Modification

Chapter 1

I just kept running. My whole life: unnoticed. Why here? Why now!? I'm starving for God's sake!

My life has been secretive. I was unknown among THEM. Them refers to the aliens. The Mercuranians you could say. They have come to Earth, destroying it. Making it their own. Why? The sun's coming closer and closer. They need a spot close the sun, but not that close! They've also found some key elements to traveling throughout the galaxy, unharmed.

Why do I know this? Eavesdropping. Usually not me forte, but at this point, who cares? I'm the Last Living, quite literally. I used to be part of the organization, but they were found, taken. My friends, my family, all just plucked from existence. Well, I know what happened to them.

My stomach growls. Ugh, why did I try to take food from them? Why wasn't I smarter?

There was a loud screech behind me. I risk a glance. Their "skin" is so dark of a green, they're almost black. Their bodies are covered in slime, or mucus. I don't know. Nor do I want to find out. Their eyes are a beady black. I wish I didn't look.

I scream, loud, and high pitched as I run. It disorients them. Found that out the hard way. Yesterday, to be precise.

~

(Yesterday)

I was quietly climbing in the trees, when I happened to pass a small group of them. They were debating whether or not they should take down the room. I had no idea what room they were talking about, so I leaned a little closer, hopping to get little more information.

Bad choice. I slipped, and fell from my branch. Luckily, it wasn't high up. I was able to hit the ground running, and that was when they realized, there was one more.

"A GIRL!!!" One had shrieked.

"Saffine! Message the others! She cannot go unmodified!" Another screamed.

Oh sh!t. Modified!? Was what I had thought.

~

And now, here I am, running for the second time in a week. I have no clue what day it is, what time it is, nothing. I just have the essential knowledge of one thing: life. Everything else: Poof, out the window, dead, gone, it abandoned me! I mean, I knew what I had learned in the years I went to school, but at this point, the aliens were the smartest creatures on Earth. Literally.

This time, I tried sneaking food out of a bag, and they heard my rustling. Their heads snapped towards mine, and I ran.

"Gane! Ideas!?" I heard behind me.

"The modified?"

I assumed it nodded, because the next thing I heard other than my panting breath and pounding footsteps was something... mechanical.

"Must. Capture," a robotic noise rang through the air.

"Ah sh!t! It's a robot!" I exclaimed.

I stole another glance behind me. I didn't see the aliens anymore (thank God), but I did see a humanized robot. No, the other way around. A robotized human. It was a half human, half robot thing. On the left, it was human. On the right, robot. In the middle, a mixture. So cliche. I would be laughing at how book cliche it was, if it wasn't real, and chasing me.

I turned around, and searched for a spot to hide.

It's a freaking ROBOT! There's no point in hiding! Not to mention it's the same size as me, or rather, a person. I thought.

I can't keep running. The robotish thing will last longer than me. I either need to start climbing a tree, and hope to God it can't climb, or turn around,and fight. I thought. I considered the ideas carefully. Let's find that tree...

I looked around in front of me. There was a tree about a yard away from me. It didn't look hard to climb, but not easy either.

Perfect.

I bolted to the tree. I started climbing like my life depended on it. Which it did.

I came close to the top, and found another tree's branch over into the tree I was on. I started climbing across into the new tree. I climbed higher, hoping I was moving too fast for the robot. The rustling behind me proved otherwise. I was almost at the top of the second tree, and found another branch to get on. I continued to do this for like, five more trees. Over, up, over, up. It was getting repetitive.

Let's switch things up a little bit... I thought.

I went down, and backwards, then down, and forwards. It seemed like I was losing the robot, because the rustling was getting quieter, and quieter.

After what felt like an hour of being in the trees, I didn't hear the robot anymore. I continued a down and forwards routine until I was on the ground, where I continued to run. I ran until I couldn't anymore. I found a high and climbable tree, climbed it, pulled my rope out of my pocket, and tied myself to a thick branch. As I sat on the branch, and leaned against the trunk, I thought about the day's events. It didn't take very long to fall asleep.