The Unaffected

➠0.2

Subject is female.

He stared at the paper, describing the special one. She was the one that would overthrow the aliens that he worked for, and then he'd probably die.

Well, that wouldn't happen, so she would be killed first.

He stared at the paper (which in fact included three papers) intently, memorizing every detail. This was his first mission, but he was good, even commander Ophelia said so. And that was why he was entrusted with something so important.

Fail, they'd told him, and he would be executed. But he'd die anyway, if he failed.

And so he wouldn't fail.

✶✶✶

three weeks later

i stand, tense, next to Chrissy. She looks nervous, and fingers her loaded gun uncertainly. "Scar, what's happening?"

"I don't know," I respond quietly. The booming continues. The ground shakes beneath my feet, and I shake. Chrissy almost falls, but I grab her arm.

Her gun goes off. In a moment's panic, I shove the muzzle away from us, into the distance.

Neither of us is hit. I mutter "thanks" into the ground, and then let out a curse.

Chrissy bites her lip. "I'm sorry -"

"It's okay," I interrupt. "It's okay." I take in a breath. "Let's go find the others, okay?"

She nods. Her eyes are brimming with tears. Poor thing. I pull her away, and go to find Clapton.

"Do you know what's -?" I ask when we find him.

He shakes his head. His expression is very, very, worried. "Alien attack. Stay hidden. They're looking for you."

"Clapton, you can't just keep hiding me like this!" I shouted at him. "I have to give myself up. I'm endangering you." I look at him, grabbing his shoulders.

Clapton doesn't say anything. He just shakes his head. Chrissy watches us, a confused, distressed look on her face.

"I'm leaving," I tell him. "I can't stay. Don't try to stop me."

I say goodbye to both of them, and then run.

The aliens are surrounding the camp. I run up to them. "I'm the one you want!" I yell. "I'm Unmarked! I'm an Unaffected!"

They look at me. There are about thirty of them right here, all strangely colored. They look at my face, with my badly painted marks. I rub them, and it exposes my clear jaw.

Then one of them shoots me. It must be a tranquilizer, since I feel fuzzy, but not like I'm dying, and there is very little pain. The edges of my vision start to black out. I'm losing consciousness.

The last thing I see is the creatures grabbing me and pulling me into a helicopter.

✶✶

when I wake, I'm in a cold, dark cell. I am clothed in black pants and shirt, and my hair is cut short. There are several others in the cell with me. A girl, with pale blond hair and two boys; one with dark blond hair, one black haired. Most of them have their backs turned to me, so I can't see anything else about them.

Then the dark haired boy turns to look at me. He looks only about twelve. "Found you, too?"

I nod. "I have myself up. I was endangering my friends."

He laughs. "A hero, eh? that's cute."

"I'm very cute." He grins at me.

The girl turns around finally. "Enough, John." She has a slight Russian accent, and ice blue eyes, and pale skin. Like an ice goddess.

John doesn't respond, but he doesn't talk to me any more. Now only the bigger boy hasn't spoken. And I still can't see his face.

"Where am I?" I ask after a moment's hesitation.

The blond boy snorts. "Idiot."

I glare at him. "I wouldn't be calling someone "idiot" if I were the one who spoke in single-word sentences." So I don't actually know if he speaks like that all the time, but still.

"We are on a planet, where the aliens live. In the Andromeda Galaxy. This is an army base. We are the Unaffected," the girl says.

"Are we the only ones?" I ask.

"No. But the only ones found." She looks at me. "Call me Ella."

"Scar."

John introduces himself. "And that's Tom. He doesn't talk much." By the look on his face, I can tell he doesn't like Tom. I can't tell with Ella. Her face is expressionless.

I settle back on the hard, cold floor. It's made of some kind of metal, I think, a grainy black colour. The walls are made of the same substance. And I can see a door cut into the wall. I walk over to it and look it over. Completely smooth. I push on it experimentally, and I feel myself shot backwards against the opposite wall. A red light beams at me, and sears a mark into my right arm. A red X.

Ella looks at me. "I should have mentioned that earlier. The door is equipped with some motion sensor that marks you when you push on it. It's permanent, so far as I can tell, but it doesn't do much other than sting every once in a while. Tom was the first person here, and apparently he found that out the hard way, too."

I nod, and touch the X lightly. I gasp at the searing, stinging, burning pain. "Well, I'm not going to attempt to escape that way." I try to laugh. Then I look up.

There is no visible roof here, just a black abyss that hangs above us. I wonder how I can see, with all the black around us, until I notice a red glow coming from the floor in the corner. I walk over to it.

"Don't touch that," Ella warns. "It's the lighting. It also burns. We think that there may be an exit that way, but the pain that comes of touching it is overwhelming." She walks over to me. "See, you can make out black behind it. I think it's a tunnel."

"That seems irresponsible," I say. "Someone could just jump through. I mean, pain is nothing compared to eternal captivity."

She shakes her head sadly, and walks over to John, who's picking at the ground. She picks up a metal plate and walks back to me. "But look." She drops the plate down onto the red light.

It disappears, and then shoots back up. When it falls to the ground, I can see it. A melting pile of goo.

It leaves a red stain on the ground.