Corruption

The Last Resort

It seemed like forever until the government came in to help them. Within that entire time, Miranda didn't emerge from the building she'd disappeared into. Anora hoped everyone forgot about her and they left her there in Cincinnati.
"Thank God," Paul said. "I was starting to get scared they wouldn't get here in time." Anora merely stood silently, not saying anything.
A large jet landed in the street just in front of them. People in radiation suits came running up to them, rushing them inside. "Wait we forgot Miranda..." Paul stuttered. Anora rolled her eyes. Of course he had to remind them, she thought irritably. "Don't worry," One of the people in the suits, female, said, "We're going to scour the area and save this mindy girl and whoever else we can." "I-it's Miran..da." Paul started to correct her, but she was already off with the rest of them.
"Are you in charge, sir?" It was a male voice that spoke. Anora and Paul both looked back to see who else was in the surprisingly spacious jet. It was an average sized man, presumably in his thirties, Brown hair and eyes. "Uhm, not really," Paul replied. He took a moment to explain to the guy what all had happened at Paul's Valley and back here in Cincinnati up to present, to the best of his knowledge. Anora flinched at hearing about Charles' death again. She also hated that whenever he mentioned Miranda's involvement, she was always doing something around Nelson. Her husband. What a bitch.
Her thoughts were interrupted when the guy replied to Paul. "Damn," he replied. "Something's definitely way out of wack. We had a treaty." "Huh?" Anora asked, "With who?" "The aliens," The guy said. "You can just call me Dylan. We basically made a treaty with them when we came to America, that if they spared us and didn't take us over, we would help them find very specific humans to experiment on for them to more quickly finish.. whatever they're doing." "What do you mean very specific?" Anora asked. "RH negative blood," Dylan told her. "But they weren't supposed to expose themselves. This Nelson guy must have some variation of that blood type." "What are they going to do to him?" Anora asked quietly, almost afraid of the answer. Dylan shook his head slowly. "I have no clue.." he said slowly. "I'm sorry. But at the very least, we still have..." "We have a situation!"
Dylan was interrupted by the initial three people in radiation suits. They carried a burnt body in their hands. Anora gaped. "Is that..." "S-Samuel..." Paul finished her sentence. Miranda followed them into the jet. She eyed Samuel's charred body with an odd expression on her face. It was only then did Dylan speak into a ear piece, and they suddenly took off. The three of people in radiation suits then proceeded to take their helmets off. Two men, and one female. "It stinks in there," the woman commented. "I suppose introductions are in order," Dylan said. He pointed to the first man, an average looking guy, nothing in particular stood out about him. He was Asian and had black hair and really dark brown eyes. "This is Henry," Dylan began, "and the girl beside him is Jasmine." Jasmine had black hair with white streaks in it, and piercing blue eyes. She seemed to be the youngest of the three. "And last, tho certainly not least, Eugene." Eugene was a black guy, with a very stern face. Bald and clean shaven, he merely nodded, maintaining his expression. "I'm Paul," he told them, "Nice to meet you sir." "My name's Anora," she said, trying not to look in the direction of Samuel's remains. Eugene seemed to be examining his charred body. "What about you?" Dylan asked Miranda. She stood cross armed, leaning against the wall, a nonchalant expression on her face. "Miranda," she told him. "Might I ask what you're doing with Samuel's dead body?" She asked him. Eugene didn't answer, rather he took some kind of weird scanner and started waving it around Samuel's disfigured face. "Don't mind him," Jasmine said apologetically to Miranda, "He's not the most social guy around." "You don't say," Miranda murmured.
       "His body and heart are 100% dead," Eugene reported to Dylan, "But there is still activity in the brain." "So what?" Paul said, "It's only a matter of time before all activity is gone right?" "Well the fact that there is this much activity," Henry piped in, "Suggests that he has only just recently died. He must have been silently suffering under that debris for a while." Anora frowned. "We figured that much,"'she said frowning. "I'm.. I apologize," Henry said slowly, "Just making an.. observation.. point is.. this is a perfect time to test out some of the technology I just reverse engineered." Miranda raised an eyebrow. "What technology?" "Yeah," Paul agreed, "He's dead. No pulse. Don't disturb his fucking remains." "Listen please," Henry continued, "We might be able to move his brain into another body.. a robot.. it would still be him, just in a new body. And well, since he's basically clinically dead anyway, why not take this chance? It could preserve your friend." "If you have a picture of him before... ya know, we could always build a robot based on how he looks," Jasmine offered. "I have one," Anora offered up. She still had one of her, Nelson, and Samuel just before the wedding. She teared up a bit as she showed it to Jasmine. "Why do you have a picture of Samuel on your phone?" Miranda asked, a curious gleam in her eye. "It's their wedding," Jasmine observed. "No, it's mine and Nelson's," Anora corrected her. "Samuel was the best man." Miranda seemed to think of something, but didn't speak on it. "Oh Samuel's not your husband then?" Jasmine asked. "Good. He's kinda hot." "Uhm he does have a wife though," Paul told her. "Well, do you mind if we try the operation?" Dylan asked them. "There's no guarantee it'll work but it's better than certain death." They agreed to it. "If the government can do all that, why don't you use it in everyday life? Like distribute this stuff to hospitals?" Paul asked. "Population control is the short answer," Dylan said. "If we start saving everyone before we can make it to another planet, Earth's resources won't be able to support us all. We would eat all the food before we could grow more. Drink all the clean water before we could replace it. There wouldn't be enough room for everyone to have a home and not enough jobs for people to pay on their homes, other bills, etc. Is the short answer, that is. We simply cannot save everyone. It does make sense to try to save this Samuel guy. I recognized his name. He's supposedly next in like behind Moran. Where is he?" "Dead." Miranda said shortly. "Oh." Dylan seemed to think on something. "Well you know what to do, Henry. Freeze the brain in its current state so it will last until we get there." "Yes sir." Henry and Eugene carried Samuel's body around the corner and began working on him with some tools they had stored over there. "Dead bodies are gross," Jasmine shivered.
      "We're going to take you to where the rest of the Ohio refugees recently came rushing in," Dylan told them, "I'm certain you have people you would want to reconnect with. However, now that it's come to this, we as humans can't hold back anymore. We gotta pull all the stops. They've forsaken their treaty. We have our last resort in Hawaii. After you reconnect, I would appreciate if you came along with us. Gather everyone you think you'll need or can use." "So are you guys like the highest level of government on Earth?" Anora asked. Dylan shook his head. "Amongst society I do get that there's a bit of a stigma around the structure of the government. Hmmm... without the long explanation, put simply I - and my team of course - could technically be considered the second highest? I am only aware of one person that is above me. I only came in person as a testimony of how serious this is. This isn't something like an asteroid that we can just gather the important people and fly away, or just an epidemic. It's an advanced extraterrestrial civilization. We can't run, hiding is next to impossible. So we need to do what we need to do."
            An hour or two later, they landed in a field somewhere out seemingly in the middle of nowhere. "Where are we?" Paul asked, looking around the green fields. There was absolutely nothing here, it seemed. "Not in Ohio anymore," Henry said, handing Paul, Anora, and Miranda glasses. "We hid the base out here. We sprayed it with this substance that makes it invisible to the naked eye. It's a trap door out here in these fields that leads to it, well over there." After putting the glasses on, a metal trapdoor came into view. "Wow." Anora muttered. If they had all this secret technology they were hiding from the public, maybe they did have a chance of getting Nelson back. There's no way the aliens know EVERYTHING  we can do, right? Anora thought hopefully as they descended down into the hidden EED base.