“Take it easy now,” Not George Clooney said, reaching inside his pocket.
Whatever he was grasping, I was pretty sure I wanted to see it.
My hands darted to the trolley beside me, to a bunch of tools I had barely even noticed were there. My hands seized the first thing they came to.
A socket wrench.
I swung it up and around.
It struck Not George Clooney on the side of the head. The solid clang would have been funny if my life wasn’t on the line.
Was my life on the line?
I didn’t know. And I sure as hell didn’t want to find out.
I brought the wrench back again but Not George Clooney crumpled to the floor, a dribble of green blood spilling down the side of his face.
“I-I’m sorry,” I said, and my hands immediately dropped the wrench, as if that would remove any trace I’d been the one to administer the blow.
Panicked, I backed away and ran for the door.
It hissed open. I turned one way and then the other. No matter which way I looked, the hallway looked the same.
Infinite and empty.
I picked a random direction and tore down the corridor. My bare feet slapped the floor and echoed off the walls back at me.
“Ergh!”
The voice echoed up from behind me.
Not George Clooney held a blood-soaked hand to his head and stumbled into the wall. He made another loud noise.
“Ergh!” he said.
He extended his arm in my direction.
Why? Whose attention was he trying to get? I was the only one there and there was no camera perched on the wall.
Between us, another door hissed open and a tall figure stepped from it.
No. That’s not possible.
It looked like something I once saw in a nature documentary. It peered at the bleeding doctor before turning toward me. Its mandibles twitched and antennae bent in my direction.
I doubted he was on my side.
Now it was my turn to scream nonsense words. “Argh!” And I tore down the hall, the creature’s feet—legs?—making loud clicking noises as it bolted after me.
I didn’t know what that thing was, but it was fast.
Wicked fast.
The clicking heels of its feet gained on me.
I needed a plan. Some way to increase my odds of success.
But what? I didn’t know this place. I didn’t know where I was. I didn’t know who these guys were or what they wanted with me.
I only knew I never wanted to learn the answers to those questions.
I bolted left into a door but it automatically slid aside. I prayed it wouldn’t be a dead-end.
I turned back and ran my hand over the door panel. A lock! There had to be a lock here somewhere! I brushed a finger over a green light and it flashed red.
I sure hoped it was the lock.
I backed away as something thudded on the other side of the door. It jolted in its frame. No way it was going to hold for long.
But for the moment, I was safe. For the moment, my plan was working.
Chitter.
I froze.
Chitter. Chitter.
I turned and looked over my shoulder, afraid to see what I knew would be there.
Another giant insect.
It coiled its legs to leap at me.
“Argh!” I screamed.
I worked on pure instinct. I bolted forward, yanked the door open, and dropped to the floor as—
The insect in the room used the back wall to leap across the space in a single bound and sail directly into the insect on the other side of the door. There was a loud thud as the creatures collided and their long bamboo-like arms and legs flailed for purchase.
I couldn’t wait uselessly on the floor. I had to get up and move. But it was hard to get my body to obey my commands. I moved through treacle as I got to my feet and ran for the door.
One of the giant insects snapped its mandibles at my heels. It seized my gown and tore the fabric.
I looked back. The creatures were already getting to their feet. Behind them, an entire army of giant ants flooded the corridor and slithered after me.
“Argh!” I screamed, sprinting for one of the distant doors. The others could too easily contain the same monsters.
What the hell are those things?
The door opened automatically and I dived inside. I slapped my hand on the green light before I even landed.
Multiple thuds slammed against the door now. The metal frame bent beneath the blows, tossing one screw loose after another.
Remembering my earlier encounter, I spun around, expecting more of those disgusting insect creatures.
There were none. It was a much larger room than the previous one but there were no other doors out of there either.
At least this one had a window.
A massive window.
When I came up with my incredibly detailed (not) plan of “Escape!” I thought I would find a door that would bring me to a nondescript location in a wood somewhere or a hidden chamber in a science lab in the heart of a city.
I couldn’t have been more wrong.
“No,” I said. “This can’t be…”
Staring back at me through that giant window was a sight few—if any—human eye had ever seen before.
An alien planet.
I was in space.
I didn’t find an exit because there was none to find.
I beat on the glass with my fist.
“No!” I cried. “Please, God. No!”
I had been abducted.
As the doorframe finally gave way and the creatures flooded the room, a sense of complete calm came over me.
After all, if there was nothing you could do about your situation, what else could you do but turn and face it head-on?
So I did.
A bright light greeted me. My body grew slack and my limbs hung by my sides. I couldn’t move a muscle.
I was in space.
Outer space.
We were parked in a spaceship outside a planet I’d never seen before.
Who was I kidding? I hadn’t ever seen any planet before.
Neither had any human eye. Not up close and personal, at least.
It didn’t take a genius to figure out what was happening—even if it
