Susix, p.1
Susix, page 1
Susix
Book One
By Amelia Rademaker
Copyright © 2022 Amelia Rademaker
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. No part of this book may be scanned, uploaded or distributed via the Internet or any other means, electronic or print, without the author’s permission.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is coincidence.
Table of Contents
Dedication
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Thank you!
About the Author
Other books by Amelia Rademaker
Stay Tuned for a Snippet from Rejected
Connect with Amelia Rademaker
Dedication
To my favorite ARC reader, Devan, you are awesome. This one was different, so thank you for all of the patience and help.
Chapter One
Cece
“Cecelia, don’t forget that you’re closing tomorrow night,” my manager called out just as I left work.
I resisted the urge to throw up my middle finger. Debbie was known for shouting last-minute demands instead of saying goodbye. The woman was unbearable. Not unbearable enough to quit. Although, I dreamed about it some days.
I parked my old two-door sedan in front of the rambler I was renting. It was small and a little run down. I loved my little house. The rent wasn’t too high because it wasn’t in the nicest part of town. The paint was new, the front yard was tidy, and my neighbors pretended I didn’t exist. I knew their ignorance was intentional because my four dogs could make a lot of noise sometimes.
I heard them scratching at the door as I walked up the path. Sock was whining loud enough that I could hear her from the yard. I smiled because as soon as Sock whined, Maggie would start howling. Sure enough, Maggie started baying.
“Okay, okay, you guys, hold your horses,” I laughed as I unlocked the door.
I held the door open just wide enough to squeeze through. There was barely enough room to shove my way in. I still had to use my frame to physically block the dogs from getting out. Unfortunately, it left me defenseless against being mauled.
I didn’t bother setting my stuff down. I just collapsed on the ground and let the dogs wrestle on top of me. I laughed as wet kisses rained down.
Working at the bank in town wasn’t the most stimulating job. On top of the boredom, the customers were mean. The plus side was that it wasn’t a tough job to leave at the door, especially when I had four furry buddies who loved to cuddle and play.
I managed to get back on my feet and lead the pack to the backyard. That was the other nice thing about my house; it had a bigger backyard than expected. There were three trees and a line of bushes. There were squirrels and sometimes bunnies that kept the dogs busy. I watched as Sock, Maggie, her sister Molly, and Taco raced around, sniffing everything.
I sat on one of the camping chairs and checked my phone. There were some texts from my more tolerable coworkers complaining about work. I didn’t bother replying. I didn’t want to think about work until I was clocked in. I also saw a text from my friend, June. She was throwing a party that weekend and wanted me to come so I could scope out the guy she was crushing on. That would be a must.
Leaving the dogs, I went inside to get something to eat. During the week, I didn’t have the energy to cook. Most of my dinners were from websites with lists with titles like ‘Twenty-Minute Meals’ or ‘Meals With Five or Fewer Ingredients’. When dinner was ready, I called the dogs in and fed them.
I didn’t bother doing the dishes. My brain was fried by the time I finished dinner. I got changed and turned on the TV. The dogs eventually meandered over and took up their various spots around the room.
I barely paid attention to what I was watching. My phone startled me when my ‘Go to bed!’ alarm went off. Utterly exhausted, I unlocked the doggie door and said goodnight to everyone. If the dogs needed to go out during the night, they would have to help themselves because I was ready for a full night’s sleep.
I woke up to barking. I groaned, slapping a hand down my face. That was the downside to the doggie door routine. They usually found something to chase in the middle of the night.
Barely awake, I shuffled to the back door. I threw on my cargo jacket and oversized boots to go out and yell at them. I stood there for a second, just registering that their barking didn’t sound normal.
When my dogs found an animal in the yard, they yipped and barked in excitement. The sounds they made were playful. These were not those noises. Now, they sounded angry.
I had only just opened the door when the tone changed. Unexpectedly, it raised an octave and took on that terrifying pitch animals made when they were in pain. I sprinted outside my stomach a led ball.
The dogs were huddled against the back fence. Molly was crouched in front of the other three with her teeth bared. The floodlights flashed on as I raced towards them.
I couldn’t see what had them cornered. All I could see were the dogs’ shaking bodies. There was nothing else in the yard. Sock was frantically trying to shove herself through the fence.
Suddenly, there was a flash of light, and Molly screeched. It was a terrible sound. I’d only heard it one other time when I’d seen a dog get hit by a car. The other three dogs scattered.
The bright light didn’t go away. It stayed, nearly blinding me. I put my hand up, trying to keep my eyes on Molly.
Molly seemed frozen in the center of the light. Her mouth was open, but no sound was coming out. Her fur was standing on end. As I watched, she started to float off of the ground.
“Molly!” I picked up my speed, racing to reach her.
Her body was already a few feet off of the ground and moving fast. She was getting too high for me to touch. Desperately, I launched myself at her, trying to get as much height as possible. My hand swung wildly over my head, hitting Molly with the inside of my arm hard enough that she flew out of the pillar of light. I heard her whimper as she hit the ground.
Instead of falling back down, my body started to rise. It felt unnatural to go up and not down. I tried to scream, to yell for the dogs, anything. Nothing came out.
I watched in horror as the earth got further and further away. The other houses in my neighborhood got smaller. I begged for something to notice me. For someone to save me. To see me. I didn’t want to disappear into the night.
I kept rising. The higher I got, the harder it became to breathe. I couldn’t do anything. I just had to watch as the world slipped away.
My body shivered as I passed through something damp. My vision became foggy. As I flew higher, I realized I had passed through a cloud. The thought made me nauseous. I lost consciousness at some point.
I woke up when my body hit something hard. My head bounced, making me hiss in pain. I stopped moving as a massive headache made my entire body throb.
I tried to breathe through my nose to keep the pain at bay. The smell that hit me made me gag. It was a rancid heat that was impossible to get away from. I struggled to lift my arms to cover my nose. It didn’t help much.
I opened my eyes. Everything was blurry. I could make out dark shapes moving against a silver background. Blinking didn’t clear my vision.
I struggled to sit up. I had to close my eyes and breathe through the nausea. This must be what a concussion feels like, I thought.
When I opened my eyes again, the dark shapes started to come into focus. One of the shapes came closer to me. At first, I thought it was a child. It was about as tall as a toddler. It walked with the unmistakable gait of something learning how to move while upright.
There was something strange about its body. It didn’t have a neck or definitive legs. It almost looked like it only had one thick leg, not two. I blinked rapidly, trying to clear the last of my fuzzy sight.
Its two arms swung low to the ground. They were strangely long. While I stared, its arms split apart. I shrieked and jolted back. The thing’s upper half whipped in my direction. Sunken holes stared at me. They opened wider. It let loose a high-pitched shriek and hobbled in the opposite direction.
The room exploded into chaos. Suddenly, all of the little bodies that had been standing in my peripheral vision were scattering. They ran around in a flurry of ear-splitting terror.
I scrambled back on my hands and knees until I hit something hard. I twisted around. There was a massive metal wall at my back. Pressing against it, I started to breathe in rapid pants. My vision started getting spotty.
Everywhere I looked, there were strange creatures. They had five arms with gripping fingers at the end of each appendage. The arms were grouped along their sides. Or at least, I thought they were the sides of their bodies. They were covered in rolls of yellow flesh that undulated like a barrel of snakes. At the
All of them were staring at me as they huddled in small groups giving me a wide berth. None of them tried to get closer.
My heaving breaths drowned out their scared noises. Not knowing where I was and being surrounded by monsters triggered a panic attack. I felt my hands get cold as prickles of heat traveled up my body. I felt like I was about to pass out. I did not want to pass out. I forced myself to focus. I took deep breaths, trying to calm down.
Luckily, everything stayed away from me. After a long time, my vision sharpened. The sweat on my body started to dry. My hands were freezing, but the panic attack was fading. I was just scared out of my mind now.
Not wanting to trigger another one, I ignore the creatures around me. I half turned to see the wall behind me while keeping an eye on the mass of yellow bodies around me. It was ten feet high and metal. I glanced around. The floor looked like it was made of the same material too.
The space I was in was enormous. It had to be the size of a small building. There was only one metal wall behind me. The three other walls were made of glass. Or at least it looked like glass. I could see through them. I could see other enclosed areas past the space I was in. I forced myself to ignore what was beyond the glass walls. I didn’t want to see what was out there.
There wasn’t much else to look at. The space was nearly bare. There was a small grated hole in one corner of the room. Besides that, there weren’t any other furnishings.
By the time I had looked around, the other things in the room had calmed down too. They started to move around cautiously. I watched one walk over to the grate. It stood over it. A stream of liquid came out of it and went down the hole. I put that on the list of things I was putting a pin in until later.
Aliens. I did not want to acknowledge that thought. Instead, I sat where I was. There was a chance my alarm would go off, and I would wake up.
I watched the little creatures as they milled about. They made sure to keep far away. That worked out for me. I didn’t want to have to interact with them. Acknowledging them would lead to more alien thoughts. I wasn’t ready for more alien thoughts.
They made soft squeaky noises to one another. Sometimes, they would touch each other. I watched their arms pat down the upper parts of their bodies.
After what felt like hours of watching the little things, my shoulders started to relax. They didn’t care about me. It seemed we had all come to the same conclusion; I’ll ignore you, and you ignore me.
My legs started to cramp from being clenched so tightly. That forced me to accept that something had happened. This wasn’t a dream. My body didn’t ache like this in dreams. It only felt like this in real life.
I had been taken. Something had taken me from my backyard. I had saved Molly and been vacuumed into the sky.
Molly. My dogs. They were alone.
I started to cry—soft, quiet sobs.
Wherever I was, I wasn’t getting home anytime soon. If I was ever going home. It was a pessimistic thought, but what were the chances I would get to see my dogs again?
Based on the creatures around me, I was either in a twisted laboratory or aliens had abducted me. That thought from before, which I had desperately tried to ignore, grew and grew.
Nothing bugged me while I had another breakdown. I cried until my face was hot, and a headache bloomed. As soon as I felt it, I tried to get ahold of myself.
I was a captive. I had to take care of myself. Keep strong. I couldn’t afford to get dehydrated. I carefully straightened my legs, trying to shake the weak feeling in my limbs.
I looked around the cell again. There was nothing besides the bathroom hole. I couldn’t see any spigots or vents. There were no seams in the metal wall.
Carefully, I stood up. The aliens in the room tensed. I ignored them and walked to the front of the room with the glass wall. I wanted to see what else was in here with us.
There was an aisle separating two rows of cells. Most of the cells were smaller than mine. There were a few that were bigger. They all had three transparent walls with a metal one at the back.
I didn’t recognize any of the creatures in the cells surrounding mine. Most of them were bigger than me. They huddled in too-small areas, curled up to keep from hitting the ceiling. Nothing would consent to be crammed into a space that small. It made me realize that every creature I could see was a captive like me.
I saw something that looked like a spider with a dozen legs. I looked around at the various knee-high aliens in my room. There were a lot of them. They weren’t as scary as I first thought. I could have worse cellmates.
I went back to the spot I had left earlier. The aliens in my cell made room to let me through. I sat down and waited.
There is a lot of time to wait in space. I stayed where I was for a long time. Every so often, I stood up and made a point to move around. It bothered my cellmates every time. No one reacted violently, so I kept doing it.
A happy-sounding ding startled me as I began to get tired. All of the aliens in my holding area started to move when they heard the noise. There was an anxious feeling building. They shuffled towards the metal wall. I scooted further away.
A panel in the wall opened with a hiss. A metal trough pushed out of the opening. Inside, a clear liquid sloshed around. There was a rainbow sheen to it. The aliens dunked their bodies into the trough. I looked around and saw that all other cells had similar troughs. The other aliens were dipping body parts into the liquid.
Turning back towards the trough in my cell, I watched one group after another take a turn at it. Everyone was tense. I kept expecting a fight to break out. Nothing happened. Every alien took a turn until the trough was empty. Then they went back to their respective areas. The panel opened, and the trough disappeared.
The bell didn’t go off for a long time. It was long enough that I managed to catch some sleep before I heard it again. This time, I felt confident enough to take a turn at the trough. If it was something similar to water, I needed it.
The tiny aliens in my cell scattered when I stepped in line to take a turn. They made all types of noises as they went in every direction. I felt bad about scaring them. There wasn’t anything I could do to communicate that I wasn’t a threat, so I quickly threw out my guilt.
I bent down to the trough. The shimmer on the surface made me nervous. I cupped my hands and took a small drink. It had a strange flavor. It left my mouth feeling dry. I was worried about dehydrating, so I kept drinking until my stomach felt full.
Once I sat down again, the aliens in my cell went back to lining up at the trough. They tentatively started drinking again. Some of them glanced in my direction.
That was the most exciting part of my days. The trough would appear once a day. That was it. Nothing else happened. I got to know my little cell very well. While mine was one of the bigger cells, it had more occupants than any of the other ones I could see.
Having that many creatures in one space was not comfortable. The other aliens smelled awful. They were quiet, though, even if they were everywhere.
At least I had space to move. The spider thing across from us could only shuffle around its tiny area. I felt bad for it.
My days became very monotonous. I tried to exercise as much as I could. It helped keep me from losing my brain. There wasn’t much to do besides run around the small space.
The other aliens didn’t bother me. They didn’t interact with me in any capacity. They chattered with one another. They had their own routines. They avoided me.
When the trough appeared, I drank as much of the strange liquid as possible. After a few days, I realized it couldn’t just be some kind of alien water. So long as I drank until my stomach was full, I never got hungry. I lost weight in the first few days. However, I never became emaciated like I would have if I’d been starving.
There was no way to keep track of time accurately. The lights in the holding area never went out. There was no display hanging in the aisle. I started marking days by the trough schedule. There were long periods between appearances, I assumed it was coming once a day, but I was guessing.
