District 9 - PoHA - 11

Chapter 11 – The sharpest lives


"Have you managed to speak with Rineke?" asked Josh the moment he woke up and looked over the couch he was lying on.
Glenda hung up the phone with an angry bang. "No…"
There was a loud grumble in response to the noise, coming from the poleepkwa sitting in a nearby armchair, who rose his head in surprise. He was wearing a gigantic hoody, fitting his own impressive size.
"Sorry, Michael…" Glenda moaned, stroking her tired eyes.
It was early in the morning, and none of them had barely slept. Michael had spent the night there at Glenda's house with them. They tried calling MNU dozens of times, but couldn't speak with Rineke since the last time he called himself. Instead they kept receiving calls from worried PoHA members asking about the people missing.
"You should get some sleep, aunt Glenda" Josh said, and Glenda replied by flapping a hand in the air.
"Couldn't sleep if I wanted to" she yawned.
"< What time is it? >" asked Michael, sitting up straight in the armchair that seemed only half as big as he.
"Uh, it's…  ten to eight" Josh mumbled.
"< As soon as the curfew's over I'm going back to the district to see if I can find them. >"
Michael picked up his dagger from the ground and started stroking it distractedly.
"I'll make some breakfast. You want some breakfast?" Josh suggested, getting up from the couch with a jump so as to liven up the situation.
Just then, the doorbell rang. They all looked at each other excitedly and then Glenda ran to the door, hoping to see one of the missing members. But it wasn't anyone they knew.
Nothing could have scared her more than to open up the door to a bunch of MNU employees, and that was exactly what happened.
"Good morning, madam. Simon Welsh, MNU. Is this the residence of Glenda Mklanda?" asked the man in the jacket, being escorted by a couple of guards with pistols in their belts.
"Oh… yes?"
"May we come in so that we can ask you some questions?"
"I'd rather speak here. The house is a mess."
"I insist" asked the man with a fake smile and slowly making his way through the front door, so that Glenda had no choice but to step aside and then nervously followed the men inside.
"Do you have a permit for this?" she asked angrily, and almost bumped into the man when he stopped suddenly at the entrance to the living room, for he had just seen Michael standing there next to Josh with his dagger in his claw. The two armed men took one step forward and reached for their guns.
"Sir" said the man in the jacket, "put down the knife."
Michael looked at his dagger as he'd just realized he was holding it, and then slowly placed it on the couch.
"< I was just toying with it "> he said, but none of them seemed to listen.
The man turned to Glenda.
"Miss Mklanda, do you know this non-human?"
"Yes, of course, he's a friend of mine" she said proudly, pointing her chin upwards at the man, who was much taller than her.
The  man looked at each of them in turn and then said to the guards "Search the house."
Glenda stood up to him.
"Inviting prawns to my home is not illegal!"
"We believe you may have something to do with events taking place yesterday in District 9." Glenda kept quiet, and so did Josh and Michael. "Are you part of an association called PoHA?"
There was a short silence in which Glenda doubted whether she should just lie. Obviously she couldn't fool anyone with Michael there.
"Yes."
Josh intervened "So?"
"Did you know a number of members from your association were involved in the murder of five people?"
Glenda looked at Josh and Michael, and they returned the look, just as shocked as she was.
"And that's what we can prove" the man pointed out.
"You can prove this?"
"We have a video recording of an armed fight next to the shack of a non-human by the name of Kyler Asher. Do you know this non-human?"
The man waited patiently for a response that took a few seconds to come.
"Y-yes…"
"Do you know where he is?"
At this, Glenda answered right away. It was true after all.
"No, I don't. Not since yesterday in the morning."
"Does any of you have any information on this incident? Do you know where Mr. Asher could be? Do you have any way of contacting him? Do you know who else could've been with him during the incident?"
They all answered negatively to every question.  The man's lips curled thoughtfully as he evaluated their responses. Finally, he seemed convinced.
"There's nobody else in the house" said one of the guards, who had just arrived back downstairs from searching the house. The other guard joined him.
The man in the jacked seemed to decide he wasn't going to get anything useful out of them, and made to leave.
"If you have any new information, please contact MNU. Pardon the intrusion" he said politely and went out the front door followed by the guards. Glenda went after them and closed the door.
"How do they know?" she squeaked, turning away from the entrance.
"Do you think they could've gotten it out of Rineke?" Josh exclaimed. "What about Neil? We haven't heard from him either! You think they could have made them tell about us?"
Glenda shook her head in thought.
"What is this about Kyler?" she said. "Why didn't they say anything? I don't believe it!"
"< They're not going to leave just like that >" added Michael. "< They could've taken us to headquarters. If they didn't it's because they're expecting Kyler and the rest to knock on this door anytime. >"
"They could be registering our calls too. We shouldn't make any more calls for now. We'll just have to wait and see…"



Ana woke up to a mild discomfort on her left ear and a not so mild one on her left hip, but was quick not to complain, since that would've waken Kyler, on whom she had been resting her head. There wasn't enough space on the small shack's ground for everyone to sleep on it and Kyler and Ana had offered to sleep in a corner, with their backs set against the wall. The improvised cushion protecting Ana's cheek from Kyler's tough shell had shifted and now her ear hurt like hell. Gently she sat up, leaving Kyler's warmth and coming out of the blanket they had been sharing, to realize suddenly, the aliens' rough breathings being the only sounds to be heard, that Jen was missing from the room.
She looked around the floor and behind Jasper's figure sitting with his side resting on the wall, checking every corner with what must have been abrupt head movements, because then Kyler's breathing stopped. Ana looked at him to find his big grey eyes staring back at her somewhat worryingly.
"Jen's gone" she whispered, and Kyler reacted by looking around the room himself.
They both got up silently trying not to wake the rest and carefully stepped between the bodies of their roommates. They heard a grunt and Amelia raised her head sleepily.
"What?" she mumbled.
Ana decided not to say anything just yet, and as they tip-toed past Black Jack, the black poleepkwa raised his own head nonchalantly. As soon as Ana opened the decrepit wooden door she sighed in relief. There was Jen, standing with her arms wrapped around herself, shivering and staring out at the district, and hardly any response came in hearing Ana and Kyler approach her.
"Jen, what are you doing out here?"
Jen only shrugged.
The sun had just come up and the air was still chilly.
"You're going to freeze. Why don't you come back inside?"
"It's worse that I know I should be doing something and I'm not."
"What do you mean?"
"To get Sam back."
Ana and Kyler exchanged looks.
"You can't DO anything, Jen. At least not while we're in here."
"Then why don't we get out already?"
"We have to be patient."
"It's easy for you two to say, you still have the person you love."
Ana and Kyler automatically exchanged looks again, this time shyly. Ana's cheeks burned.
"< We love Sam too, Jen >" Kyler clicked.
Just then, right when Jen seemed ready to spit a snappy response at them, Black Jack peeked out of the door.
"< Come inside, Glenda's on the phone. >"
Inside, everyone was already wide awake and there came a few relieved sighs in seeing them three appear through the door, as if they'd been worried. Amelia was holding the phone up so everyone could hear, and Glenda's voice came loud from the speaker.
"We weren't sure whether to call or not, we think they might be watching."
"< How do they know about PoHA? >" Jack asked.
"I have no idea… We-we're thinking maybe they got it from Rineke or Neil. But we shouldn't talk more, I'm hanging up. Don't try calling us or coming to this house, please. Take good care" Glenda's voice broke and then she was gone.
"< What happened? >" Kyler clicked.
"MNU was just at Glenda's, and apparently they knew all about us. And they came asking for you" Amelia replied with a tired voice.
"< Me? >"
"What about Sam?" Jen interrupted.
"She… didn't mention" Amelia said guiltily as if she'd just remembered. "She didn't have time."
"Call her again."
"< No! You heard what she said, they could be spying on her! She might already have exposed us by calling here! >" Black Jack retorted.
Jen gave Jack a fuming look and didn't address him when she asked "How long are we going to be hiding here?"
"< It could be days, so we'd better get used to the idea >" Jack replied nonetheless, then picked up the weapon when he heard the knock on the door. They all froze until a clicking voice announced from the outside "< It's me, K. I'm with Everett. >"
Black Jack lowered the weapon and opened the door just so K could squeeze through, then stopped Everett before entering.
"< Who are you? >"
"< It's fine, Jack, we met him yesterday >" said Jasper faintly. Ana noticed with concern how tired he looked.
Black Jack let Everett in and K introduced him to everybody. Everett paid special attention to the humans, eyeing them curiously.
"< We brought some more water >" K pointed out to where Everett was standing with a heavy-looking plastic gallon that he then placed on the ground.
There were a few sounding "thanks".
"< And >" K went on, and grabbed the small purse hanging from his shoulders, "< some money that I collected here and there. You'd be surprised how many people around here know about PoHA. >"
Everyone gaped at the handful of coins.
"< Everett says there's enough here to buy food for all of you, which means you'll be eating today >" K said with the greatest joy.
"Yay!" Amelia squeaked weakly, and all around there were murmurs of delight.
"< They sell food a couple blocks from here. If one of you will come with me we can bring enough for the day >" K suggested.
"< I'll go >" Jack offered, and he seemed so desperate to get some air that everyone let him go.