Earth Is Mine

Chapter 5

I wake up with a bitter aftertaste in my mouth and the side of my face aching. My eyes flit open and I take in the white tiled floor that I have been lying on for God knows how long. 

My jaw aches and saliva has dripped down my chin and pooled on to the floor. I force myself to get up, my arms shaking as I push myself up from the hard floor. I wipe my chin and look around at the four clear walls that have me encased in something like a holding cell. 

There is a small seat fitted to one of the walls and I use it to help me to my feet. This glass room must be about two metres in width and length. It takes me all but a few steps to reach each wall. 

 My fingers traverse the smooth clear glass, searching for a break, a line or a depression but I come up with nothing. Fear settles like a pile of stones in the pit of my stomach, making me feel heavy and nauseated at the same time. 

I feel like a specimen in a cage. There are human military officers milling about all around the room we are in. Some are facing their computers, others fiddling with the large screens at the far end but there are a few who eat their food in idle silence while they stare at me. 

I turn to my right and see two holding cells just like mine. Joon is seated in the one next to me, holding his head in his hands while Remulus is standing in the one next to him. His eyes are fixed on me. 

I expect him to utter a snide remark, reinforcing how stupid we have been and how he has been right about the humans but he remains silent. 

"What's wrong with him?" I nod at Joon who looks sick. His cheeks are flushed and he is rocking back and forth on his heels. 

"They drugged our food," Remulus mutters. "Knocked us out. I guess he's still recovering." 

"Ahh, you are all finally awake," A broad shouldered man walks up to us and stops outside Joon's cell. "Give him some water!" He barks and a young officer scurries off to get some. 

I blink a few times, trying to get the sleep and dizziness out of my system. My eyes focus on his thick grey hair, the deep wrinkles that line his eyes and the tightness in his jaw as he stares right back at me. 

The deputy director. 

The medallions on his uniform catch the light above us and glare at me with all the power and authority the director carries. No one else in the room speaks as he walks from one holding cell to another, sizing us up like a predator does its prey. 

"You're working with them," My words pierce the air and fester in the silence around us like a disease. I watch a few humans staring at me with wide cautious eyes. The deputy however, only smirks.

He bares his teeth, all white and as shiny as his medals. "My dear, we are not in a position to be working with the Plutonians. But yes, we have always worked FOR them."

My back hits the wall of my cell and I feel it's impact from the tip of my shoulders all the way down my spine. 

"Why?" My voice comes out in a croak, small, defeated and weak. It makes me want to punch something. 

"I think you know the answer to that better than I do," He says. 

It then hits me almost at the same time as Remulus mutters the words 'Plutonian Scriptures.'

So it wasn't all propaganda. The Plutonians really did dump the unwanted ones on Earth which lead to the creation of humans. They really did come back a million years later, shocked at what had transpired and a deal was created between the humans and Plutonians.

Every year they would take five hundred humans back to their planet to serve as slaves, fighters or paramours. I was one of them. I have the memories burned into every scar on my skin.