Page 3

Aurora

I should’ve resisted more but I kept going, one foot in front of the other, without much fuss. A few of the other captured girls tried to fight and run away, but since they had all us tied together on one long rope, it proved to be more detrimental than successful. Whenever one would try to run off, everyone else would be joked along and most would end up being dragged on the ground.

I figured that the aliens already knew this would happen. It was a surefire way to keep us together. Some were too scared to even protest, others were belligerent, and others—like me—were just confused as hell.

Everything we’d been led to believe about earth and beyond was a lie. If there were other species out there, wouldn’t the nation’s leaders have known it by now. They filled all the citizen’s head with crap, preaching how we were the chosen, the new generation of a post-apocalyptic world, and that we were lucky to be alive.

Lucky for us, the aliens weren’t violent, but I had no idea what would happen once we were on their ships. Would they turn into monsters? What were they going to do to us?

The woman that was making the most fuss was cut off from the rest of us. One of the aliens rushed her ahead of us to the ship probably dreaded boarding. The medic that had tied my hands together earlier came up to the woman, extracted some kind of needle from the sack he carried across his body, and injected something into her neck. The girl was quiet, still breathing, but she appeared unconscious.

“Where are they taking us?” I heard one of the girls ask in front of me.

“They’re raiders. They look like us, but don’t be fooled. It’s a trick. They’re aliens. The hunters warned my mother about them five moons ago at the market,” another said. She had on an old red letterman jacket and hair was tied up in a knot.

“I’ve heard rumors about them. What do they want?” another asked.

“They take women. Only women. And the women don’t come back. You figure that out,” the women with the letterman jacket replied.

“Are they gonna kill us?” one of the younger girls asked.

“Probably. At this rate, you might as well kill yourself,” she responded. “Do you see what these savages did to that crazy one?”

Right at that moment, one of the warriors poked the woman with the letterman jacket and said,“Yǔvim!”

None of us knew what that meant, but not more than a peep was heard on the rest of the way through the forest.

The alien raiders carried burlap bags, probably filled with things that weren’t human. Well, I could only hope they didn’t stuff humans in bags. Some of them were leaking blood from what appeared to be gunshot wounds. Others were muddy and looked like they had run into trouble. Their raiding had not come without a price. Stretched on a makeshift cot laid one of the warriors who looked to be so close to death I could almost see his spirit being snatched from his body. Well, maybe that was a stretch, but he leaked so much blood, he should’ve been dead. Perhaps, if he was a human, he would’ve already been dead from the gunshot wound.

We seemed to be marching deeper and deeper into the mountains where it was said that you could live a better life outside of confined walls, and away from cruel leaders and archaic rules.

The wilderness was beautiful. The trees were filled with life. The atmosphere was less polluted and signs of life were everywhere. I even though I spotted some steep cliffs and a ravine off in the distance somewhere. But just as soon as I caught a glimpse of it, the aliens turned away and headed to a big spaceship that they had parked near a river.

“Holy shit,” one of the girls whispered behind me.

Holy shit was right. This wasn’t a dream. This was reality. Aliens were real.

I turned my head slightly, catching the attention of the big, muscular warrior who had supposedly already claimed me by telling the others not to touch me. His eyes were dark and calculating as he studied me.

I swallowed and turned away.

One by one, they cut our ropes and led us onto the spaceship. The interior looked like some high-tech Star Trek level shit. I told myself to remain calm, but then I saw them putting girls in a pod and closing the lid. I went crazy, pushing against the medic who pointed to the pod.

“Don’t. You sleep. Safe in cryo-pod. You stay out here. You die,” one of the women medics explained in broken English.

“Take me back! I want to go back,” I screamed.

“You go back. You will die. Your Earth leader. He kills his people.” The alien woman medic grabbed my wrist and forced me to sit.

“Please…” My thoughts were cut off when a very familiar red head was walked to the cell adjacent to mine. I almost lost my breath when I saw her. I stilled.

“Freya?” I called out.

Even some of the other captured women took note and looked.

Despite the hood she had over her head, there was no mistaking her fiery red hair and fair complexion.

Just like me, Freya wasn’t a normal citizen. She was no common person at all. She was the governor’s daughter, and I was her handmaiden, and had been for almost a year. Freya had been captured. How did that happen? We were in the market together during the wall breaches. Seeing that I had no other opportunity to have freedom, she told me to go and she stood right there and watched me run away.