Illegal Alien, Chapter 15
“Are you ok?”
Kaden
looked over at me. His eyes seemed bothered. I could tell he knew
something was up. I couldn't reveal too much. My father was on the
other end of the microphone still screaming.
I knew that I had
to make a decision. I had to find out what I was going to do and I
had to go with it. I didn't have time to think. I had to
act.
“Kaden...”
“What's wrong?”
Just
at that moment I turned to my side. I noticed Shin. He was acting
funny. All of a sudden he had his finger to his ear. He was playing
with his ear. I knew the look of it. He must have had a
communications device in his ear.
“Excuse me judges,”
Shin stated, “I have an agent contacting me...communication
seems off however. I'll have my men take the human back to the
ground. I just have to go see if I can get better reception
somewhere. This may be important.”
“Billy...get
out of there now. Get out of there now!” my father's voice was
screaming in my ear.
Just as the men turned to Shin I found
myself taking out the microphone and the King shard out of my pocket.
I didn't know if I could do it though. I didn't know if I could give
it to Kaden.
It was Kaden's life versus the life of a billion
people.
For some reason it was an even match.
“Look
at me,” Kaden stated at that moment, “Nothing else is
important now. You hear me. I want you to look at me.”
I did
what Kaden said. I looked at him. It was almost like he was speaking
to my heart at that moment telling me that nothing else was even
important. He was right. I couldn't do this. I couldn't give the
shard to him. The only thing that was important was him and me. I had
to be selfish when it came to him. He was the only thing that I could
be selfish with.
Shin had left the room at that moment.
I
knew what this meant. His agent was Vino. Vino was trying to contact
him! Vino was on his way. Everything would be over. Everything would
end.
Still why was I hypnotized by Kaden instead.
“You're
right. Nothing matters but you and me. Here and now.”
“I
know you have your doubts,” Kaden stated, “There were
times I doubted myself too. You know? There were times that I said
that I can't do this. I can't do this. Even before you knew I loved
you I used to really look at myself in the mirror and say that I
can't do this. Regardless of if we are blood related, we were raised
together as brothers. We were bending rules you know? It wasn't
right. That's what I said to myself.”
I pressed my palm
against my lips. I took a deep breath gasping in.
“This
is so much,” I stated pressing my palm against my hand.
Kaden
nodded, “That's what I used to think as well. The thing is
though. The way I feel about you surpasses human rules. The way I
feel about you surpasses Antlien rules. Man. I'm in love with you.
Like something that isn't from this world. Or the world beyond that.
Or the world beyond that. The way I feel about you. This is something
universal. No world can break it. And nothing...not nothing will ever
keep me away from you...”
At that moment I kissed him.
I
pulled Kaden close and put my tongue in his mouth. Our tongues
collided. Both our worlds mashed up at that moment. Antlien and
human. Brother and brother. Everything mattered at that moment and
everything didn't matter.
It seemed like everything stood
still.
Kaden seemed surprised when I kissed him
but I wanted to show him how I felt about him. I wanted the sparks to
fly. I wanted that emotion to drift through us like a gust of wind. I
think it happened too. I think there were sparks. The sparks were
flying everywhere.
If this wasn't right...nothing was...
“Did
you feel that?” I asked him.
Kaden looked at me in my
eyes understanding me. Even with the judges looking on watching us
like hawks it felt like we were in a world all by ourselves. Nothing
mattered. Not this war. Not this invasion. The only thing that
mattered was Kaden and me in this moment.
“Yes...I felt
it,” Kaden stated.
I smiled at him.
“I
should leave. Dad would be worried you know...”
Kaden
nodded.
“Billy.”
“Yeah Kaden.”
“I
love you Billy.”
No rules would govern us. No worlds would
bind us. Our love had surpassed all that. And nothing would keep me
away from him. Not planets. Not moons. Not interstellar travel. There
was nothing that would keep me away from Kaden.
“I love
you too Kaden.”
At that moment I walked out of the room and
I understood how it felt like when Kaden had left from New York. It
was more than just leaving a lover. It was more than just leaving a
friend. No. Kaden was much more than even a brother to me.
Kaden
was a piece of me.
And there was a piece of me that was left
behind.
===================================================================================================
I
got back to the truck safely. I hadn't run into Vino luckily. The
Antliens had all mobilized back to the space station. I wondered what
Vino was going to tell them. We probably didn't have much time. Vino
was a double agent after all and he would probably tell them
everything that he knew. I had gotten passionate in that room and
said too much to him. He knew the humans weren't completely
defenseless and he knew that my father did have something.
This
would make the Antliens want my father even more.
As I got in
the truck I was surrounded by what looked like generals. My father
was chief among them. They looked at me with these clear eyes of
hopes. You would have thought they were more like children on report
card day than the leaders of our military.
All eyes were on
me.
It seemed like everyone was waiting.
Patiently
waiting to find out what I was going to say...
“I
failed,” I told my father directly.
The look on the
generals faces said it all. No one said anything. They were quiet and
completely devastated. The shock and appall seemed to carry out among
them all. I wondered what they were really thinking even though they
didn't say anything.
My father called out to the driver,
“Let's get going...back to the base. We have to think of
something else. We have to think of another plan.”
“We
don't have another plan,” a general stated, “Your son
failed.”
My father grabbed up the general. I was shocked
to see him do it actually. He yoked up the general as if the general
was 20 pounds. The general almost shook in his hands.”
“My
son didn't fail,” my father stated, “My son tried his
best. Failure is giving up. My son was in there until I literally had
to tell him to abort the mission. Wasn't it your men who was guarding
the Antlien prisoner, General Matchinson? Wasn't it?”
The
general nodded, “Yes sir.”
My father sighed, “Exactly.
My son didn't fail. You did. He did his best given the circumstances
and I'm proud of him. I'm very proud of him.”
My father
patted me on the back at that moment. It still hurt. Everything hurt.
I was sitting there crying in the truck as we drove away from the
Antlien space station. The tears wouldn't stop coming. It felt like
my entire world was about to end. Not even just with the Antlien
invasion. No. My world was more than just the Earth.
My world
was Kaden.
“I did fail,” I admitted, “I
didn't fail the mission though?”
My father looked at me
confused. I could tell by the look on his face that he didn't
understand what I meant when I said that. I guess it didn't matter
really.
“What was that?”
“Dad. I didn't
fail the mission. I failed Kaden. I gave him the device and the King
shard. I delivered it in a kiss...”
At first I don't think
they seemed to understand what I was saying. At first I think it went
over all of their heads. I had pretended like I was gasping when I
was in the room. Really I was taking the shard and device and putting
in my mouth.
As I had been kissing Kaden I was really
delivering the device and the King shard into Kaden's mouth.
Kaden
had them.
“STOP THE TRUCK!” I heard the general
scream.
All of a sudden chaos broke out. The men in the truck
started to unload computer devices. They seemed immediately full of
all this energy
“He did it. He did it!” another
one of the generals said.
“You are going to earn a medal
for this,” General Matchinson stated all of a sudden, “You
hear me son? The president is going to put it right on that chest of
yours. You're a hero. You hear me? You just saved the world.”
Why
didn't I feel like a hero?
Why didn't I feel like I had done
something great?
“Leave him alone. This is not the time to
be celebrating General,” my father stated, “Pull this
truck over and get Kaden on the other end of that receiver.”
I
watched as we pulled over. Just at that moment it seemed like three
or four trucks pulled up on the road beside us. They were setting up
some sort of mobile computer station right there in the middle of the
highway. I could see how frantic they were all being.
There
was a cold breeze in the air.
It seemed to go right through my
chest.
I wondered if that cold breeze in my chest is where I
had left Kaden. He had taken a piece of himself when he left me. He
had taken a piece of himself.
“Are you ok?”
I
turned to see my father. He had walked over to me. He took of his
jacket and handed it to me. He also handed me a coke.
“For
someone who just handed the person he loved most in his life a
suicide bomb....I guess I'm ok....” I replied.
The men
were trying to get in contact with Kaden on the other line. I had no
idea if it worked. Maybe putting saliva on the communicator would
destroy it. I doubt Kaden would have known what to do with the King
shard if someone didn't tell him either. I guess I should have been
worried about all that but I wasn't. A part of me hoped that maybe
the communication didn't go through. A part of me preferred that
Kaden would survive even and the rest of us be sacrificed. He
deserved it most. If only the other Antliens weren't attached to that
deal.
“It's him. He's on the other line!” one of
the military guys stated.
He brought over a computer. The man
handed my father the computer. I couldn't see anything on the screen
but the computer was attached to a microphone.
“Hello...anyone
there?” Kaden's voice said.
My heart
shuffled.
“Kaden...” I stated.
“Billy.
Billy is that you? Are you ok? Did you get out safe?”
I
couldn't take it. I was his top concern. Kaden had no idea what the
fuck I had just given him and I was his top concern. All of a sudden
I was crying all over again. I couldn't help it. I actually fell to
the fucking ground in tears at that moment. It was too much. It was
way too fucking much.
My dad pulled the computer away from me
a little bit.
“He's fine. Son. Kaden. This is
Dad.”
“Dad! Oh my god. Long time. Is Billy ok? It
sounded like he was crying or something.”
I didn't care that
the military guys were making a look around me. I wonder if they
thought I was a hero or if I was just weak. I couldn't tell by the
looks on their faces. I wondered if they judged me. It didn't matter
though in the end. Nothing mattered in the end. The only thing that
ever mattered was Kaden and I had this feeling in my stomach he
wouldn't be around for long.
“He's fine, son,” my
father stated, “Kaden. Your brother...delivered...an object to
you besides that microphone. Please tell me you still have it
son.”
There was a pause.
Everyone looked on edge! I
had never seen so many people just waiting on baited breath so
far.
“Yes. I got it.”
There were cheers at that
moment.
“SHUT UP!” my father was screaming to his
men at that moment.
You would think they were regular citizens
instead of trained soldiers. I guess when your entire existence and
the existence of everyone you ever knew stood in the balance people
definitely showed their emotional side. The way they were clapping
for Kaden made me wonder if he would be remembered by them. Did they
even appreciate what was happening right now? Or was Kaden just some
idiot alien that they could use and throw away?
“Dad...what
was all that?” Kaden's voice said on the other line, “What's
going on? I'm really confused...”
“Kaden. You have in
your hand something that can destroy the Queen.”
“Oh
shit...this thing?”
“Kaden. That thing is probably is
the only hope we have,” my father explained, “I need you
to be very careful with it. Kaden. I am going to ask you something.
I'm going to ask you to do something that...that is really...um...”
I
had never seen my father hesitate like this. One of the men offered
to take over the communication but my father held his hand out. My
father was breathing.
It was at that moment that I saw it.
I
saw the tear leaving my father's eye.
My father was crying!
The iron man who had never felt anything in his life was now crying
at that moment. I didn't know what came over me. I walked up to my
father and put my hand on his shoulder. “You want me to destroy
the Queen...don't you?” Kaden asked.
There was silence.
My father couldn't talk. I knew the men around us wanted to take the
communication again. They probably thought my father couldn't handle
it. I was shocked to see the militant man I knew growing up falling
apart and putting his own emotions before his job. If I ever doubted
my father loved Kaden I knew it for sure now.
It
was me who spoke into the computer, “Kaden. Yes. That's what he
needs you to do. That's what the army, the country...the world needs
you to do that Kaden.”
“Billy?”
“Yes
Kaden?”
There was a pause.
“I'm not going
to survive it am I?”
I looked over at the scientists that
were with the military. The look on their faces confirmed what I
already knew. They didn't respond. They just looked down on the floor
as though whatever was on the floor was the most interesting thing in
the world. They looked at the floor like it was more interesting than
my brother saving their fucking nerdy asses right now. I hated them.
I hated everyone at that moment. I hated everyone but my brother.
I
had to talk though. My father couldn't do the job and I refused to
let strangers tell Kaden that he had to kill himself for the sake of
the world. I refused to tell strangers that.
“Kaden you'll
die...”
“Damn...”
“Kaden....”
There
was a pause. Kaden was thinking about it. He was thinking it over.
Why would he kill himself for us? Why would he do it? He could have
the Antliens kill us. They clearly treated him well. He could go off
with them. Maybe he'd finally give Shin the chance that he wanted all
along. Maybe Shin would finally get what he wanted. Shin could win
after all.
“I'll do it,” Kaden stated, “I'm
making my way to the Queen now. The Antliens are all busy preparing
for war. It should be easy to get to it. I'm assuming I just...what?
Throw this thing into the Queen?”
They all looked at me.
Tears again. My father had reached over and he was holding my hand.
This was literally the hardest thing I had to do.
“Yes.”
I
was tearing up so bad.
“Billy?”
“Yeah
Kaden.”
“I know you're crying. Listen. Don't cry. Ok.
I can hear it. Kaden...I want to tell you something. In case I
can't...I want...to...I....”
All of a sudden there was
static.
Static!
I could feel my heart racing. No. I started
pounding on the computer hard. I didn't get it. I was screaming. I
was losing him. I couldn't hear what he was saying. All of a sudden
the tech guys ran over to the computer trying to see what happened to
the connection. I had just lost him. I just lost Kaden's connection
just like that.
“What's happening!” I
stated.
“He...he must have gone somewhere he couldn't
get a signal...” one of the men stated.
I looked over at
him.
That wasn't enough. That wasn't fucking enough. Before I
knew I could feel my hands clenching. I wanted to hit someone. I
wanted to hit something. My arm was still bruised up from when I
punched the wall earlier with Vino though.
I couldn't believe this
was happening to me.
I wouldn't even get a chance to say
goodbye.
I wouldn't even get a chance to make sure I was with him
if he carried it out. I could just imagine how alone he felt at that
moment. I could just imagine how sad and upset he felt when he did
coudln't get back in contact with me. He had something important to
tell me and I didn't hear a fucking word.
The men literally
had to drag me away from the computer. It was just too much. The
emotion were just shooting through me. They literally had to lock me
in the truck at that moment in order to keep me away from their
precious fucking machines. I would have destroyed everything!
10
minutes passed.
40 minutes passed.
By the time an hour
passed I was beginning to give up.
“Son...”
My
father had walked into the truck. He had a coke in his hand.
“Any
word from Kaden?” I asked.
My father shook his head,
“Lost signal almost completely. At this point we don't know if
he got caught or maybe he changed his mind. He should have done it by
now. We would have seen the explosion from here.”
“Do
you think he would change his mind?” I asked.
My father
shook his head, “No. Not Kaden. If he didn't do it's because he
couldn't.”
“How are you so sure?” I
asked.
My father shrugged, “I dunno.”
I looked
down at the coke at that moment. I hadn't opened it yet. I just
looked at it and thought about Kaden.
“Kaden and I used to
drink coke when we were kids like water,” I told my father, “We
used to drink coke all the time in the summer time. We never put it
in the fridge. There was something about warm coke that we just
loved. It used to burn our throats.”
“You guys
wouldn't open it all the way. You would just pop it open a little
bit,” my father stated.
“You remember that?”
My
father laughed.
“Hell yeah. You would pop it open
slightly and suck out the soda. Then you two would put it in the
fridge and save it for later just so it wouldn't lose all the
fizz.”
I laughed at that moment.
“I remember
you used to get so pissed.”
My dad nodded, “Right.
More at Kaden then you though. You probably never knew this but I
thought this was some sort of alien ritual that Kaden was doing and
having you participate it. Remember the one time Kaden was away to
'camp'. Well he wasn't at camp. I was having the government survey
him to find out why the hell he was doing that with the sodas.”
“Oh
my god...seriously?”
My dad nodded, “Yeah. We couldn't
take chances. It wasn't until he got older that we loosened the reins
a little bit.”
“You know I put him up to the soda
thing right? I was always the bad influence,” I stated, “I
guess I still am. I'm still the one telling him to do do things and
he's still listening.”
“He's still listening but your
influence isn't bad,” my dad replied.
“No? It's
going to kill him.”
“You know when I said that Kaden
wouldn't change his mind?” my dad asked, “And you asked
why I was so sure. Well I'm so sure because he wouldn't change his
mind when it came to saving you. I had no doubt that Kaden would go
through with this if it meant that your life would be saved. That
never even crossed my path. I guess I always knew. You know.”
“You
always knew what?”
“That he loved you...more than just
family. There was nothing I could do to stop it. There was nothing we
could do to change it. It was like stopping nature itself. I always
knew. Probably before you even knew...”
“Damn.”
My
father nodded, “Well it's ok. You know. Your love might save us
all in the end. Because I know that he'd sacrifice himself for you in
a minute.”
Suddenly there was a knock on the door.
My
father looked over.
“Sir...you might want to come see
this...”
My father and I walked out of the truck.
And just as we walked out of the truck we saw it. We saw the
explosion fill the air!
A part of the space station looked like it
had been engulfed in smoke. I couldn't see details. It felt like
watching the twin towers or something from a distance. There was just
this puff of smoke and this sense of chaos even though we were no
where near there. I just watched in agony as tears filled my
eyes.
Luckily I wasn't the only one crying.
Luckily my dad
was there and he was crying with me. I wasn't alone.
My dad put
his arm over my shoulder.
“He did it...” I stated,
“He did it...”
“He did it for you,” my
father replied.
We waited wondering what was going
to happen next. Was the Queen really destroyed? Was it really over?
Was everything really going to be back to normal.
It seemed
like everyone was holding their breath wondering the same thing. In
the next few minutes more and more military trucks pulled up to a
stop on the highway. The highway was crowded with them. People had
stopped the trucks and had climbed out to look at the sight in front
of their eyes. Some looked excited. Some looked hopeful. Some looked
worried still.
I wasn't any of those things. I was just sad.
I
was so fucking sad.
“Look! THEY ARE LEAVING! THEY ARE
FUCKING LEAVING!”
Just at that moment I saw what
someone was screaming about. All of a sudden a cheer had filled out
the highway. It was a cheer like I had never heard before. I
literally felt the earth rumbling underneath me. Dirt was kicked up
in the air of Roswell. The desert sand filled my nostrils.
I
had no idea what was happening but I heard it. I heard it in the
distance.
“Son...look,” my father stated.
He
was pointing at the space station.
The Antliens were
retreating. The Antlien space station had picked up off the ground
and was
leaving.
===============================================================================
You
would think when your world was saved you would be out celebrating.
There was a lot of celebration. Area 51 had lit up and there was
downtime unlike I had never seen before. I had turned on the news and
saw the celebrations as well. Millions had taken to the street
celebrating as newscasters declared for hours the story of Kaden's
brave sacrifice to save a world that he didn't even belong to.
They
hadn't even given time to mourn him.
They didn't even give him
me time to be sad. Already they were celebrating.
I shut off the
television.
I guess I couldn't be upset they were angry. I
couldn't be upset that they weren't so sad that their world wasn't
destroyed and that they could live to be human another day. I
remembered the things that Kaden said about me. He said he loved
everything about me that made me human. Those were the kind of things
that meant the most to me.
“You still crying?”
I noticed my father walk
into the room.
“Don't believe in knocking?” I
asked, “Just like back home huh?”
“My house
my rules,” my father stated, “That includes my military
base. My rules.”
I nodded, “Fair enough. Think it's
about time I stretch my wings anyway. Leave the nest. You know...”
My
father looked at me funny.
“Wait. Are you saying you're
thinking about leaving home?”
“Yeah...”
“Son.
This is going to be a tough time for the family. I don't think it's
the right time for you to just up and leave.”
“It's
the perfect time for me to up and leave,” I explained shaking
my head, “What. Am I going to be around all of Kaden's stuff?
All those memories? No. I'll pass. I want to honor his memory another
way you know. He wanted to move to New York but he didn't you
know...because of me. So I'm thinking maybe that's where I'll
head.”
“Son.”
“Dad...you can't stop me.
You know you can't.”
“I'm not trying to stop you.”
I
was shocked. I actually turned to my dad. My controlling father
wasn't trying to stop me from running off to New York with no money,
no job and no plan? I was shocked by this and kind of surprised. I
guess maybe after this whole ordeal he looked at me
differently.
“You're not going to stop me from moving to
New York?” I asked.
“Not if that's what you want
to do. If you want to leave---I'll buy you a ticket,” my father
stated, “Actually...you know son. I was thinking maybe I'll buy
two?”
I was confused.
“Why would you buy two
tickets?”
“Because you two can't stay apart now can
you?”
Just at that moment my father opened the door. I
watched in surprise as he walked in. Kaden. Kaden walked into the
room and almost immediately I dropped to my knees. My heart was
racing faster than it had ever raced before. My mind was blown.
“I'm
dreaming...” I stated shaking my head.
“You're
not,” my father stated, “We saw this guy wandering away
from where the Antlien space station took off from.”
Kaden
looked over at my dad, “Dad...can we...um...have a minute?”
My
father looked at us for a minute before smiling a little bit. He
walked out of the door. I still didn't believe what I was seeing. I
still didn't believe my eyes.
It wasn't until Kaden bent over and
played with my hair that I knew it was real. He did what he always
did. He played with my hair for a while and then he started to stroke
my hair. Then he brought his hand from my hair to the side of my
face. Then we looked at each other with the most awkward beautiful
glance ever.
And I fell in love again a million times
over.
“You're really here?” I asked, “How is
that possible?”
Kaden smiled at me, “Your boy Vino
stopped me right when I was about to throw the shard into the Queen.
He just stopped me. And then he told me to leave. And he told me that
you were waiting for me. And no matter what I said he wouldn't take
no for an answer.”
“Did Vino---um---”
Oh my
god...
I knew even before Kaden finished that maybe I was
wrong about Vino.
“He sacrificed himself,” Kaden
said looking away, “I didn't get why. I didn't know he was so
dedicated to us.”
It was at that moment that I realized
Kaden didn't know that Vino was a double agent at one point. I guess
everyone can change their stripes. Vino had saved Kaden. He had given
me back the thing that I wanted most in life. I couldn't believe that
it was possible but here Kaden was right in front of my face. I just
wished I could think Vino. I wished he knew that I had forgiven
him.
Maybe wherever he was...he was looking down at me and
Kaden now and he was smiling.
“He was a good person,”
I stated.
Kaden nodded, “Now I see why you trusted him so
much. He really was. He wanted me to tell you something. He wanted me
to tell you that he found his soul---whatever that means.”
I
clutched my heart. I didn't feel that hole in my chest anymore. I
felt complete.
“So what happens now? New York?”
Kaden
laughed.
“Maybe. But you know. I did a UFO to leave the
space station. I was thinking. Maybe we can go somewhere....you
know...a little bit more...foreign...”
I laughed shaking my
head, “I thought I was the bad influence.”
“You
could never be bad for me.”
Kaden leaned over at me at that
moment. He kissed me.
He kissed me and I could see the moon. I
could see the stars. I could see the entire galaxy in his eyes. There
was no limit to our love.
The END.