining to it was too expensive and unnecessary.” I explained.


    “Then if your jumpsuits don''t have that material, then why did Garrett bother to go digging without wearing the flight suit?” She asked with a confused look.


    “That''s a good question,” I said, “our original mission required us to wear the flight suits while we were outdoors, otherwise we wouldn''t have been able to breathe. But since we can breathe on this planet without issue, we don''t need to wear flight suits. This gives us much better mobility for experiments, and the effect of cross contamination hasn''t been a big priority..” I explained to Winter.


    “That does make some sense. And uh, if you don''t mind me asking, what was your original mission supposed to be anyway?” Winter asked.


    To me, she felt… oddly genuine with her questions. It''s like she was making mental notes about everything I said.


    She looks at me with actual curiosity. Not with fear as she had done the previous night, but with curiosity.


    And being honest, I kind of enjoyed it, if that''s the right phrase to use… I don''t know how else to explain it, it just felt nice having her undivided attention.


    I snapped out of my thoughts and tried to answer her question.


    “So our original mission was to visit a planet called Sirius II… Our goal was to conduct different experiments to find out if the living conditions there were suitable for more missions to that planet, and if setting up a mining operation there was feasible.” I explained to Winter.


    “That sounds like it would have been interesting…” She said, “But then how''d you end up here on earth?”


    “I don''t know. We never even left the orbit of my home planet, there isn''t any physical explanation for why we ended up landing on a completely different planet.” I said.


    “I agree that does sound weird,” she said, “But at least the one time that aliens do land on earth, they aren''t hell-bent on world domination.” Winter said with a chuckle.


    I gave Winter an awkward look when she told her joke.


    “...You guys aren''t gonna take over the world, right?” She said with a concerned look.


    “Do I look like I''d take over the world?” I said, waving my bandaged hand around.


    “I guess not, no offense,” she said.


    Garrett and Avera walked back into the kitchen, and they seemed to be in a fair mood.


    “Taking over the world? Can I be included?” Avera said laughing.


    “Sure!” I said, chuckling.


    “Michael''s doing good. I''d say things are starting to look better for all of us,” Garrett said.


    “Michael had a question for you,” Avera said, looking over at Winter. “He specifically asked if you know how to make blueberry Pancakes for some reason…”


    “Uh.. I mean, yea. I can get the ingredients for some at the store later.” She said.


    “Michael was kinda bummed out though when Vita said he couldn''t eat anything for a little while..” said Garrett. “Anyway! I do have many questions for you, Winter.”


    “Alright, We can go sit down if you guys want,” Winter said.


    We agreed, and the 4 of us sat down at the small table in the kitchen.


    Garrett got out his small tablet used for recording information among other things, and he sat it on the table.


    “Alright, my first question…” He said, going through his list of things to ask.