Invasion
Chapter 27

Back at the lakefront,he’s holding and rubbing the necklace around his neck, looking up and smilingto high heaven. “Do you remember that day, Andrei? I don’t think I will everforget it, even after all these years,” he speaks in Russian, “you saved mylife twice that day. Haha, I guess I have to learn to let it go, huh? Butyou’ve always looked out for me. Who’s the hero now, Anastasiya? You’reprobably already lying dead somewhere. Or maybe the creatures got to you and absorbedyou too. I wonder what you would say if you were here.” “Maybe he would tellyou to stop moping around being sad and start hanging out with your friends,haha,” Alexandra suddenly speaks from behind. He turns around to see Takashiand Olivia standing there too. “Oh…hello,” he says. “Sergey, are you okay?”Olivia asks him. “Yes, yes, I am fine. Just…was just remembering something froma long time ago. Something Andrei and I experienced once,” he explains. “Sergey,losing a friend is difficult. It takes time to heal.” He sits up on therailing, “I know. It is alright. I am…actually handling it quite well. I havelearned to deal with these kinds of situation.” “That’s good, man,” Takashiadds. He nods, “Well, at least we stopped the creatures and saved the world.That is what matters.” Olivia walks over and gives him a hug. “Haha, thank youfor that,” he replies. “You’re welcome, my friend. Now let’s do what she saidand stop moping around and have fun,” she says to all of them. He agrees andgets out of his slump to do just that.

The sky’s finallyclearing up, letting the sun’s rays through. “Ahhhh, that feels good, yes?”Sergey says. They take a moment to absorb that light and take in the moment, swingingtheir arms wide open. Afterwards, they take a deep breath and exhaled, letting itall out. Takashi is still having a little difficulty letting it all go, but hecan do it. Just let go, right? hethinks. “You alright, babe?” she asks him. “Yeah, yeah. Let’s just…like yousaid, you know. Let’s just have fun and enjoy the moment,” he tells her,determined. “Alright,” she says smiling. “So what do we do now?” the cosmonautasks. Olivia puts on her thinking face for a moment before suddenly taking offher jacket and running to the railing and jumping over it, flying just abovethe water to create waves as she flies past. She then flies up, screaming, “Wooohooo hoooo!!!” before falling back down into the water. Takashi watches as shedoes so, realizing that not everything has to be perfect right now. In fact, itmay never be perfect, but that doesn’t mean he shouldn’t enjoy every moment. It’sthose precious little moments that make life beautiful. Sure he had sometroubles in the past and will probably have some more troubles in the future,but that’s just the way life is. And he has to accept it. Life is not aboutbeing perfect…it’s about living. So let’slive, he thinks to himself, justenjoy the moment, right? She flies back and clings to the railing, sendingthe water from her flying to them. “Ohh, come on. Really??” they speak out. “What??You’re gonna get wet anyway.” “And why’s that?” he asks. “Cause you’re gonnaswim with me. Come on, the water’s great.” Normally he would say something toavoid that or make up some excuse, but this time, fuck it! He smiles, takes offhis jacket, and then flies up and over the water before jumping in. “Whoooooooo!!!!”he screams. “You guys wanna join?” she invites them too. “Haha…” he was aboutto politely refuse the offer, but you know what? What the heck, he thinks. “That’s the spirit! Do you want me tocarry you or…?” “Why not? Fly me over,” he says taking off his jacket, bandana,and pants. He gives the car keys to Alexandra for safekeeping. “Nice boxers,”Olivia refers to his striped boxer and giving a ‘thumbs up’. “Come on, let’sgo.” She grabs him and they fly over to Takashi’s spot, but she passes him togive Sergey a first-hand tour of the sky. The experience is amazing, especiallynow that they don’t have alien creatures to worry about. Takashi flies back toland to offer Alexandra the same thing. “Oh, no no no, it is alright. I don’treally feel like it,” she respectfully declines. “Oh, come on. It’ll be fun,”he tells her. “Thank you, but I have had enough excitement for one day. Youguys go have fun.” “Alright then. Let me know if you change your mind.”

He flies up to joinOlivia and Sergey. They fly high up in the air before stopping and they dropdown, also giving him a free skydiving experience in the process. “WHOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!” they all scream at the top of their lungs. The feeling isamazing. It’d be difficult to explain with words. The wind rushing past theirfaces at incredible speeds as they fall, the sensation of flying without—well,at least for Sergey, since our two heroes can actually fly—still, it feels goodto just fall, and not to mention the view that comes with it. Seeing everythingfrom above gives them a whole other perspective on things, everything seems sosmall and tiny. They slow down just before they hit the water and they dive in.Splash! That splash of the cold water hits their faces and it feels very good,refreshing. They surface and float there for a second, waving their arms andlegs to stay afloat. “Alexandra did not want to join?” Sergey asks. “Oh, Iasked her, but yeah, she didn’t wanna,” he answers. Olivia does a backstrokefor a few meters before just floating on her back, enjoying that sun and thefeel of the water on her skin. They all followed her example, though Takashicouldn’t do it the first time and nearly sinks down. “Oh shit!” he exclaims,somewhat unintelligible cause of the water. After resurfacing, he tries again forthe second time, successfully. It’s very nice…relaxing. “We did it, Andrei. Youdidn’t die in vein,” he speaks to his friend, quietly and privately.

As they enjoy themselves andhave fun with the swim, Alexandra sits down on one of the benches and pulls outa book she has been carrying. She brushes the hair out of her eyes as the windblows. The book looks pretty old, with the cover a little crumpled andwrinkled, but still good nonetheless. She opens to the page where she bookmarkedand continues reading—she had started reading it on the space station. It was agood way to pass the time when she had nothing to do; she brought a few bookswith her to the station for that purpose. She stops for a second to see themswimming and playing in the water, akin to children swimming at the pool. Shesmiles. There’s nothing wrong with that. She then proceeds to continue reading.

It’s nearing sunset nowand they finally get out of the water. They’re soaking wet and their hands area little pruned up, but that’s half the fun. Yay! She stops reading and makessure to bookmark the page before putting it away. “Well, how was it?” she asksthem. “It was awesome!” Takashi answers. It’s at this point that they start toshiver from the cold. “You guys do know that we do not have any towels, right?”she tells them. “Oh, come on. There’s gotta be some around here…right?” Oliviaassumes, shivering. “Maybe there are some in the car or rather in the trunk, Imean,” Takashi adds. “I do not think so, but I can check.” She heads over tothe car with the keys and unlocks it. Just as they had suspected, she returnsempty handed. “As I said, we have no towels,” she repeats. “Oh fuck!” Sergeyexclaims. They look around and Takashi spots a small store-like building. “Yes!”He flies over there in a flash. It seems like a clothing store, thoughunfortunately it’s locked. Smash! He smashes the window and enters. Towels,towels, towels… Where are the fucking towels?? Olivia and the others have justreached the place, but he’s nowhere to be found. There’s a crash at the back. Shegoes to check to see him going through boxes and boxes trying to replace theobject that could bring about their salvation from this cold. But alas, hecan’t seem to replace any. So he decides to use one of the clothes instead. “Ah,these are…those things you wear around swimming pools, right?” he asks. “Yeah,I think so.” “Good.” He then uses it to dry himself off. It’s not a towel, butit’s working just fine, to some degree, so it’s sufficient.

While Olivia goes to the storeroom,Sergey grabs one as well and dries himself off. “Yes!!” she screams. They bothgo to check what’s up. And to their surprise, she found the towels, or rather, a towel. It looks amazing, almostglowing, in their eyes. They wanna touch it. “Ohh, sorry, boys. This one’smine,” she tells them. “Are there more?” Takashi asks, half-crying. “Probably,”she rummages through, “oh yeah, there’s more.” Sergey and Takashi quickly dropthe clothes and jump to the pile, grabbing one towel each. “Oh, fuck yes!!!”they shout out. It feels so much better than the clothes. Alexandra justwatches from outside as all this happen, smiling and laughing. She’s glad thatshe didn’t decide to join them in the water. After all that ridiculousness,they go back outside to watch the sunset. The red hue looks amazing as it setson the horizon. It looks quite big now when they compare it to the buildings,which seems small in comparison. “Not counting the queen hitching a ride withus and nearly killing us, this was a good day. Fun,” she says. “It was a goodday,” Sergey adds, “the first in a very long time.” They then take a moment to justappreciate the scenery and what’s happening around them. The quietness is niceand peaceful. “So what do we do now?” Alexandra asks. “I don’t know. And isn’tthat great?” Olivia says, smiling, “we’ll figure it out. For now, let’s justenjoy the moment.” Takashi smiles and thinks about it, but then stops. She’sright. They’ll figure it out. For now they should just enjoy being here andbeing alive. They lean against the railing and continue to watch the sun godown, waiting for it to completely set.

The End