Shalia's Diary Read Online Free Page B

contains harmful bacteria.  I have made a scan of you as you slept, and you appear to be healthy at this time.”
     
    “Should you prefer to seek shelter and assistance before the five days are up, you are more than welcome to come to the Academy.  There we will register you so that any family members who are looking for you can be reunited.  We will also explain your new home options and schedule a transport to take you where you wish to live.”
     
    “I look forward to seeing you soon.”
     
    Dramok Dusa disappeared, his great big self replaced by the floating words, Play recording again?   He’d used an Earther device to record his message.  I could see ‘Property of Law Enforcement Academy’ stamped on it.  He’d even spoken perfect English, albeit with a kind of slurred accent.
     
    Mom was already pawing through the container, which had fruits and vegetables.  She shoved a peach in her mouth, not noticing as juice ran down her arm to drip off her elbow.  She had already disappeared back behind the veil of dementia.  As angry as she is when she’s herself, at least she could have offered a good sounding board for me to discuss our situation with.  Now she was gone in that little girl mindset, leaving me to figure everything out on my own.  Again.
     
    It was on the tip of my tongue to warn her not to eat the food, which might have been drugged or poisoned.  Then it occurred to me that had the Kalquorian wanted to hurt or kidnap us, he could have easily done so last night.  I sure as hell never heard him come into the house.  Okay, so apparently his kind aren’t in a hurry to harvest vaginas.  That’s something of a relief, I guess.
     
    Still, he’d said he’d done a medical scan.  Even if it was a portable scanner that one just waves over the body, the idea makes me feel a little too vulnerable.  Almost violated, in fact.  The thought of it sends cold through my body even now despite the oppressive heat and humidity we’re having. 
     
    I shake to realize how helpless Mom and I had been against this Dramok Dusa despite the locked doors and windows (which were, by the way, still locked when I checked).  He must have used a frequency disruptor to break in.  I almost threw up just thinking about it.
     
    He is coming back in five days.  I have that long to find us another place to hide.  At least I know who had been watching me at the river.  The alien’s snide little remark about the water’s drinkability told me that much.
     
    “Are we going to the Academy before he comes back?”  My mother spoke around a mouthful of juicy peach.
     
    “Now why would we do such a thing?” I snapped.  “Didn’t you hear what he said?  They’re registering Earthers.  Getting a head count.  Processing us.  Then we’re off to work in their mines and have their freak alien babies.”
     
    I realized I was repeating the Earther government mantra on the evils of Kalquorians.  I had no idea if they kept slaves for their mines these days, like they had done to Joshadans in the very distant past.  The breeding thing was pretty much a foregone conclusion though.
     
    “He said we could go to one of our own colonies.  We don’t have to go to Kalquor.”
     
    I snorted at her mind-fogged innocence.  “It’s just a bunch of pretty lies told by the enemy.  They know a good number of us are desperate enough to buy into it too.” 
     
    Despite my concerns, I couldn’t help but poke around the food container Dusa had left behind.  Tomatoes, strawberries, lettuce, oranges, green beans, carrots, and so much more.  There were even two whole chickens, kept fresh in cooling containers.  And water.  Lots and lots of water.
     
    “We can’t stay here.  Earth is dying, he said.  Or is that a lie too?” Mom asked.
     
    No, that’s the truth.  Mike told me if even just a quarter of the warheads went off, we were pretty much looking at extinction.  But Mom’s eyes were filling with