by Pixie Unger
He stared at me thoughtfully and I expected him to say something, but instead he just shrugged, then ignored me and went back to work. The other one brought me one of the coveralls that all the humans in the camp wore. I climbed awkwardly into it. The zipper pulled snuggly over the bag of goop stuck to my belly. I waited to see what happened next.
Nothing happened. But it took a long time for me to realize that I was waiting for nothing to happen.
I was ignored as I got up and wandered around the classroom that was now an emergency room. I watched as orcs who came in with cuts had their wounds stuck closed with some sort of glue. There was stick-on-skin instead of bandaids.
Someone with a chipped tusk had the rough edges filed down. My feet got cold and I wished I had socks. Orcs came and went. It started to get dark outside. Food was brought in for the orcs in the room, but not me. There was no sign of the guy who had been feeding me. I ran my hand over the bag of goo.
“This is nutrition, right? That’s why I don’t get to eat?”
The orcs looked up from their dinner trays like they had forgotten that I was there. I briefly wondered if I hadn’t said anything, would I have been able to sneak off? They ignored me and went back to their dinners.
I wondered if the guy who had been watching me, Mr. Ultrasonic Rumble, was busy watching the foodline. I realized I wasn’t nearly as freaked out about this as I should be.
I was just done. I wanted to just go. Hop the fence and leg it back to the green space near the river. But I had no shoes and god only knew what was going on with the nutrition pack. I turned my back on the orcs, unzipped my jumper, and gave the edge of the pack a little tug. It didn’t hurt, but it was stuck fast. I should be more freaked out about that, too.
“Did you slip me some Ativan or something?”
Nothing.
Damnit.
I wandered over to the cupboard that held the stretchy shoe sock things they gave us to wear and pulled on a pair. The staff was still ignoring me.
----
Well, I thought to myself, here goes nothing. It could work. No one had stopped me from taking the shoes. Step one was to get back into the yard and hide with the other humans.
I made it to the door of the school before an orc stepped into my path. He didn’t actually touch me, but he wasn’t letting me pass either. Okay. Fake it ‘til you make it, right?
“Thank you for your hospitality, but I’m afraid I have to work tomorrow. Good night!”
That got me a brow furrow and enough confusion that I was able to duck past him. I had only made it a few steps when he caught the back of my coveralls.
He rumbled something that I felt in my more diaphragm more than in my ears. I shivered, then wasn’t able to stop trembling.
I tried again. “I mean that. Thank you for taking me in. But you can’t take care of me here and I would rather try to go it alone than be someone’s slave.”
“Not slave.”
I looked over my shoulder. Okay, so I could recognize that grey face with a scar through one of his eyebrows. His right tusk was a little smaller than the left, giving him a slightly rakish look, but they were both straight. The red marks on his arm looked like splatter over some sort of geometric, art deco thing. I licked my lips before pressing them firmly together. Shouting was not going to help.
“I dunno about that. I just had something surgically attached to my body without my permission, and I’m pretty sure I’m still drugged. That doesn’t exactly sound like self-determination.”
The one holding on to my clothes let go.
They were both staring at me now. The other one had a pattern of scars on one side of his face that looked like the sort of pattern a shotgun leaves from about twenty feet away. “Didn’t you give me your zucchini?”
He didn’t say anything, but his eyes were searching my face. The talker just looked confused.
“I can’t stay with the humans here anymore. You—” Don’t say losers! Don’t say losers! “—gentlemen can’t take care of me. Time for me to go.”
They both shook their heads.
“What?”
“You sick. Stay with us. We take care.”
I sighed.
“How do you see this going, exactly?”
The one who spoke licked his lips like he was copying my gesture from earlier. “Come to our room to sleep.”
“Sleep. Right. That sounds plausible.” I thought my voice was dripping with sarcasm, but they just nodded happily.
The nontalker gestured to the doors and rumbled something.
“After you, Romeo.”
He froze, then slowly turned on his heels to stare at me. He asked something.
“Is that his name now?” the other translated.
I blushed. “Um … I mean, it could be. Romeo was a hero in a story, so...” I got to “hero” and the newly-christened Romeo burst into a big smile. The other one sulked.
I rolled my eyes. “I’m not naming you Juliet.” I thought about that for a moment. “You can be Tybalt, if you want.”
“Tybalt the hero?”
“He’s the king of cats.” Yeah, that was popular. I wondered if they got the cat part or were just focused on the word king.
Tybalt nodded and gestured to the door. “Time to sleep now.”
“In your room?”
They nodded again. “Lots of beds. Come see.”
“Ugh!” I scrubbed my face with my hands. “This is a bad idea.”
Tybalt shook his head. “Good idea to sleep.”
“Yeah, that part is about right. But it isn’t a good idea to go off with strange men.”
They both managed to look completely affronted at that. Romeo was frantically shaking his head. Tybalt tried to explain, “Not strange. Not strangers. Your friends, Tybalt and Romeo.”
I snorted with laughter and they both grinned at me. I looked back at the school. “What happens if I go with you and get scared? Or if it doesn’t feel safe?”
“Then come back here.” He said it like it was so obvious. Like he was talking to a particularly dim-witted child.
I frowned at that, and they both took a step back. That was interesting. We were attracting an audience. I didn’t want to go with them to just get away from the staring, but at the same time, if these guys owned me, there was nothing stopping them from dragging me off regardless. I sagged at the thought.
“Yeah. Fine. I don’t like this, but let’s get it over with.”
The smiles wobbled a bit, but they led me out of the building and into a house a little way up the street.
Except it wasn’t really a house anymore. No, it was more like barracks now. There were rows of bunk beds in the kitchen and dining room, three more sets of beds in the living room, and each of the three bedrooms had two sets of bunks in them. Most of the beds were occupied by orcs, and all of the interior doors in the house had been removed. I was led into the second bedroom from the end where there were two sets of bunk beds, with each bed being about as wide as a double, but nine or ten feet long. Orc sized.
Four beds, when there had been four orcs feeding me.
I was shaking now. “This is where you want me to sleep?” I squeaked. Romeo pulled a blanket off one of the top bunks and started walking toward me. “Don’t!” I snapped, a bit louder than I intended.
Suddenly the doorway was full of orcs. One of them rumbled at me, and I flattened myself against a wall. Romeo rumbled back.
“Wilhemina?” The one in the doorway said slowly. I whipped around to look at him. “Can you tell them that when we get too close, you become afraid? That thing you said about feeling like prey? That is what this is, right?”
I realized I was panting. I tried to get that under control. I couldn’t see the speaker’s arm, and I wasn’t sure I recognized his face. His hair was trimmed short instead of trailing down his back, but that was unusual rather than unique around here. “Did you try to feed me beef?”
He smiled. “Yes, but you wouldn’t e
at it. You didn’t like that we were too close.”
“Yeah,” I nodded. “I feel really trapped in here right now.” My voice was shaking as I said that. I hated it, but was helpless to stop. My back was to the wall and I found myself sliding down it and sitting on the floor with my knees clutched to my chest.
That led to some discussion that I couldn’t understand.
“I want to go back to the school!” I blurted out.
That made them stop and look at me. The talker didn’t come into the room, but knelt on the floor in the doorway and asked, “What would it take to get you to stay here?”
I shook my head. I didn’t want to stay here, but I was definitely getting the idea that leaving wasn’t going to be a thing. “My own room?” I suggested. “With a door,” I added firmly.
They all stopped speaking to stare at me then.
The talker cleared his throat. “You told me that humans alone in a room was a form of torture.”
“Christ on a crutch! You are so sharp you’ll cut yourself! It’s like watching Honest Iago try to come up with a plan and not understanding the consequences! Listen, it’s only torture when you lock us in so we can’t leave. Where am I now? In a room with no other humans, and I can’t leave!”
Romeo rumbled; everyone else— except for the four that I was being forced to think of as my orcs— left.
“What does Iago mean?” The talker asked it so softly, I could only hear him through the ringing silence.
“He was a character in a story— a planner,” I muttered.
“Is that my name?”
I closed my eyes and exhaled through my nose. What was with these guys and names? “Sure. Why not. The other two have Shakespearian names; let’s stick with that, shall we?”
“We will find you a room with a door that does not lock. Would you be more comfortable outside while we do that?”
I nodded. He stepped out of the way, and I stood up and walked back to the front door. The orcs that had been in bed were all standing next to their beds like they were waiting for inspection. It was a lot of orcs to walk past, which didn’t help the shaking. Romeo brought out the blanket, which he set it down on the lawn, then moved away and sat out of arm’s reach. Tybalt stayed on the front step.
I went and sat on the blanket.
“Wrap and be warm,” Tybalt growled.
“I’m not cold!” I snapped. “I'm shaking because I’m scared!”
Romeo gasped at that. I didn’t turn to see what Tybalt’s reaction was.
We sat in silence for a while before I asked, “Why did Iago call me Wilhemina?”
Romeo looked surprised; Tybalt was still in my blind spot. “It’s your name. It is hard for us to say. He practiced.”
“No one calls me that. I go by Mina.”
Romeo nodded then rumbled out a fairly good approximation of my name in such a deep bass, I could feel it in my bones. And, if I was forced to be honest with myself, between my legs. I shuddered again and stomped right down on those feelings.
“Does the bathroom in that house still work?”
“No. We have better rooms.”
I looked over my shoulder at Tybalt. “Better rooms to pee in?” He just looked confused. “I need to … urinate.”
He pointed to a row of little huts in a row in front of the school. Great, I thought, port-a-potties. Well, better than nothing.
They were bigger than the ones in the school yard, but the same idea. A step up into the little room, then a squat toilet on the floor. The spot you were aiming for was frictionless, or close enough in practice. Whatever you … dropped slid right down the drain.
As we got closer, I realized some of the orcs were stripping completely before they got into the potties. I could see how that would be easier than trying to keep track of a pair of coveralls while squatting over a hole, but I wasn’t about to try.
I froze when I realized they were leaving the rooms soaking wet.
“What the actual fuck?”
Romeo, who had been walking in front of me, froze and looked back over his shoulder.
Tybalt nudged me in the back. “We know humans don’t like to wash, we won’t make you.”
“What? What are you talking about?”
Someone who was probably Iago joined us. “Humans only shit in the washers, they never actually wash.”
“There’s no sink! How the hell are we supposed to wash in there?”
They were all looking at me funny. Romeo wandered over to one, opened the door, did … something and suddenly the bathroom was also a shower. Water was coming straight down from the ceiling.
“No one told us they did that!” I crept forward and pushed my arm into the water. It was a bit warmer than I would have liked, but not hot enough to burn. I stood there staring at it. “I really want a shower, but I don’t want to get naked in front of you.”
Romeo shrugged and turned his back on me.
“There aren’t any towels,” I mumbled, unable to take my eyes off the water.
Tybalt reached over and turned it off. “Human pee rooms inside.”
They brought me into the school and sent me into the girls locker room. I used the toilet and the shower and tried to squeeze as much water out of my hair as I could. There wasn’t much of it. Like all the humans in captivity, mine was cut short. Then I crawled back into my coveralls. Putting dry clothes on over wet skin wasn’t exactly comfortable, but at least I didn’t smell.
I came out of the locker room feeling like a drowned rat. The three were waiting for me. “Do the orc showers have secret soap that I don’t know about?”
They frowned. Tybalt nodded slowly. “In drawer.”
Once again my mind was blown. “Those things have drawers?”
Iago started to laugh, but turned it into a cough. I really want to call him an asshole, but since I was apparently an idiot, I didn’t feel like I had a leg to stand on. Except... “Did anyone ever show humans how to use those things?”
There was no answer. I looked up and they were still frowning at me. “You can’t expect us to just know how to use alien technology we’ve never seen before. I mean, there could even be directions on walls, but they aren’t in my language or anything that I recognize as language, so how was I supposed to know? Humans like being clean. We all hated that you took that away from us, but felt helpless to do anything about it.”
I was shivering again.
“Don’t be scared,” Tybalt said softly. “We are not angry.”
“I am angry!” I snapped. Then I sagged and looked at Romeo, who was still holding the blanket. “But I’m also cold and wet. Could I have the blanket now? Please?”
Romeo shook it out and slowly walked towards me, telegraphing as he went to wrap it around me.
“Thank you,” I mumbled.
Iago nodded. “We have a room with a door ready for you.”
I nodded and followed them out of the school.
----
The “room with a door” was the garage. The door into the house was still in place and they had moved an orc-sized mattress in. The mattress was on the ground and there wasn’t any other furniture, but all of the typical garage junk was gone. There were actually lots of windows, both in the garage door and all along the exterior wall.
It was really dark in there, at the moment. The sun was down and street lights were a thing of the past. Outside there were strategically-placed blocks, about a foot cubed, that glowed faintly. But inside the garage it was still really dark. At least in the school yard, the moon and stars shone. Tybalt was holding a small light in his hand so that I didn’t fall down the steps into the garage.
It wasn’t very warm in there either, but there were blankets on the bed. “Romeo? I got your blanket wet. Did you want a dry one off the bed instead?”
He shook his head. My teeth started to chatter as soon as I unwrapped. I thrust the blanket back at him and hurried down the stairs and across the room to climb under the blankets covering the mattres
s.
“Do you need anything else?” Iago asked.
Yes, I thought, a carpet so I’m not walking on cold concrete, a lamp so that I can see, and a heater so I don’t freeze out here. Oh! And one of those shower-toilets and directions on how to use it would be nice. I shook my head and tried to rake my fingers through what was left of my hair to get it a bit more under control.
They nodded and turned to go.
“Thank you!” I blurted out. They froze. “Thank you for taking care of me. I know that getting me my own space wasn’t part of your plan, but I really appreciate it.”
Tybalt turned and smiled at me. “We get you for breakfast tomorrow.”
I tensed a little and hoped that wasn’t as dirty as it sounded. His smile wavered, and they left. The door closed tightly behind them, not letting in any crack of light. I was surprised to find how much I missed my little tent and my roommates. That had been hard to get used to when I arrived, but I had come to enjoy the company. Plus it was easier for three people to stay warm in a little tent than for one person to stay warm in a big empty garage.
The blanket was big enough that I could wrap it around myself a few times. Part of me knew I should be trying to figure out how to make a run for it. I told myself that I couldn’t until the … medical thing was removed from my stomach. There was another thing that I was worried about: if I was now property or someone’s responsibility or whatever, had I been microchipped like a pet? I was out cold in the medbay there for long enough that they could have. Hell, I could have a GPS device implanted now for all I knew. I curled up on the mattress like a human burrito and stared at the door, worrying until I fell asleep.
----
I have no idea how much sleep I got that night, but it wasn’t much. Despite the “balanced nutrition” strapped to my guts, I felt hungry. So hungry that it was gnawing at my stomach. I woke up as soon as the sun came up, and I don’t know how long I was laying there until there was a knock on the door. I waited to see what would happen next.
After a long moment, there was another knock.
I got up and went to open the door.
Tybalt smiled at me. “Eat now?”
