13 12. Visiting Aunt Vera

After refueling, we went to Aunt Vera. Vera Tennyson, Grandpa Max's sister, but she knows nothing about his stormy youth. Apparently, they are not very close.

As we drove, I decided to take some time for Gwen. Of course, I like her, she is smart, beautiful and interesting. And even I see that she is in love with me, but I still can't take the last step and normally talk to her about our feelings.

Deciding to watch a movie with her, I took out my laptop, called her to lie on the bed and lie in an embrace.

She only happily agreed to this, grabbed me like a tick. So we spent the rest of the way to the house of Aunt Vera.

_

Vera decided to live in a small town in the desert. Even though it was just the beginning of summer, the temperature was already over 30 ° C. I don't know how these old people can live here. But they shouldn't be cold.

Arriving, we were met by Vera Tennyson herself. In general, she is the older sister of her grandfather and his brother Gordon. She was now 64 years old. In fact, she looked good enough for her age. Apparently her love for strange dishes, like her grandfather's, is evident.

She had gray hair, was overweight and, in my opinion, was wearing too much pink.

As soon as we left the mobile home, a warm and too tight hug was waiting for us. And, of course, Aunt Vera's special ritual when meeting her grandchildren. Namely, she patted our cheeks. It was very unpleasant.

Just as we entered her house, the old man, in whom I recognized Marty, looked out from the window of the neighboring house. Gwen and I have seen it before, when we came here last times. He also treated us to sweets.

When Marty looked at us he hissed his mouth wide open and cracked his neck unnaturally. Besides me, Gwen saw it too.

So after Marty closed the blinds, she quickly asked me with wide eyes:

- Did you see that? Or it seemed to me?

- Saw. It seems that something is happening in this city. I'll need to figure it out later. Until then, be careful. - I whispered in her ear.

At my words, Gwen nodded and walked into the house with a brisk pace.

After that there was lunch. As I expected, we were fed the next nasty thing. Although this time, it was not all that bad, just jelly with beef and Brussels sprouts, it could be worse.

Then I decided to invite Gwen to take a walk around the city. By doing this, shoot several birds with one stone. Spend time with Gwen. Deal with local aliens. And arrange an adventure for Gwen.

I'm not worried about her, she can handle it. If that I will help her. But, just in case, I took a water gun that was on the bus from somewhere.

_

(Gwen POV)

After a weirdest lunch, Lex invited me to take a walk around town. Is this a date? Hope this is the case.

In any case, we will be able to spend at least a little time alone, we have rarely been able to do this since the beginning of the trip. Now grandfather is always nearby, then Lex is busy with his own business. He does not devote time to me at all, so he also gets stuck in some stories without us. But nothing, since we are alone, I will definitely be able to advance our relationship at least a little.

Aunt Vera allowed us to take her golf cart. Therefore, we sat down in this car together and went for a drive. Lex was driving, although I also wanted to drive, but it seemed more romantic, so I didn't mind.

While we were driving on cart, there were a lot of old people around and they looked at us in a strange way. So I decided to talk to Lex about it.

- Do you see those strange looks too?

- Yes, after all, something is wrong in this city. - Lex said seriously.

With this I completely agreed, these strange looks, plus there was also that old man whom we saw at the entrance to the city. He did a back somersault from the roof of the second floor and landed quite normally.

Continuing on our way, in one of the windows we saw how a certain old woman, chasing a fly, jumped to the ceiling, caught hold of it like a spider and simply devoured this very fly.

- What an abomination. - I said with disgust.

- That's for sure. - Lex said casually.

After that, we no longer thought that something would surprise us, but no surprise. We saw Marty, Aunt Vera's neighbor, driving his golf cart, with a folded carpet on the next seat.

Just then, a water sprinkler turned on on the lawn. Marty saw the water and drove around the spray in a wide arc, as if it were sulfuric acid.

- Shall we follow? - I suggested.

- Yes. - Lex replied.

And we went for Marty. After 5 minutes of surveillance, Marty stopped at the dumpsters. Taking the carpet, he stretched his legs three meters and simply stepped over the fence. And he went on as if nothing had happened.

Stunned by what I saw, I looked at Lex and saw that he, keeping a calm face, began to chase Marty. Without thinking anymore, I followed him.

Hiding by the fence, we watched as Marty, or whoever it was, pushed a heavy trash can with one hand. There was a secret entrance under the tank. Marty opened the entrance and took the carpet and went inside.

- What do we do? - I asked nervously.

- Let's wait a minute and follow. This is definitely not Marty and not a man, and somehow he behaved suspiciously. There is also this carpet, it feels like there is definitely a body hidden there. - Lex said thoughtfully as he touched the selection.

We nodded at his words and waited. A minute later, we climbed over the fence and slowly walked to the secret hatch.

Opening the hatch that Marty closed, we looked down and saw a tunnel there.

- Be as quiet as possible. - Lex warned me and helped me down. He himself followed, not forgetting to quietly close the hatch.

It was dark in the tunnel itself, but Lex turned on the flashlight on his phone and illuminated everything.

By this time, Marty was not seen, but his tracks were visible. We followed them.

After 10 minutes of wandering through this tunnel, we finally found something interesting.

We saw a spaceship, and outside there were some kind of egg-shaped cocoons. Coming closer and looking inside the cocoons, we saw pensioners.

- Really, all these old people were kidnapped and put in these cocoons? - I asked in shock.

- Most likely, they were not only kidnapped, but also replaced. Look, this is a granny with a fly. - Lex said and pointed to one of the cocoons.

- But how did they do it? And why would they? - I asked.

- These aliens are apparently some kind of shapeshifters. Remember how the pseudo Marty lengthened his legs? And about why, I don't know. Maybe old people for them, something like a snack. - Lex said with a shrug.

- Do not joke so. - I hissed.

- I'm not kidding, you never know what happens.

Then a hole appeared on the ship from which Marty came out. Seeing us, he hissed and lunged at me. Frightened, I didn't have time to do anything, but Lex did.

Seeing Marty, he pulled out a water gun from his bosom and fired at the alien. When a stream of water hit him, he screamed, and screaming in agony dissolved into a puddle.

- What was it? - trying to understand what is happening, I asked.

- Just water. Do you remember how pseudo-Marty dodged the water, so I thought it was their weakness. Not surprisingly, they settled here with such and such heat. And I took the gun myself to play a trick on you, who would have thought that it would be so useful. - Lex said, twirling the toy.

Ignoring the part where he wanted to play a trick on me, we went to the entrance to the ship. Just as we entered it, the alarm sounded. And inside we saw another three dozen cocoons.

- Apparently I was right, they want to take the old people and fly away. And now, on alarm, all these creatures will return here. But this is even good, you will not need to look for them. Take the gun for now and shoot them when they appear, and I'll take all the cocoons out of the ship. And then I will destroy it. - handing me the water gun, Lex said.

Just at that moment, shouts were heard from the entrance to the cave. Turning to the sound, I saw several old men who were running at an unnatural speed and on the way lost their false appearance. They really looked like a humanoid green jelly, with arms and legs, and inside them you could see the internal organs.

- Stop them. - said Lex, and he turned into his blue runner, and began to take out the cocoons one by one.

While he was doing this, I fired back. Despite the fact that I have already killed ten, their number did not diminish.

When I ran out of water, there were still about a hundred of them, and maybe more. At that moment they were already almost beside me, but thank God that Lex had just finished and stood in front of me.

After a yellow flash, and then a blue one, a robotic alien stood in the place of the runner. So this is what he is, Overflow.

Becoming Overflow, he put his arms forward and shot the aliens with torrents of water. In one attack, he destroyed more than half of these slugs, but still there are a lot of them.

After another flash, he already became a fire guy and sent a fireball upward.

Not understanding why he did it, I looked up and saw a pipe running under the ceiling, from which water was dripping.

After hitting the ball, the pipe burst and water poured from there. This rain destroyed all the other slugs.

When there were no enemy aliens left, Lex came up to me and took me in his arms like a princess, after which he turned into a runner and instantly carried me to the cave entrance.

After putting me on the ground, Lex, after another flash of light, became an Upgrade, which immediately turned into a robot and, putting out a bunch of guns, destroyed the slug ship.

After that, we had to deliver all these cocoons to the central square, from where I helped the old people get out, while Lex delivered the rest of the eggs. Then the pensioners did it themselves.

In half an hour we finished everything and took our golf cart and went home to aunt Vera.

- Well, how do you like it? Did you like our little date? - Lex asked with a teasing smile.

- Very. So this was a date? - I asked nervously.

- If you so want, then so be it. - Lex said.

At that moment, I decided to do something incredibly daring. I kissed him. At first he was surprised, but later he began to return my kiss.

We kissed for almost a minute, we would love to continue, but due to the fact that Lex was driving, we could not continue for a long time, he almost knocked over trash cans.

After that, we, with red faces, drove on in silence. Nobody said anything.

Arriving a couple of minutes later, we entered the house. There grandfather and aunt played chess. Saying that I was very tired, I refused dinner and went to bed with a stupid smile on my face.

Before leaving, I saw the same smile on Lex's face.