Emmaline stared at the menu board, not really registering what any of the food items listed were. She could read the words, but their meaning didn’t quite sink through the daze she was in. A man standing behind her cleared his throat, and the woman standing behind the counter had an impatient look on her face. Em finally blurted out, “Burger, please.”

  Wait. Did they have burgers? She did a double-check and saw that they did and was glad that her brain seemed to work somewhat, or at least for the moment.

  “How do you want it?” the woman with her hair pulled back in a severe bun asked in just as severe a tone.

  “Well done.” Em then looked at all the fixings listed under hamburger. “And everything but the onions. And can I have some fries with that?”

  Severe bun lady quickly went to work, and in a surprisingly short time, Emmaline had a to-go container full of delicious-smelling food. She took the offering and quickly moved aside for the man behind her to put in his order.

  Emmaline stood for a moment, looking around the hospital cafeteria to decide where to go next. She saw a cooler full of drinks far to the right, so she went that way. She pulled out two waters and went to the cash register.

  Mom had asked for water when she had sent Em to the cafeteria for food. They’d been by Dad’s bedside for hours before Emmaline’s growling stomach had caused Mom to speak up. Em, of course, claimed she wasn’t hungry, so she could stay with Dad, but Mom insisted. She pulled out her credit card and practically pushed Emmaline out the door to go get some lunch––though by this time it was much closer to dinner.

  In the end, Emmaline had left, not for the food, but to get up and walk. The chair she’d been sitting in for hours was probably the most uncomfortable seat in the whole building. It felt good to stretch her legs.

  As she stepped into line to pay, she spied a display of fruit and protein bars. They had the exact brand of protein bars Mom usually brought, so Em picked one up just in case she wanted something later. After paying, Emmaline decided to eat at one of the vacant tables instead of taking it back to the room. It wouldn’t take long, and now that she was by herself, she realized some time alone would do her good.

  She was halfway through her burger when two women dressed in scrubs sat down at the table next to her with trays full of food. They were older, though most adults looked old to her, and wore expressions of exhaustion on their faces. Badges clipped to the front of their shirts declared them both nurses.

  “Thanks for meeting me for lunch here. It’s been a day, let me tell you,” the blonde nurse said as she sat down with a sigh.

  “Tell me about it,” the brunette replied, taking the items off her tray and then slipping it onto an empty chair beside her. “It’s been nonstop calls into Doc Kinder’s office all day. It seems everyone has lost their minds with that alien ship showing up.”

  The blonde nurse shook her head, squirting ketchup onto her plate. “I know. The ER has been absolutely insane. Of course we’ve gotten the usual, but add on to that five panic attacks, two people who crashed their cars because they kept staring up at the sky, and a woman convinced the aliens were beaming radiation into her fillings.”

  Emmaline froze mid-bite, her burger suspended halfway to her mouth. She lowered it slowly back into the container, suddenly hyperaware of the two women at the table beside her.

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  “What do you think it means?” the brunette asked, voice lowered. “The government’s being awfully quiet about the whole thing.”

  “My cousin works for the Department of Defense,” the blonde replied, leaning in. “Says they’ve known about this ship since yesterday. It was hanging out by the moon before it decided to park itself over Lake Thurmond.”

  Crap on a cracker.

  Emmaline’s mouth went dry. She tried to swallow but couldn’t. The ship had been hanging out by the moon? What had it been doing out there?

  A wave of dizziness washed over her as Em reached for her water bottle with trembling fingers. The cap twisted off with a crack that seemed too loud, drawing a quick glance from the blonde nurse before she returned to her conversation.

  “Military’s been mobilizing since last night,” she continued, “but so far the ship hasn’t even tried to reach out to anyone that they could tell. It just went to Georgia, scooped up that smaller ship, and then it came up here.”

  “I thought the one that showed up just outside the city was a second of those big ships?” the brunette asked.

  The blonde shook her head. “No, just the one ship. One moment it was in Georgia, and the next it was in New York. Like the blink of an eye. It wasn’t very far from here, actually. And then it just left.”

  “So it is gone?”

  “As far as my cousin knows, yes.”

  “Why did the ship come here? What did it want? Will it be back?”

  The blonde shook her head. “Don’t know. It appears it did take someone, but if my cousin knows who, he isn’t saying.”

  “Yeah, I saw the YouTube video. My God, a real-life alien abduction. Poor guy. Do you think they will bring him back?”

  The blonde shrugged. “Not sure, but you can bet the government of pretty much every country is on high alert in case it comes back and tries to take more people.”

  The brunette shuttered. “Can you imagine? Like we don’t already have enough to worry about.”

  “Well, my cousin says the DOD and other agencies are doing what they can to squash the video of the abduction in an attempt to keep the panic down, but I have a feeling the ER is going to be more crazy than usual the next few days.”

  The brunette sighed deeply, pushing her salad around with her fork. “Honestly, I’m just glad I’m off shift tomorrow. I need a break from all this madness.”

  Emmaline’s hands had gone cold, her half-eaten burger forgotten as her mind went back to the video that Helen had sent her and the man being beamed up into the alien ship. She had been so preoccupied with what had happened to Dad that Michael’s predicament had been pushed from her mind. But now it was back at the forefront.

  Her stomach flip-flopped as she thought about Michael on that ship. What had happened when he got up there? Were the Ethians treating him nicely? She hoped so. He was the Emperor’s son after all, so surely they were tripping over themselves to give him everything he wanted. Well, except for coming back here. She was pretty sure he wanted that most of all right now. She certainly was. Emmaline’s heart squeezed tight, and tears burned at the corners of her eyes.

  She was already missing her brother, wondering if he would ever return. Could he even return? The thought that he might be gone forever made her sad, made her angry, made her want to scream at the world. It wasn’t fair! Bring her brother back! What right did they have to take him?! So what if he was an Emperor’s son? He was her brother, and didn’t that count for something?

  Suddenly, she couldn’t sit there a moment longer. Emmaline stood up, grabbed the tray of half-eaten food, and quickly walked across the cafeteria to dispose of it. She was about to walk out when she heard someone from behind.

  “Hey, I think you left these.”

  Emmaline turned around. It was the blonde. She was holding the protein bar and bottle of water that Em had brought for Mom. She must have left it sitting on the table. Em reached out to take the items.

  “Oh, thanks.”

  The woman slowly handed both over. “Are you all right?”

  Emmaline realized a few tears had escaped and were running down her cheek. She quickly wiped them away. “Yeah, I’m good. Thanks.”

  And before the concerned-looking nurse could say anything else, Emmaline fled from the cafeteria, trying as hard as possible not to think of the brother she was very much missing or what he must be going through right now.