Between Rebels

Chapter 1

1

The bus to London was packed. I was squeezed against a large, bulky man, who smelled of sweat and stale beer. He definitely wasn’t pretty enough to be a Trad. The aliens were flawless when they disguised themselves as humans. No scars, no impurities, and if they had even a single grey hair, it was because they wanted it. It was how you could recognise them. The prettiest men were likely Trads. But simply knowing what they were wasn’t enough. They had a trick up their evil arses, being able to enchant women, even those who suspected that the man in front of them wasn’t human. Our scientists were trying to figure out what it was that made Trads so irresistible, and hopefully develop an antidote, but so far, they hadn’t been successful. I doubted it was very easy to capture a Trad and get him to take part in their research.

The smelly man shifted in his seat, pulling out a newspaper. I glanced at the headline.

Our Athion Friends Promise Paradise For Women.

I grimaced. The Athions had arrived shortly after the invasion. The good aliens. Blue, pretty and on our side. They’d explained why the Trads had come to Earth: after a virus struck their entire planet and killed most of their women, they needed to find an alternative to keep their species alive. Somehow, they discovered that human females were compatible with their anatomy. Which is why the Trads stole women, impregnated them and used them as living breeding machines. I’d heard that the baby wouldn’t even be half human but fully Trad. I shuddered at the thought of having a monster growing inside of me. No wonder Tonya killed herself. Death seemed preferable to life as a Trad breeder.

The Athions had lost most of their females as well, but they didn’t steal women. They gave us a choice: move to their planet, be safe from Trads and be loved and treasured by the Athion men we chose to take. They were big about us being there voluntarily, although I sometimes wondered what would happen if I took them up on their offer to move to Planet Athion and then refused to take a husband. Or several. That’s what they seemed to like. I wasn’t sure if that was due to there not being enough females or if they’d always been polyandrous.

I tried to read the article in the man’s paper, but he flicked the pages to get to the sports section. Boring. My e-reader had run out of battery two bus stops ago and I still had another two hours to London. Hopefully, this journey would be worth it. I was planning to go to one of the sanctuaries and live there. As a virtual teacher, I wouldn’t even have to leave the safety of the refuge for work. All I needed was my laptop and my VR headset.

I gave the man a sideways glance. This might be one of the last times that I saw a man. At least until I was either too old to conceive or the Trads were defeated. To be honest, I wouldn’t miss this one. His smell was enough to make anyone celibate.

It was years since I'd last had a boyfriend. I broke up with my ex a few months before the invasion happened, and after that, I preferred to stay single. It was safer that way. I’d much rather endure an eternal dry spell than being impregnated and kidnapped. It was all about priorities in this horrible new world.

“Where are you headed?” a melodious voice suddenly asked from behind, shaking me from my reminiscing.

I turned around, craning my neck to take in the man sitting in the row behind me. An Athion. His blue skin was striking, the colour of lapis lazuli on a rainy day. One thing I’d learned pretty quickly was that there are hundreds of shades of blue. Just like us humans, Athions have different skin colours, except that they’re all hues of blue. Azure, cobalt, sapphire, navy… you name it, they have it. I’d always wondered if their shade of blue corresponded to where on the planet they were from, but I’d never really talked to an Athion before. We’d had one come to our village a year ago as some kind of human-alien-relations programme, but all he did was hold a speech in our small town hall and then he left.

I realised the man was waiting for a reply. “London.”

“Visiting friends?”

I frowned. “Moving to one of the sanctuaries, actually.”

He smiled. “I should have guessed. Someone as pretty as you would only be safe there or on Athion.”

I was glad he didn’t ask me why I wasn’t moving to his planet.

“Do you know which sanctuary you’re going to live at? My brother and I are headed to the Golden Star Refuge, actually, and we’d be pleased to accompany you there, if you’d like. London isn’t safe for solo females.”

Another alien waved from the row behind the Athion. They looked almost the same, except that this one had his hair shaved rather than in loose curls.

“He’s right,” the guy next to me grunted. “A girl like you shouldn’t be walking about there on your own.”

I hadn’t even considered that. I’d only ever been to London once and that was before the invasion. Back then, there had been no question about me going there by myself, but now, things had changed. I’d hoped that a big city like London would be busy and anonymous enough to avoid dangerous encounters while walking from A to B, but it seemed I’d been mistaken.

“I’ve never heard of the Golden Star,” I hedged, a little uncomfortable.

The Athion grinned. “It’s fairly new, only a couple of months old. Run by twin sisters in their seventies. I can’t remember my own grandmother, but I’d like to imagine she was as kind and generous as those two.”

That did sound good. I’d looked at the websites of various sanctuaries, but they all sounded the same. Having a personal recommendation was better than any anonymous review I could find online.

The man next to me folded up his newspaper. “Take their offer.”

I didn’t feel comfortable about leaving this bus with two strangers, but they were Athions. They were the good guys, so what was the worst that could happen?

I was glad to be breathing fresh air again, even though it was the smoggy air of London. It was better than the stuffy, smelly air inside the bus.

“Shall we take a taxi?”

The two Athion brothers were flanking me, but to my surprise, they didn’t make me feel safe, on the contrary. I was uncomfortable with them being so close. I didn’t know them, yet they behaved as if I needed them. I shouldn’t have accepted their offer.

“Is it far?”

“Half an hour to walk, ten minutes by taxi if the traffic isn’t too bad.”

That was an easy decision. I didn’t want to spend half an hour in their company.

“Then let’s take a taxi.”

The curly-haired Athion lifted his wrist and typed into a cyber bracer. It looked very different from the smart bracelets that existed for humans, but then, Athions had mastered space travel centuries before us, so of course their tech was far more advanced.

He grinned at me. “Taxi will be here in two minutes. I’m Arri, by the way, and that’s Laki.”

“Nice to meet you. I’m Wren.”

“Where are you from, Wren?”

“A village in Yorkshire, you wouldn’t know it.”

Laki rummaged in his pockets and pulled out three small squares wrapped in silver cellophane. “Want one? They’re my favourites.”

“Are they sweets?”

Arri snatched one of them and unwrapped it in record speed before popping the turquoise square into his mouth. It looked like toffee, except for the colour.

“Delicious,” he muttered with a satisfied smile.

“Yes, they’re sweets, flavoured with a plant that’s similar to your Earth mint,” Laki explained. “Try one, I have more if you like it.”

“You never offer me more,” Arri complained.

His brother shrugged. “You’re not as pretty as her.”

I took the sweet he offered me and gingerly nibbled on it, not quite daring to eat it all in one go. I wasn’t particularly choosy when it came to what I ate, but this was alien food.

It was good. Delicious. The cooling aftertaste did indeed remind me of mint, but as if it had been crossed with vanilla and something spicy, almost like pepper. The way the flavours mixed in my mouth was decidedly alien, but definitely something I could get used to.

“Good?” Laki asked with an amused smirk.

I nodded and ate the rest of it. The Athions watched me and once again, they made me uncomfortable. Were all aliens like them? If so, then I had no idea why women would want to live with them. Despite their smiles, there was something dangerous about them.

A black cab stopped next to us and Arri checked his wrist. “That’s ours.”

He opened the door and gestured for me to get in. His brother walked around and entered from the other side, meaning I ended up squeezed in between them on the leather backseat. There was a fold-down seat opposite me, but I didn’t want to offend the men by changing my position. After all, they’d been nothing but nice to me. Ten minutes, that was all the time I needed to spend in their company before we’d get to the sanctuary and I could be away from aliens for the rest of my life.

They didn’t tell the driver where to go, but I assumed Arri had done that via his communicator.

We sat in silence until Laki offered me another sweet. I took it, glad to have something to do besides staring out of the window.

My own yawn surprised me. I’d slept on the bus for at least two hours, but I guess travelling always made me tired. I swallowed my sweet and stifled another yawn.

“Tired?” Laki asked, his eyes fixed on mine.

I shook my head. “No, just exhausted from travelling.” I looked at my watch, realising we’d been in the taxi for almost fifteen minutes already. “Will we be there soon?”

Another yawn escaped my mouth and my eyelids twitched. I was having trouble keeping my eyes open, no matter how much I blinked. I was so tired all of a sudden. Maybe I could take a nap at the sanctuary.

Laki was still watching me, a smile curving his blue lips. As if he was happy seeing me this tired.

“Did you...?”

Talking became too exhausting and I let myself drift off, fading into the darkness of sleep.