Broken Skies (2 page)

The lake is isolated and not something I’ve shared with anyone but my brother, but I still check to make sure no one else is around before I start stripping off my boots followed quickly by the faded jeans. My underwear and tank top stay in place, but I throw my bra into the air with a whoop. Damn uncomfortable thing. It doesn’t fall far from the rest of my clothes.

My arms and feet propel me out to the center of the lake. I hold my breath and sink into the water until my head is covered. With my eyes closed and the water pressing in around me I can shut out the rest of the world and just be. No rules. No expectations. No voices in my head. It is a wonderful feeling.

I stay under until my lungs are screaming for air, popping up at the last possible second and taking a gasping breath. This breath is cleaner and fuller than any I can take behind the walls of Bridgelake and it leaves me feeling more alive than I’ve felt in ages. It’s been much too long since I’ve left the house and relaxed under the open sky. I wasn’t exaggerating when I told Flint I couldn’t breathe in there. I’m not meant to be caged; some part of me just doesn’t handle it well.

I turn to float on my back, red tendrils of hair swirling around me. Puffy white clouds dance across the sky and a hawk glides on the breeze. A feeling of contentment settles in my stomach and the edges of my mouth turn up into a soft smile as I study the bird, a near perfect match for the metal pendant that rests against my chest, the one and only thing I have of my mother’s. The hawk shifts into a dive and disappears, but I continue looking up and begin picking out shapes in the clouds. A horse. A rabbit. I tilt my head to the side. There’s one that I can’t quite figure out… A hand grabs my ankle and pulls me under the water.

For a moment the darkness under the water is more a tomb than my refuge and my heartbeat picks up, pounding in my ears and sending a jolt of icy terror through my body. But then the hand squeezes my ankle and another comes up to tickle the bottom of my foot and a warm sense of safety washes over me.

Kicking the hands away, I pull my head above the water, sputtering. “Dammit, Jace!”

My brother’s head appears, his hazel eyes, the mirror image of my own, sparkling with humor. “I wish I could have seen your face. Was that a scream I heard? Did I scare you?” He laughs and pushes shaggy red hair the same shade as mine out of his face.

I scowl and send a splash of water toward him. “Not funny.”

“Aw come on, Jax,” he says, grinning and sending a splash my way. “Even you have to admit that was pretty good. I mean, I swam halfway across the lake underwater. You didn’t even know I was there. You should at least be impressed with my stealth skills.”

I fight a smile. I rarely let my guard down so it actually is pretty impressive that he was able to sneak up on me.

I swim closer to him. “I guess your stealth skills are pretty good… But not as good as mine!” I kick up in the water until I can grasp his head and push him under. Soon after, his hand finds my leg and I go under too.

We spend a long time goofing off, dunking and splashing each other, before we exit the lake. I turn my back to Jace, remove my tank top and wring it out before pulling it back on. He just stands there letting the water drip from his boxers and down his legs. Once we find a patch of grass under a tree to sit on, I squeeze the water out of my hair and braid it until it falls in a damp line down my back. With my bare legs extended in front of me, I lean back against the tree, my shoulder butting against my brother’s.

“Make any friends today?” Jace asks.

“No.” I narrow my eyes at him. “I can’t stand those girls.”

“You haven’t even given them a chance. I know Emily’s been—”

“Emily huh? She spent an awful lot of time batting her eyelashes at you last time she stopped by. Anything you want to tell me about?”

Redness in his cheeks gives away his feelings more than words ever could. “No,” Jace says, frowning. “I’d just like to see you branch out, socialize… get better,” he glances at me and winces, his next words coming out in a rush, “It’s gotta be a lot more fun than sitting around the house and hiding from everyone. No offense, Sis.”

I snort. “A lot more fun for you maybe.” I settle my back against the tree. “Every time they try to pull me into the fold, I’m worried one of those sheep girls is going to ambush me and force me into a dress so I can be Promised to the first guy willing to take me.”

“Well, it might improve your temper.”

I punch him in the arm.

Jace leans against the tree next to me. “There’s nothing wrong with being sociable Jax. It can’t be just us forever.”

“I’m happy with just us.” I cross my arms over my chest. “Plus, it’s not about me being
sociable
. It’s about conforming and being some perfect little obedient robot. Oh, and Dane’s desire to marry me off. The only way I’ll ever be Promised is if they lobotomize me. I am not one of those girls.”

“Lobotomize?” Jace raises his eyebrows. “You’ve got to be reasonable here. I’m sure one of the guys would be more than happy to take you on, bad attitude and all. I mean, look at me, I’m gorgeous and you’re my slightly less attractive twin.” He grins when I nudge him with my shoulder. “What about Flint? He’s nice enough.”

“Oh yes, I’m sure Dane would be willing to part with his precious son.” I roll my eyes. “Besides, it’s not going to happen.”

“It’s not up to him.” He won’t meet my eyes. “Flint is my friend and he makes his own choices. He likes you. He’d take good care of you. It wouldn’t be that awful right?”

It’s my turn to blush. “Whatever. I don’t want to talk about it anymore.” Tomorrow. That’s when I’ll tell him about my plan. We can’t stay in Bridgelake much longer.

I close my eyes and let the sun warm my skin, enjoying the quiet companionship. Jace’s hand finds mine and I drift off to sleep.

TWO

The distant screech of a hawk and a tremble in the ground startle me awake. The sun is much lower in the sky and I must have slept for a few hours. I blink a few times to clear my eyes and stretch my arms over my head. Jace is still fast asleep beside me, softly snoring. I poke him with my finger, but he only hunches his shoulders and slumps further down. That boy can sleep through almost anything.

My mouth drops open and my breath catches in my throat when a silver ship comes into view over the crest of the trees. Obviously E’rikon, but what the hell are they doing way out here? For that matter, what are they doing outside of their city? I don’t know much about the aliens, but I do know they don’t belong out here. I scramble for my jeans and pull them on, slam my feet into my boots and run into the woods the ship has just passed over.

I’m running so fast I almost run right into the meadow where the ship has landed. I stumble over my feet stopping myself and shimmy up a tree. I should turn around, wake Jace and get out of there, but ever since the aliens showed up, I’ve always wanted to see one up close.

There are a lot of rumors flying around about them, most probably untrue, but everyone agrees that they look remarkably like us and that, even though when they first showed up about ten years ago a few groups tried to engage them, they aren’t looking for a fight. They pretty much ignore us actually. Thank goodness, because although there don’t appear to be that many aliens, there aren’t many of us left either.

The war was bad enough, with fighting on every continent, but it was the biological weapons that did it. Each country had vaccines and cures for their own, but no one ever stopped to think about what would happen if the bugs mutated, combined, or whatever it was that happened to create something that killed over ninety percent of the world’s population.

It’s been thirty years since the Collapse and I’m almost glad that I’m too young to know what it was like before. Sounds to me like people were stupid and selfish. Not much different than now, but on a much larger scale.

Of course, now has its own dangers. Like breeders, traveling bands of men who will pay a good price for a woman— or girl— of child bearing years. For some reason the plague was especially virulent in females and we’re a valuable commodity now, along with any children we’re able to bear. That’s the one good thing about Dane, he sends his soldiers out to keep them out of this area. Though, he’s got his own breeding program with his whole Promising thing, so I guess he’s just the lesser of two evils.

Hopefully, these particular aliens aren’t here to become a third evil.

My stomach churns as three male aliens exit the ship. They do look remarkably human-like in their proportions and their stature. All three are older, maybe around fifty if they were human, with various shades of wildly colored hair, at least by human standards. My hair is pretty bright too, but nothing like this.

One has close cut silver hair with a slight gold tinge. And I’m not talking about a blond gone gray. His hair has the metallic shine of metal. The other two have slightly more normal looking hair, one with a bluish tint to his brown locks and the other with a more yellow hue. If it weren’t for the hair and the fact that I’d seen them disembark from an E’rikon ship, I could have easily mistaken them for human.

Their clothes, form fitting pants and some kind of fancy, high collared jacket covered in gold markings, are a boring gray. Knee high boots in the same shade cover their feet and they all wear a silver cuff on their right wrists. A uniform of some sort?

I’m about to climb down, fade into the trees, and head back, my curiosity sated, when a fourth alien leaps down from the ship. He’s young, maybe close to my age, with angular lines making up his clean shaven face. He’s wearing darker clothing than the others and his jacket is plain. The pressed charcoal fabric hugs his frame, broad in the shoulders and tapering at the waist. He stands straight with his shoulders back, as if at attention, and scans the forest around him. The only thing even slightly mussed about him is his hair. It stands up in short curled tufts scattered over his head and framing his face, the shine of gold standing out among the bright green tips. He is beautiful.

The tallest alien, the one with the gold and silver hair, pushes the green-haired youth forward. I can’t make out their words, but the steady set of green hair’s shoulders isn’t enough to hide his shaking hands. His steps are steady and the other three follow behind him almost as if they’re stalking prey. The boy stops and the tall one pushes him again, but this time he doesn’t move forward. Instead he turns and faces the group behind him.

They appear to be arguing, one of them gesturing toward the ship and then throwing his hands up in the air. I lean out over the branch, hoping to hear their conversation and the branch I’m sitting on cracks. I scramble back toward the trunk and push my face into the rough bark, closing my eyes. They didn’t hear. They didn’t hear. I crack my eyes open and the three aliens have stilled and are looking into the woods— in my direction.

I gulp down the acid in my throat. The only weapon I have is a small knife in my boot. I could throw it, but that would only take out one… maybe. As far as I know, they aren’t very susceptible to human weapons. Any information I have at all is, at best, third or fourth hand, and that’s all from observation, not interaction. But they’ve never attacked us, never really had anything to do with us. These aliens aren’t a threat to me, right? I should climb down, calmly approach them and let them know I’m not a threat either. But something keeps me in that tree, gripping the trunk with white knuckles.

A whistle comes from the woods to the right of me and the sound of someone crashing through the underbrush reaches my ears. I see a form approaching the meadow. It’s Jace. I open my mouth to call out to him, to warn him but he looks directly at me and shakes his head, putting one finger over his mouth. He knows I’m there and he’s trying to draw their attention. Of the two of us, Jace is the more diplomatic one and in a normal interaction he could probably talk his way out of almost anything. But something about these three… I don’t know.

Wait a second. Three? Where did the green-haired alien boy go? My eyes dart around the clearing, but he’s nowhere. Maybe he ran off while the others were distracted.

The aliens move closer to the edge of the meadow where Jace is about to appear. They are silent, the one gesturing before stopping the others with a raised hand when they move forward. As if they’re waiting in ambush. Why would they be doing that?

Jace does an exaggerated trip into the meadow, catching himself and then straightening to greet the aliens. “Hello,” he says.

The alien that stopped the others from moving into the woods steps forward. “Hello, human,” he says. “What are you doing in these woods?”

“Hunting,” says Jace, holding up a rabbit. “Gotta eat something.”

The alien looks at the rabbit with distaste, much the same look he gives my brother. “Are there any other humans in the area?”

“No,” says Jace. He’s too busy making eye contact with the speaking alien to notice the glance that passes between the other two.

“Wonderful,” says the alien. He smiles, but it doesn’t reach his eyes. Raising a hand, he motions the others closer. They fan out on either side of the third, forming a semi-circle with Jace in the center.

Jace narrows his eyes. “What’s going on here,
alien
?”

The alien says nothing, but the smile drops from his face as Jace takes a step backward. “Stay.”