Savage Genesis, part 3

Later on that evening, after an amusing drive home the two settled down to bed. After eating such filling food the two welcomed sleep. Or at least, they both should have welcomed it. Instead only Britney found solace in slumber while Adam found himself lying in his bed in the dark wide awake. He grew tired of looking at the ceiling because he kept imagining odd shapes appearing. He rolled over to look out the window. "It'll be like watching television," he thought to himself. "Very boring television perhaps. Sort of like CSPAN or ESPN Classic."

He watched with greater interest than he thought he would as the wind blew through the trees outside his apartment, then died down only to blow strong once more. It wasn't until the wind died down completely, depriving Adam of his amusement that he looked at the clock. Considering that he had to be at work early in the morning, he was not pleased with the time.

There was a metallic rattling sound that made Adam sit up in his bed. He looked around the apartment, trying to find the source of the sound. For a moment, he thought it was the wind blowing up against the window but he quickly realized that the night was still outside. He stood up and began looking about for some sort of weapon to protect himself. He had been convinced someone had broken into the apartment. He'd heard some of his neighbors complaining about a string of recent burglaries.

Adam was unaware of how amusing he looked. Dressed only in his boxers he began crawling along the floor looking for something to use as a makeshift weapon. He was so distracted by his self-appointed task that he failed to notice there was light outside the window and that the light was growing stronger and stronger. It finally caught his attention as he noticed the shadows form and grow across the bedroom floor.

He looked over his shoulder at the window. He held his hand up to shield his eyes. Curious, he stood up and walked to the windows as the light continued to grow more intense. He glanced over at Britney, who still slept on her side of the bed. Without waking, she put her hand where Adam's body had laid a few moments prior.

"And I'm the heavy sleeper?" His sarcastic remark came out seconds before a sharp pain filled his entire body. He grew rigid. He tried to cry for help but all that came out of his throat was harsh gurgle. He felt a lightness in his whole body. He began to float slightly upwards as if he was leaf caught in a light breeze. Scared, he tried to flail, to wiggle free of the invisible grasp that held his body so tightly.

A tingling sensation began to grow in his fingertips. The feeling moved up through his arms and into his chest. Adam closed his eyes and said a prayer to a God that he stopped believing in a long time ago. It was not the most eloquent or poetic of prayers but what it lacked in polished quality it more than made up for in sincere belief. It was simple and straight-forward: "Dear God, please make it stop."

Despite the desperation of his plea, however, it went unanswered.

Adam's body disappeared leaving Britney alone in the bedroom. There was a loud popping noise. Neither of them knew it but both of their lives had been changed forever. Of course, Britney was too busy dreaming about having a candy bar for a head to appreciate the drastic change about to befall her.

She awoke several hours later as the phone rang. She ignored it at first because it was her day off and she was intent on taking it easy and as being as lazy as she could manage. Besides in her sleepy state she assumed that Adam was still there to get it.

"Adam," she moaned out after the third ring. When she got no response she half opened her eyes and found Adam missing from the bed. "Adam!" she shouted louder. Only the ring of the phone answered her. Sighing, she rolled over and picked up the phone. "Hello?" she asked groggily into the mouthpiece.

"Is Adam there?"

"Sorry. He's at work. Call later." Britney started to hang up the phone when the voice interrupted her.

"No, he's not. This is Louise at Kids' Vids! He hasn't shown up."

"Excuse me?" Britney asked. She was waking up now and not liking what she was hearing.

"Adam hasn't come into work. Is he running late?" Except for one time when he stepped on a nail and had to go to the emergency room, Adam had never been late for a single day of work. Britney looked at the clock, he was two hours late. He'd call that 'unacceptable' if a co-worker came in that late when he was working. She was brought back to reality by the voice on the other end of the line. "Do you know if he's gonna come in today? We're having a promotion and we really need him."

"I'm sorry," she replied, "I don't know where he is."

"Well, if you see him, could you tell him to come in right away. We'd really - put that down! No! No! That is not a toy! -- We'd really appreciate it." Britney could hear the bedlam over the phone. She'd always teased Adam that he was good with kids and he'd always played it down, insisting he didn't understand them and their catchphrases. Despite Adam's feelings, right now it was sounding to Britney like the store was collapsing in his absence.

"Sure," Britney said and hung up the phone. She got out of bed and looked around the room. Everything was just how she'd left it when she'd gone to sleep the night before, including Adam's pants and shoes. His wallet still sat on top of the dresser. "Well," she said aloud to herself, "he either hasn't left or he's very cold."

Confident that she would him asleep on the couch in the living room or sick in the bathroom she walked out of the bedroom. When she stepped into the living room, however, it was empty. She then poked her head into the kitchen and then into the bathroom. Nothing. After creating an odd scenario in her mind where Adam got trapped in the closet looking for a coat or perhaps an umbrella, she looked in there. He was nowhere to be found.

Well, if he wasn't in the apartment maybe he'd borrowed her car. It'd piss her off if he took it without asking but at least she'd know to stop worrying. She looked out the window but her car still sat right outside, untouched since last night.

Her mind raced. She racked her brain trying to remember if Adam had mentioned anything about an appointment or an errand. She walked back to the bedroom and sat down on the edge of the bed. She wasn't coming up with anything despite her best efforts. She was concentrating so hard that she was oblivious to the fact that she was staring at the one thing that had changed since last night: a small circular scorch mark on the carpet. Finally she snapped out of her daze and stared at the burn mark. She got off the bed and knelt down next to the stain. She tentatively touched it and found it was still warm.

She was pondering what it could be when a snippet from conversation from last night exploded out of her memory banks. Something that Adam and his mother had talked about. Cindy had wanted Adam to pick up a new stack of books waiting for her at the bookstore. Britney got up and walked over to the phone. She picked it up and dialed Cindy's number. The phone rang a few times before Cindy picked it up.

"Hello?"

"Hey Cindy, it's Britney."

"Britney? What is it?"

"I was just wondering if Adam was over there, picking those books up for you."

"No. Shouldn't he be at work?"

"Well, yeah. But he's gone missing," Britney forced a small laugh, trying to make it sound casual and relaxed. Cindy, however, was a very clever woman and seemed to sense the tension behind her words.

"Missing?" Cindy asked, her voice filled with shock and more than a trace of indignation. "What do you mean mising?"

"Well, he isn't at work and he isn't at home and he didn't borrow my car. I just thought he might be with you or that you might know where he is."

"Well, I don't. Are you sure he's missing? Maybe he just ran to the corner store or something."

"He's gone Cindy. He left his wallet behind. And there's some kind of weird stain on the floor that wasn't there last night."

"A stain?"

"Yeah, there's some kind of scorch mark in the carpet."

"How big is the burn mark?"

"I don't know. Maybe a foot wide."

Silence. It was such a rich silence that for a moment Britney suspected that the two of them had been disconnected. "Hello?" Britney asked. More silence. Then it hit Britney. "You know what happened, don't you?" She asked. "Where is he? What happened to him? If you know then we can go get him." Britney was getting a bit worked up. She'd done a good job, she felt, of being calm up until now so she felt entitled to a little bit of a rant.

"He's never coming back," Cindy replied quietly. Her voice had a grim finality to it. It brokered no argument and wouldn't tolerate further questions.

"What do you mean by that?" Britney demanded. She was, after all, not a woman to take subtle hints. "Cindy? Cindy?" A dial tone let her know that Cindy had hung up on her. Britney threw the phone against the wall and yelled the most creative string of expletives that she could think of. She covered her face and forced herself to breathe normally.

Britney had always prided herself on being a driven, self-sufficent person. She wasn't the type to panic when confronted with a crisis. She was a logical person and felt she could work her way through any problem if given enough time. She forced herself to breathe and take everything in. "Adam," she said to herself, "if you are on this Earth I will find you."
---

Unfortunately, he wasn't. He didn't know where he was but he knew it wasn't familiar. He awoke to total and utter darkness. At first he could make out nothing, not even his own body. He knew his body was there because he found himself nude and the room was cold. As his eyes adjusted to the dark he began to make out the shapes around him. He could see he was in a cage about eight feet in each direction.

Adam stood up and walked to the bars. He gave them a firm squeeze and even attempted to shake them. They were beyond sturdy. He tried shaking them harder. "Help! Help me!" Adam let go of the bars and sat down. He turned around and placed his back against the bars. He ran his fingers through his hair and took a deep breath, unaware that Britney was doing the same thing right then.

"Don't be afraid," said a distorted voice. At the sound, Adam jerked his head up.

"Who said that?" Adam looked around the room but his eyes still hadn't fully adjusted to the darkness.

"Don't be afraid," the voice repeated. Adam heard footsteps approaching him. Soon Adam could make out an approaching figure. Adam rose to his feet and took a few steps backwards.

"Who are you?"

The figure came into better focus for Adam. It looked human at first glance to Adam but once he saw him better he noticed the figure was a little too thin and angular. He stood a few inches short of seven feet. Its skin was blue and its forehead had a gentle slope which made its gaze more piercing. It moved with a quite grace. It seemed to be dressed in a long flowing robe with a huge collar. It made its way over to the cage bars. It took a hold of the bars, its long slender fingers wrapped around the rod.

"My name is Ruhe," he said in the same clipped manner. This close it became clear to Adam that this alien was male although if he was forced to pinpoint the feature that betrayed Ruhe's gender he would be at a loss to explain it.

"What do you want with me?" Ruhe looked at Adam intently. "Why have you kidnapped me?" Ruhe took his hand off the bar and reached for Adam. He didn't move quickly, in fact, he moved with a delicate almost hesitant speed. He put his hand on Adam's cheek.

Adam had thought the creature's skin would be scaly and cool like an amphibian. He was surprised to find that it was actually smooth and warm, much like anyone else's hand. While the touch was gentle, Adam seemed to feel a hidden strength behind those alien fingers. Ruhe removed his hand and took a step backwards. He folded his hands behind his back, turned and walked off. His figure faded into the inky blackness of the room.

"Wait! Don't go! What do you want with me!" Adam shouted out after him. He rested his head against the bars once more. "What do you want with me?" He asked, mostly to himself.

"He won't tell you nothin'. No of 'em will."

Adam looked in the direction of the new voice. After a few moments of concentrating, he could just make out the shape of another person imprisoned a few cages down. He continued staring until he could make the man out better. He was a bulky man covered in cuts, bruises and scars. His left eye was almost swollen shut and his right was bloodshot. He looked like he was in one of the worst bar fights in history.

"Who are you?"

"Name's Lucas. What's yours?"

"Adam."

"Adam, what day is it?"

"Excuse me?"

"The day. What is it?"

"Friday."

"What number? What month?"

"May. The seventh."

Lucas' body sagged under the weight of that information.

"How long have you been here?"

"Almost two months."