Chapter 4: SOS

Dead. That’s what I was to the world— dead. And how wouldn’t I be? It was impossible to be caught mid-air in a somersault; by Hanz or not, strong man or not. Plus, it felt like my soul had left my body as I fell. Wasn’t that the first sign of dying?

After a few seconds, Hanz placed me down with a huge, huge grin. Did this mean that he was dead too?

“Great!” he said, not breaking a sweat from the catch. “You did great, Pax!” Cupping his mouth with his hands, he called on to someone next. “She’s safe! Audra, come down!”

I turned to look behind me. To see what Audra would do. But already, she had jumped without a moment’s notice.

Minus her wings, Audra’s hair was swept behind her, an exhilarated look flushing her face upon her landing.

An angel. That’s what she was. Hanz, Audra, and I had gone to heaven. But then. . .

Another moment and Neil was there too. Crap. I had definitely died and gone to hell.

Glancing at me, Neil did what every demon would do. “What the fuck are you staring at, Pax Leighton? Did the fall shake your head?”

See? See, he was the devil? See? But how did we die?

My nose wrinkled. I know! There must had been a bus crash before we had even gone to school. It was the only way the four of us could have been together. Because what happened next was too impossible to think of.

Me being pushed out the window? Men in black? People in lab gowns? Of course that was all a dream. What had I been thinking of?

“Pax looks like she’s in shock.” Hanz waved his hand at me. “Hey, you okay?”

I didn’t answer him. But wait. Would God— or whoever the supreme being waiting for us, eject me out of heaven because technically I was being rude? Or worse? And what was Neil doing here anyway? It was impossible to have him in heaven with us. Not even close.

Neil rolled his eyes at the two, but the three of them all stared upwards following another blast. “Damn,” Neil said. “For a second, I’d almost forgotten about that. Can we just go? Like now, before we die?”

Hanz pointed to his Jeep, nudged a head at Audra. “I’ll drive. You tell me what’s going on.”

I never realized that going to your final destination meant that you have to travel by car, literally. I mean, this was cool to save us all the time and exhaustion and all. But then, wouldn’t we still feel okay going by foot even if we walked on and on?

“I don’t like her face,” Hanz whispered, as we rolled out of the school grounds, him driving in front.

“Who, Pax?” Neil snorted like it wasn’t anything new. “She’s always like that. Spaced out.”

Audra, who was sitting on the backseat with Neil, leaned forward towards me. And whispered. “You okay, Pax? You’re really starting to worry everyone.”

“Not everyone.” Neil snorted. “And why are you worried about that, Audra? What about us? What about me? We’re the ones being chased by those morons. Not only her.”

“But why?” Hanz’s face was taut and concentrated, driving now as fast as he could, to whatever place in heaven we were off to. “Why such a need? And who is behind this?”

Silence. Then Audra leaned back on her seat, stared out the window. “If I recall,” she said. “Those people attached some things on me before trying to inject me with a liquid.”

“Then, when I came into the room where she was,” Neil added, “Audra was already torturing this guy—“

“Interrogating,” Audra corrected.

“Fine. . .” Neil cleared his throat. “Either way, the guy mentioned Blackwell’s name before he passed out. Then Audra here grabbed me, said we needed to rescue Pax.”

The three of them glanced at me. It was uncomfortable.

“Hmm. . . Blackwell, huh? I thought his name would come up.” Hanz glanced briefly at Neil. “But what do you think was his involvement in this?”

“The rally, remember?” Neil shrugged. “I think it has something to do with that. I mean, don’t you guys remember what they were saying on TV? About this Steven Blackwell guy creating a cure? Yada, yada, yada?”

The three of them quieted down.

Steven Blackwell, as the news said, was a geneticist who found out about the Gay Gene; XQ21, then told the world about it. With his discovery, there came a huge celebration at first. The lesbian and gay community, not to mention those that had a different feeling towards the same sex, weren’t so abnormal as everyone else thought. The XQ21 was imbedded in our genes as per science. It was not a choice to be gay or lesbian. The genes that had made us like that was in our bodies all along.

But while people were celebrating, what happened next? Following the discovery of the Gay Gene, there was a social media scandal. A lot of information was leaked online. The biggest social media platform in the world had been secretly collecting data of all of their members. Through that, it was discovered that more people than were expected were actually gays and lesbians, all hiding behind their social media screens.

A statistic probability was made following this data. And if statistics were right, because there were a lot of gay and lesbians just hiding their true identities, by the year 2100, the natural births would be too low to sustain the world. It would probably be the extinction of the human race because there were no babies.

End of story.

Hanz, who was still driving in circles, scratched the back of his head and muttered. “So basically, they want to cure you guys so we can still have lots of babies in the future. That’s it, isn’t it? There’s no other explanation. And on top of that. . . I can’t believe the IVF is failing you too.”

That was another issue. Someone suggested that IVF should be used instead of a so-called cure, to combat the failing birth rate apocalypse. And it was all fine and dandy, except that IVF’s started failing like crazy recently. It was like a sudden twilight zone, all working bad, surely not in the LGBT community’s favor.

XQ21 being discovered. The failure rate of the IVF. Finding out that there were too much gays and lesbians in the world. So now they had to create a cure to make us into a baby factory.

Neil harrumphed, sounding like an old man. “What I don’t get is how the government agreed to this. Shouldn’t this cover one of our amendments?”

“We still don’t know what is happening exactly,” Audra replied. “What we need to do is get our head’s together, then we can all just plan.”

“My house is nearby.” Hanz volunteered, then looked at me for confirmation. “We can go there instead. We’ll have Pax sorted out in there too. Man, she doesn’t look good.”

Okay, maybe I wasn’t fine. Maybe my heart was beating too fast for me to comprehend. Maybe I was staring at the distance far too much. But wasn’t that what all dead people did? Feel confused at first?

I mean, this was definitely surreal; me being in here. With Audra, whom I’d owed so much to. With Neil, whom I’d barely spoken to, but was now fighting with like cats and dogs. With Hanz, who I never thought would even know my name. Yet here we were in his supposed property. God, it was bizarre.

Neil, who was the first one to spot the house, muttered under his breath. “That your house, Peterson? That your place? Hmm, just how rich are you exactly?”

“I’m not rich,” Hanz said, as one of the automatic gates opened at the push of a button on his key. Beyond was a two-storey house made primarily of glass, the inside looking inviting. “My parents just work really hard.” He continued. “If someone’s going to be rich here, it would be them. Not me.”

“Sure.” Neil pressed his face on the car window regardless. I could see him from the rearview mirror where he glanced to after a second. Big mistake. He scowled. I should have never have even watched him. “You have a problem with me, Leighton?” he said.

I didn’t speak.

“Because your face is really irritating me, you know? You shouldn’t be even here in the first place. With us.”

“And you do?” That was probably the first response I’d ever made since we got out of school. It made my throat all scratchy, like sandpaper against stone.

“What did you say?” Neil cocked his eyebrow.

“You think you’re supposed to be here and I’m not?” I repeated.

Neil was definitely annoyed now. I could see his upper lip twitching like crazy.

But before he could respond, I was talking again. “Because you’re the devil, Neil Rogers. It’s you who shouldn’t be here. Not me.”

“What?!” There was silence in the car, and then Hanz was talking to me.

“Devil?”

“That’s right,” I said, shifted on my seat to them. “We’re dead. All of us are. And unless you want me to murder you twice, you’ll shut your mouth, Neil Rogers. You’re such a horrible bitch, you know that?”

God, that felt good to say. I never knew I could blurt out that much. But then we were dead. What else could happen to me? If Neil was here, then so should I. Except now, he was really looking like the devil.

Another second, and he was lunging at me.

“Woah!” Hanz yelped, covering me fast. Audra, on the other side, tried to stop Neil from hitting me, but he had grabbed on my hair, pulled one or two out.

“Guys!” Audra yelled. “Quit it!”

“She started it first!” Neil was still struggling to get me. For my turn, I pinched his cheek real hard. He deserved every bit of squeeze.

“You started it first!” I yelled. Why was he always blaming me?

Audra, looking like she’d had enough of us, pushed Neil on the other side, glared at me right after, the disappointment on her face stopping me immediately.

“Enough!” she said, her voice loud and clear. “We’re not dead yet. Not one of us are. But if one of you would like to die, then go ahead. But I choose how. You got that?!”

I turned away from her. Her eyes were piercing me now. I had never seen her like this before, except maybe for that time last year when she rescued me from the whole school.

Now the tables were turned. She was totally mad at me.

Neil, with a grunt, opened his door and muttered curses as he got outside. “Stupid, bitch!” he said.

I didn’t want to respond to that. Not anymore. Not while Audra was still looking at me like that. I was such a disappointment. How could I think fighting with her best friend was ever the solution?

“Come on, Pax,” Hanz coaxed gently. In the heat of the moment, I had forgotten all about him, even when his big, bear hand was still wrapped around my shoulder. Upon noticing it, he quickly let me go. “Why don’t you all follow me, huh? We can go relax inside. This had been a long day for all of us, and its only morning.”

Following his invitation, the four of us marched towards the house, none of us in the group speaking at all. The air was rife with the argument that passed, but in my mind there was only Audra. She hadn’t looked at me since then, had remained focused on the house. What a good first impression I had. Now I could never thank her properly. I wanted to choke myself.

Hanz broke the silence once we’d made it to the building. “There’s the sofa,” he said upon opening the glass door. “Go and take a rest for a while. And oh.” He dashed to the fireplace. Above it was a television the size of a big painting. Somewhere, he took the remote, jogged back to Audra, then gave it to her, smiled. “Here,” he said, the ends of his mouth twitching nervously. “Maybe you can watch the news. I’ll check if someone’s home.”

After that, he quickly disappeared towards another room.

The three of us who were left alone stayed in the living room in silence. Me on the sofa. Audra against the wall. Neil, looking out of a door going to somewhere. I didn’t ask where, and frankly, I had no such strength to argue anymore. So instead, I focused inside, looked around to judge the kind of house Hanz had.

Neil was right in a way. The house was amazing. Glass walls. Tall ceiling, decorated with an expensive-looking chandelier. It was a modern home like those you’d see from magazines.

My eyes landed on a wall phone. “Crap!” I said getting up. The two, who were still standing, looked at me in question, especially Audra. Even Neil, who still had a frown on his face. But I was walking towards the phone in a second. On my way there, I had to explain. “My parents. I need to call them, tell them what happened.”

Right. Instead of shouting and fighting, I should have thought of calling them earlier. I had forgotten all about them. Even my phone in the bag that was still stranded in school, along with the others.

Hurriedly, I snatched the phone.

“Huh?”

The line was dead. Audra’s expression was unreadable as I glanced up to her, but instead she opened the TV with the remote Hanz gave her. Nothing too, but static.

It was still morning, which was why the lights wouldn’t be on. But the TV and the phone? What was wrong with them?

A mysterious woman stepped into the room before any of us could ask though. “Hey!” the newcomer greeted. “You must be the friends Hanz was talking about.”

Audra, Neil, and I focused on her with curiosity on our faces. Blonde. She was blonde like Hanz. Furthermore, it was as if the woman had just stepped out of the glossy pages. She was slim, tall, and was wearing a collared shirt that made her look more professional. On the centerpiece table, that was also made from glass like most of the house, she set a tray of juice down and gave us a warm smile. “I’m Emily,” she said, “Hanz’s mom.”

“And I’m Olivia, nice to meet you.” Another woman stepped into the room, blonde too. Modelesque too. Not as tall as Emily, though, but it sure was close. “I’m Hanz’s other mom,” she said.

“You mean?” Neil trailed, but it was Hanz, who had entered the room once more to join us, looking proud and happy, surrounded by his beautiful mom’s who said,

“Yes, I’m adopted and my mom’s are lesbians. So if you tell them from the start what happened, maybe they can help.”