Sebastian fell to the ground, crumpled into a ball, and began to scream, violently trembling as he covered his head with both hands, bracing himself for impact again. He had instantly returned to the back of the fuselage of the C-17, reliving the moment that his father had diverted the military aircraft in an attempt to shepherd Sebastian to safety as a SAM pierced through the plane's hull above midtown Manhattan, killing everyone else onboard. The fiery explosions overhead from the thousands of satellites disintegrating as they re-entered the atmosphere had unleashed a torrent of memories from the evening before that Sebastian had entirely suppressed, his brain naturally primed to block trauma after spending his professional life watching people blow each other up on a near daily basis.

 

He had completely forgotten about the series of events that had led to his fall to Earth: the arrest, the imprisonment, the draining of an entire lifetime of savings from his bank accounts, and most painfully the death of his father, his final act in this life one of unconditional love after a full decade of disassociation. Despite their different beliefs, Sebastian’s Dad was there for him when he needed him most. He had sacrificed his life for Sebastian.

 

As Sebastian cradled himself and gently rocked back and forth on a grassy knoll sobbing next to the Washington Monument, another memory was activated, one of the earliest images he could remember from when he must have been only four or five. There wasn’t much specific detail he could recall, just a scene of him and his Dad driving on the highway. Where they were going, or why Sebastian had no idea. But at some point a driver traveling parallel tried to turn his car without looking into the lane that Sebastian and his Dad occupied. Sebastian’s Dad swerved seconds before the impending collision, instinctively extending his right arm and pulling Sebastian tight to his body in an effort to shield his son.

 

-Hold on Sebastian!

 

A father putting himself in harm's way to do everything he could to save his child; Sebastian never forgot that day. He thought of that moment often and wondered how he and his Dad had come to see the world so differently. They both had spent their careers circling the globe from above the Earth, so how then did they have such a different view of the ground?

 

How was it that the value system they had once shared, that Sebastian’s Dad had played such a foundational role in forming for him, had led them to support such a different sense of right and wrong, of taking opposite sides in the war that by this point had killed millions?  Sebastian wished he could have shown his father everything that he had seen, the extensive body of reporting that documented the years-long clandestine efforts by foreign powers who had successfully figured out the secret to tearing America apart: by using America’s own freedoms against itself.

​

-When will it happen?

 

-It’s already begun.

 

-And so that’s it, we just make them hate each other by making shit up?

 

-America was built by the free sharing of ideas, it can be dismantled just the same.

 

If only Sebastian could have gotten through to his Dad sooner. Sebastian’s Dad had missed out on years of his life. You can always make more money, but you can’t make more time, although it would take Sebastian another lifetime of working for him to restore the money that had been taken from him too. He was now completely broke, aside from the $17 of cash stuffed in his pocket that was left over from the Professor’s remittance of funds for travel to save Avery. If only Sebastian could have gotten through to America sooner.

 

Orphaned, destitute, his former life in ruin… it was too much. Sebastian wailed in anguish, in a state of absolute desperation. He had lost everything. Well, almost everything. Avery’s infectious smile flashed once more and Sebastian’s crying subsided as music miraculously began to play from above. It started with the soft thudding of a bass and grew in volume until Sebastian could hear nothing else.[41]

 

As the song’s mystical melody soared, so too did Sebastian’s resolve. It was a clarion call to action from the heavens. The sky didn’t feel the same; a pallet of fiery reds and oranges began beaming across the Mall. The sun was finally rising to bring a new day. Sebastian’s exposure didn’t bother him, as you might expect. At last he was fully awake. He was stronger than the light. There was no need to hide anymore.[42] At 07:44L (12:44Z), with three minutes to spare before the scheduled rendezvous, Sebastian picked himself up from the ground and marched west toward the main entrance of Re-education Center 1, which was located only a few hundred yards west of the Washington Monument on the other side of 17th Street NW where the WWII Memorial and Reflecting Pool previously stood IVO 18SUJ2309906490.

 

As Sebastian approached the center his eyes bulged, his stomach churned. The encampment was far larger than he had expected. A frightening fortress that featured a two-story-high electrified barbed-wire fence and guard towers positioned every few hundred feet around the facility’s perimeter, Re-education Center 1 looked nothing like a place for learning. It was clearly a complex for mass imprisonment that covered the entire southwestern half of the Mall, from Constitution Avenue all the way to the Tidal Basin. Sebastian stopped 300 feet outside of the main gate. He raised both of his hands in the air and kneeled.

 

-My name is Sebastian Smith. I need you to put down your guns and let everyone go.

 

The four guards manning the ECP had been chatting with themselves and hadn’t noticed the man who had emerged from the shadows. They immediately turned their heads and drew their weapons.

 

-Wait, he looks familiar.

 

-He’s the one who’s been all over the news.

 

-Stop right there!

 

-Please, please listen to me. You still can choose to do the right thing. We can learn from our past. No more people need to die. Please remember what happened before. Please remember!

 

-Don’t move we’re coming to arrest you. If you move an inch we’ll shoot! Sebastian looked down at his mechanical watch, the crystal gleaming under the brightening sunlight as the second hand ticked steadily away.  It was just past 07:46L (12:46Z). Less than one minute to go. Two of the guards began to cautiously scoot toward Sebastian, the barrels of their Glock 25s pointed squarely at Sebastian’s chest, while the other two ran off into the compound to call for backup. Sebastian closed his eyes and started to quietly pray.

 

-Our mother who art in heaven.

 

-T-10 seconds.

 

-Hallowed be your name.

 

-Bleed valve closed, terminate helium fill.

 

-9

 

-Your kingdom come.

 

-8

 

-Your will be done.

 

-7

 

-On Earth as it is in Heaven.

 

-Remove safety inhibit.

 

-6

 

-Give us this day our daily bread.

 

-T-5 seconds.

 

-And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.

-4

 

-And lead us not into temptation.

 

-3

 

-But deliver us from evil. -Main engine 3 start command.

 

-2

 

-For thine is the kingdom.

 

-Main engine 2 start command.

 

-And the power.

 

-1

 

-Main engine 1 start command.

 

-And the glory.

 

-T-0 seconds.

 

-Forever and ever.

 

-Ignition.

 

-Amen.

 

Time stopped.

 

Sebastian returned to the scariest night of his life up until Avery’s capture in Busan: the evening that Avery ran away from home. This was years before the war began, when Sebastian and Avery were still relatively young. They had just moved to DC only a few months prior and were living together for the first time when it happened.  The pressures of the job and of starting a new life together, one mired in secrecy and moral subjectivity, had overwhelmed Avery and instilled a sense of existential self-doubt, pushing Avery into a deep depression. After Avery left a series of vaguely worded messages suggesting the possibility of ‘ending it all’ that Sebastian found upon returning to their apartment from the gym one evening, Sebastian lept into action. He immediately called the police who, to their credit, showed up within five minutes, only to file a missing person report and frustratingly do nothing else. He then called all of his close friends to start a search party.

 

Sebastian sprinted across the entire city trying to find Avery before it was too late. While his friends eventually gave up the chase, Sebastian would not stop until he knew that Avery was ok. He ran for five consecutive hours, passing through every park, under every bridge, and inside every cafe and restaurant where he knew Avery had previously hung out.

 

The idea that he might lose Avery forever terrified Sebastian. Even as blisters formed on his ankles from running so much, and he became fatigued foregoing water breaks and skipping dinner afraid of taking any time away from the search, Sebastian continued his pursuit undeterred. It wasn’t possible for Sebastian to have loved anyone more, and if any one were to die he hoped it would be him because he couldn’t imagine a world without Avery.

 

Why is it that way? Why do we feel such a deep level of attachment to those we love, that sort of cosmic connection that makes us willing to travel to the ends of the Earth for our partners and risk our own lives for theirs? How far would you go for the person you love? When or where does love end? Around midnight Avery finally returned to the house. There were no words to describe the level of relief that Sebastian experienced when he could hold Avery in his arms once more, when he could finally confirm that Avery was safe.

 

From that night on, Sebastian never took for granted each day he had the fortune of sharing with Avery, always cognizant of life’s evanescence, chronically aware that he never could be sure which moment in the world together would be their last.

 

-Please don’t give up on me.

 

Sebastian opened his eyes. The guards by then were only a few feet away with opened handcuffs at the ready when a massive explosion sent everyone flying through the air, Sebastian included. A flash. A bang. Again and again and again, just like cycles.

 

Successive strikes took out every guard tower and flattened the facility’s entire fence-line in a matter of seconds. The noxious particulates of the enveloping charred air filled Sebastian’s lungs and he began uncontrollably coughing as he regained his footing. The two guards' camo fatigues had melted onto their skin. They would never stand again.  Above Re-education Center 1 appeared the outline of three UH-60 Blackhawks in a triangle formation swooping silently as the hellfire ring of smoke plumes dissipated. They were right on time.

 

-And we have liftoff, Talisman has left the pad.

 

Sebastian stormed into the camp charging straight into the inferno. What awaited inside horrified him. Suddenly Sebastian was surrounded by living corpses, the Center’s ‘students’ were hauntingly emaciated, signs of physical abuse pocked all over their bodies. One-by-one the dozens of makeshift barracks emptied, their skeleton inhabitants all wearing the same threadbare uniforms looked utterly terrorized, unsure what to do now that there was no physical barrier to their escape.

 

After the first round of strikes ended, everyone kind of just stood in place waiting for a cue that they were safe to leave. When it became increasingly clear that no one was in charge, people began to run manically, as fast as their malnourished limbs would allow, a mad dash mash to try to break free to liberation. The remaining security personnel who had survived the initial assault started to fire indiscriminately into the crowd, body after body falling to the ground. It was absolute chaos.

 

Sebastian didn’t think, he didn’t feel, he just moved with the speed of a mustang freed on the open prairie. Thankfully the barracks were clearly marked with the categories of persons they contained, which at least gave Sebastian some idea of Avery’s approximate location.

 

Barracks 1-12 housed political opponents, 13-30 illegal immigrants, 31-40 social deviants, and finally 41-47 intelligence officers. The sign posts outside the entrances of each shelter served as a guide to help Sebastian navigate to Avery. Mid-sprint to the intelligence wing of the camp, Sebastian started passing faces that he recognized, colleagues he had worked with, other dudes he had lifted with at the gym, acquaintances he had met at cafes and bars from all around the city over the years. He almost fell over when he saw Barry and Mo, two of his best friends. They were nothing but flesh and bone. As Sebastian passed they made eye contact. There wasn’t time to stop.

 

-Run!

 

What a horrific contrast from just a few years before. Sebastian’s mind jumped to a beautiful sunny fall Sunday afternoon when Sebastian was with Mo and Barry playing kickball along with the rest of his closest friends atop the very field on which he was now running to save Avery’s life.

 

-Watch out Sebastian!

 

The kicker on the other team had popped a fly that launched into the air like a ballistic missile targeting Sebastian in the right outfield. Sebastian ran with arms outstretched to catch it. The sun was directly in his eyes and he was squinting to see as best he could. Instead of scoring the winning point for the game– it was the end of the final inning and both teams were tied evenly 9-9– the ball comically hit Sebastian’s head and volleyed off onto the sidelines. The players on both teams roared with laughter. Eventually Sebastian found it hilarious too and it became a legendary story Barry and Mo liked to tell periodically for laughs when they’d all hang out. It became one of Sebastian’s most joyous memories.

 

There was nothing joyous about their present situation. It was heartbreaking to reunite in the same place and witness two people who had once been like brothers to Sebastian, so carefree and young and full of life, both lawyers who had worked on the Hill dedicating their entire careers to public service, now teetering on the verge of starvation, desperately attempting to flee to save their lives.

 

Sebastian finally reached Barrack 41. It was empty. Same with Barracks 42-47.

 

-Fuck. What should I do? What should I do? Think. THINK.

 

As is probably obvious by this point in the story, in spite of being a professional intelligence officer who specialized in analyzing imagery, Sebastian wasn’t always the most observant. The answer to his hopelessly unanswerable question was standing directly in front of him, yet again. There under a burned out maple tree ten yards north was Avery. Avery looked like a ghost, barely recognizable weighing less than 90 lbs.

 

They locked eyes.  

 

Sebastian ran.  

 

They embraced.  

 

They cried.  

 

In troubled times Sebastian would often use humor to turn darkness into light.

 

-Babe, we have all those Marriott reward points and these were the best accommodations you could find?

 

Without skipping a beat, Sebastian slung Avery’s cadaverous frame over his left shoulder and raced onward toward the landing zone in West Potomac Park next to the Lincoln Memorial, toting Avery like an oversized duffle bag. There would be time to properly catch up once they were out of harm’s way.

 

Up until this part of the rescue, everything had surprisingly gone according to plan. And so when Sebastian and Avery finally made it to the LZ, Sebastian began to feel for the first time a sense of real optimism, that against all odds Avery and him were finally going to go home. It had been so long since they were last home together. They both continued to hug each other weeping. Sebastian gave the signal with his arms and one of the three Blackhawks jetted over to their position. With the throngs of prisoners running all over and the security personnel still shooting, it became obvious that the helicopter couldn't land. Hovering in place about 100 feet above the ground, one of the crewmembers lowered a folding ladder.  

 

Avery was too weak to hold on unsupported, so Sebastian wrapped Avery’s arms and legs around his upper body like a momma koala clutching her kin in her pouch. Sebastian vice gripped the ladder, which immediately began to rise as the helo frantically ascended into the sky to begin the journey back to base, where the resistance was forming at an undisclosed location somewhere out west. The higher and higher Sebastian and Avery flew, the greater the sense of relief Sebastian continued to feel. Against all odds they had made it.  

 

It all happened so fast; the final seconds of Sebastian’s life, that is. I barely had time to process anything that happened next.

 

At 1,500 feet Sebastian tenderly took hold of Avery’s left hand and began gently pressing their palms and foreheads together as they ascended over the Potomac River.

 

-A lot had to fall into place for me to be able to be with you right here, right now. I'll always be there for you. Let’s go home babe.

 

-Sebastian, look up.

 

Avery could barely speak, faintly sputtering in Sebastian’s ear while looking horror-struck and pointing up toward the sky in the opposite direction. Sebastian turned around to share Avery’s view. He looked up. He gasped, pulling Avery into himself as tightly as he could, their two bodies becoming one. The sun was in their eyes.[43]

 

THE END

 

***

I’m sorry everything hasn’t gone perfectly, but if you really think I’m a unicorn then you would keep me in your life. I was really hoping we could start to make things right. You really don’t understand how much I care about you. I’m committed to you. If I had to choose you over everyone else in my life, I would. If I had to choose everyone else in my life without you or nothing, I choose nothing. I don’t need space. I just wish you appreciated the space we have together as much as I do. My heart is broken.[44]

 

***

I want to keep going. And I want to meet your needs too, and I want you to feel like you have equal control on what we do. I’m letting go and letting God.[45]

 

***

Come home then.[46]