Brave New World

[Sometime in the Future]

The announcement began in a digitalized robotic male sound coming from everywhere and nowhere at the same time. We listened feeling creeped out as our stomachs dropped with every word. The hundred of us barely standing.

"Welcome lucky individuals. You have been given the once in a life time oppertunity to represent your primitive species and compete in this terain contructed carefully according to features from each of your planets. Last ones standing by the end of the given time shall be rewarded with their lives."

👽👽

[Present time]

{Anara's POV}

A primal fear.

A dark lane.

A predator on the hunt.

And a prey running for her life and maybe something more dear to her.

The brunette with once silky hair now in tangles, ran huffing through the sark barely lit by the quater moon.

The predator sauntered with confidence, knowing that the prey had nowhere to go and would eventually tire out.

The prey needed to stop to breathe, but she couldn't take a chance with the predator on her heels. She ducked into an alley and sat behind a dumpster, trying to catch her breath.

"Little mouse, tired already?"

The bone-chilling sound rang through her head. How was the predator able to talk in her head? How was she able to understand what he was saying? Nothing mattered anymore, she was caught in a corner with nowhere to go anymore and no strength either.

But death is not an easy foe to hug. No matter how inevitable, one cannot help but go down fighting.

The predator's shadow found her before he did. His flourescent canines glowing in the dark with his manic grin.

'No', she thought to herself, 'If I am to die anyway, Imma swipe that smirk off of that snout first!'

In one swift moment, the predator had her by the jaw, feet hanging a couple of inches above the ground, nearly choking her, "Too bad. I was hoping the chase could go on a little longer."

"Too bad indeed!" She gasped and the predator suddenly let her go.

He looked down at the metal bar she was holding whose other end was lodged between his ribs, straight through his heart. His mouth bubbled with hot aubergine body fluids, taking his life with them.

The prey had killed the predator because it was the least expected outcome. She sat breathing deeply staring at the corpse of the creature that had terrified her nearly to death.

"You thought you killed me, little mouse?" The familiar voice rang through her head and her eyes widened as the gash in the chest made by the metal bar started healing itself.

"No!" She cried out in despair.

~

"No!"

Anara woke up covered in sweat and breathing heavily.

She looked around and it took her a couple of minutes to realize that she just had another one of her usual nightmares.

She checked the time. The alarm on her bedside table blinked at 05:03 AM. She sighed. It was pointless to go back to sleep. Her shift started in a couple of hours.

She took off her Modius Sleep Device (MSD) and turned it off.

She changed into her sports gear and went to jog around the residential area. Once showered and dressed in her uniform, she left her house.

She arrived at the precinct of the Police Station with her coffee in hand and took the elevator straight to the floor of her Department.

"Morning Boss, you, oh!" Started a fellow officer before commenting, "The device didn't help?"

"What?" I asked confused as I walked straight to my cabin.

"There's bags under your eyes. I assumed that device you got for sleeping didn't work last night either." The coworker explained as he placed a paperbag on Anara's desk which she questioned with a raised brow.

"Michelle, brought donuts for everyone today." Her coworker explained.

Anara nodded and took a glazed donut from the bag before answering her coworker, "MSD is working fine. Took my four hours."

"Was it the nightmares then?" Her coworker, who had worked for her a long while now, sat on her desk and asked in a concerned tone.

Anara replied with a nod as she sipped her coffee and turned on her office computer, making it clear that she didn't want to talk about it anymore.

Her coworker got the message and changed the topic of conversation, "The forensics of Wilson Murder Case just arrived. Emailed 'em to you."

"Any leads?" Anara asked focusing on the screen.

"Nothing. Unless you count the elevated glucose levels in the blood." He shrugged.

"Just like the last three victims." Anara concluded and her coworker nodded. They both shared a glance and looked at the super sweet donuts in their hands. The took a bite of their donuts simultaneously before breaking out in matching grins. The job became easier if you don't take everything too seriously. That meant not stopping yourself from enjoying your donuts only because the recent victims of a serial killer died with high blood sugar levels.

~

After another day of goose chases and unsolved serial killer riddles, Anara clocked off from her shift and drove to her usual take-out diner to grab a dinner. As she waited for her order to be made, she went through her personal chats.

Her mother had called twice during the day with one voicemail saying she needed to tell something to Anara, so she should call her back.

Anara's thumb hovered over the call button, before her order was done. She turned off her phone and drove back to her apartment. On the way, she stopped at a taffic signal beside a public park.

One accidental glance to her left and she saw a group of three men surrounding a girl who looked no older than sixteen looking terrified. Without thinking, Anara grabbed her badge and gun and rushed out of her vehicle.

"Hey!" She took their attention and flashed her badge, "NYPD! Leave her alone if you don't want to spend the night or more in jail."

The men turned to her and the girl took the oppertunity to run away.

"Unless, you intend to fight us all, you are outnumbered officer." One of the them smirked.

"I mean, I always wanted to hit a uniform." Another one commented, licking his lips and looking her up and down like a piece of meat.

Anara had dealt with monsters like them before. She took out her gun and pointed at them, "I guess, now we are even."

Before either of them could make a move, a bright neon green light shone on top of Anara's head like a street light just got turned on. But there was no pole.

"What the-?" Muttered one of the men as everyone looked up confused.

Anara felt Earth's grip on her loosen as she got lifted up the green spotlight beam just like the predator had held her up dangling above the ground. Her heart skipped a beat. She didn't remember going home and putting on her MSD which usually triggered her bizzare nightmares. Then, what the hell was going on? She felt terrified but couldn't produce a single sound despite her efforts.

She saw the men look just as terrified but didn't move or call for help. One of them ran away. 'Bastards,' She thought as her vision had started to blur and her body went going numb until she lost consciousness altogether.

👽👽

**Author's note:

Hello and Welcome to all my escapist fellows who chose to leave the cliches and trends behind to venture into a new world. This book is re-written with new romances and new characters but same genre and themes.

I have always believed in Aliens because I once read somewhere that not believing in the Aliens is like like holding a spoon of water and claiming there are no sharks in the ocean because there are none in my spoon. And our world is but a tiny speck in the vast space.

Where do you think Anara is being taken? How long do you think she can survive whatever is coming for her?

Share your guesses and thoughts in the comments <3