Loretta was left dumbfounded. Thoughts raced to her mind. She had no idea what to do. Should she go? Should she stay? Everything was a jumbled mess. The one thought that she could hold onto was the idea of bringing money to her grandmother.

She hurried into the closet and found a suitcase. She threw clothes inside it and hurried into a fresh pair of pants, a sweater, a jacket, and a pair of comfortable tennis shoes. She would have to travel back to Alabama as quickly as possible and that meant getting a hover flight out of the airport. She hurried downstairs and out the front door of the building, onto the street. It was rush hour traffic and she couldn’t hail any taxis. She checked her phone and found that the subway was only a few blocks away.

Her mind was racing as she made her way around the corner to where the subway entrance stood at the end of the street. She hurried down the stairs and into the damp darkness of the underground. The sound of the train screeched to a halt. She ran her card through the turnstile and it allowed her through. She stood on the platform with everyone else and found the train that would take her to the new hover airport. She quickly got on. It slid forward into the dark tunnel.

The subway was packed with bodies, everyone going home from work or school after a long day. The faces of the people told the stories of what they were feeling. Just the day before, the city had been bombed by a terrorist group that also bombed three other cities around the globe. Just moments ago, the terrorists had threatened to kill anyone who stood against the Draconians. It was a frightening time and she knew that everyone else was as scared as she was.

The subway screeched to the next stop and passengers boarded and disembarked before the doors slid closed again and the train continue down the track. She rode along for several miles, stopping at each station until the tunnel grew longer as it went out towards the new hover airport.

Loretta gripped a handrail as the lights blinked on and off and the sound of the hover jets vibrated through the retrofitted subway. Out of nowhere, the crack of an explosion burst all around her. Cement crashed overhead. Alarms blared and the lights went out. People screamed and shrieked all around. The red backup lights went on, casting a dim glow over the panicked passengers. Loretta wanted to scream and cry, but all she could do was sit there silently, the tears not even falling down her face. She couldn’t panic anymore. She couldn’t allow the fear to control her any longer. This was the last straw. She wasn’t going to let her life be dictated by the agendas of others anymore. She would take her life into her own hands and make her own decisions from now on.

If she didn’t want to be a traumatized victim of yet another bombing, she was going to have to stand up and learn to be a survivor. She dropped her case on the floor and went to a young mother whose baby was yowling with terror. Loretta wrapped her arms around the young woman and her baby, making calming noises as they all embraced each other.

“Thank you,” the woman whispered. Loretta caressed her back and helped her hold the baby, who had already begun to calm down.

“What’s happening? What’s happening? What’s happening?” a young man wailed in the corner. He was curled up in the fetal position, completely distraught. Loretta went to him and placed her hand on his brow.

“Is going to be okay. I know General Shin of the Draconian armada. He will come and save us all. Just like yesterday.”

“You know the Draconian who burned through the building on Wall Street yesterday?” a man in a business suit said, standing up, his briefcase held tightly in his hand.

Loretta felt intimidated by the man, but she believed in Mylash and his intentions with Earth. She knew more of the story after talking with him about it from a Draconian’s perspective. The news releases that humans were accustomed to seeing only gave a partial story. No one ever really knew what was going on.

“I know him. He’s a good man with good intentions. I trust him.”

“Draconians aren’t even real. It’s a government conspiracy to cover up the real truth about why the economy is in the toilet,” said an old man in the corner.

“All I know is what General Shin told me. I know him to be an honorable man. The Draconians didn’t expect to throw the economy into a depression. They only came here because they needed to replenish their DNA.”

“We’ve all heard the public service announcements,” said the woman with the baby.

“Are you one of those Draconian brides?” said the businessman. “I thought you all had to live on their spaceships.”

“I didn’t say I was a Draconian bride. I said I knew General Shin.”

“How do you know him?” the old man asked, pointing a gnarled finger at her.

“I was in the bombing yesterday. He saved us.”

At that, everyone seemed to shake their head and leave it alone. She went to sit in her chair, the old man eyeing her the entire way. After hearing the Human Liberation Coalition’s manifesto the night before, every human seemed to be a threat to her. With her association to the Draconians, the people who believed in the ideals of the Human Liberation Coalition would want her dead. It was terrifying and isolating. Could she deal with that?

She sat in the corner and thought about Mylash. She thought about everything he had said and done for her over the last few days. After he’d saved her from the bombing, the first time she’d laid eyes on him, her heart skipped a beat. Later, when he told her she was his mate and offered to give her enough money to solve all her problems, she began to see him as a savior. But her feelings had blossomed into so much more. The love making alone had blown her mind a thousand times. Mylash had also proved himself to be a good and honorable man.

As she huddled in the red glowing darkness of the subway, all she wanted was to feel his arms around her again. She didn’t care where he was from or where he was going. She didn’t care that he was a different species from her. Everything in her was telling her that they belonged together. She could feel the well of feelings bursting like a thick bubble within her chest. If she made it out of the subway alive, the first thing she would do would be to tell him.