"Damn, it seems quite far. Did you take a car for the morning?" I asked Christopher and Cindy as Sydney navigated us through the increasingly unfamiliar streets.

They had left that morning supposedly for scavenging around at first look, but obviously it was a date? I wondered. Until we were in Jackson Township, they went since after ten minutes in the car we still hadn't reached it. Well, Sydney wasn't driving that fast, but still.

"Ask Christopher, he told me he wanted to show me something and lost us near a church," Cindy said, shooting him a look that was equal parts amused and exasperated.

"I... I just lost my way! And we ended up discovering something amazing, right!" Christopher said, his cheeks flushing as he tried to deflect attention from what was clearly supposed to have been a romantic outing.

"Well, I guess," Cindy smiled a little, her expression softening as she glanced at him.

I couldn't help but smirk at how obvious they were being. Christopher had been working up the courage to ask Cindy out properly for days, and apparently he'd finally managed it—even if his navigation skills had nearly derailed the whole thing.

"What happened to your hand?" Sydney suddenly asked, catching sight of my bandaged palm in the rearview mirror.

"Just a burn," I said, trying to keep my voice casual.

"How did you get a burn and a cut at the same time?" She asked suspiciously, her blue eyes narrowing as they met mine in the mirror.

Stop being suspicious about everything! I thought, scrambling for a believable explanation.

"I tried to cook..."

"Cook? I thought we all requested unanimously that you not cook anymore after you cooked burned pasta for dinner," Christopher said, seizing the opportunity to shift attention away from his own embarrassing morning.

"Oh, shut up, man," I groaned.

"Pasta is the simplest cooking. How can you miss that, Ryan?" Cindy giggled as well, clearly enjoying the chance to tease me.

Here we go... I should have found a better excuse. The truth was, I'd been experimenting with the red stone and nearly set myself on fire, but explaining that would open up a whole other can of worms I wasn't ready to deal with.

"You should let Rachel cook for you. She loves it after all," Sydney said with a grin that suggested she knew exactly what kind of reaction that comment would provoke.

"Is there a second meaning to that?" Christopher asked, his eyebrows rising with interest.

"How was your date together with Cindy?" I asked him instead, deciding that the best defense was a good offense.

Both Christopher and Cindy stiffened and they fell silent, both blushing and looking uncomfortable. Christopher suddenly became very interested in examining his fingernails, while Cindy found the passing scenery absolutely fascinating.

I smirked and looked back ahead.

Now I love silence.

The awkward quiet stretched for several minutes, broken only by the hum of the engine and the occasional distant sound of wind through abandoned buildings. Sydney seemed to be enjoying the aftermath of the conversational bomb I'd dropped, her lips twitching with suppressed laughter every time she caught sight of Christopher and Cindy's continued embarrassment in the rearview mirror.

Eventually, after a few minutes and because Sydney had chosen the safe path, we finally reached the church. It wasn't really a big church—more of a modest community chapel with a simple white steeple that had seen better days. Paint was peeling from its wooden siding, and several of the windows had been boarded up with plywood that was already warping from exposure to the elements.

"There," Christopher said, finally breaking the silence as he pointed toward a gap between the church and what looked like an old rectory. "We went through there when we were... exploring."

The way he emphasized the word 'exploring' made it clear that very little actual exploration had been happening before they stumbled onto their discovery. I bit back another teasing comment, figuring I'd tortured him enough for one car ride.

Sydney pulled the car over next to a rusted fence that surrounded what had once been the church's small cemetery. The headstones were old and weather-worn, many of them tilted at odd angles where the ground had shifted over time. It was the kind of place that would have been peaceful and contemplative in normal times, but now felt vaguely ominous in the way that all abandoned places did.

"So where exactly did you two lovebirds find this mysterious object?" Sydney asked as we climbed out of the car, stretching muscles that had grown stiff during the longer-than-expected drive.

"We're not—" Cindy started to protest, then caught herself and shook her head. "Never mind. Follow me."

She led us around the back of the church, where a small path wound through what had once been a well-maintained garden. Now it was overgrown with weeds and volunteer saplings, but you could still see the remains of carefully planned flower beds and a small fountain that had long since run dry.

"We were just walking around back here," Christopher explained, his voice taking on a more serious tone as we approached the area where they'd made their discovery. "Cindy thought she saw something moving in the brush, so we went to investigate."

"What kind of something?" I asked, immediately alert to the possibility of infected or other dangers.

"Just a rabbit," Cindy said quickly. "But when we were looking for it, we found... well, you'll see."

The path led us behind a small outbuilding that might have been used for storing church supplies or gardening equipment. It was here that the carefully maintained church grounds gave way to wilder, more natural landscape—the kind of place where things could easily remain hidden for weeks or months without being discovered.

"Right over there," Christopher pointed toward a dense cluster of bushes and small trees about thirty yards from where we stood.

As we got closer, I began to understand why they'd been so excited and confused by their discovery. Even from a distance, there was something distinctly unnatural about the way light seemed to bend around a particular spot in the vegetation. It wasn't obvious unless you were looking for it, but once you noticed it, the effect was impossible to ignore.

"Holy cow," Sydney breathed, voicing what we were all thinking as we pushed through the undergrowth and got our first clear look at the object.

The device—because there was no other word for what we were looking at—was partially buried clearly recent, but enough of it was visible to make its alien nature immediately apparent. It was roughly cube-shaped, maybe four feet on each side, with a surface that seemed to absorb light rather than reflect it. The exposed portions were covered in intricate patterns that shifted and flowed in ways that made my eyes water if I stared at them too long.

"This definitely didn't fall off the back of a military truck," I said, circling around to get a better view from different angles.

"That's what I said," Cindy nodded. "And look at this—some of these symbols are actually glowing."

She was right. Scattered across the device's surface were markings that pulsed with a faint blue-green light, creating patterns that seemed almost like writing. The rhythm of the pulsing was hypnotic, and I found myself wondering if it was trying to communicate something.

"How long do you think it's been here?" Sydney asked, kneeling down to examine some of the debris that had accumulated around the base of the device.

"Hard to say," Christopher replied, brushing away some of the leaves and branches that had fallen across its surface. "Could be months, could be years. This stuff builds up pretty quickly once nobody's around to clear it away."

I found myself drawn to one particular section of the device where the glowing symbols seemed more active than elsewhere. There was something almost familiar about the patterns, though I couldn't place where I might have seen anything like them before. The red stone in my pocket was growing warm again, just as it had when I'd accidentally cut myself earlier.

"We need to figure out a way to get this thing back to the house," I said, though part of me wondered if that was really such a good idea. "Whatever it is, we can't just leave it sitting here for someone else to find."

"Are you sure that's wise?" Cindy asked, her voice carrying a note of concern. "I mean, we don't know what it does. What if it's dangerous?"

"What if it's useful?" Sydney countered. "What if it's some kind of technology that could help us? Communication device, medical equipment, who knows?"

"What if it's a bomb?" Christopher added unhelpfully.

"Then we're probably already dead just from being near it," I pointed out. "Might as well take the risk."

The truth was, I felt compelled to study the device more closely. The warmth from the red stone was becoming more pronounced, and I had the strangest sensation that the two objects were somehow connected—that they were meant to work together in some way.

"Alright," Sydney said, standing up and dusting off her knees. "But if this thing kills us all, I'm blaming you, Ryan."

"Fair enough," I agreed, already trying to figure out the logistics of moving something this heavy and unwieldy.

Christopher had come prepared with rope and carabiners, clearly having thought through the practical aspects of retrieval during the drive back to get us. "If we can clear away some of this debris and get a good grip on the corners, the four of us should be able to lift it," he said.

"Should being the operative phrase," Cindy muttered, but she was already helping to pull away the accumulated branches and leaves.

It took nearly twenty minutes to clear enough space around the device to get a proper grip on it. The surface felt strange under my hands—warm and smooth, with a texture that was almost organic. It reminded me of touching skin rather than metal or plastic, which was deeply unsettling.

"On three," I said, positioning myself at one corner while Christopher took the opposite side. "One... two... three!"

We lifted, and I was surprised to find that while the device was certainly heavy, it wasn't impossibly so. Maybe two hundred pounds, distributed across four people, was manageable—though getting it all the way back to the car was going to be a different challenge entirely.

"Careful!" Cindy warned as we maneuvered the device through the undergrowth. "Don't let it hit those tree branches."

The trip back to the car was slow and awkward, requiring frequent stops to adjust our grip and navigate around obstacles. By the time we reached the vehicle, all four of us were breathing heavily and sweating despite the cool morning air.

"Now comes the fun part," Sydney panted, setting down her corner of the device next to the car's rear bumper. "Getting this thing secured on the roof."

Christopher had clearly thought this through as well, producing a complex arrangement of ropes and straps from the trunk. "I've done enough climbing to know how to distribute weight properly," he said, already beginning to rig a harness system across the car's roof rack. "As long as nobody takes any sharp turns at high speed, this should hold."

Climbing? Who are you? Jason?

"I make no promises," Sydney replied, though her grin suggested she was mostly joking.

It took another twenty minutes of careful coordination to get the device properly secured on the roof. The car sat noticeably lower once the weight was distributed, and I found myself wondering what would happen if we encountered any infected on the way back. Our usual tactic of using the vehicle as a weapon would be severely compromised with several hundred pounds of alien technology strapped to the top.

The drive back was notably quieter than the trip out. The weight of the device changed the car's handling in subtle but noticeable ways, making it feel top-heavy and unstable. Sydney compensated by driving more carefully than usual, taking turns slowly and avoiding any sudden maneuvers.

I spent the time staring out the window at the passing landscape, trying to process everything that had happened over the past few hours. The red stone in my pocket continued to radiate warmth, and I couldn't shake the feeling that bringing the device back to the house was a dangerous gamble. "Ryan," Sydney's voice broke through my contemplation. "You're being awfully quiet back there. Having second thoughts about our alien houseguest?"

"Just thinking," I replied. "Trying to figure out what we're getting ourselves into."

"Whatever it is," Christopher said, "at least we'll face it together. That has to count for something."

I nodded, though I wasn't entirely sure I believed it. The device felt like a catalyst or somerthing…And with Alisha talking about leaving with Elena, our team might not stay intact much longer anyway.

Here we go, I am again thinking about a girl that isn't even my girlfriend…

As we turned onto our street, I could see the house coming into view.

"Home sweet home," Sydney announced as she pulled into the driveway, carefully positioning the car to allow maximum clearance for unloading our mysterious cargo.

"Let's hope everyone's in a good mood," Cindy said, climbing out and stretching. "Because explaining this is going to be interesting."

That turned out to be the understatement of the century.

The moment we started working to untie the ropes securing the device to the roof, the front door of the house burst open and practically everyone spilled out onto the porch. Elena and Alisha appeared first, followed closely by Rachel and Rebecca, then Daisy looking nervous as always, and finally Liu Mei, who appeared mildly annoyed at having her reading interrupted.

"What the hell is that?" Rebecca asked, her eyes wide as she took in the sight of the obviously non-human object strapped to our roof.

"Language," Rachel automatically corrected, though her own expression showed the same mixture of fascination and alarm I'd seen in everyone else when they first laid eyes on the device.

"That's what we're trying to figure out," I said, working with Christopher to carefully lower one end of the device from the roof rack.

Elena stepped forward, her face pale with concern. "Ryan, that thing... it doesn't look safe."

"Nothing's safe anymore," Sydney pointed out with characteristic cheerfulness. "Might as well collect mysterious alien artifacts while we're at it."

"Alien?" Daisy's voice went up an octave, and I could see her unconsciously taking a step backward toward the house.

"Nobody said alien," Christopher protested, though the lack of conviction in his voice made it clear he didn't believe his own denial.

Alisha moved closer to examine the device. "The surface patterns are definitely not of human origin I think?" She observed with narrowed gaze before glancing at me immediately. I averted my gaze.

"Great," Rebecca muttered, running her hands through her red hair in frustration. "As if infected zombies weren't enough, now we're dealing with little green men."

Obviously they were all not taking it seriously still thinking maybe this was some secret military device. The only ones who knew about real aliens trying to invade Earth was me, Rachel and Elena after all and obviously those two had already guessed that could be an alien device as they stayed awfully silent but also concerned.

"Where should we put it?" I asked, realizing we'd managed to bring the thing home without actually planning where to store it.

"Definitely not in the house," Rachel said. "Not until we understand what it does and whether it poses any kind of health risk."

"The garage," Elena suggested, pointing toward the detached building that sat at the back of the house. "There's enough room, and if it... does something unexpected, at least it won't be right next to where we sleep."

"Good thinking," I agreed, already beginning to maneuver my end of the device toward the suggested location.

The garage had clearly been used for storage by the house's previous owners. It was filled with the usual suburban collection of forgotten lawn equipment, holiday decorations, and boxes of miscellaneous items that had accumulated over years of normal family life. We quickly cleared a space in the center, moving aside a dusty riding mower and several boxes of Christmas ornaments that seemed like relics from another world.

"There," Christopher said as we carefully set the device down on the concrete floor. "Home sweet alien home."

Everyone gathered around in a loose circle, staring at the device like it might suddenly sprout legs and start dancing. The blue-green lights continued their steady pulsing, and now that we were in the enclosed space of the garage, I could clearly hear what Christopher had mentioned earlier—a faint humming sound that seemed to come from deep within the object itself.

"It's definitely active," Alisha observed, kneeling down to examine the glowing symbols more closely without actually touching anything. "Some kind of internal power source is clearly functioning."

"Should we be worried about radiation?" Daisy asked, unconsciously taking another step backward.

"If it's radioactive enough to be dangerous, we're probably all contaminated already," Liu Mei said with her characteristic bluntness. "Might as well get our money's worth of exposure."

"That's not helping," Rachel said, shooting her a disapproving look.

I found myself drawn to one particular panel on the device's surface, where the symbols seemed to be shifting more actively than elsewhere. The patterns were hypnotic, and I felt the red stone in my pocket responding with increasing warmth. There was something almost magnetic about the way the markings flowed and changed, as if they were trying to tell me something important.

Without really thinking about what I was doing, I reached out toward the panel.

"Ryan, don't—" Elena started to warn, but it was too late.

The moment my fingertips made contact with the alien surface, everything changed.

The humming sound intensified into a deep, thrumming vibration that I could feel in my bones, in my teeth, in the very core of my being. The blue-green lights flared brighter, casting strange shadows that seemed to move independently on the garage walls. And suddenly, my mind was flooded with images and sensations that definitely didn't come from my own memories.

I saw vast cities of impossible architecture reaching toward alien skies painted in colors that had no names. I saw creatures that moved with fluid grace through environments that defied the laws of physics as I understood them. I witnessed wars fought with weapons that bent reality itself, turning space inside out and making time flow backward. And I saw the aftermath—empty worlds and silent monuments to civilizations that had reached too far, climbed too high, and fallen too hard.

Through it all, I felt something watching me, studying me, evaluating whether I was worthy of the knowledge being shared. It was an alien intelligence, vast and patient and utterly indifferent to human concerns. Yet there was something else there too—a recognition, as if this entity had been waiting specifically for me. It was also answering my unasked questions and demands.

When I tried to know something it answered briefly.

The visions came faster now, overwhelming my senses with information I couldn't hope to process. I saw the red stone I carried, but not as I knew it—I saw it as part of a vast network of similar artifacts scattered across countless worlds, each one a key that could unlock powers beyond imagination. I saw myself, but older, changed, wielding abilities that made my current capabilities seem like party tricks.

And through it all, the alien presence continued its evaluation, weighing my potential against some incomprehensible standard.

The vision lasted only a few seconds in real time, but when it ended, I found myself staggering backward, my hand still tingling from the contact. Everyone was staring at me with expressions ranging from concern to outright alarm.

"Ryan!" Sydney grabbed my arm to steady me, her face tight with worry. "Are you okay? What happened? You went completely rigid for a moment there."

I opened my mouth to answer, then closed it again. How could I possibly explain what I'd just experienced?

"I…I am fine…I just need some rest. Don't touch it any of you just in case," I said and walked off feeling a splitting headache.

This was clearly alien.

Should I just spill out to Christopher and the others the truth? I really didn't want to get them involved damn it!

I can't.

I just can't tell them.

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