Free Evolution by Stephanie Diaz

hardly see where I was going. At least I know I’ll eventually reach the top of the hill.
    â€œDean!” I call again.
    The low hum of a sky engine reaches my ears. I press back against a tree trunk as a raider passes by overhead. It’s moving a lot slower than I’d expect, hovering over the treetops and beaming a light down into the forest. Looking for something—probably bodies of the people the poison knocked out.
    I hold my breath as the light skims past me, waiting for the Mardenites to spot me. But the light doesn’t reach me in my hiding spot, and soon the hum of the engine grows fainter.
    I keep scrambling up the hillside. “Dean!”
    A couple yards ahead, I nearly trip over his body. He’s lying in some underbrush. His eyes are closed and his skin shines with sweat. When I check for a pulse in his wrist, it’s barely there at all.
    I drop to my knees beside him and shake him. “Dean, wake up.”
    He doesn’t respond, no matter how many times I shake him and say his name. More of the vapor must’ve entered his system than mine, or the poison affected him more than it affected me.
    I look around helplessly. If the raiders are searching the forest, I can’t stay here in case they come back. Dean should stay safe in the underbrush while I go see if there are others alive. But I can’t risk getting closer to the hovercraft until I know for sure the raiders aren’t still there. I need a better vantage point.
    On my feet again, I quickly pick out the tallest tree in the vicinity. I pull myself up onto the lowest branch. The bark is coated with moss that’s wet from the rain and slippery to stand on. I make sure I have a firm grip on the branch above me before I climb higher.
    I’d forgotten how wonderful it feels to climb up in high places. I used to escape to the tops of buildings all the time when I was growing up in the work camp on the other side of the Surface. It wasn’t a true escape, not really, but it was something that was mine. Officials couldn’t bother me as easily if I was up high. The only danger was falling, and I wouldn’t let that happen.
    It doesn’t take long to reach a branch that gives me a view of the hilltop. Pushing the leaves aside, I can see smoke rising from the hovercraft wreckage. It’s maybe fifty yards away.
    Two of the raiders have landed in the crash site. Three more circle overhead like monstrous krails.
    An alien stalks into view through the smoke. It’s walking on two legs, but it’s much taller and leaner than any human I’ve ever seen. It carries a weapon, a huge black gun similar to our missile launchers. There’s a strange, translucent quality to the alien’s skin—or maybe what I’m seeing is armor.
    I hadn’t given much thought to what the Mardenites would look like, but I never would’ve imagined a creature like this. So alien, yet there’s something strangely familiar about it—not just the fact it’s walking on two legs. There’s something else. Something I can’t place.
    The alien turns away and disappears into the smoke before I can make out more of its features. Anyway, it’s too far away.
    One of the raiders lifts off the ground. The second follows, and the third. The raiders still up in the air lead the others to the north, and I watch the swarm grow smaller and smaller until it’s lost in the moonlit clouds.
    I hurry down from the tree. Maybe I should feel relieved the Mardenites are gone, but I don’t, and I won’t until I find more survivors. There’s a tight wad of fear in my chest, a worry that I might be the only person left.
    I refuse to believe it until I’ve scoured the crash site and checked every part of the forest.
    I go back to Dean in his hiding spot and find him stirring, swimming back into consciousness. “What happened?” he asks.
    â€œThe poison gas knocked you out. How do you