Taken (Stories of the Alien Invasion Book 1) Page 5

  “He’s not okay,” a woman said. She lay against the far wall. “None of us are okay.”

  That couldn’t be true. He had to be alright.

  “This is Mary,” the red-haired girl said. “I’m Kailey.”

  “Rachel.”

  “Where’d you get taken from, Rachel?” Mary asked.

  “Davis, up near Sacramento.”

  “My big sister was going to school up there,” Kailey said. “I was hoping…”

  “They might have started with the big cities, but…” Rachel shook her head. The others seemed to understand.

  A door opened, revealing a guard holding some kind of gun. Rachel screamed when she saw him. He was humanoid in that he had a head, two arms and two legs. That was where the resemblance stopped. He was only four feet tall, but muscled like an adult, and his skin was indigo blue. His head was the most terrifying thing. At first, she thought he wore a helmet, but then she realized that he was misshapen, deformed. He had two eyes, a nose and a mouth, but above that, where his hair would start, there was a second dark red head that looked like it was devouring his skull. Two blue men, just like him but without the second head, rolled boxes into the room and retreated. The door slammed behind them, leaving the humans alone again.

  “What was that?” Rachel asked.

  “Breakfast,” Kailey said and hurried towards the crates. The girl elbowed her way through the mob around the boxes. She pulled a couple things from a box and returned to her space on the wall. She handed a small ball to Mary and another to Rachel. Rachel squeezed hers, it was soft like a balloon and didn’t seem to want to break.

  “Eat up,” Mary said. “We need to keep up our strength for the work they have us do.” Mary and Kailey bit into theirs, so Rachel did the same. A sweet burst of honeyed liquid sprayed into her mouth. It was like fruit juice, but better. She sucked it from the ball and swallow after swallow of the nectar filled her. She went to drop the empty ball, but Mary and Kailey were actually biting into it.

  “Eat the outside part, too,” Mary said. The rind wasn’t as flavorful as the juice, but after she ate it, her stomach finally settled.

  “What was that thing?” Rachel asked again. “I mean, the two that brought in the food, they looked normal. The other one, though, what happened to its head?”

  “I don’t know. We call them the skull-men. They’re the ones in charge.”

  After a while, two deformed blue men opened the door. They both had the second strange head atop their own. Rachel swallowed her horror at the things, and the red-skulls directed the prisoners out of the room. The corridor was a rounded tunnel, like a giant worm had burrowed through the rock. The prisoners marched through the tunnel, one skull-man leading them. The other marched behind, brandishing the gun.

  “Where are we going?” Rachel whispered. She could tell the other new arrivals were scared, too. They all seemed to be asking the same questions.

  “The mines,” Kailey said.

  Glowing moss grew on the ceiling, producing just enough light to see the ridges in the uneven ground. Finally, the corridor opened into a great cavern. The blue man at the front waved them towards a bunch of tools. The red eyes in his second skull glowed in the subterranean light. Rachel received a pickaxe and was shoved forward. She held it uncomfortably in her hands. Kailey and Mary held theirs a bit more confidently. They led her towards the wall and began hacking away.

  “What are we looking for?” Rachel asked.

  “Red fish eggs,” Mary said. “If we find a vein of these little red things that look like the orange fish eggs on sushi, then the skull-men get excited and take them away.”

  They dug into the rock. Rachel couldn’t bring herself to call it “earth,” they weren’t on Earth. She knew that much. Her hands burned as blisters formed and popped on the metallic handle of the pickaxe. She kept reminding herself that at least Nate might be alive. This slavery had to be worth it. She needed it to be worth it.

  “Why’s it so important you find this Nate guy?” Kailey asked.

  “What?”

  “You keep saying his name as you’re digging.”

  Rachel said nothing and slammed the pickaxe into the rock again.

  “Personally,” Mary said. “I’m happy I haven’t seen my boys or my husband. I hope it means they’re still free back on Earth.”

  Rachel bit her tongue, resisting the urge to tell her that being on Earth now wasn’t such a cakewalk. Instead, she waited a beat and asked the question that Mary obviously wanted her to ask.

  “How’d you get taken, if they didn’t?”

  “We made it a few days before we ran into their flying coffin things.” Mary shrugged. “I tried to save my boys. I don’t know that they didn’t get taken, but I hope my sacrifice bought them some time.”

  TWENTY-FOUR

  CONNIE

  AFTER ANOTHER WEEK OR so, Connie paced their room. Calvin stood in his crib and watched her with big eyes. She knew something was wrong. She just knew it, but after her nightmare the other night, she knew George wouldn’t believe her.

  George just turned off the light and told them both to go to sleep.

  “Can’t sleep,” Connie said, rubbing her arms as she paced.

  “Hormones,” George said.

  Connie wanted to smack him, but maybe he was right. With Calvin she’d had a couple sleepless nights, but this felt different. This felt off. She felt off.

  She kept pacing in the dark. Soon, both George and Calvin were snoring away. Connie peeked out the window, pulling back the thrift store blanket curtains just an inch. She hoped that maybe the stars would settle her, or maybe she’d see that nothing was wrong.

  The box—one of the flying coffins—glowed as it approached the farmstead. It put off the same flickering crackle of light that they’d seen on TV on the big ship over LA. The daylight footage didn’t show the coffins doing that, but that crackle was coming down from the mountains and it didn’t feel like a storm.

  “George, wake up!” Connie snapped, shaking her husband’s arm. Her heart pounded in her throat. They needed to leave now.

  He swatted at her and rolled over.

  “Go to sleep,” he mumbled.

  Connie tried again, flipping on the light, but George just pulled the pillow over his head. So, she scooped up Calvin in her arms and ran for it.

  Calvin started to scream.

  Connie supposed her terror was contagious. His screams woke her parents who mumbled questions from the couch. She could hear her in-laws moving in their room. They must have heard Calvin screaming, too.

  “What’s going on?” Connie’s mom asked.

  “Aliens are coming,” Connie shouted.

  Her sister’s kids started to scream with Calvin.

  “We all need to run in different directions.”

  Connie felt like a coward. She didn’t wait for her sister or grab her kids. She just strapped Calvin into his car-seat in George’s SUV. She didn’t wait for her husband. He’d had his chance. Telling Connie her mother’s intuition was hormones got him left behind. That and his deep sleep. The SUV was the good car. It started without any problems.

  Connie drove down the driveway, at least they’d made sure none of the cars were blocked in.

  She was too late, though.

  The flying box moved too fast. It hovered over her house and smashed through the roof with its one grabber arm.

  Connie screamed right alongside her baby as she watched it tear apart her house. She couldn’t see who it was grabbing. She recognized her mom’s scream and her nephew’s wail. Then, she gunned the car towards the road.

  It only took a couple minutes before the big flying thing tore the roof off the SUV.

  Connie stomped the brakes hard, pulled the e-brake with her hand, then threw it into park. The car still skidded down the gravel driveway. Connie rolled out of the car while it was still moving. Calvin screamed in the backseat as the car finally lurched to a halt.

  She’d meant to
grab Calvin from the back once the car stopped. She swore she meant to. By the time she got to her feet, the grabber had him. She couldn’t do anything.

  Connie stood there, waiting for it to grab her. She watched it put her baby inside its big gaping maw and held up her arms.

  “Take me then!” Connie screamed at it. “Take me!”

  It didn’t. A light passed over her, then the terrible box flew away, leaving her behind.

  “Am I not good enough?” Connie screamed after the box. “Take me with him!”

  The gravel burns started stinging on her legs and arms.

  “Why not me?” she sobbed, though her head was already spinning trying to come up with answers.

  Maybe the kids threw off the count. Maybe there wasn’t enough room, but she needed to know how it could take her baby and not her. She couldn’t stay at the house. She couldn’t stay here, not like this.

  TWENTY-FIVE

  RACHEL

  “I BROUGHT HIM HERE. That’s why I have to find him,” Rachel said. “If he’s not okay… then, it’s not worth it.” She left their corner of the room and began examining those new arrivals still lying on the ground. Mary and Kailey stayed by her side as she turned over the unconscious bodies. She described him and they helped her examine the semi-conscious bodies.

  The door opened, as she examined the semi-conscious men. One of the red-skulls stood in the doorway. He said something in a strange language full of clicks and pops. Blue men streamed into the room and grabbed the human prisoners. Two grabbed Rachel and pulled her from the room. She kicked and fought, but it didn’t matter. They just held her tighter and carried her out of the room. They carried her and six others down a different corridor.

  “Where are you taking me?” she screamed. The blue men didn’t answer. The others they’d seized were trying to fight, too, but no one had any luck. Rachel tried going limp. It didn’t help. They turned into a white room and strapped her and the others to the wall. The straps held her tight and she couldn’t move. She couldn’t fight back.

  Three skull-men appeared wearing aprons. They shooed away the blue men. The lead skull-man opened a drawer in the opposite wall and produced a big vial of the red fish eggs they’d found earlier in the mine. The other two grabbed packs and strapped them to their waists.

  They came to her first. She screamed and cursed them, but it did no good. She pulled against the restraints, but even her head was strapped tight.

  The first skull-man pulled a knife from the right side of his pack and growled and clicked at her. She screamed. Trying to fight the fear, she reminded herself she’d saved Nate. He was dying and now he was alive, and she’d done that.

  The skull-man smeared grease onto her forehead with one hand and raised the knife with the other. Blood ran into her eyes, burning them. Was it her blood? She hadn’t felt him cutting her. The knife disappeared into his other pocket. Her heart pounded in her throat. The lead skull-man pulled a marble-sized egg from the vial. Liquid dripped from it, or maybe that was just the blood running down her face. She couldn’t tell.

  The egg had grown. They had been tiny in the mine. It swam in front of her bloodied vision and disappeared before pressing warmly into the cut. Then the final skull-man stitched her forehead shut. The other two moved to the prisoner beside her. When he finished stitching her shut, the last skull-man moved on as well. Rachel swallowed as the thing pulsed in her forehead. The movement wasn’t painful. Nothing hurt except the straps.

  The three skull-men left the room. Rachel’s thoughts swam. She wasn’t in control anymore. Despite her terror, her heart stopped racing.

  Who is Nate? someone asked inside her brain. The answer came unbidden. Rachel pictured him laughing on campus, leaping off the slackline in the middle of the quad, hungry in the field, and then weak and unconscious as she biked them towards the promise of the alien invaders.

  You care for him? the voice asked in her brain.

  “Who are you?” she asked aloud.

  I am you. I am Rachel.

  Rachel shook her head. That thing, that voice was not her.

  “What are you?” she asked.

  My people will grow with yours as I grow with you. Our people planted your world years ago so you walkers would be ready. Together, we will serve our Queen.

  “What?” Rachel said. The thing in her head was talking to her, but she was finding it harder to follow.

  Do not worry. Your choice was brave. Your feelings are our feelings. I love Nate as you do. We will keep him safe.– Her head grew heavier.—You will see. Together, you and I will shape the connection with your people.

  Rachel drifted off to sleep, but her eyes remained open. After a time, the red-skulls came back and undid the restraints holding her to the wall. She tried to fight them, to kick, to scream, but she couldn’t control her limbs.

  Do not worry. We are safe. Your body is my vessel.

  Then, the thing in her head used her throat to speak in a strange tongue full of pops and clicks and growls. It surprised Rachel she understood.

  I am hungry, it said. I need food to grow.

  The skull-men had come prepared and handed her awkward hands another fruit thing. She tried not to swallow, but her body gobbled it down. She didn’t want to feed the thing in her head.

  I am fond of the one called Nate. He shall be my pet.

  The others answered in the same strange series of pops and clicks. They would bring Nate to her and he would be required to do as she directed, once she was grown. She couldn’t control her body, but she could still think. She could still feel.

  You inform me and I inform you. We are two who will become one. As will become many others. Your people have found many of our sleeping children who await to be born into a walker.

  “The skull-men?”

  We are much more than that. We are the synthesis of two beings into one. We are the Queen’s own servants. Together, we will seed the stars.

  A small part of Rachel felt sick, but more overwhelmingly pride pushed into her. Her choice to go to the ship for help had been wise. She fought the pride. The egg they’d put in her head put the thoughts into her head. Not her thoughts, but the red skull’s.

  No, they were her thoughts. There was only one Rachel. Her decision led her to be the first of this great connection.

  She tried to argue with the thing growing in her head.

  What thing? There was no thing.

  She had to remember. She had to fight it.

  There was nothing to fight. There was only her. Only Rachel. Rachel who would lead humanity in serving the Queen.

  Thank you for reading!

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  Stories of the Alien Invasion will return in

  THE QUEEN’S GIFT

  STORIES OF THE ALIEN INVASION

  BOOK 2

  ONE

  MIKEY

  “WHERE’S DAD?” MIKEY HOLLERED at Jordan over the roar of the dirt-bike engines. Jordan had gone off after Dad.

  “Just keep going!” Jor shouted back. “We have to get out of town!”

  After they’d taken Mom, Jordan had circled out on his bike looking for Dad and Jordan… but only Jordan, his jock older brother, was left.

  Jor wouldn’t get in front. Mikey just wanted to follow since he wasn’t sure he could find the motorhome. Still, they tore out onto the desert sands and found the motorhome parked on the side of the road just how they’d left it.

  When Mikey finally dared to stop and look back, Jor was right behind him and the alien thing that had followed them around Elko was gone.

  “Mom and Dad were smart, leaving the motorhome out here,” Mikey said
. His voice wobbled too much. He’d hoped it was done changing, but maybe that was just him trying not to cry.

  “Damn right they were.” Jor dismounted and offered Mikey a water bottle. He must have snagged a few out of the store after all.

  Mikey shook his head. Didn’t matter that he was sweating like a pig. If that was all the water they had left they needed to save it. Ration it out.

  “You need water,” Jor said. He seemed stern, like he was trying to copy Dad or something. Barely sixteen, he was a jerk and nothing like Dad. Dad who was gone.

  “We shouldn’t drink it all at once,” Mikey said, pushing away the water.

  Jor shrugged and took a sip before loading his bike onto the trailer at the back of the motorhome. If he wanted to drink the water before they were thirsty enough, then that was his choice. Mikey loaded my bike beside his. Trailer looked empty with only two bikes on it.

  Jor tried the main door—locked.

  Mikey chewed his lip. Jor frowned, then smiled when he caught Mikey looking.

  Mike tried not to look worried and tried the driver and passenger doors. Both locked too. Neither of them had the keys.

  Dad did and Mom had had the spare. Just in case.

  “We’ll just have to break in,” Jor said. Mikey caught a glimpse of the panic on Jordan’s face before he turned away.

  “And then what?” Mikey asked.

  Jor shrugged and started examining the ground.

  “Jor, what are we going to do after we get in there? You don’t have the keys and last I checked, you don’t know how to drive stick.” Jor barely knew how to drive at all. He’d flunked driving test last week, and still was stuck with the permit.

  “The bikes are manual,” Jordan said.

  “Not the same Jor. What are we going to do after we bust in?”

  “We’re going to get a change of clothes, the food we have left from Gram and Gramps, shelter from the sun, and be able to take off on our bikes when we need to.”