Jemma stared blankly at the bland, arid landscape outside the car. The occasional cactus passed by every once in a while, and, though that had been exciting at first and Gem had asked the suited men up front as many questions as they would allow, even the cacti they passed quickly became dull. It felt as though they had been driving all day, and she had been flying for the past two days without much time to adjust either. A large sliver of sunlight came through the highly tinted windows of the air-conditioned car, and since they had been driving one way for a long time, it was starting to make her bare legs hot and uncomfortable.
For Gem, most of the trip had been somewhat of a disappointment. When her parents dropped her off, they were running late, so she hardly got the chance to say goodbye. At the end of a long, Trans-Atlantic flight, she expected to be in America, and maybe even sightsee before the flight to Arizona, but her overnight layover was in Canada of all places. The man in a suit who picked her up in Canada drove her directly to a hotel and immediately escorted her to her room, making sure she knew she was not allowed to wander. He would not even answer her questions, responding only with a stony glare. She was obviously no more than an interruption to his usual work. He made sure she got on her flight and left without even a wave as she boarded. She never even got the rude man’s name.
After another long flight from Canada to here, Jemma was picked up by the two agents currently sitting in the front. The driver had yet to say anything, but the man with a gun in the passenger seat answered some of her questions at least. Well, to an extent. Still, Gem felt wary of the man. He had a certain air about him that made her uneasy. Eventually, he had tired of them and told her to hush. It had been probably an hour since then, and Jemma debated whether to break that silence.
Finally, boredom won out. “Uh, Agent Neman, was it? Are we at least getting close? And are there any other towns nearby?” She heard a sigh from the front seat.
The man cleared his throat before answering, “Yes, and no.”
She gave her own sigh, and a short, “Oh,” in response. A moment of staring out the window later, Gem tried another question that had been on her mind. “Are there any animals out here? I haven’t seen a thing. Or is it too hot for them?” She noticed him look at her in the mirror for a moment, and met his eyes, well, sunglasses, for a moment.
He gave what Gem assumed might pass for a smile and said in an almost sarcastic tone, “Oh, yeah, there are animals out here. Coyotes, rodents, lizards, snakes. Lots of spiders and scorpions. Be sure to shake out your shoes before putting them on and you’ll be fine.” As he looked to the front, he suddenly said, “There it is.” The driver gave what sounded like a sigh of relief, and Gem rolled her eyes. Soon, Jemma was straining at her seatbelt to see it, but her view was mostly blocked by Agent Neman’s big head. Perhaps the seat to, but his head was more annoying.
She quickly undid her seatbelt and moved to the middle seat, leaning forward to see better. Neman growled at her to sit back down, but she ignored him. Odd how easy it was to ignore a man with a gun. Jemma could soon make out a large, bland grey stone wall that stood out from the dessert. As they got closer, she caught the sun flashing off what seemed to be barbed wire strung about the top. Neman shouted at her to sit back in her seat and she scowled at him, but obediently moved. They would be there in a couple minutes anyway, so she refused to put her seatbelt back on. She was too irritable and annoyed at ‘Agent Neman’ if that was even his real name, to be totally agreeable right then.
Finally, the car slowed to a stop before the gate and Jemma noticed the slew of guards patrolling about the entrance. A nervous flutter settled in her stomach. It looked like a prison. Agent Neman opened the door, and as she got out, the urge to run suddenly came upon her. She stood glued to the spot for a moment as the agent approached the gate. She realized he had put her bags down in front of her, and, for some reason, that snapped her out of it. She slung the two smaller ones over her shoulder and pulled up the handle of large rolling suitcase.
As she approached, Agent Neman began speaking to one of the guards. A hand suddenly rested on her shoulder, and Gem squealed at the sudden contact, almost jumping out of her skin. She turned to look behind her and saw that it was the driver. He immediately shushed her. “Not my fault you’re so quiet,” Gem grumbled. Finally, the gate was opened, and the driver gave her a little nudge before turning back to the idling car. Gem huffed, but grabbed her suitcase and went inside the gate.
As soon as she entered, her jaw dropped and all her anxiety faded. It was not like a prison at all. It looked like a typical suburb. Everything looked new and well maintained. A man in a white lab coat Jemma had not noticed before began addressing her. “Well, Miss Zanthe, correct?” He did not wait for her to nod before continuing, “If you would just head to the dorm building over there, your Alien roommate should arrive soon.” He then walked off toward the gate. For a moment, Jemma was too distracted identifying the building he had pointed out to notice what else he had said. Soon, it hit her and she turned to ask what he meant by alien. He was no longer paying attention to her, and one of the guards made an annoying shooing motion when Jemma called out to the scientist.
She huffed, annoyed at all the people who refused to answer her questions, and stomped over to the dorm building. What had the scientist meant by alien anyway? Her mind immediately went to all the T.V. shows she had seen about “alien encounters.” She had always thought the people were just crazy. On the other hand, there was the supposed “Area 51” that was supposed to be somewhere in the American southwest, right? What if this was it? Would she end up seeing an alien? As Jemma entered the building and was immediately cooled by a wave of icy air, she began picturing the typical green alien with a bulbous head and large, beady black eyes. She shook her head as she pulled her heavy suitcase up the stairs. There was no way aliens could be real.
She searched for her name among those on the door, and finally found it. Next to her name was ‘Delandrea AbreV`k.’ That didn’t seem too horribly alien, but maybe foreign. ‘Oh!’ Gem thought, ‘maybe he meant a foreigner. She could be Russian, or something with a last name like that.’ Gem nodded, that had to be it. Unfortunately, Russian was one of the languages she knew only a few phrases in. Hopefully this Delandrea person knew English well enough that they would have no issues. If not, maybe she knew German or French?
Jemma opened the door to reveal a nice looking room, set her bags to the side, and clambered up to the top bunk. She decided to wait until her roommate showed up. She was too full of questions to start unpacking yet.