Chapter 1
Bridget Thomas
I woke up feeling the hard ground underneath me. My eyes opened; there was a glare of an orange glow. I tried to focus, feeling underneath my hands that the ground I was on was made of fine sand. What had happened? Where was I? I slowly pulled my belly off of the sand and sat down. My eyes fully focused and I looked around. There were bits and pieces of the spaceship around me: the wreckage.
“Oh my God,” I said to myself.
Then I remembered: I was abducted by tall blue aliens, along with my yoga retreat group. The last thing I remembered was being tossed around inside the spaceship. We must have crashed, I thought. I stood up to my feet and looked at my body. I wasn't injured, thank God. I looked around.
“Hello?” I said. There was no answer. I said it again walking around in a circle. No response. I walked from one piece of wreckage to another. I found the seat that I had been buckled into. I guess I had fallen out of it on impact. I was lucky to be alive, that was for sure.
“What the hell is going on?” I said to myself dusting the orange dirt off my jeans. It looked like I was in the desert, but this definitely was not Earth. I knew that we were not on the planet that we were destined to go to with the blue aliens because they had not informed us of arrival. This was an unscheduled stop. Not good. The landscape was stark with high, Rocky Mountain walls in the distance. The ground was a fine orange sand, making the sun's reflection off of it give off an orange glow to everything. I felt like I was in a dream, but it was real.
To my left, I saw a ridge of sand, like a sand dune. I decided to climb it. I needed to get a better view; maybe other survivors were nearby, I hoped. I climbed, and my feet sunk into the warm sand. It was hard to walk in, especially in the state I was in.
“Vicki!” I shouted desperately. I hoped that she was nearby. We had been in the same room on the spaceship, so she should be close. I hoped that she was okay. This was all my fault; we wouldn't be in this if I had not forced her to go with me. I had forced her to take a break from her busy Hollywood agent life to come with me to a yoga and meditation all-female retreat in the desert in California. The truth was I needed a break as well from my science lab life. I did nothing but research all the time and going to the yoga retreat two months before had really put me in a better place. So I forced Vicki to go along with me this time.
“Finally,” I said, out of breath as I reached the top of the sand dune. I looked around; I hoped that I could see something, anything. I did not want to be alone. There was nothing more horrifying than being alone on an alien planet.
Then I saw a large piece of metal; it was about the size of a car. It was on the other side of the sand dune.
“Vicki,” I shouted. There was no answer. I started to run down the side of the sand dune, but I was sliding most of the way. It was hard to stay on my feet; I did everything I could to stop from rolling, and before I knew it, I was practically sliding down it on my butt.
I got to the bottom and ran around to the side. It was open; there was someone inside.
“Hello?” I said trying to look inside. As I got closer, I saw the familiar blue skin. It was one of those aliens that had abducted us. I took a step back. What should I do? I should be trying to get away from these damn aliens; they took us against our will. I hated them. But as I looked around, I didn't see anything else; I knew this alien could be the only thing keeping me from being alone on an alien planet. Damn it.
I stepped inside the piece of wreckage. “Hello? Are you alright?” I asked.
I heard a slight groan and moved next to him. He rolled over onto his back. He had beautiful long blonde hair. His body was perfect, like a toned and sculpted statue. It was long as it laid out before me. These aliens did not wear shirts, only trousers and boots. A heavy tool belt hung around his waist with a gun and other compartments and contraptions. There were also bulky compartments on his boots. But the top of his body was completely naked, allowing me to look at his two-toned blue skin and ripped body.
“Who is it?” he whispered as his eyes fluttered open. They were a stark blue color, almost startling and too beautiful to be human.
“It's one of the humans you unlawfully took from Earth,” I said with anger.
He turned his head and looked at me. Then he turned back and looked at the sky.
“Where are the others? Where is the crew?” he asked.
“I don't know. I don't know anything. I only just woke up myself and found you. Are you hurt?”
“I don't think so,” he said sitting up. He stretched out. He made grunting and groaning sounds as he took off the crash. Finally, he got to his feet and crawled out of the wreckage. I followed him. He stood up straight and loomed tall over me. I would think he was attractive if I didn't hate his guts.
“We must have crashed. The others must be close by,” he said.
“Oh, you think so, genius? Great observation,” I said. He just turned and looked at me. I guessed sarcasm didn't translate to alien.
He looked away from me scanning the horizon. He was focused. Then he grabbed his shoulder and groaned. He turned it in a circle.
“You are hurt,” I said looking at him.
“It is just a strain. Nothing to worry about,” he said taking a step. “We need to move.”
“And go where? This is a desert,” I said.
“I will know when I see it. But we don't want to stay here. We need water, food, and shelter. We have better luck of finding the others if we move,” he said.
“Why should I listen to you? I should be going in the other direction away from you. I am pissed that you took me from my planet. I would not be here if it wasn't for you and your stupid alien friends. You had no right to take us, and look... Look where we ended up,” I said getting in his face.
He looked down at me from his tall height. “I was doing my mission. You can hate me all you want. You don't have to like me. In fact, I prefer it if you don't. You can stay here arguing, but I am going to go find the others or a village. There must be something on this barren rock. I'm going with or without you.”
I hated that he was right. What was I going to do alone? I couldn't take care of myself out here. I didn't even know how to go camping on Earth. Then he turned his back to me and began to walk. I couldn't believe it. He was really going to leave me here?
“So let me get this straight. You took me from Earth, and now you don't want me? Why take me at all?”
“It was my mission. That is all that you need to know,” he said angrily. Why the hell was he angry? I was the one that should be angry here, not him.
“I think I am entitled to know more than that,” I said running and catching up to him. I was walking very quickly at his side. His legs took long strides. I struggled to keep up with him.
“If you are coming with me, then you need to quiet down. We don't know what is out here. You could be pulling danger to us right now with your loud annoying voice,” he said.
I gasped. “Loud? Annoying? Are you serious? You are absolutely frustrating. If I am loud, it is because I am angry, and it is all your fault.”
He stopped quickly. He put his hand over my mouth. My eyes grew wide. He looked down at me with a serious look. His startling blue eyes were staring into mine. A flicker of fear came across me. But he was so close to me, his hand on my mouth was oddly arousing. What the hell is wrong with me?
“I said quiet. Now I am going to remove my hand, and you are going to lower your voice. Do you understand me? I am quite serious about the danger here. I am only one Kynon; I cannot protect both of us if you call an army of the enemy,” he said.
I nodded my head yes. He slowly pulled his hand from my mouth. I didn't say anything but I was fuming with anger. How dare he put his hand over my mouth to silence me. He was treating me like a child. Then he looked around and chose a direction. He started walking. I followed behind him, not wanting to stand at his side. Clearly, he was a very dominant rude alien. He was frustrating and brash, and I was not used to that kind of behavior. There was no point in speaking to him logically; nothing would get through to him. The only choice I had was to stay close to him so that he could protect me. He obviously thought there was something out on this planet that could harm us, and him being a skilled intergalactic traveler, I believed him. I had no choice. I had to bite my tongue and stay with this arrogant alien jerk. This was going to be very frustrating. All I could think was: Vicki, where are you? I hope that you are safe.