After Fate Fell

4 • ELLA

1 year, 3 months, and 12 days after it all
•ELLA•

I try to get lost in a crowd, but the issue is, there's not really a crowd. So of course, she makes eye contact with me and runs over toward me, a happy look on her face. It's not that I don't like Agent Walker, she helped us win the war for goodness sake, but this really isn't the time or place to be exchanging pleasantries. I just want to board a plane and get on my way to Mexico. But I guess I'll just have to put that off for another five minutes to see why Agent Walker is here.

"Ella!" she says, not bothering to hide any excitement she has.

"Agent Walker! What are you doing here?" I ask, because while I may be a bit irritated, I'm still very curious as to why she's here and how she found us. We've been completely off-grid for months.

"I'm here because I need to talk to you. All of you. Everybody is looking for you guys. And when I say everybody, I mean everybody. The U.S. government wanted to seek all of you out, and guess who volunteered to track you down? It took some time, but here I am!" she exclaims.

"I guess I am a bit surprised that you tracked us down. We all just needed some...time after it all ended. We couldn't just win a global war and then be ready for another challenge. We've needed some time off, from all responsibilities. And I am curious to how you tracked us down, but that story can wait for another time. Why does the government want us?" I ask.

"Well it's not just one government, hundreds of countries and millions of people all over the world have been waiting for the brave warriors who saved their planet to come out of hiding. They all want to reward you for your valor. There are even a few countries who want to give you places in political or military office, hell, Suriname and Portugal both want John Smith to become president! I'd say you guys are mighty popular. The United States government particularly wants to have your assistance in continuing the training of the LANEs, and even training non-LANE children to become warriors. They want to build an army stronger than ever before." she explains.

"An army?" I almost scream. Training the LANEs is one thing, but using children to build an army for a country's political gain is crossing the line. "That's ridiculous!" I tell her. "Are you backing these ideas?"

"Well, no. I just enjoyed taking the challenge of tracking you guys down, after all, we're friends," she explains.

"Well I will have no part in this and I'm sure none of the rest of the Garde will either."

"Hmm, I kind of expected that. Well, I was prepared for this. I'm taking this opportunity while I'm out of the country to leave the F.B.I., or what's left of it, that is. You would think that after a war between two alien races on Earth, people would unite. Many have, but not the United States. No-siree."

I'm actually shocked. To Agent Walker, the F.B.I. was more than a job, it was her life, and now she's leaving it behind. I guess things really get flipped upside-down after aliens invade your planet.

"By the way, where are you headed?" she asks, changing the subject.

"Into town," I lie. To be honest, I don't even know what town this is.

"Mind if I come with? Now that I'm not going back to the states, I don't really know where to go," she says.

"Actually, any other time, I wouldn't mind. But today, I need to be alone. There's something that I need to do, I need to make things right," I tell her.

"Fair enough," she says, extending a hand. And this time, it's not just a handshake, I know that this time, it means goodbye. She's actually serious about starting a new life. I shake her hand, and turn and start walking toward the town.

"Wait, Ella. I promise I'll be gone after this, but could you just tell me where the others are? I just want to tell them how grateful the world is for what you guys did. I want them to know that," she says, looking past me, into the mountains.

I look around until I spot the place where I've called home since the war ended, up in the mountains, in a crook between two slopes. "There," I say, pointing.

"Thank you Ella. For everything."
And then she's gone.

•

The entrance to the airport may not have been crowded, but the airport itself is bustling. I make my way through, trying to see where I can buy a ticket. I see a woman at a desk, flipping through a book full of words I can't read.

"Tickets?" I ask her, gesturing.

She says something I don't understand, but points to her book, gesturing as if she's stamping something on it. Oh, right, passport. She's asking for my passport. I haven't had to worry about that for a long time. But of course, I don't have it. I don't know where it is, but I sure as hell don't have it on me. So I do the only thing I can think of, I lift her book off the table using telekinesis. She looks down, shocked, and shoves an airline ticket into my hand. I'm guessing she saw that as a threat.

I walk toward where I would expect to see the hangar, but there isn't one. I turn back, confused. The lady points me to a door, which I walk out of.

Outside, there is a single plane. I walk to the entrance, and climb the stairs. A flight attendant looks at me cautiously and takes my ticket. She must've heard the news that I'm a Garde from the woman who gave me my ticket. I understand their fear, they've probably not seen anything like this before, I can tell the war barely affected, if not, didn't affect their town at all, maybe not even their country. It then strikes me that I don't have the slightest idea where I am, other than the fact that I'm somewhere in the Himalayas.

I take an open seat, there are many of them. There's only a handful of other people on this plane. I wonder when takeoff time is. I look around at the signs, seeing that they're in the same foreign text that the lady's book was in. There are a bunch of tiny translations under one, and I find one I can read, Spanish. "Bienvenido a Aeropuerto de Paro, Bhutan." I then feel a faint bit of deja vu, as if I've been here before. I try to connect the dots, but they just aren't connecting.

The memory comes in pieces, a young me sitting outside the door of a small hut, looking out at the ocean. Crayton walks out through the door and says to me "Again with that ocean Ella? It's the same every day yet you see the world in it."

"The world is in it, Crayton. You just have to take the time to seek it," I say.

"Well, I guess. Water has never been my thing. That's why I wanted somewhere inland like Nepal or Bhutan, but of course, we get here, good old Bangladesh, right on the ocean. I can deal with the mountains, they make me feel like I'm on top of the world, but here...here I just feel like nothing will ever change. The waves all look the same. I hope Ella, that one day, things will change. For us, for you."

A tear drips down my face and I close my eyes. I miss Crayton so much. I couldn't ever imagine life without him, he was like a father to me, but he's gone and I've had to raise myself.

And as the last few passengers board and we jolt into motion, the wheels lifting off the ground, I just hope that I'm doing the right thing. For us. For him.