Free The Fellowship for Alien Detection by Kevin Emerson

door and snapped the photo. The flash burst through the cavern, momentarily blinding her. As the light faded, she looked at the photo. It was good. She’d send it to Alex tonight.
    But now she noticed something else. An orange light in her vision.
    â€œUm,” said Steph, her voice a bare whisper.
    Haley looked up. At first she had to blink leftover flash out of her eyes, but then she saw that those two black discs in the door were no longer black. They’d begun to ignite in a magmalike orange.
    Haley took a step back.
    The lights grew brighter, glowing neon, bathing them, and now something began to appear, to materialize in front of them. A shape. A personlike shape.
    â€œCrap!” Steph shouted.
    Run. Had to run. Haley turned and started sprinting toward the mine entrance. It wasn’t far, daylight already hitting her face—
    She risked one look back, and in the blur of running vision she felt sure that she saw the orange light shaping itself, coalescing into a figure, and that figure starting to move after them. . . .
    And then they were out, back into the sun, but instead of running to the fence, Steph was veering to the left.
    â€œWait! Why—” Haley began, but then she heard the roaring. Ahead she saw the small white truck that was speeding up the road, right toward them.
    Haley slammed her feet into the dirt and sprinted after Steph, who was following the hill beside the mine back to where it met the rocky slope they’d first come down.
    Haley made it to the slope and looked back. The truck burst through the fence and skidded to a stop. The doors popping open. Men getting out from both sides.
    â€œHey! Stop right there!” one of them yelled.
    She churned up the rocky slope. Reaching the trees, one more look back . . . The mine entrance. Someone was standing there. A single figure, in a yellow hard hat and an orange jumpsuit. And black sunglasses. He, or she, seemed short.
    The men from the truck were pounding toward her.
    â€œCome on!” Steph hissed from the trees.
    Haley ducked into the shade. They ran through the leafy, sun-dappled underbrush, back over the shallow hill. Steph veered sharply to the right. Here was the mine company fence again. They both scrambled up the side. Haley felt digging scrapes from frayed links. Her foot slipped out and she lurched and there was more stinging pain—a gash in her palm—then she was over and tumbling down to the other side, landing in the leaves, which stuck to her sweaty arms and shins as she jumped up again.
    They kept running. Steph somehow found the forest path again and then they could see bright red barns through the leaves and then they were out in the tall grass, back to the fairground fence. Haley hit it full speed, bouncing against it with her hands outstretched. She turned, breathless, leaned against the hot metal, and looked back at the trees.
    No one . . .
    Still no one . . .
    Steph, panting, tapped her shoulder. “Come on.” She started climbing.
    They got up, over, back down, and to the door of the barn. Steph ducked inside. Haley stepped into the doorway and took one last look back.
    There, in the shadows of the trees, was a silhouette she couldn’t quite make out with the glare of sun in her eyes, but she thought she saw the gleam of a yellow hard hat.
    Haley lurched inside and slammed the door.
    Back in the barn. Around her the mellow sound of shuffling fairgoers and clucking hens.
    Steph had gotten Vonnegut back from Gabe and was looking at her, her face beet red, black makeup running down one cheek. “So,” she said, between big breaths, “there’s that.”
    Haley nodded. There was that, all right. Whatever that had been. Haley could barely wrap her brain around it, especially with the alarm going off in her brain. “I should go find my mom,” she said.
    Steph started rooting in her pocket. She held out her hand to Haley.