Bang. At first, I assumed that the sound that startled me awake was the gunshot that ended so many of my nightmares. But then it came again. Bang, bang, bang. And finally, I realized that the sound was someone pounding on my front door. I groaned, peeled my eyelids up and the room swam into focus, more or less. I glanced at TV, silent now, my streaming service having given up on me some time ago and defaulted back to the home screen. The time read 8:27. I didn’t have a clear memory of exactly when I had dozed off last night, but I couldn’t have been asleep for more than a couple of hours. No wonder I was still feeling a little drunk from last night. The banging on the door sounded again. Ugh. I just wanted to go back to sleep. Even if they were strangely persistent, I didn’t have the energy to deal with Jehovah’s witnesses or political surveys this morning. I licked my lips, attempting, with limited success, to lubricate my dry mouth before calling out,

“Go away! You have the wrong apartment.”

“No, I don’t. Open the door, Ray.”

I knew the voice, though it took me a moment to place it,

“Tom? What are you doing here?”

“I came to talk to you, are you going to let me in, or do we have to talk through the door?”

I rubbed my hand over my face and pushed myself up from the couch. As I did, the room spun wildly, and I stumbled back, sinking down to a seated position. Ok, maybe I was still very drunk from last night. I glanced at the open bottle of whisky on the coffee table, based on how much was left, that wasn’t terribly surprising.

“Look, Tom, this isn’t a great time. Do you want to maybe come back later?” I attempted.

“No. I’m not leaving until you let me in,” Tom replied through the door.

I sighed. There was no point arguing with him. Tom was stubborn and I didn’t have the energy. But I still wasn’t going to get up for this.

“The doors open, just come in, if you insist,” I reached for the bottle on the table, all this shouting was making my throat dry, and seeing as how I was already plastered, where was the harm in a bit more?

“Why on earth is your door unlocked?” Tom closed the front door behind him as he entered.

“I am not getting into that again,” I muttered. “Why are you here?”

“Well, hello to you too,” Tom crossed his arms over his chest and looked me over in a way that, frankly, seemed a little judgemental. “Let me take a wild guess, you’re drunk off your ass.”

I rolled my eyes,

“Bravo. You want a prize or something?” I held out the bottle.

“I’ll pass, thanks.”

“Suit yourself,” I took a swig myself.

“It’s 8:30 in the morning, Ray.”

I shrugged,

“If it’s late enough in the day for you to just pop by unannounced, it is late enough for me to have a drink.”

“I did try to text, and call, but you never answered.”

I pulled out my phone and thumbed the power button, but the screen stayed black, it must have died sometime last night.

“So, you just… came by?”

“Well, you did invite me.”

“I did?”

“Yeah, you said we should get together, when I had some free time.”

I thought back, I guess I had sent him a text earlier.

“I mean, yeah, but if I remember correctly, I suggested we pick a time for dinner, not that you show up at my house at the crack of dawn.”

“It is hardly the crack of dawn,” he scoffed. “Besides, I was going to wait, but when I didn’t hear back from you, and then I heard about what happened on the news…”

“Ugh, they reported my name?”

“No, but let’s say I had my suspicions, so I talked to some of Gail’s people about it,” Tom’s expression softened. “They told me everything that happened. It sounds like things got pretty rough. Are you alright?”

“Do I seem alright?” I punctuated that sentence with a drink.

Ironic that he was asking, seeing as I had originally contacted him to check in on his wellbeing.

“Look, I don’t really want to talk about it, ok? If you got the story already, then there is nothing more to say. So how about we talk about something else? How are you?”

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Tom sank down onto the couch on the opposite side of the room, resting his elbows on his knees and tenting his hands.

“Me, Ray?” he raised an eyebrow. “Why do you ask?”

“Well, I hear that you haven’t exactly been having an easy time, yourself. And I realized that I haven’t really asked you how have things been going on your end. I am sorry about that.”

“Don’t be. I understand. We have all had a difficult adjustment to make, in the last few months. And actually, I am doing just fine these days,” he smiled in a way that struck me as a bit too wide.

But, if appearances were anything to go off, he was actually looking pretty good, now that I was paying attention. He was cleanshaven, his clothes were neat and pressed, and he carried himself with an ease and confidence I hadn’t seen from him in some time. I wondered what had changed, since we last spoke in person.

“Things have been tough, of course,” he continued. “I am sure you have heard that retrieving the other Immune has been going… poorly.”

I nodded.

“The long-term psychological damage that the Domini have done to them… it truly is horrifying. Most have abandoned their families, their friends. They willingly went into hiding with the Domini, and even when we manage to root some of them out, they do not wish to be ‘saved,’ for lack of a better word. Those we have captured are all locked up in one of the old Organization compounds, while someone tries to figure out a way to break the Domini’s hold on them. Some of them seem to be making progress, but I am sure you remember better than anyone what happened with Jessica.”

Of course, I remembered. That particular moment in time would be impossible for me to ever forget.

“Has there been any sign of…”

“No, she still hasn’t turned up,” he shook his head, sadly. “But that is my point, even if they seem to be recovered, there is no way to know what would happen if they encountered Domini out in the world, so they all have to stay imprisoned. And they are miserable. Miserable without their freedom, miserable without their masters. They all want to leave, some to return to their lives and families, ostensibly, and some to return to the Domini. But how can we allow that? It has been hard to see, hard to keep motivating myself to find others, knowing that all we have to offer them is an indefinite term in a cold cell, far from the people they believe they care most about. A lot of those guys were my friends. They were good people and they deserved better than this,” anger kindled in his eyes as he spoke.

“I’m sorry, Tom.”

“Yeah, me too,” he smirked bitterly. “And for a long time, I was as despondent about this, as hopeless, as I know you are, now.”

“There is really no reason to bring me into this,” I protested.

“But there is. Because I understand how you feel. I, too, thought that things were dismal and hopeless, not that long ago. When you see the worst people can do to each other, it is hard not to think that way. I’ve seen too many with their minds broken, begging to return to their captors,” he gave me a pointed look. “You saw that too, last night, didn’t you? With those girls?”

I pursed my lips, refusing to answer. I told him I wasn’t going to talk about that.

“It ok, I understand,” Tom responded to my thoughts more than my words. “I didn’t want to talk about it at the time, either. It was too painful. That is why, after I heard what happened last night, I knew I had to come and talk with you. I want to help you, if I can.”

“Help me?” I raised an eyebrow. “There is nothing wrong with me.”

“Come on, Ray,” he looked at me, then at the bottle in my hand, eyes filled with pity in a way that really just made me want to smack him. “All of this, it isn’t ok, you must know that. I hate seeing you like this.”

“No one said you had to watch. If it’s a problem, you know the way out,” I gestured at the door.

“There is no need to get defensive. Like I said, a lot of us have been where you are. We know that darkness. How hard it is to find hope again. But you don’t have to live this way, anymore.”

“Tom, if this is an intervention, I think you are supposed to bring more people. Of course, I also think they are supposed to be friends and loved ones, so maybe I understand why you’re here alone,” I smirked.

“You see, that is exactly what I am talking about. Please, I know you aren’t really in a place where you want to listen to this right now, but just, hear me out, ok? It wasn’t easy, but I’ve learned how to accept what has happened, and how to move forward. And that is what you need right now.”

“It is, huh?”

“Yes. Because you are stuck in the past. Everyone can see it. To move on, what you need is a purpose. Something to drive you. I want to help you find that purpose, to find peace, like others have helped me.”

“Look, Tom, I don’t know what this is, exactly, but you’re starting to sound like you should be handing out pamphlets at the airport. If you’ve joined a cult or something, I do not have it in me to deal with that right now. Maybe we can circle back to that in a few days?”

“No, no, it’s nothing like that,” Tom chuckled. “It’s just that sometimes you need someone to show you the truth, so that you can see it clearly. The truth and our purpose are intertwined. Once you accept the truth, you will see our purpose clearly, and I think you will understand that we are doing what must be done.”

“The truth?” he was not convincing me that this wasn’t a cult of some kind.

“Of course. You see, the problem many of us were facing, that you are facing, is that we have seen so much horror, so many terrible acts, it is hard to maintain your faith in humanity, after all that.”

I found myself nodding, in spite of myself. It was true that it could be challenging to stay positive after you found a near-comatose woman chained to a wall in a basement.

“See? You understand,” Tom smiled softly.

“Maybe all the cruelty that we couldn’t stop is part of it. Of course, even if I accept that premise, I don’t see how you could possibly help with that problem. It happened, there is nothing that can undo it.”

“It doesn’t need to be undone. You just need to recontextualize it. You need to remember the truth.”

“You keep saying that. What are you dancing around here, Tom? What ‘truth’ are you talking about?”

“Come on, Ray, do you really need me to say it?” Tom gave me a paternal look.

I was starting to get a bad feeling about this.

“Yeah, Tom. Maybe I am a bit slow today, but I definitely need you to tell me what you are talking about, because I have no idea.”

“It’s very simple, Ray,” he spread his hands, as if gifting me something precious. “We pretended for a long time that humans and ubarae were the same, equal. We carefully guarded the illusion that they were not separate from us. But the truth to remember is that ubarae, they are not like us, and the things that they do to us, those should not shake your faith in humanity, because they are not human.”

“Yeah, I think I knew that one, Tom. And I think that ‘faith in humanity’ is more of a figure of speech than anything.”

“But it shouldn’t be. We need to prioritize humanity, because the ubarae certainly prioritize themselves.”

“Prioritize humanity? And how do you propose that we do that?”

“It’s simple. Humans and ubarae cannot coexist, the Domini proved that. This is our truth and our purpose. For the sake of humanity, we have no choice but to wipe them all out.”