A Different Kind (6 page)

Everyone tells the story about what happened to Emma differently, most exaggerating it. Some claimed there were monsters in the woods, but I remember when it happened. The news said Emma had been camping with friends. At some point she wandered off and tripped. They found her at the bottom of a hill with a broken neck.

“Where are we going?” I asked, nearly tripping over a branch.

“You’ll see,” was all Logan said as he led us deeper into the woods.

I kept quiet, watching Logan weave between trees. He followed a path only he could see. Then I spotted a sign. It was brown and yellow with a picture of a rather menacing looking snake. Unable to ignore it, my eyes widened and I read, “Warning: Rattlesnakes may be found in this area.”

“Ignore the sign,” Logan called before I even had a chance to bring it to his attention.

“But–”

“Trust me; there aren’t any snakes around here.”

“So there’s a sign there because…?”

Logan stopped walking and turned to me. “Because they’re trying to keep people from wandering out this far.”

“Yeah, because there’re
snakes
.”

“
No
, because there’re other things out here.”

“What, aliens? If taking me out here is some kind of trap–”

Logan sighed. “Payton, just come on. I’ll explain when we get there.”

I kept quiet, but was suspicious of every leaf the wind lifted off the ground, unconvinced I wouldn’t see a snake slithering beneath it. A few more minutes passed. Logan’s pace slowed. I looked up to find him standing in front of a gated, metal chain-link fence. A large sign reading “No Public Access” was on one side of the fence’s gate. On the other was a sign that read “No Entry.” Three rows of barbed wire ran along the top, and on closer inspection I noticed it was sealed with a hefty looking lock.

“Where are we?”

“This is where I wanted to take you.”

“What’s in there?”

“That’s what I’m going to show you.”

“Logan, that’s locked up tight, so unless you have a key….”

Logan lifted his hand toward the fence, and my words fell away as it started to shake. I backed up a step, stumbling over a rock. The trembling metal clinked and clattered. My eyes widened. My lips parted. The fence rattled, and even though the sight of it was unnerving, I couldn’t look away. I watched as the lock lifted and sprung free in midair. The metal gate flew open, and the shaking stopped. My eyes shot to Logan. A satisfied smirk crossed his face, and he tilted his head toward the now-open fence.

“You did that?” I asked in a soft, shaken voice.

“This way,” he said.

After a moment’s hesitation, I followed him.

CHAPTER

9

V
ines covered the black metal sides like spindly green fingers, tugging the spaceship downward to be swallowed by the earth. A large hill towered before us. The spaceship had crashed into the side of it. Most of the ship was buried in the side of the hill, or underground where it’d carved a trench into the dirt. The parts that were visible were of nothing I’d ever seen before. It was triangular in shape, and though it was dirty and partly obscured by plant life, I could see it was made of this strange, shiny black metal.

It has to be some kind of crashed military aircraft
, I thought. Then we neared and I saw it was covered in strange, curling symbols.
Could it really be a UFO?
I stared as Logan walked toward the spaceship.

He glanced back. “You coming?” he asked, before disappearing into an opening in the metal monster.

Taking a deep breath, I reminded myself I asked for answers and followed after him. Cautiously, I stepped into the darkness. I jumped when lights flickered to life above our heads.

“How did you do that? Open the fence like that?” The ship had a slight forward tilt, making me feel off balance as we walked.

Logan continued walking as he spoke. “I don’t know exactly. But I think it has to do with magnetic energy. I think I have more of it than most people. I can…bend and move things. Only if they’re metal though.”

“With your mind?”

He glanced back, smiling.

“What else can you do?”

“That’s about it. I can see in the dark pretty well, but as far as super powers go that one’s kind of lame.”

“How?”

Logan looked me up and down. “I’m not sure I’m ready to tell that story yet.” He strode deeper into the darkness.

I had to stop walking for my mind catch up. Breathing deep, my eyes roamed the interior of the ship. We were wandering down a thin hallway made of the same black metal as the exterior. The walls were smooth and blank.

Logan had gotten a fair distance ahead of me. I ran to catch up to him.

“Where did this come from?” I asked.

We turned a corner, winding our way deeper into the maze of hallways. I held on to the walls to keep my balance, feeling the tilt shift as I changed directions.

He glanced at me but said nothing. I was getting annoyed with how much he was dragging this out, but I was also curious about where we were going. The hall came to a dead end. I looked back, wondering if we’d gotten lost. Then I looked back to Logan. He held his hand toward the wall like he had with the fence. The wall didn’t shake, but with a flick of his wrist it opened, revealing a passageway.

“This way,” he said, tilting his head in the direction of the hidden room.

He waited for me, but I didn’t move. Instead I stared into the darkness and started to rethink this entire trip.

“Hey.” Logan tore my attention from my worried thoughts. “It’s okay; you can trust me.”

A crooked smile graced his face. I took a breath. Then I stepped into the dark.

The ceiling was higher, and again lights blinked to life as we entered the space. Scattered throughout the room were large clear canisters filled with this eerie, glowing green liquid. Most were empty, but in the distance I could see some with figures floating within them. A chill ran through me, and I took a low, deep breath. When Logan spoke next, his words startled me so badly I jumped.

“Can I trust you?” he asked.

“What?” I turned to him.

“I’m not supposed to be showing you any of this. You understand that, right?”

I nodded, then gulped as my eyes focused on the green tubes in the distance.

Logan sighed. “This is a ship my people returned to earth with; it crashed here about fifteen years ago.”

“Your people?
You really are one of them
, but you said–”

“I’m
not
one of them, but I’m not exactly human either.”

I didn’t understand. “What are you then?”

Logan walked deeper into the room. “Tagging humans isn’t the only reason the Greys abduct people.” He stood before one of the empty canisters. The green liquid reflected off the lenses of his glasses. “They’ve been taking humans and studying them for thousands of years – experimenting on them.”

Experimenting? I wondered if they’d experimented on Logan. Was that why his eyes were black, and he could move things with his mind?

“Why?” I asked in a breathy voice. My mind fought to process everything he was telling me.

Logan’s eyes traced my face as if he were assessing whether I could handle what he was about to say next.

“To make crossbreeds,” he said. “They wanted people that were weak enough for them to control but that had the right genetic makeup to survive their planet. They abducted people and changed their DNA just enough so they could survive the harsh climate of their planet.”

“Is that what they did to you? Experiment on you?”

Logan shook his head. “Not me. I was born there. I came here when I was three…well, about three. I don’t know how well our years match up with theirs. It’s what they did to my mom though.”

“Your mom?” I thought about Mrs. Reed. She wasn’t as outgoing as the other soccer moms. She worked a lot, but she was a nice person. Every time I’d see her she was smiling. I thought about her being taken the way I had been. Then I thought about what else they would have done to her.

“They took her when she was eighteen.”

I’m eighteen
. “I was lucky to just get tagged, huh?”

Logan offered a wan smile, then he walked deeper into the room. I followed him past the empty canisters to where bodies, appearing black against the glowing light, floated in green liquid. The sight of them made me sick.

“What is all of this?”

“Experiments gone wrong. I guess they kept them around to avoid making the same mistakes.”

I stared in horror at one of the containers containing a deformed figure. It looked like a man, but his eyes were solid black and bulging from his face. One hand had long spindly fingers, but the others were short and human-like.

“I don’t remember anything about being there. I was too little, but my mom tells me they kept us like cows. We were just livestock. But over time we evolved. We got stronger. The Greys would return to earth and bring back more people. None of us knew why. I think they did it to keep the gene pools human enough that we wouldn’t get out of control, but we did anyway.”

“What happened?”

“We revolted, sending our planet into a war that’s been going on for the last fifteen years. When the uprising began some of us were able to escape by stealing their ships.”

“You came to earth in this ship, didn’t you?”

Logan nodded. My mind raced as I thought about all the things he’d been through. What had happened to me had been hard enough to believe, but all of this…it was too much.

I gulped, feeling claustrophobic. It felt as if the glowing green canisters were closing in, threatening to spill over and drown me. I needed fresh air and walked back to the door. I didn’t know the way out of the ship, but just getting away from the Greys’ failed experiments helped.

I wished I could forget all about them, that I could go back to being normal. I wished I had never pushed Logan to tell me any of this.

I slowed my pace as I stepped back into the hallway, taking a few deep breaths. Behind me I heard Logan’s footsteps.

“Sorry if I scared you. I didn’t mean to,” he said.

“This is just crazy. I mean, my neighbors are aliens, I was abducted, I just…I can’t believe this is all real. But at the same time I know it is. Kind of a mind-warp, you know.”

“It’s a lot to take in, I know, but you have to promise me one thing, Payton. I’m trusting you not to tell anyone about this.”

I laughed. “Right, because I want the whole school thinking I’m a nutcase. No rational person would believe any of this, and I’m certainly not going to tell anyone I spent the day with you.” I cringed, realizing that was harsh.

Hurt flashed through Logan’s expression before he hid it with a guarded look. “Of course, what was I thinking? Prom Queen Payton Carlson has a reputation to keep.” He laughed.

“I didn’t mean it like that,” I said, though I wasn’t sure that was exactly true. I did have a reputation to keep up. “And I’m not the Prom Queen…yet.” Junior Prom Queen didn’t count.

 Logan shook his head. “Come on, let’s get out of here.”

I followed him back through the maze of hallways. A rush of fresh air floated by, and the end of the hallway filled with light, signaling we were nearing the exit.

I called to Logan. He turned around. “I won’t tell anyone. Just so you know.”

A grin pulled at the corner of Logan’s lips and he nodded. “Thanks,” he said, and we continued walking toward the light.

“
S
o, how does this whole thing work for you?” I asked as we walked through the woods.

“What do you mean?”

“Like, does anyone know about you, like the government…or are you hiding from the DOD?”

Logan laughed. “No, your government knows about us. When our ship crashed we were…taken into custody for some time, but eventually your government realized we’re not the real threat. The Greys are, and they’ve been abducting people from your planet for centuries. We’re allowed to seek refuge and live here peacefully so long as we share everything we know about the Greys. Someone checks in with us once a year to make sure there aren’t any problems, but there never have been.”

“How many of you are there?”

Logan shrugged. “Not sure – hundreds, maybe thousands. There aren’t any in this area anymore.”

I nodded. We were exiting the woods, and Logan’s house came into view.

“So,” Logan said. “You wanna come over, hang out?”

I nearly stopped walking as I thought over his question. Part of me wasn’t ready for the time I was spending with Logan to end, but when I thought about hanging out with him, I felt…anxious, as if that was something I shouldn’t be doing.

“Um…no, I should get home, figure out what I missed skipping class.”

Logan looked away. “Right, of course.”

“Yeah, I’ll um, I’ll see you around.” With a wave I walked to my house.

I made my way across the yard, wondering if anything would be different between us. We had this thing we shared, something we both understood that no one else could, but I’d gotten my answers from Logan. I knew what he was; I knew what happened to me. Was there anything left for us to talk about? Would we become friends? I felt the more likely outcome was that we’d go back to how things used to be.

Ultimately being abducted by aliens changed nothing. It was in the past. It didn’t matter that Logan was an alien or that I’d been abducted. Tomorrow I would be Payton Carlson, head cheerleader, high school senior and far too popular to be seen with geeky, loner Logan Reed.