The P. P. A. Project: Revelations

Chapter Fourteen - This is the story of a girl...

“But I…”

“No butts. C’mon, let’s break out of this cage for a bit and get a bite to eat.”

I was glad she had made the recommendation. If I’d had to endure another minute of this space food I would have started to gnaw on the walls. Casey and Pandora both took me to a little diner in a nearby town. It seemed my sister and myself were continuing to have things in common as I loved diner food and she devoured it.

Once seated, she ordered nearly half of the menu, as did Casey and I. We were all pretty worked up from the mission while the other guys were nerding up in the files we had obtained. It was clear the people who were more of the physical work and then the behind the scenes guys in the missions. I liked that they had all found a place here. I liked that I was finding a place too. Maybe it would feel like home soon.

Pandora had taken off her P. P. A. jacket and finally looked like a normal 20 year old girl and a black sweater. Casey was in the same as I wore my black t-shirt which exposed the scars on my arms. It was a little embarrassing under the lighting of the diner. It seemed to emphasize them more. I quickly placed them back under the table and watched as the two before me analyzed my movements.

“So what do we do when this is all over?” I asked as it seemed no normal conversation would begin.

It was as if the question itself was a foreign language. Casey’s face dropped as Pandora tilted her head in confusion. She then placed her long black hair up into a tie and cleared her throat.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean once we finally stop Jacobs and this network of super soldier. What do we do after that? I personally don’t see how I could go back to a normal life and finish high school.”

Pandora was silent for a moment before she turned to Casey and laughed, “Why don’t you take the reigns on this one.”

He chuckled. I could tell Casey was also a good looking dude when he was younger. The idea that Pandora had known all of these men for so many years and looked just like a girl barely older than me was still baffling.

It wasn’t until that thought traveled through my little brain which was still sore from all this that I wondered how hard it must have been for Pandora. I thought about Scarlet and the one kiss we shared and how each memory of her made me just want to see her more and then how she must have felt  never being able to really love anyone.

Did she ever love Casey or maybe Connor? Had they tried and worked it out and then time just got the better of them? My complaining about not getting back into the groove of my dull life was suddenly just a child wanting candy. Nothing more.

“I suppose we would try and get back to our planet. Our people are in trouble there too from other things and it would be nice to be surrounded by people who are like us. It’s hard always being afraid of who and what you are.”

Pandora nodded her head quickly and took in a deep breath, “When you have been around as long as I have, which mind you is a long time, you learn to just go with the flow. After this I will probably just try and reconnect with mom and dad as much as possible. I never really had that, not in 95 years. And then as you all grow old and pass I will just do as I have always done… just… survive.”

She seemed ok with saying that. There wasn’t a hint of sadness or fear in the idea of walking this earth along forever. The people… the aliens, that Casey and the rest had been a part of during their trip and attempt to co-exist on Earth, they were not Pandora and myself. We were something different. Something you couldn’t explain. Simply an evolutionary gold mine.