In The Back Of Your Mind

What Happened at the Clearing

Koulder and Everest followed Ebony into the clearing.
"Great, two pods, one each!" said Ebony enthusiastically.
"Nice math." muttered Koulder. Everest leaned in to speak to him.
"Why do you hate her?"
"I don't, I don't know her. I'm just annoyed we gotta split the tech, that's all. It could've been all ours, but no, some annoyingly attractive girl has to come and-"
"Do you actually want any of this?" Ebony called over to them.
"So you like her?" asked Everest with a smirk.
"Mate, what did I just say?"
"That she was annoyingly attractive."
"I said that I didn't know her, bright spark. And no, she's annoying"
"Ly attractive."
"Shut your mouth."
Everest laughed, but stopped talking. They headed to the other pod and started pulling parts from it. They dismantled the dashboard and took a motherboard, a lever and big red button.
"Thank god Ebony has shut up," Koulder said under his breath to Everest.
THUD!
"Ebony?" Everest called. No reply.
"Go help your girlfriend, Koulder." he urged with a smirk. Glaring, Koulder exited the pod and walked over to where Ebony had been. When he arrived, Everest suddenly yelled loudly but it was cut off as if someone had covered his mouth.
"Everest? Nice prank bro, real nice," shouted Koulder, turning around, "piece of-"
He heard the snap of twigs.
Koulder's eyes were redirected to Ebony's pod. His heart was thumping hard against his ribs. He felt someone tap him on the shoulder. Expecting to see Everest's grinning face, Koulder turned. It wasn't Koulder. It was much worse.

If Koulder had had time, he would've aged him at 19. He was tall, skinny, pale and had black, shiny, slicked back hair. He had grey eyes and wore a white shirt that had once been clean and black trousers that made him look like he had just been in a business meeting. He was remarkably handsome. A trickle of blood was rolling from his mouth as he gave a grin. Koulder's eyes widened as the figure pressed a cold hand to his mouth

Ten minutes ago

The Xerourians clambered out of the escape pods, wheezing and gasping for air.
"So. Where are we?" coughed Blood.
"Earth, closest safe planet." replied Glob croakily.
"Yeah, proper safe this place isn't it? All this pollution is super safe." chipped in Ink in a raspy voice.
"We need puppets. That's basically what we're meant to do as a species. Find a puppet, get into it and do stuff, right? We just need to last long enough to find one." said Blood.
"So do we just sit here?" asked Ink.
"Yup. Well, not in plain sight. We're not from here, and the people here aren't the smartest." answered Glob
"You took us to a toxic planet where all the population is dumb? Wowzers." said an annoyed Blood.
"Would you rather us have gone to Mars?"
"You can't go to a chocolate bar, smart one."
"Guys, some of the dumb people at 4 o'clock, get over here." hissed Ink who had hid about the trees surrounding them. Blood and Glob hurried over to her and spied through the dark leaves of a nearby bush. Three people were walking up to the pods.

"Bagsy the girl," whispered Ink. Blood and Glob looked at each other and shrugged. They waited for ten minutes, watching the humans take apart their only escape route.
"Great," muttered Ink. And before the other two could react, she was creeping around the perimeter of the clearing, towards the girl. When Ink got close enough, she prowled silently up behind the girl. Then she slammed a fist into the side of her head. The girl fell to the floor with a thud. Ink signalled to the others to hurry up then she pressed a hand to the girls mouth. Ink's body liquified again and she slid into the girl's mouth.

Glob went next, he oozed over to one of the guys, his globular body making soft squelching noises. Blood followed suit and walked directly behind to the remaining, obviously freaked out human. Glob must have messed up somehow, as there was a yell that was quickly stifled. Blood sighed with relief. Just him to go. A twig snapped. Shit. The human, turned, and Blood hastily turned with him, desperately trying to remain behind him. When he was satisfied, Blood tapped the human on the shoulder.