Chapter 2: Who is she?

Ivan had always been larger than average for his age. He could be considered the archetype of a farm boy. Thick forearms, short legs, long arms, a decent amount of muscle, and an above-average amount of fat. His ginger hair was in a messy pompadour hairstyle that was even more messed up now because of his sweating in the last few minutes.

He had always been the kind of person to lift the mood at gatherings. He always protected the weak and hated injustice. He had a square jaw softened by baby cheeks and orange pre-mature facial hair that would make his light blue eyes brighter. Right in the middle of his face, he usually wore a smile so radiant that it would make anyone happier.

But at that exact moment, time felt like it had frozen for the young man. Ivan heard Darian's voice telling him to move. But he was just standing there, a blank expression printed on his face. Darian, on the other hand, was thinking. Tens of questions flooded his thoughts. But he still managed to repeat in an even colder voice.

- "Ivan, we have to move."

It was his instinct speaking. He knew that the real problems had just started now that those guys had died on his field. Nevertheless, Ivan was still losing his mind. The corpses and blood were too much for him to handle.

- "IVAN! Wake up! They are dead, but we are alive. I need you. Brother, I cannot deal with this situation alone. I - need - you." said Darian after stepping in front of Ivan.

For a moment, nothing happened. Ivan was still hardly breathing with a numb expression. But Darian's words had cracked his friend's shell, and Ivan's breathing stabilized after a few seconds. Darian's attempt at waking his friend up had succeeded. After a very quiet but confident "Okay, let's do this." Ivan had lifted his head and was waiting for Darian's instructions.

- "You go and grab the shovels from the tractor. We have to cover this before the birds start circling above this place." said Darian, who thought of a few necessary steps to deal with the problems at hand.

In a matter of minutes, the bodies were covered with soil, the girl was in the back of the tractor, Skander's gun was taken by Darian, and the boys were on their way back to his house in a silent drive. No other object was found on the two dead bodies.

The sun was starting to rise, the girl was still sleeping, and Darian's mother was probably doing her daily chores. The traumatized young men were now lifting the answer to all their questions to put her on the couch without caring for the possible permanent bloodstains it would leave on it. Ivan sat on the other couch and tried to recover from all the emotions and the things he saw by putting his head in his hands. On the other hand, Darian was taking great care in removing the blood stains from the girl's skin. Her clothes were definitely ruined, but that was not really a problem.

She looked like she was sleeping peacefully and safely. Darian would feel calm when taking care of her. She reminded him of his little sister. They did not look alike, but taking care of a smaller being was something his heart always profoundly enjoyed and had not done for a long time. When he finished cleaning all the reachable blood stains on the girl's body, he felt as if he had known her for years. After looking at her one last time and smiling, he put the wet and dirty towel away and sat next to Ivan.

- "Why are we not calling the military?" asked Ivan through his hands.
- "I do not want them to get involved or to take her away from me."
- "What? Are you serious?" Said Ivan with a surprised voice after releasing his head from his hands.
- "Yes. I am very serious. Those guys were dangerous, and normal authorities could not deal with them. Do you realize that this girl fell from the sky, remained unscathed, and probably managed to kill those two men in a matter of seconds?"
- "Those are all arguments for calling for help. We cannot handle this situation. They wanted her, and -"
- "They wanted to kill us, and she protected us." Darian said, interrupting his friend.
- "Darian, this is fucked up. They might not be the only people after her. We do not know what she is. She might not even be human. We have to call someone for help."

Darian's dark eyes were bloodshot. He looked at Ivan intensely and said, in a sad tone:

- "You are right. It is just that I feel a deep connection between this girl and me. Something I cannot really describe. I do not want to be separated from her."
- "It is fine, brother. I understand. We both had a difficult morning."
- "That's the least you could say." said Darian with an exhausted smile.

Ivan then decided to stand and took the house's phone to call the military forces. The story he was about to tell was probably of national safety interest. However, the line was inactive. Since the war started almost 3 years ago, most telecommunications satellites had been destroyed. Hence, for ordinary people, the only way to communicate over long distances was to use the old system of physically linked phone lines. They had the advantage of requiring very few resources and were almost incorruptible since they were located entirely in one's territory.

- "I get no signal." Ivan said, disappointed.
- "It does that sometimes. Let me try." Darian tried plugging it in and out of the socket, along with a few other useless manipulations that fixed things most of the time. They all failed.
- "Let's go to my place then." Said Ivan.
- "My mom is coming any minute, and she will be worried. Let's wait for her first." Answered Darian.
- "You are right. Your mom is the type to worry, and she might even be able to fix the phone. Nevertheless, my mom is also probably worried, so I will go there in my car and tell her about everything. I can also call the military from there."

As Ivan finished his sentence, Darian's mother, Julie, opened the door.
- "Oh, there you are, boys. Why is the milk not delivered to your farm, Ivan? And what are you doing here?-- AAAAH, who's this girl?"
- "Mom, have a seat. We have a lot to tell you." Said Darian
- "Let's talk on the way to my house." Answered Ivan

Darian agreed, and without talking, the two young men started carrying the girl. Darian's mother was shocked but could not ask questions since the boys had severe looks. As they approached the door, a small object flew through the living room's window, landed in front of them, and quickly spread a brightly colored green smoke. Darian, his mother, and Ivan thought they were hallucinating. In the split second it took to realize what was happening, a human figure with a gas mask suddenly opened the door and closed it behind itself.

Darian and Ivan had already put the girl on the ground and covered their mouths and noses. Julie, closest to the door, did not have time to react and was knocked out by a sharp punch in the solar plexus. Darian, outraged, jumped at the enemy but was easily dodged and took a hit behind the head. He felt dizzy, and he could now see Ivan trying to grab the unknown figure, who looked way smaller than the ginger man. Ivan had taken advantage of the balance loss induced by the masked aggressor's counterattack on Darian.

After two seconds of recovery, Darian thought to himself two things:
- This guy is not alone because the smoke grenade came from a different direction than the door.
- If this guy is wearing a gas mask, I have to open the door; otherwise, we will breathe too much of this green thing.

Darian immediately proceeded to try to open the door that had been closed by the attacker. Unfortunately, his hand only connected with air as his consciousness was fading. With his last bit of energy, he said, loud enough to be heard:

- "Ivan, my pocket."

Ivan also understood after seeing the mask that this green gas would be problematic. Another problem is that his opponent was way better than he was at hand-to-hand combat. Ivan was the farthest away from the smoke bomb when it landed. He was definitely trying to get back even further in the house and to breathe as little as possible. But Darian's hint made him remember that a weapon was in his friend's pocket. Ivan decided to give it his all and go for a bold charge in the direction of the sleeping man. As he covered the four steps between him and Darian, he felt his strength leaving him and fell unconscious. His thoughts went immediately to his mother. Ivan was hoping that she was okay.

The sound of helicopter blades could now be perceived from the house, but no one except the masked aggressor and two other colleagues could hear.

The masked crew was carrying the four sleeping bodies. After putting them one by one in front of the house, the helicopter, a sizeable military model, landed next to them. The first masked attacker sighed loudly before removing her mask, revealing long platinum blond hair. Along with the hair was now visible an unnaturally big and red pair of eyes delicately placed on a doll's face. The intervention suit she wore would hide her body, but you could easily guess that she was in Olympic shape. She sighed again and said:
- "Hurry up, guys, we have to be faster than the others."

The order was only answered by a slight increase in speed. The two other agents were putting the unresponsive bodies in the helicopter. Their efficiency was impressive, but their rapid movements came at the cost of leaving many traces behind them when taking off. A tiny special cage was on board and now contained the heavy girl, who was folded to fit in. The others, Darian, Ivan, and Julie, were sedated again to ensure they would not wake up during the flight.