Image from Dreamtime StockArt (paid)
Well, that seems to be the last of them. I need to get down before something stupid happens. Sera thought, tucking her book back inside its bag and then inside her backpack with the rest of her precious store of new library books. She hoped they were all bangers; it wasn’t like she was going to get the opportunity to get new ones anytime soon. Standing on the narrow ledge, she looked over the chaotic, but slowly calming, crowd. After blowing a whistle through her teeth with two fingers, Sera yelled, “Hey, Tall Girl.”
Like most of the females, the tallest of the women present looked up at the shrill sound, and Sera grabbed eye contact before leaping down, praying the woman was as athletic as she looked. Bless instinct, she thought as the woman caught her instead of letting her fall to the metal flooring. Years of cheerleading made Sera an easy catch; she flowed down a solid body very low on the Body Mass Index for a female and patted her catcher’s firm belly once her feet hit the ground.
“Thanks,” she said looking up, and up. The woman was over a foot taller than Sera’s five foot four inches. Noticing the sweatshirt’s logo under the drying blue goop they had been stored in, Sera commented, “Gators, hmm? You on their volleyball team?” She snapped her fingers. “Zanders, the Blocker! Damn, my brother loves you.”
“Thanks, I think,” the college star athlete chuckled.
“Girl, you are amazing on the court.” Sera stuck out her hand. “Sera Lawson, high school dropout, all around Florida woman.”
“Taela Zanders, University of Florida, Junior year, still undecided.” Her black hand encompassed Sera’s firmly without crushing it. “Why the sudden friendliness? You hadn’t even got to the good part of Roses and Reigns.”
“You read it?!?” Sera held up her hand. “No, don’t tell me the ending. I got all three books of the trilogy in my backpack.”
“I’ll kill whoever you want to get book three.”
“Deal, since I think you and I are going to be together.”
Taela leaned forward, her wide shoulders providing privacy in the open space. “Why do you think that?”
“Oh, those boys up there.” Sera waved toward the overhang where some half-dressed human males had paraded through, looking down at them like they were ants. “After each came through, a laser – purple, so hard to pick out all the blue junk – marked a woman. The first guy picked me out, that huge one chose you.”
“Oh god.” Taela palmed her face. “I don’t need this.”
“Yeah, well, aliens. At least I’m assuming. I had hoped if I ever got the UFO probe that I would score me some blue-skinned Ice Barbarians.” Sera curled her lip in disgust. “Not for me to be dyed blue.”
Moving her hand up and down her torso while listening to the shorter woman talk, Taela dark hand gained a pin-point purple shine when level with her sternum. “Anyone else?” she asked. “I only saw the big one, I think.”
“He was hard to miss. I mean, damn, seven foot at least.” Sera waved over to the growing subsection of the crowd, those planning an escape from their alien captors before they even knew anything about anything. “One of those over there. One of the black ones, I think, though hard to tell with all the blue.” Then she nodded to a pair against one of the supporting pillars near the edge of the large space they were in, where the curvy woman had stripped off both their shirts and using them to secure the Hispanic woman’s left arm against her body. “And the two of them.”
“Just five?”
“Just five hunks with abs worthy of licking like ice cream came through. One light for each.”
Taela nodded. “I can’t pick out the purple light. You want to go get the firebreather and join me at the sidelines with the med crew?”
“Sure, although I don’t know how much time we have.” Sera turned toward the crowd where one woman screamed about freedom and rights.
“What do you mean?”
“Well, if I was an alien handing out women like candy—”
“You think that is what is happening?”
“Girl, you already indicate you read the same trash as me.” Sera gave her a look over her shoulder, raising both eyebrows. “Tell me a different scenario.”
Taela closed her eyes, straightening up to her full height. “Wish that I could.”
“Right, so what happens next?”
“They gas the newly awoke to separate out the chosen.”
“Righto,” Sera laughed, “It’s like it writes itse…”
The aliens had a different technology than gas, but the results were the same. The women all collapsed instantly.
(Words 785, first published 9/1/2023)
Above the Crowd Series