by Nate Johnson
It was almost cheating, Nolan thought as he stepped aside and threw a fist to the aliens gut. It almost didn’t seem fair, but then Nolan remembered the searing pain of the metal whip across his back. The look of fear in Marla’s eyes when they were taken in the parking lot. The dead body in the park. Most of all, he remembered this thing’s otherness.
All sense of guilt left him as he punched again, catching Cheevers on the side of the head.
Cheevers punched back without thinking, catching a glancing blow off Nolan’s eye. Forcing him back for a moment. Seeing an opening, a sense of glee replaced the aliens fear as the he tried to follow up with another punch.
Nolan was ready for him, though. He wouldn’t be caught unaware again. He had relied too heavily on being warned by the man’s thoughts. He wouldn’t make that mistake again.
It was time to end this.
He threw a right, left, right combo that staggered the man. Seeing his chance, Nolan's muscles bunched as he lifted a right hand uppercut with as much force as he could gather. He connected with the man, square in the chin, almost lifting his feet from the ground.
A sharp pain flashed through Nolan’s knuckles. He gritted his teeth as he fought to push it aside. But the pain burned and stabbed. That had been a mistake, obviously, he thought, as he chastised himself. He couldn’t win this fight one handed. He was positive he’d just busted his hand into a hundred pieces.
Shifting, he prepared to throw a left when Cheevers’ eyes rolled back into his head, and he fell backwards like a plank of wood.
Nolan sucked in air, fighting to get enough oxygen to continue living. He watched his enemy, waiting for him to get up again, much like the beast down in the basement. What would it take to kill this monster?
He searched the aliens mind, but nothing, just a gray, misty, nothingness.
Was he really down? Would he stay down?
As Nolan stood there, every cell on alert, waiting. The bedroom door exploded open as Detective Washington stormed into the room. His eyes burned into Nolan as if yelling at him for not staying where he had left him.
Nolan, looked back, smiled and said, “Do you have handcuffs by any chance?
The detective looked at the man lying on the carpet at Nolan’s feet and slowly shook his head as he reached into his suit pocket and removed silver handcuffs. He marched across the room and roughly turned Cheevers onto his side so he could handcuff the man’s hands behind his back.
A blur flew across the room and into his side. Marla pulled him into a tight embrace. “I knew you’d do it. I just knew it.”
Nolan smiled to himself, at least one of them had.
The four of them stood in the room and looked down on the alien on display. Nolan could tell that each of them were desperately trying to process the reality of the situation. The world had changed. The things they thought they had known were no longer true. This was what people meant when they talked about being shaken to the core.
“What now?” Detective Washington said. His eyes examined Nolan as if he were looking at a wounded puppy. “I can’t keep this quiet. This isn’t a fight with a couple of gang members in a back alley. This is an alien. An outer space type alien. If there were any doubt, that ship in the basement would pretty much convince anyone. I’ve got to bring the Feds in on this. I’m sorry Nolan, but everything is going to come out. It always does.”
Nolan felt his world crumble. He had just saved the planet, yet he was going to lose everything. He swallowed hard and fought not to look at Marla.
“Can you give me a head start? An hour or so?” Nolan asked.
“Maybe a little bit, but you’ve got to leave now.”
“What?” Marla exclaimed. “I don’t understand.” Her eyes had grown to the size of small moons as she looked back and forth between the detective and the boy she loved.
Realization finally pushed its way into her mind.
“No! No way. We can make this work,” she pleaded as her hands grabbed Nolan’s arms. “We can make them understand Nolan. Please.” She begged. She looked at her mother for help but received a resigned, sad shake of her head.
“I’m sorry Marla, really, I am, I have to do this,” Nolan said.
“No … I’ll go with you, take me. Please.”
Mrs. Jackson gasped, but didn’t say anything. It was obvious that she well knew she couldn’t have stopped her daughter with a bulldozer.
Nolan’s heart cracked into a million pieces as he stared down into Marla’s eyes. Oh, how he was going to miss them. There were a billion and one things he was going to miss. But he couldn’t put her through what his life was going to become.
“I’m sorry Marla, but I can’t.”
A look of hurt flashed behind her eyes. As if someone had just crushed her soul. And that someone was him. He would remember that look of pain for the rest of his life. But he had to be strong. He had to do what was right. She was beautiful, she could move on with her life. There was no way he could make her spend her life on the run.
Every day she would be looking over her shoulder. Always wondering when their life would end. What disaster waited for them around the next corner?
No. He loved her too much to drag her through that.
“Tell them everything,” Nolan whispered, “Don’t try and hide anything, they won’t let up until you give them what they want. It doesn’t matter now.”
Her eyes pleaded with him. He was tempted to dip into her mind one last time. To once again experience that soft sweetness.
Shaking his head, he stepped back, then out the door without looking back. If he didn’t run now, he might never run. It had to be now.
His guts tightened into a ball as he gritted his teeth so hard that he feared they might shatter. He started down the stairs. A quiet sob echoing from the room he had just left.
Chapter Fifteen
Marla silently listened to Jess and Cindy argue about who was cuter, Stephen Jones, or Andrew McWilliams. The cafeteria smelled like it always did, grease and floor wax. The cacophony of noise, teenagers overflowing with hormones and too much energy filled the room.
Despite what her mother said, life had not returned to normal. It would never be normal again.
Staring down at her food she thought of Nolan. Where was he? What was he doing now? Her heart cracked apart every time she thought of him. Detective Washington had promised to let her know if he heard anything.
The tall policeman seemed to be spending a lot of time at their house. She had seen the way he looked at her mother and the way her mother looked at him. She didn’t have to be a mind reader like Nolan to know how things were between them. Marla was pleased for her mother. Heaven knew, the woman deserved to be happy.
But in her funk, she couldn’t get excited about her mother’s possibilities. The thought just emphasized her own loss.
Nolan, where are you? “Can you read me? Please, let me know you are okay,” she thought, trying to force her thoughts out into the world for him to pick up.
Her mind wandered back to the last week. The offices in the Federal Building. The way some of the people had stared at her as if she were the creature from the dark lagoon.
It seemed that a dozen different people had wanted to talk to her. At first, they’d come at her like a team of wrestlers, tapping the next man up to tackle the girl with the sad eyes. Then it had settled to one man. A Doctor Clemens.
Every day, all day, he’d ask questions, write things in his book and then ask more. They must have covered everything a dozen times. The only thing she wouldn’t answer was ‘where did she think Nolan had gone?’
She would just stare at them and wait for the next question. Besides not wanting them to find Nolan. She didn’t want to admit that she didn’t have any idea where her boyfriend would go. It hurt to realize how little she knew about his life. Was there anyone he could trust? Fiends? Family? Was he facing the world all alone?
It had been her mother who had put a stop to the endless quest
ioning.
She’d stormed into the interrogating room and demanded they release her daughter.
“You’ve got what you need,” she said with a voice of steel. “My daughter and I are going home.”
“I’m sorry,” Dr. Clemons had said. “We can’t allow that just yet.” He was a tall man in a white lab coat. She had thought of what Nolan had said the first time he told her about his abilities. How scientists would spend their lives poking and prodding him to discover his secrets.
Her mother had stared at the man and then calmly said. “If my daughter is not out of this room within minutes, then I will be filing a court case for illegal arrest.”
“Your daughter is not under arrest,” the doctor said.
“In that case, I will be filling a criminal complaint for kidnapping. Come along Marla, we are leaving,” she said as she held the door open.
She had never been so proud of her mother at that moment. Her heart had healed a little. It would never be whole again. Not as long as Nolan was gone. But at least a part of it could begin to return to normal.
Marla turned back to the doctor. “I really have told you everything I know.” The Doctor had looked back at her as if he were losing his second best lab rat. She shook her head as she turned and left the room with her mother.
“ … Marla, I asked you a question,” Cindy said, her face in a pout. “I swear, it’s like you’re not even here half the time.”
Marla fought back a snotty response, Cindy didn’t know what she had been through. Didn’t know what she was going through every hour of every day with Nolan missing. No one knew. They couldn’t know, or half the world would be on Nolan’s trail.
She gave her friend a weak smile and shrugged her shoulders. “I’m sorry Cin.”
Cindy accepted the apology. “I asked if you had seen Nolan. He hasn’t been at school for a week.”
Marla’s heart dropped to her stomach. Would the pain ever go away? Where was he? Was he all right?
.o0o.
Nolan crouched behind the dumpster. It wasn’t the first time he’d lived on the streets. But it was different this time. Now he knew what he was missing.
His thoughts turned to Marla. Where was she? Was she all right? The thought of anything hurting her was killing him.
Scrunching his shoulders he tried to stop from shivering, it was going to be a cold night. He couldn’t go back to the foster home. He couldn’t go anywhere they might know him. He couldn’t retrieve his truck. Broke, alone, and on the run. That was his life now.
He’d thought about going to the casino. He could make a killing playing poker, but they’d carded anyone approaching the place. Besides, they had like a gazillion cameras. Nope, that wasn’t an option.
If he’d had the money he could make a fortune on Wall Street. Read when someone was going to invest. It’d be like cheating off the smart kids on a test.
No, he couldn’t do anything like that. His best bet was to skip town and try to find some place to get lost. Somewhere with no connection. Somewhere warm, he thought with a chuckle. But that would mean leaving Marla. A finalization that he couldn’t bring himself to commit.
As he looked into the future, a sadness overcame him. A future without Marla.t A future on the run. Always looking over his shoulder. It wasn’t fair, it wasn’t right. Sighing to himself he leaned back into the brick wall behind him.
Maybe there was a way, he thought. Maybe he could convince them. Hell, even if he failed he might be able to see Marla again. To know she was okay. Maybe he could build a life. Some kind of normal. If he gave them what they wanted, would they leave him alone the rest of time?
His heart began to race. Imagining a life where he and Marla could be together without fear or worry. Her biggest concern should be what to wear to the prom.
The memory of lavender and roses filled him. Dark chocolate eyes and soft brown hair. The way her hip curved. How she became like a lioness when angry. Everything about her filled him with a deep burning need.
Normal. That was all he wanted.
Fight for it then, he thought to himself. You can’t run away. Not like this. She deserves to be fought for.
Setting his jaw, he began to think, began to plan. There, behind a dumpster, Nolan Reed determined to obtain what he wanted in this life. To hell with them. If he had to, he’d take them all down with him if they tried to stop him from being with the girl he wanted.
.o0o.
The phone rang on Detective Washington’s desk.
“Do you know who this is,” a voice said when he picked it up.
A shot of adrenalin rushed into his blood stream. He forced himself to hesitate for a moment then said, “Yes,” best to keep this quick and simple.
“I figure they’ve got your phone tapped. But that’s okay, they can listen in.”
“You all right,” the detective asked.
“Yeah, no problems. I need you to set up a meeting. Only two of them. They can determine who, but no one else. And you might remind them, I will know. If I read more than two of them, then I am out of there. Will you tell them? Also, I’d like you to be there?”
Jake Washington was taken aback. He hadn’t thought the kid would ever be able to trust someone. “You sure?” he asked.
“About you or them? You I’m sure of, I’ll gage them when we meet. There should be some way we can work this out.”
The detective laughed, “You’ve given them a good run. They are terrified you are going to go to the press.” He paused for a moment as he desperately hoped the kid would get his message. “It has really hampered them.”
A heavy silence on the other end made his stomach clench up. Holding his breath, he waited.
“Sure, I understand,” the kid said. “Tomorrow, in the park, remember where our picnic blanket was, in the middle of the field.”
“Yes, I remember.” The detective said.
There was another silent moment between them.
“How is she?” the boy asked. Jake Washington’s heart went out to him. The pain in that simple question said it all.
“She’s fine. At least as fine as she could be. But she misses you like oxygen itself.”
“Don’t tell her, let’s see how this goes.”
“Okay, you’re driving this show.” He hoped the kid understood his message. Take charge kid, make them dance to your music. Once you lose control, you will never get it back.
“Tomorrow, at ten.” There was a click at the other end. The detective felt the loss of connection like a physical force. He tried to remain separate, detached, but he couldn’t. He hoped the kid twisted them into a tight ball and threw them in the trash.
His thoughts shifted to thinking about Cheevers. He wondered where they had him. Probably in a deep dark dungeon somewhere. That’s where he’d put him if he were in charge.
Sighing, he picked up the phone and began to make the call. He hoped the kid knew what he was doing. It was about time someone did.
.o0o.
Nolan scanned the area for the hundredth time that day. No one was there that wasn’t supposed to be. A jogger in the distance was a computer tech from Microsoft. A maintenance crew was working on the flower beds at the front of the park. A fisherman sat in a row boat out in the middle of the lake. They were all legitimate. He was positive.
Sighing to himself he leaned against a tree at the edge of the forest and waited. The loamy smell of dirt and pine needles surrounded him.
This had to work. The thought of Marla kept jumping into his mind. This had to work.
A quick thought crept through his barriers. Detective Washington was approaching. A dark sedan drove into the park then turned to drive out into the middle of the grass like they owned it.
Nolan leaned forward, every sense on full alert. The car stopped in the middle of the field, and three men got out. He recognized Detective Washington right away. The man wasn’t worried. He hadn’t seen anything to be of concern. The detective looked out over the field and
sent the thought.
“Be careful kid, you never know for sure.”
Taking the thought, he put it aside and focused on the other two men. The taller one stood with a little stoop as if he had spent too much of his life bent over a desk or lab table. Nolan focused and picked up thoughts about paperwork that was past due and a disbelief that any of this were possible. He didn’t really believe everything the girl had said. It wasn’t possible.
The second man looked as if he’d stepped out of central casting for a tough guy. Bald head and wide shoulders. It was hard to read him. Nolan, had to really concentrate. Military. The man was scanning the area, looking for danger, analyzing the lay out. Not dumb, he just never let his thoughts fully form. He quickly jumped from thought to thought as he processed the information around him.
Neither of them was thinking about traps or anything but meeting with the kid as they referred to him in their mind. Both of them were pissed off that they had to come all the way out here. They would have preferred to do this in a controlled environment. The tall one for scientific reasons, the bald guy for security concerns.
Nolan took a deep breath, this had to work. It was now or never. He could turn around and blend into the trees. They’d never know he had been there. But, if he didn’t do this, he’d never see Marla again. Sighing, he stepped out from the trees.
All three of them turned to focus on him. The bald guy was armed, he mentally checked to make sure his gun was ready. He unbuttoned his sports coat and waited. Nolan wasn’t worried. He was too valuable he reminded himself. Everything depended on them thinking the same way.
Nolan removed his phone and held it next to his leg. He slowly walked across the field. He didn’t look around. Didn’t scan, he didn’t need to. Their minds would let him know. They didn’t really believe he could see inside their thoughts.
He stopped about twenty feet away.
“Is this him?” the tall guy asked Detective Washington.
