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In one future, Alia and Kevin have a baby and it never occurs to either of them that Alia may have had trouble conceiving. The two had a baby shower with friends they had made in their new city and it was a joyous occasion. The baby was born prematurely, at just three months, but he was healthy and taller than the average newborn. Not only did the rapid rate of growth confound doctors, but everyone in the delivery room practically gasped when the baby appeared to be white. Kevin assumed the worst and he stormed out of the hospital. The two didn’t talk for a week, and Kevin spent a lot of time getting drunk and cursing Alia’s name. When Kevin finally agreed to talk to Alia, he listened to her reassure him that she had never been with another man, but Kevin didn’t listen. He refused to hold the baby that she carried. He yelled at her, “I wish that baby didn’t exist,” and as soon as he finished the sentence, the blankets in Alia’s arms fell flat. The baby disappeared. Alia mourned, and Kevin disappeared, afraid of himself and his ability.
In another future, Kevin and Alia struggle to get pregnant and they hold one another sobbing when the doctor tells them that Alia cannot get pregnant. Kevin knowingly uses his ability to impregnate Alia, but the pregnancy doesn’t take and Kevin’s love for Alia sours. He assumed that it doesn’t work because Alia doesn’t want to have children and he leaves her, angry that she is not honest with him.
In another future, both Alia and Kevin are shocked to learn of her pregnancy and both want to terminate it. But the baby grows rapidly and doctors are stunned at the race of it when it is born. Kevin never wonders if Alia cheated on him, and they both assume that Kevin’s preternatural ability is involved. Alia confronted Kevin and he finally admitted that he wanted to have a baby with her, and when she hears this she leaves him forever.
The two never last long as a couple in any future. And Alia knows that she had never seen things play out for the two as they had. There are many implications of this fact that Alia doesn’t want to consider as she walks the streets of Wilmington, NC. Maybe she never had access to the future events of her current reality, only realities so similar that they appeared to be indistinguishable from her present. But Alia doesn’t think about it this way. The zombies, and the way the pregnancy situation played out, was proof to her that her fears of the future were misplaced. It’s a lot to think about. She had done a lot to shape the course of events in her own life and in the lives of others, and sometimes things happen just as she wanted and she avoided the horrible things that she saw, but maybe they were never going to happen anyway. She suddenly feels a pang of guilt at the fate of the woman Maria. Alia knew that Maria would come to the IBF and that she would be denied any information about Dr. Thomas Eakran, so she moved Nebuchad to put the name in Cousins’ head so that he would have no choice but to meet the woman. Everything that happened after that was not her design, but she was not sad to learn that Dr. Moss had died and that Cousins was a prisoner. They had deserved that for ignoring the humanity of the patients in the basement.
She doesn’t know where she will go from here. She doesn’t make plans. She won’t speak any prophesies or influence the present for anyone. She would continue her sun gazing and make detailed notes until it was clear to her what she was able to access when she gazed into the sun.
Alia puts out a thumb to hail a ride and it looks like perfect timing because a car stops immediately and offers her a ride.
“Where to?” the driver asks with a smile.
“As far as you can take me.”
Kevin is done. This is his last straw. His attempt to get closer to reality all those years ago when he first left home, had only taken him further away from it. He didn’t resemble a normal man in any way. His life since he left home had been dictated by his ability and the consequences that using the ability had thrust on him. He had accidentally killed people and used his ability to rob others of their rights as Americans, and he had created a human being inside of a woman who did not want it. He wondered if that made him some kind of a rapist. His ability had been the source of his misery and he makes the decision that he wants it all to end.
Many years ago, on his first trip across the US, Kevin had a boozy night with a now dead friend and the following day, he had a headache unlike anything he had ever experienced before. He has had alcohol since then, but only a drink or two at a time, afraid that he had experienced something more substantial than a mere hangover. It seemed that the alcohol had affected the device in his head, and he drinks himself stupid in the absence of the Alia.
He drinks beer after beer sitting in his backyard. He disappears the tree that grew up from his seed and it doesn’t immediately snap out of existence as he is used to. It appears to disappear block by block, like pixels are being erased one at a time.
He doesn’t know where his family is. They had abandoned the home that he grew up in and he had no way to reach any of them. He can only assume that their disappearance is his fault and they have no interest in seeing him. He doesn’t have anything.
The more he drinks, the darker it becomes as the sun slowly sets. Soon it is dark and Kevin is drunk enough to blackout. He vomits twice while sleeping, and lucky for him he isn’t lying down.
When he wakes the next day, he can barely open his eyes. His head is pounding like hammers knock around inside of his skull. He is still outside and he squints at the bright light of the morning. And when his vision clears, it is still unsteady and oscillates between double vision. He sees the alien in his double vision. Dr. Thomas Eakran.
“I fixed my tracker,” he says with a smile. “It’s almost like you summoned me here. Where is my Alia?”
Kevin opens his mouth to respond, and then he vomits a torrent of alcohol. He collapses on the ground. The pain in his head is unbearable.
He wakes up in a place that he does not know. It is Eakran’s basement laboratory at the IBF. Eakran sits next to his bed.
“Hello.”
“Just get it over with.” Kevin says.
“What do you mean?”
“Take this thing out of my head. I don’t care if it kills me.”
Eakran smiles. “You’re not going to fight this?”
Kevin sits up on the bed and holds his head in his hands. There is still a dull ache all around his brain.
“I’ll kill you if you don’t take it out.”
Eakran nods. “As you wish.”
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