by Darien Cox
Crossing the friendship line with Nolan had filled in all the blanks in Elliot’s life. Provided the missing pieces he’d always known were there, the emptiness that creeped up on him even as he denied its existence. Nolan hadn’t just filled the dark places with light. Elliot wasn’t simply whole now, he was overflowing. The love he felt pulsed through him and spilled over him and sprayed out in blissful rays that lit up his entire world.
If Elliot were to lose Nolan now? There would be nothing left.
Chapter Twenty-Five
“Once the hood is up, the camera will have a full view that will feed back to control,” Ogden said as he zipped Nolan’s suit up. “Gordy’s fixed it so there should be no interference, either with the camera signal or the microphone in your ear. So try not to worry.”
“I guess if the lizard man can handle the Whites’ disruptive tech that gives me some comfort.”
Ogden patted Nolan’s face. “The lizard man knows what he’s doing. We’ll be with you in your earpiece the entire time.”
“You good?” Tyler appeared in front of Nolan, dressed in fatigues. “Need help with anything?”
“I’m good I guess.”
“Okay.”
Tyler was coming with them, armed to the teeth. Which made little difference since Nolan and Brett had been informed they couldn’t bring conventional weapons into the base. Nolan was pissed about that. But it had been one of Gordy’s hard rules. Apparently he didn’t approve of shooting alien hybrids, even evil ones. Interesting that he didn’t have the same reservations about blasting the Greys out of the sky. Everyone hates the Greys. Fear blew through Nolan, and he had to work to stamp it down. He shouldn’t focus on the fact that the Greys were coming. He had to focus on getting in and out before they got there.
As Ogden turned his attention to Brett, Nolan closed his eyes, taking deep breaths. They stood on the roof of the facility, a chopper waiting nearby, cold wind whipping the thin white material of the suit he wore. It was similar to a wetsuit, had a hood with a camera installed, and a thin clear mask they’d slide down before entering the base. Brett looked comfortable and natural in his, but Nolan’s suit was a bit tight and uncomfortable in the crotch region. Since it would supposedly keep him from being detected in the base, he refrained from complaining.
“Nolan?”
Nolan opened his eyes to see Baz standing before him, wind whipping his CIA tee shirt, though the hybrid didn’t appear affected by the cold. “Here.” He handed Nolan a narrow canister. “I give to Brett also. If hybrid come find and be unfriendly, spray in eyes. Hybrid will be blind for some time.”
Scowling, Nolan took the canister. “You said there wouldn’t be any hybrids in the section we’re going into.”
“I do believe this. Better safe than sunny. I be talk to you in earpiece. You be okay.”
“Copy that.” Nolan slid the canister into one of the suit’s pouches, along with the small pocket knife Wiley had given him. The knife wasn’t exactly a weapon, more a tool in case they needed to MacGyver something once inside the base. Baz claimed it wouldn’t be necessary, that the Whites’ systems weren’t mechanical in terms humans were familiar with. But Wiley was not reassured, and in this he and Nolan had something in common.
“Baz, where’s the thing with the message for the Whites?” Nolan asked.
“Wiley have in a case, give to Brett. You understand for finding wall where sleep signal locate?”
“I read the specs. Sounds weird. But I got it.”
“I will be guiding you with Gordy. I lead you. Keep you safe.”
Nolan nodded, but couldn’t manage a smile.
“I go for you if possible, Nolan. Want to tear heart that I make you go.”
Softening, Nolan patted Baz’s shoulder. “We’ll take care of it. Don’t worry.”
“We’re almost ready,” Wiley said.
Wiley was suited up in blue coveralls. He was going with them too, would be there to extract them supposedly, though since Quint was the one piloting the copter, Nolan wasn’t sure what Wiley’s purpose was. Nolan didn’t know much about Wiley’s background but Ogden claimed he was skilled ‘at this sort of thing’. Nolan knew full well none of them were skilled at ‘this sort of thing’. But he’d follow orders, listen to instructions, and try to bury his fear.
He spotted JT, Christian, and Elliot coming through the door at the corner of the roof. “Shit,” he muttered. He’d known they’d come to see him off, but the truth was he needed to put Elliot out of his mind. It was the only way he’d be able to focus. He loved Elliot enough that he was worried about Elliot worrying about him. Elliot made Nolan stupid, and while he knew this was because he was so crazy in love with the guy, he needed to find a way to switch it off for this mission.
Elliot seemed to have regained his composure though, and when the three reached him, he simply gave Nolan a hug. “Come back safe,” Elliot muttered. “Or I’ll kill you.”
Nolan smiled, happy to see Elliot’s grin. “I promise.”
“Be safe.” JT hugged Nolan. “We’ve got your back from here.”
“Thanks.”
Christian stepped up. “Can you bring me back a souvenir? Like ‘My friend went to an alien base and all I got was this lousy tee shirt’ or something like that?”
“I’ll see what I can do.”
Christian gave Nolan a quick kiss on the lips, then stepped back.
Nolan watched Elliot shivering in the cold, green eyes pained. All rational thought left him. On the cusp of the most dangerous mission of his life, he could only think of what life he wanted to come back to. In that moment, it was so simple. After years of questioning every decision ten times over, analyzing every move regarding his personal life, a sense of clarity washed over him.
The chopper started up behind them, so loud it made Elliot jump. Nolan reached his hand out to him. “Come here!” he shouted. “Right now.”
“Don’t make me cry,” Elliot said as he took Nolan’s hand, stepping in close. “I have a reputation to uphold. JT and Christian can’t know I’m not really the cool one.”
Nolan tugged him closer and spoke in his ear. “I’ll make it back. Okay?”
“If you don’t I’m gonna break into your house and mess up all your perfectly aligned toiletries.” Elliot shivered, his breath hitching. He tried to smile but his eyes were tight with anguish, and Nolan could see the emotion behind his struggle to be strong. “I’ll do it, Nolan. If you don’t come back I’ll smash all your coffee cups and dump shit out all over the kitchen floor. And I’ll cook and eat your cat. With messy onions in all the wrong sizes.”
“I will come back.”
“You better. You promised, remember? You’re gonna buy me a house on the mountain and I’ll let you romance me and I don’t care if we fight every fucking day. Just come back. You promised.”
“I want a promise from you now.”
“Anything. What is it?”
“If I pull this off and make it back in one piece, you have to marry me.”
Elliot blinked, his mouth falling open.
“I want to go through life knowing Elliot Nicholson is one hundred percent mine. So will you marry me, Elliot?”
Elliot laughed. “You’re serious?”
“Don’t make me get down on one knee. This suit is really fucking tight.”
“Shit.” Elliot smiled. “I will. Fuck yes. I’ll marry you.”
“Good.” Nolan grabbed his face with gloved hands and kissed him.
“Let’s go!” Quint shouted. “We’ve got little grey men to outrun, guys!”
Nolan released Elliot. “Now you really have to come back,” Elliot said. “I’m way too cool to be left at the altar.”
“I promise.” Nolan looked at Brett, who nodded.
“Ready?” Brett said.
“Yeah.”
They climbed into the chopper, seating themselves in the back with Tyler. Wiley climbed in the front and then the chopper took off with no hesitatio
n, lifting high in the sky. Nolan looked down at the rooftop and the people there, growing smaller and smaller. His friends. His fiancé. His life.
“You okay?” Brett asked.
“Yeah.” He nodded. “You?”
Brett’s blue eyes crinkled. “Did you just propose to Elliot?”
“How the fuck did you know that?”
“The wind was blowing my way. I heard part of it.”
Nolan smirked.
“You proposed to Elliot?” Tyler said.
“I did.”
“Fuck!” Tyler glanced up. “Sorry.”
“What’s your problem?” Brett asked Tyler.
Tyler shook his head. “Guess I was kind of hoping they’d eventually break up.”
“Oh, nice!” Brett said.
“Oh well,” Tyler said. “Guess Elliot isn’t my dream husband anymore.”
“Didn’t hear the answer, though,” Brett said. “Nolan?”
Shaking his head, Nolan laughed.
Brett kicked Nolan’s leg. “So?”
“So?”
“Nolan, what did he say, dammit?”
“He said yes.”
Brett grinned. “He said yes?”
“Yeah.” Nolan smiled, staring down at the world below. “He said yes.”
****
“I’m gonna get as low as I can,” Quint said. “But you’re gonna have to jump. Brett, you got that case?”
“I have it,” Brett shouted.
“Nolan, you ready?”
“Yes. Ready.”
“Okay put your hoods up,” Wiley said. “Masks down. Gordy? You hearing me?”
“I hear you,” came Gordy’s voice in Nolan’s earpiece. “I’ve got you boys. I’ll be right here the entire time. Good luck.”
Nolan looked down as the copter hovered over the familiar forest. They’d have a short walk to the field, but Wiley didn’t think it was a good idea to set down there, what with evil hybrids running around. They’d have to walk to the corner of the field, where Gordy would open a ‘door’ for them to enter into the base. Supposedly. This had all sounded great in theory, but now just seemed impossible. Nolan had to remind himself that the voice coming through his earpiece was that of a reptilian alien that lived inside the moon. That made things seem a bit more feasible.
The chopper lowered, and Wiley gave them the go sign. Nolan jumped, bending his knees as he landed.
Brett thumped down beside him, holding the small silver case in his right hand. He waved up and the chopper took off, heading back over the trees. Then suddenly it was quiet. And dark.
“You boys okay?” Ogden’s voice said in their ears.
“We’re on the ground,” Brett said. “Moving to the location now.” He turned to Nolan. “Let’s go.”
They moved quickly and silently through the trees, the clear masks covering their faces making their breathing loud in Nolan’s ears. He followed Brett’s white suit, amused when he thought how if there were any brave hikers in the area they’d likely mistake them for ghosts, as they did the Whites. Or rather the hybrids, because now they knew who’d really been flitting around the trees as of late.
With that thought, Nolan went on full alert, checking the dark spaces between the trees. Hopefully the hybrids were too busy preparing for the Greys to be wandering the woods. But I’ve got my space-mace just in case. How pathetic. Nolan had never felt so unprepared in his life. But he couldn’t do that. He had to remain focused and positive.
Brett stopped just before they reached the corner of the field. “Okay,” he said with a hard breath. “We’re standing just before the location.”
“Cameras are working perfectly, we see the field. One moment,” Gordy’s voice said.
Brett and Nolan looked at each other, shared concern in their eyes. Neither wanted to be waiting around in these woods.
“You read me boys?”
“We got you, Gordy,” Nolan said.
“Okay, exactly how far are you from the corner?”
“Three feet,” Brett said.
“Take two steps forward please.”
Nolan and Brett complied. The flat grass of the field was right in front of them now. “Okay,” Brett said. “We’re ready.”
“I’m going to do a three count. When I do, I want you to link hands, then both step onto the field at the same time. Ready?”
Nolan took Brett’s outstretched hand. “We’re ready.”
“One. Two. Three.”
Together they stepped onto the grass. “We’re here,” Brett said.
For a moment nothing happened. Then Nolan felt a shift in the earth beneath his feet. Then the ground seemed to lift around them. Not like they were falling, but like the grassy field was rising up and swallowing them.
Brett’s hand squeezed Nolan’s painfully tight when the sky disappeared, and suddenly they were surrounded by a tunnel of white mist. Then Nolan felt it, the movement, their bodies descending. Dropping. Dropping. Nothing but white on all sides.
“Fuck,” Brett whispered. “We’re going down.”
“Something wrong?” Ogden’s voice asked.
Nolan let out a breath, never so relieved to hear Ogden in his life. “We’re still here,” Nolan said. “Not sure where though.”
“We see it too. You’re still in passage,” Gordy said. “I have your signals right here on screen, know exactly where you are. Just a little longer. Stay calm.”
The white mist thickened, then gained color as they dropped, tiny flashes of pink and green, like miniature lightning bolts.
“What the fuck is that?” a distant voice in their earpiece said. Nolan smiled. It was Elliot’s voice.
“Nothing to worry about, Elliot,” Gordy said.
As they descended farther, the mist thickened and drew away from them. It was still white and filmy but more solid, a wide tunnel surrounding them. Nolan’s stomach lurched as their speed seemed to pick up.
Then they were slowing. He thought. It was completely disorienting.
“Are we slowing down?” Brett said.
Nolan breathed a sigh. “Thought it was just me. Yes. I think so.”
“Gentlemen, you’ll be arriving at your destination in twenty seconds.”
Gordy’s voice in his earpiece made Nolan jump. Calm. Calm. Must remain calm.
The movement stopped suddenly. Nolan looked at Brett. “Are we here?” Brett whispered.
Nolan looked ahead, and the solid white around them dispersed, misty tendrils growing thinner, then dissipating altogether. The mist cleared before them and they were looking down a long white tunnel. Though tunnel wasn’t the right word. Tunnels were small and confining. This thing before them was wide and open, though only dimly lit.
The walls, floor, and ceiling were a solid structure, yet somehow not. It was like the same white mist that surrounded them on their transit down, but it didn’t move or swirl. Nolan thought it looked like cotton candy packed tight and made into walls. A hallway for giants, the ceiling a twenty foot high arch, the floor twenty feet wide. There were clumps of things scattered on the floor in the distance, like small, lumpy hills.
“Gordy?” Brett said softly. “Fucking please tell me you’re still there.”
“This is Baz. Can you hear me?”
The two of them sighed simultaneously. “We hear you Baz,” Nolan said.
“You see hallway?”
“We do,” Brett said.
“Okay. Walk sixty pace please.”
“Should we keep our voices down?” Brett asked.
“This is Gordy. Your voices should not carry inside the masks. You may speak freely.”
“Okay, ready or not.” Nolan said. He looked down and realized Brett was still holding his hand. “You can let go now.”
“Oh, sorry.” Brett released Nolan’s hand. “No homo.”
Nolan chuckled. “Shut up.”
“Let’s go. Okay, walking,” Brett said.
“Sixty pace,” Baz said.
Th
ey moved quickly. The floor felt more solid than it looked. “I feel like we’re inside some giant snow fort,” Brett said. “Built by giant kids.”
“Yeah,” Nolan said, counting their steps. When they reached twenty paces, they both abruptly stopped. “Oh shit,” Nolan said.
“Nolan?” Ogden said. “What’s wrong?”
Brett and Nolan stared at the floor ahead. What he’d thought were ‘hills’ were actually bodies. Eight foot tall white bodies, slumped everywhere. “There are Whites,” Nolan whispered as though he’d wake them. “Dozens of them.”
“I see them,” Ogden said. “Baz?”
“They sleep?” Baz said.
Nolan and Brett stepped forward. The White at their feet looked as though it had tipped over backwards, fallen where it stood. Its legs were bent at the knees, arms at an awkward angle. It wore a gray jumpsuit, white hair in a fan around its huge face. Bulbous eyes were closed, strange mouth partially open above its long jaw, narrow chest gently rising and falling. “Yeah,” Nolan said. “They’re asleep.”
“Step over them,” Baz said somewhat impatiently, as though it should be the most natural thing in the world for them to start climbing over alien bodies.
“Ooh kay,” Brett said. “Stepping over.”
They gingerly stepped over the White. Walked a few paces. Two more fallen Whites blocked their path, one splayed out on its back, the other hunched over in a ball. Brett and Nolan turned sideways and shimmied between them. Nolan gasped as his knee bumped the hunched body and it rolled over onto its side.
“Is okay,” Baz said. “They sleep.”
Nolan stared down at the strange face of the sleeping White. The face was long and oval, twice the size of Baz’s. The way the lower jaw stretched out reminded him of one of those Halloween ghost face masks.
“Ten more pace please,” Baz said. “Nolan, don’t look at them. No time.”
“Right.” Nolan stepped around the fallen body. “Just pretend they’re not here.”