The Deep Beneath (17 page)

Jack put his hand on Erika’s leg and shook gently. “We’re almost there.”

Erika stretched her arms over her head and yawned. “Did I sleep?”

“A bit,” Jack said.

In front of the Hummer, large dark specters loomed in the dim light. Silhouetted against the faint pink sky were large rock formations, still black against the ending night.

“Do you know where to go, Jack?” asked Ian.

“I think so. My mom and I used to come up here quite a bit. I never drove – she did – but I think I can remember how to get to Bell Rock. That’s the place, right, Tex?”

“Yes.” Tex put the large sunglasses back on. The dark glass eased the eye pain that the bright light caused him.

Jack told Ian which turns to take. There were no other cars on the road, and it took them only a few minutes to find the parking lot. “We’ll have to hike the rest of the way.”

“You do not need to come with me. You are free to go. I do regret that I forced you, but I had no other choice. I thank you.”

“You don’t think that I spent the whole night cramped up in a car, scared of your mind powers, and not get to see an alien spaceship, do you?” Jack asked. He opened his door and exited the Hummer.

“I’m not missing this for the world,” Erika said. She, too, got out of the vehicle.

Tex had assumed that the humans would be glad to be rid of him and immediately drive back to the place from which they came. A feeling of gladness overwhelmed him as they opened their doors and ambled out of the vehicle.

Ian was the last out and stretched his arms overhead, then bent down to touch his toes. Jack twisted from side to side to ward off his stiffness. Perhaps Tex was used to sitting for long periods of time without movement. Or maybe his alien DNA provided a suppleness that the humans did not have, but he found himself neither stiff nor tight in his muscles.

“The trail’s over there,” Jack said. He pointed to a wide dusty red-dirt trail cut into sage-green bushes and knee-high dried grasses.

Ian walked toward the trail, and the other three fell in behind him. He set a swift pace, but Tex was more than able to keep up. They walked a narrow path of thick, rust-red dust through dense high-desert scrub of sage, piñon and juniper. The smell was crisp and clean in a way that he had not experienced even in the desert. He did not understand why, but the smell of the pine trees made him hungry. He wished he could somehow bottle the odor to carry with him to his new home.

After about 400 meters, they began to ascend a steep trail to the top of Bell Rock. Erika panted heavily from behind him, and Jack’s breath too sounded labored.

Tex reached out with this mind to evaluate Jack’s condition. His healing had done more than he initially realized. While there was still a bullet lodged in Jack’s muscle, it was encapsulated in scar tissue.
He is fully healed.
Tex determined that Jack’s breathing was ragged due to not being in as good of physical condition as Ian rather than due to his injury.

“Hey, Tex, why don’t you use that teleportation trick that you did last night and pop us up to the top already?” asked Erika.

“God, no,” said Ian. “That hurt like hell. I’ll walk, thank you.”

“I would be happy to transport you to the top, Erika, but I cannot,” said Tex.

“Oh. Is it because it took too much energy?” she asked.

“Though it did require much mental energy and I am not certain I am strong enough at this time, that is not the reason. In order to translocate, I must have temporal knowledge of the coordinates to which I am going.”

“But you didn’t have knowledge of the Hummer,” said Jack.

“That is true. But I was in mental alignment with H.A.L.F. 10 and was thus able to triangulate my position. I have been seeking to attempt such an alignment with the greys but have been unable to establish a link. Do you understand?”

“Yeah, I understand. I understand I’ve got to walk up this infernal hill and that I need to work out more often,” said Erika.

As the sun peeked over the highest hill to the east, Tex planted his feet on the flat ground on the top of Bell Rock. Small piñon trees grew here and there, anchored into the rock. The chill air of morning surrounded him, and a slight breeze caused him to shiver.

Erika pulled herself to the top last and leaned over, her hands on her knees, as she breathed hard.

“Isn’t it beautiful?” Jack asked. His lips were pulled back in a wide smile.

“Yeah, real freakin’ pretty,” Erika said between breaths.

“Ah, come on, Erika,” said Ian. “Don’t be so cynical. I know you don’t have a poetic bone in your body, but you’ve gotta admit that this is one of the most beautiful places in the world.”

“Yeah, it’s pretty. I’m just trying not to have a stroke here, okay? Give me a few minutes to catch my breath, and then we can all hold hands and sing Kumbaya.”

“Not a bad idea,” Jack said. He winked at Erika as he said it. Tex did not know what winking one eye meant, but he wished that Jack was not standing so close to Erika.

They stood and waited, but there was no sign of an alien craft. Tex searched his mind, remembering exactly the telepathic conversation he’d had with the aliens. He looked around and the scene matched what they’d shown him. He had the location right. He was certain of it. But doubt played at his mind.
Patience.
He shifted his focus to remembering everything he could about his first – and last – sunrise on Earth. The first light of morning made the orangey-red dust of the rocks glow as if lit from within. Their shoes and pants bottoms were completely covered in the thick, red dusty soil.

“Where are your aliens?” Erika asked.

“We must wait,” Tex said.

“Yeah, be patient,” Ian said.

“You know patience isn’t my strong suit.”

“Really? I never noticed,” said Ian.

Erika smacked Ian’s chest with the back of her hand. At first Tex thought that she had hit him out of anger and that they would end up in a fight. But Ian only smiled in response and did not appear angered. The entire exchange was incomprehensible to Tex. He would have asked them to explain, but he let go of his questions as he focused on awaiting further telepathic communication from the greys.

Jack broke Tex’s concentration. “Maybe we should all go with him.”

Tex, Ian and Erika swung their heads around to look at Jack. Tex could not tell if Jack was serious or joking.

“Are you crazy?” Erika asked.

“He’s just messing with us. Aren’t you? I mean, you’re not serious,” said Ian.

“A little serious.”

Erika hit Jack in the shoulder.

“Ow,” he said and grabbed at his shoulder with his hand. “I’ve still got a bullet hole, remember?”

Erika lightly touched Jack’s shoulder. “Oh crap, I’m so sorry. I forgot. It seems like so long ago that that happened.”

“Actually, it’s fine.” Erika removed her hand. “I was just messing with you. Strange. It doesn’t hurt much at all now.” Jack rubbed his shoulder and smiled.

Seeing Erika touch Jack, Tex had a momentary desire to squeeze Jack’s windpipe. But when Erika removed her hand, the feeling passed.

“What could possess you to suggest going with Tex?” Erika asked.

“Terror.”

“What can be more terrifying than traipsing across the galaxy in a spaceship with aliens?” Ian asked.

“Commander Sturgis coming for us,” Jack said.

Erika’s breath finally returned to normal. Tex walked the perimeter of the large flat top rock. “Wach’ya doin’, Tex?” she asked.

“Inspecting,” he replied. He walked to the center of the rock, his back to them, and took off his cowboy hat and sunglasses. He laid them down on the dusty ground and removed the baggy shirt he wore. His skin was so pale it seemed to reflect the first light of morning. His torso was thin, revealing taut muscles on his arms and back. He took off his flip-flops and started to undo the button and zipper of his pants.

“Hey, man, what are you doing?” asked Jack.

“I must not wear clothes to go through the wormhole,” he said.

“Wormhole? I thought there was going to be a ship to beam you up or something,” said Ian.

“I did not say that,” said Tex. “You assumed that.” Tex ditched the pants he’d taken off of Nacho and the thin, blue pants he’d had on when he escaped A.H.D.N.A. He stood completely naked. He did not seem to care that the three of them stood nearby and gawked at his nude body.

Erika couldn’t help but stare. Tex’s body appeared, at least from the backside, to be no different than any human. Yet there was something strange about it. He was thin. But the muscles in his arms and legs were well defined. Erika had never seen anyone so skinny look so strong. She wanted to touch his skin to see if it was as smooth as it looked. Erika wished that he was turned the other way. She was curious to see if he was an anatomically correct human male.
I’ll never know
.

“Are they near?” Jack asked.

Tex did not immediately answer. He stood entirely still with his arms at his sides. Finally he said, “I believe they are. I am getting mental images again. They are telling me to stay here.”

Despite being afraid of him, Erika felt a twinge of sadness at the thought that he’d disappear into a wormhole. And worse still, she wondered what would happen to him if no wormhole appeared. He’d be on the run from Commander Sturgis and H.A.L.F. 10 for the rest of his life. It was only a matter of time until they found a way to round him up and return him to his underground life. If Sturgis found him, Erika would feel as though she had failed at saving him.

The air exploded with a crack that sounded like thunder. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky. The ground shook and the sky rumbled with a deafeningly low sound. Erika’s hands flew to her ears, but it did nothing to muffle the noise. It was as if the sound was more within her than outside her.

Tex remained still. He showed no sign that he heard the earsplitting noise.

Wind swirled around them. It blew the red-orange dust into dirt devils that whipped at her face. The dirt flew into her eyes and obscured her vision. Erika reached for the hands of both Jack and Ian, and they each squeezed her hand into theirs. Despite the wind, Tex’s willowy body stood strong and still, seemingly impervious to the mega storm that blew around them.

There was another loud crash of thunder. Erika’s legs trembled. She was glad the guys held her hands; otherwise she may have fallen. Through the slits of her eyelids, she saw a small swirling disk of matter that whirled a few feet in front of Tex. It grew larger but was no more than the size of a toaster.

Is that the wormhole?
She wanted to shout the question out to Tex, but she knew that he’d never hear her over the loud rumbling and shaking.

As the disk grew larger, Tex inched toward it. It looked as though he was on a conveyor belt. His feet didn’t appear to move, but he inched toward the portal just the same.

His arms were outstretched and his head tilted upward. As the portal grew, his feet left the ground entirely as he was drawn to within inches of his door to a new life.

Above them was a new sound. It was also low, but it was the unmistakable
fft
,
fft
,
fft
of helicopter blades. A black helicopter hovered mere feet from where Tex floated over the ground. Another helicopter hung in the air even higher but carried something on a long rope. Erika wanted to run and shove Tex into the portal, but when she tried to take a step, the violent wind held her back. Tex continued to float toward the doorway to another world, seemingly oblivious to what was going on.
It’s like he’s in a trance.
“How’d they find him?” Erika shouted.

“They must have tracked the Hummer,” Jack said.

The high helicopter let loose its cargo all over Tex and them. They were doused in a torrent of water. As the water hit the red chalky ground, it splashed red mud all over them. Even though the sun was now above the horizon, the air was still cool and dry. Her wet skin prickled with goose bumps and she shivered.

Tex was nearly to the portal but in an instant spit out like a bit of tobacco juice. He let out a loud, high-pitched guttural sound that was more wounded animal than human. Tex landed on his front, his face covered in the muddy red dirt. The rumbling and quaking had stopped, but the air still swirled around them from the copter blades.

The Black Hawk helicopter was suspended above Tex like a dragonfly. He tried to push himself up, but he fell back into the wet dirt.

The air was split again by a loud sound; only this time, it was Commander Sturgis’ voice amplified by a megaphone. “Stay where you are. Take one step and you’ll be blown to bits.”

Erika had been so busy watching Tex and shivering with the cold brought on by the unexpected shower that she’d been unaware of what was going on around her. Feet shuffled behind her and she whirled around. Armed soldiers dressed entirely in black surrounded them. There had to be at least a dozen of them. They soon surrounded Tex too.

Jack pressed her hand more tightly and leaned closer to her. Erika glanced at Ian. He stood tall and looked calm though she could feel his fingers tremble in her hand.

The Black Hawk landed on the wide, flat rock, and Commander Sturgis disembarked. She stood over Tex, with her hands on her hips. “Tsk-tsk. Such a naughty boy. Pick him up.”

Two of the soldiers reached down into the mud and plucked Tex up by his arms. His naked body was covered in the slick red mud.

“Not much of a threat now, are you?”

“More than you know,” Tex said quietly.

“Oh, I know your capabilities. You’ve proven that you are of great use to the program. Soon you’ll be back at A.H.D.N.A. in the comfort of your very,
very
moist room. Get him on board.” Commander Sturgis turned to go back to the chopper.

“What about them?” asked one of the soldiers.

Commander Sturgis rounded back and looked Erika in the eye. “Leave no trace.”

“Wait,” Tex screamed. “If you kill them, then I will … I will kill you.”

Commander Sturgis laughed. “Go ahead. Kill me if you can.”

Tex trembled, but whether it was from cold or concentration, Erika didn’t know. His back was rigid, the muscles rippled. But Commander Sturgis did not grasp at her neck or choke. She merely smirked at him.