Chapter 2
Madison slapped her hand over her parted lips. Surely, he wouldn’t? A strange expectant silence fell over the crowd. Horror clawed at Madison’s throat. This was modern times, things like this just didn’t happen.
“Maybe the sword is just for show,” Rachel said.
A few women sobbed. Daniel, the most vicious of the three, who Madison avoided at all costs, glared at Viglar. “Do you know who you’re messing with, alien scum? My people will kill you and your family and everyone you ever--”
His head rolled to the ground. Blood sprayed as the head made dull thudding sounds and kept rolling. The gathered crowd screamed hysterically and, before Madison could blink, he’d beheaded all three of them, his movements smooth--the action of muscle and sword almost obscenely beautiful. The smell of blood hung in the air, Madison had treated injuries and seen a lot of blood, without any problem.
This was different--the metallic smell of the blood different, violent. With her hand clutched over her mouth, Madison staggered away and threw up. Several of the others did the same.
Viglar ignored all the screaming and vomiting and managed to make himself heard, again without raising his voice. “This is what I do to thieves who come into my hospital and steal from the sick and injured.”
Silence settled over the crowd, only the sound of retching could be heard. Viglar looked at them, his face appearing crueler than usual, the red streaks on his white coat a grim reminder of what he’d just done. Madison had the macabre compulsion to look at the severed heads that had rolled in different directions, to match them up with the fallen bodies.
“Several doctors here managed to be accepted with false documents and bribes.” He looked at Jacobson, who was pale, trembling, and clutching his neck protectively. Viglar continued. “Be someplace else.”
Several of the doctors ran--a few that Madison would never have guessed weren’t real doctors.
Viglar turned and left--no, it was more like he disappeared. One moment he was there and the next he was gone.
“How does he do that?” she asked Rachel, who leaned against a wall, also pale and shaking. Madison sank down on her knees, but then she remembered the decapitated corpses lying so close. She got to her feet, still trembling and went into the hospital. “I can’t believe he did that,” she said.
“I can,” Rachel said.
“I have to admit, I always wished we could find a way to get rid of those thugs, but I never thought about beheading them.” Madison shuddered. It would be a long time before she forgot Daniel speaking one moment and then having his decapitated head flying through the air and thudding on the ground. “I wonder if Viglar realizes they’ll just send someone else.”
“If they send someone else, he’ll behead them too,” Rachel said. “I wonder if they’ll try and kill him.” There was a hopeful note in her voice.
The arrogant alien with his know-it-all attitude had managed to make himself thoroughly disliked.
They returned to their duties in stunned silence. Madison looked around to make sure Viglar wasn’t watching and then turned to Rachel. “I’m fixin to speak to that alien.”
“Madison no. Don’t get noticed,” Rachel begged.
Madison shrugged. She’d been painting walls for two weeks now and working up her courage for when she got to see the alien. Every day she asked Jacobson to see him and every day she was turned away. They’d not get rid of her that easily. She had an oath to keep. She’d be a doctor and she wouldn’t be cheated out of that. Not even a chopping-off-heads alien was going to stop her.
The next day, like she did every day for the last two weeks, she went to Jacobson’s office. It was large with an apartment attached to it. All the offices had shoddy furniture that was at least thirty years old. Madison looked around at the gleaming leather chairs and executive desk.
He sat back with a self-satisfied smirk she wanted to slap off his thin face. “I’m afraid I haven’t received an answer to my query about your salary.”
They both knew he was the reason she only got paid every second or third month. Today she couldn’t be bothered with that. “I want to speak to that alien,” she told him.
He sat a bit straighter. “I’m sure that could be arranged,” he said with a smarmy smile. He’d flatly told her the alien wouldn’t see her the previous times. What had changed?
He’d never been this helpful before, probably hoping that alien would cut off her head. If he thought she’d get what she wanted from the alien, he’d move heaven and earth to prevent her seeing him. He smirked at her, and it took all her strength to appear unconcerned and not slap it off his face.
“As it happens, I have an appointment with him in half an hour,” he said. “It’s nothing serious, so I will allow you to see him instead.”
She doubted Viglar discussed anything with him and Jacobson was probably just too glad to pawn off the time to her. “Where is his office?”
“He took the empty office down the hall.” There was something in his voice she couldn’t fathom. Some resentment.
Madison walked down the hall and stopped in front of the only door that was silver. She wiped her sweating palms on her jacket and then wanted to curse. She didn’t want to face that alien with a dirty white jacket. She needed all the courage she could muster as it was. She touched the strange looking door, and it felt like metal, but like nothing she’d ever seen before. Could it be from the alien’s home world? It was a strange thought, that she might be touching something that traveled through space from who knows how far to be installed in a hospital in Helena, Montana. And she was procrastinating.
Taking a deep breath for courage, hoping she got to leave with her head intact, she knocked.
The door slid open and seemed to disappear into the wall. She stared at it for a moment before she quickly moved past it. Her legs shook so much, Madison feared the alien would hear her knees knocking together. He’d cut off three people’s heads. What was wrong with her to come and brave him in his own office? What stopped him from cutting off her head too? She tightened every muscle she had, to try and hide her trembling, and forced her legs forward. This was something she had to do. If he refused, she’d be back tomorrow and the day after and the day after that.
He stood with his arms over his chest, his booted feet spread apart. His uniform fascinated her, made her hands itch. She’d love to touch it, to see if it felt like metal.
“Why are you demanding to speak to me, human?” His tone implied she’d better explain herself to his satisfaction or else. His arrogant tone always set her teeth on edge and now it helped lessen the fear and stabilized her knocking knees.
“I’m a doctor, I want to return to medical duties.”
“No.”
Madison took a step forward, remembered the way he liked to cut off people’s head, and stopped where she was. She would’ve liked to take a step back, but wouldn’t give him the satisfaction. “You can’t just decide it like that.” She snapped her fingers and for a weird moment she thought he would step back from her. “I’ve worked hard to get this job and I won’t let you take it away from me.”
“You will return to your painting.” The lack of emotion, of any kind of reaction drove her crazy, made her want to pummel him until he realized how important this was.
“I will keep coming until you agree to let us continue to work as doctors.” She scowled at him. “It’s not your decision, anyway. This is our planet and you’ve no right to come here and make us work like slaves and tell us we can’t be doctors.”
He stepped closer to her and it took all her courage to stand her ground. “You do not have any rights, human.” He leaned down, spoke right in her face in a way that scared her so much, she almost peed her pants. “Return to work.”
Trying to hide how much she wanted to run for her life when he looked this intimidating, she mimicked his arrogant stance. “Not until you agree to let us function as doctors. I haven’t studied all those years just so some green alien can come and take it away from me.” Damn, she didn’t mean to call him a green alien. She kept a wary eye on his sword hand.
“I do not change my mind. What you studied do not qualify you to be a doctor. You are barely qualified to fill what you call a nursing post.”
Everything turned red around her and her ears rang. When at last she could see normal again without the red haze covering everything, her fists ached from clenching them so tight, she feared her teeth would crack, she gnashed them so hard. “How dare you, you unnatural green pest. I’ve worked hard to get where I am.” She didn’t mean to call him a green pest either. Madison tried to move back a bit, without looking as if she was trying to get out of sword distance.
“Humans used to study five years, then work two years as interns to become a doctor.”
“How do you know this? And anyway, the process was streamlined.” With the advent of online studying the actual time spent on campus had been cut down considerably.
He didn’t move from his wide spread stance with his arms crossed over his chest. His conquering alien pose, is what she and Rachel called it. “No, it was cut to save money.”
Madison resisted the urge to stamp her foot like a toddler about to throw a tantrum. “You can’t do this.” If only her brothers could fix this with their fists. She feared if she told them what was happening, they’d come here and try to sort out this freak of nature and get themselves killed. And thank the heavens she didn’t call him a freak of nature out loud.
He went to the desk and sat down, an action that didn’t make her feel any safer from that sword arm of his. “I can. Leave, human, you are wasting my time.”
Madison stormed to the door and then turned. “This isn’t over. I’ll be back.” She didn’t care that she screamed like a fishwife. She’d keep coming back until he listened to her.
He didn’t look up from the silver gadget in his hand. “I do not doubt this.”
Madison returned to that blasted wall and slapped paint on it in smoldering silence. She’d show that arrogant sanctimonious alien who he messed with. Muttering to herself, she dipped the brush into the paint and almost flung it on the wall. Just let that alien try and complain about the way she painted. The others wisely left her alone.
Her routine consisted of emptying store rooms and kitchens and painting. Endless painting. Her body protested the unaccustomed physical exertion and at night she fell into bed and slept like the dead.
Each day she went to Jacobson’s office to demand to see Viglar again. She wouldn’t be denied the opportunity to fulfill her promise.
Five days after she’d seen Viglar in his office, Madison finished her shift and trudged to Jacobson’s new office, trying not to enjoy the fact that he now had to function in a small office that haven’t even been painted yet. Yesterday the alien had told her she was using the visits to Jacobson’s office to demand to see Viglar as an excuse not to work. She’d been livid. So today she’d waited until she finished both her shifts.
Madison was amazed at the amount of work that alien got done on the hospital. He’d enlarged the hospital and changed the outside appearance and now it had several large domes. It looked like an alien structure. She’d thought with the domes it would be Russian looking or Far Eastern, but the domes didn’t remind her of Eastern architecture. The hospital was so big now, she might need a map to find her way around once it was finished. If it was really meant for humans and not aliens, she’d have a hard time holding onto her anger against them. Especially if she got that alien to agree to let her return to medical duties.
Jacobson sneered at her. “He said to go to his office. What do you do for him that he’s willing to see you and not m--not anyone else?”
Madison curled her lip and left his office. She wasn’t about to get into a mudslinging match with Jacobson. Again.
Viglar stood in his office, his feet braced apart, arms crossed over his chest in his normal conquerors pose and it irritated her enough that she blurted out without thinking, “You can relax every now and then you know, you don’t always have to stand around like the lord surveying all he conquered.
“I am looking at what I conquered.” He looked her up and down in blatant provocation.
“Don’t kid yourself. You haven’t conquered anything. You’ll learn the hard way that humans aren’t that easy to conquer.”
Before she saw him move, he grabbed her and held her close against him, so close she felt every one of his hard muscles move against her when he lifted her. “You are conquered, accept it.”
“Put me down.”
“How will you make me put you down?”
She pulled back her leg to knee him in his alien jewels and hopefully send him whimpering back to where he came from.
He put her down so fast she staggered. “Do not, you will break your bones,” he said.
Before she could blink, he’d moved away from her. Madison didn’t wait around to see what he’d do to her next. She ran through the silver door that thankfully opened for her and kept running until she stood shivering at her spot against the wall. What was wrong with her? Mouthing off to a being who cut off people’s heads?
She didn’t talk to the others and, after her long shift ended, she went home and lay in bed, obsessing about the meeting with the alien. Remembering how it felt to be held so close to him. Trying to work up the courage to go and see him tomorrow.
The next day she trudged to Jacobson’s office and he didn’t make his usual snide remarks, just put some books in a box and told her to go straight through to the alien’s office.
Dragging her feet, she walked up to that silver door. He wouldn’t grab her again, and, if he did, she’d just cock her knee again and he’d drop her. The problem with that was, she’d thought about it the whole night and the only conclusion she could come to was that he dropped her because he was scared she’d hurt herself if she kneed him.
Before she could knock, the door slid open.
“Come in, human, you need not fear your conqueror.”
Madison stormed inside. “That is not funny.”
He cocked his head. “I did not say that to be funny. I merely tell the truth.”
So help her, if she didn’t kill him with his own sword, it’d be a miracle. “You know what I want, don’t think I’ll stop coming to bug you about it. No matter what you do to me I’ll come back.” He had no idea how stubborn she could be.
He didn’t move and she was relieved to see he didn’t go for his sword. “I have decided to allow you to work as a doctor.”
Elation surged through her blood until she felt punch drunk. “Really, you won’t be sorry. I’ll--”
He held up a hand. “I have conditions.”
Her shoulders slumped. “Of course you have conditions.” Why would he simply allow her to continue with her duties, when he could make her miserable with all kinds of impossible conditions? “So what are these conditions?”
“You will work as a doctor, but you will also do your painting work. If you work less than eight hours a day as doctor, I will take away the privilege.”
She glared at him. She worked between ten and fourteen hours on painting and moving the smaller equipment from offices to be changed or painted. Another eight on top of that would mean she barely got to sleep. “You think I can’t do it. Well, I’ll show you. I’m an Alabama girl, no miserable alien will stop me from doing my life’s work.”
Oops, she didn’t mean to call him a miserable alien. Better get out of reach of those quick arms of his.
He didn’t react to her insult. “Leave, human.”
She stormed out and went back to painting, too angry to talk to anyone. He was setting her up to fail. She knew that was what he was doing, but she’d show him. She could work much harder than he could ever dream of.
Madison thought she’d worked hard before and since the alien came, but now she learned the meaning of hard work. Because she’d always put in long hours, she was sure that she would easily show that miserable alien how hard a human could work. Within weeks she was chronically tired from too much work, not eating enough, and barely getting any sleep. She grimly forced herself to keep going, to get up every morning and go to work and show him that she wouldn’t break down and ask to work less hours.
A month later, she woke feeling sluggish. It felt as if she’d just closed her eyes and now she had to get up already. She was lucky to get four hours of sleep a night. She’d forgotten what it felt like to eat regular meals.
Madison stared at the cream curtains her mother had made her. She’d forgotten to pull them closed and she blinked at the harsh sunshine hurting her eyes. She couldn’t process what her bleary mind told her. The TC was flickering and she groaned. There must have been a power cut during the night, and her alarm never went off. You’d think the solar would kick in at least. Because they were on the same electricity grid as the hospital, their apartment building should be safe from load shedding, but the reality was it happened all the time. Only now a monster alien, that grabbed people by the throat if they didn’t stick to his rules, was in charge of the hospital.
“I need to get more than two or three hours sleep a night,” she muttered and staggered out of bed as fast as her sore muscles allowed. For the first time she was thankful for the small space she lived in. She couldn’t have staggered more than a few steps to the bathroom.
She said a quick prayer the hospital’s generator kicked in this time. They’d lost patients during power cuts before. She was late, that reptile was going to grab her by the throat and choke her. She shuddered while she stuck her toothbrush in her mouth. Or cut off her head, the way he’d executed those three people last month. She’d been spared any dealings with him lately, but many of the other doctors had tales to tell.
Madison put a protective hand over her throat, rushed to the kitchen and then almost cried. She’d worked too late to buy food. With a sigh she locked her door and rushed outside. Normally she would be afraid to walk to the hospital alone this early, but lately the men who had made their lives difficult on the streets had disappeared. She tried to hurry, but she was so tired it was hard to run.
The hospital was thankfully just a few blocks from her flat.
Madison ran into the hospital, out of breath and more than an hour late. She rushed to the office where she was supposed to sign to take over from the night staff, all the while praying that green creature didn’t cross her path. Paint fumes permeated the halls, replacing the smell of disinfectant that usually hung in the air. The sounds were different as well. All the intercoms had been disconnected, and they’d heard a better system was being installed. She had to admit it would be a huge improvement. The previous intercom system only worked intermittently and only in certain areas of the hospital.
“Madison,” Rachel cried. Dressed in jeans and work boots and waving a paint covered brush, she rushed up to Madison, the golden highlights in her brown hair shining under the newly installed ceiling lights. Madison envied her friend her light brown skin with her whole heart. Rachel never had to worry about being in the sun too long. “Did you oversleep? You’d better hurry and get your painting gear before that alien sees you coming late.”
“Yeah, why couldn’t he act like a good monster scientist like Dr Frankenstein. Reanimating corpses and leaving us alone.”
Rachel waved her brush and Madison jumped back to avoid being spattered with white paint.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. I don’t understand your fascination with ancient writing,” Rachel complained.
“I’ll tell you later, gotta run.”
Rachel walked backward to the wall she’d been painting. “Right, see you in the cafeteria if our break times overlap.” They were allowed to break to eat and regain their puny human strength as the alien put it. Though he deemed ten minutes enough to eat. If she wasn’t so scared he’d cut off her head, she’d tell him a thing or two.
Madison rushed to the office with the painting supplies and nearly groaned when she saw Sandra waiting to hand over. For some reason Madison couldn’t fathom, the woman hated her. The only thing she could think off was that she really did have an affair with Jacobson and hated Madison because she always bumped heads with him.
“Late again, Madison,” Sandra said.
Madison drew a deep breath. She ignored her comments and signed in. She accepted the brush and rollers and huge tin of paint another intern handed her. Where did they get it? Paint supplies were scarce and expensive. “You have to admit these aliens are efficient,” she muttered.
The intern nodded.
Everyone was outfitted with protective coats, paints, and brushes with an efficiency Madison had never experienced before. Having a building enlarged and renovated in such a short time was something none of them ever thought to experience.
She hurried to the spot Rachel had kept for her. “I’m sorry, I should’ve made sure you were awake,” Rachel said.
They had flats in the same building.
Taking a deep breath, Madison applied the brush to the wall. She shrugged and then groaned when her muscles protested. “Not your fault.” She scowled at the hallway they were painting. Who knew a hospital could have so many walls. And every day that alien added more. “I’m a doctor, not a painter,” she muttered and dipped the brush into the paint again.
“At least you get to be a doctor,” Rachel said.
Madison didn’t like the bitterness in Rachel’s voice, but she could understand it. No one, except Madison and the three doctors who never talked to anyone, got to work at their profession. There was something strange about those three, but she couldn’t put her finger on it. Everyone else slogged away like slaves building and painting. Though Madison was beginning to feel the pressure of painting the whole day and doctoring practically the whole night.
She squared her shoulders. She was fixing to see that alien again. That was the start of another busy day only broken by a hurried lunch with Rachel.
“I’m fixing to find Jacobson.”
“Oh, Madison, not again. Viglar agreed to let you go back to being a doctor. Don’t make him mad enough to cut off your head.”
“I’ll be careful, but I have to speak to him.” She didn’t want Rachel to get her hopes up. If he allowed them all to go back to being doctors, maybe they could change his mind about replacing all of them.
Eight hours later, Rachel and Madison still had an hour left of painting. “My get up and go done got up and went,” Madison told her friend.
This time Jacobson had refused her request to see the alien and she’d reluctantly returned to painting. Every bone in her body ached, and she still had the night shift to do in the women’s ward. Showing that alien turned out to be extremely tiring.
“If that means you’re dead tired, me too,” Rachel said.
“I wonder what’s behind this sudden willingness of the aliens to build a hospital.”
They’d dealt with the riots with ruthless efficiency and, shortly after that, they’d showed a hologram of their soldiers marching through Washington. Row after row of deadly looking soldiers, so many they’d marched for almost a day. Before that day there’d been doubts about how many aliens actually landed, but that display of manpower had put a stop to speculation. Madison had expected concentration camps and executions. Not for them to build hospitals. Though they’d gotten the executions too.
Rachel rolled her eyes and brandished her brush. “It’s obvious, they want to spread goodwill, look like our saviors so that we go willingly into slavery.”
Madison glowered in the direction of the hallway leading to the office the alien had claimed as his. The only good thing about his presence was the way he kicked Jacobson out of his office and took it over.
“They’ve got a big surprise coming. We’re not that easy to enslave.”
Rachel lifted a brow and continued painting.
“We won’t let them enslave us, right?” Madison insisted.
She held no cotton with the thought of bending her knees to alien overlords. Still Rachel’s attitude scared her, as if they had no hope of winning against the invaders.
Rachel shrugged. “Go and tell the alien you refuse to paint anymore, since you’ve worked more than twelve hours already.” She smirked. “Let me know how that works out for you.” There was something more than sarcasm in her friend’s voice. Almost pain.
“Rachel?”
Rachel smiled at her. “Never mind. We’ve each got a wall as long as the one they used to have in China to paint. Less chatting, more work.”
They painted in silence for a while.
“They could be planning to experiment on humans, or they’re building the hospital for more aliens they plan to relocate to earth,” Rachel said.
“Don’t wanna hear it.” There was a lot of theories going around and they all scared her. “I’d prefer to find out when I’m sitting in a lab tube in their spaceship, not before, thank you very much.”
Madison applied the roller to the wall, watching with satisfaction as the drab surface transformed into a pristine white wall. She was doing this because she had pride in their hospital and wanted to help transform it. That was all. She wasn’t some indoctrinated idiot willingly going into slavery. She still hated painting.
If they tried to enslave them, experiment on humans, or use the hospital for aliens only, she’d learn to build a bomb and blow up the building. She hoped it didn’t come to that. When they’ve kicked the aliens off their planet, they could use this place. Maybe by that time, the aliens might have built a few other hospitals they could use as well.
“That alien helped us build eighteen hours every day. You should see the speed at which he worked,” Viktor said. He’d been injured while building and put on painting duty.
Madison could well believe that alien would jump in and help build. Viglar was the industrious type.
“You sound as if you admire him,” Rachel sniped.
“All I’m saying is, he’s getting massive amounts of work done,” Viktor said defensively.
They painted in silence for a while.
Two hours later, Madison put down her brush and, groaning, stretched to relieve the pain in her muscles.
“Did you hear the alien kicked Jacobson out of his office,” Viktor said. He was from a farm in New York. His parents ran one of the few farms in the country that still produced apples and cantaloupe.
Clarkson came over to join them. “That’s old news.”
Rachel winced. “Ouch, he was so proud of his office as well.”
“I knew he’d been kicked out, but where’s he squatting now?” Madison asked, stretching, still trying to relieve the ache in her body. She had another hour to go of painting endless stretches of walls.
Clarkson shrugged “Don’t know, don’t care. We need to get to talk to that alien about his plans to replace us.” He’d bounced back from being strangled and now used his experience as an example of the totalitarian attitude of new management. He went to see Viglar almost as many times as Madison. There were bets going on how long he’ll still have his head attached to his body.
“I have to take a bathroom break,” Rachel said.
“Careful,” Viktor said from where he painted the opposite wall. “He monitors the bathroom breaks and let you have it if you’re trying to use unnecessary bodily functions as an excuse not to work.” He mimicked Viglar’s clipped way of speaking with hilarious accuracy. Several of the others laughed, but looked around carefully first. Viglar had the habit of appearing out of thin air at the worst possible moments.
“Frankenstein’s the right name for him,” Madison muttered.
“Who’s this Frankenstein,” Viktor asked.
“It’s one of Madison’s obscure references to ancient writing,” Rachel said on her way to the bathroom.
Viktor shrugged and then looked around. “Where’s Sandra gone to?” She’d been painting a little bit down from them, but was nowhere to be seen now.
The air electrified and everyone who’d been tired and working sluggishly suddenly appeared energized.
Madison’s voodoo senses vibrated. Even before she turned to see what was going on she knew the alien was there. Her eyes clashed with that evil black-hole gaze. Those shameful shivers ran all over her body again.
Viglar stood in the door of one of the supply rooms leading to the corridor they painted and he looked directly at her. As if only the two of them existed in that long hallway.
The world exploded.