The Day They Came (WATTY AWARDS 2016)

Chapter 14

Peter moaned as he woke up. Someone had snuck up behind him and hit him on the head in his cell.

The last few hours had been very odd. He went from being conscious to unconscious about six times before Xilnos had taken him out of the machine, and taken him up to the room where Yunistein had conducted all the tests.

He'd blacked out during those tests, and woke up in a dungeon cell. However, that cell had been small – like a jail cell on any given television show.

He had been in that cell when he'd been hit on the head. As he woke up now, he saw that there was a large crowd of people around him. Humans.

They weren't looking at him. A look down revealed a magenta arm around his waist, holding him captive. Words were being spoken, but he was still half out of it.

Then there was a gunshot. Someone in the crowd fell to the ground.

Peter's ears began to ring. Nexivox had shot someone.

Panic immediately set in. The crowd began to panic too.

Police arrived on the scene shortly after the child that had been shot died. They all trained their guns on Nexivox, but now Peter realized they were encased in some sort of semi-permeable glass.

There was airflow. He could tell that much.

Noises became clearer a few moments later. He could make out Nexivox's voice, and his words were clear now.

"Since I see I have the attention of your law enforcement agencies, you will notice I have a hostage. I have a second hostage on my ship, and will not hesitate to kill both of them. You will not get the bodies back." The words he heard were not reassuring. Since he was right behind him, the booming voice he used to make the announcement was much louder to him than it must've been to the police.

He watched the scene below. One of the policemen had a megaphone in their hand, and raised it to his lips now.

"Sir, what is the point of this event? Do you have a license to be here?" The man's voice hardly made it up to them. However, he could hear it.

"What did he say?" Nexivox growled it into his ear in a deep whisper.

Peter sighed.

"Move us closer to the ground and you'll be able to hear him better." He mouthed off, and it felt good. That didn't surprise him.

What Nexivox did next surprised him. The bubble encasing them split. One half kept him high in the sky, and the other allowed the magenta alien to get closer to the ground with protection.

With his newfound freedom, he put a hand to the glass. It was warm, as he had expected on such a sunny day.

Then he saw it. The silver sliver that matched the one Claire had in her wrist. Nexivox had put a tracking device in his arm. Honestly, he was surprised that wasn't the first thing they did after he tried to escape the ship.

"I will be back in two months. Consider that your warning." Nexivox's voice rang out.

Then he was gone. It only took a second for Peter to follow. Maybe the tracker wasn't simply a tracker in his case.

When he landed, he was back in that cell. The door was locked again. However, Xyzle was on the other side of the door.

"Are you alright, Peter?" He kept his voice low, as if afraid his father would hear.

"Alright? You ask me if I'm alright?" Honestly, he was offended. "I'm not alright. I haven't been alright since I set foot on this ship!" He charged at the bars, but a couple of high powered electric shocks had him panting and stepping back only a few moments later.

How had Nexivox managed to get the drop on him like that?

"I meant after being hit in the head by my father." Xyzle had to qualify his statement. "I realize how mad you are at me right now, but you must trust me."

"Trust you? You're the one who said if I cooperated, I'd be able to live. You've been lying to me this whole time!" His anger built steadily. It wasn't simply today's actions that made him angry.

"I realize that now. My father told me lies to pass on to both you and Claire." Now he realized that Xyzle was holding a bandage to his arm.

"What happened to your arm?" The statement completely derailed the argument for the moment.

"My father found out what I did with Claire." The response didn't sound good. "No, I didn't kill her. My father would've commended me and given me a metal if I had done that. I released her."

The last sentence was enough to stop Peter from continuing to argue with the silver alien.

"Y-You...You released her?" The surprise in his voice conveyed enough of his emotions for the time being.

"Yes. I took her back to her apartment, and told her, for her safety, that she needs to go live with a friend for a while. I even took that stupid tracking device out of her wrist." The alien's response gave him an even bigger shock.

"Why did you release her?" The question he asked was the most important to him. He had fallen in love with Claire during their time together. It had started when she was checked into the hospital, and had only grown as he got to know her.

The fact that she continued to visit him in the hospital after she was released made him confident that he was making an impression on her.

"She is my friend, or so I like to think." Xyzle's response didn't seem to cover the full extent of why he had released her.

"She does make friends fast..." He sat down on the cot in the cell. It wasn't all that comfortable, but it was enough for now.

"Why do you care so much for her?" At this, Xyzle opened the cell and walked in, pulling the door shut behind him.

"I met her in the hospital. She had had an allergic reaction to something she was taking." He didn't know what else to say. "I'd never seen someone react so badly to something."

"How is your heart today?" The abrupt change in subject made him a little uncomfortable.

"I'm doing fine, but this kind of panic and quick pace is not good for me right now. I should be on bed rest for two months. I've been up, moving, and pushed around for three days. Not to mention the fact that Yunistein had to take about three pints of blood." He couldn't help the sting in his voice. Being in the hospital as often as he was, he wasn't too fond of having his blood drawn.

"He told me about that. I apologize that he had to draw so much." Xyzle shifted uncomfortably, as if talking to him felt odd.

The conversation stalled.

Before he could say something more, Xyzle left the cell, locking it manually behind him. No parting words were exchanged. The alien simply up and left.

Peter sighed. He couldn't even hold a simple conversation now. What has happened to him?

He pulled his feet up onto the cot. The blanket was quite thin, but it did well enough for the ship. Mykaleans must live on a hotter planet, because the ship was set for an unbelievable high temperature.

He pushed that thought aside and laid down on the bed. Whatever he had gotten into, it was not going to be good.

He closed his eyes. If he could sleep just a little bit...maybe it'd do him some good.

Before he knew it, sleep had enveloped him.