“No.”
“Are you sure?”
“I think I’d know if she were dead, Luke.”
“If you say so.”
“She wouldn’t be breathing, genius.”
I slowly opened my eyes and was met with blurry vision. I made out two figures and blinked until my surroundings became clear. I was in an unfamiliar spaceship with two unfamiliar people. I sat up quickly on the comfortable single bed and looked around myself. There was a plate nicely set with pink food next to the bed. I reached down and took the fork sitting on the platter.
“Who are you?” I asked quickly, holding the fork with both hands toward them.
“Oh you’re awa-” The younger brunette male started turning toward me and froze once he spotted me.
“Whoa. We got a fussy one.” The older one, sitting in the front behind the ship controls spoke. His voice hinted that he was humored by my actions. I tightened my grip on the fork.
“Shut it.” The younger male said back at the other and returned his attention to me. “Look we’re not going to hurt you. We just saw your emergency light turn on and saw the alien ship leave. We figured they took someone because of the screams coming from it. We’ve been following it. We wanna help.” He explained calmly. My eyes widened as the memory from the attack all came back. One  of those things had  came into my home and taken my younger sister. I just barely was able to turn the emergency light on before it all went black.
“Lily...Wait you want to help? A random stranger? That you only happened to pass by?” I asked raising an eyebrow in suspicion.
“Yeah. We were training to work in S.P.A.C.E. but that didn’t work out. We didn’t like the way they handled situations. Instead of teaching us to fight those things they were teaching us how to run. Anyway, we decided to help people like we believe the S.P.A.C.E should. We drive around helping those that we can.” The younger brunette boy explained. His hazel eyes seemed honest enough and I was desperate to get to my sister.
“Okay.” I simply answered spotting the Space Protection of Alien Creatures Everywhere badge poking out of his front pocket. If I was going to trust anyone,  it was  going to be them. I dropped my hand to the side and gently dropped the fork onto the comfortable cushion I had woken up on.
“Okay...I’m Ryder, by the way. And that’s Luke over there.” The younger boy explained and pointed toward the older blonde boy driving. His back was to us but he still gave a wave. “Do you remember what year it is? What your name is?”
“Yeah, it’s the year 3034 and my name is Ruby.” I responded as I walked toward the front of the ship, where a huge window allowed you to see everything in front of you. I pointed at a small figure in the distance. “Is that the ship? The one that took my sister?”
“That’s the one.” Ryder answered next to me, making me jump a little, I hadn’t notice him approach. “Sorry.” He mumbled humored noticing my small fright.
“We’re keeping our distance. We need to find out where they take their victims. That way we may be able to save others captured.” Luke explained as he continued to drive the ship.
“You should get some rest.” Ryder pointed out beside me. I gave him a small nod.
“Wake me up when they land.” I stated and began to move toward the bed I was on before.
“Will do.” Luke called behind me as I stumbled onto the comfortable cushion. I shut my eyes, trying my best to block the conversation between the guys about ship controls and allowed myself to drift into sleep.
-
“Ruby. They’ve landed.” A soft voice said beside me. I slowly opened my eyes to spot Ryder looking down at me. I sat up quickly and ran a hand through my hair, attempting to fully awake.
“Okay. So what’s the plan?” I asked looking up at him.
“Come here.” Ryder instructed and leaded me toward the front window. “They landed here.” He informed as we reached the window. In front of the ship was a dark planet, it’s color was unclear, either black or an extremely dark grey. It seemed to be surrounded by clouds of smoke. “We’re going to leave the ship hidden here. You can’t tell from here but we’ve positioned it to camouflage with smoke clouds surrounding us. Luke and I are going to get on their planet undetected and enter there.” He continued, now pointing at a large cave like hole on the planet’s surface. “That’s where the ship went in.”
“Where they have my sister...But why you and Luke? What do you expect me to do?”
“Wait here. We’ll be back with all the survivors we find.”
“No. I’m coming with you too. I’m finding me sister.”
“But-”
“You can’t expect me to sit here doing nothing while my sister is in danger.”
“Ruby you’ve never done anything like this before it’s danger-”
“-ous? I don’t care. I’m coming, Ryder. There’s nothing you can say to change that.”
“Oh let her come, Ry.” Luke called from the back of the ship, appearing from behind a door.
Ryder looked at me and then shook his head. “No. We don’t have time to babysit.”
“Excuse me?” I asked slightly taken aback.
“Tie her up.” Ryder said. “We’re not risking any more lives...I’ll be waiting outside.” He placed his helmet and the door on the side opened, he disappeared into the darkness outside.
I began to move backward. “Don’t come near me.” I warned as Luke made his way toward me.
“I’m sorry, Rub. It really isn’t anything personal. You should be flattered. I’m pretty sure this is his way of showing he cares.” Luke spoke and took out a small gun from his back pocket. I moved back until my back hit the wall. The small gun fired and a rope emerged from it and shot toward me. I duck out of it’s way and ran in the opposite direction, the rope chased after me. I continued to duck and dodge until the rope came to an end. I smirked as I looked back toward my work, I had ran and dodged around Luke, he was the one completely tied up.
“It’s nothing personal, Lu. You should be flattered. It’s my way of showing I care.” I mocked as the boy struggled under the ties of rope that reached up under his nose, covering his mouth. I quickly ran to the back of the ship and changed into a suit labeled “Luke”. It was too large but I was still able to move. I found a helmet and walked toward the door. I gave Luke a smile before putting on the helmet and letting it disappear behind the dark front screen. The front door opened and I allowed myself to float outside.
“There you are. I was about to come check on you.” Ryder’s voice came from the small speaker placed inside the helmet.
I didn’t answer, simply followed his figure as he began to drift toward the place.
The closer we came to the planet the more dangerous and lonesome it appeared. If I didn’t know better I’d say it was a haunted planet rather than an alien one. Inside the cave like hole wasn’t any better. “Aright. Luke you’re going to head West and I’ll head East. We’ll meet here in exactly an hour. If you come back and I’m not here, get back to the ship with those you’ve saved and get everyone out of here. Make sure Ruby gets home safely...sister or not.”
Again I didn’t answer verbally. I simply gave him a nod followed by a thumbs up, it seemed like something Luke would do. He nodded back and drifted toward the opposite direction. I quickly began to check around my suit, this suit was different than any I’ve ever known, I’m sure they’d have weapons. I wasn’t wrong, every button revealed a new weapon to defend myself with. I noted where each was placed and set a small time watch on the corner of my screen before heading West, deep into the cave. I kept close to the wall as I carefully stepped and looked around myself attempting to find any type of clue that’d show me a way toward my sister. All I was able to spot was a trial of slim leading even deeper into the cave. I swallowed hard before quickening my step and following it. I stayed on the path carefully stepping but still moving until I spotted an opening. I leaned against the wall and expected it through pecks. As I attempted to see if anyone, or anything was present I heard a scream. A child’s scream. I couldn’t help myself, I started to run. I started to run toward the scream faster than I ever thought I possibly could. I ran toward the back of the room but froze as soon as I hear the familiar clicking. I froze and quickly moved against the nearest wall behind a couple of boxes. I tried to identify where the clicking was coming from but couldn’t find the source. It sounded close, but didn’t sound like it were moving. I keep my eyes searching until suddenly an incredible amount of something clear and slimy dropped from the ceiling. I looked up to find the what was making the clicking noise. There was an alien there, but not just like any alien, this one was about seven times a regular one’s size. It was completely motionless and hanging upside down. Around it hung hundreds of saliva cocoons, inside it were sleeping people. My eyes immediately fell upon Lily’s upside down resting face.
“Luke? Where are you?” Ryder’s voice came. “I think I found a lead.”
“Me too.” I responded without thinking, staring up at the sleeping monster.
“What?...W-ait? Ruby?!”
“...I found the mother of these things.”
“I told you to-”
“I found where these things come from...I found where the survivors are.”
“I- Okay. Where are you?”
“I’ll send you my coordinates now.”
“Right. Don’t do anything dumb while I get there.”
“No promises.”
I answered and clicked a small button on my arm, a small screen appeared from my chest. I clicked on the correlations and sent them to Ryder. Basic controls like these were automatically implanted in everyone’s memory chip when we were born. Soon enough I heard running foot steps behind me.
“Where is it?” Ryder asked, too loudly. I didn’t have time to react before the huge beast began to move. It’s breath instantly felt upon the back of my neck.
“Dang.” We both said at the same time before aiming our weapons toward the monster. I had never fired a space gun, but I caught on quickly. We circled in, each running in the opposite direction and passing each other each time the circle was completed.
“Don’t harm the captured around it.” Ryder yelled. I looked up at the sleeping humans. I aimed my gun carefully at the top of the cocoon Lily was  being held in as Ryder distracted the beast. I pulled the trigger and watched as it dropped. I ran toward the fallen cocoon and carefully sliced it open with a knife.
“Lily?!” I asked immediately putting a hand to her heart and sighing in relief when I felt a beat. Her small eyes slowly opened and her whole body came to life. She sat up taking in deep breaths like she had been held underwater.
“Ruby?” She asked looking up at me and then her surroundings. Her eyes widened at the beast being distracted behind us.
“Take this.” I said handing her the knife I used to release her. “I’m going to need you to free everyone I shot down. Got it?”
The young girl stared at me confused for a moment before nodding and getting up. I gave her a quick tight hug and a smile before beginning to shoot down the rest of the captured.
“Ruby. This thing isn’t going down.” Ryder yelled still circling the creature as I continued to quickly shoot down the cocoons.
“This can’t happen to anyone else…” I mumbled, mostly to myself. I felt around the armor I was wearing until I found what I was looking for, an explosive. I bite down on my lower lip and looked over at Lily. She was working on cutting free the last of those captured.
I turned my attention to the beast reaching out to catch Ryder and then suddenly turned to me. I froze in place before tightening the grip of the explosive I had in my hand and ran toward it’s mouth. As soon as I was near it, it roared, giving me the perfect opportunity to jump inside. I was unable to avoid the yellow sharp teeth completely and got several cuts on my arms and legs. I pulled out another knife and stabbed it into the roof of the monster’s mouth making it roar and shake angrily. I held onto the knife with one hand for balance and turned on a three second timer on the explosive with the other. I shut my eyes before allowing it to drop down the alien’s throat. I now held to the knife with both hands, counting to three in my head.
One...Two...Three
My surroundings shook violently and I felt my body no longer have a grip, I was flying through the air. I didn’t open my eyes, I didn’t want to see myself fall but, I felt it. I landed on my back on something wet, the pain of the land exploded through my entire body.
“Ruby!”
I opened my eyes to see Ryder and Lily running in my direction. Our surrounding was changed completely, the cave was covered in the saliva like substance and a huge black circle marked where the explosive went off. Through the entrance aliens ran inside but shrieked and disappeared as soon as they touched their mother’s insides splattered around the walls. I smiled to myself and let my head fall back. It was over.
I felt Ryder's  arm wrap  around my middle and help me up. He helped me  limp toward the exit of the cave, Lily on my right and hundreds of saved captured followed close behind.
"Are they dead?" Lily asked as we reached the  ship and looked back at the planet.
"This species are. There's no way that they'll live now without their mother, it was their life sources." Luke explained now untied and setting in all our new passengers.
Lily nodded and took my hand in her much softer and smaller one, the pain from the landing immediately began to disappear.
“Let’s go home, sis.”