Hybrid Shadows - Arrested
- August 17, 2024
First, thank you to a reader!
Someone who likes my story Hybrid Shadows emailed me, and gave me a script that downloads the entire story and combines them into a beautifully formatted PDF.
He also gave me some constructive criticism, very much appreciated! I just wanted to say thank you!
Hybrid Shadows
I've been organizing the stories section of my gemini capsule, to make it easier to upload work-in-progress changes.
Lately, I'm focused on Hybrid Shadows, one of my sci-fi stories, which is probably about halfway done. I have the beginning written, the end written (though very rough, needs a lot of work!), and some of the middle.
I just finished the first draft of the last scene of chapter 2, called "Arrested". This is a scene I knew I would have trouble with, so I kind of just put a todo in there, and avoided it while I went on to write other parts of my story.
Well, it is written now, at least the first draft. I have a link to the full story, very much in progress, below.
Arrested
Kendra dreamed of the mountains at the edge of the valley. She looked up at them from the foothills, at the dark peaks high above. Shendar's larger moon, Galhal, rose over the mountains, the moon's dark gray surface just slightly easier to see in the dusk than the mountains themselves. There was something happening on the top of the mountain that she could sense, something that she could not see with her eyes, but rather with her mind, or her heart.
A struggle was happening, a struggle between shadow and light. She could hear them. Both had an ancient quality, not like the shadows and light that humans tended to exude, but something that was older, more knowledgeable, and more powerful. She could sense their thoughts, though could not understand what she was feeling. The thoughts of the shadows ran through her veins like insects skittering beneath the surface of skin.
The thoughts of the light felt like a cool stream of water, the gentle spray of a small waterfall, splashing across her skin. Kendra would have reveled in it if it had not also been for the presence of the shadows, and the feeling that her body was being invaded.
The battle was above, on top of the mountains, or perhaps on the other side, but it felt like it was being fought within the depths of her mind and soul. She turned all her will to pushing out the insect-like shadows, but the shadows were more powerful than she was, more powerful than the light.
Kendra woke with a cry, sweat drenching the drab gray gown she wore to bed, that was given to all of the women colonists.
She was still half in the dream world, by the mountains, the wind on her face, and now half in the reality of the colony. Something pulled her off the bed and pushed her against the wall. She felt the cold metal/plastic mixture of the wall through the cloth, on her torso.
The thing attacking her was also yelling at her, but she couldn't understand it. She felt that she should, but half in the dream Kendra could not comprehend what was going on. She felt her arms yanked harshly, painfully, behind her back. Something sharp and metalic wrapped around her wrists, and wound its way up her forearms.
Behind her the other female workers, her bunk-mates were awake, some crying, some yelling.
Furniture was being overturned behind her, her bed, the room's desk, and the contents of the closets being dumped onto the floor.
Kendra's mind began to focus, aware that the monsters in her room were human, and wearing colonists uniforms. The one that held her continued to yell at her. It was the voice of a man, but it sounded forced, unnatural, as though this man hadn't used his physical voice in ages. The words continued to be unintellible to her, like he was using a foreign language, rather than the common tongue of the colonists.
Momentarily Kendra mind retreated from the room, from the men in it, and she was again at the foot of the mountain, the wind on her face, the sound of native life, of animals, wandering about her. The shadows were back, hovering thousands of feet above, and they were now flowing down the mountainside like a thick syrup. They were closing in on her.
A hard push of Kendra towards her bedroom door flashed her mind back again to the room. The one man still was behind her, shoving her, and two more stood by the door, motioning her through. Kendra's eyes went out of focus, and she saw shadows around the men. Just shadows, no light, and she feared them, being close to them, touching them. She blinked her eyes several times, and the shadows retreated, replaced by the physical forms.
A moment later Kendra was out of the room and into the hallway. Several more men were there, in military uniform. Most had small sidearms hanging at their sides. A few held large assault rifles in their hands.
The building shook slightly, and Kendra realized that it was outside weather, wind, rain, perhaps a thunderstorm. She was short of breath, terrified, more terrified of what she had seen, or rather felt in her dream, than by the reality of what was happening now.
The guards firmly in control of their prisoner, time seemed to slow down. The guard behind her gave her a short push with his rifle, and she heard the words, "Go, down the hall." His voice still sounded gruff, unnatural.
She complied, since there wasn't much else she could do. She was led down the hallway familiar hallways of the workers' quarters, and pushed outside. It was dark, and raining, and a deep peel of thunder rushed over the colony.
There were more soldiers outside, and another captive waited there, also bound. The rain falling on her skin helped keep her present, helped keep her mind focused. She looked at the other person shackled beside her. It was friend. It was Matthew.
Kendra searched for words, wanted to speak, but she could find none. Finally she managed to breathe two words from her lips.
"Matthew. Where?"
They were spoken quietly, but Matthew understood them, even over the noise of the storm, and the men.
"Kendra," he said, sadly. "We're being arrested. We're being taken to the Celestial Guard."
Links
Email: lantashi [at] protonmail [dot] com
Source