Escaping This Year

A police car sat at the end of the alley with the passenger door still open. Two officers slowly crept down the alley inspecting every nook and cranny with their flashlights. The call had come in only a few minutes before they had arrived at the end of the alley from sheer luck of stopping at the Korean restaurant around the corner for some spicy beef noodles. The rookie, who had left the passenger door open, was thinking of his noodles in the back of his mind. His partner would have a talk with him to ensure he doesn’t make the same mistake again but for now he hopes no one jumps in the car seeing it exposed as it is.

A skittering across the alley caused the officer driving to come to an instant stop so the pair could investigate further. They had both seen the movement and knew it did not look like anything they had seen before. This drew extra caution from the officers as they delved further into the alley to find the culprit who had interrupted their noodles.

Tahurqes tried not to make a sound as he knelt between the buildings where he had stopped. The sudden appearance of the police car startled him delaying the activation of the device he wore on his side. It was not a device from this planet although it had been built here. It had been built by a man simply known as George, but it was not his real name. Tahurqes did not have an official name for it but planned on calling it the chameleon upon returning home. The chameleon had nothing to do with his mission Tahurqes was on, but he hoped it would bring him prestige which could help bring George back home from his exile.

Tahurqes, who was going by the name Timmy, had been on a research mission for the past year and tonight was the night he was planned to return after being picked back up by the original vessel which had dropped him off last year on New Year’s Eve. This was the best night due to the celebration helping to cover an unidentified craft being in Earth’s atmosphere. The fireworks added to the cover and made this night perfect.

Unfortunately the current state of the country, not to mention the world, made it more difficult to navigate to the preassigned meeting place. He now felt he was being hunted for being out past curfew which is what led to his current predicament. He currently found himself wedged in between a pair of buildings partly hidden by a dumpster. He was also just realizing the dumpster was for one of the buildings he was tightly hidden between and, unfortunately, ended up being a seafood restaurant. Normally this would not be a problem due to the temperature remaining below 40° Fahrenheit except for the fact in such an alley the multitude of vents from the various businesses kept the temperature above 70 the majority of the time. This led to the unpleasant aroma extruding from the dumpster which had begun to assault his nostrils. He unconsciously wiped tears from his eyes as he discovered the negative effects of hiding behind a dumpster of two-day old seafood. Even though he loved shrimp, he never had a taste for fish, crab, or lobster and the smell made his stomach begin to churn. After the year he had on Earth this further cemented his opinion he would rather spend a year on some sideways frozen tundra of a planet, like Uranus, living at -300° being pelted with methane ice crystals instead of doing this again. He had determined humans are their own worst enemies. They would not only fail in any attempt to cooperate with an alien species, such as the Khodnix from Throxirah, but they will be the victims of their own demise one day. Most of them would deny an alien race even existed, others would create some new religion and persecute anyone who did not believe this was the “one true” religion, and more still would claim it was a setup by the government to control people.

Tahuqes, or Timmy, had learned much about humans during his year on Earth doing research for the governing body of his home world. He was fascinated by the amount of freedom some parts of this world enjoys while others are persecuted, imprisoned, and even killed over the slightest thing deemed illegal by the government or any other group in a particular region. Timmy had concluded humans claimed to have less freedoms with the more freedom you give them. Deep down there is the ingrained traits of greed and corruption in all of them and it is a personal choice to overcome those desires to do good on this planet. Unfortunately the majority of the time the bad seems to outweigh the good and those who wish to improve the planet for everyone seem to not make a noticeable difference in the end. The sooner he was away from here the sooner these humans can go on living their self-destructive lifestyles in a rapidly approaching tragic end.

Finally unable to take it anymore, and on the verge of losing everything he had eaten a few hours earlier, Timmy placed the helmet to his suit on his head and fastened it in place. The fresh air from his life support system kept the unwarranted scent from reaching his nose allowing him to focus on avoiding the figures of authority slowly approaching down the alley toward his current location. A glance at the chameleon showed he had plenty of power left to avoid detection when needed.

He silently praised George as he flicked the switch on the device, blending into his environment, just before one of the flashlights shined between the buildings. This was the genius behind the chameleon. He remembered the day George had showed it to him and the excitement he felt seeing it work for the first time. He had admitted to himself before as to what doubts he had if the device would ever work but knew if anyone could make it work George could. He felt bad for George even if he never told him so. Fortunately for George, he was exiled with him wife Alice whose real name in the Khrodnix language was Ghruttonxs.

Their daughter, upon reaching the age of maturity, which is 62.8 human years on their home world, had went out to enjoy parts of the galaxy as all kids do at that age. Khrodnix aged much slower than humans due to time moving much slower on the planet of Throxirah. She had a run of bad luck when she chose the wrong group to head out with and ended up on Earth which is forbidden unless a decree was issued by the head council. This group, however, did not have any sort of decree and decided to party here on Earth for a few weeks due to the excitement they found in the destructive nature of humans. The group had no trouble while on Earth landing and leaving again three weeks later without detection. Even the humans they interacted with had no idea they were partying with aliens who soon discovered they could get just as drunk from Earth made alcohol as the humans did. On Khrodnix there are certain chemicals mixed into the alcohol to prevent one from getting drunk. This was not considered by the group as humans were still considered primitive by advanced races and avoided at all costs the majority of the time.

George and Alice’s daughter returned home, and the group said nothing of their venture to Earth for fear of the consequences upon being found out. The problem arose two years later when their daughter discovered she was carrying a half human fetus in her womb. This caused an uproar throughout the planet when it was discovered. It was also discovered later George and Alice knew about their daughter going to Earth and the child she was carrying. She was given one of two choices for her punishment for disobeying the ban from travel to Earth and for copulating with a human. The latter had no laws forbidding it but was inherent on the first therefore compounded the penalty. She could submit to feticide and serve the allotted time in prison set by the laws of the head council or face permanent exile to Earth where the child could be raised as a human and no mention of his true maternal lineage at all. She chose exile but once it was discovered George and Alice had knowledge of the pregnancy previously they were also sent in exile under the guise it would best suite the child to have more of his family around him as it seems more important to humans than to the Khrodnix.

And so it was the trio set off and lived for sixteen years on Earth as a happy family a few months before the birth of a half human half Khrodnix child to be named Greg. No Khrodnix name was given due to the family being exiled to Earth under the premise they would never be able to return to their home world. Khrodnix resembled humans closely enough to be able to blend in with little effort which helped them live on Earth undetected.

Greg, however, had turned out to be much smarter than any of the children around him on Earth. This was blamed on having Khrodnix genes mixed in with the human ones expanding his intellect. He recently celebrated his sixteenth Earth birthday, if he aged the same as humans that is, and had already graduated high school and college with his first degree. He was already planning on an advanced degree and discovered he had his grandfather’s knack for electronics as well as physics and biology. He also had a keen sense of observation which allowed him to discover many things he should not have. This was not a problem until the arrival of his grandfather’s old friend Tahuqes in the form of Timmy. Greg knew something was not right from the moment he first met Timmy and voiced this to his grandfather who assured him Timmy was an old friend. He claimed Timmy was as human as himself which helped relax Greg temporarily.

Timmy stayed hunched behind the dumpster having a mental flashback to all of this as he enjoyed the fresh air from his suit keeping the unwanted attack at bay. He then thought to the day George showed him the chameleon in his garage after he had successfully tested it for the first time. It had only been a theory on Throxirah, but no one had succeeded in making a functioning until before George decided to tackle this in his garage one weekend. Unfortunately, at the very moment George flicked on the until and seemed to disappear into the wall behind him Greg had walked into the garage. Timmy and George had thought he was still in town much to their surprise. Timmy had been fast in closing the door behind Greg, but this did not help clear up the confusion in his mind upon seeing his grandfather disappear. His worries lessened when George turned the unit off and reappeared as soon as he saw the door open and Greg walk into the garage.

As Timmy was thinking of this, he noticed the lights had moved further down the alley and started to consider if he could move across the alley undetected. He was about to move when he suddenly realized something he had never considered during the tests he and George had conducted with the chameleon. Would he still cast a shadow from the lights flashing on the police car at the end of the alley? If so, he would surely be noticed by the pair of officers at the far end when his shadow was cast across them. He moved over in front of a window to verify the chameleon was still working and saw the colors of the building behind him blend around him perfectly hiding him in what little light he could see in the reflection. He wished there was enough light to see if there was a shadow on the wall behind him. He decided it was now or never.

As luck would have it, or his bad luck as he called it, one of the officers turned around and shined his flashlight back down the alley at the same moment Timmy decided to make his move across the alley. The officer saw a slightly darker spot move across the alley making it appear as a spot in the middle of the alley was becoming distorted moving across the alley to the other side. He yelled for his partner as he drew his weapon and took a shot missing Timmy who had already slid beside the building hiding himself from view. He questioned if this year would ever end or if he would miss a chance to leave as his window of opportunity was set to close in a couple more hours. He checked the time and realized thirty minutes had been wasted as he waited for the officers to reach the far end of the alley. Little good that turned out to be for him as they were rapidly approaching his new hiding place with the certainty something was hiding there. So much for the city of brotherly love as this lockdown was much more serious than he originally thought it to be.

The officers began to turn the corner where Timmy was sure to be found even with the chameleon hiding him. This new alley he was currently hiding in was much too small to allow anyone to pass without having to bump into him. Even if he remained perfectly still, he could not move far enough out of the way. Timmy suddenly remembered his weight transference device allowing him to scale the wall to the top of the building he now stood next to. He was unsure if he could move out of the way fast enough before he was caught and arrested, or worse. He definitely did not want to be shot by Mr. trigger happy heading his way after being shot at once. Timmy was certain the officer did not realize he had put a hole in his own patrol car with that shot but knew the car would survive better than him getting hit with a bullet.

The officers turned the corner just as Timmy was about to make his move and he knew it was over for him. He was just about to turn off the chameleon and surrender when the sound of glass shattering came the direction the officers had originally came. Both turned and ran back toward their car to see what had happened and Timmy saw the time to make his move. Quick as could be, he pressed the button to activate his weight transference device and scaled the wall before either of the officers returned to continue searching for him and was at the top of the building in under fifteen seconds. He ran to the edge to see what had shattered and saw the back window of the police car broken with a rock lying on the trunk. Both officers looked around for the culprit and Timmy looked down the street just in time to see Greg disappear into a store at the end of the street avoiding detection from the officers.

Timmy walked back across the rooftop and made a mental note to personally thank that kid if he ever saw him again. Maybe he should see about smuggling some books from Throxirah to Earth for Greg to really learn from. With a short jump he began sprinting across the tops of the buildings, running toward the designated meeting spot for the ship to pick him up for the trip back to Throxirah.

A boom overhead startled him for a second until he realized it was midnight and he had made it. Two more blocks and he was home free. He saw a light and thought his ride was here until he heard the blades of a helicopter cutting the air above the buildings and saw the light shining around from rooftop to rooftop searching for him. He then noticed it wasn’t shining directly on the rooftops but between the buildings to assist the original officers in their search. It was not hard to avoid the helicopter as it moved on to his search.

He landed on top of one of the tallest buildings just as he heard a church bell start to announce the new year. At the same time he heard people cheering and beginning to celebrate as fireworks began erupting overhead as everyone bid farewell to this awful year with the hope of a better year to come. It was at this same moment Timmy saw a faint glow around him and felt an unfathomable number of atoms in his body split and instantly transferred some 70 miles upward to the spacecraft awaiting his arrival. His last thought before leaving Earth was of the officers who would never find him this, or any, night.

Timmy opened his eyes and saw a familiar sight. It was the last thing he saw before he was sent to Earth for his year of research. He turned around and saw the engineer who had transported him smiling. He asked how it went and Timmy replied he never wanted to go back to that planet again. He honestly could not wait to return to bring George and his family back home where they belong.