It was funny. 

Later, Max would reflect, albeit briefly, on how even she had been shaken when the blue creature had emerged from its spaceship thing. Voices in her head, burns on her fingers -- it was enough, [i]more[/i] than enough to unsettle her, push her close to something she vaguely recognized as panic not related to the wellbeing of her mother or the twins. She had flinched somewhat as the voice reverberated through her head, hardly even aware of her schoolmates behind her. The strange metal orb had gone still beneath her fingers, and she was just starting to think she'd been too late, when -- BAM -- blue thing. 

Definitely alien. 

Definitely hurt. 

It was stupid, she knew, even Max knew, to rush toward some giant, maybe dangerous thing. It had at least a foot and a half on her, probably a hundred pounds, and its weird tail-cutty-thingy was playing no games. But he collapsed, and then she forgot all the danger. Again. Suddenly, the smell of smoke and hot metal in the air was replaced with an unfamiliar tang she instantly knew was blood. 

The thought that this thing might be dying filled her mind with the intensity of a tsunami, and she darted forward as cautiously as she could manage. 

There was no thought in her head about whether or not the creature was dangerous, where it had come from, or how, or whether such a thing had ever been classified on earth before. Her normally over-active imagination was nearly dormant as warning lights flared in her mind along with the creature's fading voice. 

"He's dying," she whispered to herself, without really knowing how she knew -- and she did know -- the blue thing was a he. Then louder, "He's dying!" She gestured vaguely to Mario, the only one she really [i]knew[/i] was still behind her. "Call the police," she demanded, her voice high and tight with fear. "No...and ambulance. 911, tell him he's..." 

She shook her head, unable to finish the thought, and wriggled out of her sweatshirt. She'd seen this on TV once. Blood, she was almost certain, was important to everyone. 

She scooted closer, and in the instant before pressing the balled up hoodie against the largest patch of dark blood, whispered, "Um...please don't kill me, okay? But don't die, either."