He parked the car and they entered the Harvard Science building, immediately heading down to the basement. The automated security checkpoints were still in place, so they needed Dr. Corvin’s credentials to get them through.
At the end of a long hallway, two doors opened into a large research room filled with electronics. Mattie recognized the doughnut shape of the vortex generator sitting on a metal stand in the middle of the room. It was about three feet in diameter. A tall rectangular steel device that looked like a port-a-john was beside it, with wires and tubes emerging from its top and bottom. Holly and Chen both hurried over to it.
“So there it is,” Holly said. “I was wondering when I would be able to see it. Any operational issues?”
Corvin patted the side of the port-a-john, his face beaming with pride.
“Everything seems to be working correctly since I initiated the generator core last week. I haven’t sent the latest round of data to you yet. And now, after what you just told me about Chronos, there’s no point in it. The device is useless.”
“Not so quick, Darren,” Chen said. “There is a backup facility. It’s so top secret I didn’t even know about it until a few hours ago.”
“A backup facility? My God, Patrick, that’s incredible!”
Mattie wondered what the large metallic box was, but he needed to stay focused on his mission. He scanned the room as the others were talking and gloating over Dr. Corvin’s latest creation.
Then he saw it.
Sitting on a table in the corner, scattered among circuit boards and other odds and ends, was a brown teddy bear wearing a red bow tie.
Mattie crossed the room and picked it up.
The bear’s eyes immediately began to glow, and they scanned Mattie’s face.
“Facial recognition confirmed,” the bear said in a little boy’s voice. “It’s good to see you, Colonel Tedrow. I have highly classified information for you. Uploading data now.”
The Harvard lab suddenly faded away, and the bear spoke.
"This data was recorded April 25, 2038, three months from now, near New York City. You are the first to see this video. This is what the future holds for mankind."
Mattie found himself standing in a bedroom. The walls were decorated with unicorns and mermaids, and a dozen or so stuffed animals lay on the bed. Barbies and other dolls were stacked neatly on a shelf.
A woman’s voice called out, “Alyssa! Where are you?”
Mattie turned, and the door opened. A pretty young woman with long dark hair stood at the entrance to the room, smiling.
“There you are. I’ve been looking all over for you, little girl.”
Before the woman could step inside, she turned and looked behind her. “No, no!” she screamed.
Something grabbed her around the waist and yanked her, still screaming, violently backwards and into the hall.
The hair on Mattie's arm quivered as the woman yelled out in horror, begging for her life.
“Don’t take me, please! I just want to be with my daughter! Oh God! Oh God! No!”
The blood-curdling screams faded, replaced by a crazed munching sound.
Chapter 33
April 2038, Three Months After the Invasion
Alien Colony—Former Location of New York City
Eleven-year-old Alyssa Quintero watched as her mom was taken again. Only it wasn’t really her mom. She looked and acted like her mom and even had her mom’s memories, but it wasn’t her. Not the real her anyway.
Alyssa’s mom died three months ago when the Vorsh landed.
She hugged her little bear tightly as the screaming died down and the munching grew louder.
The Wrender had gotten loose again.
She wondered how aliens so advanced weren’t able to build better cages for their pets. Of course, Wrenders were very smart and always hungry.
Then another thought occurred to her.
Perhaps the Wrender didn’t get out on its own. Perhaps it had help.
That meant only one thing.
Heavy gurgling laughter came from around the corner, followed by thumping footsteps. She knew what was coming next.
Running under the bed would do no good; he would find her there. The closet, the same. There was nowhere to hide, so she tossed her teddy bear on the bed and waited.
It wouldn’t be long now.
Rounding the corner and thundering into her room came Gromel. He stood at the doorway for a second, four thick muscular legs holding him firmly in place, his body heaving in excitement, all three eyes narrowly fixed on her.
He reached out with his hand, long spindly fingers wrapping around her whole body like a tight steel cord. He picked her up and brought her to his face. His breath smelled like rotten flesh and vomit. She gagged as Gromel stared at her.
The Vorsh were not even vaguely human looking. It was hard to describe exactly what they resembled. To Alyssa it looked like someone had taken a grizzly bear’s upper body and slammed it down on a lion’s lower body in place of the head, like some kind of freakish centaur thing. Adults were about seven feet high at the lower half of the body, taller than those big Clydesdale horses that she remembered seeing once in a parade. Then the big bear torso part rose up another six feet or so, topping them out at over thirteen feet. The children were smaller, of course, but still taller than her father had been.
She had trouble reading emotions in the Vorsh, even with her neural implants, but she knew the twisted expression on Gromel’s face meant nothing but excitement and pleasure.
He reached out with his other hand and covered her head.
Alyssa could hear Flost yelling for him to stop, but it was too late.
Gromel pulled off her head.
Her brain would still register images for another minute or so, until the oxygen burned out of it. She knew this because Gromel had done the same thing three times before.
He dropped her body carelessly on the floor and held her head out in front of him like a trophy. His sister, Flost, entered the room, screaming and doing what passed for crying among the Vorsh. Gromel pushed her away and dangled Alyssa’s head out in front of her, teasing her with it.
Then darkness fell as the last thoughts in Alyssa’s brain faded away.
#
Alyssa woke up in bed and stared at the glow-in-the-dark stars on the ceiling above. Then she touched her neck.
Not even a scar.
The nanobots coursing through her veins had sealed her head back onto her body. She was good as new, back to living this pretend life.
As a Vorsh pet.
Gromel and Flost were just toddlers in the human sense of the word, and their play tended to be rough. They kept her in this manufactured home like a doll in a dollhouse. All of her basic needs were provided for—water and any food she wanted. All she had to do was think it and the tiny nanobots circulating like dust in the air around her would create it for her.
Every once in a while she would get to go out and see what the world was transforming into.
Today was such a day.
She grabbed Teddy as Flost picked her up, gently cradling her as she put her in a clear plastic container. Then they walked outside. Flost was a female, and much like human girls, she was nurturing and caring. Gromel, on the other hand, was a terror. Not only had he torn her head off multiple times, but he’d also torn off her legs and arms and even thrown her in the Wrender’s cage to be half-eaten before Flost could rescue her. Even though the nanos would repair her, each time she still felt all the pain and terror.
She only wanted this horror to end.
But the end was nowhere in sight.
They walked through the home, past Gromel and Flost’s mother, who stood in a trance-like state, logged into the Vorsh equivalent of the Stream. Normally Flost would put on some type of mask to help her breathe outside, but not today. She apparently didn’t need it any longer.
As they walked outside, Alyssa could see immediately that the world had once again change
d. The sky had a slightly green tinge to it, not the usual blue that she remembered from before the invasion. And the air felt heavy and humid, more like late summer than early spring in New York. She felt short of breath even as she gulped in the warm air.
All that remained of the once great city were a few crushed buildings and some highways that had already started growing over with a strange type of weed.
Planted firmly on top of the remains of New York was a Vorsh supercity. Its roots went far and wide, like a giant tree. Alyssa could see some of the red roots pulsing under her like veins. She wasn’t exactly sure, but she thought that the city might be alive. With the Vorsh, it was hard to tell the difference between what was living and what was mechanical.
Alyssa heard noise and chatter as Flost’s friends approached. The Vorsh girl held her up in the container, and her friends cooed in pleasure. One opened the box and pulled her out, wrenching her arms. Then the creature began patting and stroking Alyssa’s hair. Another wanted to hold her and started pulling her arm.
Alyssa felt it snap, shards of bones piercing her skin. The pain was intense, and she screamed.
Flost pulled her away from the other Vorsh children, scolding them, and placed her back in the container.
Alyssa held her arm out, tears streaming down her face. It never got any easier. The tingling and burning began as the nanos flooded her arm. The bone receded back into her body and melded together. In just minutes the thing was healed, just as good as it had been before.
To be broken or ripped off again.
Alyssa thought about her mother and father. Her real mother, not the bizarre clone thing that kept popping up in her little dollhouse. The day the swarms came to New York she and her family managed to escape and retreat to a small summer home they had in the mountains, driven there by intense fear. They survived for almost a week, until the swarm finally found them.
Alyssa shuddered as she thought about the creatures buzzing her mother and then diving into her father and eating through his skull. She didn’t know why, but they kept her and her mother alive, injecting them with something. She touched the side of her head, remembering how the horrible metal bugs latched onto her ear and put things inside her. Then her mind had opened up. She could sense everything around her more intensely, and she could feel the Vorsh in her brain, their thoughts and feelings rushing over her.
She was changed forever.
Her mother also changed. She was easily controlled by the Vorsh. Flost could simply think and her mother would act. Flost would laugh and giggle as she made Alyssa’s mom dance like a bizarre puppet. That was her real mother. She was killed by Gromel, simply torn into pieces too small to put back together. They’d lost three copies since then. One was thrown into a black hole that the Vorsh used for power, another just disappeared one day—no one knew where she went—and the last one was devoured by the Wrender. Each time she came back. But Alyssa knew it wasn’t really her.
Time passed as Alyssa watched Flost play with her friends. Even with her heightened senses she had a hard time following their movements, they were so fast. She thought she heard them talking once about how Earth was so much easier to move around on than their home planet, something about the gravity being lighter.
Alyssa felt her cage jostle, shaking her from her observation of her alien captors. Another of Flost’s playmates had arrived, and she’d brought her own little pet—another terrified little girl, Susanna, who was a few years younger than Alyssa. She’d met Susanna a few weeks ago, but hadn’t seen her since.
She glanced over at Susanna in her cage and managed a slight wave. The girl waved back, a tired, tortured look on her face, and crawled closer to Alyssa. The cages were side by side, but neither girl could touch. They simply stared at each other in understanding.
Soon the Vorsh girls grew tired of playing and came over to show off their pets. There was the usual stroking and cooing—eight long, spindly fingers on each of the aliens’ hands running through her blond hair. Alyssa got passed between the girls and held over their massive shoulders like a baby. As she lay there she could feel the Vorsh clothing probing her body, little tendrils weaving and crawling, constantly moving, trying to figure out what she was. She’d wondered if the glowing, pulsing, rainbow-shaded clothing was alive. She’d heard Flost’s mother refer to the clothing as the Shree, which made her think the clothes were another species the Vorsh conquered somewhere out in space.
As she flopped around in the slimy tendrils on the female’s shoulder, a discussion sprang up. Alyssa could only understand bit and pieces of their language through her neural connection with them. This time the females seemed to be talking about her and Susanna.
A decision was made, and one of the Vorsh came over and pulled Alyssa’s blue dress off. Flost then removed Susanna’s black polka dot dress. The two females then exchanged the dresses. Her arm was twisted again as Flost shoved the new dress over her head. But before the other female could put her blue dress on Susanna, several Vorsh males showed up.
She could tell they were males because they were larger and stronger and had spikes coming out of the row of humps on their backs. They were also lacking the rows of nipple-like bumps that progressed down the front of the females’ upper bodies.
The girls hurried over to the boys, dropping Alyssa and Susanna in the grass. Alyssa waited for a second to make sure the aliens were occupied, then she slowly crawled over to Susanna. She simply sat there on the ground, naked and shivering, not even trying to cover up.
“Hi, Susanna.”
The girl looked up and dried her tears.
“How have you been?”
“The same,” Susanna said between sniffles. “I miss my parents.”
“Me too. Have you seen any other people alive?”
“No, not for the last month or so,” Susanna said quietly. “But I don’t get out much. Mostly they keep me in a small cage in their home. Have you seen anyone?”
Alyssa thought back to the other night when they took her to the fights. She’d watched from her cage, of course. Human men, under complete mental control of the Vorsh, were forced to fight with swords and knives until one severed the head of the other. The Vorsh seemed to be betting on the outcome of the fight. None of the humans actually died. Their heads were reattached so they could fight again another day.
But Alyssa didn’t need to tell Susanna any of that. She simply said, “I’ve seen a few men that they keep like us.”
“Like pets?”
Alyssa nodded.
“Do you think they’ll ever let us go?” Susanna asked, her eyes welling with tears.
Alyssa had thought about escaping many times, but her room was always locked, and mechanical things floated around all the time, watching over the house. Then, even if she did get away, where would she go? Were any people fighting the Vorsh? She had no way of knowing.
“No, they’ll never set us free. If we want to get out, then we have to do it ourselves.”
Susanna’s eye opened wide in excitement. “We should try together. We could meet here and run away into the woods. That’s where my father and I were going before they got him.”
“But how? I can’t get out of my room.”
“Can you make the floaters move?”
“Floaters?”
“You know, those weird things that are always floating around all over the place.”
Alyssa had seen them, of course. They were everywhere, like little dandelion seeds drifting in the air. She had no idea what they were, much less figured out how to make them move. The Vorsh, however, could easily manipulate them.
“You can move them?” she asked Susanna.
“Yes,” Susanna replied proudly. “I learned how to do it just recently. I think I may be able to get them to open my cage.”
This could be their chance to get away. Alyssa clapped her excitement, then peeked around to see if Flost had noticed. She was still caught up with her friends.
“Okay, Susanna,
let’s do it tonight. Try to get the floaters to open your cage, then you need to help me get out. My house is that one.” She pointed to the long, flat, white building behind them. “They keep me in a room toward the back, just off from the main sleeping area.”
She gestured to Flost, who was galloping back toward them.
“Tonight,” Susanna whispered as her Vorsh picked her up and tossed her naked body into the transparent cage, along with Alyssa’s blue dress.
Flost followed, grabbing her around the waist and tossing her casually into her cage as well. The alien girls continued their excited jabbering. Alyssa couldn’t follow it all—something about the males.
Before leaving the courtyard, several of the girls plucked giant red seeds from the trees that grew out of the roots under the city. The seeds were partially transparent, and something grew inside them. One flickered and spun in fear as it was plucked from the tree. The girls’ tongues darted out and slurped up the insides, the growing thing that Alyssa watched quickly disappearing down one of the girls’ throats.
Alyssa’s stomach turned. She had to get away from these horrible creatures. Maybe there were other human survivors.
She could only hope.
#
Alyssa kept her eyes closed, pretending to sleep as Flost turned out the lights and went to bed. Her leg itched slightly as it healed. The Wrender had jumped up while Flost was holding her and taken a huge bite from it, tearing her flesh almost to the bone. The pain was searing. Flost merely scolded the beast. The nasty thing looked like a feathered cobra with hundreds of tiny centipede-like legs spreading out under its body. It sulked off into a corner.
She had no idea what time Susanna would get there, or if she would even come at all. She held out very little hope of ever getting out of her prison and this tortured life. Even if she wanted to die, she couldn’t. Whatever they did to make her heal made sure of that.
NanoSwarm: Extermination Day Book Two Page 28
