by Bryan Nyaude
“It’s not every day I see a rare specimen like you,” she commented, lingering closer to observe me. She came so close to me, that I could clearly see the glimmer in her purple-like eyes as clear as daylight. Her breath smelt of lavender cinnamon and chocolate. Yep, she was just too close for personal comfort.
“On second thought, I am feeling better now,” I panicked and tried to move away. I don’t think I wanted her to treat my wounds.
“What’s the matter?” she poked me on an exposed part of my chest armor.
I screamed out in pain, making a loud noise that echoed throughout the entire complex. My whole body reacted to the pain through impulsive shivers.
“Are you sure?” she asked again, with a faint smile of her lips, looking at me with such curious, sinister eyes.
Now, I was really positive I didn’t want her operating on me at all. I didn’t like pain. She took control of the gravity lift Maurice had left on the ground and pulled me into the dark room. Crap, was this really happening? It felt like one of those scary scenes from horror movies where you expected something bad to happen and it usually did. The door closed behind us without being touched, completely startling me. Giant bright lights came on and illuminated directly into my eyes, making me almost blind.
“I am anxious to dissect you and see how the human race has evolved over time,” she spoke from somewhere in the room, like a phantom.
What! Did she say dissect? Perhaps my ears were deceiving me. I was hoping I had misheard her—because that was scary.
“Come again, please? I didn’t hear what you just said.”
I heard a few more footsteps and suddenly she appeared, next to my right foot. Eyes sparkling like fluorescent stars and a smile as frightening like that of a terror beast. But to be precise, she was pretty when she smiled like that. There were a few scapulas hidden beneath her lab shirt and something that looked like a mini x-ray scanner tucked between them.
“I said, I want to dissect you and see how the human race has evolved over time.”
Yeah, I definitely heard her right the first time, but it was just hard to process the information. Just what had I gotten myself into? I looked her straight in the face and realized how serious and twisted she was. There was no sense of deliberation or remorse in her eyes. This lady was too dangerous and I had to escape her immediately. One tiny problem, there was no way to escape at the moment. My only option was to try and convince her otherwise.
“Ha! Very funny indeed,” I laughed, trying to make a joke out of the situation. Only thing was that she wasn’t laughing at all.
“That wasn’t a joke.”
“Well, our bodies haven’t changed from what you already know; we still have our organs and limbs in the same place as you guys. There is no need for you to dissect me, honest.”
The thought of her dissecting me was not exactly how I intended my life to end. I liked my body with all my organs intact, thank you very much. She stood there, motionless, watching me for a couple of seconds without muttering a word. Suddenly, a fiery smile emerged on her face. She was brewing something terrible inside her psychopathic mind.
“Nah, there is something about you that is different from everyone else around here, and I am curious to know what it is.”
She walked away and picked up what looked like a proton drill. The machine made a loud screeching noise that almost destroyed my eardrums. She came back towards me with the drill and looked straight into my eyes, with a large grin. Yeah, she definitely was seriously trying to dissect me, judging by her facial expression. You definitely didn’t need to be a genius to figure that out. I watched her place the machine on my armor. She began drilling off the first shell cover on it. My heart pounced out painfully as fear rushed through me. This was not part of the agreement—the alien girl, from before, said her leader wanted to speak with me, she never mentioned dissection to me. I could have remembered something like that if she had. Well, this definitely was not the right way to start a conversation with someone, in my opinion.
Suddenly she stopped. “This armor is much harder than I thought. I might need something bigger and stronger to remove it.”
Phew, I was safe for a few more seconds. There was a giant puddle of sweat on my forehead. It was falling into my eyes and making them sting terribly. The situation was becoming troublesome and I needed to come up with a plan to get out of here. My life was hanging on a whim that looked like it could fall at any second from now, only making things a little rough.
“Relax, this will only hurt a little and then it will be over,” she came back, holding what looked like a metal disrupter.
Was she joking? How could I possibly relax when someone was about to cut my chest open? If anything, I was far from relaxed. On no, I was slightly sure I just wet my boxers out of fear. Darn, it was my only pair so I really hoped it was just a lot of sweat or something. I closed my eyes as I felt her bring the machine closer towards my chest. My mind shattered from all the thoughts surging through it at that time period. Suddenly, the big door opened again, before she could begin her attempt again. Someone walked in slowly and stopped halfway.
“Stop teasing him, Ariya,” the person spoke and came into the light.
She was a vibrant angel and she reminded me of someone. It was right at the tip of my tongue, but I just couldn’t remember who. Well, I was safe for the moment and that was all that mattered. I rolled my head back to get a better glimpse of her. She was rather beautiful for an alien. Up close, I realized it was her voice that had stopped the terror beast from killing me. I thought I recognized her voice from somewhere else, but now, I wasn’t sure anymore. Wait a minute; the more I looked at her, the more I realized who she reminded me of. The model girl from that Aliases hologram magazine issue #67—well, excluding the gray skin. This brought back some teen memories. I used to be a fan of those magazines when I was in my teenage years—those were indeed the wonder years.
“Control yourself, Den,” I thought to myself and took a breath, trying to imagine Rose.
How strange, every memory of her seemed to come up blank, for some unknown reason. What was going on in my head? Perhaps not seeing her in four years was causing a memory lapse inside my brain. Or, conceivably, it had something to do with this new attractive stranger in front of me.
“So you are the boy my sister brought home, you caused quite a commotion,” she said gently; it sounded almost rude, and yet, soothing.
“Darn, I am not a boy, I am a man,” I growled at her.
I was very sensitive when it came to that. I don’t know why, but ever since I turned 21, I wanted people to refer to me as a man, instead of boy. I think it was linked to the way my parents treated me. I wanted freedom and respect from them more than anything else, since I had come of age. The last thing I wanted was them interfering with my life dreams any more than they had. It was definitely something along those lines. The new stranger paced closer to me and looked directly into my eyes. She was standing a few inches away from the cold crazy nurse without saying anything.
“It seemed this one has got quite the temper on him,” the nurse, with metal disrupter, interrupted and turned on the machine.
“Stop teasing him, Ariya, I have some questions I need him to answer,” the woman commanded, banging her fist on the table.
The whole room shook for a minute. It felt like everything was going to break at once. The cold nurse did not back away at all—she looked excited more than fearful.
“Oh come on, Kristin,” she replied, moving even closer. “Don’t be like that.”
The tension in the room was rising really fast. I could tell that there was some bad history between them. But what did that mean for me? All this commotion and excitement was really starting to rub me the wrong way. My heart could not take any more of this abuse.
“You never let me have any more fun with the patients,” the crazy nurse spoke in a whiny voice.
“Well, if you stopped trying to kill them all the time, then
I would,” Kristin replied back, folding her arms.
“I was just playing around,” Ariya spoke and tapped my helmet a few times, “look at him: he is having a blast.”
Define blast? Honestly, I had no idea what she was talking about. Her sense of humor was really messed up.
“This one is special and I can’t let you do what you want with him,” Kristin looked at her angrily. “He has some vital information and I need him alive.”
As soon as she was done speaking, Ariya walked up to me and said, “this is your lucky day.”
She tapped my helmet again and left the room, in a slow and confident manor. Finally, I was alone with their leader and a few questions popped into my mind. However, a feeling of danger crept in. My life depended on the questions and answers I could provide her, which was not really a lot. I was under orders not to say anything to the enemy, and right now, she qualified as a major threat to me. Could I risk my life and stay quiet the whole time? She took something from her pockets and placed it out in the open. It looked like a syringe with an unknown chemical inside it. I felt uncomfortable as she brought it close to me and injected it into the exposed part on my arm. The needle pierced deeply into my veins, sending a jolting sensation throughout my body. My body vibrated and felt really weird.
“I want you to tell me everything you know,” she said, staring at me with those mesmerizing eyes.
I was caught in the gaze of her enchanting eyes before I knew it. How could I possibly say no to her now? Oh wait! What was I thinking all of a sudden? Something was wrong with me. Before I knew it, I opened my mouth and told her everything, from my own history all the way to the secret mission. I just couldn’t stop myself from blurting out everything I knew, even the most embarrassing things about myself.
“Okay, this is awkward,” she said, with a facial expression filled with surprise and shock. “I really just wanted to know why you were here, but you gave me a mouth full and it only took you ten minutes. It seems the dosage I gave you was too much.”
“You injected me with some sort of truth serum, didn’t you?”
“Yes, I am sorry,” she replied and shifted her body to the left. “It was the only way to know if you were a friend or foe.”
“So, am I a friend or a foe?” I asked her.
“You are our ally for now,” she responded, gazing straight into my eyes. “We share the same goals and enemies.”
“Okay, now that you know about me, tell me something about yourself.” I asked her, blushing without any signs of doubt in my voice. It was the truth serum making me divulge everything I was thinking out loud. The chemical was impairing my judgment and higher cognitive function.
“I’m starting to see why Rose left you,” she commented, shaking her head at me.
Okay, that was a low blow and I had no idea what she meant by that at all. Bringing Rose into this conversation was definitely something I didn’t see coming.
“I will tell you one thing,” her facial expression changed all of a sudden without warning. “Earth is in grave danger and we need to act now.”
What was she trying to tell me? Her words were like a hologram puzzle with missing pieces. As far as I could tell, every living organism on earth was in jeopardy of extinction. The terror beasts attacked everything without prejudice. When they attacked, usually nothing survived that fatal encounter.
“What are you trying to say?” I responded rudely, my eyes widening with fear. “You are hiding something from me, aren’t you?”
“You don’t understand,” she cut me off completely, in a cold tone. “A lot of things are going on and it’s complicated. The truth is more frightening than you think.”
Was she trying to scare me? Well, it was working because my heart was racing so much—it felt like it was going to explode. I really think I was going to die of a heart attack one of these days, I could feel it. But, still, whatever she meant was definitely serious. If this was true, then we were in for a big wake up call. This planet was definitely linked to the terror beast invasion on earth. But how were they getting to our planet? I looked at her indirectly; she had the final piece I needed to finish this puzzling mystery.
“What do you know?”
I no longer felt any fear in asking her any question relating to my mission.
“The truth is stranger than fiction. You wouldn’t believe me, even if I explained it to you, so get better and find out for yourself,” she replied and typed in something on the table monitor.
“Are you serious? Why are you people hiding information from me?” I rattled and fell silent from pain. The ache in my body was agonizing. The more angry and emotional I got, the less bearable it was.
“This room is composed of healing light,” she changed the subject on me. “You will get the answers you seek in time. In the mean time, remain calm and try not to move as much for the next six hours, while your body heals.”
I didn’t reply since I didn’t have the strength to talk anymore. I lowered my breathing to remain calm and at ease. I watched her move slightly away from me, like she was about to leave. Strangely, I felt better for some reason. The light soothing into my pores was healing me slowly.
“By the way, you failed our test,” she walked towards the door, unhurriedly. I could hear her every footstep.
“How did I fail?”
“Just know that it’s a good thing,” she glanced back one last time and left. “If you had passed, we would have killed you in that instant.”
Oh, it appeared the test was rigged from the start, and a good thing I didn’t use my emergency revolvers to deal with the matter. Man, I hated this planet more and more with every passing second. I couldn’t wait to get off this miserable rock. As I lay there trying to sleep, I thought about Ali and everyone else. He was probably worried sick. Knowing him, he saw this scenario playing out and had a backup plan. By now, Dalla and Rick had made it back with the equipment. Most likely, the ship had already left this planet.
Nah, they wouldn’t do that to us now, would they? Everything seemed to have gotten out of hand so fast, like a speeding train with no brakes. This had gone beyond a simple recon mission into something far much larger than just an upscale invasion. Slowly, but surely, I began losing consciousness as I drifted into a deep sleep. Before I knew it, I was sound asleep—far away from the clutches of the cruel reality.
8
“Wake up,” a rude voice yelled so loud it almost blew off my cochlea.
This person certainly could use a tooth brush with a lot of paste. No, better make it two toothbrushes. I could smell the stench of what smelled like alcohol, and it was strong enough to make my nostrils burn. I opened my eyes, halfheartedly, and got stung by a bright light. I shielded my eyes quickly and rolled out of bed. My body no longer felt painful and all the exhaustion I had felt before was gone. Something felt out of place. No way! My armor had somehow been removed from my body. I was wearing what looked like silk pajamas. Who could have done this? They had even changed my boxers without my approval, the nerve of some people! How could they invade my privacy like that? Still, it felt great to be able to touch my own flesh and bone.
“Come with me, Wet Pants,” the man waved me towards him as he proceeded to exit the room.
What did he mean by “wet pants”? Oh crap, I really had wet myself. It was likely that everyone in this underground base knew about this secret. Just my luck, I was already the laughing stock of the enemy base on the first day. I felt embarrassed and a bit humiliated. However, I didn’t let it get to me. My mission came first before anything else. The man made an abrupt cough, informing me that I was taking too long. He looked at me impatiently, while tapping his fingers closer to the hatch door. I got the message and followed behind him quickly. The hatch door closed behind me automatically while blinking slowly. We walked through the underground corridors and past a few sideways floors. Bizarrely, the corridors were empty of enemies—it was just too silent. Something about this place gave me the chills. I
felt weird being here without any armor or weapons.
“Where is my armor?” I asked as I caught up to pace with the alien man who woke me up.
He looked so drunk like he had jumped into a lake of alcohol. He proceeded to burp out loudly; the stench reverting from his breath repulsed me back greatly. I paced a few feet back, but still following behind him.
“Wouldn’t you like to know?” he snickered in a rude remark, glaring at me in the eye for a second.
The narrow corridor ended as we began to move across a thick metal plated hall, heading to another unknown section. Honesty, I was impressed with the architecture; the whole fortress was deep underground and very big. The amount of work and dedication that went into building this base was astounding. Surprisingly, the gravity was not affecting me in any way. The level of technological advancement on this planet was also impressive. Suddenly, my nose caught scent of a nice smell. It was coming from somewhere ahead of us, as it leaked from a vented door. It smelled like something good was cooking and I couldn’t wait to eat because I was starving. I picked up pace and went in front, trudging towards that room as I couldn’t wait any longer.
“Not yet,” the drunk man pulled me back, by grabbing a hold of my arm. “There is someone who wants to see you first.”
I really hoped it was important. Usually nothing came between me and my food, when I was hungry. But what was it with these people and trying to see me at the worst possible time? The smell was too strong as I could almost taste it on my lips. My taste buds and my stomach were mad at me as I stopped going towards that smell and followed the drunken man. I bore the hunger and took my mind off it. It was almost classical watching the drunk alien walk in front of me, with his booze in one hand. I don’t know how, but he was still able to keep walking without falling. That much alcohol was enough to kill some people; however, he just owned it, like he had done this a thousand times over. He stopped instantaneously in front of a thick hatched door.