Page 9 of Claimed By Brothers

One large chunk of the bay’s ceiling was ripped right off, probably during the fall. Dirt, debris, and plenty of broken tree branches made it inside through there. But the branches look weird. The wood is dark, almost black. I reach out and carefully take a twig in my hand. I turn it over a couple of times, then smell it. It’s not burned. This is its natural color.

“How did we survive?” Cynthia groans as she sits up.

Alicia’s arm is locked around her waist, even now, though she looks just as groggy as she recovers from her daze. “I’m not sure, but we did.”

“Jewel? Are you okay?” I ask.

“Yeah. My ass hurts,” she replies and hoists herself up, wobbling before she regains her footing. “Girls, we’re floating.”

“Do you hear that?” I ask, frowning.

We can all hear it. The sound of rushing water. Our box landed in the water. Judging by the whooshing of rapids, we landed in a river. The four of us manage to come together in the middle, and we look up to see the reddish sky shifting.

“Yellow clouds,” Cynthia murmurs. I notice the blood trickling from her temple. She hit her head hard enough, but the wound itself isn’t that bad. It seems superficial. “Am I hallucinating, or is the sky red with yellow clouds?”

“No, it’s definitely red with yellow clouds,” Jewel replies. “How are you feeling, Cynthia? You got conked on the noggin pretty badly.”

“I’m okay. I think. Or at least I think I’m gonna be okay. What about you?”

“We survived,” I say with newfound determination. “And we’re on a planet with air we can actually breathe; otherwise, we would’ve kicked the bucket twice over by now.”

Alicia exhales sharply. “Whoopee for us.”

“We need to get out of this thing and figure out where we are,” I say, then cautiously make my way over to the wall. Some of the circuits have come off, giving me some nooks to use for climbing up to the ripped ceiling.

“We’re on an alien planet, babe,” Cynthia replies dryly.

Jewel chuckles bitterly. “Technically speaking, we’re the aliens, now.”

I manage to pull myself up the wall and through the opening, only to lose my breath at first sight. The river is broad but mellow, with clear, steaming waters. No wonder we were so warm inside. We’re practically lobsters cooking in this box. “Y’all need to get up here,” I call out to my friends. “You have to see this.”

One by one, Jewel, Alicia, and Cynthia join me on the top of the bay box.

The view is incredible. Eerie and like something out of a science fiction movie, but incredible and all too real. This river cuts through a vast plateau with scarlet cliffs and patches of black trees that seem to reach for the red heavens above. The grass is almost purple, with tall blades undulating under a soft, warm wind. I can’t see any wild animals anywhere, but somewhere far behind us, a plume of black smoke rises from behind a mountainous ridge.

“That may be where the ship crashed,” Jewel says, following my gaze.

“Do you think they survived?” Alicia wonders aloud.

An explosion swells with bright orange flames, the boom rippling outward and making the whole mountain tremble. The smoke thickens as it billows upward into the sky. “I guess that answers that,” I reply. “I cannot believe this. What do we do?”

Looking around, the river seems to go on forever. I cannot see beyond the plateau’s high walls, but I know we’ll definitely burn under two incredibly bright, hot suns. The air smells fresh, though. It's cleaner than Seattle, for sure. It’s as hot as the heart of the desert out here, too.

“I doubt they have sunscreen on sale anywhere,” Cynthia mutters.

I’d laugh if things weren’t so bad for us. I think of my parents. My dog back home. At least my sister Tammy is staying at my place until I get back. Dog-sitting for three days was the deal. How do I tell her? How do I get out of here? How do I find Earth again? The desolation is quick to settle and squeeze my stomach for everything it’s got as I double over, struggling not to cry.

“Hey, hey, it’s gonna be okay,” Alicia says, squeezing my shoulder. “We don’t have the time or the luxury to give into despair right now.”

“I know, I know.”

“Think about it this way,” Jewel replies. “These bastards possess the technology of space flight. If they were able to find our planet, to study and bring us here, surely we could figure out a way to reverse-engineer the entire operation and fly back to Earth. You heard what that Umok fella said before we crashed. We’d be treated like royalty here.”

“Provided we spread our legs for them,” I say, the disgust unfurling in my throat.

Cynthia takes the scrunchie out of her loose hair and then puts it back on over a tighter bun. This is her “it’s time to get cracking” move, and it’s enough to help me recover part of my resolve. “Girls, come on. We need shelter. Water. And food. The basics of survival,” she says.

“How do we find food? We’re in the middle of nowhere,” Alicia replies.

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