Chapter 73

Harper s fingers found the collar around her neck. It sat heavily on her collar bones, a weighty reminder that only a few hours before, she had been free and working in her parent s garden, trying to coax the fragile seedlings into life. The aliens did not bother with the rural areas, concentrating their forces in the cities, and she had believed herself safe in the tiny village where she had grown up, until the afternoon skies had darkened with their vessels. Their men had torn through the sleepy village, breaking into each house and dragging the women within out onto the road, tearing their clothing from them and scanning them with their devices. By whatever measure they used, they had separated the women into two groups, collaring many before dragging them towards the vehicles. It had been her first time seeing the aliens, and she had been astonished by how similar and yet dissimilar they were. Big men, muscular and handsome, their skin covered in patterns of scarring wh