Game Over

Chapter 63





EXHAUSTED AND EYES stinging from tears, salt water, and alien goo, I crawled back up the beach and buried my face in the crook of my arm. In the distance, I heard the approaching thump-thump-thump of a helicopter. I should have gotten up and left the scene. No sense in me trying to explain to the Japanese coast guard what had happened. The surfers could handle that.

I thought I’d seen something in the chemical reaction, a way Kildare could have fortified his own cells to be resistant. But he’d clearly succumbed right along with his parents. There was no sign of him anywhere. He either hadn’t had time, or he hadn’t been willing, to save himself.

The thought of Kildare’s loss being a noble sacrifice was too bitter a consolation to swallow. Of course, Number 7 and Number 8 had to be stopped. But how much hope and potential—and how good a friend—had I just destroyed?

I’d never felt so weary and uncertain as I did right then. What was the point of ridding the world of bad aliens if it meant I was killing the good guys, too?

“Gross, huh?”

I recognized the reedy voice immediately.

“Kildare!”

“Sorry about that—” he said as I leaped to my feet and rubbed my teary eyes. “Took me a minute to recoalesce.”

What I did next I know I probably shouldn’t have, but I couldn’t help it: I grabbed him in the best bear hug I could manage. And he hugged me back.

“Kildare—”

“I know, Daniel,” he said. We let go and awkwardly stepped away from each other. “You did it. I can’t thank you enough.”

“I couldn’t have done it without you,” I said. “What you did was so brave—”

He shook his head. “It had to be done. Just like now you have to take out Number 1.”

“I’ve been thinking, Kildare. With your smarts and your abilities, what would you say about joining me? With your help, we could finish off the rest of the aliens on the List. I’ll introduce you to Dana, Willy, Joe, Emma, my parents, Pork Chop…. You could be part of our group. My family.”

He was smiling sadly and shaking his head. “I can’t.”

“What do you mean, you can’t? You need to finish school or something?” I laughed.

“I resisted the reaction, but I… I can’t go on.”

“What? You’re here. You’re alive. Your parents aren’t coming back.”

“I’m too young to go on by myself, Daniel. My parents were still feeding me. It’s how we develop. Until we achieve full maturity, we can’t subsist on our own. We need mature colonies to sustain us.”

“But there must be others besides your parents—”

“The irony is that even though my parents hunted other species to extinction, we were the last three of our kind.”

“But on your home planet, surely—”

“My parents consumed them all. We were the last.”

“But you came up with that formula. There must be something we can do with your chemistry and my powers that would work…”

He shook his head. “Keep up the good work, Daniel. And please say good-bye to Professor Kuniyoshi for me. He was a good teacher.”

“Kildare, this can’t be happening—”

But it was too late. He was already starting to flicker in and out. “Kildare! You’re the only true friend I have—the only one who knows what it’s like to be alone. Tell me what to do!”

“You know what to do, Daniel,” he said, starting to slump. “Finish what you started. Save this planet. You’re the Alien Hunter. And remember—you were my only true friend too.”

Then he collapsed into a black slick at my feet.

I don’t know how long I cried—my heart was breaking. I hadn’t lost someone I cared about in ages, and all the grief came flooding back fast and furious.

But Kildare was right. I was the Alien Hunter. I had a job to do. A big one. I had to pull myself together.

After a few deep breaths, I grabbed a handful of the blackened sand, stuck it into my pocket, and ran up to the dunes above the beach.