Life-After (19 page)

What we did learn was that the Federation were years behind the Alliance and redoubled our efforts to find the X-factor of the Awakening process. I personally looked into your parents and discovered your mother’s maiden name and then found you. We watched you while at the campus and waited to see if anything would manifest on its own. The Alliance did not want to experiment on you as a child, but when you collapsed during your boxing match you were brought to Alpha Medical, to me.

I had to approach you the way I did because most of the personal at Alpha Medical did not know about my work. However, we did inform you headmaster and your coach of the procedure. It was their job to watch over you once it was completed.”

To listen to someone talk about you as if you were nothing more than a lab rat was demeaning to say the least. He had no compassion in his voice, almost no emotion at all. It was as if he was reading from a text book account of his records. My own coach and headmaster had lied to me, they did not care about me or my wellbeing they just watched their experiment unfold on government orders.

I should have known better back then. Once I returned to the campus tried as I did there were times it was apparent I was dominating any physical events. There had been testing done for performance enhancing drugs and I never once was brought in. Rethinking on that time I realized they protected me from investigation from both internal and external sources. My whole time at the campus was nothing but a controlled testing environment.

“
We tried something different with you, David.” Flag continued. “What I told you that night was true and for a time it worked as we expected, but sadly the effects were limited and by then we had test subjects that were more expendable and so we decided to allow you to continue on with the loss of your abilities and monitor your progress.

Even when you ran from the campus and traveled before joining the alliance military we had been tracking you. Implanted within your body was a special beacon secondary to the one placed within you when you joined the military. The beacon also gathered data on various vital statistics and would send them to us whenever you were near a data transmission node. Originally no one was told of your condition when you began basic training, but when you began to excel and were noticed by Alpha Factor we wanted to inform your commanding officer of the project.”

The only comfort I could take in Flag’s words was that he did not mention Sara or Clara. It would have been too much to bear if he had told me they were part of the project. Jonathan and Lola knew about it and went along and I was too stupid to notice. Not once did I believe they were lying to me, befriending me because they were ordered to. I did not want to hear anymore, but my mind would not allow me to ask him to stop.

“
At that point we were done with you, David.” Flag continued. “We had other subjects to conduct our tests on and with the war coming to an end the rush to enhance our soldiers was lessened. Jonathan and Lola were watching over you and you performed admirably in your duties to the alliance military and later at Naxum Research. Everything was moving at a pace that was acceptable to me and my team that was until a few weeks before the meteors hit.

We were nowhere closer to discovering a way to permanently awaken the life energy within a human being and then one day something began to happen to all our test subjects. Their change was different than yours, every one of their cells were surrounded with an aura of energy. It could only be seen under a specific microscope on a specific spectrum, but it was clearly there. We could not explain it, there was nothing we had done to have such a change, but that was not the strangest part.

The subjects did not develop any abilities in fact they became comatose. We ran tests on them and found that each had a tumor like growth at the base of their brain stem. After further tests we realized the subjects were experiencing some sort of dream. The patterns were similar to those you would see from a person in R.E.M sleep.

A few days before the meteors were detected the aura expanded out from the subjects covering their entire body. Something was changing within them at the cellular level, they were becoming something different. Their body was going through a matter to energy process. Simply put they were turning from physical to energy beings. We placed the subjects in stasis, but it did nothing to stop the process. Two days before the meteors hit the subjects had turned completely to energy and disappeared.

By then we were looking for answers as to stopping the meteor strike but I also was running scans on the energy to learn all I could. When the meteor was struck by an energy weapon I put two and two together. Our planet while devastated by the meteor shards still had scanning capabilities and so I began running comparisons on the energy blast and the energy the test subjects turned into.

I wish I could say I was surprised by what I found but by then I was not. The energy signature matched. The blast of energy that shattered the meteor was identical to the test subject’s life energy. I gave my report to the president, it was clear. The change in the human DNA was alien and it was done by our attackers.”

I believed I had a purpose. I wanted to serve my nation with honor. With my childhood behind me I truly hoped I could carve out a meaningful existence. After the death of Hershel and then Sara the faith I had in achieving my goal was severely weakened, but meeting Clara and building a new future with her put me back on track. When she died, there was only one path, revenge. It was all I had left, the only reason to live.

Flag took everything away, the pain, the pleasure, the hope. My life did not mean anything. I was nothing but a scientific curiosity to humanity and a weapon to the aliens. I had killed Clara just as if I had guided the meteor to earth myself. Everything was coming together. Answers were leading to fewer questions. My reality became clearer and what I saw was horrifying.

“
I gave myself a task. Find any remaining humans with the DNA markers if there were any.” Flag continued. “I want to know if the energy transformation happened to everyone or just a select few. Over the next few months my search came up empty. I found no other humans with the DNA markers, not until you resurfaced.

Jonathan and Lola gave me their report and there was no evidence of any change within you. It was a mystery to be sure, but I could not pull you from the front lines to experiment on you no matter how much I begged the resistance government to do so. All I could do is continue with what I had and I watched your every move to see if and when anything would occur.

After two years I believed I had missed something. Perhaps the aliens had experimented on humans long ago and never knew if their own experiments had worked or not. I originally theorized that the humans with the specific DNA were sleeper agents for the aliens, but with you showing no signs of change that became less of a possibility, that was until a few days ago.”

A video image appeared on the glass before me. It was a feed of my patrol route from an aerial drone. They had recorded me that night, they had seen everything. I could do nothing but watch everything unfold. The little girl, the Asher attack, but there was something different, something I never knew happened.

“
You should pay attention to this part, David.” Jonathan said coldly. “This is where it gets interesting.”

The video showed me lying on the ground struggling to move after the blast knocked us apart. The Asher slowly walked over to the girl killing her then made its way to me. My hand was griped on the detonator. Just as I remembered I closed my eyes and was ready to pull the trigger.

“
We had limited resources to track you.” Flag began. “Your implants still functioned, but as allowed I would send drones to capture video of you, specifically when you were alone. This was what we were looking for. You lying helplessly on the ground with the alien ready to kill you, but he did not. At that very moment it became clear why.”

I watched the video in disbelief as my eyes opened widely and stared directly at the Asher. My hand was still on the trigger but I did not push it, it was as if I was under a trance. In my hypnotic state the Asher began to scan me, something we had never seen them do before. Then he placed his weapon over me just as he did the girl, but instead of a green energy that disintegrated flesh it was a red light that only caused me to close my eyes.

“
We had been monitoring any signals you sent.” Jonathan said. “We did not know if you were a willing or unwilling participant, but either way we not going to leave ourselves open again. Unfortunately, we were not actively monitoring your feed when this occurred. What alerted us was after the Asher hit you with that crimson light.”

“
We had never seen that type of energy before.” Doctor Flag said. “Whatever it did to you caused you to change just as our test subjects did, just at a much slower rate it seems. Did you know when you went into that comatose state you were sending out energy signals from your body? Your implant gave us some very strange readings, many of which we are still working through now, but one thing was clear. Your conciseness left your body and went somewhere else.”

The video feed vanished and the glass before me changed. I could now see outside my cell. My cell was in the center of the facility several feet higher than ground level. Every person in the area turned to look at me. Jonathan and Lola stood next to Flag who began typing onto a computer console at the base of my containment unit. I could hear a hissing sound and turned to see gas pouring in from the air vent. I could feel my strength slipping away as I fell onto my stomach slowly losing consciousness.

“
Apparently you are special to the aliens and we will find out why, David.” Flag said. “We will learn what they did to you and where your consciousness traveled, even if it kills you.”

12

The warm sand against my back and legs brought a smile to my face. It was the smell of salty water, the crashing of the waves against the shore, the call of the birds searching for fish that told me I was dreaming. It was not that Flag’s words and the actions of people who I considered friends no longer affected me. It was that I knew that all I had left was this final fantasy and if I could just enjoy it for however long it would last then it would be something I could take with me to the grave.

The beach stretched out for miles, nothing but golden shimmering sand behind me and crystal clear waters in front of me. I had awakened there as if I went to bed content, happy. When I awoke I let out a gasp. Like awakening from a bad dream, except, I was awakening into a dream and I was okay with that, until.

“
I’m sorry, David.”

I sat on a clump of sand my hands resting on my knees when I heard her voice. I closed my eyes taking in the sound, absorbing it because I knew this would be the last time I would hear it. She stood behind me, I could feel it. Her presence was strong not static-like the way it was before. There were still questions, but I did not want to ask them.

“
Why, did you forget the beer?” I asked.

My eyes opened to the shadow that she casted over me. Still unwilling to turn around I wanted to keep in the character I had created. The beach was similar to the one we used to visit when Clara was alive. We would always pack a picnic and it was my job to bring the food and her job to bring the drinks. She always forgot something and would have a sad puppy dog face when she realized it. I would take her in my arms and kiss her passionately letting her know it was okay, I had packed a six-pack just in case.

“
You cannot believe what they have told you, David.” Clara said, the urgency in her voice becoming clearer. “Everything you have experienced is a lie.”

I slowly stood taking in a deep breath, inhaling the fresh sea air and exhaling out the stress. I dug my toes into the sand and turned around to look at Clara. She stood there, her hands together by her waist wearing a yellow sun dress. A smile returned to my face, her dress did not match her words. While she spoke of things about the other world she wore the dress of our memories.

The matching ribbon tied around her hair, the flip-flops showing off her manicured toes, it was just how I remembered. It was just what I wanted to see.

“
I’ve never been one to give up.” I began. “There were times I wished things were different, but I did not want my life to end. Now my life means nothing. Everything was a lie, Clara, except us. We were real, our love was the truth. That’s all we have left now.”

Clara placed her index finger and thumb to her lips. She was worried about me, about how I was acting, the words I said. A representation of my own feelings and doubts that is what I was seeing. I knew the Clara standing before me was not real. I was inside of my own mind, trying to repair the damage knowing soon I would die. It did not matter. Seeing Clara standing there was what I wanted and I would treat her as if she was real. It was the last gift I gave to myself and I felt I had deserved it.

“
I wanted to give up.” Clara said. “When I died, the things I saw. You have to understand this is what he wants, to weaken you, break you. Everything you have been shown was specifically done to take away your resolve. You can’t let him do this to you, David. You can still free yourself.”

The look in her eyes and the way she spoke, it sounded the same way I would if trying to convince a dying solider that everything would be okay. I knew it was hopeless and would have preferred to be honest, but that is not how it always works. You tailor your response to the person, give them what they need, and say what they want to hear. Just as I knew to change my words dependant on the person or situation my mind knew to do it to me.