The Resurgent

by Blake Wilbanks

  He took in a breath then let it out slowly, then took a step forward. And the doors pulled apart from one another by themselves, not expecting it, Xavier’s eyes bulged wide in surprise and anxiousness built in his chest. It took him a moment to gather back his wits and push away his anxiety. He poked a head out of the door, hesitantly, looking from side to side and checking to see if the coast was clear.

  It was. Which was a huge relief.

  He stepped out into the hall, which was just as bare as the room that he had just been in. He stepped out into the hall, cautiously, not wanting to get caught. By what, he didn’t know, but he was sure that whatever it was that he definitely didn’t want to be caught by it.

  Xavier imagined an alien to look like what they do on Television—pale green skin and large black beady eyes—it was the only imagery of one that he had ever seen, and now, he was probably about to see one in real life. It was then that a thought ran through his mind, alarming him.

  Where’s Tyler?

  Xavier walked stealthily. He didn’t know where he was going, but he was on a mission to find his mother and Tyler—wherever they might be.

  The halls of the Spaceship were eerily quiet. He was careful with each step that he took, not wanting to make too much noise.

  There were other rooms all around. Xavier tried to check them, but most of them were locked. He was about to give up, turn around and try to look somewhere else, but as he was about to turn and walked the other way a loud yell came from somewhere further down the hall, and without a second thought he ran in the direction that the yell had come from, praying silently to himself that he wouldn’t run into anyone or anything.

  He didn’t. Which is something that he was grateful for.

  The yell led him to a room at the very end of the hall. This door was different than the others, though. It was a dark red color that almost resembled the color of fresh blood, while the others were a blinding white. The color of eggshells and there was a number on the door that had 0045 written in black. There was also a keypad next to the door with the words open and close on them.

  It was a simple keypad that he didn’t expect at all. In fact, he didn’t expect for there to be one at all. He expected for the doors to open automatically as they had for his room. But he was glad that they didn’t because he wasn’t really ready to face whatever it was that was on the other side.

  He put an ear to the glass, stifling a shiver as it sent a cold chill up his spine, and trying to listen to what was happening on the other side of the door.

  He heard muffled whimpers and stifled screams.

  The sounds were enough to instill fear in him. He closed his eyes, just picturing whatever it was that could be happening on the other side. And the images that came to mind made him feel sick to his stomach.

  His ear was still pressed against the glass of the door, and he was glad that it was frosted glass.

  There was shuffling on the other side and then Xavier could hear the sound of heavy footsteps moving closer, and he pushed himself away from the door as fast as he could. He flattened himself as much as he could against the wall. His heart was pounding hard, once again, against its ribcage prison in his chest. The doors slid open with a hiss and two things walked out. Their skin was deathly pale gray and there were traces of dark red blood painted on their skin. The sheer image made his stomach coil in disgust.

  He didn’t get a chance to see what they looked like in the front, but he could only imagine that they looked hideous, or menacingly hideous. They made their way down the hall and turned left, the same way that Xavier had come from.

  The doors were beginning to close; they were half closed when Xavier’s mind caught up to him and wedged his hands between the doors, prying them open. He slipped past them and into the room, taking in the sight before him; a gasp slipping passed his lips. Tyler was sprawled out on the same metal bed that he had been on before.

  Tyler looked sickly. His skin was ghostly pale, and there were bandages stained in blood wrapped around his arm. His eyes drooped with exhaustion and there were tears that stained his cheeks. And his face was flushed red with a blood blush and heat.

  He gulped back a lump of tears that formed in his throat. He was in pain that much Xavier could tell. It was blatantly obvious. He was experiencing a pain that no one should have to endure when they were awake. From the placement of the bandage, and the mass amount of the blood that was seeping through, painting it in a deep dark red, Xavier could only concur that they had been cutting into his skin. For what, he didn’t know, and he didn’t think that he wanted to.

  The unknown could be scary. And it wasn’t something that he intended to fully comprehend.

  He chanced a step closer. Low whimpers of pain were leaving Tyler’s slightly parted lips.

  “Ty. It’s okay,” said Xavier. His voice was nothing but a whisper. But he was confident that Tyler could hear him. “You’re okay. We’re going to be okay.”

  Tyler turned his head to the side, looking up at Xavier, lazily, with half-lidded eyes. “We need to leave,” said Xavier, kneeling down on his knees. “Do you think that you can stand on your own?”

  Tyler half-heartedly nodded. “I’m tired,” he murmured. “But I’ll . . . try.”

  He tried to push himself up, he got half-way and then his arms gave way under him and he fell back, once again. He was weak, most likely from pain and blood loss. But it didn’t stop him from trying to be strong. And that was commendable.

  Without asking, Xavier stepped forward, guiding Tyler upright as gently as he could. There were low whimpers of pain that left his lips as Xavier moved him. The throbbing pain in his arm was beating emphatically like a heart or an unbearable migraine that wouldn’t go away.

  Tyler braced himself to stand, then pushed himself to his feet. He was unsteady, which was to be expected. Xavier supported almost all of his weight, holding onto him enough to keep him steady. “Do you think you’ll be able to walk by yourself or what?

  “I think—” started Tyler, but the sound of a blaring alarm cut him off. His eyes furrowed together in confusion. He moved his lips to speak, but Xavier didn’t give him a chance before he was pulling him along with him, with a bit of a struggle, down the halls of the Spaceship. Neither of them knew where they were going, but they had to get away that much was apparent.

  Neither of them knew if they were being chased, but they were sure that they would be soon.

  “Here!” said Xavier, pulling Tyler along with him down the hall. There was a room at the end of the hall that they ran to, Xavier’s arms were wrapped around Tyler's waist, pulling him along into the room and slammed the door closed.

  They were both panting, hearts beating hard against their chest. The alarm still blared, but it was a distant sound to Xavier's ears. And Tyler’s arm was still throbbing. He looked down at the bandage. It was painted a dark almost red-black color, his eyes were dazed and he was swaying a little from side to side. He was close to falling until Xavier shot his hands out and held him upright once more.

  “Xavier,” said a deep groggy rasp-filled voice. And Xavier could only imagine the strain that it caused on the vocal cords.

  He turned, his brows furrowed. “Mom?” he said, making his way forward, not letting go of Tyler, who let out a sound of discontent.

  “Mom,” said Xavier. “Hey.”

  “Hey,” said Eliza. Her eyes were filling with tears as she spoke. She was standing in a cell, one that was filled with three other people. Her eyes were puffy and she looked unbelievably tired. “What are you doing here, sweetie?”

  Xavier shook his head. “I’m here to save you.”

  “You can’t do that baby,” she said. “We don’t—”

  “It can happen,” he interjected. “They released Legan and Denya, so I’m sure that I can find a way for us all to get out of here, to end this, mom, we can do it. Come on, you have to have a little faith in me.”

  She didn
’t respond, just gave a tentative nod and a sigh. “There is a keypad on the wall. And I think that the code to it is somewhere nearby, but I don’t know. Find it and you should be able to get us out of here.” Tears fell, trailing down the lengths of her cheeks freely. “I don’t know, Xavier. I think that maybe you shou—”

  “Tyler!” exclaimed someone a few cells down. It was his mother. She had a hand poked through one of the bars, holding out to him.

  He made a noncommittal sound, weakly moving forward as fast as he could, stumbling and falling every now and again, but he was persistent. And soon, he was kneeling before his mother, swaying as if he were about to fall. But he didn’t. With an outstretched arm, he took hold of his mother’s hand and his body visibly relaxed.

  It was in that moment that Xavier noticed Tyler had been tense. He didn’t think that either Tyler or Demetria had felt the way that he had. He had been too selfish, blinded by his own emotions to even consider that anyone else could have felt the same way. He felt like a horrible person. But that is because he probably was and he was just realizing it now.

  There were tears falling from Tyler’s eyes. He was happy to see his mother. His father sat beside his mother, poking a hand through one of the bars and caressing Tyler's side in a caring gesture of reassurance. In reassurance that everything would be okay and that they would be all right.

  Xavier forced himself to look away from them. It was a private moment that they needed for themselves, though it really wasn’t because of all the people that were watching from where they stood and laid in their cell.

  Xavier made quick work of looking for the code to the keypad, ignoring the incessant blaring of the alarm. And outside the room that they were currently in, he tried hard not to think about the fact that there could be Alien forces running amuck, searching for them. And that it was just a matter of time before any of them barged in and found them.

  With each passing moment, the sheer thought of that sent an electric surge of anxiety through him and he felt like he was going to be sick. He wasn’t prepared for what was happening and he just wanted it all to be over.

  Yes! exclaimed Xavier to himself. He held a slim bar with a small LCD screen that he found with a set of numbers on it. He made his way to the keypad and punched in the code. The light above it turned from red to green, then there was a low hum that one would have to strain their ears to hear over the sound of the alarm. And the doors to the cells opened with a loud clang and everyone that occupied them stood to their feet and rushed to try and get out.

  Everyone except Tyler’s parents’—Aria and Cadence—who stood still, their arms wrapped around each other in a warm embrace, just holding onto each other like it would be their last time ever doing so. And with the way that the last few weeks have been, it felt like at any moment that it could.

  The room was fairly large, large enough to fit everyone after they had forced themselves out of their cells. Which was almost the whole town, save for the ones that were left behind, to fend for themselves and reconsider everything that they had ever done wrong in their life. Or at least that is what Xavier had done.

  The alarm was still blaring annoyingly loud through the ship.

  Xavier found his mother standing by the door. It was apparent that she wanted to leave. She was finally free from the confines of her cell and wanted nothing more than to be at home, and for everything to be back to normal.

  She looked very unrecognizable. Her skin clung to her bones and she looked uncharacteristically pale as if she hadn’t eaten in months. The dark circles under her eyes were darker than usual and there were bruises that lined the length of her skin.

  She wasn’t the only one that looked like that. Almost everyone that was captured looked that way.

  “Are you ready, mom?”

  She nodded absentmindedly, turning to look at him. “I’m ready,” she said with an almost smile. “But how are we going to get out of here without being caught? This is a lot of people.”

  “Well,” said Xavier with a shrug of his shoulders. “I’m thinking that we outnumber them. So we have the upper hand. Right?”

  Eliza didn’t say anything in reply, just placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder and pulled him close. “Where is your father?” she whispered.

  Xavier’s shoulders tensed and he sucked in a deep breath of air.

  He didn’t have to say anything. His rigid posture at the mention of his father gave his mother the answer. She hugged him tighter, hiding her face in his shoulder and silent tears fell from her eyes. She pulled away a moment later and looked him straight in the eyes. “Let’s do this,” she said.

  Xavier nodded, then turned and made his way through the crowd where Tyler stood, more steady then he had before, with his parents’ by his side. He looked more aware than he had before.

  “Let’s do this,” he whispered into Tyler's ear. “Do you think you can do this?”

  Tyler nodded his head. “Of course,” he said, pulling his shoulders back and straightening his posture. He looked stern and authoritative despite his tearstained cheeks. He was pushing back the throbbing pain that he was feeling, ignoring it, and bringing all of the strength that he could muster to the surface so that he could use it as a shield of protection and a weapon.

  “Okay, everyone!” said Xavier, raising his voice to be heard over the alarm. “Who’s ready?”

  There was a chorus of sounds that filled the room. It sent a surge of adrenaline through Xavier’s veins and he felt more ready than he had ever felt. He pushed his way back through to the front of the crowd so that he was standing in front of everyone once again. Everyone’s eyes were on him and it was a little unnerving and made him feel a little out of place. He could feel prickles of heat and the threat of a blush coursing through his body.

  He turned around quickly, not wanting anyone to see him flushed. He took a few steps closer to the doors and they slid open with a low hum. There was no way of sneakily looking out of them. It was all or nothing. There were red flashing lights and the alarm sounded louder than it had from the seclusion of the room. The hall was empty, which was surprising to Xavier, but he didn’t think more of it.

  He looked both ways, cautiously, then motioned for everyone to follow him and stepped out into the hall. He wanted to run, to leave as fast as he possibly could. It’s what his body was telling him, to get back home as fast as possible, but it was going to be harder than it should have been. He knew that.

  He walked slowly. The floor that they were on was empty and the ship was like a maze. Xavier was cautious with the doors that he went through. If they were a different color like black or red, those were the ones that he went through. The frost glass doors seemed to be reserved for either medical rooms, or places for sleep.

  His main goal was to get to the first floor of the ship. It had to be the floor where the exit was—where the menacing eye was. It just had to be. It made the most logical sense.

  There was one black door that Xavier opened, he expected for it to be another room that opened onto another level of maze, but it was to flights of stairs. One went up and the other went down. He ran down the stairs, his mother and Tyler and his parents’, beside him. The blaring of the alarm became the anthem of their escape.

  The room where the stairs were was much like a Hospital’s. At the end of every flight of stairs, there was a door that led to a different floor, and right beside the door on a screen, there was a number. The level that they were on was 003. They had a few more levels to go before they were at one.

  There were times when they would get anxious, or at least Xavier would. Every time they reached a new level, there was a chance that one of “them” could walk through the door and find them.

  The thought was unsettling. But he pushed back the nerves that it brought to the back of his mind. He didn’t have time to think about it.

  They went down a few more flights of stairs, the room filled with the sound of shuffling feet.
It was louder than the sound of the alarm. Soon they reached the end; level 001 was only one flight of stairs away. At the end of the stairs, there was a wide expanse of floor that could hold most of them, but the rest would be stuck laced on the stairs until it was cleared out enough.

  In the door, there was a small patch of clear glass. Xavier peeked a look outside, the room was bare, sparsely decorated with nothing but a control panel and beyond that, there was what looked to be the eye in the middle of the ship. It looked less menacing from the inside, but on the outside, it was most displeasing and made Xavier feel nauseous.

  The room was empty and painted in flashing red lights. The alarm was beginning to become deafening and Xavier could feel the sound thrumming through his ears, racing to his head and bringing on a pounding headache.

  “What now?” asked Tyler from behind Xavier, close enough to his ear so that he’d be able to hear.

  “You and I are going to check and see if the coast is clear before I let everyone run out there.”

  “What now?” asked Tyler from behind Xavier, close enough to his ear so that he’d be able to hear.

  “You and I are going to check and see if the coast is clear before I let everyone run out there.”

  “Makes sense,” said Tyler. “You keep a look out for a minute, I’m going to let everyone know what you and I are going to be doing so that they don’t worry and wonder what’s going to be going on.”

  Xavier nodded. “You do that, Ty,” he said, preoccupied with looking out of the clear glass patch in the door.

  Tyler hummed at the nickname. Xavier had called him by it a few times, but this was the first time that he had truly acknowledged it. He liked it even though it was as simple as it was. He went to his mother and whispered in her ear what he and Xavier were going to do. She looked at him with wide-set eyes, opened her mouth to object but Ty shook his head to silence her. “Just tell the others,” he said. “I want to get out of here as soon as possible. Just trust me, mom.”