Jack balanced the tray of food on one arm and slid the door open to his cabin. A small light illuminated the room from the nightstand and an eleven-year-old girl looked up from her book where she sat on the bed."Hey kiddo," Jack greeted."Was your mission good?" Lexi asked.Jack set the tray of food down on the table across from the bed and pushed the stack of books out of the way with it. "Yeah, we saved a bunch of huge women.""Huge women?" Lexi asked and set her book down in her lap."They were all the way out to here." He gestured as if he had a very large stomach."How'd you fit them through the door then?""We all ganged up and pushed them through." Jack sat at the little table on the bench seat.Lexi quirked her lips to the side in thought. The expression reminded him of Alex and a small pang struck his heart."You're messing with me again, aren't you?" She asked.Jack nodded. "You caught me. But they were all pretty big, very pregnant.""Pregnant? Were they human?"
He pushed the door to his cabin open again. Lexi sat on the bottom bunk bed reading her book."Hey, kiddo, are you ready for bed?""Can we stay up and watch TV for a little bit?" She asked. Her eyes pleaded with him.Jack paused and thought about it. "Okay, just for a little bit."Lexi smiled and scooted over. Jack sat down next to her, ducking his head beneath the top bunk until he was settled.Lexi flicked her fingers and the TV at the foot of the bed flipped on. She handed the remote over to Jack to let him enter in his passcode. He flicked his fingers quickly over it and a TV channel appeared. Lexi flipped through them at warp speed. Her fingers moved lightning fast as the channels sped by.She stopped on a news channel that had the words "World House Representative Campaign" across the bottom. They watched the newscasters chat back and forth. Lexi finally got bored after five minutes and started flipping through the channels again."Ooh, wait," she said and flipped back a f
Alex woke up to a drilling headache sinking deep in her lower neck. No doubt, it was the Vice doing its dirty work. She sat and stretched her head downward, then rubbed her hand over the sleek metal surface, tracing the outline of the "Y", down where it joined into the thick blub at the bottom. Three small circles down the center of it felt like braille. She assumed they were LED lights, but couldn't be sure. Just below was the large vertebra that stuck out of her neck. She leaned her head back feeling the top of the "V" massage into the bottom part of her brain. It did a pretty good job of poking in there and releasing pressure, despite being the cause for the pain in the first place.Her hand reached out and touched the nightstand, flicking once to illuminate the room. She dimmed it down immediately. Why did the lights always have to start out the brightest? Poor design or intentionally meant to fuck with her?She pushed one foot out on to the floor at a time, slowly testing her we
Tom stretched his aching back. The small bed had been one of his best night sleeps in a long while, maybe because it was comfortable or maybe because he was finally free. A headache started to brew at his temple. He touched the small light that illuminated the cabin and tapped it a few times to make it dim. Two men still slept in their bunks. The last one was empty.He stood and stretched again. He tried to keep the breath escaping his lips from making too much noise, but it just felt so good. He reached towards his toes and stretched again, feeling the pull of his hamstrings. After the first two years of being trapped, he had given up. He felt he would be a lab rat forever, but within the last year, he'd had this feeling. Somewhere deep inside he knew somehow that he was going to be free and when he was, he was going to be needed. Since that moment, he'd been preparing, stretching, doing sit-ups and push-ups. Anything he could do to get his body moving. The food they gave him hadn't
Tom rubbed his naked chin. He had been free for less than a day, just a little taste. He tapped the door to his new cell and it echoed a metal ring through the small room. The room only held a cot and enough room to stand next to it. It was more like a closet than a cell. The last thing he remembered was standing in the bathroom brushing his teeth. In that missing time, he'd shaved his beard, gotten a haircut, and ended up here with a god awful headache.He looked up to see a small camera at the top of the cell. "Can someone tell me what's going on?"As if in response to his question, a beep sounded through the intercom speaker over his head."Hello. This is Captain Elaine Shultz. I have some tragic news to give you. This morning, at nine o'clock, a girl was murdered. We have detained the murderer and all survivors that were rescued on the last mission. We are asking all personnel to please report anything suspicious to the senior officers: Jack Swift, Derek Jefferson, Dr. Daniel Gr
Tom woke suddenly as the door to his closet cell opened. He rose to his feet sleepily. The guard slapped a pair of cuffs around his wrists and chained them to his ankles. He sighed inwardly. This wasn't exactly new to him. The guard led him down the narrow hallway. Doors lined the sides. Some of them stood open revealing identical cells.The guard pushed him forward gently into an area where other small hallways converged. In front of them, the elevator buttons lit up. The guard punched the button and it slid open. After turning around in the elevator, the guard punched the "level 7" button and the lift accelerated quietly upwards.Tom stood contemplating where they were taking him. Why would they be taking him anywhere? Maybe he would be a sacrifice. Like in the old times when they lined all the bad guys up and shot them in front of a firing squad. Only one of them could have done it, but maybe they would take them all out just for good measure.After the door dinged, the lift open
Elaine took a breath and spoke again. "Thank you, everyone." She clicked the microphone off and stepped away from the podium, taking very deliberate steps. Then she did a very particular thing. She pulled some of the loose brown hair from her ponytail back over her ear.Tom's stomach lurched. The guard behind him held him steady. To his left, the other men did the same thing. Elaine turned to look at their sudden movements then quickly glanced to the left at Dr. Grey. He nodded to her and she took a step towards them.Tom's head throbbed. He pulled against the cuffs and tried to shove his body weight forward. The guard clutched his chains and held him in place. He had to get to her. The rest of the men thrashed as well as they fought to get free. The men dragged the guards forward, one step at a time. A deep driving force in Tom's gut wanted to tear her apart. He hated her. Every fiber of his body pulsed with burning hatred. He had to rid the world of her.Elaine stood firm and squa
Jack turned to Tom. "Follow these guys out to the pods. I have to go. Take good care of them."Jack took off at full speed out of the room and down the corridor. Alert alarms blared through the ship. People milled through the hall finding the closest battle pod. The ship rumbled beneath his feet.Elaine's voice rang over the speakers. "This is Captain Shultz. Please prepare for a rough ride. We are going to do some maneuvering. If you have gunner training, please go to your post. Everyone else, follow return lights to your cabin in case of an emergency escape launch. All those not in a cabin will be left to maneuver their section."Jack hit the stairs and spun down them as fast he could. He jumped off at level three then slid open the door to his cabin."Do you have your pack?" He asked, a little winded in his panic."I thought we are supposed to stay in the cabin," Lexi said.Jack shook his head. "We're not leaving without something with guns. Come on."Lexi looked around frant