Kisana’s eyes shone bright in the candlelight. I concentrated on them as I continued. “I went into college pretty bitter. I dug into geology, tried my hardest, and did fairly well. I had a great professor who kind of became my mentor. Things were going well. Then one day I met a guy named Paul. This was during the days when I thought I was bisexual. We ended up becoming a couple, got engaged. I let my schooling slide. I became lazy. I stayed up late with him, even when things were getting crappy between us, and hated getting up early for shitty classes like calculus. I transferred to a university, but before I did so, my mentor told me that I always sought the easy way out in life, and he thought that might hinder me one day. His comment hurt me at the time, but now that I look back, I realize that was the most honest thing anyone’s ever said about me.”
I gazed into one of the tiny flames in front of me. Kisana’s eyes were focused on the same spot. “Do you think you sought the easy way out by not realizing your sexuality earlier?” she asked.
“Yeah, definitely. I knew better. I was just stupid. I wanted an easy route to happiness, so I denied shit. Ever since high school, I knew I wanted to be with a woman.” My eyes met hers slowly. I searched her gaze for some sort of sign that she was embarrassed or offended about the whole gay stuff talk. I didn’t see signs of either. I sighed in relief.
“I ended up changing my major to English,” I continued. “I said I couldn’t hang the calculus and chemistry. But deep down I just wanted to be lazy and get to the happy stages of life with Paul. I swore I’d run into those happy stages eventually. Long story short, I broke off the engagement. By that time, it was too late to change back majors, and I stuck with English, telling myself that I’d be a writer or some shit. In reality, I just wanted the easy way out.”
“You wanted happiness,” Kisana whispered. “Nothing wrong in that.”
I shook my head stubbornly. “Happiness doesn’t come via the easy route very often.”
“True. But on the flip side, can you really say that becoming a writer is easy?”
I laughed aloud. “No, not really.”
“Well then, see? You didn’t necessarily go the easy route at all. You just went a different route. What matters is that the chosen route brings you happiness.”
“But it hasn’t. I’m doing fucking nothing with my degree.” I stared at her dimples. They were so damn cute.
“Because your father needs you. And might I add, that you’re very courageous to take care of him after what you’ve told me about him.” Her smile straightened into a stubborn line on her dark features. “Do you enjoy writing?”
“I do. I used to think that was my dream, to share my vision with the world. But now it’s been three years since I graduated. Who knows when I’ll be able to look for a full-time job or write again? Who’s gonna want me after such a long break from the field?”
“You’re not currently writing in your spare time?”
I shook my head.
“Then it sounds like you’re taking the hard route there. But that’s changeable right now.”
I took a sip of my soda and stared back into the candlelight. “Yeah, you’re right. I don’t know why I stopped. I used to write all the time.”
She shrugged. “Don’t beat yourself up. Shit happens. All you need to do is find that spark again. Find a reason to write, and don’t ever stop.”
I nodded, a smile returning to my face. “I used to say that creativity struck like a belated hurricane.”
“I can see that. It’ll hit you again, random like lightning. But you can’t give up. Otherwise, it may never strike again.” Our eyes met over the candlelight again, and she smiled with me.
“I gotta find that spark, that hurricane, in its hiding spot that I probably helped stuff it in.” I paused, letting the words flow through me. “You know, now that we’re talking, what I went through doesn’t seem so bad.”
“I’m glad.” She put her hand on my arm.
“Oh, there’s also the fact that my dad’s a homophobe,” I muttered, my gaze dropping once more. “Last night he said some crap about me not choosing the easy route since I chose to be gay. Like I’m some fucking teenager choosing to wear nothing but neon pink. That’s probably what pushed me over the edge, come to think of it.”
“He’s old and doesn’t know any better,” Kisana said. “My grandparents back in Spain are like that.”
“About…what?” A tiny figment of curiosity snuck into my brain.
“Oh, everything. My parents moving out here. Me getting a college degree. I’m thankful I don’t have to deal with them except over Christmas breaks. I feel for you, Sam, having to deal with it every day.” She lowered her gaze.
“I guess it wears me down,” I admitted. “I just feel like giving in some days.”
Her eyes glittered suddenly, and she met my gaze. “And that’s how you know you’re not taking the easy way out.”
I contemplated that as a comfortable silence lounged between us. I liked comfortable silences. They reminded me of when I was a teenager, and my mother and I would sit outside on her wooden swing, munch on popsicles, and appreciate the afternoon sun as it slid into dusk.
Kisana’s hand was still on my arm. My gaze drifted downward. Her hands were soft, delicate. I longed to place my other hand upon hers, but I didn’t want to seem too forward. Not when I wasn’t sure which way she swung.
“Thank you, Kisana,” I said finally. My eyes met hers. “It must be getting pretty late, huh?”
“Maybe. I honestly don’t care. I’ve been having trouble sleeping at night. Oh, I overheard Marge talking about feeding your father. I think she took care of that for you tonight.”
“Oh, great. That would be wonderful if she would take that over for me.”
“Here’s hoping.” A wide grin enveloped her face. “Now…can we get rid of the superhero dandruff?” She lifted her hand off my arm and brushed away a layer of white powder that was on my jeans. My heart did a quick tumble as her hand brushed against my outer thigh.
“That would probably be good,” I answered. “Naomi will have my hide if I don’t clean up this mess.”
“I’ll help. I think there’s a broom and dustpan somewhere. Let me look.” She stood up and walked toward the pantry, grabbing the lantern along the way.
I got to my feet slowly, watching her curves glide into a dusky silhouette. The image of her beautiful smile and how it gave life to the candlelight was etched in my mind. I stretched. My entire body was sore. And Kisana…she was a sight for sore, sore eyes indeed. I had a sneaking suspicion I wouldn’t have any trouble sleeping that night.
Chapter 11
The next day, I was in a much better mood. I actually slept for once, and by some stroke of luck, no one woke me up at some ridiculous hour by babbling outside my tent. It was now nearing noon, and I sat outside my tent, sipping a cup of coffee. For once, I was all right with being held captive.
Kisana and I had tried our best to clean up the mess with only her lantern and the puny candles to guide us. I glanced over at the ruins of that corner now and grimaced. We didn’t do a terrible job, but the mess I had left in the wall was pretty ugly. If the aliens happened to see that, they’d realize immediately what I’d attempted. But I didn’t care. Let them find out. We were only human. Our instinct to embrace freedom rose above most of our other instincts.
I gave my tent a once-over. It was still a mess. Kisana had helped me try and fix it, but I needed a whole new pole. I fixed it with duct tape for the meantime. It leaned miserably to one side. My pride flag leaned to the opposite side, struggling to keep the tent upright.
Kisana hadn’t popped out of her tent since I’d been awake. Is it possible she sleeps in later than I do? The thought amused me.
Bruce noticed my eyes sweeping across the gym and the smile on my face and took it as I sign that I wasn’t pissed off anymore. He hobbled toward me. “Good morning,” he said. “Feeling better today?” He took a seat on a nearby bench.
<
br /> “Yeah,” I said as I grasped for more to say. I was sure he wanted an apology, but my brain had already begun to push aside parts of what had happened the previous day. I wasn’t sure I really owed him one. I ran a finger across the top of my coffee cup absentmindedly.
“You gave us a scare yesterday. You didn’t seem to be acting like yourself.”
I tried to resist the urge to glare at him. He was part of the fucking reason I went off the deep end. I didn’t want to think back to it. “Sorry,” I said, attempting to keep my voice even. “I guess I had a bad day. I heard Marge took care of your feedings.” I hoped he’d follow my lead and stop talking about me.
“Yes, she did. She’s good with my medications, and even knew how to test my sugar. She’s been very nice to me.”
“Good. You need someone to talk to.”
He nodded. “She offered to take care of my feedings and medication all the time. I almost refused her, but I guess you could use a break?”
“I could,” I admitted. “And it’s not like I’ll be far.” I gave him a thin smile.
“True. I’ll tell her. I’ll leave you to your coffee.” He made his way back to Marge.
I sighed once I was alone again. There were a couple of apologies that needed to be divvied out. I journeyed over to David and apologized to him. He acted like he barely remembered me being pissy at all. I then fed Simon and found Naomi, who was sitting with Donna and Charles. They were sharing a late breakfast.
“Care to join us, Sam?” Donna asked me as I neared them. She smiled.
“Sure.” I joined them and helped myself to a bowl of oatmeal.
Naomi’s eyes met mine as I sat down beside her. She didn’t say anything, but her face didn’t display any sign of anger. She held out a plate that had chunks of fresh grapefruit and oranges on it. I grabbed a few chunks. “Wow, fresh fruit,” I noted with a smile.
“We received some rotten fruit, but luckily this stuff was still fresh,” Donna said. “Citrus stays fresh a while. But it won’t be much longer before everything in the stores goes bad.”
I nodded through a mouthful of orange.
“You feeling better today?” Naomi finally asked. “You look better.”
“Yeah,” I answered. “I guess I owe you two an apology. Sorry. I dunno what came over me.” I stared down at my oatmeal.
“No worries, hon,” Naomi said. She gave my shoulder a squeeze.
“I know I acted like an arrogant kid. I felt like I had to prove something to myself.”
“Did you?”
“No, but I did prove that the aliens have thought this plan of theirs through rather well.” I began eating my oatmeal. It was pretty bland. Couldn’t they at least get the sugary stuff?
“The walls have something stopping anything from getting through?” Donna asked.
“Yeah, it’s this stuff that hardens right after they apply it. They used it to seal around the doors, and apparently it’s lining the entire wall.” I pointed to the remainder of my demolition project. “I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s lining all the walls.”
“We’re sealed in completely,” Naomi murmured.
I nodded. “It was a depressing find. But I guess it awoke my senses.”
“Speaking of awakening your senses…” Naomi raised her eyebrows at me. “I heard you made a friend last night.”
“Wha—How?” I stammered, my mouth floundering open. “How’d you find out?”
She grinned. “News travels fast around here. That and well, you guys weren’t exactly quiet.”
My face turned tomato red. “We didn’t…have sex or anything noisy like that!” I tried to keep my voice down. I didn’t do very well. Donna burst out laughing.
Naomi joined her, her laugh deep and hearty. She slapped a knee. “Oh, Sam, you’re crazy. I didn’t say we heard you guys going at it. I can tell where your brain is this morning.” She winked. “It just sounded like you two were having fun, giggling and messing around.”
I lowered my gaze bashfully. “Oh. Uh, yeah, we were trying to clean up the stucco mess. We kinda ended up playfully throwing it at each other, like snowballs.” I joined the two women in laughter. The whole thing had been pretty silly, but much-needed and fun.
We were still laughing when the intercom clicked on. Our laughter quieted, and I concentrated on finishing my breakfast as we waited for our spokesperson to begin speaking.
“We see that you have been bus-y,” the voice announced. It wasn’t one to beat around the bush.
My eyes shifted nervously. “The hole in the wall?” I asked, staring down into my empty oatmeal bowl.
“Yes.”
“I had to find out for myself how possible escape was.” My voice was quiet. I hoped they’d still be able to hear me, but a part of me didn’t want them to know how foolish I was.
“Now you know. Co-op-er-ation is your on-ly option. Acc-ept it.”
I couldn’t think of how to respond, so I kept my mouth shut. No one else spoke.
“We do have some news you may app-rec-i-ate, how-ever,” the voice continued.
My ears perked up. “Yeah?”
“You have my wife and other daughter?” David asked, his voice chiming with hope.
“We have come to the con-clusion that this is not your nat-u-ral hab-i-tat. Rath-er, hu-mans are soc-ial creat-ures but al-so need is-o-lat-ion at times and space to ex-ercise in.”
Matt appeared next to me then. His jaw was bright red and splotchy still. He scowled up at the intercom box. “We’re not fucking hamsters,” he said. “We can’t just run on a fucking wheel and be happy.”
“Wheel?” The voice behind the box must have drawn a blank.
“Never mind,” Matt grumbled. “What the hell you got planned for us now? The gases are still rampant, yeah?”
“Yes. But we have a sol-u-tion. We have con-struct-ed an out-door corr-i-dor. It is where this loc-a-tion’s caf-e-ter-i-a used to be?” The voice paused, unsure of the word. “A por-tion of it, at least. I have en-closed the a-re-a with-in clear bound-a-ries and in-stalled a vent-i-la-tion fan.”
“A bubble?” Matt asked. “You’re putting us in a freaking bubble?” He let his mouth fall open. “I was hoping you’d say you’d let us leave! This is so fucking ridiculous!” He threw his arms up in the air and began pacing.
“At least it’s some place different,” I muttered. “Where we can see the sky. Sunlight.”
David heaved a disappointed sigh from across the room. “And how are we supposed to trust that the air is really our artificial ventilated air?” he asked. “What if you mean to kill us? It would be an easy way to do it.” His face was drawn tight.
“You have to trust us,” the voice answered.
David shared a glance with Naomi and I. Naomi nodded, offering her silent vote. I nodded as well, the image of sunlight already skimming the surface of my imagination.
David shook his head, disagreeing. “I’m not convinced. Is there any way we can test the air in this corridor?”
Matt turned to us again, and crossed his arms in front of his chest. “We can throw the cat out there.”
My eyes went wide. “Hell, no!”
“What about…plants? Is the poison toxic to plants?” Naomi asked.
“All the veg-e-ta-tion out-side is still living,” the voice answered.
“Fuck it,” Matt mumbled. “I’ll go first. I’m young. Get me outta here.”
Naomi gasped. “Matt, no! You don’t have to do this.”
“You’re right. I don’t.” He shuffled his feet nervously. “But I’m gonna.” He shot me a glance. Is he trying to prove something?
The voice sounded pleased. “We will o-pen the seal.”
The double doors began to convulse as we heard what sounded like asphalt being ripped apart. The white layers of material in between the doors shattered as the glow of daylight poked its way through the cracks. Dust motes and remnants of alien goop scattered in the light like a playful child.
M
att approached the door in two cautious steps. He glanced back at me again. “And no, Sam, I’m not trying to make a point to you. I just want to do this.” His tone was soft, serious. I didn’t detect sarcasm.
Naomi stood up and placed a hand on Matt’s shoulder, squeezing it. “You sure about this?” she asked him, forcing him to meet her gaze.
“Yeah. Don’t worry. I’ll be fine.” He met her gaze for a second and nodded. She let him go.
He placed a hand on the door’s handle and slowly pushed it open. It creaked like it hadn’t been opened in centuries. I swallowed hard. Would the aliens be awaiting us on the other side, or had their machines done the dirty work again for them?
David and I joined Naomi and Matt at the door, followed by Donna, Marge, Kisana, Charles, Julie, and Bruce. We were eager to finally get a glimpse of the aliens, if now was finally our time to do so. Matt inhaled deeply and pushed the door open just wide enough for him to step through.
A brilliant cone of daylight and hazy dust greeted us. Matt squinted and placed a hand above his eyes, shielding them from the sunlight. We all peeked over his shoulder anxiously. Everyone around us held their breaths, not wanting to breathe in the sunlit air. Matt stepped through the figments of light and debris and into the outside corridor.
David stepped forward and shut the door quickly behind Matt. “Now we wait,” he told us, leaving his hand on the handle.
“What did you see, Daddy?” Julie asked.
“Not much. There were no aliens. The machine, which must have broken the seal, was gone. All I saw was sunlight and the dome. The ground out there is concrete.”
“It’s been so long since we’ve seen the sun.” Marge murmured.
“That’s for sure,” I agreed. Kisana took a few steps toward me, and I tossed her a nervous smile.
She returned the smile and sighed. Our focus returned to the door before us. We waited. Donna and a few others started pacing anxiously. David’s hand remained on the door handle, his face rigid.
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