Peter paced his cell. Pacing passed time. Time was not on his side. Every minute he passed, they were a minute closer to the planet Mykalea. He was a minute closer to his death.
He felt as if he were stuck in a giant metal coffin. Though the room was quite large, he felt as if the walls were pressing in on him. If ever there were a time for his claustrophobia to act up, this was not it.
The door suddenly opened, startling him. He took a step back in surprise, and looked up.
He had not met this alien before. The gun in its hand concerned him. While it wasn't a gun in the sense he knew, he could tell it was a gun of some sort. It was meant to shoot a needle, though.
"Peter Sinclair?" It spoke, a light and airy voice portraying its gender. Female.
His words suddenly left him. All Peter could manage was a feeble nod.
"Speechless? Good. You ought to be quiet. It'll make this easier on everyone involved." While she spoke, she motioned for Peter to sit down on the metal bed. He obeyed quickly and quietly, fearing for his life in the most genuine fashion of the phrase.
The female shut the door as she entered the room. He gulped hard. Being locked in the room with an alien with a gun was never a good sign.
It didn't take long before the alien was kneeling on the floor beside him. She harshly took his right wrist in her hand, exposing the crook of his elbow. With her free hand, she searched for something.
Most likely, she searched for a vein.
The realization made his heart speed up. He took in a sharp breath, as if she had hurt him.
"Oh shut up. This is painless." Her harsh words reminded him of his position as a hostage, a prisoner. He obeyed.
It only took her a couple of minutes to figure out where to stick him. She cleaned the area, as he had seen doctors and phlebotomists do many, many times on Earth and here on the ship.
Then she picked up the gun. He studied what he could see. A large vial sat on the top of the gun. Inside that vial, an amber colored liquid sloshed around as the gun moved.
Lower on the gun, he noticed a circle. It seemed to be about two inches in diameter, and had a needle protruding from the middle.
Before he could stop her, the alien had placed this circle and needle over the chosen vein. She pulled the trigger, and the needle entered his skin.
Time seemed to drag on while the needle was in his system. The vial completely emptied into his system.
"This will kill you in five minutes time." Those words ended the visit as she picked up her garbage, and left the room.
It didn't take long for him to realize she had just poisoned him. A harsh tingle began in his elbow, and quickly began to spread up and down his arm as his blood traveled through his body.
By the time the poison hit his heart, he knew he didn't have long at all. The tingling traveled through the rest of his body – up his neck, through his head, into his left arm, down his torso, around his back and chest, and down his legs. Even breathing hurt by this point.
His legs gave out, and he collapsed to the floor. All he felt was a tingle, but he knew the poison was meant to keep his body intact. Amber coloring gave that much away.
Respiratory failure set in next. Each breath became shallower than the last. His organs began to shut down.
As his eyelids became heavy, a pair of magenta legs came into view. Nexivox.
His eyes forced themselves shut as the leader kneeled down beside him.
Peter could feel his life slipping away. The tingling was dying away with him.
He rattled as his breath left his mouth.Peaceful bliss and relief from the tingling set in.
YOU ARE READING
The Day They Came (WATTY AWARDS 2016)
Science Fiction#1 ALIEN INVASION What would you do if you were Earth's last hope? Claire Davidson finds herself in that very position after a seemingly harmless glance up into the sky. Abducted, poked, prodded, and lied to, she finds herself on the bad side of...
