Chapter 3: Outsider

I had the task of researching the Confederacy activity around this area. I learned that pickups may not be totally random, some were arranged by a group of sponsors who can contact the Confederacy agents. People on the internet discussed how to distinguish Confederacy agents among us. The easiest clue was their size, extraordinarily tall. They might suddenly appear in a location and usually work as a group. So if we spot so many tall people with military built, then the pickup might be about to happen there. However, there were also regular-size agents, some were volunteers who hadn’t been picked up yet but made a contract with the Confederacy, or it could be some Confederacy personnel who shrank his/herself to work in disguise.

There were not so many pickups in my town. I did not know the actual reasons. It had happened once in the gymnasium at my school a year ago. I thought that I had lost Beth that time but luckily she wasn’t there. Then I assumed that the Confederacy might not give much attention around my town. However, I noticed that the known volunteers kept disappearing, and boys and girls in my school reduced in number month by month. Could it be that they found another location to get themselves picked up? Otherwise, who knows what happened to them.

Right! If a volunteer has gone from the school, no one knows if they were extracted or just gone.

Lots of possible choices to deal with Michel came to my mind.

Today I had a biology class with Ted. Ms. Camila was our teacher and lab conductor. She was a Latin American woman in her late twenties. Intentionally messy brunette hairstyle with glasses made her look just like a scientist in the films. Lately, I didn’t believe that she taught us a proper biology class at all, but who would blame her? All the scientific and technological knowledge that mankind knew, was disrupted by the alien tech. The confederacy had their Replicators, the atomic/sub-atomic level 3D printing machine that gives its finger to Karl Marx and fucks every possible mode of production. Anti-grav, body enhancement, and augmentation, nanorobots, faster-than-light travel and communications, and so on, the existence of these technologies means that there are way more things we need to learn.

The radical change of fundamental theories isn’t something new in the world of science and is actually preferable, but the timing wasn’t quite right. What we learn in the class now will be useless for the volunteers, and for the people who are going to/have to stay, is equally wasted. Let alone that volunteers can learn all the alien knowledge through neurotransmission technology, and the school plays a less and less educational role. The sole reason that we still have to go to school is that if everybody does not deceive themselves by living a usual life like the earth isn’t going to be doomed, then society and our civilization will collapse even before the invasion of Sa’arm.

Ms. Camila seemed totally aware of that. Instead of teaching us about boring Mendelian genetics, she would lecture us about the impact of body enhancement and augmentation beyond the received genetic traits. In one session she talked about her fanatic theory about Darjee biology, an alien species that is the liaison for mankind to the Confederacy. I learned that she was a passionate nerd of alien science after another class she lectured us about the behavior and ecology of the Sa’arm swarm. God knows where she found such information. However, while she tried her best by not teaching us useless stuff in the lecture classes, the lab classes were still a requirement and she had no power at all to change any of them.

After class, she hailed Ted when we were about to walk past her. So I continued my walk to the door and waited for him. I looked inside at them, noticing an unusual bent forward body, seductively exposing whatever assets lying under her blouse to him. Then I looked away but ears up.

“ ... Well since we will have a lab class tomorrow, I was wondering if you will be able to help me prepare all the reagents and equipment this evening as usual.”

Ted seemed to be pitied as he answered her. “No, Ms. Camila. I’m afraid that I have some errands to run.”

“Well, that’s unfortunate. Anyway...” Then she whispered to him something which seemed to cheer him up a bit.

Then he left her with his smile, and something came up in my mind. I asked when we hit the hallway.

“We don’t have football practice today, so why don’t you help her do whatever?” I smirked.

“Yeah, but I have to do your task, remember?”

“Oh right. But I think you can skip that today and help her prepare lab stuff this evening.”

“What? Why?”

“I want you to distract her from the chemical storage room. Of course, after she opens it.”

“What?”

“I need some chemical supplies.”

“What do you really hope to do with Michel? Can’t we just find his weakness, confront him, or blackmail him to break with Alicia? What are you actually planning?”

“Come on, Ted. Trust me. We need this chemical for our investigation, like fingerprint detection. Something like that.”

“Alright. Alright. Just keep in mind that I’m doing this because I want you to take your CAP test. O.K.?”

Obviously, he did not fully believe me. However, he reluctantly accepts it, so that he can go to see her.

This evening, we went to the lab room. The room is connected to a small preparation room with chemical storage inside. Ted signaled me to wait at the stairway beside the lab. Then he peeked at the door.

“Hi, Ms. Camila. I just don’t think that I can wait till this Friday.”

“Bueno! Handsome boy. Just come in...”

He went in for about fifteen minutes then my phone vibrated. I checked for his message.

‘We’ll be in front of the lab. Take the other door. Go quick.’

Then I stealthily sneaked to the end of the room and nimbly opened the door as narrow as possible to squeeze myself inside. Using a lab bench for cover, I crouched like a soldier on the battlefield and was directed to the preparation room. In the middle of my course, I curiously popped my head up to look at the front of the room. Ted had his ass on the first bench. Beside him was Mr. Skeleton, Ted held the skeleton’s arm and waved to me enjoyably. Ted was facing toward the end of the room so Ms. Camila who was having her head up and down around his crotch, turned her back to me. We thumbed up to each other and I swiftly got to the preparation room.

It took me almost ten minutes to get the chemicals I need then I left the preparation room by peeking into the lab. Ms. Camila wasn’t blowing him anymore. Ted did his job well as his pale ass was moving fast and intense as he mounted her from behind. Both of them were half naked, turning to the front of the room. Ms. Camila was not quite in her shirt. She was holding Mr. Skeleton to maintain her balance as her tan slim body received his thrusts that wiggled her firm boobs harmonically. My cock became rock hard instantly, and I stopped peeping at them.

“Oh, Dios mío. Keep that going, baby. Yeah.” She moaned attractively in her Castellano accent.

“Oh, You’re so tight, Ms. Camila.”

I wished I could stay being a peeping Tom for a little longer.

“God. I told him to distract her not fuck her.” I said to myself and reluctantly left the room.

My family rarely has dinner together. Especially after my parents got their CAP score, they went on their ‘date night’ so often, I totally did not buy it. To find their concubines, adults must have their own club, a more proper club.

I asked my little sister, Patricia, about their date nights because sometimes they took her with them. The ideas behind that can be discussed later. However, she had been told not to reveal anything to me.

On nights that they had gone, there would be only Patsy, Grandpa, and me in the house which we preferably lived in our own space. I usually kept myself in my room since my parents kept me from their future matters. I often spent my time on video games and books, ignoring what could happen in my house. Sometimes I forgot to eat dinner and often sneaked out of my room at night for food. Grandpa had his room downstairs and usually spent his time on the couch until late at night. Patsy spent most of her time in her room, the same as me, but she would come out and spend time with Grandpa on occasion.

As usual, I went straight to my room after I got home today, spending some time calculating the risk of each plan that popped into my mind. When the clock hit 19:00, I felt hungry so I went downstairs and got a surprise.

“Oh, you just came in time,” Patsy shouted from the dining room when she saw me. “Good. So I don’t have to go there and knock on your door like a servant!”

I looked inside the dining room and the kitchen area. Patsy was setting a dining table. My mom, Emma, a mathematics teacher, who specialized in statistics, the subject I hate the most, was pouring our family’s favorite traditional soup into bowls. My grandpa was fixing his special dish. My dad, Tony, a former political science professor, now a sociology teacher in high school, was having his phone call in the living room. My little sister was placing dishes on the table, and I went in to help her.

The table was set not long after that. After we got into our seats, it was a tradition for us to begin without any prayer or prep talk. Most of the foods were Western style we ordered from food delivery. The soup bowls and Grandpa’s beef dish were only our local food. I only fed myself with Western food avoiding having distinct cultures together at the same time.

I let everybody fill some part of their belly before asked.

“So, what happens? This seems like a special occasion.”

My grandpa pointed his fork at me.

“It’s about you.”

It made my face confused.

“Beth told your mom and dad that she finally made you take your CAP test.”

“Oh, did she?” I said and went quiet for a moment, thinking about my plan to neglect the extraction at the end. “I am not sure how much of it going to be true, though.”

Mom looked at me with her sharp eyes as she spoke. “It must be quite true because Beth would never lie to us. Then if it’s not so true, it means you lied to Beth which you didn’t do, right?”

“No, never ever,” I answered with a poker face.

“I am actually interested to know how you solved your conflict on living with the Confederacy.” Dad acted with his usual difficulty. “As far as I remember, you opposed the Confederacy because you think that life under the Confederacy is merely slavery. For the sponsors, they can never have their dream, the sole purpose of their life is to reproduce and fight the Sa’arm. Concubines are nothing but human livestock. Surviving and preserving our civilization seemed to be overlooked.”

“Billions of mankind will inevitably suffer enough from the Sa’arm invasion. It is morally wrong to produce billions more lost souls to suffer and die in the campaign against the swarm. The amount of suffering of future lives outweighs the little goodness produced by the existence of our kind.” I replied. “To be honest, I’ve never solved that conflict. I promised to take the CAP test only in exchange for some help from her.”

Patricia asked. “What kind of favor Beth do you?”

“It’s a long story and quite personal, Patsy.”

“Never accept to do things you don’t think you can do.” Mom scolded. “I hope that you know what you are doing, young man.”

I continued my meal in silence. So many things were swirling in my head. The biggest mystery that I had never resolved was my family. Mom and Dad had always believed in freedom as they raised Patsy and me freely. In contrast to the idea that procreation serves as a symbol of immortality by planting your own idea into your offspring, carving them to be another of yourself, they never seemed to put their own ideas in me. They had never forced me to think their way, let alone choose things for me, or intervening in my decisions. They taught me how to encounter this world by letting me suffer the consequences of my failure, so I can learn from my very best teachers; the cruel world and the coldest life. If they were no stranger to the idea of freedom and its consequences, then why did they allow themselves to be oppressed in their future life in the Confederacy?