Doomed Read Free Page B

pain and he felt no wriggling so maybe they took it out of him already. He could only hope.

Moms Freak Out
     
    Mike’s mom yelped when she saw him. “What have you been doing? You look so different. We need to make an appointment to have you checked out.”
    Mike decided against explaining to his mom that his body was being modified by aliens for an interstellar journey because the idea was still pretty stupid to him. Then he decided he had to insist that the aliens brought her along too. She was the only family he had and he’d be damned if they left her behind. All of these new, foreign thoughts made his head hurt.
    He said, “I don’t know what’s going on. My muscles are getting bigger. Maybe I’m just growing.” He was hopeful she’d buy that crap but he knew she wouldn’t. It was a lie and she always knew when he was lying.
    “You’re too old to be growing any more. And that wouldn’t explain why you look like a hairless albino cat either. Let me make some phone calls to get you looked at.”
    “Ok mom. I’m gonna take a nap.” He traipsed upstairs, exhausted.
    Ten minutes later, his mom called through the doorway, “Doctor Collins has a spot open at three o’clock tomorrow. Is that good for you?”
    Yeah. I’ll clear my busy itinerary,” he said sarcastically. If it wasn’t for video games and porn, his entire summer would have just been a series of naps peppered with opiate pills and pizza binges. Only in the summer did he wish he had more friends.
    She said, “Ok then. Tomorrow at three.”
    Mike took his shoes off and got into bed. His feet looked different, maybe bigger. He was past caring though. He’d reached a saturation level and nothing surprised him now.
    But he couldn’t get the vision of those aliens out of his mind. Every time he remembered them, his breath caught in his throat and his heart skipped a beat. The fact that he was the first human being to meet an extraterrestrial was not lost on him though. He knew how important that was. He’d made history, except no one would ever believe him, even with the video evidence Melanie had.
    Melanie sent him a text. It read, I think my feet got bigger.
    He didn’t bother replying. But her text brought back the memory of her perfect ass. He fell asleep blissfully and didn’t wake up until the following morning.

Doc Collins
     
    At first Doctor Collins had that usual distracted, uncaring attitude he always had but when he finally took a good look at Mike, his eyes went wide and he started to get more animated.
    He said, “You’ve gained twenty eight pounds since we met back in February. Have you been working out?”
    “Nope.”
    “Steroids?”
    “Nope.”
    “Huh? No growth hormones for sports or anything like that?”
    “I’ve never been into sports. This has all happened in the last week or so.”
    “That’s not really possible, but I’ll take your word for it. How did you lose all of your body hair? Do you have any severe allergies?”
    “No allergies t hat I know of. I lost the hair last week too.”
    “Even the roots are gone. Was your skin always so pallid? And your eyes; were they always so light?”
    Mike wanted to say, I’ve been coming to you since kindergarten so why don’t you tell me , but he let it go. Doc Collins had always been a piece of shit when it came to bedside manner. But he was a smart doctor.
    “The skin and eyes started to go pale last week too. They get lighter every day. I can hardly stay out in the sun for more than a minute or so at a time.”
    “Your blood pressure is off the charts. It’s 278 over 199. You should be dead right now. I’m not going to prescribe anything just yet though because we don’t know if it’s related to the other changes you’re going through.”
    Mike nodded. He was glad for that. What if they brought his blood pressure down and that killed him?
    Doc Collins turned to his nurse and said, “I need a stool sample, blood, and swab his mouth.” Then he turned