Young Writers Society

Chapter 11: Vague, Yet Menacing Government Agency

As Keith led Flax out of the abandoned arcade, he got a notification on his phone.

It was his Uber driver. They were waiting for him.

He smacked his palm on his forehead. How could he possibly forget about that? He hastily texted his driver and canceled the drive, full of shame and guilt for some reason.

He looked up from his phone, not really sure where he was going or how he was going to get back.

The two of them walked for a little bit, until they passed an old drugstore. Just behind it was Mayday City. How was that possible? The ground seamlessly transitioned from grayish dirt to poorly-paved road, as if this deserted town had always been here.

But it hadn't. This was never originally part of the city at all. It was almost like it was from another world.

Another world.

He stopped walking and thought about Flax. It had not quite set in when Keith was comforting him, but now it did.

Flax was from another world.

With this revelation, everything suddenly started to make sense; the strange people he saw in the crowd; the giant bull; the spider-goat. None of them could possibly be from Earth. But how did they get here?

Before he had time to think about it for too long, someone poking his shoulder brought him back to the present. He looked back to see Flax, who looked confused.

“Ah, right, sorry, got distracted,” Keith muttered. He motioned for Flax to follow him once more.

There was a bit of silence between the two of them.

“So,” Flax asked with a flourish of his arms, “where is ‘here?’ What do you call this world?”

“Oh, this place is called Earth,” Keith replied.

Flax stopped walking. Keith looked back and saw that his deer-like ears were pinned behind his head. “Did you say… Earth?” He muttered, as if he didn’t even want to say the word.

“Yeah…why?” Keith asked, tilting his head to the side.

Flax stumbled over his words. “Well… I mean… umm…” He twiddled his fingers and tapped one of his hooves on the ground.

Keith squinted at him. “Is there a problem?”

“Oh, no, of course not!” Said Flax, clearly lying. “It’s just that…” he paused, looking down at the ground. “You don’t really look like an Earthling.” It was obvious that he wanted to say something else, and was just making something up.

Keith didn’t really know how to respond to this. “Yeah, it’s a long story.” He didn’t elaborate any further.

Before this exchange, Flax had been walking right next to Keith. But now, he was much farther behind.

As if he didn’t want to get near him.

Flax did not mind Keith before he mentioned where he was from, so why did he have a problem now? What was wrong with Earth?

He wanted to speak up about this, but Flax was supposed to trust him; he didn’t want to seem hostile.

They walked along the dirt that slowly turned into a street. Flax's hooves clicked along the pavement. They said nothing to each other.

When they left the ghost town, Keith noticed that the sky in Mayday City was much darker than it should have been. It hadn’t been that long, had it? Did time pass differently when they were away?

A bright light sweeping the area from above caused Keith to dart into a nearby alleyway. He pulled Flax along with him and motioned for him to crouch.

He looked up, to see multiple black helicopters circling the sky. His heart hammered in his chest. What was going on?

They both stayed low to the ground, when Keith was suddenly startled by the sounds of eating behind him.

Who else should have been there but Molly? She was munching on a pizza that she probably found in the garbage she was sitting on. Gross.

“Molly,” Keith hiss-whispered, “what are you doing here?!"”

She took another bite of the pizza. “I dunno, I just got bored.”

He pinched the non-existent bridge of his nose. “Didn’t you learn your lesson from last time?” He had done his part in going through subtle character development; it was frustrating that Molly hadn’t done the same.

She seemed to think about it. “Nope,” she said, continuing to eat the dumpster pizza.

Flax seemed to find this exchange hilarious. He stifled a laugh. Keith shot him a look. Flax jumped back in fear, bumping into the dumpster next to him.

Everything suddenly got bright as a spotlight fell over them.

Keith squinted up in horror. He could not see anything, but the whirring of a propellor directly above him told him everything he needed to know.

The light seemed to dim, and both Keith and Flax gasped as they saw what was on either end of the alleyway.

Men in black suits and sunglasses blocked each side. Every one of them was a pointing gun in their direction. How had they gotten there so fast? Perhaps Keith didn't hear their footsteps over the sound of the helicopter.

Keith's heart felt like it was going to explode. Shockwaves of anxious electricity flowed through his nerves.

There was a voice coming from above. It was loud, like the person was using a bullhorn. “We've got you surrounded! Put your hands up!”

Keith obeyed the voice from the helicopter. Had they done anything wrong? He didn't think so.

But as he looked to either side of him, he realized what the reasoning was.

If a bunch of strange creatures from other worlds suddenly appeared on Earth, it would make sense for the government to get involved. And it would also make sense for Keith to be mistaken for one of these creatures, given his clown-like appearance.

But was this fair? Was this right?

The helicopter voice continued. “We are not here to hurt you. If you just do what we say—“

Keith forgot how scared he was for a second, for he could not help but call out this blasphemy. “You're 'not here to hurt us,' yet you have several guns pointed directly at us?” he asked, completely ignoring the fact that he had several guns pointed directly at him.

The armed men stepped closer.

Molly, who had not said anything this entire time, did not seem scared. In fact, she seemed thrilled. “Ooh, this is just like the shows I watch!” She piped. “Are we gonna start fighting these guys?” She asked, doing punching motions with her little hands.

Keith's eyes widened. “No, Molly, we are not doing that!” Keith said. He made sure to say it loudly, so that nobody got the wrong idea.

But the message had already been received. One of the important-looking agents yelled “We’ve got a Code Maroon! Go, squad!” And they all rushed forward.

Keith looked up at Flax, not knowing what to do. They were completely surrounded.

Flax looked down at him, too. From the look in his eye, it was clear that he did not fully trust Keith. But he looked like he wanted to make a difficult decision—Keith was not entirely sure what that decision was.

Flax quickly pressed his palms together and muttered something under his breath. This time, it was not translated by his necklace. He was blinded by a sudden light.

When he opened his eyes, he was not in the alleyway anymore. Instead, he was surrounded by lush forest. The trees were blueish-green, and the soil was a light red. The place was slightly hazy, like a dream.

The agents looked around, confused. Before Keith could even say anything, Flax quickly picked him up in one arm and Molly in another, and ran off. Despite how thin his limbs were, he was surprisingly strong.

It was not long until they were back in the city. In fact, there was no transition—one second they were in the forest, and in the next second they, were in the city.

Huh? Keith looked back, to see a large opaque bubble in the middle of the street.

“It's an illusion dome," said Flax, as if reading Keith's mind. "It should hold them off for now.”

“Whoa, that was cool!” Molly exclaimed. “Do it again!”

Flax chuckled lightly. “Sorry, little one, but my hands are full; maybe later.”

He galloped farther and farther away, not seeming to run out of energy or breath. “I’ll admit, I don’t really know where I’m supposed to be going. I’m just running like a cockatrice with its head cut off.”

Keith could not contain his inner mythology nerd. “Oh, you mean the dragon with a chicken head?” Now that he thought about it, though, mythology was probably reality for non-Earthlings.

Flax seemed a little surprised. “Yes… you have those here?”

Keith laughed. “Nah, we just have regular chickens. They’re a lot less harmless.”

He had almost forgotten that he was running away from the government, so he was surprised when Flax suddenly fell down, launching him and Molly onto the pavement.

Keith slowly lifted his head and rubbed his face, which somehow hadn’t been scraped at all. It took him a moment to understand what had happened, and when he looked up, he gasped.

Two agents were pinning Flax down, while a third one was covering him with a net. Flax struggled and kicked, but it was obvious that he was not a fighter.

One of the agents was readying a tranquilizer.

Keith had to do something, but what could he do? He wasn’t a fighter either, and to beat up members of some vague-yet-menacing government agency? He’d have an easier time arm-wrestling a polar bear.

A little nudge made him turn around.

He looked down to see Molly with a determined smirk on her face. “I have an idea!” She said to him.

Within seconds, she had morphed into an oversized knife. It was no ordinary knife, either—it had a pink blade with a striped handle. Her eyes were on either side of the blade. She jumped into Keith’s hand.

He was a little taken aback, but he quickly understood what her plan was.

“Good idea, but just so you know, we’re not going to hurt them,” Keith whispered to her, “we’re just going to cut Flax out of the ropes.” Molly looked disappointed.

The idea of using a living creature as a tool seemed a little weird and almost unethical; but Molly seemed completely on board with it, so he supposed it was okay.

He couldn’t wait any longer. Keith rushed towards the agents, Molly in hand.

~~~

Previous: Chapter 10

Next: Chapter 12