closed her mouth but no sound came out.
“Cloned skin, no doubt from one of our tissue samples, and layered on their scaley body armor.” Burkina slapped the woman across the face. Red bloomed on the pale skin. “You’re not fooling anyone. Once a Syn-En always a Syn-En.”
“We should take her with us. Turn her over to the UEN Authority.” Baldy hitched the pants of his uniform. The material stretched taunt against his erection. “With her as proof of their treason, the Syn-En will be disbanded, if not permanently deleted.”
Burkina slapped his hand away from the woman’s breast as the air thickened with her followers’ building lust. So they wanted a plaything on the way home, did they? Did they think this blob of flesh could provide something Burkina Faso couldn’t? She’d show them how she climbed her way up from nothing, right before she stuffed them into a vacuum and watched them turn inside out.
“Maybe if the shuttles were in this cargo bay, we could take her. After all, it is my secret mission.” Burkina cupped her hand over the woman’s breasts as she plotted her death. “But with the Syn-En breathing down our neck, we can’t be slowed down by a useless hunk of junk. See what’s taking Tim so long? He should have a way out of here by now.”
Fear flashed in the woman’s eyes.
Burkina drank in the scent. Yes, you know I’m going to kill you don’t you ? But do you know how ? She squeezed the tender flesh hard and the woman arched her back in response.
Tim brushed Burkina’s arm. To his credit, he only glanced at the woman once before focusing on Burkina. “Syn-Ens are approaching, but I’ve found a way to the shuttles.”
“Lead the way, Tim. The rest of you fall in behind him. I’ll make sure no cyborg freak follows.” Burkina waited until her followers finished their last ogles before leaning over the sarcophagus. Her whisper stirred the woman’s hair. “I know you’re human but we need a little distraction to make our getaway.”
A low moan echoed in the coffin-like enclosure.
Lifting the nails of her right hand, Burkina watched needles extend from her fingertips. Her little hobby in explosives was about to pay off. The sharp tips of the needles scored the woman’s pale flesh before Burkina injected the peroxide mix into the woman’s soft breasts.
She screamed. The high pitched shriek whipped through the debris field like wind through chimes.
“That’s right. Lure them to you.” Retracting her needles, Burkina kissed the woman’s cheek then stroked the organic flesh before sprinting after her followers. “You should get along with a bang.”
Disease. Drought. War. Famine.
Our world teeters on the brink of destruction.
One person could make the difference. Is it you?
—Save Our World Foundation
Recruitment poster, fall 2012 CE
Chapter Four
What by all that’s holy is going on here ? Curled in a fetal position, Nell Stafford considered the last two minutes of her life. One moment, she’d been dreaming of warm ocean breezes, and a blue twilight and the next, she awoke with a man pawing at her and a dark skinned woman with wild eyes shoving needles into her breasts. They left, taking with them that comforting azure light. Then she started floating.
Naked.
At least she didn’t think they’d violated her. Exposed yes, raped, no.
The cold air, reeking of ozone and charred meat, crept into the creases and folds of her exposed body. While a humid breath washed over her chest with each saw of her lungs, strips and wads of twisted metal sliced open her skin. Balls of red blood bubbled out, splattered against her every time she turned. Crimson speckles contrasted sharply against her pale arms and legs in the eerie white light slanting into the warehouse full of slaughtered machines.
She wanted to wake up from this nightmare. She wanted to open her eyes, see her cluttered bedroom and smell the cabbage cooking in the Hoffsteader’s
Victoria Aveyard
Colin Wilson
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Deirdre Madden
Derek Ciccone
Robin Roseau
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Suzie Quint
Bailey Bradford
Julie Lessman