For the first time, Cosmo comes face to face with the strange blue creatures …
Cosmo did not have the energy to speak. His entire body felt bleached by the electric shock. All he could hear was his own heartbeat, slowing with every breath. Missing beats. Shutting down.
His eyes played tricks on him. Hallucinations, he supposed. Strange inhuman creatures appeared on the walls of the surrounding buildings, crawling at amazing speeds with no regard for gravity. They hurtled over the lip of the building, veering sharply downwards towards the crash site. Two split from the group, swerving, swerving towards the injured boys. One settled on Cosmo’s chest. Weightless. Watching him with large expressionless eyes. The creature was the size of an infant, with smooth, blue, translucent skin, four slender limbs and an oval head. Its features were delicate and impassive. Hairless and smooth. Sparks rolled in its veins instead of blood.
The second creature flickered in the corner of his eye, settling beside Ziplock, cradling his smoking head. Cosmo felt his heart skip another beat. Maybe two. What were these creatures? Fear sent a shiver through his chest, like another blast from the generator.
His spine arched in shock and panic, bucking the creature on his chest, bucking the creature on his chest, but it held on effortlessly. It reached out a blue hand. Four fingers, thought Cosmo, only four. The hand settled on his heart and sucked. Somehow the hand was pulling the pain from his body. The agony dipped, faded and was gone. The more the creature sucked the brighter its light became, until its blue glow morphed to sunset gold. Cosmo used the last of his energy to look down. Something was flowing from him in a starry stream. He knew what it was. Life. Cosmo felt his days and months slip from his body like water through a fractured dam. The creature was killing him. The panic rose in him again. He wanted to struggle, he tried to grab the creature but his muscles had turned to jelly.