She was vaguely aware of the men—aliens?—talking nearby, but it wasn’t until one grabbed her arm, pulling her to her feet, none too gently, that she snapped back to the present.
“Let me go!” she shouted, not expecting the man to release her and falling back when he did, hands lifted with palms toward her. She looked him up and down warily as she rubbed her arm.
The smiling one nudged the one she’d stolen the gun from, his eyebrows waggling, and she scowled. “Don’t even think about it, buddy.” She pointed her finger at him. “I don’t care how many protein shakes it took to get you lot that size, I’m not going to let you push me around.”
But her bravery left her when the sound of another screech filled the air. She turned to face the way she’d come, stepping back until she landed against the solid strength of the one with the purple eyes.
She started shaking when another followed the first screech, and then another, until a chorus of bugs and their chittering filled the air.
Oh god. Oh fuck. I’m going to die.
She bent over and vomited on the broken concrete under her sneakers. Now the smell of bug guts and vomit filled the air, and she didn’t even have her mask to block the stench, not that the flimsy things did much of that.
The three men started shouting, then one of them took off at a run so fast that Aletta screwed her eyes up in disbelief. The remaining two spoke quickly, the first one with the purple eyes looking at Aletta with a scowl before grabbing her arm and dragging her along with him as he ran. They’d barely taken ten steps when he huffed in frustration, muttering under his breath, before grabbing her with one muscular arm and lifting her into the air and over his shoulder, one thick forearm over the back of her thighs.
“Hey!” Aletta tried to shout, but having all your breath knocked out of you by a hard shoulder and—oh god, what was digging into her boob?—it sounded more like ‘yay’.
She kept her stomach tense and gripped his belt to keep herself from head-butting his back with every step as he pounded along the pavement. The chittering screech of yet another bug came from behind them—close behind—and, against her better judgment, she looked up.
There were so many of the bugs that she couldn’t count them all, and they were much bigger than the one that had chased her. She gaped as one stood on its rear legs to leap over a city bus. Had the bug chasing her been ababy?
Aletta pounded on her rescuer’s back.
“Run! There’s too many! Run!” She didn’t care where he was running to; she was not going to be a bug meal. Not today. Not any day.
Aletta’s hand brushed against something on the guy’s hip. A gun. She pulled it free from the holster, prepared to fire if—when—the bugs gained on them.
Then she was swung from his shoulder to his front with an ease that had her head spinning. They were under one of the freeway overpasses, standing next to some swaying ropes. She watched as the other alien jumped as high as he could, grabbing the rope in both arms and pulling himself up hand-over-hand without using his legs.
Then the purple-eyed one pulled her to his chest and placed her arms around his neck.
“Buddy, not the time?—”
He barked something at her, scowling and dragging her legs up around his waist before freeing his arms. She would have fallen if she hadn’t gripped him with her arms and legs, riding him like a front backpack. He gripped the rope and heaved them off the ground with no sign of effort.
Ok. That’s kind of hot.
Then they were rising steadily in the air, and she gasped, staring over his shoulder as the bugs rushed toward them like a surge of over-enthusiastic marathon runners at the beginning of a race. She would never look at a humble cockroach the same ever again.
Then she was grabbed under the arms and hauled over the concrete side of a highway, before her scowly, purple-eyed savior climbed over with her. Then they were running, his hand gripping her arm, toward what had to be a spaceship.
Her second one of the day. Of her life.
There was no time to stop and take it all in, as the sounds of screeching filled the air. Was she imagining it, or did the bugs sound angry?
The roaring sound of the ship’s engines was almost deafening as they raced up a ramp and into its depths.
Flashing orange lights and the wail of a siren sounded as the ramp lifted behind them. The alien—because they had to be aliens, right? No humans were this size and withpurpleeyes?—barked commands into his wrist. No, not his wrist, a watch of sorts.
Like the other guy. The one who had taken Dylan.
Then he grabbed her around the waist and, holding her against his hip like a misbehaving toddler, raced through the ship.
“Hey!” Aletta’s attempts to get his attention were ignored, so she kicked and screamed. That did it.
He looked down at her briefly, not breaking stride, and barked a command at her.
Oh, buddy. You didn’t just try to tell me what to do, did you?
