Gate Program Part 2

A Sci-Fi Thriller Short Story Series

Are you ready for Gate Program Part 2? Welcome back to this sci-fi thriller series following Ally Cranston, an escapee from the Gate Program Center. If you need a refresher, here is Part 1: Gate Program Part 1

Ally scrunched in across from her. “Is everything okay?” Svetlana spoke in a heavy Russian accent and watched her through black rimmed glasses.

Ally struggled to remember who Svetlana actually was. A friend? She didn’t seem like someone she’d hang out with for fun. She drew a blank. Frustration welled up in her voice. “Fine. Except I can’t remember anything. You look familiar but I don’t know who you are. Who am I? And what am I doing here?” She held her fist up to slam it down on the table but caught herself. Dare she make a scene? Get to the bottom of what the hell was happening to her? A tear ran from her eye.

Svetlana placed a hand on her arm. “It’s okay. You’ve been through a lot. How’s your head?”

“My head? Did something happen to me? Is that why I can’t remember anything?”

Svetlana gazed at her with pity in her eyes. She sat back. “You really don’t remember? You fell and hit your head. Then, you left and I followed you here. I came to get you and bring you home, back to the Gate Program Center. Back to your friends.”

Ally backed away. Something didn’t seem right. Svetlana looked familiar, but she still couldn’t recall how they knew each other. She had a strange look about her – her eyes were cold and insincere and her face looked too artificial. And what was the Gate Program Center?

“Ally.” She heard a voice from the other end of the crowded diner. Her trucker friend in the brown hat waved to her and bounded over, shoving past the other patrons.

Svetlana frowned and her eyes became dark. “Who’s that?”

“He’s the nice trucker who picked me up at the side of the road and drove me here, that’s all I remember.”

A storm swept over Svetlana’s face and her eyes retracted into slits like a snake’s. Ally’s mind recoiled and then another slideshow of memories came to her. She saw herself lying in a hospital bed. She watched Svetlana appear from the shadows in a lab coat, her reptilian eyes unblinking, standing over her with a giant needle. She saw herself grabbing Svetlana’s wrist, wrestling the needle away. Stop. Overwhelmed, she jumped up and bumped the waitress just about to take their order.

“Where are you going?” Svetlana’s eyes were human again.

Ally’s heart hammered in her ears. She pushed through the crowd of restaurant patrons and the trucker grabbed her hand. “Hey, You wanted me to help you. To take you up north away from them.” He pointed at Svetlana. “She’s not your friend. Let’s get out of here.”

Svetlana snarled and held her hand up from across the diner. A strange feeling came over Ally. She felt drawn to Svetlana, and a magnetic power wrestled her, pulling her back in.

Ally’s shoes squeaked as she slid over the wood floor halfway to the Russian woman. Enough. Ally flung both hands up in the air. No you don’t. She pushed with her palms out to repel the magnetic pull and Svetlana fell backwards, toppling over her chair.

The trucker looked at her with a mixture of horror and admiration. He grabbed her wrist and they squeezed past the patrons flooding the diner for lunch. Two tall men in black suits and dark sunglasses appeared in the doorway.

“These guys ain’t friendly.” The trucker swiped a hot coffee from the waitress and splashed it onto their suits. He and Ally bolted out the door and ran to his cab.

Ally climbed into the truck and slammed the door. They pulled out of the parking lot and she turned her head and watched the Men in Black run after them. They became smaller through the rear window as the truck sped away and she saw them finally give up and slink back to the diner. She caught her breath and studied the trucker beside her. His jaw was clenched and stubble surrounded his face. Crow's feet started around the corners of his eyes. He was in his thirties, maybe? She looked deep into his soul, scanning for signs of deceit. “Who are you anyway? Why should I trust you?”

The trucker lumbered on the gas peddle, driving north on the highway. He turned to her. “James Raymond. We met at the Gate Program but you probably don’t remember that.”

“I don’t remember shit.” Ally slumped into her seat. She thought about jumping out of the cab and running away on her own. Why should I trust this guy? Why should I spend one more second in this damn truck?

“Is anything coming back to you?”

She kicked the dashboard. “No.”

“Hey, watch it.” James looked at her with irritation. “Just take your time remembering. You had a pretty back knock on the head. It’ll come back to you.”

Ally did remember some things. She remembered the group chat with other girls like her, talking about their strange looking eyes and how weird it was they all shared similar looks. They even shared the same telekinetic powers. She remembered running away from the Gate Program compound. Should she tell James?

She glanced at him and then back at the road. “I remember climbing a wire fence and trying to get away.” Her voice was quiet. She felt a tinge of embarrassment over kicking the dash. “And I remember being in some kind of lab and Svetlana poking me with a needle.”

“Bastards.” James punched the dashboard and gripped the steering wheel tighter. He pulled his sleeve up and showed her a row of red dots along the inside of his arm. “Look here. All from the doctors at the Gate Program. Needles, tracking chips, tiny mind reading devices, you name it. They injected me with everything.”

Ally stared at him. “You’re a part of this ‘Gate Program’ too?”

James grinned and turned the steering wheel. His foot eased off the gas as they approached an important off ramp. “Yes ma’am. Since I was a little kid.”

“What’s it all for? Why did they keep us there?”

James was silent for a moment. He pressed the gas and looked at Ally with a seriousness she found unsettling. “They grew us in a lab. We are their experiment.”

Ally breathed out, taking in this new bit of information. “Who’s ‘they’?”

James grit his teeth. “The aliens and the government. They work together. They’re trying to create a super race of hybrid humans.”

She studied him. His explanation sounded so weird and unbelievable, but oddly, she knew deep down he was right. “So where do we go? Won’t they find us?”

“Maybe. Maybe they won’t. I know one thing. I don’t wanna be their lab rat anymore.”

Ally nodded and looked out onto the lonely highway stretching out like a snake over the Canadian north. What’s that? Her pupils enlarged when she saw it in the sky.

A metallic orb came into focus, growing in size as they sped down the road. It buzzed above and then floated alongside them.

“A drone.” James hammered the gas and burned down the highway.

“Where’d it come from?” A shiver squeezed Ally’s spine and she grabbed the edges of her seat.

James glanced at her, swerving into the next lane. “Can’t you use your powers or something? Get rid of it?”

Ally closed her eyes and focused on the orb. She lifted her palms and pushed with her energy.

“Yeah, that’s it.” James laughed, vengeance flickering in his eyes. “Crash it, baby, make it burn.”

Ally squeezed her lids shut and moved her hands, motioning for the orb to tumble through the air and dive into the trees. She looked up with her palms out and watched it crash into a ravine.

“Yes!” James smacked the dash. He high fived Ally and for a brief moment, they celebrated the orb’s destruction.

The fuzzy dice hanging from the rear view mirror began to shake. Ally knew in her core they were being followed again, but this time it was by something gigantic. Something more than she could manage. A huge shadow hung over their truck and James groaned. “What the?”

“It’s overtop of us, can’t you drive faster?”

“I’m trying.” He locked his hands over the steering wheel. “Do something!”

“It’s too big.” Ally stared out the window and realized a saucer-shaped mother ship had overtaken them. She screamed and darkness filled the cab.

***

Thank you for reading! Stay tuned for Gate Program Part 3.

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An Orb Over The Strawberry Moon