Chapter Seven

Kendra straightened her shirt as she cuddled her infant son while sitting in one of the Adirondack chairs that were lined in a neat row on the front porch.  He’d greedily emptied her burdensome breasts and she’d been happy to let him do it. She’d had a difficult time enduring the sensation of milk filled breasts that were long overdue for release. Olga told her how, prior to the war, women fed formula to their infants and bypassed nursing all together.  Oh, how she would have liked to have been able to do that.

“He’s almost ready to stop nursing,” she said to her cousin as he sat on the top step with his back against the rail post.

“You sound happy about that,” he mused.

“I won’t miss it,” she admitted.

“It’s one on one time with your son that no one else can share,” he observed. “I’d think you’d want it to go on forever.”

She shrugged.  “My love for my son isn’t based on whether or not I breast feed.  I can still hold him and love him without nursing him. Call me a bad mother if you wish, but I don’t enjoy nursing and I’ll be happy to be free of it.  I love my son with all of my heart, but I’m not keen on having my activities limited.  Not only is it actually painful if I go too long without feeding him.  I hate it.”

“If I’d been born a woman I would have had dozens of children and nurse them until my boobs dried up and shriveled away,” he boasted.

“That’s an image I could do without,” she giggled.

“Am I interrupting?” Ari timidly asked as she stepped onto the bottom step of the stairs leading to the porch.

“Where did you come from?” Felix asked with surprise.

Ari pointed to the spa house. “I took the liberty of using the jacuzzi.”

“I’m sure it felt good,” Felix said as he moved his body to let her pass by. “You were in pretty rough shape when you arrived.”

“Soaking in the tub with Olga’s herbs didn’t help?” Kendra asked.

Ari’s brow creased in thought. “What herbs?”

Kendra hugged Eugene close while she gave Felix an accusing look. “You, who keeps talking about what rough shape she was in when she arrived, didn’t tell her about the herbs?”

Felix looked away. “It never crossed my mind.”

Kendra frowned. “Spoken like someone who’s never really felt the hardships of the world outside.”

Ari gasped at her harsh statement while Felix jumped to his feet.

“Nice, cousin,” he said in a tone that clearly showed his hurt.  “The next time someone wants me to give you up to them, maybe I should do it instead of letting them cut off pieces of me.”

Kendra was equally as shocked as they were over her meanness. “I don’t know why I said that.  Felix, I’m so sorry.  I didn’t mean it and I don’t’ know why I said it.  It just came out of my stupid mouth.”  She thought for a moment. “It was weird. I felt super angry when I said it too and I have no reason to be super angry.”

“I do,”  he grumbled.

“Do you still feel that way?” Ari asked Kendra in a gentle voice that she hoped would help soothe the situation.

Kendra was quiet for a moment and then shook her head. “I’m angry with myself for what I said to someone who truly didn’t deserve such meanness, but I’m not angry like I was when I said it.”

“Are you psychic?” Ari asked as she anxiously looked out into the tree line.

“I wish I was,” Kendra said with sincerity.  “Why do you ask?”

Ari sounded nervous as she continued to search the tree line with her captivating eyes. “Have you heard of thought manipulation?”

“What are you getting at?” Felix asked.

“The aliens,” Ari said in a voice just above a whisper. “They have the ability to manipulate your thoughts and emotions from a good distance.  That could be what’s happening here.”

Remembering the cyborgs, Kendra panicked.  Did they follow her home? She gave a worried gasp as she cradled her son even closer. “Cyborgs?”

“Not cyborgs,” Ari corrected her. “The aliens themselves do it.”

“There was a drone hovering around a few hours before Ari showed up,” Felix muttered.  “It took a lot of pictures.”

“Damn,” Ari hissed. “Why didn’t you say something about that earlier? We need to leave this place.”

“Are you sure it was a drone?” Kendra asked. 

Felix simply rolled his eyes without responding.  She couldn’t blame him, nor did she take offense. She knew it was a foolish question, but she was so desperate for it to not be true that she couldn’t stop herself from asking it.

“We can’t just leave,” Kendra said as she hugged Eugene close while following Ari and Felix into the house. “What if Rex comes back.  Where would we go? We have a baby to think about.”

Seeing that his cousin was heading into out of control emotional grounds, Felix decided that it was time for him to take charge of the situation. “Calm down, cousin.  No one’s going anywhere. Ari just voiced a suspicion. It doesn’t mean that’s what’s going on.”

Kendra shook her head as if to clear it. “Something’s going on.  I just felt an overwhelming sense of panic.  I meant the words that I said, but the emotions felt foreign to me. It was like they belonged to someone else. ”

Ari gave a knowing nod. “That’s what I’m talking about.  They plant the thoughts and emotions into you. We need to leave.”

After a considerable effort, Kendra managed to clear her head enough for her to grasp the situation. “If what you say is true, then they’re already out there and doing this.  If we leave, they could get us.”

“If we stay, they definitely will,” Ari said with forcefulness.

Felix lovingly stroked the crown of Eugene’s head as it rested on his mother’s shoulder. “She’s right.  That drone did some serious picture taking.  We should leave.”

“We have the horses,” Ari eagerly said. “We can use them to transport us more efficiently.”

“And go where?” Kendra asked suspiciously.

Ari looked at her boldly.  “I was sent to fetch you for your aunt. We can go to Center Land.  The aliens won’t find us there.”

“Unless they follow us,” Felix worriedly said as he looked at Kendra.  “Do they tag you or something once they’ve tapped into your mind?”

“Even if they follow us,” Ari  said with confidence, “they won’t see through the shield. We’ll be safe there.  Eugene will be safe there.  Stay here and he just might end up in their dinner pot tonight.”

Kendra sucked in air. “What a horrible thing to say!”

Ari’s body language took on a defensive tone. “But, a true one.”

Felix groaned. “She’s right again.”  He turned to Kendra. “I know that you’re worried about Rex, but we can leave him a note or something.  We have to think about Eugene’s safety, if not our own.”

Kendra nervously chewed on her bottom lip while she debated on what to do.  They were right about leaving.  She knew this, but she was also concerned about abandoning Rex.  If they left him a note, would the aliens read it and come after them?

“We’ll have to use some type of code so that the aliens don’t read it and follow us,” she mused.

“I’ll start packing,” Felix said as he rushed toward the bedrooms.

Kendra placed Eugene in the portable crib that was positioned at the end of the sofa and began to pull food from the cupboards.

“You won’t need too much,” Ari urged. “Just enough to hold us over for a few days.  There will be plenty to eat in Center Land.”

“I’m not sure I want to go to Center Land,” Kendra admitted.

Ari gasped. “Are you crazy?”

“Who’s crazy?” Felix asked as he hurried out of the bedrooms with a few hastily packed backpacks.

“Kendra doesn’t plan on going to Center Land,” Ari snipped.

Felix stopped and looked from Eugene to Kendra and back a few times while he thought about things.

He looked directly at Kendra. “I can’t blame you for not wanting to go back there, but do you have a better suggestion?  If you do, I’m open to hearing it.”

Kendra shook her head.  It was getting harder and harder to think clearly. “I don’t trust those people.”

“Are you willing to risk getting caught by the regime?” Ari asked, using emphasis on the word regime.

“If kind of feels like we’re damned if we do and damned if we don’t,” Felix mused.

“I need Rex,” Kendra muttered.  “I can’t think clearly.  I need Rex to help me think on what to do.”

“He’s not here, Kendra,” Ari snapped. “Time’s wasting. Before you know it, the aliens will be here and you won’t have to worry about deciding on anything.”

“Why are you so sure that it is the aliens messing with my mind?” Kendra asked in an accusing tone.

Ari looked down at the floor.  It was clear that she didn’t want to answer. When the acute silence made it equally clear that  Kendra and Felix expected an answer, she eventually filled her lungs with air and then looked up at them. “When I was a little girl, my mother and father took me and my brother out of Center Land for training.  They both had psychic abilities.”  She looked directly at Kendra. “The same thing happened to them as is happening to you.  Baelil and I were hiding when the aliens came so they didn’t see us.  We were helpless to do anything about it as they killed and dismembered my father before our very eyes and then they tied our mother up and took her away.  These are vicious and uncaring creatures that have taken control of our planet.  You don’t’ want to mess with them.  I can promise you that.”

“They dismembered your father?”  Felix said with wonder. “For what reason?”

“They don’t cook their food like we do,” Ari said with a shudder. “At least, that day they didn’t.”

“How horrid,” Kendra said in a voice that was just above a whisper.

“I know that you don’t trust me and I can’t really blame you,” Ari said, “but the fact of the matter is that your aunt is in Center Land waiting for you.  If I’m wrong about the aliens, then I apologize and you can come back home.  But, if I’m right, you’ll be glad you listened to me.

Kendra was staring out of the window at nothing in particular while she listened to Ari make her case when she saw movement along the tree line.  Planting her forehead against the window pane, she focused on the spot where she’d seen the movement.  It was a man climbing the fence.  Her heart beat double-time when she recognized him as Rex.

“Rex is home!” she gasped as she pulled the door open and raced outside.

“Thank the gods,” Felix said as he followed Kendra out of the house at a more relaxed pace.

Ari scowled.  It wasn’t that she resented the fact that Rex had returned.  She’d been assigned to bring him back along with the others, after all.  It was  the fact that she was certain that the aliens were nearby and were messing with Kendra’s mind.  She’d inherited her parent’s psychic gifts and, although she’d never worked to develop them, she had a sense for certain things such as the foreign energy that accompanies cyborgs and aliens.  She felt it strong at that moment. Yet, it was Rex who was approaching them.  It wasn’t making sense. Was she losing her ability to sense the aliens?

She stepped out onto the porch just in time to hear Felix’s panicked shout as he raced toward Kendra who was struggling against Rex’s iron clad grip.  “What’s happening?”

“Rex has gone mad!” Felix bellowed as he moved as fast as his club foot would let him.

“It’s not Rex!” Kendra bellowed as she kicked her leg high into the air between her captor’s legs. “It’s a cyborg that looks like him!”

Although she would have expected him to suffer much more from her powerful kick in the groin, the cyborg was effected enough by it to loosen his grip enough for Kendra to break free.  Without skipping a beat, she stepped back enough to give her the space that she needed to twirl her body and kick her foot into his gut with such force that he fell back onto the ground.  Seizing the brief opportunity the cyborg laying stunned offered,  she turned and ran toward Felix. “Go back. Get back into the house!  He won’t stay down. Get the baby.  Save the baby!”

Ari spun on her heels and returned to the house with surprising speed for such a petite and slight female. Kendra grabbed Felix by his arm and pulled him along as they hurried to beat the cyborg impersonator of Rex into the house.  They’d managed to get inside and lock the door behind them just as he mounted the stairs.

“He’ll be able to break through the glass if he has a brain in his head,”  Felix whispered.

The door shook and it sounded like thunder as the cyborg slammed his body against it.

Kendra struggled to regulate her breathing. “Let’s hope that he doesn’t have the capacity to think for himself.  It’s my understanding that most don’t.”

“They’re given a mission and have tunnel vision for that mission,” Ari said from across the room where she stood vigil over Eugene.  “Now that he knows you’re behind that door, I doubt he’ll have the sense to try a different route.  He’ll just beat on the door until he breaks it down.”

Felix quickly assessed the door. “It looks pretty strong. Rex reinforced it when we first arrived.”

“It won’t hold up forever under such an onslaught,” Ari complained.

Seeing Ari so close to his ward, Felix moved next to her. 

Either the flaxen haired soldier didn’t notice his mistrust of her being so close to his nephew or she simply didn’t care, because her focus was all on the actions of the Rex  impersonating cyborg. “Do you believe me now?”

“You said it was aliens, not cyborgs that look like my husband,” Kendra hissed.

Hearing the woman who she’d witnessed be wed to her brother call another man her husband left Ari feeling more irritated than being berated for being wrong about who was out there sending telepathic messages to Kendra. She couldn’t stop herself from asking, “Is he really your husband?”

“We were married before the gods,” Kendra replied.  “My aunt performed the ceremony.”

Ari nodded. “Okay, then.  It’s just difficult not to think of you as my sister-in-law. You were legally married to Baelil, you know.”

“Legal in whose eyes?  Center Land?” Kendra spat. “I was coerced into that marriage and you know it.  I loved Rex then like I love him now.  I’ve never felt anything but hate for your brother.”

“Those are cruel words to say about the dead,” Ari said with regret.

“Dead or alive, he was evil scum,” Kendra growled.

“He’s the father of your son,” Ari reminded her.

“Sperm donor,” Kendra hissed. “Rex is his father.”

“I can’t even believe you two are having this discussion at a time like this,” Felix said with exasperation.  “This Rex impersonator doesn’t seem to have the brains to move away from the door and I don’t see his partner.  Now might be a good time to get the hell out of here.”

His words snapped both women back into focus.  They nodded and grabbed the backpacks while Felix secured Eugene to his torso.  With the stealth of a wild animal stalking its prey, they made their way out of the back of the house to the stables.  With any luck, they’d be able to tack and mount the horses before the brainless cyborg was able to grasp that they were no longer behind that door.