Young Writers Society

Aria began to carefully lift herself from the floor. Harry started to do the same, but she held up a hand. He stopped and raised his eyebrows questioningly. She gestured to the door and then towards the window. He nodded. She was probably going to stand closer to the door just in case that was the point where it was going to get locked. They certainly had to jam something in there if they wanted to get the door open. 

While blasting their way out of the transport with their guns and taking out the drivers would be relatively easy once they were out of the camp, they’d rather slip out quietly. Avoiding conflict unless absolutely necessary would was the only way for them to remain undetected long enough to complete the mission their parents had come up with. Or they would be hunted down with the entire alien army that was probably still present on Earth in some capacity. Of course those were all assumptions, they would not know the magnitude of what was going on till they were actually outside.

The transport soon came to a halt. From what Harry could make out they were a few feet away from the wall itself. The door that controlled traffic in and out was visible even from where he sat. It had to be massive if he could spot it even with his currently very limited field of view. 

They waited with bated breath as the familiar chirping sound of the alien’s talking could be heard from where Harry assumed the driver was. So far no one had walked out to check the back yet but there was absolutely no way to figure what the aliens were saying. It could have been a routine hello and a joke or they might have been gearing up to storm the back.

It appeared no one would actually be checking the back, because it wasn’t a minute later before he heard the sound of something being quickly opened. It was then closed as soon as it was opened and then the transport was moving once again. Harry watched as they passed by the frame of the door. And then suddenly he could no longer see the doorframe. For a second Harry couldn’t even process what was happening. The outer wall was slowly shrinking and vanishing in the distance. He turned, looking back now rather than forward. As the outer wall got smaller, his smile got wider. They were out. They had escaped.

Harry was almost ready to jump and down and celebrate, but that would probably ensure they got spotted by the drivers and it would still be a very bad thing as long as they were within eyesight of the door to the outer wall. They had to get a lot further away before it was safe to escape the transport and be actually free.

Aria snuck back to her hiding place, and Harry settled down. He could see the smile on her face too. And although he couldn’t see everyone else in their hiding places, he was sure they were sporting identical grins.

With that, he managed to convince himself to lie still in the transport for a bit longer. It was a delicate balance, he did have to make sure he didn’t get himself too comfortable or the exhaustion of everything they had pulled off that one night would end up with him falling asleep. Aria seemed to have the same idea on the other side as she took to silently tapping on her knee.

Aria seemed to be angling herself a little as well, probably trying to get a better view of what was behind them. Clearly she was looking for the best time for them to get out at long last.

Harry took a moment to reflect on what they'd pretty much pulled off at this point. It was something that had been ingrained into the mind of every human for the past century as being something totally impossible, the numerous failed escape attempts all confirming this. Now, however, it was going to give everyone else hope, and hopefully not more trouble. 

The aliens had been quite fair in their treatment of family members and friends in previous escape attempts, and in most cases, the whole family tried to escape together anyway, but those were all failed attempts in which the aliens had won. There was no telling how they would now react to their first loss. It was a depressing thought among the general euphoria of successfully escaping. Way to dampen the mood Harry. You're turning into Aria today.