1st Rd Sm Press Contest #22 - The Children of the Nephilim

THE CHILDREN OF THE NEPHILIM
YA Sci-Fi
63,000

Query:

Sixteen-year old Paxton Mills freaking hates living in space. The station is freezing cold, her berth is barely bigger than a port-a-potty and her fear of heights doesn’t lend itself to a comfortable intergalactic experience. She’s one of several hundred teenagers saved from the fires that ravaged Earth.

Handpicked for their ability to acclimate to celestial living, they were taken to ensure humanity’s survival. However, Paxton isn’t grateful to her rescuers for whisking her into space and educating her in hydroponics and uniform maintenance. Why should she give a damn about vegetables or a wrinkle-free jumper when memories of her loved ones being left behind to burn to death still haunt her?

But her days of sulking end when she realizes her teachers aren’t humans, but aliens called the Nephilim. Knowing she needs proof, Paxton breaks into the forbidden Red Block and finds curled and crusty teens barely clinging to life. That's when she discovers she and the other kids were never taken to ensure humanity’s survival. They were taken to ensure the survival of the Nephilim.

Unwilling to end up resembling an oversized fetus, Paxton rallies her friends so together they can find an escape. As they unravel the mystery of the station and their captors, Paxton’s boyfriend is murdered. If Paxton wants to save her friends from this same fate, she must trust an annoyingly perfect hybrid named Kendal and accept that good and evil don’t always run skin deep.

First 150 Words:

My knees ached from pressing into the honeycomb design of the metal deck.  Leaning forward, I pushed my forehead against the tiny porthole waiting until the ashen rock that was once Earth rotated into view.

It had been two years since I touched a blade of grass — two years since fresh air entered my lungs. Yet the brilliant greens and blues of the bejeweled planet that was my home for fourteen years rarely entered my thoughts. More often, I was haunted by the last images blazed into my memory. Shadows. Flames.

The dim light from my old world finally appeared. Although my heart raced, the rest of me remained frozen until it vanished once again. I shut the shade and stood, my legs warming as the blood slowly returned to them. Even with the burned planet out of sight, the pounding in my chest continued, making it difficult to breathe.