My head hurt. No, it was my side. I opened my eyes under the blistering sun and got kicked again.

“Wake up.”

She was wearing spandex and looked like she could run to the colony.

I was dehydrated and wanted to die.

“If you can’t keep up with us, you’ll be left behind.”

“You don’t know where you’re going,” I said.

She smirked, and held up the device.

Then they left, and an hour went by, or it could’ve been five minutes. I felt at peace, like I was getting a sun tan on a beautiful beach. I heard the ocean, and felt it washing into my feet; or maybe my body was just going into shock, but I couldn’t tell, so it didn’t matter.

I saw something silver flying above me, even though it was probably just my dying brain cells, and a few moments later I got kicked in the side again. So, I turned over to give her a piece of my mind.

And it was an alien, pointing a gun at me.

I reacted, grabbing my .357 Magnum from out of my pants and firing a round into her head. Getting up, I inspected the body. I was shaking. Purple sludge was draining into the sand and twenty feet away her silver space craft was waiting.