by H. J. Lawson
It feels like I’m being lifted up through the beam together with the police officer. I’m terrified.
“You’re going to wish they’d put you in the work camp,” he whispers. “You’re going to beg them to put you in the camp. Instead, they are going to punish you for shooting me. Do you know how uncomfortable it is to change a body, especially when I had just gotten used to this one? You deserve proper punishment for ruining me. And you will get your punishment, don’t worry. They are going to torture and enslave you. Then they will leave you for us to kill.”
I cannot talk, only breathe. The ground becomes a dot as we move up through the spaceships beam.
When we are inside the spaceship, the police officer leaves me. I start to travel through the ship against my will – the floor is moving, thus pushing me forward. I pass a room lined with people in pods. The pods are closed.
“Please, help!”
“Help me out!”
“Come here, girl!”
The people are trapped inside the pods, screaming to get out. The entire room is filled with deafening sounds of people’s calls and shrieks, making me shudder as I pass them. I wonder if my mom and sister are here, too. I try to look at all the people in the pods as I move, but I can’t spot either of them.
I see the black mass is slowly filling the pods, reaching the people’s faces, drowning them. Other people leave their pods naked and seem to be normal. I’m sure they aren’t normal at all. I know the black mass is in them. Their bodies are full of it.
If the people are awake at the start of the process, their bodies aren’t paralyzed like mine. Maybe there is a chance to get out of this, but only if the process of filling the pods is delayed. I think my idea makes sense, so I try to bring my body back to life. But, I don’t know how to do it. I still have no feeling. I still can’t feel my body at all.
Still paralyzed, I try to find AJ, my mother, or Willow. Even if they were here, it would be impossible to find them. The room is long with many pods lined up on the both sides of the walls. I look at the ground and see the floor is still moving forward. The black mass is beneath me. I have to get out of here somehow before the black mass is inside me. I just don’t know how. I’m trapped in my own body. If only I could move on my own …
Soon the floor stops moving. I’m lined up with more people by the wall. All of them look as if they are frozen, just like me.
Our bodies are lowered to the ground and yet we’re still standing somehow. We stay there, unable to move. Soon other people walk into the room and approach us. I don’t know any of them. They start to cut off our clothes. I see how they throw away other people’s jewelry, too. I start to worry – what if they take my bracelet?
What am I going to do if they take it? They will see my golden aura. I have no idea what will happen next. I wait, holding my breath, hoping they won’t notice my wrist.
No… no … One of them sees it. The paralyzed man standing next to me starts to twitch, and he tries to break free of the invisible restrains. He manages to move a little bit in convulsions.
The black mass tightens around the man’s feet, then around his legs, engulfing him and preventing him from moving. He’s captured again. There’s no way of getting away from the black mass.
The worker who was going to take off my bracelet turns to look at him, and then injects something into the man’s neck and his movements stop. He’s paralyzed again.
The worker nods and moves on to the next person. I can’t believe it. He forgot about my bracelet! I let out the breath I was holding, silently thankful to the person standing next to me. If he hadn’t created the commotion, everything would have been different for me right now. I would have glowed, and they would have paid more attention to me. I don’t even want to think about what would’ve happened.
The workers finish undressing people. The other naked bodies and I are lifted once again. We are moved out of this room. The new room looks like the previous one, but it’s filled with empty pods. I suppose we’re going to occupy them.
We are placed into a pod, each one separately. The glass doors close around me.
I feel cold air rush all over my body, as the black mass fills the pod. I slowly start to feel my body as it wakes up. I want to use my chance and run away. I fight to get out, trying to open the glass door, but the black mass tightly wraps around my ankles and wrists, holding me in place. I should have known movement makes the black mass active and aggressive. But I had no other choice.
It’s impossible to move – I’m trapped in the pod with the black mass quickly rising up towards my face. It starts to rush up my nose and in my ears. I feel it drowning me.
The mass is in my body.
Chapter Twenty-Six
The chilly, cloudy, heavy mass of black nothingness has filled my body. It races through my veins, and I feel it slowly spreading towards my hands and feet. It totally fills me up. I start to feel entirely different; it’s as if I’ve been overloaded and upgraded somehow.
I need to get out of here.
I calculate the pressure needed to open the pod door, then close my eyes and concentrate as hard as possible. I need to do it. I must do it. The weakest spot of the pod is the door. I use all strength and the door pops off, much to my surprise and amazement.
I look around and see a worker staring at me. He’s also dumbstruck. A person opening a pod with her power is not something that occurs often. I know I don’t have much time; I’m sure he will alert everyone to my escape. Without hesitation, I go for him.
The black mass that lines the spaceship floor doesn’t hold my legs the way it used to when I would move. Moreover, it moves away from me. There is nothing that can stop me now. I’m free to walk towards the worker who’s still looking at me with a stunned expression. I pick up speed and run straight at him, knocking him over with one punch.
I’m shocked with my new strength. Just one punch in the face, and the worker collapsed to the floor. This is unbelievable! I start to grin, content with myself. I can’t wait to tell AJ and Willow about it. Then my grin fades – aliens are inside of me. They are doing this, I remind myself as I look around for the exit.
I see it and go right towards it.
Suddenly, I realize I’m naked. Instinctively I cover myself with my hands; my body doesn’t feel hot or cold. It’s the average normal temperature, the one when you don’t even think about the weather. I turn to look at the worker who I punched so hard he fell on the floor.
“Why not?” I mumble as I hurry towards him and start stripping him of his uniform. It’s time-consuming work, but I’m trying to be as fast as I possibly can.
Finally, I get his uniform off and quickly put it on, constantly looking around, trying to make sure no one sees me.
I hear the sound of the pod doors opening.
They start to open one by one. The people inside the pods are also naked, just like I was before putting on the uniform. The naked people start to climb out of the pods. They aren’t as enthusiastic as I was; they’re a bit lazy and indifferent to their surroundings. It’s like they don’t care what’s happening around them. I’m sure they have the alien mass inside them like I do, but I’m also sure they won’t be able to control themselves and their abilities like me. I can already imagine them becoming like the police officer and the old woman with the cats. Soon enough, they will be sent back to Earth to look like other humans.
I gulp. I’m glad I’m not one of them. Hopefully I can control myself like AJ.
Even though these people are in an apathetic state, I know they will fully wake soon and I don’t want to know what will happen. I need to leave this room quickly. I hurry towards the exit, looking around, hoping no one has noticed me.
As I run out of the room, I find myself in a small hallway. I look at my feet frantically, worried about the black mass on the floor. It still retracts away from me. At least that’s one good thing about this damn black mass inside of me – the mass on the floor doesn’t keep clinging to
my feet like before. I’m grateful for it. I run from one location to the next, sometimes entering the same location twice, since the spaceship is so large I can’t quite remember which location I have been in and which I have not.
I really need to find Willow, my mom, and AJ. I can’t believe in the end it’s me who has to find all of them. If only AJ had waited for me in the morning, everything would have been much easier. Now I have to find three people on this huge spaceship. Three is too many people for me to find, especially when I’m alone and surrounded by Seedling-seeking aliens who want to destroy me or do other things I can’t even imagine.
I need to remain as invisible as possible. I look around and see people have started coming out of various rooms. I blend in with them, trying to act as if I am a worker, a very indifferent alien worker. I don’t have any other choice.
The only way to stay safe and find my loved ones is to join the flow of naked people. What if mom, Willow, and AJ are among them? I watch attentively to see if they’re here. I hope no one notices I’m actually looking for someone.
I start to move up to the other floors of the spaceship. All the while, naked people are around me – in front of me, behind me, and next to me. There are so many of them. Walking with the flow means being slightly pushed here and there. There is no way back; I can’t turn around. Too many people are behind me.
Slowly, I walk up the floors, all the way to the top. The flights of stairs are so narrow, only one person can take them at a time. Others are pushing from all directions. I realize we’re at the top floor when I can’t find anymore stairs.
I want to turn back, but there are too many people walking, pushing, and spreading out towards the different hallways. I stand in front of round metallic doors, waiting to find a suitable second to start going down again.
While I’m standing there, the doors start to slowly open. I can’t move away; I’m rooted in place with wide eyes. I don’t know what or who I will see behind the doors. I hope it’s my mom, or Willow, or AJ. Or all of them.
When the doors are fully open, I look in and can’t believe what I see. There are black masses without the human body. The masses are like the ones I saw when they first arrived – tall, scary aliens with holes instead of eyes and a gaping hole in place of a mouth. It’s the most horrifying thing I have ever seen in my life.
The aliens are standing at computer stations. I guess this is where the pilots are working; the main place the spaceship is being operated from. I need to get away from here as soon as possible. My heart is racing as panic rises in my chest.
The aliens at the computer stations slowly turn around to look at me. I’m sure they know I’m not a worker, just a Seedling in the worker’s uniform. A Seedling they need to capture and destroy. Even though the black mass is inside of me, it surely won’t matter anything to them. I freeze, horrified of their eyeless stares …
Chapter Twenty-Seven
In my petrified mind, there is only one thought – to get away from here. I turn around and search for a path to escape this place. The aliens open their hole-mouths and start screaming with deafening loud sounds. As the hellish howls surround me, I try to run away. I start to move my feet, but I feel the black wave grab my legs just like before.
The black mass inside of me doesn’t mean anything now. I start to fight against the black wave as it tightens its grip around my legs like ropes. There’s no way I can defeat the mass, not even when I have upgraded and gotten stronger.
“AJ! AJ, help!” I shriek. “Mom! Help me!”
No one comes to help me.
There is a circular hole in the middle of the spaceship around the spiraling narrow stairs. The black wave drags me forward towards the hole and down through the center of the ship. I don’t fight as I know the drop will kill me if I do. I try to stay relaxed and keep my muscles weak as I’m carried by the thick black wave.
“AJ! AJ!” I shriek desperately. I need him to be here so badly. I need somebody, anybody to come to my rescue. The black mass plummets to the ground, and I land on the first floor of the spaceship with the mass still surrounding me. It doesn’t let me breath freely – it is up to my neck as I’m lying down in it, trying to stand.
A blue electrical sphere appears. It knocks the mass away from me, and then another one takes its place. I look up and see AJ. I can’t believe my eyes. He’s throwing metal disks that turn into blue spheres.
He smiles at me as I look at him. He’s here! My heart fills with warmth realizing how much I need him and how much I’ve missed him. He takes my hand, helping me get up. We start to run across the hallway, but the black mass is on the floor, threatening to cling to me again. AJ starts throwing the metal discs as we run, clearing a path for us.
“AJ!” I yell, running breathlessly across the hall as I hold his hand. “Where are my mother and sister?” I’m so afraid to hear something bad.
“Don’t worry, Paige, they are safe,” he yells over his shoulder. “I’ll tell you more after we get off this ship. It will blow soon.”
“It will blow soon?” I repeat, my eyes filled with horror.
“I will blow it.”
“But, AJ, you can’t blow it up!”
“Why?” He’s also breathless.
“Because there are innocent people on this spaceship. How can you blow up the ship and kill all the people who haven’t done anything bad?”
“Come on, Paige,” he yells. “Once the black mass is in them, they are already dead. They can’t take it out. So there’s no point in trying to save them.”
I feel sick at the thought of all of them dying. I’m also terrified he thinks I’m already dead. If I’m already dead, is there a way to bring me back to life? But I don’t feel dead at all.
I guess it’s because of my bracelet. The one Willow gave to me. The one Brooke had brought to her. And what about AJ? He doesn’t have the bracelet, and he has the black mass inside him. Does it mean that he’s dead, too?
“AJ, what about you?” I ask. “Are you dead?”
“No. I’ve been reprogrammed.”
“What does that mean?”
“I’ll tell you more when we’re safe, Paige. Enough for now. We don’t have much time.”
As we run, I spot Willow and my mom standing at the end of the corridor, waiting for us. My eyes tear up when I see them. I want to cry. Only a few hours ago, I had no hope I would ever see them again.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
“Mom! Willow!” I scream and run to hug them. Willow is beaming with happiness to see me.
“Paige! You’re here!”
My mom also smiles, hugging me tightly. Then, she winks at me. She’s still strange. I wonder if she’s all right or if she has the black mass inside her.
“Paige,” AJ says, “we don’t have much time.” He’s impatient. I don’t blame him. The aliens are after me, and whatever we’re going to do we need to do quickly. I’m grateful he has a plan. Again, I feel so safe when he’s by my side.
He leads us into a round room. I look around nervously, expecting to see aliens, but there are none here. Seems like this room is empty. There are several computers against the walls, and there are three circles on the floor.
“Stand on those circles. Quick!” he says.
“Why?” I ask.
“Don’t ask questions. Just do it!” My mom looks at me sternly while standing on a circle. Willow is standing on the one next to her, looking at me with frightened eyes.
I walk over and stand on the third circle, waiting to see what will happen. I watch AJ, and he doesn’t stand on any of the circles. I think it’s because there aren’t enough here – only three. But then I guess he can stand on mine with me. After all, he’s closest to me.
AJ runs towards the computers and starts pushing buttons and touching the screens.
“AJ, what’s going on? What are you doing?” I’m becoming impatient.
“I’m activating the beams connector. The floor beneath you will open and the beam
will safely carry you back down. Just don’t move.”
I don’t believe what he just said.
“Wait, AJ! What about you? Aren’t you coming down with us?” My voice sounds so shaky I barely recognize it.
“No, Paige, you go down. I will find you. I’ll meet you at the Maryland NASA base, where your dad works. Don’t worry about me. Just be quick enough to get to the base and be careful.” AJ’s voice also shakes, even though he tries to control it.
“There must be another way. You can join me on my circle. My beam will carry both of us down. I’m not too heavy – we can do it!”
“No, Paige, it won’t work. There’s no other way. Just trust me. And remember to be careful.”
I understand he’s staying. I hope I’ll see him again; I don’t want to think otherwise. I run out of my circle and across the floor.
“Paige, where are you going?” my mom asks, panicked.
Ignoring her question, Willow’s gasp, and AJ’s frown and surprised eyes, I throw myself into his arms and kiss him softly. I know I need to kiss him goodbye. I don’t know when I will see him again. If I’ll ever see him again.
“Was that necessary? To kiss a Shadow?” My mother’s tone is short.
“Paige, stay safe. I’ll find you. Don’t worry about me,” is all I hear AJ say before I retake my place.
As I step on my circle again, the computer beeps and bright blue beams come down from the ceiling. There are so many questions I want to ask AJ, but it’s too late. Maybe the next time we meet. Hopefully.
The beams surround me, and everything turns blue as I look through the light. I watch in amazement as the floor opens up beneath us, revealing nothing but air under our feet. I look down and see we’re hovering. I’m scared. The ground is far away, there is nothing under me.
Next thing I know, I’m swiftly moving down through the beam. I don’t have enough time to worry, as the ground is rushing towards us quickly. I close my eyes, preparing for a crash, but it doesn’t happen. We gently hover above the ground instead. I look around. We’re almost standing on land. We didn’t fall.
