"Please don't hurt me!" she said and bit her lip. Too scared to move she just stood there, utterly frozen.
"Maria, you never said. I was your friend. Three years and you didn't tell me"
"I couldn't"
"Why?"
"You would hate me."
"Maria, you're not even human. You're one of those alien freaks. You've got our planet, what more do you want?" he spat, brandishing the stick. Trying desperately to keep a hold on her dignity, Maria turned to Jay.
"It couldn't help being born on another planet. It wasn't my fault that they invaders came here" she said, not able to look Jay in the face. Jay knew that she could be lying but he didn't say anything.
"You never told me. Three years I spent, we spent hiding from them. And they were your family. How do I know you didn't betray me? That they aren't coming right now?"
Maria stayed silent.
"Did you betray me?" Jay asked nervously, ready to turn on his heels and run.
"No. I could never... I would never" she sobbed and Jay looked nervous.
"You're an alien" he said, it was a statement not a question.
Maria nodded sadly and stared at him. She inched towards him, her hands held up in front of her.
"I'm just gonna... I'm gonna go. You go to the Resistance" she said, and started to jog down the path. The only thing that showed that she wasn't human was the speed that she was travelling. She was running at near thirty miles an hour, out of sight in an instant.
Jay stood there, disbelieving. Maria had just left. His only friend for three years. And she would never come back. He felt so betrayed. She was an alien, one of the people that took the whole world from humanity. But yet, it wasn't her fault. It was too late to tell her that, that he still needed her, because she was gone.
Angrily Jay screamed "Maria!" and a figure approached from the fog. He glanced at it and saw Maria standing in front of him. She had come back. She was back, and that was all that mattered right now.
However, Jay did not feel this way a few minutes later.
"Maria" he said, cold and disbelieving. She nodded in response and looked away.
"I am sorry you know. It probably would be better if you went to the resistance" she said guiltily.
"What about you?"
"I can't go back. I can't go to the city. If any of them see me... I'd be locked away for the rest of my life"
"What did you do?"
She remained silent.
"Maria, what did you do?"
"I betrayed them"
Jay looked confused. "What did you do exactly?"
"Five spaceships went missing from the capital three years ago. Five hunted rebel humans disapeared two days later. You do the math..."
"You saved them?" Jay was utterly shocked.
"It was all I could do"
Maria looked up at the stars that had once been her home.
"I can't go back" she repeated.
"I'm not leaving you alone, just to go to the Resistance"
"You've got to"
"It's five hundred miles away, ok?" he snapped.
"Why didn't you say that before?" she said, exasperated.
"I would walk that far, just not alone. So it's pointless. I'm not leaving"
"Yes you are. And there's no need to walk. I'll steal a car. I'll go to a city and steal a car. I'll drive. And then I'll leave. Only the people in the city know me."
