Survivors

They found the door of the library closed and to intents and purposes it looked like it had been that way for years.

“See” said Luke a little too triumphantly pointing at the door, “I’m still the king of camouflage. A Alien scan would never spot anyone had so much as breathed on that door”.

“No” said Joe “You’re absolutely right. On the other hand they might just notice the smashed and open window” he went on, pointing just to the right of the main door.

“Well that wasn’t me” said Luke indignantly

“Was it like that the last time you came?” Asked Holly seriously

“I don’t know, I don’t think so” replied Luke.

“Well think!” insisted Holly.

“Like, why does it matter” said Joe exasperated “Can’t we just go in”

“It matters, you dimwit” said Holly “Because if it wasn’t like it before and it is now it means someone else has been here since Luke, and we can be pretty sure that the someone was a human and not an Alien”.

“Can we?” Asked Joe slightly confused.

“Did you take stupid pills this morning!? Of course we can” snapped Holly. “How many times have you seen a Alien smash a window and then climb through it. He’s much more likely to just laser the door off”.

“Or the whole front of the building” said Luke grinning slightly at Joe’s discomfort.

“Hmmmm” grunted Joe, annoyed at making a prat of himself – again. “I suppose you’re right”.

“So” said Holly after a while, “Do we go in or not?”

“What!” Shrieked Joe. “I can’t believe you’re even asking that. We’ve come all this way, and you don’t want to go in just because of a broken window! That’s nuts! Besides if we meet someone we can always scarper. There’s no way anyone’s going to catch a cheetah is there”

As he said it Joe turned in to a cheetah, just to show how fast he could do it. The Joe/cheetah began to giggle in a funny gurgling, gargling sort of way.

“Imagine the shock it would be if someone did grab one of us and we suddenly, whooshed” as Joe said “whooshed” he changed again into a giant slug.

Holly and Luke began to laugh.

“All right!” Said Holly grinning. “Let’s go in. But let’s be careful, really careful”.

Joe changed back into a panther while Luke slowly pushed open the door and peered inside.

“All clear” he whispered. The three of them slipped silently through the door and gently closed it behind them. Inside the library was pretty gloomy. There were a few windows dotted here and there along the walls between the rows of books, but they were so thick with grime and dust that they didn’t let in much light, but even in the gloom it was obvious that this was a pretty big library.

“Wow” said Holly grinning broadly now. “This is great!” And with that she shot off to investigate the rows of shelves. Luke ambled off as well to investigate which left just Joe near the door.

“Well!” Said Joe pretty much to himself. “I can either look around at some boring old books or have some fun”.

With that, he bounded off down one of the aisles at top speed before careering round a corner crashing into the shelving sending a big pile of books flying. So for the next five minutes or so Holly and Luke wandered around picking up books and putting them into the rucksacks they had brought with them.

Joe on the other hand thundered around, crashing and bashing into things with reckless abandon. Then suddenly the banging and crashing stopped.

Luke looked up, listening intently. His ears began to grow large bat like and hyper sensitive, which was a shame, because when Joe shouted “Luke, Holly come here!” At the top of his voice it nearly blew Luke’s brains out. The next instant Luke and Holly had both dropped the books they were holding and were running hard towards Joe’s voice. When they found Joe he was in human form squatting on his haunches.

“What is it Joe?” asked Holly.

“Look” relied Joe pointing at the remains of a small fire. “Someone found a different use for some of your precious books”.

He flicked a few charred remains with is finger. One of the spines of a book was still pretty much intact though all the pages were gone.

“Jeffrey Archer” read Joe. “Who the hell was he?”

“No idea!”

“Hey look” said Luke “There’s some bones left. I think it must have been a rabbit”.

They all stood thinking for a while.

“You know what” said Luke “I reckon this fires only from a couple of hours ago, or yesterday at the very longest”.

“How do you know that?” Asked Joe and then immediately wished he hadn’t, as it would no doubt give Luke a chance to show off, which it did, and he didn’t miss the opportunity.

“Well” said Luke, a bit too smugly for Joe’s liking. “Look at these bones, there’s still bits of meat and fat on them. They’ve dried out a bit but there still quite soft. No sign of maggots either. So they can’t have been left too long can they?”

“Plus” said Joe trying to get one over on Luke. “If that window wasn’t broken last time you came it’s got to be that someone broke in since you came here the other week”.

“Well derrr” said Luke.

“Anyway” interrupted Holly, before they could die into a full blown argument. “What now?”

“Why don’t we track them?” said Joe starting to grin from ear to ear.

“You what?” asked Luke.

“We could turn into dogs, or something with really good noses and track them!”

“Why on earth would we want to do that?” asked Holly incredulously.

“Well because…because. I don’t know why. Just because ... anyway it might be fun”.

“It’s not fun, it’s horrid” snapped Holly.

“Sorry” said Joe sulkily “Just trying to have a laugh”.

“Hunting someone down like an animal is not a laugh!” hissed Holly even more annoyed. “We’ve been hunted all our lives by the Aliens, did you ever find it funny?”

“Okay, okay” said Joe “It was a dumb idea”.

There was a moment or two of difficult silence, then Luke said “Actually it’s not as dumb an idea as it sounds”.

“What!” shrieked Holly. “I expect hair brained stupid ideas from Joe but not you Luke”.

“Hey” blurted out Joe.

“No, no listen” went on Luke, “This person, whoever they are, is obviously on the run from the Aliens or they wouldn’t be here would they? Plus, they could be injured, in trouble, or who knows what else”.

“He’s right” agreed Joe nodding eagerly and grinning, as he thought he knew where Luke was going with this train of thought.

“But...” Said Holly hesitantly.

“We could help them, you know, do someone a good turn like Bretnel did for us” said Luke.

“Well I..”

“I knew you’d agree” said Luke grinning just as much as Joe now.

“Let’s go” said Joe turning into a giant bloodhound, “Come on Hol it will be fu.. A mission of mercy, or something like that!”