2132:Phoenix

Chapter 25

"Cale, please talk to me." He was calibrating the lab equipment for human DNA, but he wouldn't tell me what he was looking for. He seemed frantic, and to some degree, I suppose he was excited.

"How much do you know about viral transmission of plasmids?"

"It's a bacterial thing. CRISPR and stuff like that."

"Exactly, well some types of alien species have very similar immune systems and they accept plasmids in times of stress really easily."

"Humans don't."

"And that's why we're here. May I have a hair sample?" I didn't know what the hell he was getting at, and I wasn't keen on the way he was acting.

"You're scaring me, Cale." I was trembling as the pieces started to come together in my mind. Alien species, DNA tests, and a weird look on Cale's face... I probably should've run. His hand gripped my neck and used his thumb to tilt my face towards his.

"No no no my dear. It's painless, a little snip and then we're done." He grabbed the scissors and brought them next to my face. I flinched and blood started to trickle down my face with the clump of hair he cut off. "Alexia," he growled, "look at this." He pressed his nail into the cut adding more injury to insult. He turned to the cleaning kit. Run. I moved quickly enough that he didn't realize until I was sprinting out the door of the med lab. "Alexia!" I didn't have anywhere to run. I didn't know how the escape pods worked. I was trapped with a raging Torrex male hell-bent on who knows what. "Get back here," he roared, but it wasn't his voice. Hivac was screaming. I was back on the command ship. They were all there. I wasn't getting out.

"Lex."

"No, you can't take me again." I tried to fight but my hands were held in place. My world started to fade again.

"Lexi, please. Wake up." Everything was white and the world was screaming. Something was dripping down my face. I must have been bleeding. I couldn't breathe. It felt like my heart was about to stop.

Birds started chirping over the white noise and a stream started to bubble. I was wearing my favorite hoodie and leggings. The leaves were falling in shades of red and orange. I was back on my favorite trail on my grandmother's farm. I walked down to my spot to find Calepus skipping rocks.

"How are you feeling?" He threw another rock that dove straight under the water.

"What is this?"

"You were having a nightmare, and you wouldn't wake up."

"I didn't fall... No, we went to the lab." He skipped another rock. This one bounced three times and he turned around to offer me a rock.

"You were passed out when I woke up."

"How long are we going to be here?" He sighed and turned back to the water to skip another rock.

"Until you let us leave. That's the trick with a link like this. It brings you to a place you like, but we're stuck until you're ready to leave."

"I'm ready to leave."

"It doesn't work like that. You have to be ready, in this case, calm enough to get back to our place on the floor."

"The ship is out in the open?!" I was not calm this made it worse, what if they found us. They'd kill me right, or would bring me back to the hell hole. I can't do that again.

"The ship is cloaked for the time being. Come skip some rocks. We can talk about your dream."

"I don't want to talk about it."

"Then come skip rocks with me and tell me why this place is so important to you, or don't skip rocks, just talk to me, please."

"How do I know this isn't another simulation? I spent months living in some fake reality. Something my brain made. How do I know I'm not stuck in something like that again? How do I know any of this is real, how do I know you're real? How do I know my life isn't the fricking matrix?" It started to rain...

"Rainwater isn't salty Lex. You want to know how to tell this isn't fake? You're able to think about being stuck. If someone was manipulating your mind you wouldn't be able to think you were stuck, whoever was manipulating you would have shut that thought process down." I finally looked at him. He'd gone through his rocks and stood with his hands stuck in Jean's pockets. He looked so human.

He had on a white shirt with an indecipherable logo, a wool-lined leather jacket, and blue sneakers. He would've been normal if not for the scales on his face and hands. They looked out of place. No, the clothes looked out of place. Not bad, just weird considering I'd never seen him in something so human.

"Were the clothes my doing too?"

"Yeah," he laughed. "The jacket is warm."

"Any more good skipping rocks?" He made a big show of looking for the perfect rock then held it up with a smile.

"Bet you can't get it to the other side." And so the competition began.

We woke up giggling in the nest of blankets I made the night before.

"I beat you. I beat you."

"I can tickle you just as well here," he taunted, but he leaned down to kiss me instead.

"I love you," I whispered into his lips and pulled him back for something a little more. This was the first time I had a say in the choice I was about to make. This was the first time I was choosing to give him my all, with nothing else on my mind. It was freeing, and I was practically giddy as I chucked his shirt from our circle.