::The Last Epoch-'19'::

Angel Encounter
Oblivious to the passing of time, I smelled a familiar rotting of flesh. Yet again I woke in a Prison cell with an invisible energy window. I looked around the musty, damp, cramped hell of a room and noticed I was not to be lonely. Locked away with imprisoned with Gig. He lay asleep on his side like a baby comfortable in his cradle. All our possessions were taken except for the clothes on our backs. I agitate him conscious, “Get up, do you know how many revolting diseases are probably on this floor?!” It was like waking an unconscious bull. A dramatized inhaling shocked him awake as if he had a nightmare. “Where am I?” “I’m not sure?” I answered in anguish. “What is that thing on your neck? You’ve got a big smudge,” Gig groaned. “Where?” “Right there on your neck,” here I’ll get it he offered with a licked thumb. “No thanks. Ill leave it there . . .” I groaned. “Wait, you’ve got something there too. Right in the same spot.” I said feeling my neck. “Ow, it hurts when you touch them. Kinda like a bruise.” I peered closer at Gig’s neck. And saw it wasn’t a smudge but a small pattern of lines with a string of dots below it. “They’re lines and dots. Like a bar-code,” I told him. “So, what you’re saying is that while we were knocked out those things tattooed bar-codes on our necks . . . Makes sense, probably to mark our victory or something.” Gig added. “Yeah, makes sense. Let’s stick with that,” I finished.
“Think we should try to contact the others?” “Nah. I’m gonna get something to drink, then I’m gonna catch some ‘z’s while I can. You should do the same. Never know what they’ll do to us next,” I replied. I did as I said I would. About thirty seconds later I felt something like a small animal in my pocket. The moving agitated me up off the floor where I rested. Pulling the gadget from my pocket I pressed the answer button the vibrating phone and lifted it to my ear with haste. “Hello? May I ask who is calling,” I answered in a treble tone? “Yes this is Paul.” “Oh hi, how may I help you?” I asked. “May I speak to the man of the cell?” “Very funny . . . So what are we going to do about all this?” “Hmm, maybe we could just wake up . . . ” “ I just wish it was all that easy.” “We need to find the others.” “Oh no I hears something coming. I’ll call you later.” A high-pitched tone is the warning of the glossy black floating ball with the eye. This eyeball would come by every couple of hours.
We slept, Gig and I, lonesome and hungry with only each other’s company and the occasional face drawn of ink on a fist. I sat and drifted in and out of consciousness for a couple of hours.
I was brought back to reality when I heard something outside the cell. I silently peered through the portal with wide eyes but saw nothing. There was a bluish tint to the light shining in the room from the corridor. “Gig . . . Sean, wake up!” “Wah, what?” The blue luminescence died and glowed back. We sat there staring at each other with emotionless faces. I’m sure he pondered the phenomenon also. “Maybe it was a power outage or something?” We dismissed this.
Some time later, my eye was drawn to a small wondering shadow on the back wall of the cell. I cleared my throat to gain Gig’s attention and with a glance point him toward the motion. We both glared at it with a curious grimace. I noticed many more shadows gathering into clusters in mid air when they began to form a human figure.
With a final wink of light I saw a woman standing in the middle of the cell where she merely appeared as if she had just dropped in. I was astonished to see such a beautiful creature simply materialize in front of us. As if she were an angel dropped from heaven. She wore a dark blue cloak and her face was one to fight a war for. “Ah chi el loh,” she uttered in a low sultry voice. Gig stood up and faced the woman with a gape jaw. “Hi. I’m Sean. I mean Gig,” he uttered with a gesture to shake hands. “Oh good, you see her too,” I said relieved. The woman glared at him with a disgust of foreign customs. I rose to my feet. Looking into her deep brown eyes, I couldn’t read her purpose. “You think she’s here to execute us or something?”
She loomed tall, in her blue cloak. She reached into the shadow of the cloak that enveloped her. With wide-eyed suspense I stared at her arm, which I expected to draw some sort of weapon. Gig looked over at me with a fear of death. She drew her hand where she held a small yellow box. About the size of a book of matches bearing a black stripe across it. She raised her arm perpendicular to the wall. The tall alien woman pressed the device against the wall. The thing stuck as if it had adhesive on a side. She glanced over to us sparingly. With a wave of her hand she activated the device. A high ringing rose in my ear.
This ringing soon dulled and was quickly followed by a heavy by faint marching rhythm. This rhythm continued and grew with every repetition. “Oh Crap, what do you suppose that could be?” Gig said to me concerned. “Trouble?” My stomach turned. The cloaked female vanished into thin air. “What do you suppose she was?” “I Dunno maybe she’s still here,” I replied to Gig, “well, that marching sound doesn’t seem very friendly. Wonder what’s gonna happen.”