“Are you saying that the Numen want a to wipe out all humans with the D antigen?”
He nods.
“Don't they know that genetic diversity makes us stronger?”
“They know the outcome.”
“The future is not set,” I say.
“I've done everything in my power to protect you and your mother.”
“What about the eighty-five percent of the world? Who's going to explain to them that their lives are expendable?”
“Life doesn't end with death.”
“That's not justification for murder.”
The major general raises an eyebrow. “I think I've underestimated you.”
“I think you have.”
I watch, wide-eyed as the man, who looks and sounds and wears the same uniform as the major general, turns his attention to Van. “How did you manage to let a school girl get away from you?”
I’m sixteen. I take exception to being called a girl.
My stepfather doesn't even wait for Van to answer.
“If you can't handle a simple directive,” he shouts, “you have no place under my command. I'll find a soldier who will fulfill his duty.”
Van takes his abuse with a grave, but unwavering expression.
He may not be angry that he's getting yelled at, but I am. “You can't fire Van for something I did,” I blurt out.
The major general grabs me by the arm. “You come with me. A Numen ship is on its way to take you and the rest of the hybrids.”
Van reaches for me, but the major general doesn't let go. We head for one of the black helicopters that has just landed in the open field beside our house.
Dragging me along, the major general steps onto the landing skids and into the helicopter.
Just as he's about to drag me inside, I wriggle my arm free. The jump onto the grass isn't too bad.
As I roll away from the wind kicked up by the turning blades, I hear the major general's yelling over the helicopter's jet engine as it lifts into the air. He screams at the pilot to put the helicopter back down, but he must not hear him and keeps lifting off.
I sprint across the field to Van, who meets me halfway. And as silly as it sounds, we hug when we reach each other. I’ve never been so relieved to touch Van, or anyone, more than in this moment. Even the night he broke into my house, and I was scared for my life, was nothing compared to this.
“Your father can be a hard man,” he says as he ends the hug. “I knew that a long time ago when I took this job.”
“A long time ago?” I shake my head in confusion, but I don't have time to ask. “He's not my father,” I say, struggling to catch my breath from my run.
“I know,” Van says impatiently, “he is your stepfather.”
“No, I mean, he's not my stepfather. I don't know who that is,” I look back at the helicopter, a tiny speck on the horizon now, “but my stepfather would never yell at anyone in his command. That's not him.”
Van turns to me, a startled look in his eyes. “We have to get out of here.”
Just as the words, We have to get out of here, leave Van's mouth, the black helicopter carrying the major general, or the being who looks just like him, circles back and flies straight in our direction.
Van pushes me down, head first, and dives behind a clump of rhododendrons, taking me with him. We both fall to the ground just as the helicopter swoops over our heads and explodes into a fiery blaze. Orange flames rise up in a ball and consume the cockpit and the people in it.
I can't feel anything, even though I should, because I know in my heart that wasn't my stepfather.
More black helicopters appear in the sky now, circling overhead like a swarm of killer bees. They cover the sky over Cedar Park. I can't tell which one my stepfather is inside of now.
The military is here in full force. I’m surprised it took them this long. I guess I should feel relieved—the cavalry has arrived. But as I watch them circle, none of the helicopters landing, there's something else going on here, something I don't understand.
A dark cloud passes over our heads. Like a solar eclipse, all sunlight is blocked. The sun is still there, but the sky is gray like twilight. A steady, low humming begins. I look up to see what's causing it. And there above me is no cloud—it's an enormous, liquid smooth, silver ship, hovering there. It seems as big as the sky. And it's appeared out of nowhere. One minute nothing, one minute right above us.
As we watch, even for a split second, we can actually see figures silhouetted in the lighted center of the ship, as if they're the captains steering the thing. But they don't look like the reptilian aliens that everyone describes in witness accounts. They look—human!
Then several small pieces of the ship separate from the massive structure. It's no longer one large circle, but a smaller main circle now, and what seems like hundreds of silver pieces flying away from it.
I stare at Van in disbelief. If he's never seen one of these before, then he's got to win every poker game he ever plays because he's just as cool as he's ever been.
The black helicopters start to fire on the small silver ships as they scatter, but the smaller, silver crafts zip this way and that, dodging every shot as it was anticipated. The helicopter shots land on the ground instead, causing the trees and bushes they hit to burst into flames. One stray shot hits my house over my grandmother's suite and catches fire to the roof.
Van grabs me by my arm and pulls. We start to run, where I don't know, but going back to Hawthorne Academy seems like a fantasy now.
“Are they Numen?” I ask Van in between breaths.
“Dead bodies are of no use to Numen.”
“Then who?”
“Just run!”
The small ships have yet to fire back. But getting caught in cross fire would be deadly. The helicopters have actually changed tactic now and are shooting people and houses on the ground now instead of the alien ships.
“What's happening?” I yell over the explosions.
The first silver ship to take a hit vaporizes. Not even a piece of debris falls to the ground. It's just there one second and gone the next.
“We just need to get out of here,” Van says.
A weird noise starts over our heads. We look up just as one of the silver ships starts to go down. Its wing is on fire after taking a hit from one of the helicopters that buzz overhead like a swarm of hornets. Instead of vaporizing, this one instead crashes to the ground. The grass is lifted like a carpet being dusted. No pieces or parts fly off, no debris scatters around us.
As the ship slides to a complete stop, Van, still holding onto my arm, dives into a grassy trench that separates Mr. Weingarten's yard from a neighboring yard. The liquid silver of this ship matches that of its mother ship, and it's undamaged except its wing. The hull has the same symbols, hieroglyphs, that are carved into the tower back at school. A hatch opens and a body crawls out, one wearing a perfectly fitted body suit and just as human as me and Van.
I open my mouth to scream, but Van's arm presses me face first into the soft dormant grass. “Shh!”
The being doesn't get up.
“He may be hurt,” I say, my mouth half pressed into the grass.
“Listen to me.” Van's voice sounds scared for the first time since we met. That's not good. “I will tell you everything you need to know when we are safe. Right now, I want you to belly crawl alongside me until we get to the river.”
I look back at the craft, but the man isn't there. “He's gone,” I say in a panicked whisper. The liquid silver craft disappears as well.
My mind in a whirl, I do as Van asked, crawling beside him to the edge of the river where it curves around a bend and the land rises. Trees block our view of what's happening on the street now. But black helicopters continue to buzz overhead, taking shots at whatever's below them.
“The caves are up ahead,” Van says in normal voice now, but still strained, “just a short sprint away. We can hide in them.”
The distance betw
een where we are and where the mountain starts to rise is more than a short sprint away. Plus, there's the neighborhood fence between us and freedom. But Van doesn't seem deterred.
Suddenly, I feel very tired. I don't want to go on. “I can't,” I say, letting my weight sink into the soft, dormant grass. “Leave me here. I’ll be alright. I know where I can hide inside my house. No one will find me.”
“I cannot,” Van whispers. “I could not. Leaving you would be like... hurting myself.” Van cups both of my cheeks in his palms and his blue eyes bore into mine. “Hold onto me. I will not let you go.”
Weary from fear, I nod.
He lays down beside me, his stomach on the grass. He lifts my left leg onto his back. He wants me to let him carry me.
“I can't.”
“Why not? I am strong enough for the both of us.”
“I can't ask you to carry me.”
“I would do anything you ask of me.”
I feel Van's words through my entire body, like the lightning from his touch. “I can do it.”
Van nods and releases my leg. “Ready?”
“Ready.”
“Now, get up, and run!” Van shouts the last word.
We sit inside the Manitou Cave. It's dark and cold. I still have to catch my breath.
Once we cleared the neighborhood gate, getting here was no easy feat, but Van held my hand the whole way.
“No one actually knows where the secret entrance to the cave is,” Van says. “Even the hybrids who have lived in them for centuries must follow the orb lights.”
“So this is where you grew up?”
Van nods. “The orbs are our guides. They have always been here. No one knows how long. They are the same energy that creates crop circles every summer. Without them, we would never have made our way here. The Bastet will open the door as soon as the Numen are out of range. Otherwise, they will detect the entrance and attack.”
“And for now, we wait in the dark.” I smile at Van and lean my head on his shoulder. “We're not going back to Hawthorne, are we?”
“I sense that your real stepfather did not send Anna with that message. He would not have endangered a civilian's life. The Numen must have sent it. If I take you back to school, they will be waiting there for you.”
“That means that Anna and the major are...cloned?”
“The Numen do not have to destroy in order to clone. If Anna and your stepfather have the proteins, then, yes, they have been replaced. But if not, there is hope that they are still alive.”
I sigh. I won't cry now. There's no reason to if I don't know their fate. “Why do you live underground?”
“The Bastet live here to protect themselves from humans who would be frightened by their special abilities or want to exploit them. And special military personnel, like your stepfather, provide protection for us by keeping our existence a secret.”
“Why do they have to?”
“In the past, when Numen visited Earth, they were thought of as either gods or devils. When humans realize that no species has all the answers, that it is up to the individual to create his own reality, it will be safe.”
“If the military know what's going on, why were their black helicopters shooting at people on the ground?”
“They were not American military. They were Numen. The military tolerates hybrids living on Earth, but not Numen clones. The ships are here to destroy all the clones the Numen have created.”
“Then that man we saw crash, the pilot, he was Bastet?”
“He is one of the Shido. And he is not dead.”
“How did his ship appear out of nowhere like that? Did he teleport?”
Van chuckles. “It is hard to explain. Time and space remain an unsolved mystery for humans.”
“Teach me.”
Van chuckles again and this time, he places a kiss on my forehead.
But when he doesn't make a move to touch my forehead with his hand, I say, “I mean it. Teach me.”
“Now? While we wait?”
I nod my head vigorously.
Van's smile disappears, and he takes a deep breath. “The information I will give you is radically different from what you have been lead to believe, but do not be frightened. You are safe. Inside the caves, you will be safe.”
“I'll be safe? What about you?”
“Where you go, I go.”
I smile, relieved that he'll be staying with me. I look around me at the rock ceiling hanging low over our heads. “You know, under different circumstances, it might feel cozy in here, romantic even.” I snap my mouth shut. “I can't believe I just said that out loud. I feel like I’ve taken a truth serum or something. Of course, this happens to me just about every time I get nervous.”
“It is normal for Bastet to react to stress by saying what is on their minds without editing themselves.” Van smiles and takes my hand in his.
“Then I guess I’m definitely a hybrid.”
Van laughs. “Was there ever any doubt?”
That makes me feel good, like I belong somewhere. “I’ve always felt like an alien. I can't count how many times I’ve been talking in class, saying something I think, and when I finish, no one says anything, like I’ve said too much or things that other people don't get. Sometimes I think I frighten people with what I say. I’ve always been an outsider.”
“It pains me to hear that. If you had grown up inside the caves with me, you would have known you belonged.”
I look around in the dark entrance. On the wall is a quote carved into the rock, that I can barely make out. “To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded. Ralph Waldo Emerson.” I look at Van and smile. “Do all Shido have the souls of poets?”
“It was here when I was a child.”
As I run my hands over the smooth stone and the indentations there, Van catches it.
“If we had been children together,” Van says, “I would have been your friend.”
My hand falls away and rests in my lap, and I sit quietly that way for several minutes, counting the shots from the black helicopters as they ring in the distance—the clones being destroyed.
I can't speak over the lump in my throat. I’ve had a friend all these years and didn't know it. I bury my face in my hands. I don't want Van to see me cry.
But he takes my hands away. My cheeks are wet. He kisses one of the tears and whispers, “Rasa.”
I stare up at him, amazed that a man like him exists anywhere. He didn't leave me behind when he thought he was fired. And he said he would stay with me no matter what. I sit up a little straighter. Knowing that someone like Van is my friend makes me see myself a little differently, like maybe I can fit in somewhere, even if it is far away from my parents. I think it might be worth a try.
The infinity symbol embroidered on the sleeve of his jacket catches the light as he hands a handkerchief to me.
I trace the sideways figure eight symbol with my fingertip. “What does this mean?”
“To my people, eternal souls. We believe that life is about regeneration of life. Reincarnation of souls is what moves the universe, a constant wheel of continuity. Our ancestors knew it, and future generations will discover it. Until then, each person holds only a piece of the puzzle. No one sees the big picture. The government and military are doing what they have promised to do for now, to ensure the safety of all hybrids through absolute denial of the existence of any life outside of earth.”
“You know,” I say, drying my cheeks with Van's handkerchief, “I think I've grown to understand, appreciate even, my stepfather through all of this. He wanted to protect me and my mother. He didn't leave her the way my real...I mean, the way my mother's first husband did. And I’ve wasted most of my life crying over not having a real father at home. I'll never get to meet my actual, biological father. And now, I don't have either one of them.”
“Do not forget what I told you. The Numen can clone without destroying.”
“
Depending on what type of blood he has?”
“There is still a chance he is alive.” Van stands and holds out a hand to me. “Let us go inside and find out.”
“It's been enough time?”
Van nods.
I feel a cold chill run up my spine. I can't stand up yet, and I don't understand why I'm hesitant to follow him inside.
If I stay above, my life will be in danger, only death and destruction await. With Van, I’ll be alive but separated from everyone else I love.
Love.
I do love Van.
He's holding my hand, patiently waiting for me.
I look back at the apocalypse behind me. My choice should be easy. I’ve already decided to trust Van. But still, I hesitate, caught between two worlds, one known, one completely foreign.
Isn't this all I’ve ever wanted though—to be alien? So why is it so hard?
Van senses my confusion. He turns to me. I can see in his eyes that he can read my thoughts. He cups my cheeks with his hands. “Rasa,” I hear him say as I begin to drift into that ethereal world before sleep, “I'll be with you the whole time.”
Chapter 12
∞
When I open my eyes, I’m inside a comfortable room. The door is closed.
Van sits in a rocking chair beside me, ever watchful. It's just the two of us.
I don't know where I am, but I know I’m safe. “Where are we?”
“Inside the Bastet cave.”
I begin to sit up. “I feel like I’ve been asleep all night.”
He stands quickly to assist me. “It has only been a few hours since we arrived. It gave me time to let your parents know that you are here and you are safe.”
“They're here too?” I jump to my feet. “Where?”
“Take it easy. I have been ordered by the major general to take you to him as soon as you awakened. And that is what I will do.”
The door slides open, and I step into a whole underground world—Van's world. A uniformed Marine stands on one side of the door. I look at Van with an unspoken question on my lips, and he nods, knowing what I’m thinking.
“They have been here since I was I was child.”
The Bodyguard: an alien romance Page 16