Текст книги "Arrival"

Автор книги: A.G. Wilde

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Arrival A Sci-Fi Alien Invasion Romance

A.G. Wilde

Arrival

Arrival © A.G. Wilde 2022

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, businesses, or locales is coincidental and is not intended by the author.

Contents

Disclaimer

Arrival

Before you read!

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

Chapter 30

Chapter 31

Chapter 32

Chapter 33

Chapter 34

Chapter 35

Chapter 36

Epilogue

Next in the Series

Other books by A.G.

Acknowledgments

Keep In Touch

If you enjoyed this book…

About the Author

For Mom

I’m still here.

I’m fighting too…because I know you would expect nothing less.

Disclaimer

This work of fiction is intended for mature audiences only.

All sexually active characters portrayed in this book are eighteen years of age or older.

Arrival

You think Earth is a safe haven?

You think the world couldn’t end tomorrow?

Think again.

Our world is no longer our own.

It’s been taken by beings we could never have imagined.

And we are weak.

Helpless.

…hopeless.

Hunted.

They have divided us into groups: Harvesters, Gatherers, and Breeders.

I am but one of the dispensable.

My name is Adira Mosely

...and I am a Breeder.

**

Arrival is a full-length apocalyptic sci-fi alien invasion romance featuring a resourceful heroine and a badass alien hero who  changes her world forever.

There are triggers in this story: graphic scenes involving violence and death, dark themes, and scenes of a sexual nature.

Contains forced proximity and aliens with interesting tools.

This book/series is not for the easily offended.

Before you read!

This note is a trigger warning of sorts.

When starting this series, I decided not to put a block on the things the books in this series will cover.

That means there are topics that some readers might not want to read about.

I will try to give adequate warning of this beforehand, and if you decide to pass on this book/series, that is completely okay!

This particular book sets the tone for the rest of the series.

There is death. Torture. Graphic scenes.

Violence. Terror.

Raw emotion and raw, hot sex.

These alien heroes have miraculous tongues—a gift from evolution—and they’re not afraid to use them where their human women like it most!

But despite this alien goodness, there is the backdrop that the world is ending.

If you haven’t picked up yet, this series begins at the start of an apocalypse.

It’s not butterflies and roses, but I hope that if you do continue to read, you will enjoy the story as much as I enjoyed writing it.

Happy reading!

<3 AG

Chapter One

ADIRA

A meteor shower.

That’s what we all thought it was.

We were wrong.

But we couldn’t have known…

How could we have?

Most of us thought we were alone…

Earth.

The only planet we knew of that had sentient life. Us.

Aliens were a thing we imagined and placed in sci-fi movies and cartoons.

Or so we’d thought…

So I’d thought.

The fireballs that came down from the sky were a spectacle at first. There hadn’t been any media reports about a meteor shower. It had been a pleasant, wondrous, surprise.

Meteor showers were rare, and this was one you could see in the daytime, no less.

I’d been jogging that day. Headphones in my ears. Music blaring.

The sun had been warm. The streets not too busy.

I had an hour before I had to report to the veterinary clinic where I worked.

I had a surgery to perform that day. On a rabbit.

Poor little guy was going to get neutered.

That’s what I’d been thinking about as I jogged—my furry little patient. I hardly saw the traffic on the road beside me…hardly saw the faces of the people on the sidewalk as I jogged past them.

It was a normal day like any other—

People were going about their shopping. Some were hurrying back to their jobs after getting lunch.

Off to the side, a mother grasped her son’s hand and pulled him along as she picked up pace, hurrying to wherever she was going.

–normal…until I looked up.

My steps faltered. I staggered a little as I stopped running.

Fireballs.

Lots of them.

Shooting through the sky at incredible speeds.

At first, my mind couldn’t comprehend what I was seeing.

There were so many of them. Like massive asteroids falling down.

I didn’t even notice other people stopping what they were doing to stare as well. I couldn’t take my eyes away from the spectacle.

I’d never seen anything like it before…

As I pulled out my earphones, my ears perked with the sudden silence around me.

Cars had stopped.

People had stopped.

Those inside the shops were slowly coming out to stare up at the spectacle.

Time stood still.

I couldn’t take my eyes away.

Looking back now…I should have run from that very moment.

It wasn’t until the first fireball came close that we, I, realized what was happening.

They were coming right at us.

They weren’t burning up in the atmosphere. They weren’t disintegrating.

They were going to crash into the surface.

We all began running then, the silence suddenly interrupted by the first scream.

And then…chaos.

Turning, I began to run.

But the street was suddenly filled with people.

Getting away wasn’t so easy.

Instead of being a clear-cut path down the sidewalk, I bumped into bodies and people bumped into me as we all scrambled to get away.

And amidst the confusion…the fear…the cries…the screaming…there was another sound.

The searing sound of the fireball itself.

Like the air around us was heating up. Crackling.

A loud boom like a bomb going off hit us hard, the impact sending a shockwave that threw us off our feet.

My body hurtled through the air. I landed on my face.

Pain exploded in my skull, my arms, my knees.

Car alarms went off in unison and there was the sound of glass shattering as the store windows blew outward.

Screams.

Sounds of agony.

All mixed into chaos.

People were trying to get away.

Someone stepped on my leg and tripped before scrambling forward and breaking into a run.

In the back of my mind now…I could feel the pain from my fall…the blood running down my forehead.

But all that was like a dull ache in the recesses of my mind for when I glanced behind me…everything else was forgotten.

The meteor was shrouded in dust and smoke.

It had landed on my favorite sandwich shop and I gulped back the immediate sense of distress that rose within me.

There’d been people inside…

I could have been inside.

Gripping my head with one hand, I leaned on my other elbow as I tried to rise.

What the fuck just happened?

My eyes remained on the impact site, watching the dust and smoke settle to reveal a large…

I don’t know what I expected to see.

A huge, black space rock with rough edges maybe.

But this…this wasn’t rough…or black.

It was…a metal orb, glistening in the sunlight.

It was smooth and reflected everything around it like a mirror.

For a moment, I don’t think any of us knew what to do.

There was silence again. Or maybe I just couldn’t hear what was going on around me.

It all felt like it was happening in slow motion.

Me getting to my feet and turning fully so I could stare at the thing.

And then…

The air vibrated.

There’s no other way to describe it.

A sound almost too low to hear, but one that I felt across my skin.

The hairs on my body stood on end.

The sound alone sent a chill down my spine.

Some baser instinct within me told me I should run, yet…I could not move.

The air vibrated again, the sound passing through us all, and I staggered backward as the orb moved.

Dust billowed from the building it had leveled and something came forward.

A long, winding, metallic…arm.

A metal claw.

It closed around a man standing right beside me.

Screams punctuated the air as people began running once more. Yet, I stood.

Unable to comprehend what I was seeing.

Unable to believe.

The old sandwich shop shook, what was left of its walls crumbling as the orb stood, rising through the dust and ash to stand on three legs.

It kept rising, and rising…and my gaze followed it.

What was this thing?

It was as tall as a tower. Taller than anything else around it.

It dwarfed us.

The man it held in one of those metal arms screamed as he struggled to release himself from its grasp.

He was screaming for help, his arm stretching toward me.

But he was too high.

I couldn’t reach.

Even if I could, I couldn’t move.

And then…that chilling sound. That deep boom.

Liquid wet my face as the man’s screams suddenly stopped.

Even as it ran down my face, my body, staining my arms red…my mind refused to accept what it was.

Someone bumped into me as they ran.

I don’t know who they were, I don’t know if they survived, but I owe them my life.

For if they hadn’t collided with me, I might have stood there as that bloodied metal arm descended again.

But I was awake now and fear pushed me to turn.

And run.

Chapter Two

ADIRA

I lost everything that day.

Everything that mattered.

Family.

Friends.

Me.

I lost myself.

Who I was…

Who I am.

What do you become when everything you know is ripped apart?

What do you do when an unbeatable enemy comes to destroy everything you’ve ever known?

We tried to fight.

For once, humanity had a common enemy and all other human problems seemed minuscule in comparison.

We were miniscule.

Governments got on the ball pretty quickly.

Missiles.

Bombs.

Air raids.

Nuclear bombs.

All for…

Nothing.

Nothing we did worked.

Whole cities were leveled.

Bathed in death.

Blood.

Destruction.

Nowhere on Earth was safe.

At least, that’s what I heard before the phones stopped working. Before radio stations were cut off. Before communication was lost.

New York fell.

Los Angeles.

Paris.

London.

Sydney.

Berlin.

My own city was leveled…and then, no more help came…

The fighter jets slowly reduced in number till there were no more.

Tanks lay abandoned in the streets.

The sound of fighting slowly died.

In the recesses of my mind, I want to imagine there’s somewhere safe out there…but even as the aftermath settles in my consciousness, I know this isn’t true.

The orbs…their huge metal legs…they trampled…everything.

And they just kept on going.

It seemed their only purpose was to destroy the single planet we call home.

We were like ants to the metal beasts—for that’s all we know them as.

Giant, metal beasts.

No one knows what’s inside them.

No one knows who controls them, or if the orbs themselves are sentient.

They have no faces. No one has gotten close enough to see inside them.

At least, no one has gotten close enough to survive and tell the tale.

These…machines.

All we know is that they kill us all.

One way or the other.

But maybe those who died in those first few moments were the lucky ones.

They didn’t live to see the horror of what life has become.

It must have been days that I’d been hiding, but it felt like weeks.

Hiding anywhere I could. Alone.

Cellars were the best bet. They were underground.

If the building above crumbled, there was a chance of survival.

But when you find a good shelter, the next thing you have to find is food.

Resources were scarce; it was everyone for themselves.

The other humans I managed to come across, those still surviving, those still free, they were usually only looking out for themselves.

So I did too.

By some miracle, I survived.

I was going to survive.

Again, I was wrong.

It happened one night.

I was sleeping.

The machine…it found me.

I still do not know how.

Something woke me from my sleep.

A noise.

Nestled in the cellar, wrapped in some poor child’s old blanket, I squinted into the darkness.

It only took a second. One second for me to see the reflection of starlight against metal.

But it was too late.

It took me.

A scream tore from my throat as the metal arm closed around me.

I was whipped from my hiding spot, the feel of the ice-cold metal chilling my bones as I was pulled from my hiding spot and brought high into the air.

I’d always known the orbs were huge.

Tall.

Taller than towers.

But being lifted by one sent newfound terror through me.

There hadn’t been any orbs close by when I’d fallen asleep.

They were so big you could see them for miles.

But somehow…this one had found me.

The wind was knocked out of me as it swung me, my body flailing like I was a ragdoll.

It lifted me high in front of itself, as if it was looking at me, and for a moment, I stared back at it.

Tears blinded my vision but hatred burned through.

Pure, raw, hatred.

A scream filled with frustration left my throat as the orb swung me downward.

This was it. It was going to trample me.

Squish me like it did that man in those first few moments.

…but it didn’t.

Instead of killing me, the orb brought me toward itself.

Maybe I was dreaming… Maybe the blood loss had affected my perception of things…but the metal softened and I went right through it.

The machine let go of me and my head hit something hard as I fell.

Soft bodies broke my fall. Some with sharp edges I vaguely realized were bones sticking through skin.

Where was I?

I had no idea.

All I knew was that I should be dead…but I wasn’t.

For some reason, the universe was sparing me.

Or maybe I was being punished.

For what? I do not know.

That’s when I heard it.

Someone talking beside me…to me.

I heard the word “breeder,” but I had no idea what it meant.

My head was hurting now, but as the blood rushed to my skull and I lost consciousness, I heard the words again.

This time, they registered into my reality.

“It’s found another breeder.”

Chapter Three

ADIRA

Present day

? days since captured by the machine

I’ve become accustomed to the sway.

It lulls us as this thing moves.

One can almost forget where you are, in the belly of the machine.

There’s four of us…but…there’d been more.

When it had first put me inside itself, the small space had been full.

Now, not so much.

Every four weeks or so, one of us is taken away.

And I have been in here for more days than I can count.

There’s space to move, but nowhere to go.

It’s surprisingly bright inside the machine, like being behind a glass window.

This high up, we can see everything beneath.

We can see the world from its view.

And boy…are we little.

Insignificant.

“I think he’s going to die soon.” The voice of the woman beside me. Sam.

Maybe short for Samantha. I never asked.

“Who?” My voice sounds detached. Filled with apathy. Hearing it sounds like a stranger using my mouth and not me.

Sam jerks her chin to the other side of the orb. Through the barrier there.

For there are two compartments in this belly of the beast.

We are simply in one.

On the other side are people.

Humans.

Men.

And they are…

My throat moves as I pull my gaze away.

You’re a coward, Adira.

Maybe I am.

But I don’t need to look to see what’s going on in the second compartment. The image is already burned into my brain.

I’ve stared at it, even when I didn’t want to see.

The men are cocooned by…vines…

Only…

They aren’t vines at all.

They pulse, move…as if alive.

All across the wall…the floor…the vines are everywhere.

It is like a jungle in there, wrapping around the bodies…piercing them.

If I go close enough, I can see blood moving through the vines as the machine feeds.

“I think he’s trying to say something,” Sam whispers.

My eyes move to the male she’s referring to.

He is facing us. His face pressed against the transparent barrier that separates our compartments.

Everything but his face is covered with vines—veins—and as I stare at him, I realize that Sam is right.

His lips are moving, but we can hear no sound.

There’s a deathly pallor to his skin. He’s gone pale as the machine drains his blood. How long has it been feeding from him?

For some reason, I move closer, brushing past the three other women in the compartment with me.

My body feels weak as I move over and the man’s eyes lock on mine as I near.

Hope flares in his gaze a little as I draw close.

His lips move again and I can just about make out the words he is mouthing.

“Help…me…please.”

I stare at him. Maybe, before all this, I would have been able to cry. To grieve for what I’m witnessing before my eyes.

But no tears come now.

Instead, I press my hand against the barrier. I’d be touching his cheek if not for the separation between us.

“It will be over soon,” I whisper.

Maybe that’s all he needed.

Some kind of comfort.

I don’t know how long I sit there, watching him, until his eyes finally close.

And then, he is gone.

His body is ripped away as the last drop of blood leaves his veins.

I see what’s left of him fall as the vines release him and the orb expels him from itself.

Every bone in his body will be broken when he lands.

But he is already dead.

He’ll feel no more pain…

I pull away from the barrier and slide back to sit between Sam and one of the other women.

Mina her name is.

She hardly speaks.

Across from her is another female.

She rests away from us. Her belly is swollen and it presses against her torn dress.

It’s grown even more. It wasn’t that big yesterday.

I remember when the machine took her.

When she’d been bred.

That was about a month ago.

She groans, her eyes flicking open, and pain registers on her face.

I can’t imagine what it feels like, having something unknown growing within you.

But I’ll know soon.

Soon, it will be my turn.

“Do you want some?” Sam stretches the fluid-filled sac toward me and I shake my head.

“Eat it, Adira. You know the orb won’t feed us again for the rest of the day.”

And she is right.

The fluid-filled sacs appear through the wall on rotation.

Sustenance in the form of some kind of pulp that keeps us alive.

I shudder to think where it comes from.

I want to tell Sam no.

Maybe if I refuse to eat, starve myself, the machine won’t try to breed me.

Even as I think this, my gaze flicks to the woman resting on the floor across from my feet.

She is bone thin. So thin, her massive belly looks out of place.

Her belly moves as whatever is growing within her writhes underneath her skin and the little appetite I had is suddenly gone.

Sam jerks me with her elbow. Her arm shakes as she holds the thing out to me.

She is so thin too, I can see her bones. My gaze moves up her arm, knowing what I’m seeing is a mirror image of myself.

But there is one difference between us.

There is still hope in Sam’s eyes.

Her arm shakes again and I know even the mere act of holding out the sustenance sac to me is draining her energy.

Hating myself, I reach toward her and take the sac.

It’s an unappealing light-brown color, like dirty milky water.

Bringing it to my chapped lips, I nip a hole into it and force down the contents.

It’s more like gulping rather than drinking.

I throw it down my throat, the liquid only hitting the back of my tongue as I take it down.

It’s sickeningly sweet and once again I divert my mind from thinking of where it must have come from.

To my left, Mina watches us.

She says nothing, but her gaze speaks volumes.

Pure hatred.

The same that I feel toward this thing that is carrying us.

The gentle sway continues as the machine makes its way across the landscape below and for a moment, my gaze falls beneath us.

It’s funny how quickly things can change.

Down below doesn’t look like the Earth I knew anymore.

More like a world ravaged by war and natural disasters.

How long has it been since the machines arrived?

I don’t remember now.

Days meld into each other. I only know that time is passing because night comes and the sun rises.

Somehow, it feels like time is leaving me behind.

Below is a dry barren land.

Dust has settled over everything.

Buildings have been burned, crushed, destroyed.

Vehicles sit in what were once roads.

Vines and wild plants have started to reclaim what used to be a small town.

Whatever water, trees, vegetation that had dotted the landscape before are now all gone.

Earth has been captured.

It is their world now.

And we are mainly insects in their way.

Sometimes, we spot other machines in the distance, but they are never close to each other.

Even then, one is enough to decimate everything around it.

And humans…I haven’t seen another human below in a long, long time.

As I cross my arms, the woman on the floor groans and grips her stomach.

Oh no.

I don’t realize I whisper the words until they reach my ears.

“Shit,” Sam whispers too.

Her wide eyes meet my own and I am dimly aware that Mina is crawling closer to us.

The woman is left alone on one side as she groans louder.

There is movement in her stomach.

Something large presses against her skin from the inside and my heart drops.

It is time.

As if on cue, the inside wall pulses and I hear the sound we all dread.

The smooth surface above us whirs open and one of those mechanical arms appears.

It’s different from the ones on the outside—the ones it walks on.

This one is smaller but it has no trouble grasping us just the same…if it catches us.

But it’s not coming for us.

We know what it wants.

The woman…she is ready to give birth.

I watch as the arm grasps her around the neck and for a moment, I’m frozen.

One by one, it’s done this.

Taken us.

Bred us.

At first, we’d fought back, tried to get it to stop.

When had we stopped fighting?

The thought energizes me and I’m moving even before I can reconsider.

“Adira!” Sam’s scream doesn’t register. All I can see is the mechanical arm closing around the woman.

All I can feel is my own hatred.

I reach it in a matter of seconds, my arms closing around its claw.

I pull. With all my strength, I pull. But it doesn’t budge.

“Let her go! She deserves to live. We all deserve to live!” The words leave my lips in a scream that echoes in the little chamber. “Haven’t you done enough?!”

I’m hanging on to it and I swear the metal claw goes still for a moment.

And then I’m flying backwards like a fly.

My back collides with the wall behind me and pain shoots up my spine as I fall forward on my face.

I’m dimly aware of Sam rushing over to me, of Mina’s scream, and I lift my head.

Through my blurred vision, I see the arm retreat with the woman.

And then her screams…

We won’t see her again.

But the machine will come back, and it will be one of us next.