The Body (Part 2)

Things aren't looking great for Bethany and co.

Bethany grasped at her face as her eyes opened. Her gut reaction was that her eyes were still covered, but instead, a dim grey light greeted her. She had a horrible headache, but she knew she could hear voices. They sounded distant and distressed, and it would take a minute before she could understand them. She had been lying flat on her back, on what was obviously some sort of cement floor. She propped herself up onto her arms and wearily moved until she was sitting on her butt. 

“Bethany!” the voice shouted through the haze.

“Wh-what is going on?” she responded as she rubbed her left temple. 

“Aliens,” the clearer, and noticeably older, voice said in a flat tone. 

“Ankers, who else is here,” she asked as she reached out for a wall to pull herself up on. There was nothing around her, and the light was so dim that everything was just a shadow. 

“Just a handful of us, they keep coming back in and taking us all one by o---,” he started, but his sentence was cut short.

The loud clanking of a metal door darted around the room. No lights came on, but she could feel the sinking feeling that they must have been coming for her. They were. Very strong hands grasped her arms and began to drag her across the floor as the room erupted in a panic.

“I’m an officer! Let go of me!” she pleaded. They did not relent.

She grasped at the doorway as she was pulled through it, but missed the edge of it by a fingertip. She reached out as if she could stretch her arms to close the distance as a tear streaked down her face. She hadn’t even had time to process anything that had happened, all she could think about was aliens, and the stories everyone had always been told about them. She felt desperate and helpless. 

After the eternity of hallways, she was brought into a room and pushed into a chair. She could hear the clanking of metal and knew there was no way she would be able to get up. That wouldn’t stop her from at least trying, which made her wrists immediately sore. She wriggled her body in the chair and found there wasn’t much room at all. It was a small metallic chair. Once she was satisfied that she couldn’t get out, she sat and waited.

The room lit up with a bright flash, the radiating kind that made Bethany wince in pain as her eyes struggled to adjust. Her face was covered in tears, but she could feel her mood shifting from fear to anger.

As her eyes adjusted, she could see two forms seated in chairs about six feet away from her. The light was too bright to let her make out their faces, but she could see that they were wearing dark suits with freshly shined shoes. Their arms laid at their sides, and she could tell they seemed just a little bit too long.

“Bethany Stalling’s, it’s lovely to meet you,” a surprisingly soft-spoken voice said.

“Who are you?” Bethany said in a low tone.

“We are your salvation,” the other voice, much deeper responded, “and we are excited to have you here.”