Ravenous (The Ravening #1)(4)
Author: Erica Stevens

As time passed this claim seemed more and more acceptable, especially once they began to share their greater technology and vastly superior medical advances with us. Incurable cancers were cured; diseases were brought under control, if not eradicated. They taught us to harvest solar power in new and far more effective ways that drastically reduced our reliance on fossil fuels and nearly eradicated air pollution. They introduced a new form of irrigation that allowed us to grow food even in the most arid of deserts, including Antarctica. Millions of starving people were suddenly fed, people were healthier, happier, and starting to rely upon the advances the aliens gave to us. Everything they did for us was an improvement; life became radically better for everyone throughout those first nine months.

But on that strange, frightening first day, Cade had been in my neighborhood. I never knew why, as he didn’t live close to us, but suddenly his car was stopping before me. He’d leaned across the front seat of his beater car, his arm on the passenger side window as he leaned toward us. Toward me. He had been thinner then and gangly, but never awkward. Cade had miraculously managed to skip all of the awkward stages that were involved with being a teenager and always been gorgeous, heartbreakingly so.

His midnight eyes appeared even darker as the sun disappeared behind the ship and he pinned me with that unerring, fathomless gaze. I was unnerved, and yet strangely enchanted by his forceful stare, a stare that didn’t leave me, not even to watch the extraordinary new arrivals as they slid across the sky. I had to force my gaze away from his as I turned my attention back to our suddenly bizarre sky. Then the ship had moved past us. The sun had reappeared as the ship left the rural areas behind for Boston.

“Are you ok?”

My attention had been drawn back to Cade as he uttered the question. I couldn’t find words for him; I didn’t have any right now. I was terrified, fascinated, and completely astonished to realize that aliens actually did exist. And they were here. I didn’t know if I was ok, I didn’t know if any of us would ever be ok again. Clenching my jaw, feeling like an idiot in the face of his confident aura, I had managed a small nod.

There had been a strange gleam in his eyes as he studied me attentively. He’d appeared strangely torn about leaving us there, but that made no sense, we barely knew each other, and we certainly weren’t friends. At least we weren’t friends anymore, we hadn’t been for years. Finally he had returned my nod, sat back in the driver’s seat, and drove away. I’d watched him go until he took a left and disappeared. We hadn’t spoken since.

I blinked as I was torn from the memory of that day by the shaking of the building. A strange thrill of excitement ran through me as I studied Cade with a growing sense of wonder and curiosity.

Then, the quaking increased and I forgot all about him as my terror spiked again. The glass in the windows began to rattle in the frames, vibrating with the force of whatever was coming toward us. I took an instinctive step back. Cade’s hand fell briefly against my back, stopping me from moving before his touch slipped away.

I watched in fascination, and dread, as he moved back toward the window. I almost grabbed him and told him to stop, but I was unable to move. He eased down a slat on the blinds, barely moving it as he peered out the window. Drawn by curiosity, I crept toward him. Pressing against his back, I leaned forward to peer over his shoulder. He shot me a look but didn’t try to stop me.

The shaking increased, the noise level escalated as it echoed throughout the store. I searched for the source of the sound, but I couldn’t pinpoint it through the small gap in the blinds. I jumped as a large thing suddenly loomed before us. And thing was the only word that could be used to describe it. I had no idea what it was; I’d never seen anything like it. But it was awful, disgusting, gross in ways that I had never begun to imagine gross.

Cade grabbed hold of my shoulder, holding me still as I instinctively took a frightened step back from the monstrosity outside. I nearly collided with a table containing fragile figurines that would have shattered on impact. The saying bull in a china shop flashed through my mind, and I knew I would have to be careful. I was about as graceful as that bull. There were far too many fragile things within this store, and too many hideous things outside that we had to avoid.

The thing was smaller than a Mac truck but there was something about it that reminded me of a semi without its trailer. It crept forward on numerous legs that were arachnid in appearance, but swollen, red, and bloated like an overfed tick. The legs seemed to pulse and vibrate with some strange life force. I was completely unable to understand what it was doing, unable to comprehend what it could possibly be. My mind simply couldn’t wrap around the hideousness of this atrocity before us.

It stopped next to a few of the frozen bodies, hovering above them as it lowered to get closer to the people. I watched in repulsed fascinated as one of those legs curled up before snaking out from the revolting creature. The tentacle-like appendage moved with an uncanny, rapid grace that was almost as captivating as it was repulsive. I found myself entranced by its snakelike movements. The tentacle was clear as it slithered over the ground before snagging hold of a man holding hands with a woman.

My mouth dropped and a scream tore up my throat. Before I could utter a sound, Cade slid his hand over my mouth. He pulled me against him, pressing my back to his chest as he held me close. My knees buckled and I found myself barely able to remain standing. Cade helped keep me up, but I could feel a tremor in his taut, lean muscles.

The tentacle thingy slithered up the man’s leg and up to his chest. It pulled back when it reached the man’s face and hovered before him like a cobra ready to strike. It remained there for a few seconds before attacking with deadly, and startling, velocity. It sank into the man’s throat and drove forward as it buried itself deep within his body. The tentacle was clearly visible as it slithered beneath the man’s skin and made its way rapidly through his body. The clear tentacle began to fill with pulsating blood as the man suddenly, and violently, came back to life. Vomit rolled through me, and it was only the mortifying thought of throwing up on Cade’s hand that helped me suppress it.

The poor man thrashed against the thing moving through him, his arms flailed crazily against the brutal assault being waged on his body. He grasped at the woman beside him, but she remained still as stone, oblivious to his agony. The man’s fingers tore at the invader, trying to pull it free, but his efforts were useless and only caused more blood to spill from his already brutalized throat. I gagged, choked, nearly fell as every muscle in my body collapsed.