"Why are we stopping?" John asked as they were all disembarking from The Bus, as they had come to call it, in the city of Burlington, Colorado, population 3,172.
"Take a look," Alex said, indicating all of the people.
"Hey!" Marcus said, "there's folks here."
"Yeah, and they're not scavengers or pirates," Karen added.
"That we know of," Tony corrected her, "they're all staring at us strangely."
"You don't think it could be because of the huge-ass wagon we drove up in, do you?" Alex asked.
"Oh, well, I guess it might," Tony allowed.
"Excuse me," Alex said to a passer by, "Do you guys know what's been going on?"
"Well," the woman said, "those meteors came in and hit somewhere, but we don't know where. Our cable TV and internet have been on the fritz."
"Thank you, ma'am."
"Shouldn't we tell them?" Marcus asked as the woman walked away.
"Depends," Tony said, "If we do it could cause panic, riots, that kind of thing."
"But some of them may get to safety," Alex added.
"They look safe to me," Shannon said, "why ruin that? Maybe they'll be lucky and the violence will bypass them."
"While we decide," Alex said, holding his belly, "I have a hankering for some pancakes."
A few minutes later they were all ensconced in a large booth in the Old Towne Diner. Their waitress, Betty, had gotten them all coffee or whatever other beverage they wanted. She was a plump older lady with a beehive hairdo, and a manner that said she had been doing this for a century or so.
"I have an idea," Tony said, "let's use the rumor mill."
"How?"
"We'll tell the waitress on the way out. She'll tell other people when they come in, and pretty soon the word will be all over town."
"I think that's brilliant," Karen agreed, blowing on her coffee to cool it down.
"I'm up for it," JJ said.
"Alright, that's what we'll do," Alex said, "on our way out."
"So where are we heading?" Marcus asked.
"Boulder," Alex answered, "and from there, up into the mountains."
"Right. But aren't you worried that Boulder has been invaded? It's a pretty big city."
"Yeah, I've been thinking about that," Alex frowned, "but there's got to be other ways into the mountains. We'll just have to find them if it becomes necessary."
"One pancake platter," Betty said cheerfully, setting three plates down in front of Alex. "Pancakes, scrambled eggs, bacon, and biscuits and gravy."
"It looks amazing, Betty," he smiled widely, "thank you."
"Four breakfast specials," the waitress laid out the plates, "one egg white omelet," she grimaced as she set it down in front of Shannon, "and two hamburgers. Anything else?"
"More coffee please."
They spent an hour chatting and enjoying their breakfasts. For awhile, at least, they were able to relax and forget about their troubles.
"What if we just stay here?" Alisha suggested as they were finishing up, "it's nice and calm here with no alien armies trying to kill everyone." That got some strange looks from other patrons.
"I suppose we could," Alex said, "but we don't know if it will last.
"Well I at least need to go shopping," she said, "I've been wearing these same clothes for days."
"I agree," Shannon said, "I think we all need a change of clothes."
"We could spend the day here. We're not on a schedule, so we could rest for awhile."
"Four hours," Ales said sternly, "you all have four hours to go shopping or whatever, then meet back at The Bus."
"But we only have one truck, and it's a tank."
"I loaded up a couple of dirt bikes back in Salina," John said, "if anyone can ride one."
"I'll take one," JJ said immediately.
"I'll take one, too," Marcus said.
"Excuse me, Betty," Alex got her attention, "where is the best place to but new clothes?"
"That would be Bomgaar's Department Store down on 8th Street."
"Okay, thanks. Oh, and Betty? The reason your TV and internet are down is because those meteors were really alien ships here to invade Earth. I just thought you should know."
Betty stared at him for a moment, a mixture of fear and disbelief on her face. Then she suddenly burst out laughing, "You almost had me there for a minute. Aliens," she scoffed.
"Well, I tried."
Flashing red and blue lights greeted them as they approached the bus. As they drew nearer, they saw two local police cars parked in front of and behind the bus.
"Does this truck belong to y'all?" Officer Mendez asked them.
"Yes sir," Alex answered.
"Are them bullet holes in that truck yer carryin'?"
"Yes sir, they are."
"Who was shootin' at ya, son?"
"Nobody was, officer," Alex chuckled, "we were using it for target practice."
"Why would ya do a thang like that?"
"It's a junker truck that we beefed up," he gave the officer his friendliest smile, "we thought it would be fun to shoot it up. We didn't hurt anybody."
"Ai'ight. Can I see your driver's license, son?"
"Sure. Here you go."
"Uh huh. Just let me check it out," Officer Mendez said as he walked to his police car that looked like it fell out of the eighties.
"We don't have a title or insurance for that," John whispered urgently in his ear.
"Don't worry about it. Even if he gives us a ticket, what are they going to do about it? Give us to the aliens? It'll be fine."
"All of our weapons are in the bus," JJ hissed in his other ear.
"Relax. We're not going to shoot our way out of this. You're still too amped from fighting aliens."
"Ai'ight Mister Wolfe," Mendez said as he returned, "drive safe. I heard there's some kinda ruckus out west o' here."
"Thank you, Officer Mendez. We'll be careful."
"Taint never seen nothin' quite like that monster," he nodded towards the bus.
"It's a custom job. John here did all of the work on it."
