Sofia smiled, exposing neat, white rows of teeth. Her two front teeth were slightly crooked, and she had one canine, on her left side, that was longer than the other and ended in a sharp point. Like a vampire, Leon mused. The tiny imperfections gave her face character that he rather liked. Her eyes sparkled as she stifled a laugh and a light blush rose to her cheeks. The smile looked good on her.
“I was asking about your name. Is it a family name?”
“No, it’s not. It’s my middle name, actually. Or, rather, one of them. My parents liked the name of the explorer Ponce De Leon for some dumb reason and named me after him. My full name is Juan Ponce De Leon Alvarado.”
“So, why Leon, and not Juan?”
Leon shrugged, embarrassed. “It’s a long story. I grew up as one of the only Mexican kids in town and I wanted to fit in with everybody else. I thought Leon sounded more … I don’t know … American, I guess? It sounds stupid, now, especially since I moved to California. I’d probably fit in better there if I used Juan. But I’ve been Leon since I was six years old and it just kind of is who I am.”
“Makes sense,” Sofia told him. “But that wasn’t a very long story.”
He laughed. “No, I guess it wasn’t. How about you? Is Sofia a family name?”
She shook her head. “Clara is. It was my grandmother’s name. My full name is Sofia Clara Garcia Parrido. No, don’t try to remember it. Sofia is fine.”
“Then, Sofia it is. You know I grew up in Idaho and moved to California. How about you? Where do you live when you aren’t traveling the galaxy?”
The reminder of their location wiped the smile from her face and Leon immediately regretted his comment. He would have apologized, but Sofia began speaking again.
“I live in Spain. In Quintanar de la Orden.”
“I’m not sure I know where that is,” Leon admitted.
“It’s in Toledo,” Sofia told him. When his expression remained blank, she clarified, “I’m just a little south-east of Madrid.”
Leon grinned sheepishly. “Look, I know Spain is somewhere in Europe. I saw that much on a map, once. Can I just admit that I suck at geography and find a new topic? For example: I’m a college student. What do you do?”
Sofia waved a hand at the clothing she was wearing, the button-up white shirt and black pants. “Care to take a guess?”
“Um. I don’t want to sound insulting if I’m wrong, but you look like maybe a waitress at a nice restaurant.”
Sofia huffed. “That was rude and a little bit hurtful. Do I really look like a waitress?”
“Sorry. It was a terrible guess and I’m sorry I said it.”
“Good. Because I’ll have you know that I’m a hostess at a nice restaurant. I mean, really. How far off could you be? Waitress?” she huffed, but Sofia’s bluster dissolved into soft laughter. “And what about you, Mr. brooding and mysterious? What was your name?”
There was a long pause. Michael turned to look at Sofia when he realized that the question had been addressed to him. “Michael,” he told her, but did not elaborate.
“So, Michael, where are you from?” Sofia prodded.
“Kent. Just outside of London.”
“You’re not going to make this easy for us, are you? Don’t like to talk much, or are you still trying to accept that all this is real?”
Michael sighed, and slowed a little to let Leon and Sofia catch up with him. “Both, I guess,” he admitted. “I’ve never been a big talker, but this little adventure of ours definitely has me a bit gob smacked at the moment.”
“The accent is definitely correct for London, which is surprising,” Sofia said. “I was expecting another sort of accent. Well, language honestly. I have to say you don’t look like the typical Brit. What’s the back story? You already heard about us.”
Michael nodded his head in acknowledgement of Sofia’s comments. Still staring along the path at Annie and the Many walking ahead of them, he said, “Not much story to tell. My dad was from Japan. Met my mom in London while visiting on a student Visa and decided to stay. About three years later, I was born. I’m 37 years old, and during my entire lifetime the furthest I’ve lived from London is my flat in Kent. About 100 kilometers away. Yet, somehow, I’ve managed to figure out a way to end up on a completely different planet. Ironic. Wouldn’t you say?”
Sofia reached out a hand and plucked at a stray plant stalk that had sagged over into the pathway. It was topped with a double row of tiny yellow flowers which she brought to her face to take a delicate sniff. She frowned, disappointed. “Nothing,” she said. “It doesn’t have any smell.” She handed the flowers to Leon who also could not detect any odor.
Leon offered the plant to Michael, but he waved it away.
“What do you do for a living?” Sofia asked, trying to keep the conversation flowing.
“Oh, I live a very exciting life,” Michael told her. “When I’m not galivanting through space almost getting killed by alien monsters, I’m a nighttime security guard for a warehouse full of paper. Great big rolls of the stuff that weigh a hundred stone each. I’ve never really understood why they need security, though. Who would steal paper? And even if you wanted to, how do you move those massive spools without a forklift and a lorry?”
“Roll it out the door?” suggested Leon.
“If you ever got one of those things rolling, the minute you tried to stop it, it would smash you flat, mate. I wouldn’t recommend it.”
“Oh.” Leon brought the flowers back up to his nose and tried another sniff.
The trio traveled on in silence for several minutes. Even Sofia seemed to have run out of things to talk about. As they followed the path to wherever it might lead, Annie wandered back from the front of the procession to speak with them.
“Hey, guys. Miss me?” she asked with a grin.
In response, Leon handed her the flowers he had been carrying. Annie accepted stalk, gave the flowers a puzzled look, then tossed them back into the grass.
“I was talking with Hiss, trying to figure out a little bit about this test thing we’re doing,” she said. “He said that the Many have been abducted by the Apex for years now. Everyone on his planet is aware that they are being examined by an alien race, but they don’t have the ability to do anything about it. He thinks that because Earth has no idea what’s going on, we must have only recently been discovered by these aliens.
“Hiss said it also makes sense that he was selected to lead a group that included some of the Many and some of us. If we are the first people grabbed by the Apex, they wouldn’t have any other humans to use as guides. The downside of his theory is that even if we figure a way out of this shitstorm, any one of us could be snapped up again and brought back for round two. Maybe all of us.”
“That’s cheerful news,” Leon muttered. “Maybe we’re better off getting killed the first time through rather than going home and waiting to be kidnapped again.”
Annie slapped him on the arm. “That’s the spirit, Idaho! Always searching for that silver lining.”
“What are the Apex looking for?” asked Michael. “What are the tests supposed to prove?”
“Hiss didn’t know. He thinks that if a planet fails, if they aren’t smart enough or determined enough to get through the challenges, that they might be wiped out. He doesn’t know that for certain, though. It’s just rumors that he heard from other abductees.”
“And if they pass?”
“No idea,” Annie told him. “Hiss thinks that the Many are getting close to finding out. Especially since the Apex have apparently started testing us.”
“Anything else we should know about?” asked Sonja. “Did Hiss give you any more good news to share with us?”
“Cheer up, girl,” Annie told her. “You’re as bad as Idaho. But, no, he didn’t have any more information about why we’re here. Turns out going through this thing twice doesn’t make you any smarter. Although, he did know enough to grab that smelly bait shit from the equipment room. That was lucky for all o
f us.”
“Not all of us,” Leon said, bitterly.
The rest of the foursome grew quiet at the reminder of the lost member of their party.
Hiss, Shoo and Kack stopped suddenly, allowing the rest of the caravan to catch up. When the others arrived, they could see that the trail they followed had reached a crossroads. An identical looking path ran in a straight line from left to right, intersecting their current road and creating a huge “X” in the middle of nowhere.
No markers offered clues as to which direction was the proper way to go, and Hiss paced in circles, making exaggerated gestures of annoyance as he turned to face each path in an attempt to figure out what to do next.
“I, ideas, have none,” he finally admitted. “I, familiar with this challenge, am not. I, only guess direction, can.”
Annie spoke up. “The goal is to get somewhere, right? To get out of this field and find a door to get to the next test?”
“That, it seems the purpose, is.”
Go straight,” she told Hiss. “We have no idea which way to go. If we go in a straight line, at least we are making progress to somewhere. If we keep changing direction every time we see a side route, we could end up going in circles.”
“I think Annie makes sense,” agreed Michael. “I vote we go straight.”
Hiss glanced toward Shoo. The female made a brief wave with one small hand. She did not seem to object to the suggestion.
Hiss looked toward the rest of the members of the party. “To change direction, good reasons, there are?” No one else voiced an opinion either way. “We, then straight, go.”
With that proclamation, Hiss resumed his prior pace alongside Shoo and Hack. The human members of the group fell in several paces behind, with Malcolm still hanging back and trailing along at the rear of the line. Annie stumbled and almost fell before catching her balance. She turned and kicked at a large rock buried in the dirt, protruding just far enough to upset the even surface of the trail.
“Ouch,” she said, when the stone failed to budge. “Stupid rock.”
“Are you okay?” asked Leon, solicitously.
“Nothing broken, Potato Boy. Save your sympathy for someone who needs it.” Annie pulled her shirt straight and dusted at her skirt unnecessarily before hurrying to catch the others. She fell into step beside Sofia, and Michael and Leon joined her.
“So, what was I saying before we got derailed?” she asked herself aloud. “Oh, yeah. We were talking about Hiss. Did you know that the Many are like insect colonies?”
Sofia shook her head. “No. But, I guess I’m not really surprised. Hiss and Kack are really protective of Shoo.”
“Especially Kack,” agreed Annie. “They live in ‘nests’ rather than cities. There’s one breeding female in each nest, she’s called the ‘mother.’ All other females are sterile, but they’re the ones that run everything. The males just do what they’re told. Can you imagine if things were like that at home?” She jerked a thumb toward Leon. “He would have to do everything we told him to.”
Sofia raised an eyebrow. “No wonder Hiss keeps deferring to her before he does anything.”
“Right. And Hiss isn’t even from her nest. Kack is, though. That’s why he never leaves her side.”
“Fascinating,” Michael commented, his voice sarcastically monotone. “Does this help us get out of here?”
“No. But it helps me figure out what’s going on in those three, plated heads. That might come in handy.” Annie glared at Michael. “Sorry to bore you. I guess you geniuses were curing cancer before I got back here and fucked it all up?”
Michael’s face tightened, but Sofia interrupted before he could speak. “We were actually talking about jobs. Leon goes to school. I’m a hostess for a restaurant and Michael is a security guard. What about you?” Sofia pointed at the gold lettering on the left breast of Annie’s shirt. “What is ‘Redmond’s Boutique?’”
Annie glanced down at the words printed on her red polo as if noticing them for the first time. “Oh, yeah. It’s a clothing store in a mall back in Florida. I work the floor there.”
“You’re a salesperson?” asked Leon.
“I’m the best one they got,” Annie told him, throwing her chin out and daring him to challenge the statement. She plucked at the hem of her short skirt as if demonstrating a curtsy. “Sex sells. What can I say? All the guys want to buy shit from me ‘cuz I’m cute and dress a little trashy. The girls want to buy from me ‘cuz they see the boys are interested in me and they want to learn how to look cute and dress a little trashy. The whole private school skirt and knee socks is a big hit in the store.” Annie looked out over the prairie grass surrounding them and frowned. “Out here in the middle of nowhere, though, I just look like an asshole. I probably should have grabbed some pants when I had the chance, like Mike did.”
“Michael,” Michael corrected her.
Annie smiled condescendingly. “Sure thing, Prince Michael. Anyway, I make pretty good money in commissions, then a couple nights a week I teach dance to kids.”
“You dance?” asked Leon, sounding more surprised than he had intended.
“I dance,” Annie retorted. “And by dance, I mean really dance. Not that glitter on my tits and swinging from a pole kind of dancing, if that’s what you’re thinking.”
Leon held his hands up in mock surrender. “I wasn’t thinking anything. Sorry.”
“Yeah, you’re sorry all right. And I used to be pretty good at it, too. Me and my brother, Neil, we grew up in Ocala in Florida. Middle of the fucking state, so no beaches anywhere. That really sucked. But we both started taking dancing classes when we were little, and we were both really good. We jumped at the chance to try everything. Tap, ballet, modern, jazz. Everything. If mom could afford to send us, we went.
“Neil is a couple years older than me, and when he turned eighteen, he tells mom and me that he’s gay as fuck and he’s decided to move to New York to work on Broadway. Me and mom already knew the first part. It was pretty obvious for a long time, really. If he thought he was hiding it from us then he’s dumber than he looks. Anyway, he splits and actually lands a couple of shows. Stupid fucker is pretty talented, so I wasn’t all that surprised.
“When I turned eighteen, he calls me and says I should join him. I tell him I can’t sing, and I don’t act for shit, so what am I gonna do in New York? He said a dancer could work pretty steady on stage if they want, and he thought I was good enough. He also said he’d let me crash with him for a few months until I got a couple jobs under my belt.”
Annie shrugged deprecatingly. “So, I went. I landed the first job I auditioned for, which was fucking amazing. Then, two weeks into the run of the show, I blew out my right knee. ACL, MCL, and tears in the meniscus. I couldn’t have done more damage if I let a truck run over me. I was done.”
Annie waved a hand in a “what are you going to do?” gesture. She tried to pass the comment off like it was not a big deal, but Leon saw the pain in her eyes at the loss. Dancing had been important to her, and in the blink of an eye it had been taken away.
“Not much room in New York for a dancer that can’t dance, so I went back home to live with mom. The doctors were able to put the knee back together enough that I can walk and run, and even dance a little without worrying about it busting again. But you won’t be seeing me on stage again anytime soon. I have to say, though, in addition to being damn sexy, the knee socks do a bang-up job of hiding the surgery scars.”
“I’m sorry you got hurt,” Leon told her, unsure what else to say.
Annie poked him in the chest. “You need to stop being so goddamn sorry, Idaho. And stop staring at my legs, you perv.”
Leon guiltily glanced away. He had been looking at her knees and trying to imagine the extent of the scarring underneath her socks. Embarrassed, though he hadn’t actually done anything wrong, he cleared his throat and tried to change the subject.
“How did you end up here? How were you abducted? I mean, I slid d
own a railing in a parking garage and got dragged into a black tunnel. How did they get you?”
Annie peered at him, eyebrows raised in surprise. “A railing in a parking garage?” She asked. “You need to elaborate a bit on that one.”
He did. Leon told them the story of finding an odd handrail mounted along the upward ramp of the parking garage and the hand-painted sign above it. He talked about the shock of not being able to climb off when he got to the ground floor and his panic when the tunnel went completely black.
“After what seemed like a couple of hours, a bright light appeared that turned out to be the end of the trip. I got dumped into that carpeted room, that library, with the rest of you.”
“I didn’t get a ride,” said Sofia. “I was standing, trapped alone in a dark room for hours.”
“How did you get trapped in the room?” he asked her.
“I was on my break at the restaurant. I went to the bathroom. Afterwards, I washed my hands and was going to return to my station at the greeter’s desk. The exit door to the bathroom was still there, but there was another door next to it. There’s never been two doors there, so I knew something was wrong. Both doors looked exactly the same. I couldn’t tell which was the exit and which was … not supposed to be there.”
Sofia shuddered, her shoulders shaking at the memory of the bizarre occurrence. “I probably shouldn’t have opened either door, but I wanted out and I panicked. The door I opened was the wrong one. Or, thinking about it now, maybe it wouldn’t have mattered which door I went through. They might both have been traps. Anyway, it was completely black on the other side. No light at all. I tried to step back, but something pulled me through the doorway and into the room. The door slammed shut behind me and that was it.
“I stood in that room, shouting, screaming, and crying for hours. Then, all of a sudden, the door opened a crack, and I could see light again. I ran out. I found myself in that great big room with two other people and an alien.”
Annie snorted lightly. “It could have been worse,” she said.
“What?” Sofia did not see the humor in her abduction that Annie apparently did.
Testing Grounds (On Dangerous Grounds Book 1) Page 9
