Renegade Runner Nicole Conway (christmas read aloud txt) 📖

Man, I really hoped it was the latter.

Overall, the little creature had a human-ish shape with a petite torso, slender arms and legs, and slightly too-big hands and feet. Two round eyes as big as ping-pong balls stared curiously straight back at me as she huddled against the glass wall between us. Her eerily wide blue irises shifted, catching in the light as her thin, vertical pupils tracked over me, as though she were every bit as curious about how I looked.

“I’m Enola,” the creature murmured quietly with another fleeting and somewhat disturbing, pointy smile. “My homeworld is not far from yours. Well, um, relatively speaking, I suppose. We’ve observed your world some, as best we can from a distance. Anyway, that sort of makes us neighbors, doesn’t it?” She gave a thin, forced little laugh. “S-Sorry. That, um, that probably sounds strange.”

Homeworld? What did that even mean? My brain ached, trying to piece it all together into an explanation that made sense.

Enola began wringing her long, knobby hands in her lap. “I’ve never seen a human up close before. Your homeworld is considered a private reserve. I don’t think the dredgers are supposed to harvest from there.”

“Dredgers?” I sat back, rocking a little too far and almost falling over. My head felt too heavy. Or maybe my neck was just weak.

“Oh, er, yes. That’s right.” She looked down, seeming to curl in on herself with her thin lips pressed into a grimace. “I suppose humans probably don’t know there are other complex sentient species in the galaxy, do they? I’m sorry. This must be … quite difficult for you to process all at once.”

Well, she had that part right, at least. I had no freaking clue what was happening and my brain throbbed just trying to think about it. Complex sentient what?

“I-I … ” I couldn’t force my brain to focus. A chill climbed my spine and shivered out over my skin, making me shudder and pull my arms and legs in close. The cold air left my nose numb and my teeth chattered with every breath. Looking down at the bizarre, skin-tight garment that hugged my body like a scuba suit, I couldn’t even remember putting it on. The garment was so light, I barely realized I was wearing anything at all, and yet the white woven mesh shimmered in the light like metal. Had someone else dressed me while I’d been unconscious? Where were my real clothes? And my phone?

On the opposite side of that glass wall, Enola wore the same thing, although it had obviously been formed to fit her far smaller frame. Neither of us had been given shoes, though, so I got a good look at her four-toed, claw-tipped feet. Yikes.

Okay, this had to be my imagination.

“This isn’t real,” I whispered, my pulse spiking as I whirled around to stare at all four walls of the tiny glass box I sat in. No—not a box. A cell. And there were others on every side of me, each one containing a creature more bizarre than the last. The cubes above and below mine were obscured, though. The walls separating us were opaque so I could only see ominous dark shapes on the other sides.

My throat closed. Tears welled in my eyes as I choked on a sob. “This … This is impossible. It’s a dream. A nightmare.”

“I … I’m afraid not.” Enola’s bizarre, reptilian features softened, her brows drawing up in distress as tears rimmed her huge eyes. “If it’s any consolation, we were all harvested the same way, captured from our homeworlds by dredgers. They collect specimens from worlds all over the galaxy.”

That stinging pain bit at the back of my mind again, rippling down my spine and making my eyes pinch shut.

No. This was not real. It couldn’t be. I didn’t care what that lizard-girl said; aliens didn’t exist. People didn’t get abducted. This was a dream. That was all. I’d wake up soon, and then—

“I think they’re taking us all to Alzumaris,” she went on, her voice still broken and trembling. “It’s a solar system much larger than ours. I’ve read it has a population of over two thousand intelligent species, and even more considered cognizant but not intelligent—like us. Granted, most of them aren’t indigenous to Alzumaris. It’s something of a melting pot.”

My heart shuddered in my chest, sending out a pang of wild panic to the rest of my body. I was going to a different solar system?

No. I was being dragged there against my will. I’d been … abducted.

“But why?” I gasped, looking back at her as tears ran down the sides of my face, warm against my chilled skin.

Enola’s chin trembled when she seemed to notice my expression. “For sale,” she answered softly.

My stomach dropped. Panic strangled at my lungs like someone was trying to choke me unconscious. I gaped at her, my heart pounding in all my fingertips as I tried to force out words. “Sale for what? Who are they? Why are they doing this?”

Enola seemed to curl in on herself, wrapping her long, thin arms around her knees as her head bowed to her chest. Locks of her long, iridescent hair fell over her knobby, narrow shoulders. It was beyond bizarre, more like the thin strands of a fiber optic light than actual hair. “It … It depends. Some are meant for experimental purposes—research, usually for illegal inter-species breeding. Others are for labor. And then some are meant for more recreational purposes.”

I froze, hardly able to feel anything below my neck as that information sank in. These aliens were breeding people? Like for pets?

Nope. I didn’t like that answer one bit. The more I thought about it, the more the blood drained from my face until my cheeks went numb.

I curled my hands into fists. “Hell no.” There was no way I was going along with that. Not willingly, anyway.

“I-I’m afraid we don’t get a say in who buys us or what they