Alien amongst Men

I looked up briefly, and had to do a double take. I saw a little red dot that blinked every few seconds. "Oh... fuck."

Apparently turning off the surveillance computers doesn't mean the cameras turn off. I really wish I would've known that before I went into a building that was completely filled with cameras. My ears swiveled to hear the sound of an approaching helicopter, the sound of several car engines, and several diesel engines. Those diesel engines were especially concerning because it probably meant they have several SWAT teams arriving in Lenco BearCats.

I crept over to the door and opened it slowly. I looked down the hallway to my right and saw nothing. I looked to my left and saw, again, nothing. The way to the exit was to the right, so I crept down the hallway. The engines to the police cars were still running, but the BearCats engines had stopped.

I could hear people talking outside the building as I walked down the hallway. I didn't have to see them to know that they were law enforcement, their words were direct, informative, and simple. After a minute of cautious movement, I reached the staircase. I glanced back down the hallway and noticed an exit sign at the end of it.

A few seconds later, I heard a loud BANG followed by the sound of rushed footsteps from the end of the hallway. I quickly ran up the staircase and made my way to the surveillance room. I could only assume that there were more than eight people there, which meant they would clear the two rooms incredibly quickly. I pushed the door open and walked out onto the roof.

I knew there was a helicopter somewhere above me, but because its lights were off, it blended in with the night sky. I attempted to locate the helicopter through the sound its blades, but failed miserably. After a couple of seconds, my vision was suddenly engulfed by a blinding light. I lowered my stance and raised a hoof to block out most of the light. I had completely forgotten about the SWAT team downstairs, but hearing the sound of several rushed footsteps on the stairs reminded me of their presence.

Without thinking, I spread my wings and took off. My heart was racing, and I desperately wanted to get away from potentially violent soldiers. Pushing my body to its limits, I flew as fast as I could to escape the police helicopter. At first, I was confident that the helicopter was not able to catch up with me, but the sound of a gradually approaching helicopter caused me to lose my confidence. This was not going to be as easy as I would've hoped.

What would've taken me five minutes at a casual pace has taken me five seconds to fly at this pace. I knew for a fact that I couldn't fly at this speed for very long, so I needed to figure out a way to escape this helicopter before I tired out. It seemed the helicopter had a problem with acceleration, so I used my agility to my advantage.

Taking my first option, I flared my wings and experienced up to nine Gs. It was difficult to withstand, but the sight of the now distant helicopter made me thankful that I did it. I spun around and started flying in the opposite direction as fast as I could go. I needed to put as much distance between me and that helicopter as possible. I changed direction a couple times to make it more difficult to predict my movements. After all that flying, I was completely exhausted, so I landed clumsily on an apartment building to rest.

I wanted to make sure I had everything and that I knew what the plan was so I knew where to go after here. I wanted to rest for a bit before I did that, so I crossed my forelegs and rested my head on my hooves. I was panting heavily while I lay there with my eyes on the sky.

After about five minutes, my heart rate had decreased to a comfortable level, and my breathing had slowed as well. I opened up my saddlebags and started looking through them. The six batteries were there and I started writing down the day's events up to this point. After about ten minutes of writing, my attention was slowly brought to the sound of a distant droning. The droning reminded me of the sound an airplane might make.

I continued writing in my book while the droning continued. Occasionally I would look up from my book to observe my surroundings. I got about halfway through my notes before I noticed something slightly concerning. The droning didn't seem to be going away. It sounded like it was coming from directly above me while circling in a fifty meter radius. From the information that I had, I was able to conclude that it was a UAV. I had never seen or heard a UAV before, but I knew what they were capable of. UAVs were equipped with cameras so I knew that it was looking directly towards me.

Sighing, I placed my book back into my saddlebag, closed it, and spread my wings. I flapped once and instantly felt a sharp pain shoot through the muscles of both wings. I must've pulled something during my last flight because my wings hurt like hell. I peered over the edge of the building and saw over twenty police cars hauling ass down the road towards the building that I was on.

Saying that I was afraid would be an understatement at this point. If I was able to fly, this situation would be incredibly easy to avoid. However, both my wings had locked up. I guess it wasn't such a good idea to fly at top speed less than a week after suffering an injury.

I frantically skimmed my surroundings in a sad attempt to figure out what to do. I spotted a door and made a b-line straight towards it. I didn't care about making noise; I cared about getting out of here. I threw the door open and ran down the flight after flight of stairs. If there were any people sleeping before this, they definitely aren't sleeping now. Seriously, hooves on metal makes a shit ton of noise.

Halfway through, I was pretty out of breath, so I stopped. I heard a door open from somewhere below me and then the sound of over twenty people running up the staircase. They obviously didn't care about the element of surprise because all of their radios were going apeshit and they were making an awful lot of noise. The police were only three stories away from me when I decided to open the door and book it down the hallway.

The police didn't know which floor I was on, but it was only a matter of time before they found out. If I knew the police well, they'd be sending K9 units to look for my scent and then me. I knew that running would be a fruitless effort, so I decided to just hide somewhere until they found me.

I slowed my gallop into a trot as to not make as much noise. My wings still hurt like hell, but if I found an area to rest I'd be able to fly within an hour if I was incredibly lucky. I turned a corner and almost missed the open apartment door on my right. The door was held open slightly by a tiny block of wood near the bottom of the door. I pushed the door open and peered inside. Thankfully, no one was home. I crept in and let the door close behind me.

I wanted to make sure there was no one home before I made myself at home. I checked the nearest door to me and it turned out to be a small closet for jackets and shoes. I shut the closet quietly and made my way to the next door. It turned out to be a bathroom with a toilet that needed to be cleaned soon. I was mainly trying to make sure no one was home, I didn't really care what the residents had in their home.

That all changed when I entered the bedroom. I opened the door and saw a bed, desk, computer, nightstand, and a couple of My Little Pony posters. Having these posters would've been perfectly understandable to me if the room looked like it belonged to a little girl, but this was the only bedroom and it felt like it belonged to a male college student. After clearing the entire house, I ended up chilling on the couch in the living room and writing today's events into my journal.

Ten minutes later my ears swiveled to locate the sound of a door latching which was then followed by the sound of footsteps down the main hallway. I glanced around the room trying to find a place to hide. Unfortunately for me, I picked the one room with no places to hide except behind the couch and in the kitchen. I hopped down from the couch and was about to make my way to the kitchen when a voice from the hallway could be heard.

"Who's there?" the voice from the hallway said. Some time passed before they spoke again. "If you don't tell me who you are, I'll call the police over here. They have the entire building under lock down."

Taking that as a threat, and therefore as a sign that I should comply with the person's orders. I made my way around the couch and towards the hallway so the person could see me. The man went wide eyed and mouthed the words "What the fuck." while staring at me. "You wouldn't mind if I crashed here for a bit? I injured my wings during the flight here." I stated.

It took a moment for the man to speak again, but when he did he was nothing short of enthusiastic. "O-oh yeah. Uhm. No problem. D-do you need anything?"

"I'm feeling a little peckish right now, but for the most part I'll just be resting on your couch if that's fine with you." I said.

"Oh, uhm. You're hungry then? Okay, I'll grab something from the fridge." the man said before disappearing into the kitchen.

While he did that, I ended up lying on the couch while finishing up today's events in my journal. Writing in the journal has become a habit and a fun little pass time, by the way. The man came back and handed me an apple. I thanked him while he placed the rest of them on the couch next to me. I took a bite from the apple. Apparently this guy refrigerates apples.

We ended up watching the television for the rest of the night. I actually went to bed way before him. Before I went to bed I wanted to know the man's name, so I asked him. After a quick name exchange, I found out his name is Max. I rested my head on my forelegs and quickly fell asleep.

---- * ----

The officer standing next to the Chief spoke into his radio. "Entry team alpha?" there was a brief pause before the man on the other end gave conformation. "Entry team bravo?" this time, they gave conformation quickly. "Entry team charlie?" another conformation was heard from the radio. "Scout alpha?" there was another reply. "Alright, that's everyone. Ten seconds until breach. On my mark."

The officer brought the radio to his mouth and counted down the seconds. The second hand on his watch reached zero, and he said one word. That's all it took to cause an army of sound to explode across the once silent night. Sounds of doors being thrown open, and over thirty pairs of boots striking the pavement as they entered the building. The officer was completely confident that they could catch this creature. With the amount of fire power they had, it was near impossible to escape them.

After about a minute had passed, scout alpha reported that he had visual on the creature on the roof. There was a massive amount of radio traffic after that statement. Everyone in that entry team wanted to catch the creature, so they were rushing to the roof to catch it. However, there was a slight problem a few seconds later. Scout alpha reported that the creature was traveling over two hundred kilometers per hour north bound. It had already engaged in a pursuit, and was having difficulty keeping up.

The Chief began to issue orders into his radio. He called for a UAV to be deployed and to scout the entire city. He ordered the police to distribute themselves to different sectors of the city. Lastly, he called for K9 units to be put on standby in each sector of the city. He crossed his arms and began listening in on scout alpha, the helicopter.

As the seconds stretched by, scout alpha gave updates on the situation as the rest of the team listened. "Jesus fucking christ, this thing is fast. I'm pushing the heli to its limits." he began. "It's going just under two hundred forty-one kilometers per hour, Chief."

The Chief spoke into his radio. "I need you to keep up with it as long as you can. I've just deployed a drone and a couple K9 units."

A couple of seconds passed before scout alpha spoke again. "Yeah, I should be able to keep up with it, but I don't know how long the helicopter can handle this. We usually don't have targets going this fast. It must be really tired th-" he cut off. "Holy fuck!" Scout alpha shouted.

Displaying full concern for his team, the Chief spoke into his radio quickly. "Scout alpha, what's wrong?"

Scout alpha spoke again. "Chief, it just disappeared. It was there just a couple seconds ago, but it's gone!" Scout alpha's concern could be heard in his voice. "Chief, we lost it. I'm heading back to land. It's lit up like a Christmas tree in here."

About twenty minutes had passed since anyone used the radio. The Chief was pacing nervously back and forth in front of his squad car. He desperately wanted information on the suspect. He leaned against his squad car and rubbed his fingers against his temples. At the moment, all he knew was that the target was a Pegasus, was incredibly fast, was capable of seeing in the dark, had a need for batteries, and was wearing a saddlebag.

Suddenly, his radio let out a loud crack and then spoke. "The target has been spotted on the roof of the apartment building. It appears to be distracted with something in front of it." there was a pause before it spoke again. "It appears to be writing something in a book."

The Chief's eyes widened and he quickly got into his car and hauled ass towards the apartment building. He knew where it was because it was the only apartment building in the entire city. He checked his rear-view mirror and noticed five squad cars behind him. It seemed everyone shared his enthusiasm in catching the creature.

The radio cracked again, and began to speak. "The target has put its book back into its bag. It's peering over the ledge and it's looking northward." About fifteen seconds had passed before the radio spoke again. "The target is on the move. It just threw the door open and it's heading down the stairs."

Another voice began to speak on the radio. "This is entry team alpha, we're inside the building and are now heading up the staircase. Two K9 units are with us right now."

The police swarmed the staircase and made their way to the roof. The first ones through the door was entry team alpha, and then the K9 units. The dogs were let off their leash and they began sniffing the floor.

After about half an hour, the dog handlers figured out the dogs weren't finding anything. One of them radioed the Chief, "Chief, the dogs are having a hard time picking up a trail. Should we keep at it?"

The Chief's voice came through the radio. "If your dogs couldn't pick up a trail that fresh, there's no use in staying up there. Come on down and help inform the residents to keep an eye out for the creature."

---- Day 9 ----

I was awoken from my slumber by Max. Apparently he had made breakfast for the two of us. How generous of him. I got up from the couch and stretched each leg individually. I tried to stretch my wings and I quickly figured out how bad of an idea that was. I let out a quiet yawn while I walked towards the dining room. Of course, Max was waiting for me with a smile that came off as a little creepy. It wasn't a forced smile or a smile that was brimming with hostility. Seeing people smile always made me a little uneasy.

I hopped up onto the chair that Max had set up for me and I began to examine the food. It was a breakfast pie. On the top, it had a thin crust of baked cheese and spinach. Inside, it had cheese, eggs, celery, thinly cut carrots, broccoli, and onions. The smell and appearance was enough to impress, but the flavor was an unknown. I raised my gaze to look at him with a hint of suspicion. He must've caught that because he asked me if something was wrong.

"No, nothings wrong." I looked down at my breakfast pie with slight curiosity. I smelled it briefly before saying something. "It's a nice breakfast pie. What's in it?"

Max replied with, "It's called a quiche, but you can call it whatever you'd like I guess. It has cheese, eggs, celery, carrots, broccoli, onions, and a couple oats. It's a vegetarian quiche because horses don't eat meat." he seemed pretty proud of it. For whatever reason, he had a fork and a knife set up on a napkin. I wonder if he's aware that hooves aren't the best at gripping utensils.

I moved the plate a little closer to me and took a bite of the quiche. I don't know how I went through my entire life without having a quiche before because this shit was amazing. I ended up scarfing the entire thing down in a few bites, and I also burned my mouth a little bit.

Max seemed very pleased that I ate my entire slice. He got up and put another slice of quiche on my plate. He set the quiche back onto the table and went back to his seat. He continued to eat his own quiche while we ate our breakfast.

Suddenly, Max spoke. "The police came to the door last night. They told me to keep a look out for you and that if I found you that I should call the police immediately." he paused. "What did you do to cause three SWAT teams, the entire police force, over five dogs, and a helicopter to show up?"

I looked down at my hooves briefly before saying, "I stole six batteries from a BestBuy." there was a slight pause before I spoke again. "I guess being a talking Pegasus could've caused them to freak out a little." I said while waving a hoof.

Max let out a slight laugh while saying, "Seriously, that's it? Dude, that's rough." He shook his head before continuing, "What did you need those batteries for, James?"

I took a bite from the quiche and began chewing it. Using a foreleg, I covered my mouth while I spoke. "I designed something a couple days ago, and I needed some batteries." I paused to swallow and to take another bite of the quiche. "If you want, I could show you what it is." Before I even finished that sentence, I could see Max was excited.

We finished up our breakfast and Max ended up doing the dishes. I did offer to clean them, but he said that I should rest. I went to the living room and laid down. After about fifteen minutes, he came back in.

I wanted to mess with him a little bit so I decided to point out something that was in his room. "Hey, Max. What's with the posters?" Mid-step, Max froze and had a mix of surprise and embarrassment on his face. Apparently I wasn't supposed to know that. A small smirk crept across my face.

"W-what posters?" Max asked while rubbing his neck.

"The ones in your room, Max." I said while pointing with a hoof. "The ones with ponies on them."

Max let out a deep sigh and then spoke, "James," he started, "I guess the cat is out of the bag. Follow me, if you're going to show me what you do, I might as well show you what I do."

I got up from the couch and followed him to his room. I don't know why he was showing me to his room, I had already been in there. Perhaps he had something that I hadn't seen yet.

He pushed the door open and let me walk inside. "Max, I've already seen your house. I cleared every room before I settled in."

He silenced me and started speaking. "James, have you ever seen the show My Little Pony before?" I shook my head. "Okay, I guess I'll have to explain the posters a little." He motioned towards one of the posters, "This one shows Rainbow Dash; she's a Pegasus with a rainbow mane. She's a member of the Wonderbolts and the fastest flyer in all of Equestria." he made a sweeping motion with his hand while saying that last part. I nodded my head to let him continue.

He moved over to the next poster and began to explain it. "This one's some nice fanart of a pony named Twilight Sparkle. She's an alicorn and the princess of friendship." he stopped when I laughed a little. "What's so funny?" he asked.

"Did you just say princess of friendship?" I let out a little laugh. "Does that mean I can be the princess of communism?"

"First of all, you can't be a princess, you're a dude." he stated.

"Did you just assume my gender?" I shot back.

Max laughed at that statement and then continued. "Anyways, she's the princess of friendship." he put a lot of emphasis on that one word. "She's the student of Princess Celestia and the element of magic." he stated before moving to the last poster. "This one is another bit of fan art. It's a character named Vinyl Scra-" He stopped when he noticed me holding up a hoof to silence him.

"Isn't My Little Pony a kid's show?" I asked him.