The Returnee

Chapter 20

Lights filled the room with a low thrum. Lee turned cold. No, not again. 

He couldn't move, a weight on his chest pinning him to the sofa bed. The smell of ozone covered him, warning of a lightning strike. He needed to move. To hide. They were coming. The room shuddered with the humming of the beam.

"Lee?"

Andy was awake? That wasn't right. He couldn't speak. He didn't have permission to speak. He flopped to the side, landing painfully on the floor. His knees hurt, but the nightmare didn't fade. This was happening. The lights flashed, spinning as if something circled the window. It was a perception filter. It confused people.

"Hide," Lee croaked, knowing that was no use. They'd find them. They always found them. People wanted to hide, but they got very persistent. He crawled to the bed to try to pull Andy out, but the weight got worse. 

The door opened.

Lee couldn't push himself off the ground.

"There are two," someone said. "Did we know that?"

"It doesn't matter; it won't remember." That would be true if Lee hadn't been through this once.

"It managed to move quite far from its bed." Cold hands gathered him and lifted him. They wore a protective suit to protect themselves from alien hazards. It met his eyes, and they widened before it checked his arm. "Oh, easy there."

"Is it awake?"

"It's a previous experiment. It has the scars"

"Oh?"

Please no. Lee fought to get his eyes open. He wouldn't go into this blind. He wouldn't let them take him or Andy without knowing. A different set of hands cradled his face, tucking through his hair. This set didn't have a suit on; they didn't need them. Their skin was covered in scales that were hard enough to protect against foreign germs. The fingers cupped under his chin to tilt his head and check his ear. Damn cattle tags left a scar different to the machine ones on his arm. Only a few groups used them.

"One of ours. Improbable but not impossible. They are the same demographic," said the scientist, researcher, whatever the term was. Fingers traced his face. "I think I recognise the facial structure."

"Did you go to bring them along?"

"To what purpose? We have a sample group to ensure social conditions are met, and recalls are often more stressful for the subjects than needed."

Lee opened his eyes to meet pitch black ones, as dark as space itself. Their scales were midnight purple, with paler bone-like structures protruding from their head like a crown. They wore a mask which emitted blue light to protect them from breathing in any pathogens in the air.

It was One. 

"If they are sleeping in the same room, they know each other. They will be very alarmed."

"It's aware?" The black eyes sparked yellow surprise. It took Lee a while to learn what all the potential colours meant. "Its eyes are open, but it should be asleep."

"Repeated use reduces the effects," the alien holding him shrugged. "Hello, brown eyes. You should give in and go to sleep.  Your friend is allocated."

"Why are you talking to it?"

"It understands us? Have you not been reading the information packets from the Consortium?" the other alien clicked, irritated. "We may be separate, but we need to keep up with the latest information and findings."