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Clara exhales. “That didn’t take long, did it?” she whispers in my ear.
He waves his arm and pushes him away. "I'm sick of people making light of what we’ve done," he says. "The breeding facilities are abominable."
I can see a glimmer of light in his eye, a look that gives me the sense he has seen too much. He was tense, as if an atom bomb was going off in his mind. An innocence lost, perhaps? Irreparable.
I lean forward. "What did you see?" I ask.
"Facilities on the outer perimeter of every major city. Auction houses for the refugee women. The ones that don't make the cut are forced to work or breed. Depends on what the aliens choose. They're treated like cattle. It's a whole fucking industry," he says.
Frank abruptly walks away. "Fuck this."
It doesn't take long for Castro to follow his lead. I want to stand, but something keeps me listening.
"You saw it too," Julian shouts at them before turning back to us. "The worst part was finding out we were the ones controlling it. The generals… they know about everything. They saw the alien women in cages. They didn't give a shit about what happened to them. As long as they got a cut..."
Clara's bottom lip twitches to the side. "Okay, this was a bad idea. Maybe we've all had enough to drink," she says.
The man nods and stands. "Sure. I'll go," he says. "I’m not drunk. Once you see it, you won't be able to look away. You might be inside it someday, soldier. If that happens, you'll remember this moment."
Clara takes my hand. "I'm calling it a night. Please tell me you're not going to stay and listen to this hog shit."
"I think I should go," I tell him. "Um. Nice meeting you."
Clara pulls my arm. She yanks me away from him.
"Is it real?" I ask.
We walk toward the exit. Clara stares straight ahead. "Wake up, Anna. This is Planet Hell, remember? That's the least of what we'll see."
Present Day...
When I wake up, Ax is with me again. That must mean it is morning. I can smell his rich scent and hear him breathing.
"Another nightmare?" he asks.
"Yeah," I whisper. "Another nightmare."
A memory, this time.
"What was it?" he asks.
I wipe the sweat from my forehead as the light from the top of the water reservoir coaxes me awake. "A memory. Something that happened to me when I got accepted into the Earth Federation. A man warned me about the breeding facilities."
"He warned you about aliens like me," he says. "And now you wish you had listened to his words."
I shake my head. “No. He warned me about my own people, but I’m not sure I believe it.”
“Is it so hard to believe humans have the capacity to be mons
ters?” he asks.
No. That part I understand. I guess I’m realizing I don’t want to be on this planet anymore. Only, there is nowhere to go.
When I start to think about what I really want, my head feels swollen like a balloon that keeps growing larger. It's like I'm rising into the air with no control. The higher I go, the freer I feel, but there remains a strong sense that all of this will... burst.
"This is hard," I say.
"I saved your life," he growls. "I blocked your auction and made sure no other alpha bought you."
