2

I could tell Arlene was not in the best of moods. She'd come to accept the fact that we now had an army backing us up. Not a human army but an army nonetheless. She'd even come to accept the fact that things weren't going to be quite the same this time around no matter how much she wanted it to be. But she seemed very upset with being crammed inside a spacecruiser with a hundred sweaty, smelly, and unsightly monsters as we prepared to make a short hop down to earth from a million feet up. I couldn't figure it out. It's not like we haven't been through worse.

She just sat there in the co-pilot's seat with her arms crossed, glaring at me as if she had laser vision and could burn a hole right through me. One either side of her were zombies reeking of sour-lemons despite hosing them off after running across an Olympic-sized pool halfway through our second cleansing of Deimos. Our spiny forces were located more to the rear so that their snot wouldn't start fires over vital flight controls.

The controls themselves seemed easy enough to figure out. There was a handle that looked like a throttle. There was a little red button that looked like the ignition. And there was a steering wheel that looked like a steering wheel. No flight trajectory for me though. I would be flying this baby manually. I wasn't about to ask Arlene if she could remember a computer assisted flight path for me though. She looked as though she could tear apart a pinky bare-handed.

"So Fly," she started. "Are you going to tell me why you're risking our lives to take a monster army back to SLC after telling me there was no way we could go back there?"

There was no keeping secrets from Arlene. She'd hold me down and poke me silly until I gave in. "Because I think I can get us back to the real world and the real Earth with a real Albert and a real Jill with us." She just looked at me. She made no movements whatsoever. She didn't even blink her eyes. For a moment, I thought my words might have zombified her.

"You're kidding right?" she asked finally.

"No."

Her face went flush. Red filled her cheeks and testosterone with filling her bloodstream. She was waiting for me to tell her what kind of stupid, crazy, un-thought-out plan I had for accomplishing that. In a few moments she'd pop and strangle the answer out of me. Instead, she just put her head in her hands and cried. "That's a really cruel trick to play on someone, Fly."

"I am not playing a trick on you. I'll admit it sounds a little far-fetched. I'll admit that it might not work. But I think there is at least a fifty-fifty chance it will work."

"How?"

"Do you remember the Disney Tower, Arlene?"

See looked up, even more confused than before. "What about it?"

"We never made it to the top, but I remember that on the very top floor, there is a portal that links with the Disrespect's computer core which links with everything else. Once we get there, we can gain control of the ship and everyone aboard. Then we get like five of them to plug themselves into the system and we hijack their bodies. We won't look like ourselves, but we'll be back in the real world."

She thought long and hard about what I had just spilled for her. I thought she was going to give me a lecture about how it absolutely couldn't work, but she surprised me by asking about the little things. "Why five?"

"One for you, one for me, one for Albert, one for Jill, and one for Slink!" I said Slink kind of joyfully. Arlene picked up on it so I didn't have to elaborate. I wanted to take Slink along for the ride.

"Okay," she said. That's it. Nothing else. She just sat there and gazed off into space. I decided to leave her alone and returned my gaze to watching the slowly rotating Earth before us. I did some rough calculations of my own and figured we'd have to wait another hour before we launched to get the ideal conditions for landing somewhere in Utah. I spent that hour trying to remember everything I could about what would happen over the next few days. Unfortunately, there was a deep nagging doubt inside me telling me that I couldn't predict the future no matter how hard I tried. I told that voice to shut up. After what me and Arlene had survived through, I figured we could doing anything we wanted.

I couldn't understand why he was doing this to me. Fly was supposed to be my best bud. He was supposed to be my senior officer. He was supposed to make the right decisions. But I think he's making a very bad mistake. It's not that I don't want to see Albert again…I'd give anything in the whole universe to see him again. But this Albert won't know who I am. He won't remember what we've been through together. He won't understand why I love him so much.

Maybe Fly thought he was doing the right thing. He was a marine. He was trained to survive. He was built to do all of the things he does. Living in a computer was not how he planned on spending his life. It wasn't real enough for him. He wouldn't get the satisfaction of killing an enemy in the name of humanity if he didn't think it would actually make a difference. I guess his plan had its merits.

I looked over at him. He looked deep in thought while we were waiting for the western seaboard of what was once the United States to loom overhead. I didn't know what he was thinking though. On the battlefield, we usually thought about the same things, except I was the first one to mention it so naturally I gained a reputation with him as a mind-reader. But in situations like this when we are left to our own thoughts, Fly was just too stubborn a man to let someone else get into his head.

Unlike me, Fly believed in a greater power that transcended science and reason. He was raised as a catholic. His years as a schoolboy where spent in a convent with other boys in segregated classes being taught the workings of God's universe by the sisters. I don't really know if he ever really believed in God. Certainly he believed in something that helps make everything go. It might not be God. But he has strong morals that have governed his life as a result of those days. I'm pretty sure that's what made him so different from virtually all the other guys I've ever met. I think that's one of the biggest reasons why we've been best buds for so long.

Before I met Fly I was strongly against religion. Just because of the effect it had on people, my brother being one of those people. I know Fly knows the story about my brother's conversion to the Mormon faith and how it drove him to the brink of self-destruction. I never told him that my brother did in fact decide to commit suicide against his new religion though. And the worst thing about it was we never really knew why he did it. No note. No journal. Nothing to explain it. Just one day I get a letter from my mother who'd received a call informing her that my brother had taken his life. But after I met Fly things changed a little. I learned about how Fly interprets religion, God, and the Universe and even though he's sometimes a paradox, it's shaped him into a good person.

Then there came Albert. Mormon. Like looking at a scar and cutting it open again hoping it'll heal better this time around. Now I have different views on religion. I still don't believe in God. I can't. I understand science and all the knowledge in the world can't prove that it's even possible for such an entity as God to exist. But believing in a faith, or even being a part of one started to have some appeal for me. In my honest opinion, I don't think religion can offer anything more to a person than science and I therefore don't hold it in high regard, but there are worse things to worship than God or faith. The devil comes to mind.

I will admit however that spending time amongst religious people while the world was coming to an end was actually good for me though. For a time I had actually considered learning about the Mormon faith simply because I loved Albert so much. But then we got separated and time became a greater enemy than any monster I'd ever fought. I had resigned myself to the fact that I would never see my Albert again. That I would never wear his ring again. And that I would live out the rest of my life mourning him. And then Fly had to come up with the craziest idea yet.

So here I am sitting in yet another alien spaceship waiting to go back to a place that I never thought I'd ever go back to. All throughout Deimos I tried to avoid having thoughts about what would happen when we got to the roof of the old UAC facility. But now that we're here, I'm filled with anxiety.

Now for the first time I wished I had studied a religion. Any religion. I felt so torn apart and battered and bruised and beaten inside that I probably could use some words of guidance that Fly and Albert had drawn from holy texts.

I felt lost. Fortunately I still had Fly.

"Arlene," Fly started, jolting me from my thoughts. I looked up and saw that the coastline was now in full view, we were ready to go…almost. "How long after I push this little red button does it take for the ship to actually lift off?"

"How the hell should I know?" I blurted back defensively.

"Take a guess assuming that when I push that button, the engine is flooded with whatever fuel we're using, a spark ignites it, and the back pressure creates enough force to escape the gravity of this rock. Come on, you're the one with the college degree."

I was starting to get sick of people using my time in college to take advantage of any situation. I did a few calculations in my head anyway. Assuming we had to seal the ship so that the little beings inside wouldn't die for some stupid reason during the trip (I'm not going to say anything about the abrupt stop at the end) and assuming that Slink would at least have some idea of how long it would take to prepare for a launch when she thought this vessel into existence… "I don't know. Five…maybe ten minutes?" I answered as best I could.

Fly nodded. Probably figuring the same thing. "Okay everybody, hang on to something. Launch is T-minus six minutes!" he shouted back to the mob. One minute to push the button and five to take-off I guessed.

They all started to make noise and get excited. I glanced back and saw Slink trying to fight her way through the crowd, shouting something but it was too noisy to hear was she was saying. Fly was strapping himself down and I followed suit. He started counting on his fingers as if he was going through some sort of makeshift pre-flight checklist. He almost looked as though he belonged in that chair piloting alien rockets.

I heard Slink shouting again but I still couldn't make out what she was saying. I strained to hear just in case it was important. It sounded like, "Not sssix time. Not…something…now." I tried turning to see if I could read her lips but I would have to unstrap myself. "Pusssh…something…meansss now." Oh my God! Was she saying it would launch immediately?

"Fly!" I screamed, but it was too late. He had pushed the button. Without warning, the rockets fired and the pressure dome cracked. Six g's pressed down against me as the dome shattered and the escaping air blew us violently toward Earth, even as we started ramping up speed. I was pressed against my seat barely able to blink. Fly may not like zero-g, but I preferred it to this.

The engines were loud, but not as loud as our homemade rocket. I could still hear things. I could hear the mob growling behind me, probably a little upset for having been plastered to the rear bulkhead by the g-forces and nothing to hold on to. I could hear Fly bitching and complaining beside me about something. I didn't have to be a mind-reader to make a guess. For a moment, I thought I heard somebody laughing at me.

I could hear alright. I just couldn't see very well. The g-forces were building up and the Earth was getting bigger real quick. Then it dawned on me; we're going too fast! "Fly!" I screamed again.

He was busy trying to keep his hands on the steering wheel, turning it so that we'd come into the Earth's atmosphere at a comfortable angle instead of a deadly head-on type re-entry.

"Too fast Fly!" I shouted.

He suddenly looked like a kid who had just been scolded. "Not my fault! Took off instantly!"

What a dummy! He thought I was blaming him for taking off without warning. "No. Too fast. Throttle down!"

Neurons fired in his brain as my words reached him and a higher level of intelligence finally kicked in. He throttled down and the acceleration lessened. I could actually breathe again. So much for his pre-flight checklist. He had forgotten to check to make sure the throttle setting was at minimum. I'm surprised we didn't stall the thing. Who starts a racecar in fifth gear anyway?

We had a nice big window in front of us. I only hoped that Slink thought of something that wouldn't break or melt from the extreme temperatures we were about to face with smacking into Earth's atmosphere. We got closer and I suddenly felt gravity pulling me forward. We'd managed to avoid zero-g altogether somehow. Fly would be happy about that.

A moment later, he brought the throttle down to zero. I was afraid that we were going to stall, but then I realized that's what he wanted to do. We didn't need any extra speed going in. Watching the clouds whiz by, I figured we were doing better than two thousand kilometers per hour. He must have figured that Earth's gravity could to the part of bringing us down and the only thing he'd have to do is provide a landing that wouldn't kill us. Good thinking Fly!

It had worked so far…as a matter of fact, just about everything he had done had worked so far so I didn't really have any good reason to doubt him. When he zeroed the throttle the engines died, but it didn't get any quieter. We hit the atmosphere at almost the same instant and began our four-minute hell ride toward the surface.

I'll admit that Fly was a much better pilot this time around. We were still being tossed around like sardines in a tin can rolling down the side of a mountain, but he managed for the most part to keep us level with the horizon.

Sweat began beading down my face. I looked over and saw a waterfall coming off of Fly. The cabin temp was rising, but there was nothing we could do about that. Who knows what Slink had in mind when she thought up this thing. It didn't seem to get really hot but we didn't really have time to think about that before fireworks started going off in front of us. Bright explosions of red light began peppering our flight path. Some of them were unpleasantly close and gave us little jolts. It was only then that I realized someone or something was shooting at us!

Have faith, Arlene, I said to myself. It didn't help though. Pictures of us getting splattered by a lucky shot were going through my mind. It was not a good thought to have since some of our thoughts were capable of becoming reality.

After what seemed like an eternity, the flares stopped and the ground appeared. We'd been lucky yet again. Not one shot had hit us. But now the ground was rushing up really fast.

I braced myself for the impact noticing that we were skimming over a desert. Fly had managed to narrow us down the appropriate region. Way ahead in the distance, I could see the mountains just beyond the salt flats of Utah. I almost screamed for joy as we hit the very same sand we'd hit last time.

The first impact was the hardest. Having burned up only half of our speed with our reentry, we hit the sand at almost a thousand kilometers an hour, completely crushed the bottom side of our rocket and then skipped off like a flat stone jumping across a calm lake. We hit again, and again, and again. I thought the stomach-churning bounces would never end. Finally, we slammed to a stop at the very edge of the flats where the sand and salt had given way to rock and dirt.

I sat there for a moment making sure I was still alive in a relative sense. I counted my limbs, checked for missing teeth, took my pulse and glanced over at Fly who definitely had the shaken-not-stirred look down pat. He looked at me and gave me a thumbs up. I smiled and passed out.