The pod shuddered violently as it tore through the planet's atmosphere, flames streaking across the window in blinding waves.
I braced myself, heart pounding, as alarms wailed around me.
The impact hit like a thunderclap—metal screeching, earth splitting beneath the force of my descent.
When everything finally went still, smoke curled around the fractured glass, and through it I glimpsed an unfamiliar sky. I had crashed… on a world I had never seen before.
But instead of a warm welcome, the moment I stepped out of the pod a neutralizing dart struck me. My vision blurred, the world tilting, and in my final fading moments I saw only the silhouette of a bald, pale-skinned man staring down at me.
I awoke suspended in a tube, my vision hazy as people in lab coats observed me like I was nothing more than an experiment. Panic surged through me, and when I screamed, my throat burned as if the very air refused to let me breathe.
Then everything went dark again. The next time I opened my eyes, I was strapped to a cold metal table. I watched helplessly as they prepared to inject a strange, black-silver fluid into my veins—blood marked with shifting symbols I couldn't understand, symbols that seemed alive.
The moment it entered my body, a pain unlike anything I'd ever known ripped through me. I screamed, thrashing uncontrollably as the agony surged like fire beneath my skin.
When the pain finally dulled to something I could endure, I saw him again—the pale, bald man. He stood over me with a cold smirk, as if everything happening to me was going exactly as he planned.
Then darkness swallowed me again. When I finally woke, I was lying in an all-white room. A girl stood nearby—blonde hair falling to her shoulders, blue eyes watching me with a mix of caution and curiosity.
She didn't speak at first. She simply studied me, as if trying to decide whether I was a threat… or a victim like her. The room was too bright, too silent—so clean it felt unreal. When she finally stepped closer, I noticed the faint tremble in her hands.
"You're awake," she whispered, her voice soft but burdened with something unspoken. "They said you wouldn't survive the procedure… but you did."
I tried to sit up, but my body felt heavy, unfamiliar. She reached out instinctively to steady me, then hesitated, unsure if she should touch me at all.
"My name is Paige," she said quietly. "They told me to watch you. To report anything strange."
Her eyes shifted away from mine, guilt flickering across her face.
"That man… the one who smirked at you," she continued, her voice dropping, "he's the one in charge. And whatever he put inside you… it changed everything."
She looked back at me then—really looked—and for a moment I saw fear, not of me, but for me.
"Whatever they're doing here," she whispered, "it's only just beginning."
I swallowed hard, my voice still raw as I forced out the words. "My… my name is Kara."
Paige's eyes widened—not in recognition, but in a way that told me she understood how much strength it took just to say it. She knelt beside the bed, lowering her voice as if the walls themselves were listening.
"Kara," she repeated, almost gently, "you're not like the others they brought here. They keep talking about you… saying you're special."
A chill crawled down my spine. "Special," in this place, didn't feel like a blessing.
Before I could ask anything else, a siren blared through the room—sharp, mechanical, urgent. Paige flinched and grabbed my arm, her calm shattered.
"They're coming," she whispered. "And they'll want to test what they put inside you."
I stared at her, confusion mixing with dread. "Why are you helping me?"
She hesitated only a moment. "Because I've seen what happens to the ones who don't get help."
The door hissed open behind her.
And whatever waited outside… wasn't human.