Chapter 3: The Escape

The lab had a certain level of tension that was more than the normal could provide, a heavy cloud hanging over both Kayden and Alexis. It's been hours since they had broken the code but still this feeling of wariness was like a storm cloud that loomed over them, threatening to pour but hung still inside. Kayden positioned himself at the door. With his back straight, the doll-like frame swept the area but did not make a single move to leave it. His cobalt blue orbs danced with worry and determination.

Lexis was positioned on the other side of the room and feeling desperate as he had plenty questions to ask. Well, this is a puzzle that he is trying to cover – for reasons that are becoming less and less pleasant for her. Why did she let him inside and assist in decoding the signal? Because it felt right to her and she had no issues with him. But all of it is no more. All of it.

“I don’t want to miss this,” Alexis said, her initial complaint sounding sharper than she had intended. “I cannot live like this anymore.”

The gentleman inhaled, and she noticed he was composed but cautious. “About what?”

“About you,” she heard herself saying, as her arms moved toward him. “You’ve been avoiding me from the time you arrived here. I’ve given you the benefit of the doubt, but I need to find out what you’re hiding.”

Kayden let out an exasperated sigh and looked like he stiffened in trepidation. “Alexis. This isn’t a good time for—”

“No,” she stopped him, all her anger rising to the surface. “This is the very reason you shouldn’t have said when. We are talking of technology that has the ability to turn things around, and you are sitting there making it seem like a walk in the park. The least you can do, Kayden, is give me the facts.”

For a long moment he kept staring unblinkingly at her, no doubt searching her eyes as though trying to decide whether he could trust her or not. At last, he slowly looked down from her, his shoulders lifted slightly.

“Okay,” he said under his breath. “You are right. You are worthy of it.”

Alexis stayed in complete silence, her heartbeat becoming loud as Kayden moved towards her. He appeared unable more like submerged, and lacked the reasonable mysterious man she had set eyes upon since their introduction.

“I am not just an alien, who has no place, or a cause.” Kayden started off, his quiet words perfectly calm even as they sounded rough. “I am an exile. A runaway. I’ve for many years been a resident on this planet, running away from the radar.”

Alexis blinked. The information was somewhat hard to absorb. “A fugitive? From which aspect?”

The gloom in his expression deepened more, his eyes considerably more revealing an invisible layer of pain. “From an intergalactic conflict. One that has not ceased for many centuries. My race what little there is left of it, is being picked off in all corners of the Milky Way chased by the foes who seek nothing but our annihilation.”

Her pulse was racing now that the feathers of his words had boomed into her mind. “I mean… you’re a soldier then. That is what you wanted to say?”

“Not anymore,” he stated wryly. “I was once a soldier, but I am no longer that a soldier. I used to fight, but I put it behind. I couldn’t stand it anymore, all the killing and the warring. So I ran. I came here to this planet, wishing to find some peace. But I guess I was wrong.”

“Okay, he raises his hand, and romances as a knight—that’s when he starts speaking. And when he hears these things. And when he understands these things. And understands that light shines without warning and without sound, but rather penetrates roots and creeps in darkness.” Such thoughts related to military affairs began to race within her and vastly too fast. Everything that had suddenly been disproportionate returned in a sudden order. The way he stood, the way he talked, the haunted look on his face. He was escaping from a battle, with opponents who were more fierce than she would have ever thought.

“And now what?” she spoke slowly, almost impossibly low. “Now they’ve found you?”

Kayden simply nodded, his expression morose. “They’re coming for the technology. They know it’s here. And they know I’m here, too.”

A nervous chill went down the room as the uneasiness of the scope of the problem hung around them like a fog. A shiver made its way up Alexis’s spine. She had signed up for something more grave than she nominally expected, and now there was no going back.

“There was no need for you to suffer in silence,” Alexis said, caught up with herself as she spoke a touch too fast. “I mean, you could have said it before. I could have helped.”

“I wanted to spare you from this,” said Kayden as he has softened in his tone. “You don't need to be dragged in this war.”

“Not anymore,” she shot back, as if she was still breathing fire as her exasperation has once again erupted. “You don’t get to make that choice for me, Kayden. You brought this into my house. You owe me the chance to make the decision.”

Kayden blinked, a flicker of something in his eyes, maybe pain. But this was the first time Alexis appreciated the unexplained burden of guilt that he bore. He didn’t want to involve her. He had no alternative but to involve her. However, at that moment, both of them were already caught in the crossfire of a war that they could no longer elude.

“You are correct,” he said in a low tone. “I apologize.”

For some reason, she didn’t expect his apology, and for a moment there, she was stunned as to how she could react to it. The air that hitherto had been crackling, filled with distrust, now seemed to change course. It was not irritation anymore. It was deeper than that. It was faith. Or rather the signs of it.

Even before she had uttered a word, the lights over the lab went out and the faint words changed into one most menacing hum that hung in the air.

“What the—” Alexis who had begun to speak did not complete her sentence because the sound of alarms at the building went off.

As he went over to the window and glanced out, Kayden’s face grew more sullen. He stepped back and swore. Looking towards the ceiling.

“They did find me,” he said slowly.

Alexis felt her heart racing as she hurried to get closer to the person. “Who?”

Kayden did not quite understand at first, as evidenced in the five seconds of silence, while his eyes moved outside looking for something toward the window. “We need to go. Now.”

“Go? But where is there to go?”

Kayden faced her, his eyes scorching. “Anywhere but here. This place will be razed to the ground if they have any suspicions that the technology is hidden there.”

The thoughts of panic within Alexis's mind began to race. Everything she had achieved in life: her work, her research, somehow was related to this lab. But Kayden in particular made her understand that now was not the time to hesitate. If they took too long, they wouldn’t be there anymore.

“Fine,” she finally said as she slipped on her coat and roughly stuffed several crucial instruments into a bag. “Let’s move.”

Kayden nodded; his lips pursed together, leading her to the door. But as soon as they were at the door, there was no boom to the lab door, and a number of armed men came running into the room with guns aimed at Kayden.

“Get down!” He yelled while throwing Alexis behind a nearby console as soon as there was a sharp crack before ionized air as a burst of energy blasts blasted through the skies.

She held her breath behind the console as her heart pounded fiercely, the explosive breaks hurt her ringing head. And so did she, taking a peek at Kayden, who danced on the edge of the flying explosives like a well-trained soldier and expertly returned fire with an unusual, advanced rifle.

So much for their wish for a quiet life.

Kayden’s movements were precise and deliberate, which on any other day would not be surprising except he has this strange weapon in his hand. He wasn’t a mere runaway boy who was buried deep underneath the soils of Earth—he was a warrior, a butcher, and he had come prepared.

A minute or two exceeded by what felt like a couple of nights, the firing stopped, the assaults lay dead as soundless as the eyes darting back and forth. In no time, Kayden was facing Alexis and gasping.

“Let us move. Next time there are going to be even more everyone.”

“Whoah” Alexis attempted to make sense of everything that was happening almost late but her body was still shaking as a leaf above fire as she uttered, “Who… who were they?”

“Mercenaries,” Kayden responded gritting his teeth as if the word was a bomb. “They were brought in to the team of the enemy in order to find me.”

She tried to comprehend what he meant and her head was whirling as it fought against the myriad visual and emotional assaults she had been subjected to. Mercenaries? Enemies? An outer space conflict? Some of these would have made for interesting reading in several pages to the book but not in one night. However, there was no time for such nonsense. Not when if they collapsed and snappished everyone coming after them.

“Let’s leave,” she said more composed. “We can take the problem later.”

Kayden nodded and softened his gaze at her. “I appreciate your help in this. I know I shouldn’t have let this happen to you.” There’s an ambiguity in which he needed to reassure but more mentally portray to her the calm side. There was panic in his eyes and still something more there but not spoken; Affinity. Comprehension.

“Those plants weren’t in my plans,” she said barely above a whisper. “But now there’s no turning back.”

They barely said anything for the next minute and simply moved out of the lab and into the streets, heavy disappointing burdens on their backs. There was a war where people who couldn’t understand what their actions would lead to attacked on Earth and there is no way back now.

The getaway was barely commenced.