Time stretched on. I huddled with my cane clutched in my arms, my knees quaking, feeling utterly alone.My worst nightmare come to life.I hated my own company. I’d been raised to be an elite racer and lived in a dormitory-style training camp for most of my life. I saw Valentina and myabuelaat least once a day, so there was no time to worry about my deep-seated fear because I was never alone. All that had changed.
I need my sister.
Worry for her ate me alive. But all I could do was wait as the hisses and flashes continued—a reminder of the next human who’d be put to sleep or worse. I lost count after ninety-nine. Was Valentina number four, twenty-eight? One hundred? Every instinct told me to stay small and quiet. To conceal my one advantage as long as I could. But all I wanted to do was scream Valentina’s name.
My pod moved again. I rubbed my eyes. They felt gritty. The metallic air blasting into my cube was too dry. Or jacked up with chemicals. I saw a line of pods in front of me passing througha massive… gateway? Whirlpool? It shimmered as each human-filled coffin floated through.
Shoomp. Shoomp. Shoomp.
It was a portal! I ducked down, covering my head with my arms.As if that’ll help.I felt a long tug, a rumble… and weightlessness. Tiny points of golden light surrounded me. I held my breath as the lights swirled, came closer, and attacked. Tugging at my limbs, pulling my hair, and whispering my name in… warning? The murmurs became screams. I sobbed and huddled down low, making myself as small as possible.
After one lastshoomp, everything stopped. No more lights and noise. Instead, I glided into a sterile white room. I pressed my face against the invisible shield and bit back a scream. Four racers rested on a long black table. One of them was Nieve. She lay face up, and I hoped she was only knocked out and not dead. Her head was thrown back and her eyes closed.
Not a good look for her.
I immediately flopped backward and mimicked her position down to her bent leg. Something was coming. I could feel it, so I squeezed my eyes shut and waited.
An inhuman shriek, sounding like a million panes of glass shattering, crescendo-ed then dulled. Brief pauses and clicks sounded between the high-pitched screams. The unnatural noise grated like nails on a chalkboard—if the chalkboard were my brain. I itched to cover my ears but couldn’t move.
Desperate, I peeked open an eye. Three beings surrounded the first racer in my row. They sort of resembled people, but the dimensions were wrong. Their arms almost scraped the ground. Their skin was sickly green, and multi-colored feathers adorned their tear-shaped heads. They wore long cloaks and nothing else. Except for the third one. He looked a little different. A tad taller, and for some reason, he was the only one wearing pants.
Aliens.I’ve been abducted?Of course. Humans couldn’t have pulled off something this sophisticated. The idea of it enraged me. These feather-headed motherfuckers thought they could steal me away from my sister?
Claro que no!I was busting out of here. Those puny little Martians had no idea who they’d stolen.
Time to swing cane and ask questions later.
Was I desperately using the mantra to push down the immobilizing fear that threatened to overwhelm me?Yup.Whenever I was terrified, I became useless, so I fed the anger, determined to attack.
To destroy.
One of the shorter aliens waddled toward the other racers. This one had dark splotches on his forehead. He held a square vial in his three-fingered hand.Mierda.The digits looked as long as my forearm. And his mouth looked more like a beak than lips.
Golden fluid splashed against the glass vial. The liquid crested with each step. I stared at the shimmering substance through my lashes.Mesmerizing.It leaped and danced as if trying to escape.
The freckled alien placed the small container in a pistol-shaped contraption. He held the gun against Nieve’s face, and before I could blink, a needle shot out and pierced her eye. My body seized, and I fought the urge to vomit. No wayin hellwas he putting that shit in me.
The alien looked over his shoulder, and the noises increased, as if someone had smashed into a windowpane. Thatsound. Freckles’ mouth was moving. It was him. His language. The one with pants didn’t reply. Instead, he stared me down. An irritating buzz pulsed against my brain, but I ignored it and relaxed my body, shutting my eyes completely. Had he noticed I was awake?
Por favor, Dios.Give me a fighting chance.
The aliens’ chatter increased. I peeked open a lid and saw the force field around me shimmer and disappear. In an instant, Freckles was beside me—his acrid smell reminding me of curdled milk. It overwhelmed me. I couldn’t wrap my brain around thewrongnessof it.
He screeched, and his shadow fell across me. When his fetid breath heated my cheek, I popped open my eyes and punched out before the needle penetrated my pupil. The vial exploded, and theoro, the golden substance, flew through the air. Most of it landed on my bare belly; the rest slithered to the ground.
All hell broke loose. Bird-like aliens ran around in circles, screeching for their lives. One tried to scoop the Oro up in his hand, but it bled over the sides of its three-fingered palm. Others blocked it with their baby feet, but it slid around them. Finally, Freckles got on the ground and slurped some up. His body seized, and he screamed, his eyes rolling back in his head. The others joined in, licking up the extra drops.
Like… alien junkies.
The Oro that had landed on my stomach pulsed—cresting and swelling like a miniature wave. My hands hovered over the substance. What would happen if I touched it? I scrambled up, but it clung to my skin. I used the cane to slough it off, but it flowed over and around the cheap metal.
Half of it inched toward my face, the other toward my bare mons. It vibrated and sizzled, burning my skin. I screamed as it raced between my legs. I pressed my knees together and tried to block it with my hands, but the heat between my thighs told me it breached my folds.
The inside of my stomach lit up like molten lava. Before I could process, the rest of the Oro flooded my mouth, nose, ears… Every orifice it could reach.
A pulsing light blew through me, soaking blood and bone, searing me down to a cellular level. I opened my mouth toscream,to beg, but all I saw before the world went dark was green aliens rolling around on the ground, spasming and shrieking in their glee.
Except for one. The tall one wearing pants. He stood by my side, keeping the flailing addicts away from me, and gently patted my hand.
