Chapter VII

I stepped outside and stood there, being flashed by the truck lights. In that precise moment, I understood that, as I was presented with the chance that I had been waiting for so long, it was required of me to step forward and take action. It was time. Ignis finally said “Come on, Damian, we don’t have all night to wait for you to make up your mind, man!” I saw a huge smile on his face, and a resemblance of the same profile that I saw back in the mirror: a vibrant spark ignited by hope and adventure. Heading back behind the wheel, I glanced beside me and found Lualeen looking elsewhere. Her silky, light blue hair covered her terse cutis. I looked back to Riole, and realized that she was looking at Sebastian. I really did notice then that she did not fall behind Lualeen in good looks: she was outstandingly beautiful, her dark hair brought forward her particular facial features; her eyes matched her nose too perfectly, giving her a very unusual and mystic look. On a closer inspection, I noticed that a strand of her hair was entirely white, flowing down in an inconspicuous manner beside her skin; her makeup made her eyes seem more subtle yet sharp and defined, while it made her lips curve in a sensual manner. Her hair and her makeup were entirely based in an unusual monochromatic pattern of black and white. I raised an eyebrow while turning to Sebastian who was, in his place, smiling at me without realizing her gaze was upon him. I grinned to myself, letting my mind wander.

And for the last time, as I supposed, I backed up using the rearview mirror and accelerated towards the main street. We were rolling now. A few seconds later, when I was slowing down in order to yield to a rusty, old truck at a round-about, I cleared my throat subtly and spoke. “Where to now, Miss Riole?” For a second, I was not entirely sure if my voice was embalmed with irony or not.

“Take us back to that same place,” she requested simply. She didn’t need to explain herself any further for I was already steering through the roundabout, towards the right direction. The pavement on the express way was so soft that it almost made the truck feel as if it was gently sliding over it. It felt… so great. I loved the sensation of the leather seat, the rubbery grip of the wheel and the vibrations from the engine that coursed through my body and drifted into my chest. I grabbed the wheel firmly and kept on driving.

We finally arrived to the very same place from which it had all started. At the time of our arrival, however, there was a little surprise waiting for us. This time around, there were several individuals wearing suits that matched those of the women who were with us; yet, these had the addition of armored plates, narrow chest plate, shoulder pads, shin pads (maybe part of a boot, ankle freedom required), forearm gauntlets, nodded back protection connected to a hip and upper leg guard, certain headgear that seemed to be made of some material that looked like dyed metal which was covered entirely by a thin layer of glass. The patterns on the metal were somewhat intimidating; I judged that they were probably part of some military gear. I decided to park exactly on the same place we had found the car in order to evade raising any more suspicions than necessary. Not like as if there was an army of alien people around us, probably heavily armed that was in the process of kidnapping three individuals in public by extracting them from their homes: nonsense.

At the very second my foot touched the ground, my body was filled with green dots, giving away that I was being targeted by those individuals who, I noticed, used the same kind of gauntlet that Riole had threatened me with before, while others were armed with other sorts of unrealistic devices, which I imagined to be weapons as well. The women in the car got down first and muttered quietly, exchanging a few words with the ones geared up. Sebastian confirmed my observations by pointing out that, indeed, the suits of the women that were with us matched the ones of the individuals with the bizarre headgear.

It was all true. This was no joke after all! They were really from outer space! Ignis was raising his hands indicating that we meant no harm… I mean, after all, we were their prisoners. I nodded to Sebastian and we placed our hands behind our heads. As we did this, I considered if there had actually been any chance to do anything to escape them, like to ask for help or to turn towards a police station as I drove here. Two of the masked individuals approached, after what I imagined were orders given by one of the ladies we were traveling with, and picked up our bags, still targeting us with their weapons. ‘I am pretty sure that they were tracking my driving, radio waves and… who knows what else,’ I shrugged mentally. They pulled us away from the car a bit too roughly and each of us was placed beside his bag with two other masked officers. “Hm…,” I muttered silently. The first of each group questioned us about the contents of the bag while the second was in charge of scrutinizing every corner of them. They inquired about any communication devices we might have with us. They were definitely overestimating the coverage of my network… I usually lost signal when going into a parking lot and so I had serious doubts that it would cover me at all in outer space… or perhaps I would get long distance additional fees? I chuckled to the thought.

The voices of the ones with helmets sounded distorted and hostile, which did not affect me in particular; however, Sebastian looked quite overwhelmed by it, and Ignis was too excited to care about what their voices sounded like. Or maybe it all added up to the effect for him? I assumed the headgear had a voice distortion device that changed the sound into those ominous growls. ‘Those would be perfect for Black Metal singers,’ I weighted, grinning wickedly at the thought. They ordered us to turn off the communication devices and then they proceeded to gather them. We grabbed our bags and followed them closely, being escorted on both sides by those masked officers.

We headed into the woods and walked for a while. It was long enough for me to notice that the silence was creeping out Sebastian a bit, so I placed a hand over his shoulder. “Relax. No need to be so tense about this. We’ll be fine.” He smiled back at me, giving the impression of feeling better. For those very moments, I saw the officers tighten the grip over their weapons. And then everyone suddenly stopped. An opening could be seen ahead, and there were faint white lights pointing down towards the grass. An officer came jogging, and presented herself formally with a pound on the left side of her chest to Riole and Lualeen. The officer said roughly “We seem to have a problem.” A faint hint of doubt could be heard in the jagged voice.

“There appears to be a problem, Commander Franzisca,” she rephrased the sentence a bit more formally.

‘Commander, huh?’ I contemplated silently. ‘Franzisca…?’ I revised then again for myself.

“What is it?” asked Riole back.

“We have an Earthling that has spotted the ship,” the voice felt now remorseful.

“What!? Why did you let this happen! You were supposed to maintain the perimeter and hold guard! Is the person armed?” yelled back Lualeen, controlling the volume of her voice. That sent a shudder through my spine. Riole frowned heavily.

“No. She seems to have been just searching for something.”

“Did you question the Earthling?” asked Lualeen.

“Yes, enough to get some basic information. We firmly believe that she was looking for a lost item when she accidentally found the landsite.”

I felt a thunderbolt on my gut. I shuddered and stepped forward. “Could that ‘something’ have been a ‘someone’?” They stared at me in silence as if I spoke in tongues other than theirs so I sighed and tried something else. “Was it a shy young lady, mid-sized silky hair, smoky gaze, prominent cheeks, and overall, tender features?” I corroborated.

The officer nodded. “That is correct. That matches the description of the subject.”

Lualeen turned toward us and glared upon me, thoughtfully. I lowered my head apologetically but then remembered that I was the victim here and not them and raised my eyes, meeting hers. She turned to Riole and asked for her opinion through an inquiring gaze. Riole raised her shoulders and denied with her head, clearly not caring much, waving her hand as if dismissing the topic. Lualeen sighed and turned to the officer. “Bring her…,” she started, while turning her face towards me; yet she still addressed herself to that same officer. “Bring her aboard. It’s too late to look for anything else or attempt to solve this.” Her arm stretched in my direction and her hand opened up, like a blooming flower, displaying her palm and her fingers which pointed to me in a way that felt as if a duty was bestowed upon me. “And you. You will offer her anything she might need. She’s your direct responsibility.”

Ignis took a step forward and spoke clearly. “You gotta’ realize that none of us is a woman except her, so don’t mind us asking for female stuff like clean clothes…,” he pointed out with a smile in his face, trying to help.

Lualeen nodded in agreement and turned back, saluting formally with the same pound on the chest, receiving the same gesture in response from the officer who ran back the way she came. I guessed it was a “she” from the clothing rather than the distorted voice which seemed so genderless and inhumane. ‘That’s what the headgears are designed for, I suppose,’ I added mentally. We restarted the pacing towards the opening once again. The lights started to grow progressively closer and closer, the grass becoming clearer, flowing under the shine as if a wind whispered over it, and the leaves of the trees appeared more lucidly shaken by a constant flow of air. That was when I realized that there was a relatively round, metallic body in the middle of the meadow, which was the one responsible for the lights over the grass. It didn’t look like the typical UFO you saw in the movies, but like a big, rounded drilling vehicle without the drill on the front, or a futuristic beach-tank model with no tracks. The metal pieces on the ship were colored in blue, light gray and dark gray scales, and were extremely well polished. It gave the impression that the ship was relatively new. It was just big enough to hold the scattered “soldiers,” the women and us four Earthlings. It was then that a simple realization came to me: the individuals that were standing around when I woke up were probably the same soldiers that were waiting for us when we arrived back, except they were geared up. We stood, gazing over the imposing nature of the object and were finally ushered to the back, were a metal door was lowered until it became a ramp.

Lualeen touched lightly her wrist and a faint red light came from the contact. She then said “All clear! Go back to the ship! We have the subjects and we are ready for take-off.” That immediately caused all the officers around to come running into the ship, except for three that stayed escorting us. A moment later two more sentries, who I assumed to be the last two, emerged from the trees and as they ran by, I took notice of the shapes in one of their helmets and realized it was the same officer that had spoken to Riole and Lualeen about the inconvenient a while ago. That likely meant that my friend was already safely aboard. ‘I guess there is another way inside that isn’t through the ramp?’ I wondered quietly. Sebastian looked inside the ship and started walking ahead, looking extremely curious. Ignis walked behind and two of the masked officers followed them. Lualeen headed inside while checking the transmitter, which now displayed some sort of radar in the screen, leaving us three: Riole, an officer and myself, outside.

“Move it! Go check with the prisoners and place them in the containment section,” she ordered to the officer. That left me in utter surprise. The soldier saluted, ran up the ramp into the ship and almost immediately a gradual roar, that I assumed was originated from the starting engine or whatever it was that powered the ship, became persistently pulsating, almost to resemble the one that helicopters made without counting the noise coming from their propellers and the wind friction. Riole fixed her eyes on me, analyzing every inch of my body. “I am watching you. I will be watching you even closer than the others,” she stated in a plain voice. She let a sigh out and crossed her arms, as if to make a pause between each statement “And… uhm… interesting attire you have there.” She walked up the ramp and, on the top she looked back, gesturing me to come. “Come now or I’ll have to shoot you, Earthling,” she yelled over the, now too noisy, flat roar of the engine, but her voice told me that she really didn’t mean it. I was sure I caught a glimpse of a smile in her face.

A few minutes later, the place was entirely surrounded by police cruisers and FBI vehicles; yet, the only thing they found was a big patch of burnt grass in an abandoned meadow.