Author's Note: Decided to post chapter 7 early. This is the turning point in the story leading to the main plot of the story, so I hope you all enjoy :) Also, can I please get some votes for my poll? It's quite the internal struggle.
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Slowly opening my eyes, a bright light swiftly floods into my eyes through my cracked eyelids. Moaning in pain at the searing light, I quickly shut my eyes and throw a hand out in front of my face to ward it off.
‘That pain…it couldn’t have just been a headache…and my back…Christ that really hurt.’
Gingerly patting my head, I traced my fingers all around it searching for any blood or remnants of pain. After a couple seconds, I surprisingly found no signs of injury but my cheeks began to flame in embarrassment.
‘I had better not make a habit of this whole blacking out business…I hate pain so much.’
“Rise, human.” A cold, mechanic, emotionless deep voice rang throughout my mind.
My eyes shot open in surprise and I instantly jumped to my feet.
Looking around myself for the source of the voice, confusion soon clouds my mind because I have no clue where I am.
I’m standing all alone in a completely white space with black, twinkling blobs haphazardly scattered in empty space in all directions. Above me, below me, beside me; there were hundreds of the blobs.
I shrunk in on myself attempting to keep as much distance between myself and those blobs as possible.
‘What in the fuck is going on? Where’d that voice come from? Am I dreaming?’
Now that I was looking, I could see that the room had no distinguishing boundaries and seemed to infinitely stretch out into a pattern of black, glittering bobs and empty white space as far as I could see.
Before I could further contemplate the situation, my thoughts were once again invaded by the formless voice.
“This is not a dream, human”
This time, I deduced that the sound definitely wasn’t coming from around me, rather, it definitely originated from the confines of my own mind.
‘What? You’re in—’
“Your mind? Yes, human. Do not take this dream of yours lightly lest you be the first of your pathetically weak race to die…although you may not be so weak anymore once you make it through your awakening…” the voice trailed off and aside from the coldness in its voice, I was certain that I’d detected a hint of something else…was it anticipation?
All was silent for a few moments and the voice seemed like it was waiting for me to respond.
At this point, I’m just plain confused and scared with a million questions speeding through my head.
‘Awakening? How is any of this even real? Isn’t this all in my own head? Where am I? I don’t understand what’s going on anymore…’
“Of course this is all going on in your head, but why should that make any of this less real?” The voice once again responded to my thoughts.
I sighed at the loss of my privacy and before I could question the voice with my stray thoughts, it began to speak again.
“Human, you have been chosen as one who will enter the tower.”
A sharp intake of breath was my response to the news and my heart rate burst into a breakneck speed that I hadn’t felt since that night one month ago.
The voice, uncaring of my reaction, kept on going…
“Your awakening gives you the potential to make you stronger than any other human could ever dream to be…”
Upon hearing this, the images of Sarah and all the others who’d died that night flashed through my head and fear as well as a bit of hope raced to the top of my mind.
Fear because I wondered what I would need that sort of strength for.
Hope because I now had the chance to become strong enough to protect the remaining people I cared about. A scene of my family flashed through my head and my desire for true strength only intensified.
Once again oblivious to my reactions, the voice droned on…
“…and I was sent to make sure there would be no misunderstandings about who the marked ones are since the survival of your entire race depends on all who are marked showing themselves at one of the five towers. If even one of you fails to show yourselves, then the Overlords will eradicate the entire human race in a way similar to the events from one month ago. This planet will become one of the conquered and serve as our Overlords’ display of strength to the other candidate planets.”
‘The Overlords…? So that’s what they call themselves? Quite the superiority complex they’ve got there…’
“Your mark is an indication of your inner potential and your awakening will happen once you enter the tower.”
Once he’d said I was marked, I frantically began patting myself down and looking all over.
This was the moment I realized that I was stark naked.
Covering my private area with my hands, I frantically glanced over the rest of me and finding nothing out of the ordinary I said, “There’s nothing on my body. You guys must’ve gotten me mixed up with someone else…”
“The Overlords do not make mistakes, human!” The voice boomed at me in a surprising show of anger. “You have been chosen. You are marked and if you do not enter the tower…do not blame the Overlords for being merciless.” I felt something tug at my head painfully and I was almost instantly swallowed by the blackness again.
………………..
Waking up, I instantly sat up and smacked my head against something hard. Before I could see what I hit, I heard a high-pitched crying sound and realized I’d just smacked heads with my little baby sister who’d been worriedly watching over me from the side of the couch.
Looking down to the ground, I saw her clutching her head and bawling her eyes out.
‘Shit.’ I thought as I bent down to pick up my sister.
“I’m sorry, Amiayah. Shhhhh it’s okay.”
Rocking her back and forth as I held her close, it only took a few seconds for my mom and dad to show themselves and by then she’d considerably calmed her cries down into small sniffles as she buried her face into my shoulder.
I looked at my parents helplessly and after handing my sister off to my mom, I breathed a sigh of relief.
Noticing that my parents were expectantly looking at me expectantly, I could only assume that they must want to know why I’d spontaneously collapsed.
Looking back at my parents, I take a deep breath and tell them everything that just happened while I was unconscious.
They stood there, mouths open wide from my story, unsure of what exactly to say to me.
After the silence grew to unbearable heights, I looked them in the eye and said, “Dad…mom…don’t worry. I’m going. ”
I had thought about it all already. That disastrous night. Seeing my mother’s tears after waking up from my coma.
Seeing my whole family again…the desire to become strong and protect them lit a fire in my eyes.
‘I will protect them no matter what. To do that, I have to go to the tower. I don’t know what’s going to happen there, but I’ll go and protect everyone I love.’
My parents looked like they wanted to say something, but I continued speaking, “I’ll go pack now and leave tomorrow morning. You guys don’t have to worry about anything. The world isn’t ending on my account…I love you both.”
With that said, I walked back into my room leaving my parents in shock.
I had yet to unpack the things my mom had sent back from my dorm room and the piles of boxes were barely stabilized in the stacks that they sat in near the corner of my room.
‘Hmmmm this might take the whole night…’
………………..
No more than five minutes later, I was lying in bed thinking about all the things I could possibly need in the tower.
What made the whole process ridiculously tough is that I didn’t know what I’d be going into the tower for or what would happen in there. Thinking about the bloody night when it had all started, I highly doubted that the tower would be like some five star hotel and I’d be better off buying survival gear and bringing clothes.
‘Although, I mean, it’s just a tower, so won’t they feed us and give us a place to sleep…?’
Unsure of what to expect and if I’d truly be in danger, I just went with my gut feeling and decided to prepare for the worst.
Doing what any sensible person would do, I drove to the nearest supercenter and decided to spend all the saved money I had on anything that would help me survive in the tower.
By that point, I had already tried thinking of anything related to survival in my brain and came up empty.
‘Damn, school didn’t teach me anything useful!’ I angrily thought.
After silently crying for never going camping all the times my dad had asked me to, I grabbed a shopping cart and approached a balding middle-aged guy who was restocking things around the sport supplies area.
“Excuse me, would you mind helping me out?”
He turned to look at me and nodded with a light smile on his face. “What can I do for you, son?”
“Uhhhh, so I’m going camping…in an…unexplored forest…and I suppose I just need help finding stuff for survival. Like camping and hiking stuff, you know?”
He looked at me obviously perplexed by my words.
Shaking his head for a moment at some conclusion he’d reached, he said, “Hmmmm sure, kid. Just follow me and I’ll point out some things I’d grab for a trip to the forest.” He replied with a light chuckle and began to walk off.
………………..
About six unconventional heated arguments with the store employee and fifteen minutes later, my shopping cart was filled with a Patagonia 35 liter backpack, a ridiculously expensive sleeping bag that the guy had told me I could attach to the bottom of my backpack, a 100 foot long nylon rope which could be wrapped up and also tied to my backpack’s front side, flint and steel, two lighters in case that didn’t work, a compass, a first aid kit, a whistle, binoculars, two solar powered flashlights, bug spray, a pair of black combat boots, a compact hatchet, and even though the middle-aged guy questioned my intentions, an eighteen inch long machete I’d seen was also tossed in there.
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I flashed back to that particular conversation a couple minutes ago…
………………..
The middle aged employee had been looking at me funny as I fondly gazed at an eighteen inch long black bladed machete that was clutched tightly to my chest.
‘Oh, ho ho ho, yes. You and I are going to be putting in work on those Overlord bastards won’t we…’
After a few uncomfortable seconds of silence for the balding employee, he spoke up to say, “And what in the hell are you going to need a machete for if you’re just going camping in some woods?”
I looked at him as if he were crazy for suggesting that I was going to be camping, but then I remembered my earlier excuse.
So without missing a beat I say to him, “Did I say forest? I meant a…uh…lion infested forest. Yep.” And with that, I tossed the machete into the cart and looked at him expectantly, waiting for him to keep showing me stuff I may need.
He just shook his head with an exasperated face and muttered something about lions only being found close to the Saharan desert.
………………..
I chuckled at the memory.
‘Better for him to think I’m crazy than get constantly harassed with questions for being marked.’
Smirking, I look over at the employee that’s been helping me and say, “Yeah, this is good so far…now, haha, don’t think too hard about this, but uh you wouldn’t happen to have some sort of bulletproof vest or anything would you?”
I watched him from the corner of my eyes gauging his reaction.
The man stiffened a little and then he said, “Well, I sure as hell wouldn’t want to go camping with you…but yeah we’ve got some strike vests-”
“Do you have it in black?” I hurriedly ask.
He nods and sets off down the aisle.
………………..
Ten minutes later he was ringing me up.
“Hey, thanks so much for helping me out. You’re literally a lifesaver.” I said while smiling toward the guy.
“Always happy to help. Your total will be $759.06”
My jaw dropped at hearing the total which was more than half of my savings.
“On second thought, I hate you.”
Reluctantly handing over my card he grasped it and tried to take it from my hand, but my hand wouldn’t let go. The guy frowned and tugged harder on it. This time I let it go and a single tear began forming in my left eye threatening to fall.
‘Bear with it, Alex. It’s just money, not your life…’
………………..
Making it back to my house at nearly 10 p.m., I hauled everything back into my room and onto the bed.
Grabbing the machete, I slowly unsheathed it and marveled at it in all its glory.
‘It’s so beautiful.’
The black blade seemed to absorb the light coming from the ceiling of my room and the only reflection of light came from the sharp edge of the blade
After admiring the blade for a couple seconds, I used it to cut through the duct tape holding my boxes from school together.
Rifling through my boxes, I settled on taking out my winter coat, five pairs of jeans with three being blue and the other two tan, long wool socks, thin ankle socks, briefs, and dark plain tee shirts.
After tossing them into the largest pocket in the Patagonia pack, I placed a black beanie and leather gloves into a side pocket just in case.
With only my clothes in the bag, half of the space was already used up.
I then tossed my toiletries and shower stuff into the same side pocket as the beanie and gloves.
‘Okay, now for all the other stuff I bought.’
I tied the sleeping bag and rope onto the pack like the employee at Walmart had told me and threw everything except for the machete and compact hatchet into the other side pocket of the pack.
‘Alright, now food and water.’
I passed through the living room to get to the kitchen and saw my parents wordlessly reclining back on the couches looking like they’d aged years in the span of a couple hours.
Figuring that they were just worried about me, I decided to leave the conversation I knew was coming for the morning and after explaining to them that I’d need food and water, they just nodded.
I took about fifteen bottles of water and thirty granola bars and tossed it into the pack which was now nearly full.
‘I think that’ll do’
After much tossing and turning, I finally grew exhausted from the events of that day and fell asleep with only one thought on my mind.
‘I wonder what it’ll be like when I go through my awakening…”
………………..
I woke up to the sound of sobbing coming from the living room and I was fairly sure it was my mother. I sighed in apprehension of having to confront my parents this morning, but I knew it had to be done.
Not wanting to drag the time on, I rolled out of bed, showered, brushed my teeth, and got dressed in my black strike vest which went under a dark blue shirt as well as some blue jeans and my new black combat boots.
Deciding it would be best to put my machete and hatchet into the pack for now, I did that and, slinging my heavy pack onto my back, moved towards the living room.
It was about seven in the morning, but my parents were sitting on the couch with sad looks on their faces as if they’d been there the whole night and my mom’s eyes were red and puffy.
I took a seat on a couch across from them while shrugging my pack off my shoulders.
“Morning. I’m packed and ready to go…Oh, and I pulled out some gas money already…I know it’s not much, but you guys should use the rest of my money for whatever. I know you guys have been tight on money since the move.”
As I spoke, I pulled my card out of my wallet and put it on the living room table.
Silence reigned supreme for a couple seconds.
Looking towards my parents’ faces, I saw that they were looking even more depressed compared to before I sat down. And after a couple more uncomfortable seconds of silence, my dad finally decided to speak.
“Son…do you know what you’re getting yourself into? We don’t want you rushing anywhere dangerous because before everything else, you’re our son. We love you, Alex. You, better than both your mom and I, know how dangerous those aliens can be ever since that day. You can’t want to hop right back into that…I don’t want you running in there and getting killed.”
My dad’s voice broke and tears began to fall from his eyes. “If any of us are going to die, then let it be as a family.
There’s no need for my son to be responsible for the world.”
I felt the biggest lump rise in my throat before tears began to collect at the edges of my eyes. I stared at my parents in shock.
‘They can’t want me to stay here and cause the world to be destroyed…’
But I knew that wasn’t true. My parents would never force me to do something like this even if the whole world was against them. They loved me that much and in return I felt my resolve to become strong harden as my love for my parents grew to new heights.
It was hard. Harder than anything I’ve ever had to do before, but I choked out my next words, “Dad…mom…I haven’t told you, but…that night…I encouraged every single person in that dorm to fight and save people which led to nothing but their deaths…if I’d known the monsters were only there for a short period of time, then I wouldn’t have urged everyone to fight back with me.”
Tears freely flowed from my eyes as I shamefully looked away from my parents who surely thought I was a monster now.
“I feel nothing but guilt and I’ve been trying to think of a way to make it right ever since I woke up. You think I want to go in there? I don’t. But I will. To protect you two, the little ones, and to make up for my past failure.”
I wiped my tears off my face with my forearm and sniffed to clear my nose.
“Me being chosen to enter the tower…it’s nothing but retribution for that night. I know you couldn’t ever love me after learning what I did that night, but I’ll always love you mom and dad.”
Having said that, I was planning on walking out, but I looked at my parents one last time and the tears in their eyes made me falter.
Seeing this, they rushed towards me and embraced me in hugs I hadn’t gotten since I was a child. I fiercely hugged them back and a low sob escaped from my mouth.
“Alex, we could never stop loving you. You’re our son and I can’t believe you’d think something so stupid like that. You did what was right that night and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.”
My father’s words struck a chord deep within me and I felt a huge weight lift off of my shoulders.
Almost slumping into my parents’ arms, I regained my balance and pulled away from them to say, “Let the little ones know that I love them and that I’m sorry I couldn’t be home with them longer than I was.”
Taking a deep breath, I wiped my eyes clear and reclaimed my composure.
Grabbing my bag, I threw it over my shoulders and walked over to the closet next to the front door. Opening the closet, I smiled sadly and grabbed my favorite dark gray windbreaker.
I turned back to my parents and saw their serious expressions. The smile on my face faltered and my gray eyes instead shone through with my earlier determination.
“I’m going now, but I will be coming back.”
Saying that, I grabbed my car keys off the key ring and, stepped out of the front door.
Closing it behind me, I couldn’t help but wonder if this was the last time I’d ever see my parents again.