Chapter 2
Avery
When I regain consciousness, my head is throbbing, and there’s a bright white light above me.
I can tell I’m lying down. On something cold and hard that feels like metal.
Metal against bare skin, because I’m completely naked.
I blink a few times, then try to put a hand in front of my face, but I can’t.
There’s something attached to my wrists that bites into my skin when I try to move my arms.
“Ugh, what…” I mutter, my mouth dry, but I can still taste the alcohol and cigarettes.
I keep blinking until my vision focuses.
The light overhead doesn’t dim. It’s harsh like the one my dentist uses, except this one is much brighter, and closing my eyes does little to dull the harshness.
“Why can’t I move?” I murmur, looking up to see metal bands on my wrists.
They’re tight, and I don’t see a seam on them. It’s like they’re part of the table, and they’ve been fused around my wrists.
My feet are in stirrups, not much different from the ones at my gynecologist’s office. Except my gynecologist doesn’t use metal clamps to make sure my feet stay elevated in an awkward position that leaves me on full display.
I’m restrained, naked, and spread-eagled. The exposure makes me shiver, and it’s not just from the cold.
“What the hell?” I mumble, swallowing the dryness in my throat until I produce some saliva. “This… doesn’t feel like a rescue.”
Panic begins to set in. My heart kicks into overdrive, thundering in my chest like it’s trying to escape without me.
There’s no blue light to calm me here. Just one that seems brighter than the sun.
I can’t stare into it, so I have to look away.
I’m already seeing spots, just from focusing my vision.
I pull at the restraints again, tugging harder this time. They don’t budge. There’s no give. Not even a rattle. All I manage to do is tear some of the skin near my right wrist and some blood oozes out of the wound. Blood that immediately gets absorbed into the metal, like it’s slurping it up.
“Oh, no, no, this isn’t good,” I mutter, shaking my head. “Hello? Hello!”
A soft, electronic chime sounds, followed by a smooth hiss.
A seamless door appears on the wall to my right, and it slides open.
A large, hulking figure stands on the other side of the door.
As he walks into the room, I notice he has red skin and black horns protruding from his skull that are smooth, shimmery, and metallic.
He looks like a demon. Except he’s smiling and wearing a white, padded uniform with symbols I don’t recognize in various places. Possibly words, but I can’t read them. He says something that comes out like clicking and clacking as the door closes.
I tense up, unsure what to do. Should I greet him?
Beg for mercy? I’ve never been the type to beg, but if there was ever a time, this seems like it.
I was ready to die. I didn’t ask to be saved, and I certainly didn’t ask to be touched by some strange alien demon. I was perfectly fine dying a virgin.
The alien or demon taps the wall a few times, and a screen appears that doesn’t look much different from the tablet I used every day before the internet went offline. There are buttons that look like apps in various colors, and the symbols on the screen look similar to the ones on his uniform.
“Okay, the Intergalactic Translator we implanted in you should be working now. Can you understand me?” he rumbles, some clicking and clacking still present, even though I can understand him.
“Yes, I can understand you,” I reply, a little concerned about something being implanted in me, but more concerned about the demon. “But who are you? What is going on here? Why am I on this table?”
“My name is Dr. Grix’al’thormormingfjorting…
You know what, just call me Dr. Grix. My language is difficult for flesh-tongued beings, even with the Intergalactic Translator,” he says.
“I’ll be examining you today. That is the first step toward finding a suitable home for you, like we do with all refugees. ”
An examination. I can handle that. I think. I’m not dead. I was spared by an alien. I just hope he’s not planning to dissect me.
“Okay. Dr. Grix,” I say, swallowing hard. “I’m Avery.”
“Nice to meet you, Avery. Now, let’s see… what planet are you from…” he mutters, tapping the screen a few times. “Ah, yes, your planet was called Earth, but it’s gone now. Big boom. Lots of screaming. Bet you’re glad you missed that, huh?”
“I’m not sure yet,” I say apprehensively.
“Let me load your chart and then we’ll get started,” he says.
Dr. Grix taps the screen again, something hisses, and then he removes the screen from the wall. He places it in the air, and it hovers there, staying to his immediate right as he walks closer to the table. I can’t see what is on the screen from my angle, but it’s translucent, so I can see him.
He looks even scarier when he gets close. His teeth are as black as his horns, and look like they’re made of the same shimmery, metallic alloy. He rubs his tongue across them while he studies my chart and it scrapes, like metal against metal.
“Just reviewing a few things,” he murmurs, swiping a hand across the screen in front of his face, red eyes studying whatever it says.
“You were quite intoxicated when we put you in cryostasis. We had to let that pass through your system after you were thawed, but you should be fine now. How do you feel?”
“Concerned,” I admit. “I just woke up on a table. My arms and legs are restrained. This is how horror movies start where I’m from.”
“Horror movies?” he questions, tapping the screen a few times. “Ah! Yes, we have those on my planet. Intergalactic Translator still needs some work with the languages from your planet. But don’t worry, Avery. This isn’t a horror movie.” He smiles, showing his teeth. “This is just an examination.”
“What kind of examination is this going to be?” I ask, feeling even more exposed as he walks around the table.
“A thorough one,” he replies. “Let me just check the guidelines from your planet so I can make sure this is as comfortable as possible for you. One moment… Oh, yes, consent. It is very important where you’re from. Avery, do you consent to this examination?”
“I don’t know,” I say, feeling a twinge of concern. “What if I don’t consent to it?”
“If you don’t consent, we can’t do your examination,” he replies flatly. “Without an examination, we can’t find a suitable home for you. Which means you go into the incinerator.”
“Incinerator?” My eyes get wider. “You’re going to kill me if I don’t consent to the examination?”
“Nothing personal,” he assures. “We have rules, but we try to be respectful of the customs of the refugee home worlds. Former home world in your case. It has been a few years since Earth went boom.”
“Hold on, wait. A few years?” It feels like my head is spinning. Too much information. Too much happening.
“Yes, processing refugees takes a while and we’re short staffed,” he says. “This refugee center is old and mostly used for training. But don’t worry. We have everything we need here.”
He taps the screen and turns it so I can see it.
Earth is on the screen. It’s spinning fast enough for me to tell the video is moving at an accelerated speed.
Then the meteor appears, and the size of it compared to Earth is much bigger than I realized.
Much bigger than the news said, before they stopped giving updates.
“This is about the time when the Intergalactic Alliance showed up. You’re in one of those beams,” he says, pointing at the blue lights darting toward the planet and retracting in a blur. “And… big boom.”
The blue lights disappear. The meteor hurls toward Earth, and then it makes impact, somewhere in the Pacific Ocean, if my geography lessons are correct.
A ripple seems to shake the entire planet, and the oceans rise until all I can see is blue before there’s an explosion so bright I have to look away.
“Doesn’t get any better from here, trust me,” he says, ending the video. “But you were long gone by then, already in cryostasis. Now, have you made your decision? Do you consent to the examination, or should I lower you into the incinerator?”
I close my eyes, taking a few quick breaths. Almost everyone I know is dead. I expected to be one of them and was content with that. Mostly because it was inevitable. There was nothing I could do to stop it. But Earth is gone, and I’m still alive. I don’t want to be incinerated.
“Fine, you can examine me,” I mutter, blinking away a tear before opening my eyes. “But if you’re familiar with Earth customs, then you should know that consent can be withdrawn at any time. If I tell you to stop, you have to stop.”
“Of course. If you tell me to stop, I’ll end the examination and lower you into the incinerator,” he explains, leaning forward. “Open your mouth. I need to count your teeth.”
I swallow hard and open my mouth. His hands are similar to human hands, just red, and he has metallic black talons instead of fingernails.
I tense up when they get near my mouth, but he’s surprisingly gentle.
He taps the metal against each tooth as he counts them, leaving my mouth tingling a little after he’s done.
“Twenty-eight. Humans are supposed to have thirty-two, according to what it says here,” he murmurs, tapping on the screen. “Are you defective in some way?”
“Defective? No,” I say. “I had my wisdom teeth removed when I was in high school. They grew in sideways.”
“Sounds like a defect,” he says, continuing to tap the screen. “I’ll mark you as defective.”
“Wait, that doesn’t mean you’re going to incinerate me, does it?” I whimper, starting to get more scared than I already am.
“No, it just excludes a few planets where they don’t take defective refugees,” he explains. “Don’t worry, most of those are terrible planets anyway. A planet full of perfect beings? Boring, if you ask me. I’m defective too, as I’m sure you can tell.”