Equinox

by L. J. Higgins

  As we reached the tree line, a sharp pain spread through my lower back, up my spine, and down my legs, making it hard for me to stay upright. My vision blurred as my stride slowed, and I watched Reece’s silhouette disappear among the trees.

  My foot wobbled sideways as I took another step, my knees hitting the ground before the rest of my body followed as though my legs turning to jelly. I rolled over to find a barb sticking out of my leg and a Skywatchers hunter running towards me, weapon raised.

  “Reece,” I attempted to call, but it was though my mouth no longer knew how to form words.

  The man rolled me onto my stomach and cuffed my hands behind my back, forcing my face into the grass, the sweet earthy scent filling my nostrils. He pulled me to my feet, holding my whole weight with the help of another hunter who’d arrived. My heavy eyelids blinked closed.

  “Reece,” I attempted again, but all that came out was a mumble.

  “If you’re trying to call for Reece, I’d say he’s taken off with his alien buddies by now.” Ricko’s voice forced my eyes open.

  I released a deep growl, attempting to leap towards him, but my muscles remained limp.

  “I hope you enjoyed your outing, Kylah. It’s taken a lot of resources and time to track and capture you. I can’t believe you’d do this to Commander Kane after everything he’s done for you.” He gripped my throat, holding me up to his eye level.

  I mustered the remaining energy I had left and spat in his face.

  He threw me to the ground, and my head hit the earth hard, pain reverberating through my skull.

  “You ungrateful little brat. I’m trying to be patient and understanding. You were brain washed by an alien right under our noses. But don’t worry. We’ll have you back to your old self in no time.” He grabbed my pendant, and the chain bit at my neck as he yanked it hard. “You won’t be needing this anymore.”

  He threw the pendant, and I let out a sob, unable to so much as reach for it. Opening my mouth, no words came out, and Ricko bent down and pressed something to my neck. A sting of pain stabbed through my head before the world faded to black.

  My head throbbed, and my eyes were grainy when I blinked them open. Rolling over, I blinked a few more times before my vision cleared, and I found myself lying on a thin foam mattress on a concrete floor. The square room I lay in was only a few meters across, surrounded in brick and concrete, except for the open side lined with metal bars.

  The memory of being captured in the park played back in my mind. Where had Ricko taken me?

  “Reece,” I called testing my voice. It was raspy, but after a few more attempts, it echoed around me.

  No one answered.

  I hoped it meant he hadn’t been caught.

  Rolling onto my back, I propped myself onto my elbows and slid myself up until I was resting against the cool brick wall and pulled my knees to my chest. A slight chill hung in the air, sending goose bumps racing over my skin, and I wrapped my arms around myself.

  I rested my head back.

  I must have drifted off to sleep once again, but when I re-awoke, I was much more alert than I’d been earlier. I rose to my feet, stretching my neck from side to side, walking towards the metal bars.

  The floor was cold on my bare feet. For some reason, they’d decided to remove my boots. But a few steps, and I was face-to-face with bars. I shook them, but they didn’t budge. I hadn’t expected them to, but it was at least worth a try. Across from me was another cage, and pressing my face against the bars to peer both left and right revealed more cells.

  “Hello?” I called out, my voice echoing once again. “Is someone going to explain to me where on earth I am, and what you plan to do with me?”

  No reply.

  “Aargh!” My yell echoed around me, filling my ears and reverberating through my chest.

  I ran my hands along all three walls before admitting defeat and sitting back on the single mattress. A small blanket lay ruffled at the end of it, and I pulled it over my cold feet.

  Greg must’ve alerted Skywatchers. But he’d hated them so much. I wondered what they’d offered or who they’d threatened to get him to turn on the people he’d been trying to protect. I also imagined the disappointment on Tyson’s face when Reece arrived at the rendezvous point alone. Sadness and disappointment sat heavy in my chest. All I wanted to do was wrap my brother in my arms, and I was trapped in this god forsaken cage.

  Sadness melded into anger, tensing every muscle in my body. Skywatchers had lied to me, trained me to be a murderer, hunted me, and now they were holding me prisoner. For what? There was so much I didn’t understand, and it made my blood boil.

  A whirring noise caught my attention, and I rose, making my way back to the bars, gripping one in each hand. It sounded again from above, and peering towards the ceiling, I caught sight of a camera. Someone was watching me.

  I slid my arm between the bars, balled my hand into a fist, and raised my middle finger. Whoever was watching was sure to get my message loud and clear.

  The clang of metal woke me with a start, and I sat up to find the sound of footsteps echoing in the hall outside.

  Jumping to my feet, I stood rigid, waiting for whoever it was to arrive.

  Ricko appeared outside the cell flanked by two men.

  “Good morning, Ky, I trust you slept well,” he said.

  “Yes, this five-star apartment definitely helped. Oh, and the fact you drugged me with something,” I spat.

  Ricko grinned. “We had to do something. You were going to get away, and you’re very important to Commander Kane.”

  “So, I’ve heard.”

  “You shouldn’t believe everything you hear. Especially, if it’s come from an alien.”

  “Oh, trust me. I’ve learned the hard way I can’t trust a word that comes out of anyone’s mouth. So, what are you going to do with me?”

  “I’m in a lot of trouble for not realising an alien infiltrator was training with my hunters right under my nose, but I hope if I rehabilitate you, Commander Kane will forgive my mistakes.”

  “Rehabilitate me? I wasn’t on some drug bender. I was running away from Skywatchers. I was going to be with my brother.”

  “I don’t know what the alien told you…”

  “Reece. His name is Reece.”

  “Whatever Reece told you isn’t the whole truth. He’s told you what he wanted you to hear so you’d follow him back to your brother.”

  “So, what’s the whole truth then?”

  “You’ll be told when you’re ready.”

  “Great. What’s with everyone deciding for me when I’m ready to know things? And what’s so bad with wanting to be back with my brother? The brother you told me was dead by the way.”

  “The Tyson you remember is very different to the one helping the aliens. He betrayed us Ky. Because of him, many hunters died during the invasion and aliens have been able to live among us in secret.”

  “But they don’t hurt people, do they? That’s all bull crap you made up, so we’d kill them.”

  “They don’t kill people, no. But they plan to harm us in other ways.”

  “Such as?”

  “Like I said. When you’re ready.”

  “Did you just come down here to catch up, or are you letting me out?”

  “I’m afraid until you’re rehabilitated, you’ll need to remain in the cells, for your own safety and for ours. I’ll have some food and water brought down to you, and then you can start therapy.”

  “Therapy?” I raised my eyebrows.

  “You’ll see,” he replied. “Look after yourself, Ky.”

  He turned to leave.

  “Ricko?” I called after him.

  He turned to face me.

  “I thought we were friends. Was all of it a lie so you could keep me here at Skywatchers?”

  “I thought we were friends, too. But like Tyson discovered when he decided to betray Skywatchers, I believe in what we’re doing here, and I won’t tolerate an
yone who tries to destroy it.”

  Moments after Ricko had left, a woman delivered a bowl of muesli and a litre bottle of water. After eating, I pushed the dirty plate up against the bars and lay down on the mattress.

  When I was little, my family would go on road trips up the coast for holidays, and every time I’d whine about how long it was taking. My dad would tell me to sleep because sleeping made everything go faster. I wasn’t sure I could sleep through this whole ordeal, but it might make whatever therapy they had in store come quicker, and then I might get the chance to work out how I was going to get myself out of this mess.

  While the thought was there, my brain refused to turn off long enough for me to get more than a few minutes at a time. Admitting defeat, I sat up, taking a swig of water.

  So, it was time for plan B. Wait around, hoping Reece and my brother would find and rescue me. I growled at myself. Who had I become? One whiff of a boy being interested in me, and my brother being alive, and the past few years of looking after myself went out the window. No way. The only person who could get me out of this situation was myself.

  A whir caught my attention, and I peered up at the camera.

  “Can I help you?” I asked it. “I’m in the middle of a private thought process here, thank you very much.”

  How long had I been in the cell? I had no idea, but it was already sending me insane. It was almost like being stuck in the cave with Reece. But I hadn’t been alone. And I’d known the way out.

  The creak of a door, followed by heavy footfalls, had me springing to my feet and wrapping my hands around the bars.

  Two men arrived in front of me, and the taller of the two spoke. “Turn around and put your hands behind your back and through the bars.”

  I didn’t recognise him. He had sandy blonde hair and dull grey eyes, and although I never paid too much attention to the other recruits when I’d been at Skywatchers, I was sure I’d never seen this one.

  “Are you really scared of a teenage girl?” I asked.

  The shorter guy with black cropped hair answered. “One that’s a trained hunter. Yes. Turn around.”

  “Does Commander Kane know you like getting girls in hand cuffs?” I shot him a wink.

  He growled, and I sighed as I slid my arms through the gap in the bars. The cuffs bit into my wrists as he clasped them closed.

  “Step forward,” instructed the tall guy.

  I took a step and heard a whirring noise much louder than the camera’s. Turning my head, I watched as the bars retracted into the floor. I searched for where he might have pushed a button or swiped a key, but I couldn’t see anything that might help me escape. Maybe whoever was hiding behind the camera had opened the cage.

  “I don’t suppose you’d let me know how you got those bars to retract,” I said as they pushed me forward.

  “You’d suppose right,” Shorty said.

  I shrugged. “Can’t blame a girl for trying. Especially, when we’re getting so intimate already with these cuffs and all. Where exactly are you taking me?”

  They both ignored me.

  “Hello? I asked a question.”

  “And we deliberately ignored you. You’ll find out when you get there,” Shorty said.

  “Well you guys aren’t very fun,” I groaned. A small smile played on my lips as I watched the tall guy’s nostrils flare.

  Chapter Eight

  The two guards guided me through a metal door at the end of the hallway of empty cells and marched me down another hall until we arrived at an elevator. The taller guy scanned his card, and the doors slid open before they pushed me inside.

  Shorty turned me so I was facing the opposite wall from the panel and pushed me so close to its shiny surface my breath made little fog circles. A moment later, the elevator began moving upwards.

  I turned my head to try to spot what floor we’d been on or going to, but the tall guy had placed himself directly in my view of the monitor. The elevator stopped, and the tall guy stayed firmly in place until shorty had guided me out into the hallway.

  “Floor six, hey?” I asked him, seeing if he’d give our location away.

  He shook his head and led me down the hall. The hallway looked much the same as the other hallways at Skywatchers, boring grey carpet, white walls. We passed by large glass windows, revealing an office similar to the tech centre where I use to go to get information on my missions, but it was on the opposite side of the hall, and I didn’t recognise any of the faces. I’d spent two years at Skywatchers, and never once had I wondered out of any of the areas I was used to. How far underground did Skyatchers go? What else did they do here other than hunt aliens?

  We arrived at a door with a sign reading ‘Dr. Mary Gray’. So I was either getting a medical or seeing a psych. The tall guy opened the door, and we were greeted by a young lady with straight long blonde hair and too much make up.

  “Is this Kylah?” she asked.

  “It’s Ky,” I said.

  She smiled at me before looking to the tall guy. “Dr. Gray is ready to see her straight away.”

  “I’ll wait here,” said shorty.

  The tall guy took my forearm and led me down a short hall to a door that was slightly ajar.

  “Dr. Gray?” he said pushing the door open.

  “Aaaah, Sebastian. Thank you for bringing her up.” Dr. Gray looked to be in her mid-forties. She wore long black slacks and a navy button-up blouse. Her mousy hair was cropped to her shoulders, and she wore a smile I wasn’t sure I could trust. “It’s lovely to meet you, Ky.”

  “Wish I could say the same,” I replied.

  Sebastian gave me a shove into the room. “Show some respect.”

  “It’s okay, Sebastian. How about you remove her cuffs and let us have some privacy?” she said.

  “I’m not sure that’s such a great idea. Agent Rickson said…”

  “Agent Rickson has asked me to work with her. Part of that is having you remove her hand cuffs. You don’t plan on hurting me do you, dear?” She looked to me.

  “No?” It came out more like a question.

  “There you go. Come on, now. I don’t have all day.”

  Sebastian reluctantly unlocked my cuffs, and I rubbed my wrists as he released them.

  “Now, if you could wait outside,” Dr. Gray said.

  “I’ll be just outside the door. All you need to do is call out if she causes any trouble,” he said.

  “I’m sure we’ll be fine. But, thank you,” she replied.

  He shot me a warning glance and touched his hand gun to his belt, leaving the room and closing the door.

  “Sorry about him. He’s very protective of me. I helped him a lot when he joined Skywatchers. How about you take a seat, and we can get started.” She gestured towards a grey chair facing her desk.

  I did as she asked, unsure what to do with the trust she’d given me. What could I do anyway? If I did attack her, I had no idea where I was or how to escape. Plus, I had to get past the hunters before I could even try.

  “Aren’t you concerned about being alone with a cold-blooded killer?” I asked her.

  “Is that what you are?”

  I shrugged. “I’ve spent the past few years killing who-knows-how-many innocent beings. So yeah, that’s what I am.”

  “Have you always had a negative view of yourself?”

  I raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean?”

  “Have you always put yourself down?”

  “Look. I don’t know why I’m here, but I don’t want to by psychoanalysed or talk about my life story. All I want to know is what I need to do to get out of the cell. You know they’re keeping me in a cell, right?”

  “Yes. Agent Rickson said you’re a risk to yourself and others, so the cell is where it’s safest to keep you for now. As for how to get out of the cell, we need to work together to get you to a point where he knows he can trust you.”

  “So, you want to brain wash me all over again?” I asked.

  “What I do
isn’t brain washing. I’m here to help you deal with any issues you might have.”

  “The only issue I have is I’m being held against my will.”

  “You harbour a lot of anger, don’t you?” she asked.

  “Wouldn’t you be pissed if you were shot down, sedated, and woke up in a cell?”

  “But you’ve been holding onto anger for much longer. Were you like this before your brother died?”

  “Oh, didn’t they put that in my file. My brother isn’t actually dead. Rick… Agent Rickson lied to me. He lies about a lot of things. Maybe you should have a session with him about his compulsive lying. It really is an issue.”

  “Let’s try something else,” she said. “When your parents passed away in the car accident, how did you deal with it?”

  I swallowed hard at her question. There was no way I was letting this lady get into my head. “I don’t see what that has to do with you trying to convince me to be an alien hunter again.”

  “Like I said, my job is to help you, not brain wash you or convince you of anything.”

  “If you want to help me, then get Agent Rickson to let me go. Other than that, I have nothing else to say to you.” I rose to my feet.

  Dr. Gray flinched but attempted to cover it with a calm smile. “Please, sit down.”

  “Sebastian! Sebastian! You better come and get me. I’m about to hurt Dr. Gray!” I called out.

  Sebastian busted through the door, grabbing my arms and forcing my hands behind my back. He clasped the cuffs around my wrists.

  “That really isn’t necessary,” Dr. Gray said. “But I can see we aren’t going to get anywhere today. It was nice to meet you, Ky. Hopefully next time, you’re ready to talk.”

  “Don’t hold your breath,” I replied as Sebastian led me out of the room.

  The creak of the door opening echoed down the alley towards me, and I sat up on my mattress. My muscles ached from lying on the hard surface, and the chill of the air seemed to have made its way deep into my bones as I slept.