Earth Afire (The First Formic War 2)

Her words surprised him. Meilin never admitted to weakness. If anything she went out of her way to prove how smart and strong and unafraid she was, always pointing out to Bingwen and Hopper and others how they were doing a math problem wrong or solving a thought puzzle incorrectly. And yet here she was, on the verge of tears, showing a fragility that Bingwen had never seen before.

For a moment he considered lying to her, telling her the whole vid had been a prank. That's what an adult would do, after all: laugh and shrug and dismiss the whole thing as fantasy. Children couldn't stomach the truth, adults believed. Children had to be protected from the harsh realities of the world.

But what good would that do Meilin? This wasn't a prank. It wasn't a game. That thing on screen was real and alive and dangerous.

"I'm scared too," said Bingwen.

She nodded, hurrying to keep pace beside him. "Do you think it's coming to Earth?"

"We shouldn't think of it as an 'it,'" said Bingwen. "There's probably more than one. And yes, it's coming to Earth. The interference is only getting worse, which suggests their ship is headed this way. Plus it looked intelligent. It must be intelligent. It built an interstellar spacecraft. Humans haven't done that."

They took the last turn in the staircase and reached the valley floor. Hopper was waiting for them, clothes soaked and covered in mud.

"Took you long enough," said Hopper.

"How did you get down before us?" asked Meilin. "And why are you so filthy?"

"Irrigation tube," said Hopper. He patted the side of his bad leg. "Steps take too long."

Meilin made a face. "People throw their dishwater in the tubes."

Hopper shrugged. "It was that or get beat to a pulp. And it rained yesterday, so the tubes aren't dirty. Much."

"That's disgusting," said Meilin.

"Agreed," said Hopper. "But it's easier to clean clothes than to clean wounds." He ran and jumped into the nearest rice paddy, which was filled waist-deep with water. He submerged himself, thrashed around a moment, getting most of the mud off, then shook his upper body and crawled back out of the paddy, dripping wet. "See? Fresh as a flower."

"I'm going to throw up," said Meilin.

"Not on me," said Hopper. "I just bathed."

They took off at a jog along the narrow bridge of earth that separated two of the paddies, heading out into the vast fields of rice. They ran slower so that Hopper could keep up, but it was a good steady pace for distance running.

After a few hundred yards Bingwen glanced back at the staircase to see if Zihao was following. There were a few children coming down, but Zihao wasn't among them. They didn't slow their pace.

"What's the plan?" said Hopper.

"For what?" asked Bingwen.

"Warning everyone," said Hopper.

Bingwen smiled. He could always count on Hopper. "I don't know that anyone's going to believe us. I showed Ms. Yi, and she shrugged it off."

"Ms. Yi's an old water buffalo," said Hopper.

They ran for half an hour, cutting across the fields that followed the bends and turns of the valley. When they reached Meilin's village, she stopped and faced them at the bottom of the stairs. "I can make it from here," she said, gesturing up to her house near the bottom of the hill. "What do I tell my parents?"

"The truth," said Bingwen. "Tell them what you saw. Tell them you believe it. Tell them to go to the library and see it for themselves."

Meilin looked up into the sky where the first few dozen stars had already appeared. "Maybe they don't mean us any harm. Maybe they're peaceful."

"Maybe," said Bingwen. "But you didn't see all of the vid. The alien attacked one of the humans."

Even in the low light Bingwen could see Meilin grow pale.

"Oh," she said.