A second shot echoed across the yard followed closely by the screams of Nathan’s parents. The grays stood their ground as Nathan ran to Jane and pulled her to him. He squeezed her, kissed the top of her, intending to never let her go. She pulled away and Nathan struggled to find the word to describe her expression. Happiness? No. Delight? Hardly. A faint smile formed on her thin lips and her eyes were soft and kind. She caressed Nathan’s cheek before telling him something that chilled his blood.
“We must tend to Archie.”
Nathan turned back to his brother who was motionless on his back in the snow, blood oozing from his shoulder and spreading across his chest.
“Oh my god!” Nathan rushed to Archie and dropped to his knees. “They shot him.”
Nathan was too panicked to cry, too frightened to scream.
“We can help him,” Jane said. “But we must hurry.”
Nathan’s parents screamed more and the two men in black suits ran toward them.
“He needs a hospital,” Nathan said.
“There is no time,” Jane said. The grays bent down to lift the boy as the men in black advanced. Two more gun shots missed the grays, the bullets whooshing past them. A sound of thunder and a blast of warm wind whooshed over them in the direction of their pursuers. An invisible force of some kind knocked them backward onto the ground. Nathan turned to find the source.
Susan Carpenter stood at the tree line.