Project X-Calibur Read Online Free

to have to see this,” the kid sighed as we walked through the devastation, “but you left meno choice.”
    I’d never left Texas, and now I was on
another planet.
Was I dreaming? I tried pinching myself.
Maybe Mom wasn’t kidding when she said eating a burrito before bed could cause nightmares.
    We walked down a street littered with strange vehicles, round as fishbowls with a dozen small wheels at the base. Most had been burned, reduced to husks.
    â€œWhat happened here?” I breathed. The sky overhead was spotted with purple and gray, as if even the planet’s atmosphere was covered in bruises.
    â€œThey were attacked,” the kid said softly.
    â€œIs anything here still . . . alive?” I wondered. Did I
want
anything to still be alive?
    The kid shook his head. “We began to detect evidence of the destruction here some time ago—space debris, and sound waves produced by explosions. A faint distress signal. Back then, we didn’t have the technology to even
know
that it was a distress signal, much less decipher it.”
    â€œCan you decipher it now?”
    â€œOh, yes. Our technological advances in the last few years have been stellar.”
    â€œWhat did it say?”
    I noticed the kid’s hands tense. For the first time, he was afraid.
    â€œDredmore. Whoever or
what
ever did this is called Dredmore. And it will penetrate Earth’s atmosphere in six days.”
    My stomach clenched like it was churning with glue. “You’re talking about more aliens?”
    The kid nodded, then began walking again.
    â€œHow can you know for sure?” I asked, following.
    â€œWe’ve been tracking them from the moment they came into our view parameters last week. Before that, they could have been anything—asteroids, meteors, dead satellites that drifted off course; we just couldn’t be sure.”
    â€œBut now you are?” I pressed. I still couldn’t shake the feeling I was in a dream. It was like the afternoon I found out my father died. I came home from school and Mom was already home. I stood there in the doorway for a long moment before going inside. My gut already knew what had happened, but I didn’t want to accept it.
    â€œOne hundred percent sure,” the kid confirmed, his voice thick with the weight of it. “Otherwise you’d be in Biology class right now.”
    I had so many questions, but I didn’t know where to begin. And I was still shivering. Walking in the middle of an ash-covered war zone will do that to a person, especially if that person is wearing gym shorts and a tank top.
    â€œHow long have you been stalking me?”
    The kid flapped his hands like he was shooing away my words. “
Scouting
you . . . Long enough to know you’re the one we need.”
    A terrifying thought barreled into my head. I stopped walking.
    â€œIs something wrong?” he said.
    My heart was practically tripping over itself. This was all starting to make sense.
    â€œYou’re an alien, aren’t you?” Just hearing myself ask that out loud forced me to take a cautious step backward. As I did, something crunched under my foot. The bone was long and looked heavy. If the kid came at me, I would grab it and fight him off.
    â€œI assure you I’m human, Benjamin.”
    â€œYou sure do like
assuring
me of things, but I wasn’t born yesterday,” I said. The kid exhaled loudly. “And that teleporting hand buzzer of yours? It’s got ‘alien’ written all over it.”
    I covered my mouth in case the kid tried to jam an alien embryo into it. I have this little rule about being impregnated with alien babies: I avoid it.
    â€œThis thing?” he asked, opening his palm again. “It’s just a machine, built by our techs. Wires, circuitry—”
    â€œWhat about
that
?” I shot back, pointing at him.
    He looked down. “What? My