By some miracle, I survived.
I was going to survive.
Again, I was wrong.
It happened one night.
I was sleeping.
The machine…it found me.
I still do not know how.
Something woke me from my sleep.
A noise.
Nestled in the cellar, wrapped in some poor child’s old blanket, I squinted into the darkness.
It only took a second. One second for me to see the reflection of starlight against metal.
But it was too late.
It took me.
A scream tore from my throat as the metal arm closed around me.
I was whipped from my hiding spot, the feel of the ice-cold metal chilling my bones as I was pulled from my hiding spot and brought high into the air.
I’d always known the orbs were huge.
Tall.
Taller than towers.
But being lifted by one sent newfound terror through me.
There hadn’t been any orbs close by when I’d fallen asleep.
They were so big you could see them for miles.
But somehow…this one had found me.
The wind was knocked out of me as it swung me, my body flailing like I was a ragdoll.
It lifted me high in front of itself, as if it was looking at me, and for a moment, I stared back at it.
Tears blinded my vision but hatred burned through.
Pure, raw, hatred.
A scream filled with frustration left my throat as the orb swung me downward.
This was it. It was going to trample me.
Squish me like it did that man in those first few moments.
…but it didn’t.
Instead of killing me, the orb brought me toward itself.
Maybe I was dreaming… Maybe the blood loss had affected my perception of things…but the metal softened and I went right through it.
The machine let go of me and my head hit something hard as I fell.
Soft bodies broke my fall. Some with sharp edges I vaguely realized were bones sticking through skin.
Where was I?
I had no idea.
All I knew was that I should be dead…but I wasn’t.
For some reason, the universe was sparing me.
Or maybe I was being punished.
For what? I do not know.
That’s when I heard it.
Someone talking beside me…to me.
I heard the word “breeder,” but I had no idea what it meant.
My head was hurting now, but as the blood rushed to my skull and I lost consciousness, I heard the words again.
This time, they registered into my reality.
“It’s found another breeder.”
Chapter Three
ADIRA
Present day
? days since captured by the machine
I’ve become accustomed to the sway.
It lulls us as this thing moves.
One can almost forget where you are, in the belly of the machine.
There’s four of us…but…there’d been more.
When it had first put me inside itself, the small space had been full.
Now, not so much.
Every four weeks or so, one of us is taken away.
And I have been in here for more days than I can count.
There’s space to move, but nowhere to go.
It’s surprisingly bright inside the machine, like being behind a glass window.
This high up, we can see everything beneath.
We can see the world from its view.
And boy…are we little.
Insignificant.
“I think he’s going to die soon.” The voice of the woman beside me. Sam.
Maybe short for Samantha. I never asked.
“Who?” My voice sounds detached. Filled with apathy. Hearing it sounds like a stranger using my mouth and not me.
Sam jerks her chin to the other side of the orb. Through the barrier there.
For there are two compartments in this belly of the beast.
We are simply in one.
On the other side are people.
Humans.
Men.
And they are…
My throat moves as I pull my gaze away.
You’re a coward, Adira.
Maybe I am.
But I don’t need to look to see what’s going on in the second compartment. The image is already burned into my brain.
I’ve stared at it, even when I didn’t want to see.
The men are cocooned by…vines…
Only…
They aren’t vines at all.
They pulse, move…as if alive.
All across the wall…the floor…the vines are everywhere.
It is like a jungle in there, wrapping around the bodies…piercing them.
If I go close enough, I can see blood moving through the vines as the machine feeds.
“I think he’s trying to say something,” Sam whispers.
My eyes move to the male she’s referring to.
He is facing us. His face pressed against the transparent barrier that separates our compartments.
Everything but his face is covered with vines—veins—and as I stare at him, I realize that Sam is right.
His lips are moving, but we can hear no sound.
There’s a deathly pallor to his skin. He’s gone pale as the machine drains his blood. How long has it been feeding from him?
For some reason, I move closer, brushing past the three other women in the compartment with me.
My body feels weak as I move over and the man’s eyes lock on mine as I near.
Hope flares in his gaze a little as I draw close.
His lips move again and I can just about make out the words he is mouthing.
“Help…me…please.”
I stare at him. Maybe, before all this, I would have been able to cry. To grieve for what I’m witnessing before my eyes.
But no tears come now.
Instead, I press my hand against the barrier. I’d be touching his cheek if not for the separation between us.
“It will be over soon,” I whisper.
Maybe that’s all he needed.
Some kind of comfort.
I don’t know how long I sit there, watching him, until his eyes finally close.
And then, he is gone.
His body is ripped away as the last drop of blood leaves his veins.
I see what’s left of him fall as the vines release him and the orb expels him from itself.
Every bone in his body will be broken when he lands.
But he is already dead.
He’ll feel no more pain…
I pull away from the barrier and slide back to sit between Sam and one of the other women.
Mina her name is.
She hardly speaks.
Across from her is another female.
She rests away from us. Her belly is swollen and it presses against her torn dress.
It’s grown even more. It wasn’t that big yesterday.
I remember when the machine took her.
When she’d been bred.
That was about a month ago.
She groans, her eyes flicking open, and pain registers on her face.
I can’t imagine what it feels like, having something unknown growing within you.
But I’ll know soon.
Soon, it will be my turn.
“Do you want some?” Sam stretches the fluid-filled sac toward me and I shake my head.
“Eat it, Adira. You know the orb won’t feed us again for the rest of the day.”
And she is right.
The fluid-filled sacs appear through the wall on rotation.