The Unknown

TWENTY-FIVE | hope.

Tess avoided the dropping bombs and made it to the City's border. She hauled herself over the fence for what she thought might be the last time, judging by how her city was being demolished before her eyes. She wiped the tears rolling down her cheeks away as she ran.

Dave spoke up again, out of breath and talking fast. "We're evacuating. This will be the last time I speak to you unless we happen to cross paths. All of our prisoners are being released as I speak."

"Where?"

"From the city gates, they were down the road three miles and inside a small concrete building. You can tell it's new because it's the only one not crumbling."

"Thank you, Dave."

There was a massive crash as a skyscraper in the City collapsed. Tess winced.

"You'd better hurry. Your boy won't know to stay and wait for you. You wouldn't want to miss each other."

She thought she heard genuine compassion in his voice. "Do you have a family?" she asked. "Did you get them out?"

"I had one. Before your kind took them from me."

She started to apologize, but she heard deafening electronic static and clutched her ears, unable to block out the sound because it was inside her head. The sound grew until it suddenly cut out completely.

She had a feeling that that was it—Dave had destroyed the device that transmitted signals to her implant. She was free. Her head was her own again. She sighed with deep relief. 

The whole time, Tess never stopped running, following the city's fence toward the gates. She had no goal but to close the distance between herself and where Kyle had been held—if Dave was telling the truth. For all she knew, this could be a trap.

The miles passed in a blur. 

Soon, she spotted the building. There was a middle-aged man sitting outside, looking haggard.

"Hello," she said, approaching slowly. She figured he had been imprisoned too.

He stared at her, his mouth unmoving.

"Did you happen to meet anyone in there named Kyle?"

The man was silent.

She sighed and turned away, searching the surroundings, when the man clapped to get her attention. She whirled back toward him.

He gestured at the ground, where he had scratched into the dirt in all caps: "TALL YOUNG MAN?"

She nodded furiously. "Yes, yes."

He wiped the dirt smooth and began tracing more letters. "WENT TOWARD CITY. ASKED ABOUT GIRL. TESS?"

"Yes, that's me." Tears sprung from her eyes. She smiled and thanked the old man.

He smiled back, his bearded and heavily lined face full of warmth.

She took off, shouting Kyle's name with all the volume her lungs could muster. Of course, he would head back to the city, directly toward the danger, thinking she was still there.

Tess heard footfalls behind her. She halted and squinted in the darkness.

The man was following her.

She didn't quite know what to say to him. "You don't have to come with me," she called back, continuing to run. "But if you want to...that's okay too." He seemed harmless, if not helpful. 

But Tess didn't care if he kept up with her, pouring the gas into her run and continuing to shout. Kyle couldn't be far if he had just been released. She wondered how they hadn't crossed paths on their way here. Until she remembered Kyle's keen survival skills and figured he would have stayed in the trees rather than running around in plain sight as Tess had.

Sure enough, in between the barrage of explosions, she heard an answering shout. "Tess!"

She spotted him in the distance. He was with a small figure, holding hands. This sent a pang of confusion through her.

Tess sprinted toward him. Kyle strode forward. She crashed into him, nearly knocking him off his feet. He wrapped his arms around her tight, lifting her off the ground. It was a breathless, wordless exchange. He cupped her face and stared into her eyes, as if to make sure she was really there. She gripped his hands and stared back, wishing to never let go.

"We have to never lose each other again," she found herself saying. "I think all the luck in the world has run out for us to always find each other. Next time, it won't happen."

"What makes you so sure?" He brought her closer and kissed the top of her head.

"Just a gut feeling."

They disentangled and eyed their respective companions. The man had caught up to Tess, standing about ten feet behind her, panting.

"This is...I don't know his name," Tess admitted. "I think he might have trouble speaking. He seems nice."

Kyle was with a little girl who looked about eight or nine years old.

"That's Mandy. She doesn't have anyone else to protect her. I have no idea why they were holding her prisoner."

Tess reached down to gently shake her hand and introduce herself. Mandy was shy, hiding behind Kyle's legs.

"What's happening in the city? I was terrified you were still there."

"Another city deployed their military to destroy us. The theory is that they figured out about the Species' invasion and didn't want it to spread to them."

"So do you think it'll work? They'll stop the Species completely, drive them away?"

Tess eyed the massive ship still hovering above the curling smoke and leveled buildings. "The ship is intact, so I bet they can just leave and target other cities if they want to."

"Right," Kyle said. "And what about us?"

"You mean what should we do?"

"Will they just leave us be? They must know where we are. And maybe they aren't happy we went rogue. They invested a lot in us, changing our DNA and waiting years until they could use us as pawns. 

"True. If they wanted to abduct us again, I guess there's nothing we could do to stop them. But unless that happens...we try to live our lives, right?"

Kyle eyed Mandy and the man. "The question," he said, "is if these two were already converted by the Species, or if they're fully human and the radiation out here will hurt them over time."

There was only one way to find out—to test if they followed any and all commands without question, like when Jade had almost made the president run into a stone wall.

"Jump on one leg," Tess commanded.

The old man and the little girl both obeyed, faces locked in a placid daze.

"Stop and put your hand on your head."

They did as they were asked. It was a bit sad to witness people stripped of their free will, but there was nothing they could do about it.

The four of them wandered down the abandoned streets in search of a new place to settle.