* * *

After dinner, I’m about to go to sleep when I hear the familiar sound of transports above the farm, which is a sign that more clients are coming for sex. We’re all required to stop whatever we’re doing and present ourselves in the front room of the farmhouse when we hear transports approaching. I put on my cleanest clothing out of the two outfits I have and come out to the main room to be inspected.

When I enter, I don’t see anyone, which is strange. Suddenly, there’s some commotion outside the house, so I go out and see everyone there. They’re running towards a transport that has crashed. It’s on fire. I, along with the others, start running towards the transport as the Silvers inside the transport are hurt and trying to get out. There must be twenty or more Silver men inside the ship. I can see that some of them are already dead.

I hear the lead farmer calling me back, “Volunteer 4711, No. There’s fire. Come back!”

I ignore him. I don’t care if I die. What is my life but farm work, torture from the doctor, and the inevitable rape that’s coming? There’s no reason not to risk my life. I could never commit suicide outright, so why not die trying to save others?

Inside the transport are just two more Silver males. I grab one and drag him out to safety. No one else dares go back in the transport now that it looks like it might blow up at any moment. I’m coughing terribly and can hardly see, but I figure better to die a good human saving a Silver than to live this life any longer.

I shake off my fellow farmhands’ hands as I wiggle back into the wrecked transport and drag the last Silver military male out. He is so large it takes all of my strength and I collapse next to him as the transport goes up in flames with a ‘boom.’ I barely realize my clothing has caught fire until another farmhand puts me out by hitting his clothing against mine. I’d be worried about the bruising and the burning if I didn’t think I was going to die now. I’m coughing so much. I close my eyes, think of myself in Florida on that beach, and drift away.

* * *

The next thing I know, I’m being helped back to the farmhouse with the rest of the Silver military males in their uniforms. I’m put in my bed, and surprisingly the last male I saved is also put next to me. I’m told sternly by one of the Silver females on the farm, “He is your responsibility. You make sure he lives, Water woman.”

The Silver female hands me a cup with juice in it. She stays until I’ve calmed myself enough to answer her. Despite my hoarse voice and the way it hurts when I breathe, I say, “I understand.”

She points a finger at me. “You keep him alive. He can kill us all if he dies.”