A Land of Despair

The Boss.

The annual long weekend was fast approaching, It was the weekend when we celebrated the merging of the two planets coming together as one, Or rather the controllers joining us on our planet. I never knew of anyone, any human ever going to the controller planet, though it was said that some had.
It was a world wide holiday, the way Christmas was, shops were closed, celebrations were had and fireworks were lit, it was enjoyable for most.
Everyone around me here at school was excited to be heading back to their homes for the holiday, we were to leave on Friday and the one week off even though the holiday was only till Monday, we got a one week brake.

As we walked to the car park, the twins were not so eager to be heading home, they never really got along with their parents but then again, who was I to talk, I did not get along that well with my own either. None of us would be getting picked up, my parents had gifted me a hover car which I only used to drive myself to the boarding school and back, the head master kept my keys otherwise, so I would be dropping them off at their house.

The school halls were buzzing as everyone was moving about with their bag to the pick up point or saying their goodbyes to their friends.

As we walked out the door, Winter was walking into the building and she was by herself. A big sleek car roared to life immediately she was inside the building. Curiosity got the better of me and I peered into the hovering vehicle, Hope was inside having an animated conversation with the man who was driving, he turned to look at me as he drove past, and he had a large jagged scar on the left side of his face. My eyes turned to the ground at once.
Shame washed over me for staring at the man so carelessly.

"Adam, the doors." Called Mike from the car, he was trying to put his bags inside but I had not yet opened it up. I ran towards him.

As we loaded the bags, I realized his sister was no longer in sight, "where is she?" I asked.

Mike shrugged and got into the front passenger seat. I stood outside for a while until she was visibly close by holding a small branch in her hand.

"What's that for?" Mike inquired once we were all in the car, I waited for her answer, wondering as well.

"I'm going to plant it, back at home." She muttered lowly.

"Don't go starting things when we get there." Mike warned.

"If it were up to me, I wouldn't even be going there at all." She replied.

"Just try to-"

"Let me be, Mike." Tina snapped, the desperation to change the subject evident in her voice.

My eyes met with Mike's, and I raised my eyebrows in question.

Mike and I were both not natural born talkers but were definitely good at communicating with each other. He was my closest friend and he knew everything about me, and vice versa. I'd like to say we understood each other without even using words.

He gave me a wink and a nod, agreeing with the plan I was coming up with.

Tina had been in a fowl mood since our disagreement and I decided to stop at her favorite diner on the way home to lift her spirits a little bit. She always asked to stop there when we made plans to travel because we had to go a little ways off the main highway to get there, but she was quite this time.

It was a small place that mostly sold breakfast meals all day, twenty four seven. The food was good and the atmosphere was nice and quiet. I liked nice and quiet.

The owner of the diner was a charming old lady, very polite and soft spoken, she kind of gave off a Muriel vibe, the lady who had a dog from an ancient cartoon called courage the cowardly dog, except she had a proud cat that was always with her. Her name was Tess but everyone called her mama Tess because she treated everyone like family and that was also the name of the diner.

As I took the turn to exit the highway, I could see a ghost of a smile on Tina's face through the rear view mirror, none of us said anything but were both content with this silent truss.

Our destination was getting closer but it didn't look that way, instead of being met by the diner and it's rusty old road sign we were met by construction trucks and machinery, a bunch of men walking around in safety hats and reflective vests, holding a sheet of planing paper or a tool of some sort.

The place where the diner once stood was now a pile of crumbled walls and rubble.
I purposely drove to the center of the commotion and came to a stop so that they could all see me that way they would give me answers.

"Maybe we should just leave Adam." Mike was quick to point out.

I ignored him and started to get out of the car, extremely fueled up and wanting answers.

"What do you think you are doing driving around here, this is a live construction area which you can't be on without authorization. Take your car and leave." A portly man with a mustache shouted.
At this point some other men had gathered around us to watch while others went about their business.

I was being dramatic, I knew that. But I felt overwhelmed by the things in front of me. A place that was one of the few still running human places was no longer there. Things were changing right in front of me and I didn't know how to process it. This was exactly why I joined the rebellion, to stop things like this to stop our earthly existence from becoming extinct and molded into one of aliens.

"What authority? This place is private property!"

The man gave me a funny look and huffed, his mustache blowing with his breath. "We are working here kid, just be on your way before you get hurt." He moved to a close by table and laid out some plans, they were building a dome.

It was a project by the controllers, I should have known.

I walked up to the table, pushed the man aside so roughly that he fell to the ground and then flipped the table over, the working materials on top of it went flying through the air and the papers scattered around with the wind pushing them further away.

When the man got up, he didn't hesitate to tackle me to the ground with all his strength, keeping his hands on my waist. This gave me a chance take a hold of his neck in a choke hold.
We began to wrestle aggressively on the ground causing the dust to raise right along with a noise.

Some men who had been standing by came up to us and tried to separate us, we struggled but the finally held us apart as we glared at each other, our breath coming in short.

"Stop, the boss is coming you have to calm down." Said one of the voices to the mustache man.
His face immediately fell and he glared at me harder. He pushed himself out of the grip of his colleagues and started to dust himself off, obviously trying to look representable to his boss. On the other hand, I did not care and decided to antagonize him more.

"Is that all you've got old man?"

He looked directly at me thinking of whether to approach me, but the man next to him held his shoulder to keep him at bay.
"I don't have time for this." He muttered, trying to lift the table as I was still struggling to be unhanded.

"Yeah, I wouldn't have time earlier if I didn't know how to do my job properly." I yelled.

That got him, he dropped the table to come after me but the men around caught before he could reach.

"What's going on here?"
Everyone froze at the question. It came from a controller, dressed so well in a suit. He held a clipboard and wore a safety hat but still looked quite dapper. The men holding me had let me go and it was then that I realized Mike was next to me all along.
He must have been the one in charge.
The boss.

"Mr Longman, we were just trying to clear up some things with these two boys." Said the mustache man, slapping Mike and I on our backs.

"The boss won't like this." Mr longman made a face while gesturing to us with his clip board. His look offended me so much, it was as though he was looking down on us. I was ready to cause more commotion when what he had said had finally gotten through to me.

The boss?

So he wasn't it?

Mr Longman then pointed his clipboard to mustache man saying, "get them out of here before Mr Russel gets here."

Mr Russel? It couldn't be him.

"I'm already here."

It was him