Chapter III

A warm breath fondled my entire face. It wasn’t hot around me anymore; now I was feeling cold… in fact, too cold. My eyelids unlocked my mind from that state of slumber and I was finally able to open my eyes. Everything appeared indistinct to my eyes, as if it was all shielded behind a heavy mist. I was finally able to distinguish a set of creamy-coral, moist, soft lips, placed directly over the path of my gaze. And then… I felt her body: her skin was smooth as balm, its texture rich and silky. She weighted no much more than a feather, and her encirclement fulfilled my inner self. She was bending over me, her ankles and forearms were parallel to my body, holding a minimum fraction of her weight, in the ground. I was dazzled, paralyzed; yet I realized it was not only technically, but literally paralyzed. I could not move my body at all, and I had but barely been able to open my eyes.

I tried to speak “He-hey the-there…, h-how are you?” I was freezing.

She looked down upon me and gasped “He’s waking up!” then stared into my eyes with a fierce glare. “I never got the reason why I had to this!” she protested against someone else.

“Hey Lualeen, don’t be so complicated with the matter,” answered another woman in a persuasive voice, “just finish the reanimation and let’s get out of here.” What did she mean by reanimation?

“It’s not so simple, you know? I must stay in this ridiculous position to at least lend him body warmth, plus keep track of the device, so it doesn’t go over 150 or his brain will blow inside out,” she answered in a matter-of-fact tone which... Wait, WHAT?! I fought to move but only bare movements came from my extremities. “You better calm down boy. You’re almost dead right now, and we’re trying to save you. I didn’t, and still don’t, agree with this, so shut up and stay quiet until I’m done,” she scolded me – not that I could say much anyway. I decided to be obedient, doing as she said, and I gradually started to feel better. Now I could see her face much clearer; her unusual shiny, light blue hair and eyes startled me immediately. “What are you looking at?” she challenged me.

“You look very… who are you?” I babbled; something that used to be very typical on me sometimes but this one was probably due to my current condition.

“I am either your savior or your worst nightmare, and I’m just this tiny bit,” she showed a pinch of a measure with her fingers, “of ending your misery.” Whoever she was, I was not pleased around her any longer and, still, I could not deny the fact that she was outstandingly beautiful.

The other woman spoke in a tone that gave away a hint of abrupt discomfort. “Heads up, Lualeen, here comes Riole,” and she fell silent with promptitude. Her silence seemed to be brought by discontent rather than respect.

An imperative woman spoke in a tone that demanded respect, although it did not really appeared to obtain it… “Is that Earthling ready? We need to grab a couple of good specimens and get out here! Earthlings don’t seem the type, but they can detect us easily!” ‘What the hell is she talking about?’ I asked myself. No wonder, I was horrendously confused.

Soon after the girl addressed her thoughts, the one who was over me, whom someone had addressed as Lualeen, spoke. “Riole, we’ll indeed need to use this one. We are running out of time by now!” she argued severely.

“No way! He’s of no use for us! We need strong specimens of his race, and not… this!” Riole pointed aggressively to me.

That’s when I fought back. “Hey, whoever you are! You have no authority of saying what I am or am not! You don’t even know me!” I realized I was recovering strength way too fast and decided to quickly fake coughing as to remain apparently weak. ‘It might come in handy later’ I thought.

She smirked and ignored me. “He cannot even withstand the recovery rate of our machinery. Call down the Captain and she’ll decide.” She, she, she? Reanimation? Earthlings? Alright, something was really wrong with this picture. “Cap’n, we need your decision to…” she was interrupted by another clear voice that seemed present, but I thought otherwise based on what I had just heard.

“Riole, ask him if he has anybody else and bring them all in. We don’t need best of, we need standard,” replied the person. Her voice sounded aged, but was still fierce and definitive.

“But…” started Riole again.

“That’s an order, Riole,” closed the Captain. Totally like a boss.

Riole stomped her way to me and threw violently the question. “You heard her, who’s it going to be?”

“Who is going to be for what?” I needed more details to start sketching a plan to cope with the situation.

“You’re just damn stupid, did you know that?!” she said, outraged.

“Cool it,” said Lualeen, “neither the time, nor the place for this.” Riole sighed irritated. Lualeen started by looking at me with just tiny bit more of patience. “We need at least two or three specimens from this planet. I know it may sound quite strange, but you’ll just have to do it. You must name two other individuals that we can get or we will get rid of you right here, right now. Oh, and don’t try to pick just anyone that would happen to be unfavorable in any way, we’ll know if you chose the best around you. Choose wisely, you will be traveling with them for a long while, probably never coming back here. And it must be quick. You have two of your Earth minutes.”

I skipped a heartbeat, or perhaps many. I wasn’t going to see Earth again? ‘This must be a joke’ I told myself. Yes, it definitely was a joke being played by some jerks against me, and I didn’t like it at all. Again, there was the reanimation… but that might as well be some narcotic that was gradually losing its effects or something. It was impossible. I said at last “Alright, alright, you got me. Nice joke, very funny people, very funny. Now I’d like to take a shower and finish off…” Lualeen grabbed my face by the chin.

“You’re going to decide or we’ll take it out of you by force. And believe me, it won’t be pretty,” she said seriously.

I still did not believe her. I mean, come on, if they were freaky aliens or some other crap like that, they might as well not have human shapes and speak some weird language way out of my understanding. They would not even say smart-ass comments like “believe me it won’t be pretty”, or anything alike. It was a practical joke; however, due to the fact that they could seriously hurt me in order to go with their joke, I decided to follow up their little game. “It’s decided then, I’ll take… Ignis and Sebastian.”

“Where can we find them? And do not lie because I assure you I can read your damned wits if it’s false, right now!” Riole barked.

“No need for that. They live on my same neighborhood. It’s a bit off from this place, but not too far,” I answered, mildly entertained now.

Lualeen rose from above me at last. My eyes were not capable yet of seeing too far away, but I realized I was able to move. She said then: “Think about them. Think about where they live and what they look like,” so I did. A few seconds went by and Lualeen spoke again. “Got ‘em. Locate them, and take them into our ship immediately. We don’t have much longer!” Lualeen instructed quickly, and then stared at someone while pointing at me. I felt that I was being picked up but didn’t resist. I probably didn’t have enough strength to endure in a fight or to flee, so I would go with the flow. Moments later I felt a metal door being shut behind me and when I looked around faintly, I found myself in a metal container, sort of round, sort of not. What came to my head was simply: ‘Shit, I actually fell for it.’