A Different Kind (30 page)

The darkness returned.

I eased out of sleep the next time I woke. The smell of smoke was only a distant memory, now replaced by a stringent antiseptic odor that burned just as badly. The sheets were itchy and the room was bright. I opened my eyes with a frown already set upon my face. I whipped my head around wildly. The memories came rushing back and I sat up.

Dizziness overcame me. I leaned my back against the plastic headboard of the bed. Taking low, deep breaths I calmed down and looked around. Logan was nowhere in sight. The room was empty save for the twin bed I lay on. White walls surrounded me except for a large mirror that I could only assume was one-way, like the kind you see in all the cop shows on TV. In the corner of the room was a nondescript white door.

I was dressed in the same clothes I’d been wearing earlier. They still smelled faintly of smoke, but otherwise there didn’t appear to be anything wrong with me. This was all majorly weird.

“Please be calm, Miss Carlson,” a voice said over the loudspeaker. My head whipped around the room, trying to find its source. “Someone will be in to speak to you in a moment.”

“Who are you!” I shouted, refusing to calm down as they’d requested. “Where am I? Where’s Logan?”

The door opened silently.

“There’s no need to shout,” the man said as he walked in.

He shut the door behind him. His face was turned from me. I didn’t recognize him until the door clicked shut. When he looked my way I was greeted with his cold blue eyes. It felt like the fire from the forest churned inside me.

I grabbed the pillow off the bed and threw it at him. He caught it. I knew it wouldn’t do any good, but there wasn’t anything else around.

“Stay away from me,” I demanded.

“Now, that was rather senseless, don’t you think?” Doggett tossed the pillow aside. “All I want to know is, just how did an eighteen-year-old girl survive a crash like that?”

I held my breath, refusing to answer.

“I’m only kidding. I don’t need to know that. We already know you’ve been infused with alien DNA. The Greys are a fairly resilient species. A bullet to the brain and they go down like anything else, but they have a remarkable ability to heal.”

“What do you want with me?”

Doggett tilted his head. “Nothing.”

I scoffed. “Yeah,
okay
.” The sarcasm coating my words was thick.

Doggett sighed. “I understand your apprehension, but I can assure you I’m not going to hurt you.”

“Yeah, well, forgive my skepticism; you’ve only got me locked in some creepy white room and you’ve been stalking me for months, and I know your name isn’t John Doggett. How long did you really think it would take me to figure that one out?”

Doggett let out a soft snicker, then regained his composure. “Honestly, I didn’t think that’d be something
you
would pick up on at all. It was more of an inside joke anyway. And you’re not locked in here. The door’s open; you can leave at any time.”

My eyes shifted to the door, then back at the man before me. He smiled, taking one step to his right and giving me a clear shot to the door. I didn’t trust him, and I certainly didn’t believe him. Did he really think I would just take his word for it? I rushed to the door and twisted the knob. It was unlocked. He glanced at me over his shoulder. His smug face saying, “I told you so.” I turned the knob all the way and pushed the door open.

I was in the hall a second later. As I walked down the empty white corridor, all I could think was that he wouldn’t have left the door unlocked unless he knew I couldn’t possibly get away. Still my pace picked up in hope that I could find Logan and escape anyway.

“My name is Agent Nolan.”

“Agent is a funny first name,” I mumbled.

I looked over my shoulder to see him standing in the hallway just outside my room. I kept walking.

“If you’re looking for your friend, he isn’t down that way.”

I stopped. My nostrils flared and I whirled around. “Where’s Logan?”

Agent Nolan, if that was his real name, smiled.

“He’s fine. Follow me; there are things we need to discuss.”

I fumed at his nonchalant attitude, but what choice did I have? I followed Agent Nolan down the hallway, keeping as much distance between us as possible.

“I know you don’t, but you can trust me, Payton. I’m not the enemy.”

“You came into my bedroom at night and drugged me; now you want me to trust you?”

“I injected you with a tracking device. We needed to be able to know where you were when they came back for you…the drugs were just to knock you out. You’re not supposed to remember any of that actually.”

“Well, I do, and none of that makes me feel any better or more trusting.” I shook my head. “You knew this was going to happen to me? Who are you?”

Agent Nolan looked away for a moment. “All you need to know is that I’m part of an organization that’s trying to look out for all of mankind.”

I rolled my eyes: how cliché. “And you do that how? By arresting people like Dr. Strieber? Is he even still alive?”

Nolan chuckled. “You sure have a lot of anger.”

“Yeah, well, it’s been a rough day.”

We turned down another hallway, this one just as empty as the last. I started to wonder if we were the only people in the building.

“Dr. Strieber is fine. He’s already been released.”

“Why’d you take him?”

“We needed to prevent him from removing the chip that’d been imbedded in your brain.”

I stopped walking. “What?”

“We are unable to track their ships, but we can track the subjects they’ve chosen to abduct. It’s the only way we’ve been able to take out as many out as we have.”

“So you were waiting for them to abduct me, so you could shoot their ship out of the sky?” My brows creased and my jaw fell open. “You were going to risk killing me so you could shoot their spaceship out of the air?”

“You didn’t die, did you?”

Agent Nolan continued walking and stopped before a white door. The number 318 was painted in black on the front. He pushed the door open with one hand and waited for me. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to enter.

“Mr. Reed is waiting for you in here,” Nolan said when I didn’t move.

I doubted every word he said. With every step I took I wondered if I were walking into something I wouldn’t walk out of, but other than taking off down the hall, I didn’t really have a choice. Cautiously I stepped into the room. Logan was there. Relief flooded through me. He sat in a chair on the far side of the room, hunched over with his head in his hands. His glasses were hooked into the front of his shirt, their lenses cracked. He looked up, his eyes locked with mine, and hurried to me.

“Oh God, Payton.”

Logan wrapped his arms around me so tightly he squeezed all the air from my lungs, but I didn’t mind. I hugged back just as tight. A long moment passed where we held one another. Logan stroked my hair and ran his hands up and down my back. It wasn’t until Agent Nolan cleared his throat that we pulled apart.

“If you two wouldn’t mind taking a seat, we can get this over with and get the two of you home.”

I glanced at Logan. Silently the two of us walked to the row of chairs on the other side of the room and sat down. Logan grabbed my hand and held it tight.

Agent Nolan clapped his hands. “Okay, so we’re going to have to debrief you, and then we should be able to send you on your way.”

“What?” I asked. “That’s it?”

Agent Nolan smiled. “No, that’s not it. We will be watching you, Miss Carlson, but except for an occasional visit to see how you’re doing, you won’t have any more interference from us. Now, let’s get started.”

T
he debriefing lasted hours. Agent Nolan wanted to know every detail of my life from the moment I was first abducted. Talking to him was exhausting. He informed us that we were being recorded and took notes as we spoke. At the end he told me the microchip in my brain had been deactivated. When I asked how he continued on as if he hadn’t heard the question. He also never mentioned if whatever he’d injected into me, so he and his buddies in black suits could keep track of me, was deactivated or not. I guessed not. After all, he had said they’d be watching me.

We were given strict instructions not to talk about the Greys or what had happened. We were forbidden from doing anything that would expose ourselves as not being completely human, and all we were told was that there’d be serious consequences from breaking any of these rules.

Eventually we were led out of the room and back down the empty white hallway. We never passed another person, and all the doors we walked by were closed. The hallways we moved down were a twisting maze. When I was positive we were walking in circles we came to an elevator.

Silence filled the metal box as Agent Nolan pressed an unmarked button. Logan grabbed my hand. He squeezed gently. The elevator started to move. During that short ride my mind swarmed with thoughts. I wondered what would happen next, wondered if Agent Nolan had told us the truth. I wondered if there were any other side effects from being abducted, or if the chip in my head had really been disabled. Then, as the elevator doors opened, I wondered if maybe it was over.

Light filled the elevator and we stepped out into a brightly lit entryway. Tall windows lined the wall, surrounding a revolving door. A woman sat with her back to us on a couch, near a small cluster of chairs in the center of the room. To my right a man stood behind a desk, looking as if he were just a clerk at a fancy hotel, as if this wasn’t some government facility. Then again, was it? We hadn’t seen any other agents or anything to give us any kind of clue as to where we were. Maybe that was the point.

The woman turned around. I recognized her as her brown hair swished around her face. It was Logan’s mom. Her eyes went wide as they landed on us. Then she was rushing toward us. Logan let go of my hand as she wrapped her arms around him. Closing her eyes she tugged him against her. She must have been so worried.

I sighed and crossed my arms, wishing there was someone there to hold me. My mom couldn’t be there. This was something I’d never be allowed to tell her.  I glanced over my shoulder, looking for Agent Nolan, but he was gone. When I turned back around Logan and his mom parted. Then Linda engulfed me in a hug. I was shocked at first. I’d been starting to think that she didn’t like me, but her hug was so warm. There was no denying that she cared for me as well.

“I’m so glad you two are okay, both of you,” she said.

I found the comfort I needed. I knew then that I would never be alone. This was over, and I was okay.

Epilogue

T
he second I stepped inside my house I took a deep breath, feeling more grateful to be home than I ever had before. I immediately showered and changed into clean clothes. Then I went down to the kitchen to make myself something to eat. That was where Mom found me when she came home from work – sitting at the breakfast counter eating a turkey sandwich.

“Payton, where have you been?” she asked, startling me. I choked on a bite of my sandwich.

Somehow I managed to convince her that Jo and I had been out with the cheer squad after class. I’d told her my phone had died and I’d forgotten to tell her we were staying at Hailey’s. I’d missed school that day, but Agent Nolan had called me in sick so they never called home to check where I was. At the end of it all Mom scolded me for being so irresponsible, but that was it.

I walked to Jo’s after that. I knocked. Her front door opened and Jo’s arms were around me before I even had a chance to say hello. I hugged her back. For a little while I allowed myself to be encompassed in her familiar scent. I still had to remind myself that I was safe now.

“Nikki and I watched the crash last night, and then there were all these news reports about how there was another meteor, and you weren’t at school today and I couldn’t get ahold of you….” Jo took a breath.

“It’s okay, Jo, I’m okay.”

“Where were you?”

My lips thinned, but I didn’t say anything. I shrugged. Tears filled my eyes. Jo sighed and her eyes went wide, then she hugged me again.

A
week later I sat on my couch, twirling a gold coin in the air. Sacagawea’s face did flips, hovering above my palm. The doorbell rang. The coin dropped into my hand, and Logan and Jo came around the corner. Jo carried a large bowl of popcorn, and Logan had sodas in each hand.

“Is that Nikki or Hailey?” I asked.

Logan peeked out the window.

“Neither,” he said. “Pizza, you have the money?”

I picked the twenty off the coffee table and handed it over with my gold coin. Logan set the sodas down and took the money. He eyed the gold coin, then looked at me.

“What? I wanted to leave a better tip. It’s a dollar…Mom forgot to leave me pizza money.”

Logan laughed as he walked to the door. After he’d paid the pizza delivery boy, Hailey and Nikki arrived, pushing past him while he carried the pizza and bread sticks to the coffee table. Almost as soon as he’d set the box down it was empty.

We watched movies and talked and laughed. Jo and Hailey got into a popcorn fight, tossing the golden kernels across the room. As the night wound down I lay on Logan’s chest, listening to the beat of his heart as the movie played.

Everything was perfectly normal.

Then the lights flickered. I sat up. Everyone else had fallen asleep. Jo and Nikki were curled up on the couch. Hailey was wrapped up in the other arm chair. Logan too was in a deep sleep, his head leaning back, body slouched in the chair. The lights flickered again. A moment later the entire living room filled with light.

It filtered in through every window, so bright the window panes didn’t even cast a shadow.
No
,
this can’t be happening.
I shook Logan’s arm, trying to wake him.

Wham
!

The windows flew open – every single one. A gust of cold air filled the room. I shook Logan harder, but he wouldn’t wake. My breath was ragged, my heart pumping wildly in my chest.

“Logan!” I yelled. “Logan, wake up. Please wake up.”

Nothing.

The wind thrashed through the windows. My hair whipped around my face. I got up and shook Jo, then Nikki, but no one would wake. Tears were running down my face, and I ran my hands through my hair. The lights grew stronger until I was squinting, trying to make out the shapes of my own furniture.

“What do you want?” I screamed. “What do you want with me?”

T
he white faded away, light disintegrating into a thin fog, and I came through it. My eyes popped open. Heavy breaths fell from my lips. I sat up so fast my head spun, remembering the intense light that’d filled my living room.

I was in my own bed now. Moonlight shined between the blinds. I closed my eyes and took a few deep breaths.

It was just a dream.

I remembered now. I remembered falling asleep, waking only after the credits started to roll. Everyone had gone home after that, and I’d gone to bed. Glancing at the clock, I saw it was barely after midnight. I hadn’t been sleeping long. I ran my hands through my hair. Sighing, I thought about trying to sleep again, but I was too wound. Getting out of bed, I walked to the window. It was closed, but the blinds were open.

I peered into the night. Stars twinkled above, and across the street Logan sat on his roof. There was something comforting about seeing him there. I opened the window, feeling the chilly air rush in. Logan looked at me from across the street. I waved and he smiled.

He waved me over. After throwing on a pair of jeans and grabbing a sweatshirt, I sneaked out the front door and made my way across the street. I knew Logan’s mom had left for work earlier that night, so I let myself in and went up to his room.

Logan grabbed my hand as I stepped over the window ledge. He put his arm around me as I sat down. I leaned my head against him and we stared up at the night sky. We spoke little as we sat out on the roof. There was nothing that needed to be said.
They
were gone, they weren’t coming back, and as I stared into the vastness of the universe, I felt a part of something bigger.