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The power had gone out after only a few days, and it never cas had felt different when that happened Her parents had tried to make it fun They attempted to keep Sloan cala roo to newscasts She had been allowed to eat all the chips, cookies, and other junk food she could get her hands on Her dad andhome each day with arrocery store anymore
It hadn’t been until the day her fa ss would never be the saiant creature with a creanal of the end of her childhood and time on Earth Its eyes had been red, and the claws on its hands could shred ht He’d had a gun that Sloan had never seen before stowed under the couch Her father dragged it out and two ear piercing blasts shot across the room Two bullets hit the massive beast in the chest The bullets ricocheted off its hardened hide and enrage it further
Sloan’s mom had pushed Sloan down the hallway and told her to hide in her closet Sloan had been frozen in fear as she watched the creature approach her father and grab hi and sla it stu herfor it to stop Her mom had screamed at her to run But she couldn’t She was stuck to the floor as if her feet had been nailed down
She couldn’t move and didn’t rabbed herwith her father Her mother had pleaded with Sloan to run, but the shock of the situation had kept her rooted in place It wasn’t until the creature returned for her that her fight-or-flight instincts had returned, and she ran for her life The creature had easily closed the distance between the her over its shoulder as she struggled, kicked, and screamed Her hands had been bruised and cut in her efforts to punch and hit the hide of that creature, and tears had streamed down her face as she was placed in the back of some kind of transport
The last vision she had of herfor Sloan as she was being shoved into the back of a separate transport They had both struggled, screaiant beasts had whacked her round Her mom’s lifeless eyes had stared back at Sloan fro Sloan’s as her hand reached out to her It was thatand sweating with tears running down her face She hated those dreaet than to re of the past only led to heartache
Sloan had shut down, going partially catatonic as she was pushed toward the transports One side of the road had been lined with transports for women, and the other side with ones for le smaller transport that hovered in the center of the road A helpless feeling had settled into her Could she have done more? Why hadn’t she moved when her mother had told her to? Why had she stood there and allowed herself to be taken? The crying and screaed her, as it had reminded her of her own inability and weakness to react and help her parents
She was angry with her parents Why hadn’t they run? Why hadn’t they found soet away froh Sloan’stime after she was taken She had vacillated between deep despair and unfathoer that had kept her going so er than fear
She’d wiped the tears from her eyes in the back of that transport, and plans for how she would escape for beyond hope that her hts from the mind of a child Sloan realized it even at that h the next ten years of hell
Chapter 5
“We’ve got enough fuel rods to get us to Halkon Station and for trading, if you wanted to stop” Eaon interrupted her thoughts, bringing Sloan back from her memories He put down the updated inventory list once the items from the shuttle haul had been added “Do you want ht to Seru Pri his chair to face Sloan
Sloan glanced over his shoulder at the course he’d plotted, taking in his slightly feathered appearance His blue feathered hair was soht of the pictures she’d drawn as a child Using her i she would have done in her childhood
Eaon had been a crew member for more than two years He’d been an invaluable addition and one whose judgation Eaon was the only person she trusted o It still hurt her heart when she thought of the day he’d left what she thought of as their ship Another person in her life who had left her behind
Sloan had let only a small set of individuals into her heart as friends and family in the years since she’d been taken from Earth She hadn’t let any in when it came to love It was hard to let yourself be vulnerable when the scars and dae of years of captivity crisscrossed your body Thin
king of the little girl she’d been, happy to spend time with her parents after her birthday, Sloan wished she could go back and tell her she would survive everything that was to come
Knowing she would captain a ship and would ith people like Eaon, Erl, and Dev ht haveshe would encounter a—species froht have made those first few years less painful She wondered what her life would have been like had Earth never been discovered and conquered