Alienation

by S E Anderson

  The buildings reached for the pitch-black sky, massive edifices towering over us from all around, merging together to form a single block on either side of the road. It was more like a wall than a skyscraper.

  The world fell away from the doorstep, setting us who knows how high in the air. Above us—darkness. Below us—more darkness. Everything between was a strip of vibrant yellow and dazzling lights. Advertisements and moving billboards hovered in the middle of nowhere, proclaiming bright neon drinks and snacks I had never heard of and would probably never get the chance to try.

  Not that I was sure I wanted to—the ads were vivid and blaring. Just looking at them made my stomach turn.

  A car roared as it came out of nowhere, whipping my hair into my face as it passed at breakneck speed. The street was full of them. Every small dot was a car, making the road ten times wider than I’d expected. The cars themselves had no wheels, fulfilling any hovercraft fantasy I’d conjured. Streetlights bobbed like buoys on the sea of nothingness, shifting through colors that only the drivers could understand.

  I couldn’t help but think this was absolutely the coolest thing I had ever seen.

  The cars were flying. Flying. This wasn’t like the movies, no matter how awesome The Fifth Element was. Nothing compared to seeing them in person. My jaw hung to the floor as I took it all in: the roar of the city, the lights burning my retinas, the cars straight out of a science fiction film.

  I inched closer to the ledge, gripping the side of the billboard to keep vertigo from settling in, feeling a little like Leeloo, only with a whole lot more clothes on. No matter—vertigo would come whether I wanted it to or not. My vision tunneled even as I trembled in awe of the world before me. The amazing, vivid, racing world.

  And it was real. I rubbed my hands over my eyes and forced them to blink. No, the city hadn't decided to up and leave after I opened them again. It was still here.

  Even if this turned out to be a dream, this right here, right now, was the most real thing I had ever seen.

  Everything Zander had ever told me burst into reality. It hit me like a fish being flung at my face. At first, disbelief that this was happening, followed by the certainty that I could not be imagining the smell. My heart didn't so much skip as plunge into my gut. It was like standing in a fishbowl, only instead of fish, cars whizzed past my face.

  “You okay?” asked Zander, calmly. The proximity of his voice startled me, and I turned my head from the fall to face him. His gravity-defying hair wafted in the wind created by the cars rushing by.

  “You don’t have to keep asking me that, you know.”

  “You stopped moving,” he said, nonchalantly, “and there are men with guns that will break into the safe any second now.”

  “Oh, right, I did,” I said through trembling lips, and turned back to the task at hand. Which seemed, much to my dismay, to follow Blayde down this tiny ledge and around the corner of the building. “It's just … so much to take in,” I replied, lie after lie.

  “Are you crying?”

  “It’s the fumes?” I wiped my eyes with the corner of my sleeve.

  And yet, despite the pain in my chest as I wheezed, despite the terror of being so high up, despite the tears of awe mixing with tears of pain, I was the happiest I had been in years.

  And also the most terrified. Because, you know, potentially dying was on the table.

  “Then let’s keep moving. Not too far now, okay?”

  I nodded, and took a tentative step forward. A gust of wind flew against my face, and I stifled a scream. It was as if I were already falling. One misstep, and I would plummet to the bottom of this foreign city. No one would find my body, down in the deep, deep dark.

  “Keep your hand firmly against the wall, and don’t look down. Okay?”

  I didn’t even care where the voice came from. I reached for the wall, looked up and away, and walked forward on trembling feet.

  “Faster than that, Sally.”

  I put my sleeve over my mouth and stared straight ahead; the flashing advertisements, the orbs of the street lights, glowing as they hovered in the air, somehow stable in all this movement. The blur of cars that raced through the air so quickly they could win a Formula 1 race without even entering.

  This all clashed horribly with the sky, which was as dark as a bowl of black ink and twice as deep, like velvet. It was almost an eternity of blackness, a deep hole that could suck you in if you came too close. A darkness so intense—a starless, moonless darkness that stretched over the city like a sheet, suffocating its inhabitants. The air itself was constraining.

  It was, in itself, an oxymoron—being both claustrophobic and agoraphobic at once. It pressed down on me despite the width of the avenues and the massive buildings that were spread out.

  We rounded the corner and there was Blayde, halfway inside a window. She grinned at me, more at ease in this world, in this crazy danger, than I could ever be.

  She offered her hand, and I took it without hesitation. Silently, she lowered me to the floor—this window wasn’t so high off the ground—and reached back outside for her brother.

  “We've been here before, haven't we?” Zander asked, halfway through the window, pointing at the world beyond.

  “Definitely familiar,” she replied.

  “Yup, I'm sure we've been here before. I recognize these buildings.”

  “It's been a while, though. The cars are much nicer.”

  She leaned an unnatural distance off the ledge, her agile body perfectly balanced on the stoop. I wanted to fling out a hand to grab her before she fell, but Blayde seemed comfortable hanging over the abyss. Legolas himself would be impressed. I wanted to ask what her elf eyes saw.

  I tore myself away from the sight and froze. We were in another silent room, devoid of people, like the garage. The walls were coated with a dark black substance with glowing blue rings on the floor shimmering to an unnatural degree. Above the rings, stuff floated.

  I didn’t know how else to describe it. It was just … junk. There was a block of metal sitting in the middle of the air, minding its own business. A dark, leather biker jacket. A plumbus. Something red and very fluffy, which looked maybe like it was alive.

  “So, um, where are we?” I asked, looking at Zander for answers. I would have looked to Blayde, but seeing her leaning out the window turned my stomach. Stunningly beautiful view or not, it was a long way down from that ledge.

  “Sally,” he said, indicating the outside world. “Welcome to the capital planet of the Fushin system, the gem of the Alliance, the city that never sleeps, the world of a million lights. The planet city of Da-Duhui.”

  CHAPTER THREE

  In which Zander is an actual fashion thief

  Da-Duhui.

  This alien place had a name, a word I could throw into my mind to classify everything I saw, to make sense of it. Da-Duhui: a city light-years away from my home.

  Blayde decided this was the best time to close the window. Instantly, the air in the room shuddered and took a breath, as if a filter had been turned on. I inhaled, relishing in the freshness.

  She jumped down to the floor in a classy superhero landing then looked up to check her handiwork. Five pairs of feet raced past the window, a string of muffled words trailing them. “Are we … are we safe here?” I asked.

  Blayde shrugged. “Sure, so long as we don’t touch anything else.”

  “And where are we?”

  “Da-Duhui.” She cocked her head. “Are you in shock? You realize we just had this conversation?”

  “I got that bit”—I glanced around—“but what is this place?”

  “Museum? Art gallery? Could go either way. Try not to touch anything. There are probably more alarms here than there were in that last room.”

  “You have been here before?”

  “M'yeah.” She pulled a tattered book from her inside pocket, her journal. She flipped through the pages, brows knitting together and casting lines on her forehead. Her lips
turned to form into a small frown. It was an expression I was beginning to think was permanently baked into her features.

  “I'm pretty sure we have,” said Zander, forcing concentration, staring back in time and bringing up the memories locked in his mind. “I have no idea when, but it was recently enough that I recognize it. I know it was a good trip, though.”

  “I've got two lines in the journal.” Blayde jammed her finger at the page as if to squash a bug. “Visited Da-Duhui. Avoid for a while. Don't eat the pizza. And that's it, so not much to go on.”

  Zander rubbed his temples, squeezing his eyes shut.

  “Hopefully some memory will surface,” he said, suddenly back to his usual cheerful self. “How long ago was it?”

  “Before Ja'karon. Now that was a good time. We should have taken Sally there.”

  “You were almost eaten by a swamp-beast, and you tried to sell me into marriage with the Earth King. Yeah, that was fun.”

  “Don't be so dramatic.” She grinned, slamming her journal shut. “He obviously liked you. And I didn't get any complaints at the time. Anyway, it was much more interesting than Da-Duhui, where the only thing I cared enough to write about is their bad food.”

  “Interesting? This place is plenty interesting,” said Zander. “And most of all, it's safe. There's no drama. Just a good, classic alien city to show Sally. Harmless.”

  Blayde let out a snort, making me wonder just how harmless it really was. If her idea of fun was narrowly avoiding death, I wanted to stay away from the places she gave five stars to on Yelp.

  “We just escaped deadly fumes and a gun squad, Zander,” she said.

  “But the upper levels are really nice.”

  “If we can get Sally there in one piece, yes.”

  “Which we will.”

  “All this for dinner away from Earth?” Blayde looked at me now, squinting in doubt. “You get much better food on her planet. I think. Honestly, I wasn’t around long enough to check.”

  “This isn’t about the food, Blayde!”

  “Then again,” I said, “if you mentioned to stay away for a while, that's probably for a reason, right? Should I ask ...?”

  “Ask all you want, but I don't have an answer.” Blayde stuffed her journal into the inside pocket of her red leather jacket. “You can't expect me to remember everything. My mind has much more important things to focus on.”

  “But it is safe, right?” My eyes glanced at the window the security guards had run past. Had they seen our faces? Would they come looking for us? “You keep arguing about it, so how safe can it really be?”

  The siblings exchanged long looks. Blayde communicated with her eyebrows alone, raising and dropping them as she shifted through a wide range of expressions. Zander seemed to understand her, sort of; after a minute of watching her emote a variety of eyebrow poses, he sighed and broke eye contact.

  “As safe as it possibly could be,” he answered. “Crime rate is null on the higher levels, but you don't have to worry about that. We'll make sure nothing happens to you. I promise.”

  “What Zander means to say,” Blayde interjected, “is that this is a fun trip and definitely not business. There's nothing to worry about.”

  “Remind me, what would a business trip for you two involve?” I asked. Blayde rolled her eyes. Typical. Well, I hadn't known her all that long, certainly not enough to know what typical was, but it seemed familiar enough.

  “Let's find something fun to do.” Zander rubbed his hands together with that smug grin on his face that meant exciting things were about to happen. The kind of grin that stretched too wide for his face. He looked like a kid in a candy store.

  “First of all, let’s stop standing around this place, okay?” said Blayde. “It gives me the creeps.”

  “Something gives you the creeps?” I trotted after her as she walked toward the room’s only exit. “You? The immortal, intergalactic space … what are you exactly? Travel blogger? A cop? An assassin?”

  She shot me a glare. “I have a bad vibe, that’s all. Give me a break, will you?”

  “Sorry, I just …”

  “Run, run, run, run, run!” shouted Zander, snapping my sentence in half, flashing past us in a whirl of black leather. His hand caught mine and tugged, and, suddenly, I was running after him, an alarm ringing in my ears.

  And, unlike the invisible swarm of bees that never was from the garage, this wasn’t the silent type. It sounded like a fire truck on steroids. I wanted to throw my hands over my ears to protect them from the shrill whine, but Zander gripped my hand, rushing me forward. My feet stung as they hit the floor, faster than I ever wanted to run. My breath was ragged, burning through my mouth and throat.

  “What the hell did you do?” I stammered, right as a chunk of ceiling exploded above us. “Shit! What was that?”

  “Don’t look back!”

  He didn’t need to tell me twice. I had only been on this planet five minutes, and already, two separate factions were shooting at us.

  The hallway didn’t fit the dark surroundings of the museum-like room. Here, the floor looked like wood but was harder to run on, and the walls were covered with a washed-out tapestry. None of the sleek, futuristic walls from the first room or the old, musty concrete from the garage.

  “Did you—is that the coat that was on display?” I shouted over the siren, my feet pounding on the floor. His hand tightened as we sped up. “Why are you wearing it?”

  “It’s mine!”

  “Is that how things work? You take it, so it’s yours?”

  “No, it is mine! They took it from me first!”

  “Seriously?”

  “I can’t remember who or when, but I’m sure!”

  We spun around a corner and almost tumbled down a set of stairs. I staggered as the step I took forward landed on the floor of the landing below. Zander had jumped us forward without warning.

  There were a series of rapid thumps, and a form crashed to the floor in front of me, a chunk of brown banister landing beside him. I screamed as I took in the blue skin and the wrinkles around the massive head. Zander helped himself to the creature’s gun and tugged me forward. I stepped over the alien, launching into another run.

  Feet thundered on the wooden stairs far in front of us. Zander opened the closest door and rushed us inside. Blayde thrust it shut behind us, her breathing calm and composed. The only thing out of place was a smear of blue gel on her cheek.

  Pretty sure that wasn’t shampoo.

  “Zander.” She stormed at him, arms akimbo. “What the veesh did you do?”

  “Isn't it awesome?” He twirled for us to take it all in, displaying the jacket like a peacock spreading his tail feathers. It was battle-worn, the kind a biker would wear. No patches or pins, just plain, old black leather, singed on one sleeve, brown in spots from age and use. No mythical treasure, no secret hoard of magic, just an old, battered leather jacket.

  “If there were an award for the stupidest move in history, you would be the guest of honor every year. Actually, multiple times per year.”

  Zander’s face fell. “Don’t you recognize it?”

  “Nope.”

  “Oh, Come on, it’s my favorite jacket!”

  “Was your favorite jacket. Which you forgot even existed then stole from a display case.” Blayde ran her hands through her hair and closed her eyes. “What was the point of me getting us out of the frying pan if you go and throw us in a fire? We’re even deeper into the block now than we were earlier.”

  “But it’s mine!”

  “You could have disabled the locks. Silenced the alarm. There are a million different ways to steal something from a … a … what was that place, a museum of illegally acquired items? Last I checked, Da-Duhui was under Alliance control, and I doubt they’d have any jacket of yours displayed so nicely. They think you died centuries ago.”

  “Not sure what they think about me, but at least they’ll see I’m well-dressed.”

  “Excuse me,�
�� came a voice from behind us, “but would you please tell me what you are doing in my bathroom?”

  I turned around to stare at the mustard-colored couch, wondering where the voice had come from, until I realized the couch was not a couch but something alive. The thing before me was a big, sluggish looking mess of dark green skin and yellow pustules. The eyes were bulbous and reptilian, though the eyelids dropped pitifully, all the muscles on its face closely followed by bags. To top it off, it was completely bald, the scalp speckled like a toad's back. It took all my willpower to stop myself from gagging. The thing even smelled like a swamp.

  “Shit.” Blayde slapped herself in the face and grunted. “Zander, take him out.”

  “Why me?”

  “Do I need to say ‘please’? Or do you want me to list the reasons? Well, let’s start with you getting us into this mess in the first place. That, and it’s your turn. I took down the guys in the hallway. And I got us out of the safe. So?”

  “May I have a say in any of this?” asked the slug, his voice low and raspy. “Do you know who I am? I assume you do, which is why you’re here. What do you want? Riches? A way off the planet? You can ask, but you will have neither. You were dead the second you set your foot inside the doorway.”

  “Not now! Can’t you see I’m busy here?” Blayde snapped, not taking her eyes of Zander. The slug looked shocked—if a slug could even look shocked. “What happened to you? You’re on Earth for two minutes, and, suddenly, you’re breaking every protocol we’ve ever established. They’re in place for a reason, you idiot!”

  “Can we argue about this later? There’s a nude Oexasie sitting right in front of us.”

  “That guy’s nude?” I stammered. What was the stance on modesty with other races? Especially one with no apparent arms or any other limbs?

  And why was I worried about that when the stranger wanted us dead?