Jon Merz - Prey

It scared her.

Her mind clicked over again.

Sh-shoop. Sh-shoop.

What were they doing to her? Why force her to relive these memories? What good would it do for them? Were they peering into her mind for some reason? Were they trying to figure out if she was a good mother candidate for their heinous offspring?

No!

The eyes returned. She decided she could find absolutely no trace of emotion in them at all. They seemed utterly devoid of compassion. No mercy.

Just cold.

Like the rain.

She used to enjoy reading those Choose Your Own Adventure books for young adults when she’d been a teenager. What was it about them that she loved so much?

Choice without risk.

She could vicariously live out any desire and never have to fear that she would pay a price she wasn’t ready to pay. If she didn’t like the way things were going, she could simply start over.

Be nice if life was like that, she decided.

Would she still be here?

Or would she have never tried to get this leadership position?

I didn’t get it, she reminded herself. Kendall manipulated the proceedings for his own evil purposes.

A surge of resentment filled her heart.

Kendall.

She had a score to settle with that guy.

And so help her God, she was going to see that she did.

She couldn’t imagine the visitors really needed all that much help from the likes of Kendall. If they were as advanced in their technology and mind control as they seemed to be, why would they need the petty skills of a greedy power-hungry fool like Kendall?

It didn’t make sense.

Something jabbed her.

But it didn’t hurt. Just felt like sudden pressure.

Were they implanting something in her?

She tried to look down. She tried to crane her neck.

“What are you doing?”

Her voice surprised her. She wondered at first who had spoken, but then remembered it as her own voice.

It echoed off the walls and reverberated around her.

“What-?”

Her mind clicked over again and this time, Julia fought it.

“No!”

She could feel the tug get stronger. They wanted her occupied with something else. Julia could remember reading an article about surgeons who used misdirection as a form of anesthesia for their patients. Get them so utterly engrossed in something else, like a challenging crossword puzzle or something that they would concentrate solely on that and on nothing else. In effect, the nerve impulses that sent the pain signals to the brain would not register at all.

But she’d never heard of anyone having the kind of success where they could actually operate on them.

Wouldn’t it be interesting if-?

“No!”

They were so subtle about it. They would take anything. The slightest thought that came into Julia’s mind could be manipulated into a painkiller.

She wouldn’t let them.

She wouldn’t think about anything.

Julia emptied her mind.

She imagined white filling her mind’s eye. Nothing would show up on it. Nothing at all.

She could feel the tugging become more insistent. There almost seemed some urgency to it, now as well.

Did they realize she was battling them?

Julia knew if she could keep her mind from being stripped away, the pain would come back. She didn’t want to experience it, but she also didn’t want to simply wake up and have no idea what they were doing to her.

She would take the pain.

Accept it.

Embrace it.

No matter what.

“Stop messing with my mind!”

It felt good to shout.

She sucked in a breath of cold air. When had the temperature gone down? She could only remember it as being nice and warm. But now she could almost see her breath in front of her face.

And here she was with no clothes on. She hoped they knew about hypothermia, frostbite, and all those other cold weather nastiness.

“No!”

The mist in front of her face disappeared and the room’s temperature returned to normal.

They could do anything!

Julia wanted to give up. She wanted to give in to the desire to yield and let her mind simply expand into the nothingness they demanded of her. It would be so much easier that way, so much easier than fighting.

She was tired.

Tired. Alone. Hungry. Thirsty.

She shook her head violently and felt it snap against the gurney.

And felt the pain.

Yes!

She moved toward it. Embraced it.

She screamed.

More pain swallowed her now. Her lower body felt like it was being cooked in flames. Burning sensations spread from her crotch. Sharp lancing pain seemed to jut out of her abdomen.

What were they doing?

Tears streamed out of her eyes. She felt them trickle down the side of her face. She tasted a bit of the salt.

“No!”

Such pain!

God!

She tried to squeeze her legs together. They were down there.

Working.

Somehow they must have secured her legs in some type of stirrups like at the gynecologist’s office. She couldn’t bring them together. She imagined being on the thigh machine at the gym, the way she squeezed those extensions together with almost one hundred pounds on each one.

Squeeze!

Feel the burn!

The pain got worse.

Julia wanted to give in to the visitors. She wanted the pain gone now!

“No!”

Take it away! Take it away from me!

PLEASE!

More tears. More pain.

Waves of it enveloped her body.

She was blacking out now. She could see the gray fuzz reaching up for her. Ready. It was ready to take her away.

Now.

She dimly heard what sounded like an explosion.

And the gray vanished abruptly.

The pain did as well.

Julia was panting for air.

Gunfire.

Somewhere in her mind she could feel waves of pain and agony wash over her. But they weren’t her own sensations.

The visitors’?

A rough hand touched her on the forehead.

She opened her eyes.

Mick?

He smiled down at her.

“Hey kid.”

She gasped and sobbed and retched and puked at the same time. Mick patted her gently and waited for her to regain her composure.

“You okay?”

Julia looked down, expecting to see some god awful contraption jutting out of her groin.

She saw nothing.

“I…I guess so.”

Mick nodded. “Sorry it took me so long to find you. You wouldn’t believe this place.”

“Really?”

He nodded. “I’d love to explain it all to you now but unfortunately, we’d better get going. I have a feeling we aren’t going to be alone much longer.”

And as he said it, a sudden alarm filled the chamber.

Mick nodded. “So much for surprise.”

Julia tried to grin. “I think the explosives might have ruined that for you.”

“Let’s get out of here!”

“Put this on.” Mick tossed her his sweatshirt. He grinned. “Best I can do right now, sorry.”

“I think my modesty went out the window lying on that gurney exposed for all the world to see,” said Julia. “Cripes, I flashed aliens.”

The door to the chamber hissed open. Mick gestured to Julia. “Get down behind the gurney.” He swept the barrel of his M16 up and aimed.

One of the dinocreatures came rushing into the chamber with an awful shriek.

Mick’s gun barked twice. Two holes blossomed in the creature’s forehead.

It dropped dead.

“We can’t stay here!” Mick had to shout over the wail of the alarm. “We have to leave!”

A bright bolt of laser came flashing into the room. Mick ducked as it caromed off the wall and exploded among bits of machinery. Julia looked back toward the doorway and saw two more dinocreatures aiming some type of weapons.

“Watch out!”

Mick swung back and opened fire on them. More shrieks filled the air. Bullet casings flipped out of the ejector port on Mick’s M16 and tumbled to the ground, clanging off the floor.