Believe me, that’s a good thing. My life had been flaccid and dull up til now. Getting chased over the edge of a cliff by a UFO is easily the most interesting thing to have ever happened to me.
I see all the things I could have done, all the things that might have happened.
That hot guy I spoke to at that bar that time who gave me the cold shoulder? He could leave me a message on my cellphone that I’ll read the moment I get home.
Oh, and that job I applied for last month? They could want me to start next Monday at a salary ten times what I currently earn writing.
And that upper-class private school I dreamed of sending my as-yet-unborn children to if only I had the money? Now, I can afford it.
A million avenues of possibility I could have taken, none of which can ever happen. Because in less than thirty seconds of real time, I’m going to be dead.
I find myself wondering if my girlfriends in the other seats are thinking the same thing.
Hazel in the front passenger seat beside me, whose wedding tomorrow we’ve been celebrating all weekend, will no doubt be thinking about her fiancé and the future she’ll now miss out on.
Sirena and Bianca, immediately behind us. They’ll be thinking about boys and—
Oh dear. The huge black rocks in the front windshield have grown so large they’re all I can see. I send my best wishes to all four girls in the back, held my breath, and stupidly raised my arms over my head—as if that’s going to help cushion the blow.
Out of nowhere, a bright light filled every inch of the minivan and I jerked forward in my seat, hanging suspended, my arms and legs and hair hanging down as if God pushed the Pause button.
We’re no more than a few yards from the rocks and certain death. I wonder if this was what happened the instant you died. Heaven—God, I sure hope it’s heaven!—sends a spotlight to vacuum up your soul. I’ve seen the movie, Ghost. Why couldn’t that happen?
Any second now, we’ll sail up into that light, zooming up faster and faster until we’re standing on fluffy cloud shores and basking in warm sunlight. I hope they serve alcohol up there.
Then the moment stretched a little too long, and I turned my head to peer at Hazel…
Except, I can’t. My head is frozen, trapped in place. I peered out the corner of my eyes at her, floating like a fat gob of oil in a lava lamp. Her fingers gripped the dashboard so tight they’d embedded themselves in the plastic.
Good luck getting the deposit back, I thought idly before recalling our situation.
A stray tube of lipstick hit me in the face. I tried to speak but my lips won’t move either. I can only grunt at the back of my throat:
“Id… ederybody… okay?”
“No…” Hazel and the girls in the back said.
“Why… are… ve… flotting… here?” Hazel said.
“I… don’th… know,” I said. “Why… can’t… ve… talk… proderly?”
The doors creaked, groaning loudly, then snapped open, the bolts pinging outside. We squealed in terror and struggled against our invisible bonds, but it was no use. We couldn’t move a muscle.
Hazel’s head bumped on the ceiling and she turned toward me. Her eyes were wide with fear. Even in her frozen state, I could tell she was terrified. I wanted to reach for her, wanted to grab her by the hand and keep her safe. But it was okay, I thought. The seatbelts would hold us firmly in place.
Click.
Our seatbelts unfastened and the metal lock slipped free.
Oh, shit.
Hazel screamed dully in the back of her throat as something grabbed her and pulled her out the door and up into the light, disappearing in an instant. Sirena went next, then Victoria, as they were closest to the doors on that side.
Sensing it would be our turn next, I focused all my effort into looping my arm around my seatbelt. It was already halfway there. I just needed to tense my finger a fraction, and I would hold on.
If I could hold on long enough, maybe these people, these things, whatever had grabbed us, would let us go…
It made no logical sense but when you were desperate you grasped at whatever straws you could find.
I felt the same tug that’d taken Hazel, pulling me back. The seatbelt tightened around my arm, locking it tight.
Yes!
The force pulled on me, like gravity on overdrive, and my legs floated out behind me, but I still wouldn’t let go. Bianca squealed as she was tugged out of the minivan, with Maddy on her heels.
It was just me now, floating there like an ice cube in a forgotten drink. The pressure grew stronger as the force pulled harder, working to get me free. It felt like a giant had wrapped its hand around me and was growing irritated that I wouldn’t let go.
I had to hold on. The guys were counting on me!
Of course, they weren’t really. I had no idea where they went or what they were doing. But the mission became the goal. Achieving it became the only thing that mattered.
The force shifted, banging me against the ceiling and then forcing me down. My head thudded against the steering wheel. And still, I kept my finger cocked, holding the seatbelt in place.
But it was slipping. One inch, and then another…
The force swung me left to right and then twisted me around.
And that’s when I lost my grip.
No!
The instant I left the safe confines of the minivan, it immediately dropped and exploded, and the yellow flames chased me up, licking my boots, almost as fast as I was traveling, a million miles an hour, into the sky.
The light grew brighter and more intense until it burned my vision and I couldn’t see anything but white.
Alice wakes up five days later in a spaceship.
