Luckily for me, my grandparents had been having none of that bullshit, and as long as they’d been alive, I’d had a room in their house. Once they’d passed away, I had taken the last of my stuff from their attic and bid my childhood home a sad farewell. Mom would probably have allowed me to live there for at least a little while, but some fights aren’t worth having. Some fights just need to be walked away from.

“Anyway, it’s not like I was going to be able to save them when the invasion came, so it’s probably for the best that they made it clear where their allegiances were.” Jeff looked at me levelly. “Don’t you think it’s best if we don’t struggle to save people who have already been lost?”

I thought about Graham and the others, standing outside, trying to compose themselves after fleeing from the police. I thought about the look on Graham’s face when I’d said the words “land mines.”

“I don’t think anyone is already lost,” I said softly.

Jeff didn’t say anything. He just looked at me.

The house was warm and quiet, and most of all, safe. It felt like nothing bad could ever happen here, like I could lock the door and sit down on the couch with a cup of hot tea and wait out the apocalypse.

“I wanted to … I mean, I don’t know … I mean…” I stopped, rubbing the inside of my elbow again before I said, in a small voice, “I don’t know what’s under that bandage, but I wish you’d show me.”

“Maybe I cut myself shaving.”

“That isn’t what it was in the forest last night.”

The corner of Jeff’s mouth twitched. “There you go. You’re admitting it.”

“Admitting what?”

“That we”—he moved a finger back and forth between us, pointing to each of us in turn—“are connected. We’re the same. We’re on the right side of this invasion.”

I frowned. I wasn’t ready to commit to our side being the “right” side—not yet. Not until I knew what we were coming here to do. I didn’t think we were coming in peace, but I had been wrong before, and I could hope. I could hope there was a way this ended well for everyone, for me and for Graham and even for people like my mother or Jeff’s parents. The humans had been here first. They deserved to keep their world.