by The Eurostar
Edulcore Cicciotto:
I open my eyes. I dropped from the ceiling, it seems. I don't know what caused the explosion, but luckily I didn't get harmed by it.
Where am I? It looks like another cell, but wider. A man is in the far corner. He turns. And I see... my father!
"Edulcore! Ti hanno preso!" he says in Italian. They have got you!
Who is this man that looks like my father and knows my name? How did that Indian know he was here? I remember him pointing toward the southeast, and I remember the places on the map, Roswell among them.
"I saw you die. Who the hell are you?" I shout in Italian.
"It's not like it seems, Edulcore. It never has been, it never will be. You must leave. Find a place to hide. And find your son. They must not discover what he conceals!" What's he saying? How can he know so many things?
"Dad, tell me what happened. I saw you and mom on the road -- there was blood everywhere..."
"Don't you understand? You must immediately leave!"
"How?" I shout, my head hurting from the shock of seeing him alive, and from his resolution, now evident, to not respond to my question.
Then Turner appears at the rim of the hole in the ceiling. "I've cleared this level! Can you fly up here?" Thank God he is alive, and Jackie, too, who has just appeared next to him. "Who's that man?"
"You wouldn't believe it," I whisper to myself.
I have never been able to take flight from the ground. But maybe I was wrong that time. This time, instead of trying to jump vertically, I run toward the other end of the room, waving my arms, feathers full out. And I am in the air; it's really hard, but I am, and the next moment I am standing near my two friends.
Now I need only find a rope to throw to my father, to bring him up here, too. But a door opens in the level below where dad is standing, looking at him. He turns to see three men in white lab coats running toward him, holding guns.
"Run away, Eddie! Get away!" he shouts in Italian, just as a bullet hits him in the head. Blood erupts from his right eye. I am very shocked, I think, because I see that the blood is GREEN.
The lab guys are firing at us, too. Suddenly, they burn. "You could have acted more quickly," I say bitterly to Turner.
While we run toward the exit, my mind is deeply trying to process all that I have just experienced. A Native American able to disappear at will, a day ago, had told me that my father was still alive. I have found him, in fact, in Area 51, where he, not at all surprised by my presence, had warned me to find a place to hide and to rescue my son, and that Eddie should hold some secrets. Suddenly he has been killed, and like the last time, I saw his blood. And the blood was green. When I was a junkie, I never had a trip so unbelievable.
Then I realize where are we. A giant flying saucer is standing just in front of us, covered by dust and spiderwebs.
"What a beauty," whispers Turner. Round and sleek, all black and finished like satin, it's really beautiful. "They've never been able to fly it. Well, they've never even been able to get inside," explains Turner, looking for a door to continue our run.
Jackie doesn't seem as surprised as I am. Who is this girl who was able to hand-to-hand fight that meta, the one I heard her calling Giorgio?
I can't help but use my hand to stroke the surface of the UFO. And a noise begins. Lights begins to dance over the surface, like it is the metallic surface that emits them. A hole opens on the side.
"Inside!" orders Turner, jumping in. I follow, and Jackie is behind me.
"What do you think of doing, Turner?" I ask.
"Hide. But maybe you can pilot this thing outta here!"
"Me? How do you think I can drive this thing?"
"You successfully opened it -- maybe you can also lift it up."
How could it be, to fly on a saucer?
A saucer! I am on a flying saucer. A fucking real, true UFO.
I would really be able to fly it. And as I think this, the world jumps down. Clouds of debris wraps us. And they, too, GO DOWN.
I mean, we are still. We don't experience the gravity push of acceleration. Yet, from what we are saying, it's obvious we are speeding toward the sky, destroying level after level of the military base in our vertical flight.
"Well done, Ed!" says Turner, visibly delighted for the first time since I met him.
Jackie is surprised, too, but is also very interested in the spaceship, her eyes going from one panel to the other on the command deck.
Question: Why there is a command deck if the ship is piloted by the will? And, what is this ship? I mean, who built it? Aliens? A technologically advanced nation such as Mandelovia? Why was my father's blood green? Was he really my father? How could my father have been alive this afternoon?
Yeah, it's afternoon; the sun is setting. We have been in the cells all morning, it seems.
The saucer is falling down, back through the levels. There are many soldiers firing at us, but the bullets never even touch the surface of the ship.
"Ed, CONCENTRATE! You're sinking the ship!"
Fuck. I must think only about the ship. This will be harder than I imagine.
Up up up up. Level after level, destroying all that is above us. Soldiers, scientists, CIA agents, dead bodies of aliens in freezers.
Who knows if there are really aliens. Dr. Quantos, when he was at Malvan-X in Mandelovia, said so. There should be an invasion.
"Ed, shit! The ship's sinking again!"
Merda! Up up UP! Okay, this way. We are out now. Desert is all around us, and only a few barracks cover the giant underground military base concealed in the desert. The sky is blue, the sun setting in the west behind the mountains.
La Perdita should be right there, toward the southeast. Speed up. It's funny how we are standing here; there is no acceleration at all inside this thing. Outside, the country is speeding up behind us. Desert, swamps, flocks of geese, they seem.
"Ed, how many times must I tell you! Think only about the ship!" yells Turner.
"How can you read my mind?" I ask, puzzled. He never showed any mental ability before.
"The ship's slowing down," Jackie says coldly. "It's obvious that you're distracted!"
It's obvious that I am distracted. Nyah nyah nyah nyah, Miss I-know-it-all. "Why did you know the name of that civilian in the base? Giorgio, I have heard you calling him!" Ah-ha, now what you will respond, lady?
"Ed, you fucking moron! Now's not the time to talk! FLY!" Turner is really mad at me. The saucer has nearly stopped, and in midair.
Okay, then. Fast, to the southwest!
Fly fly fly fly fly fly fly fly fly fly fly fly fly fly fly fly fly fly fly fly fly fly fly fly fly fly fly fly fly fly fly fly fly fly fly fly fly fly fly fly fly fly fly fly fly fly fly fly fly fly fly fly fly fly fly fly fly fly fly fly fly fly fly fly fly fly fly fly fly fly fly fly fly fly fly fly fly fly fly fly fly fly fly fly fly fly fly fly fly fly fly fly fly.
"Uh-oh! We're being followed!" exclaims Jackie. There are six USAF fighter jets behind us, firing at us. When one missile hits our saucer, we shake a lot. It doesn't seem to have damaged us, but I don't know how much more we'll be able to sustain.
Fly fly fly.
"Ed, you're flying this thing like a plane. But it should be able to do things differently."
"Yeah, but what? How?"
"Think!"
Dive! The saucer dives, and just a moment before crashing on the ground, it holds back. But the fighters, are able to follow us, albeit slowly.
"No, not like YOU fly. Think differently from how earthly things fly!"
"I can't!"
"Go back!"
Go back? Go back! The saucer instantly goes the opposite way. Cool! How is this possible? How can this thing defy gravity? I mean, everything should be subjected to gravity, I think.
"We're slowing down! What are you thinking, Ed?"
Merda merda merda. This is weakening me. There are many more fighters.
"I'll blow 'em away," says Turner.
No! "Not from inside here, Turner!" I shout.
"Why?"
"I don't know!"
"So?"
"I mean... I know, just not why. And how? It's like the ship has told me."
"We must stop them. We can't escape these planes if you don't pilot this ship the way you should!" Fuck off, Turner. You are not even able to make it open the doors. How can you...? "Hey, we are still now! ED!"
Oh my God. Fly fly fly fly. I must find a solution, or I will snap. Fly fly FLY FLY FLY! Uh, maybe....
Fast. Good. Good ship. Faster, if possible. Now change altitude. Lower. Okay. Now slower... Okay, there! Now land.
Turner and Jackie are without any words. I landed the ship right in the middle of Lafayette, Lousiana. There is a big crowd gathering around the ship, and when we get off, at first many try to stop us, asking questions. But the crowd is getting huge, and we easily get lost among the people.
The fighter jets soon fly above the city.
We hear the noise of the police sirens just when we are getting into a Jeep Wrangler, whose engine Turner started from afar.
As we leave the town, Jackie asks, "Why do you steal a car when you have enough money to buy a hundred of them?"
Only now I notice that the bag with the money is in the hands of the girl. I am sure it wasn't until a moment ago. She laughs. And soon we all laugh, relieved.
A few hours later, when the sun has completely gone, and thousands of stars glow in the black night, on the side of the road a sign announces New Orleans only a few hours away.