Eden
by
Louise Wise
There was no more shouting. All
was quiet and peaceful. Jenny opened her eyes, and as awareness caught up, she
flipped to her side and looked to the top. With dread, she rose and scrambled
to the summit. It felt like a mountain.
Expecting to find Bodie and Matt
dead, their bodies ripped in a frenzy
under the clawed hands of the alien, she was relieved to see the men and the buggies were gone.
A glint of sunlight reflecting on
something in the sky caught her eye. The buggies, now small space shuttles,
were journeying back to Taurus as if being hauled back up by an invisible
string.
Jenny climbed into her buggy.
With shaking hands, she pressed the controls; nothing happened. She spoke into
the transmitter but remembered that Kate
was malfunctioning.
Her buggy was utterly immobilised.
‘Shit,’ she said or tried to say.
Instead, her voice was nothing but a rasp. It felt sore, but ignoring it, she pressed
more buttons on the screen display. She pumped the accelerator, but nothing
happened. She couldn’t even close the buggy; instead, it remained open-topped.
She climbed back out, her hands on
her head as panic held her in its grip. She looked at the sky and saw a glint
of light reflecting off one of the buggies.
It’s OK. It’s OK. It’s OK.
Breathe, Jenny, breathe.
She touched her throat. It was so
sore, and she suspected she had alien finger marks around her throat. But she
had a bigger problem in the shape of a huge alien creature with clawed, humanlike
hands. She glanced around her. There was no sign of it. Surely it would’ve
returned to ensure she was dead after chasing off the men.
Unless it’d gained access
to one of the buggies and was heading towards Taurus.
The thought was unwelcome and
quickly dismissed. Kate was programmed to destroy an intruder immediately.
But she wasn’t working.
She closed her eyes briefly. She
couldn’t think that way. The alien’s body would be cast out into space when it
tried to gain entry.
She climbed back inside the
buggy. She’d be OK. Bodie or Matt would realise she’d been left behind. One of
them would override Kate to get her vehicle
operational. She’d wait.
She looked upward at the now
empty blue sky.
Won’t be long now, she thought.
Around her, all she could hear
was the pounding of her heart. It was a lonely sound. She sat for a long time
with her head tilted back, looking up at the sky’s vastness and emptiness.
But did you know there was a book two?
Check out Hunted!
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