Sabria glanced upward, fearfully. The sky above her had darkened with Balazoid warships, the invasion having started at daybreak. The fighting originated in the city’s core, the missiles pummeling the walkways and destroying the buildings around her. My brother’s not coming for me. I have to save myself. Sabria ran along the darkened alley, an alley similar to the one she’d met Darius in, moving toward the outskirts of the city, zigzagging to evade the swifter Balazoid forces. The zing of gunfire echoed around her and the earth shook, the fighting growing fiercer. A woman huddled against a wall, unconscious, her single eye closed, her chest moving with each breath, one of many women Sabria had seen this morning. Any female who hadn’t taken a Balazoid blocker had been rendered immobile, ready for pickup by the Balazoids. They’d become breeders, sexual slaves. My fate. Sabria hid in an alcove and extracted her long-range communicator, praying it would work with the Balazoid ships filling the airspace above her.
