A flash of light–then the world ceased to exist. I had never felt nothing before. The sudden absence of feeling was much worse than any pain. For a few brief moments, I willed myself to move, and I got no response. It was not dark, it was void. The difference couldn’t entirely register in my mind, which was already processing the utter silence. My consciousness was entirely isolated from reality.
Hours, or years, or seconds passed in that state. Time had no meaning without reference.
Then, I was once more. But everything felt off, blurry. It was like I was drugged. Where am I? Am I dead?
A ringing persisted in my ears. Probably not. Vague images of before came to me, but my memory was fractured. Others. There were others with me. Are they okay? I suddenly panicked. I tried to move, and I still couldn’t, but this time I felt something. There was a resistance to the motion. I had a body, but it was restrained.
Okay, calm down. I’m alive. Now where am I?
I strained myself to piece together what had happened. The ship had… shit. We’d been taken by the Enforcers. That could mean anything.
Particles drifted at the edge of my vision, like dust, and I blinked rapidly to clear them. I squinted, and I could almost make out something before me. A vaguely humanoid figure, in all white.
One of them.
My anger swelled, rage at these beings who’d destroyed the world, who’d separated me from my husband. If I could just wriggle out of… something clicked. My right arm could move. I raised it to my eyes, wiping away a sooty substance I hadn’t even realised was there.
I could see properly now. My body was covered in needles, and I was hanging at an angle from the ceiling. Belts and wires strapped across random parts of my body, restraining me from doing anything. The Enforcer turned to regard me, face obscured under that damned suit.
I mustered up all my strength, and spat at it.
It stared at me for a moment, before the door slid open and it left the room. I hung there, suspended, for a while. Hundreds of questions assaulted my mind, all as pertinent as the last.
The Enforcers spoke to us in their weird way during the sweeps. They talked about how it would be better on the other side. I’d never even considered giving in to them. But we still had no clue what they really were, what they really wanted, why they took everything from us. I’d always assumed it was just a lure to kill us all.
Finally, a pair entered the room. These two were different, unnaturally short, but still clad in the same stark white. One moved directly towards me, whilst the other hovered at the door.
Every inch of my skin burned and the more I concentrated, the more I swore I could feel the holes torn open by the equipment I was hooked up to. How long had it been, living on the surface of the planet evading these fuckers? A year, maybe.
I thought of my husband, who I saw them take in front of me. I’d vowed to get him back. I’d vowed to make them pay. It occurred to me then that he might still be alive. After all, I was alive. For now.
If there was a way I could find him…
The leading Enforcer reached out, holding something that looked like a small syringe. I waited a moment for him to get close enough, and I swung with my free arm, aiming for its head. To my surprise, it actually landed, and the syringe went flying, the figure staggering back, looking up at me as if surprised.
“I’m not a medical experiment,” I growled, “And you will not treat me as one.”
The Enforcer wavered, but it wouldn’t hesitate for long. The second figure at the door just stood there, unmoving. I strained desperately against the restraints, each movement sending the wires deeper into my skin as I twisted.
A sharp crack echoed as a brittle cable snapped under my struggle. In that instant, a piece of shattered metal clattered from the ceiling—a small, jagged shard that glinted in the harsh light. I caught it instinctively with my free hand. The Enforcer lunged forward, but I now had something to fight back with.
The metal shard sparked against the suit, denting it and drawing a grunt of pain from the being. I felt a surge of satisfaction.
I’ll show you the pain you put us through.
I watched as it stepped back, cautious now. I couldn’t waste a moment. I took the shard to the buckles around my other arm, then started rapidly unplugging all the needles. A moment later, and the lights shifted to a purple hue. An alarm had seemingly been raised. The Enforcers exchanged a glance while I did this, and left the room.
I grimaced as I cut through the last leg straps before the floor embraced me with a thud. I finally properly examined the room they had me captive in.
A cell would be a more apt description. I was hung against the wall on one side, and the door was only a couple meters away on the other. Sterile white ceramics tiled across the floor walls and ceiling. Well, less so with my blood now dripping everywhere. The tubes were everywhere, leading into disorganized clumps. I noticed that etched into the tubing and the tiles was that odd star map like language they used, the same as on the schedule.
The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
I took a second to pick up the syringe that the Enforcer had dropped, and moved to the door.
Of course, I couldn’t see a mechanism to open it. Instead, I slid my shard into the seam where the door would split apart, and pried as hard as I could. With an intense effort, I cracked it ajar a few inches.
And then, just as I slipped through sideways, a distinctive click sounded behind me, followed by a familiar voice.
“Well shit Ava. And here we were trying to rescue you,” Fern said.
Fern’s words echoed in the sudden quiet, and for a moment I just froze, half in disbelief. I turned to face the end of a gun barrel. Behind it, five others accompanied the ranger, including Kennan, Herman and Henry.
“Is this everyone?” I asked with a mix of relief and dread. I had no real memories of the fight that broke out, but by all accounts, we had lost. The only thing that kept anyone safe was that the Enforcer ships had a small hold capacity.
Herman stepped forward to answer. “No. Most of the others are still on the ground. We decided that a suicide mission shouldn’t involve everyone, even if they volunteered. We found Henry tied up in the last room. Fiora and Diane are still somewhere here.” He paused for a second. “Ollie too.”
“Time,” Kennan said, tapping his foot nervously.
“He’s right,” Fern said, “They don’t die, they just keep coming. There’s a big group a few corridors back.”
Henry chucked something at me. My backpack. I pocketed the syringe I'd picked up inside, and pulled out a proper knife. I brushed a smear of blood and grime from my face and grimaced. The taste of metal coated my tongue. “Okay. Let’s move.”
----------------------------------------
Apparently, the group had been navigating the ship using the Enforcer inscriptions. Kennan could read them, and he would occasionally point a certain way. We followed without question.
Our path was free of hostiles, and everything felt just slightly off. There were no guards anywhere, despite the alarm being raised. The ship was still grounded. If the Enforcers in the control room decided to fly off with us still inside, we’d be screwed. Another cell passed by empty. We’d found both Diane and Fiora near mine, comatose but breathing. Henry was carrying her across his shoulders.
We approached a fork, and Kennan indicated we should go left. But I could faintly hear a sound that way–
I put up a hand and everyone stopped. “Only one pair of footsteps,” I whispered.
Fern and Herman stood on either side of the corridor, weapons ready. I nodded, and they both stepped forward, ready to attack.
Instead, a young boy emerged from around the corner. Ollie.
“You’re okay!” Herman called with relief. He ran to the boy and hugged him. I heard him thanking the Lord under his breath.
Fern was still staring at the end of the corridor. I felt the same suspicion I knew she did. It was all too easy. Ollie cried loudly, sniffling. He tried to sign something, but his hands were shaking and couldn’t.
“Exit. Now,” I said. I looked at Kennan, who had a strange look on his face. He shook his head before pointing.
We made a run for it, winding through endless corridors. The white ceramic clanked loudly under our feet, betraying any stealth we might have had. Still, no Enforcers showed. After a few minutes, the purple lights gave way to something else. The sky, shining through an open exit hatch.
I had a hundred different thoughts running through my mind at that moment. Every possibility that could’ve gone wrong. What I never expected was that none of them happened. We made it out, jumping the short few feet to the ground from the hatch. I felt the grass beneath my hands, and it was heaven.
I looked back, and saw a single Enforcer staring at us, as we stared at it. We all waited, breaths caught, but it did nothing.
It didn't follow us.
"We can't rest," Fern said, breaking the tension, "We need to meet up with the others. Once we do, we can figure out what the fuck just happened."
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Burning embers crackled up as the night bore on. It hadn’t taken long to reunite the group, but once we did, we’d spent the next few hours distancing ourselves from the abduction site. Now, we huddled all together around a sizable fire. I subconsciously counted our numbers. Twenty-nine. I hated myself for not even recognising who was missing.
Next to me, Fiora and Diane had their hands on each other's backs.
“It’s not that I don’t believe you, but it was a high stress environment. Just go through it one more time, please,” someone said.
The question was posed towards the two women who’d only woken up a half hour ago. They’d been injected by the syringe I’d narrowly avoided, and had some strange claims.
Fiora answered. “They spoke to us. Properly, not the images they send us during the sweeps, but words. Their language. They told us the injection helped us understand their words. I asked them what they wanted with us. They said that we were warriors, that they needed our strength as theirs.”
Diane cut in. “But not before the other voice. And the text. It was like– there was something in our eyes, a wall of text. It’s still there, just at the corner. If I think about it… Yeah. It appears in front of me, like hieroglyphics that I can for some reason understand.”
Ollie jumped up, waving his arms in exasperation. He saw it too, he’d signed. He’d heard them too.
This was all too much. I got up and paced a few steps. Everyone went silent when I did. I didn’t know when it happened, but they looked up to me sometimes. Not always in a fight, we had Fern for that. Not for morality or emotional guidance, not with Herman around. But when a hard choice had to be made. One that no-one else could bear the weight of.
“They could’ve captured all of us with ease,” I said finally, reasoning aloud. “But they let us escape because we showed that we could fight. That we were willing to fight.” I looked to Fiora, who nodded in agreement.
“What are you getting at, Ava?” Henry asked.
I thought for a moment. “They don’t want us dead. I don’t know about you lot, but it pisses me off that we’re alive on the whim of our oppressors. In fact, I can think of nothing that angers me more. So here is the choice. We can lay low and wait. Try and build ourselves back up, and maybe in a few years, make a stand. If we do that, we lose slowly. A couple people at a time. Or we can go out there and make them regret letting us live.”
A log shifted in the fire, letting out a large flame. I heard a couple murmurs, saw a couple nods of assent, one or two people who looked at the floor. Only Fern met my eyes, the same fire in her eyes.
I continued. “Fiora, what did they say about where they took the rest of humanity?”
“Um… a training ground. A different planet, I think. One with monsters and awful things.”
“So we could grow stronger? And fight for them?”
“Yes. That’s the end goal.”
I shook my head. The exhaustion hit me all at once. I was still covered in scars from the machine, blood soaked my skin. “We will fight. But not on their terms.”
I grabbed my backpack, and without consideration for how stupid of an idea this was, pulled out the Enforcer syringe, and injected myself in the neck.