Page 2 of Anna's Bounty
That’s when a laser-precise beam of light engulfs me, and before I can draw in a breath to scream, everything goes dark.
2
Anna
Iwake with a jolt, yanked from a dark miasma into someplace blinding and bright. I blink rapidly at the three surgical lamps with their intense beams trained on me. When I lift my arm to block the lights from my eyes, it doesn’t move.
What…the hell?
I try again, but there is nothing. It’s as if my arms are stuck to my sides.
Alternating my arms, legs, and head, I try to force my limbs into motion, orsomething,until I’m grunting with the effort. But it’s no use. Nothing moves. I’m paralyzed.
My heart kicks into a rapid tattoo against my ribs, and ragged breaths saw in and out of my lungs.
What happened? Why can’t I move?Where the hell am I?
There is movement from the corner of my eye, and three dark figures come out of nowhere to lean over me. Shadowed from the bright light behind them, their heads are the wrong shape. Oval, like a football, instead of round, with impossibly large and matte black eyes.
Adrenaline dumps into my veins, making me light-headed, and I’m unable to look away from the creatures pulled straight from my nightmares. “No,” I whimper. This can’t be happening.
I keep struggling against the paralysis, begging my arms and legs to move. Praying to any benevolent god who might be listening. Begging topleaseget me away from these things. But no matter what I do, nothing budges.
No, no, no! This can’t be happening. This isn’t possible!
“Wake up, Anna!” Clenching my eyes tightly closed, I grit my teeth until I think they might crack. “Wake up, wake up, WAKE THE FUCK UP!”
The mostgod-awfulsound has my eyes snapping open. The aliens turn to look at each other, and their enormous eyes squint at the noise I’m making. With a sneer, the one on my right bends over me, and I try futilely to shrink away. It leans in until our faces are nearly touching, and its sour breath fans across my cheek when it emits a loud, grating sound filled with growls and whistles.
I don’t need an interpreter to know it’s telling me toshut the hell up.
My voice withers back to a whimper as it backs off. Another one reaches toward me with its thin mottled greenish-brown arm, and three long, stick-like fingers wrap around my jaw. My skin crawls at its cool touch, and I gasp when it wrenches my head to the side.
From this new angle, I see the metal table under me and that I’m lying naked upon it.
Paralyzed. Naked. Spread out under harsh lights with terrifying aliens hovering over me.
I drag a deep breath of the cold, sterile air into my lungs and begin to cry.
“Don’t,” I beg, squeezing my eyes closed so I can’t see them. “Please stop. Let me go.Let me go let me go let me go.I can’t do this. Please. Please,please…” Hot tears are tracking down the sides of my face while my terrified voice catches in my throat.
Another series of growl-whistles comes from behind me just before something cold and hard presses firmly against the mastoid bone behind my ear.
“Oh, god, is that a gun?” My heart is pounding so hard against my ribcage, I’m surprised I can’t see it. “Please don’t shoot me! Whatever you’re doing, please don’t,” I sob as waves of icy terror rush through me.
The aliens ignore me while they continue to converse above me in their strange grating language. When they stop speaking, the pressure against my head increases just before—BANG!
The pain is instant, sharp, and numbing. It’s exactly how I imagine a gunshot might feel. My eyes and mouth snap open, but this time I don’t scream. I can’t. I freeze when a high-pitched whine echoes through my head and something starts todrill.No matter how much I try to struggle, I can’t escape the blinding pain reverberating through my head.
In movies, people always pass out from intense pain or fear. But no matter how much I wish for unconsciousness, I stay awake. Forced to suffer through every bone-crunching grind. Every sharp flare of pain that sends lightning jolts through my body and makes my eyes water and my breath stutter.
When the drilling ceases, I let out a relieved breath, only to be hit with one last crunching impact as though whatever is being forced into my skull neededone last punchto make sure it stays, and my vision goes white.
* * *
Idon’t think my blackout lasts long. My head is pounding in time with my racing heart, and my fingers and toes feel tingly. When I blink one and then the other eye open, the lights don’t seem as bright, giving me a good look at the aliens hovering over me.
They remind me of praying mantises. Maybe it’s the football shape of their heads and gigantic eyes atop skinny necks and narrow bodies they’ve sheathed in a strange metallic material.
