Johnny saw it. He saw everything with his black eyes. The night was never dark with them, and the rooms were vastly clearer. There was motion on one of the security feeds, a truck at the northwestern gate. Johnny watched it plow through with reckless speed, smashing it open and leaving a cloud of dust behind. The littering boys were back again, and this time they weren’t hauling any trash.
He found his voice. “She’s right. It doesn’t have to be this way.”
“Just listen to him,” Mackenzee pleaded.
Johnny rubbed his neck. He’d be getting used to it if this didn’t work out—and everything else. Cheryl Conrad wanted two human males. For what purpose he didn’t know. They had found two suits inside the ship, two bodies to take control of.
“You want two males? I can show you where to get them. Just let me and Mackenzee go. We won’t get in your way.” Johnny glanced down at his blue, female form. “And return my body,” he added. He hoped that was possible.
“You can promise?”
Johnny nodded, swallowing hard. “Yeah. If I’m wrong, then you can take me. I won’t fight it.”
Cheryl’s eyes glanced back and forth between the brain-dead male body on the floor and Johnny’s new nine-foot-tall blue form. After several agonizing seconds of not saying a word, she walked toward him and reached for his neck.
Cooper jabbed the brake pedal, causing the pick-up truck to skid to a stop. A plume of dust billowed around the headlights, hiding the road ahead. He jumped out the door and reached behind the seat, grabbing a Remington 12 gauge.
“Can’t we just tranq her?” Brad suggested, hopping out.
“We ain’t got no tranq guns,” Cooper said. “Besides, they might not work. This is some space alien we’re talking about here. It might be immune.”
Brad was against the idea from the start. That alien chick almost looked human. Cooper had seen her too. They had nothing against her. She wasn’t some coyote they were out hunting in the pasture. She was one of those intelligent life-forms from another planet.
“We take her down and haul her back. She’ll be worth a fortune.”
That was Cooper’s plan. You could get your picture in the paper with a good-sized buck, but some blue-skinned alien woman would put you in the national headlines. And with that would come the money. Cooper estimated they’d be millionaires by next week. They could move up to a mansion and have ten cars each. People would be bidding to own the body of a dead alien.
Truthfully, it was rather tempting.
“Maybe she’s friendly, or maybe we can capture her,” Brad said, following his brother up the road. The headlights lit up the path. “We caught that neighbor’s dog last year with a cage and some—”
“This ain’t no stray dog, Brad. You saw the size of her. We’d be lucky to live if she got close.”
“You don’t know that. She might not hurt us.”
Cooper turned to him. “She talked about anal probing. You heard her. I ain’t letting no alien like her get anywhere close to me. Maybe you, if you’re some kind of faggot.”
Brad was on flashlight duty. It was the least he could do, since his older brother was handling the weapon. He scanned the woods just off the road, right near the pile of trash. The shadows in the trees made him look twice, but there wasn’t any sign of that blue lady. She’d easily stand out, too. There wasn’t any place she could hide out there.
“See? She’s gone.”
Cooper relaxed, resting the barrel of the shotgun on his left shoulder. “Better go up the road a bit. I bet she ain’t far from here.”
The moon was high now. Brad had never seen it so bright. They were miles away from the nearest street lamp, and twenty-five minutes away from town. Besides the flashlight in his hand and the truck’s headlights, it was the only source of light.
They rounded a bend, following close to the exposed rockface. The idle rumble of the truck’s engine faded into the background. At the same time, they stepped off the path of light. Ahead were only shadows and darkness, the undisturbed night in the forest.
A figure stood in the road not far ahead.
Brad was ready. He jerked his arm outward, aiming the flashlight. His brother saw it too and reached for the shotgun. He pressed the stock into his shoulder and aimed the barrel at the stranger. Brad’s heart was racing now. He wished the alien woman wouldn’t show her face again for what Cooper might do. Too late now.
Except the figure standing in the road wasn’t blue-skinned, and she definitely wasn’t nine feet tall. Brad saw her skin to be fair, and her hair long and blonde. His heart skipped a beat before slowing, settling into his chest again. He reached over and pulled the barrel down.
“That’s not the alien,” he said.
“Yeah, no shit,” Cooper whispered. “But what the hell’s she doing out here?”
The girl was kinda cute, Brad thought. She was about their age, somewhere around five-foot-three or five-foot-four. She wore a white tank top and a denim skirt, which showed off some killer legs. Brad caught himself staring, and he knew his brother was too. She also appeared to be pregnant.
Cooper was the first to speak. “Lady, what’re you doing out here?”
She pointed to the trees. “I saw something out there. It was blue and tall. It scared me.”
Blue and tall. Brad instantly knew what she was talking about. There was only one thing that fit that description. Cooper had been right; their alien friend was still close.
She didn’t seem all that afraid though, which Brad thought was odd. The two of them had almost pissed themselves when seeing that blue woman for the first time. On the contrary, this pregnant lady was rather calm and composed for experiencing an extraterrestrial encounter. Brad sensed that something wasn’t right.
Of course, Cooper was eager to help.
“You stay right here, young lady. Wouldn’t want you to get harmed,” he told her, acting like the gentleman. “Me and my brother will check it out.”
“Cooper, wait—”
“Come on, you little runt. I need someone to hold the flashlight.”
The forest was dark. Too dark. Brad didn’t like leaving the road, or the pick-up truck. Everything was so open. If there was some alien woman lurking behind the trees, then she could pop out from anywhere. On top of that, his brother was assuming there was only one of them.
“There could be more,” Brad said.
“What?”
“More than one, I mean. We don’t know there’s only one. She could have friends.”
“Don’t matter. We only need one. The rest will run off when they hear the shot.”
The wind out here had a mind of its own. On the road, it was consistent. Now, it came from whatever direction it pleased, hitting Brad in the cheek before blowing against his back a second later. He turned on his heels, spotting the trees they had just passed between. A strange haze lingered just over the ground, white and thick. His toes began to feel cold.
“Jesus H. Christ,” Cooper muttered.
Brad spun around and saw it. Some kind of aircraft was just in front of them, chrome and shaped like a bullet. The scarring of the earth suggested a rough landing and a long slide, though there didn’t appear to be any visible damage. The entire thing was spotless from top to bottom, almost unseen with how its body reflected the trees perfectly. Brad saw the two of them in the shiny exterior too, both dumbfounded at this giant, aerodynamic machine.
“It’s a goddamn spaceship,” Cooper said. “A fucking spaceship. Look at it.”
A hatch was open at the rear. Brad shined his light toward it. From here he could only see darkness inside. A chill raced up his spine.
“Keep that light steady,” his brother ordered. “I bet she’s in there.”
Brad swallowed. “Let’s just go back.”
“Nope. Not until we’re dragging her dead body.”
It had all the signs of a trap. Brad knew it was. He stayed behind his brother as they neared the entrance, stepping onto the metal
platform that led into the interior. The beam of the flashlight bounced all around, shooting from left to right.
Then, the edge of it caught something blue. Brad jerked the light away out of sheer surprise, but Cooper saw it. He stepped back and raised his weapon, aiming the barrel into the darkness.
“Okay, none of that funny business now.” His voice echoed within. “Come out where we can see you.”
A full minute passed, and nothing happened. Brad swore he saw the blue woman, or at least part of her. Maybe she was just deaf, but that couldn’t be. She had spoken flawless English earlier. Or she was playing with them. Brad wished she would just come on out. He didn’t want to see her hurt, but he’d rather just get this over with and head back home.
Cooper whispered to him, “Shine that light again, the same area.”
Brad had no choice but to do as he said.
He kept it low, aimed at the floor. His heart skipped a beat when two blue feet came into the beam. Neither one moved. He pulled his arm up, shining the light up the legs and the body. God, she was huge! He had to look way up to see her neck and head. Two black eyes stared off toward the opposite wall, each one the diameter of a grapefruit.
Cooper kept his finger near the trigger. “Wait. Go back down again.”
He did.
“Stop. Fucking hell, look at that. She’s pregnant.”
Brad felt the hairs on his neck going stiff seconds before it happened. One of her blue arms launched out, reaching for the shotgun. Cooper was quick on the trigger, but the shot went high and left. A shower of sparks went off as it ricocheted off the ceiling. In the blink of an eye, the alien woman had grabbed the barrel and ripped the weapon from his brother’s hands. She swung it back and knocked him in the face with the stock. He went down unconscious, blood trickling from his nose.
Brad backed up, half-stumbling down the ramp. “No, wait!” He waved his arms in the air.
“One,” she said. “And now two.”
She swung the shotgun so fast that it was all a blur. Brad felt the impact in his ribs, and then he was eating dirt. With his head spinning, he saw two large blue feet stepping over him. There were a pair of voices talking, but he couldn’t make out the words. He tried to find the blue alien woman again, but he couldn’t see her.
Cooper wasn’t moving. Brad tried to call his name, but his chest hurt like hell.
A blurry shape went into the spaceship, stepping past his older brother. The ground started to rumble. Brad tried to push himself up, but his arms were too weak. The figure pulled Cooper into the ship, and then it came for him. Darkness settled over his eyes.
When he woke, someone was screaming.
“Get me out of this! Let me out! You’ll pay for this!”
Brad knew something was wrong from the start. His neck felt like it was a mile long, and everything had a weird color to it, like someone had turned up the contrast. Everything was moving, vibrating. There was a loud roar coming from the walls, surrounding him.
Across from him was the blue alien chick.
Brad found his voice. “Let me … let me go.”
“Brad, look at yourself!”
He stared at her. The voice wasn’t how he remembered, but he recognized it. The way the words came off the tongue, it was all familiar.
Looking down made him want to scream.
Two massive blue tits jiggled from one side to the other, thrashing during the violent turbulence. He felt their weight shifting, slapping back and forth. They were heavy suckers, a part of him, though he refused to believe it. Below that, his belly distended into an impossibly large sphere, like some pregnant woman’s stomach. He wanted to touch it, to confirm its existence, but his hands were bound. He yanked them, but they wouldn’t come free.
Farther down, Brad didn’t feel his dick. It was empty down there, flat like a woman’s crotch.
He closed his eyes and wished it all away. He was still with his brother back in the woods. Cooper had decided to call off the hunt, that’s what it was. They were heading back to the truck, joking about seeing some blue alien woman that wasn’t actually there. The pick-up truck’s torn bench seat scratched his back. The air-conditioner blasted hot air. That’s all it was capable of.
A woman entered from the right.
Brad recognized her right away. Cooper did too, he saw. It was the woman on the road, that pregnant blonde lady who had pointed into the woods. It was a trap, just like he had thought. She had led them both there, knowing what would happen.
The spaceship rolled left and snapped back right before smoothing out.
“Males are worth a lot,” she said, pointing at them both. “Very valuable. You two are males. You will make me rich.”
Brad shook his head. “No, just let us go!”
Cooper pulled at his restraints. “You bitch! Let us free!”
The woman presented them with two black collars. “Time to complete the transfer. Your old bodies will stay with me.”
Before Brad could say anything, the woman placed the collar around his neck and clamped it shut. Instantly, his body was filled with unrelenting pain. He would’ve cried out if he had a voice, but no sound left his throat. It hurt all over. Electric jolts shot into his neck, while movement down below turned his attention to his swollen belly.
The urge to push came, and Brad couldn’t hold back. It felt like he had to, as if the pain was caused by whatever was inside his stomach. Across from him, Cooper was doing the same, spreading his legs, grimacing with the same agony. Together, their tall, blue bodies squirmed and trembled. An impossibly large pale shape slid from the hole between his legs, covered with a gross blue liquid. The exertion left him out of breath.
On the other side, Cooper was panting just as hard.
“There,” the woman said. “Simple.”
Brad couldn’t believe his eyes. On the floor was an unconscious man wearing the same clothes as him from earlier. Upon closer inspection, it wasn’t just any man; it was him.
Not a soul back on Earth heard their screams as the spaceship left the atmosphere and accelerated beyond orbital velocity. Space appeared to warp for a fleeting instant, the ship stretching to a seemingly infinitely long string the width of a human hair.
In a flash, it was gone.
Johnny watched the sun rise. For a moment, he thought he’d never see it again. It was more beautiful than ever, coming above the treetops and shining bright. The warmth touched his face, and he closed his eyes, savoring it all.
Mackenzee was at his side, not saying a word. The silence had been going on for ten minutes now.
Finally, she spoke. “What do you think happened to them?”
Johnny shook his head. “I don’t want to imagine.”
“She took them in the ship. You saw it leave.”
“Yeah, I did.”
Nothing had gone wrong with the plan. Johnny had waited inside the ship while Cheryl Conrad lured them toward it. The two idiots weren’t expecting it. The shot had come closer to hitting him than he would’ve liked, but it was worth the risk. Getting back to his own body was the priority, even if it meant putting his life on the line. Thankfully, the woman had kept her end of the bargain.
Mackenzee rested her head against his chest, watching the sun too. “They saved your life.”
“I ruined theirs,” Johnny said.
“They probably deserved it.”
“I don’t know what they deserved.”
Despite being safely back in his own skin again, they were going to miss the alien body. It had certainly made the last two nights unforgettable. Johnny still vividly recalled being inside it, touching his blue self in ways that a human man couldn’t. The sensations had been something else, and experiencing it with Mackenzee made it all the more memorable for the both of them.
Johnny glanced at the clock. It was just after six-thirty. Their shifts were almost over. He looked around at the offices.
“There’s no way we’re getting this in order.”
Mackenzee shrugged. “It was those pesky raccoons again. You know how rabid they get. We cleaned up the garbage, and then they attacked us.”
Johnny tried not to laugh. “Raccoons? You seriously think they’ll believe that?”
“Hey, you got a better idea?”
He leaned in and kissed her forehead, relishing the flowery scent of her long, dark hair.
“No, I don’t.”
###
As Nature Intended
Michelle stood atop a soggy bank, the durable heels of her work boots three inches deep in mire. Out here, the air was heavy with moisture. A thick haze rolled between the trees, progressing along the sodden earth with the same gentle wind that tossed around Michelle’s red, curly locks. Despite there not being a single cloud in the sky, she could only see a hundred feet in any direction. Far beyond, the trees disappeared into the wet, ground-hugging cloud, merging into one homogeneous gray mass.
She closed her eyes. The air out here was fresh and crisp, strong with the sweet scent of pine trees and dew. Michelle would’ve guessed that a rainstorm was not more than ten minutes away, had it not been for the low-hanging fog. She glanced down at the back of her hand, observing the tiny droplets that had condensed onto her skin. Each one was so fragile, easily smudged by the simple swipe of one delicate fingertip. More replaced them, tiny ticklish things.
Her ears honed in on the sound of a nearby stream.
After retrieving a fresh pair of disposable latex gloves, Michelle eased herself down the edge of the muddy bank, following an exposed, twisting root of a nearby tree. The wet earth sucked at her boots, almost working as a makeshift adhesive to keep her from falling over.
A Gender Swap Mega Bundle 6 Page 10
