Free Alien-Under-Cover by Maree Dry Page B

corner.
    “Charles?”
    In front of her John stiffened. “John, it’s Charles. Please break his cage open. Hurry.”
    John hesitated and then broke open the cage. Grabbing Charles’s shirt, John dragged him out. “You take these people to safety,” he snarled in Charles’s face.
    “John, he’s injured. He cannot--”
    “I’m okay, Julia. I’ll take them to safety, ” Charles said.
    She nodded, clenched her fists, and glared at John. “Aren’t you going to free the others? I won’t go anywhere until I know they’re free.”
    If they could find some tools, they could break the cages open, but that would take time they didn’t have. No doubt the reverend would soon return with bigger and better weapons. John moved with that blurring speed and cracked open cells and cages. If she hadn’t see it happening in front of her, she wouldn’t believe it. “He’s on Superman Crack,” she whispered to Charles and picked up a child who crawled out of a cage.
    John came back and, taking the child from her, handed her to Charles.
    Charles was bleeding and unsteady on his feet. “I can’t leave you with him,” he said.
    “She belongs to me. Help your fellow weak ones to escape and make sure I never see you again.” Suddenly John had a sword in his hand.
    Julia refused to think on that. So he had a sword, one of the reverend’s men must’ve dropped it. As fast as he moved, he probably picked it up without her noticing.
    “Go, Charles, I’ll be all right. I know him from before.” She had no doubt John would kill Charles at the slightest provocation.
    “Be behind me at all times,” John said and moved to the stairs. He looked toward Charles. “You need to be fast. They will chase us but soon they will search for you.
    “Okay.”
    John went up the stairs, still dragging her behind him. At the top he stopped and angled his head, as if he listened to something she couldn’t hear.
    “There are men with guns outside, waiting to kill us if we come out. The reverend has gone for more weapons.”
    “How did you--”
    “Stay here until I come for you.” He bent down and laid his forehead against her for a brief moment, and then he was gone.
    She looked down at Charles and shivered when she heard the screams and shooting outside.
    “He seems to be bullet proof.”
    “I don’t know what he’s on but I’m just glad he’s here,” Charles said.
    She nodded and screamed when a huge hand clamped onto her shoulder.
    “We go now,” John said.
    “Please, we have to make sure Charles gets away with the children.”
    He cupped her cheek and his thumb rubbed over her lips. “Are you concerned for the children or Charles,” he asked gently.
    “The children,” she lied, one hundred percent sure that if she admitted to worrying about Charles, John would kill him.
    He nodded and motioned the other prisoners out. He killed a few more of the reverend’s men before Charles disappeared with the other captives.
    She took one last glance at their retreating backs then followed John to the trees and toward her house. The reverend and his men didn’t appear to try to stop them but she knew they would come for them.
    “Where are we going?”
    “To your dwelling.”
    “You know where I live?”
    How long had he known? Did she go around her business happily convinced she was safe while he stalked her? Her heartbeat sped up until it hammered in her ear so loudly she could barely hear her own voice.
    “That’s the first place the reverend will look for us,” she said. Could she convince him to let her go? How big a hold did the drugs have on him? He lifted her into his arms and ran. Everything blurred around her and she hung on for dear life. “How can you manage to run this fast,” she asked, her words disappearing in the wind whipping around them.
    “I am warrior.”
    John opened her back door and sat her down inside her kitchen. He turned and looked her over and she swallowed. She knew that look in his eyes, had