Nancy nodded.
Vera ended the call and began rocking in her chair again. Many regrets filled her head. She’d never really known love. The children she’d dreamed of being able to afford to have one day wouldn’t ever become a reality. She was going to die on a shitty planet all alone. It wasn’t right or fair.
“If I start screaming, I’ll never stop. Hold it together.” She leaned forward, touching another one of the desk controls that she’d figured out by trial and error. It showed life signs inside the pods.
She stared at the number displayed.
Six.
Then she was blinded by tears. “No!”
That’s when she ended up on the floor under the desk, sobbing.
She’d only slept for a few hours…and in that time, thirteen more people had died.
“Thirteen is so unlucky. We’re cursed.
“Stop it! It’s the drugs. I’m not cursed.”
Evil laugher sounded from the imaginary bigfoot and she covered her ears. Not that it muffled the sound. She was hearing the thing inside her head.
“It isn’t real,” she chanted, rocking her body again. “Not real. I refuse to die here. I am going to make it. Hang in there. Just fucking hang in there!”
* * * * * *
Alarms blared. Vera jerked awake inside the storage closet where she slept, her eyes wide in the darkness. “What new hell is this?”
She pushed open the door, momentarily blinded by the light, and wiggled out of the cramped space. No imaginary figure waited out there to scare or yell at her. She made it to the desk in the main room of the security pod and took a seat.
Red lights were flashing on the screen of the computer, along with a few more lights on the walls. According to the display, the group of pods that made up their research facility had been breached from the exterior, in the area where they kept their armored land vehicles.
She looked at the live-feed monitor for that section of the pods. One of the larger doors revealed damage, as if it had been blasted open. Metal curled inward, debris littering the floor and covering a few of the tank-like surface vehicles.
The camera flickered out, then came back. The door remained damaged. She figured it might actually be real, since the alarms still blared and what she saw hadn’t changed.
Panic hit. Had the alien animals grown smarter? Figured a way inside?
She tried to think, remain rational, but she kept remembering the vision of Crystal’s body, dozens of bites taken out of it, as she was carried to the Med Bay by two security officers. Maybe those small creatures had gathered in large enough numbers to attack that section of the pod, managing to bust through the large exterior door.
That would mean they were now inside—and would come eat her.
Vera jumped out of her seat, swayed, but made her way to the weapons locker. Dr. Hazel had used Chuck’s fingerprints after he had died to change the biometric lock, gaining Vera access to everything inside security.
She pressed her badly shaking hand on the pad and it beeped, unlocking the locker. She grabbed one of the laser rifles, but then hesitated. Her aim would probably be bad with her faulty vision and shaking body. There was a sonic blaster. That would hurt anything in the general vicinity of her aim when fired.
She released the rifle and grabbed the blaster.
“Okay, I can do this. I won’t be eaten.” She rushed back into the main office, staring at the only door into the security pod. “They have to get to me by coming through there.”
Vera swayed again on her feet. Not only did her hands shake, but her entire body was suffering from tremors. Her balance was crap. Spots danced before her eyes and everything went dark, but that blaring alarm kept blasting.
She had gone blind. It had happened a few times before. Usually she didn’t mind when her eyes went wonky. It meant she couldn’t see anything imaginary that wasn’t there. Now she needed her eyesight to survive. There were real reptile-like creatures with rows of sharp teeth coming to eat her.
“No, no, no! Fucking work, eyes. I need to see!” She rapidly blinked and some of her vision returned. She aimed at the door again with the sonic blaster, found the trigger with her finger, and tried to brace her legs. She’d never fired that kind of weapon before but she’d heard it had a bit of a kick.
“I’m not food,” she screamed. “I’m not dying!”
The loud blasting alarms made her head hurt, as though she were being stabbed in her ears with a knife.
A light lit up on the panel by the door and it scared her enough that she accidently pulled the trigger.
The weapon discharged a sonic blast. It hit the wall and bounced back at her. Vera realized she was too close to the shockwave just before she was thrown off her feet. She flew through the air and landed painfully on her back.
She struggled to suck in air that had been knocked out of her lungs, her entire body aching, but Vera managed to lift her head. The blaster wasn’t in her hands anymore. She’d dropped it.
The door to security was slowly being pried apart by what looked like a robotic arm.
She screamed, rolled over, and started belly crawling toward the nearest door.
It wasn’t the local reptile creatures that had tried to eat Crystal, coming after her. She was under attack by killer robots. Every horror vid she’d ever seen of them began to play through her head, terrifying her. She didn’t want her body to be torn apart like wet tissue by some mindless machine!
She reached the entrance to the bathroom, knowing she needed to rise to her knees once she got inside, to close and lock the door.
Something grabbed ahold of her. Something big, wrapping completely around her ankle. She screamed again.
She was pulled back into the main room, her shirt riding up until her bare belly was dragged along the floor.
She twisted, kicking out with her other foot. “Abort mission! Live person. You’re not allowed to kill me, you stupid bot! I’m authorized to be here!”
She sat up, flailing her fists, trying to beat at the hand holding her, and the arm attached to it. She landed a few hits to the hard surface of the white metal body. It released her ankle.
Then she was staring at something even more horrifying than a killer robot.
It was an alien wearing a white spacesuit. The faceplate of his helmet was clear, revealing cat-shaped golden eyes and terrifying features.
Vera screamed, threw herself onto her back, and tried to kick it away. “I’m not food!”
When it didn’t try to grab her a second time, she rolled over, crawling on her belly again toward the bathroom. She just needed to lock herself in there. She’d be safe.
Chapter Two
Roth and his grouping had been ordered to breach the facility and unlock all the doors by taking command of the security office. The whole place was on lockdown for some reason.
A distress beacon had reached Defcon Red four days before. Humans working for some company based on Earth had set up a facility to study the planet. No one had responded to hails so far. Upon reaching the planet, their Veslor grouping and two human tactical teams had been sent down to the surface to investigate.
The fourteen large pods were all connected, forming a strange building in a circular pattern, with the fifteenth biggest structure in the center. They’d tried to hail someone inside, to give them access, but when no one had answered, they’d had to blast their way in through a large exterior door.
It had been eerie, not seeing anyone as they made their way beyond the vehicle storage area. Each door they’d come to had been sealed and locked. The only information they had to work with came from the company that owned the facility. New Worlds stated that forty-three employees worked there. It wasn’t an overly large place, and they should have encountered some of the humans.
What Roth hadn’t expected to find when they’d overridden the locks to the security office was a female wearing what he knew were pajamas. The human kept screaming and acting irrational. She tried to
crawl away from him again on her stomach. It was almost sad to watch, as she moved so slowly.
Her dark brown hair was a wild mess of curls falling halfway down her back, and it looked as if it hadn’t been brushed in a long time.
He turned to Drak, motioning toward the main computer. “Cut that noise and release the locks to every section.”
The male rushed toward the desk to do as ordered.
Roth remained crouched as the female made it a few feet inside the open door. He gently reached out once again and wrapped his gloved hand around her ankle to keep her from trying to barricade herself inside the bathroom.
She screamed, twisted her head, and tried to look at him. Her hair was in her face though. “I’m not food! Disappear! Aliens be gone!”
Maith, their medic, approached the female’s side and dropped to his knees next to her.
The female saw him and screamed, trying to roll the opposite way. She hit the open doorframe with her shoulder. The scream turned into a sob. “It’s not real. None of this is real. I’m just seeing shit. That’s not bigfoot. Not my dad. Way worse!”
Roth gently pulled her the few feet she’d made it inside the bathroom that time, to where she couldn’t hurt herself more, and released her ankle. “What is wrong with her?”
“I don’t know.” Maith shrugged off his pack, opened it, and withdrew a handheld medical scanner.
The alarms silenced and Roth felt relief. The loud noises had been painful to his sensitive ears. The woman’s soft sobs sounded pitifully sad, and she turned onto her side, rolling into a tight ball as she drew her knees up to her chest. She began to move her head, bumping it against the floor.
He snarled softly, moving closer, and got behind her back. Then he shoved his gloved hand between the floor and the side of her face to protect her from doing damage.
The female froze, the sobs ceasing. She turned her face to stare up at him.
She had pale blue eyes that appeared far too big for her delicate face…and the black centers of them were doing something he’d never seen before. They grew, almost overtaking the blue, then shrunk, before enlarging again.
“You’re not real. None of this is real.” She made a fist with her little hand, waving it at him. She couldn’t seem to hold it steady. “I will kick your ass if you’re real!”
“We’re not going to hurt you. What’s your name? I am Roth. That is Maith. He’s a medic.” He tried to keep his tone soft and soothing.
“She’s got no broken bones or internal bleeding but I’m reading a high dosage of an unknown substance in her body that shouldn’t be there. We need to get her to their Med Bay. They should have a scanning bed there, and full access to their human medical library to diagnose her more accurately.”
Roth grunted acknowledgment to Maith. “What’s your name?” He leaned closer to the female, holding her terrified gaze.
“You’re not real.” She closed her eyes, breathing fast and hard. “I’m still drugged. This is just another side effect.”
Roth jerked his head up, staring at Maith.
The male looked as surprised as he felt.
Roth softly growled.
“Don’t eat me!” Her eyes snapped open and she tried to punch his facemask.
He easily snagged her little fist in his gloved hand, being gentle. “You’re not food.”
She stilled, blinking at him. “Right. Not food.”
“We won’t eat you. We’re Veslors working with United Earth’s fleet. We received your distress hail. Do you understand?”
She bit her lip, letting her head rest on his gloved palm, and continued to blink rapidly as she stared into his eyes.
“You took drugs? What kind?”
Maith drew her attention when he spoke. The female whimpered, her body trembling, and she closed her eyes.
“Look at me,” Roth ordered firmly.
The female did as he asked, locking gazes with him again. He used his gloved thumb to gently caress her wrist, since he still held her fist in his grasp.
“We have come to help you. Do you understand?” Roth gave her fist a little squeeze, careful of her dainty bones. “We are real. I’m Roth. What is your name?”
“Vera. I’m Vera Wade. Please be real.” Big tears rolled from her eyes, sliding down her face.
His internal helmet communications kicked on and Clark Yenna, the human leading the rescue mission, spoke. “We’re finding bodies. Nine so far in this section we’re searching. It seems to be living quarters. Seven of them appear to be suicides, but two looked as though they stabbed each other multiple times with broken glass from a mirror until they each bled out. Has anyone found a survivor? Report.”
Roth looked at Maith. He wasn’t about to remove his hand from under the female’s head or release her fist. “Activate my coms.”
The medic reached over the female between them and touched the side of his helmet. Roth took a deep breath and began to speak. “This is Roth. We found a human female inside the security office. She’s mentally unstable and has admitted to being on drugs. We’re taking her to their Med Bay.”
Clark responded immediately. “Understood. I’ll meet you there. Anyone else?”
“This is Birch,” the other team leader stated. “We’ve got more bodies in the section we’re searching. Six so far. Some of them used furniture to barricade the doors from the inside, so it’s slow-going gaining access. One chick hung herself in her shower. Another guy looks like he smashed his skull open against a wall and just died where he dropped. This is some seriously wacked shit.”
“What in the hell happened here? No one remove your helmets or gloves,” Clark ordered. “Maybe they’re sick with some alien-world disease.”
“The surviving female admitted to being on drugs,” Roth reminded him.
“What drugs?” Clark sounded furious.
Maith answered. “Unknown. It’s why we need to take her to Med Bay. Should we fly her up to Defcon Red on a shuttle? My handheld scanner isn’t able to identify what’s in her system, but I’m showing high levels on an unknown substance.”
Clark uttered a curse. “I’m contacting Commander Bills to inform him of the situation. We’re not taking her anywhere until we know she’s not contagious or a health risk to anyone up there. Roth, I’ll meet you in their Med Bay. Maith, figure out what in the hell is going on.”
“Of course.” Maith cut coms for them both by touching their helmets.
Roth leaned in closer to the female. “I’m going to pick you up.”
Her eyes closed and her body tensed.
Roth gently released the female’s fist and eased his other hand out from beneath her head. It was easy to lift her. She didn’t weigh much. The thin shirt and matching print pants she wore were baggy on her, as if she’d possibly lost weight recently, or she’d borrowed them from a larger human. He turned toward the door.
“Gnaw, Drak, remain here and download any information you can about what happened to these humans. Transmit it to Defcon Red.”
Both males nodded.
The female in his arms opened her eyes and peered up at him. She slowly lifted a shaking hand and pressed it against his suit. “You feel real.”
“I am real, Vera.”
“I hope so. I don’t believe it, though. Nobody came. We hoped. We waited. Nobody came.”
Roth let Maith lead him to the research facility’s Med Bay. They’d gained access to a map of the interior once they’d breached the facility. The hallways connecting the pods were narrow, but the ceilings were high.
“What happened? Can you tell me, Vera?” Roth walked slowly, keeping a firm hold on the female in his arms in case she began to struggle. She wasn’t rational.
“We were all drugged,” she whispered, her hands rubbing his suit, from his chest up to where his helmet was attached. “We tried to figure out how it happened but everyone was going crazy. Seeing dead people. Bigfoot. They were killing each other, too, and had to be locked inside their rooms. They ma
de me head of security. How crazy is that? I fly drones!”
Roth stopped, frowning down at her.
She nodded. “Yeah. I’m not security. Drone geek. I program them, fly them, fix them. I’m in charge of mapping the surface of the planet. That’s my job. Not watching people die. So many of them died… I tried so hard to keep them alive.” Her voice hitched. “They wouldn’t listen to me. I kept telling them to hold on. Hang in there. That none of it was real.” She started to sob. “It’s just the drugs. It’s not real.”
Roth shot a worried look at Maith, who’d stopped as well. “Move faster. She seems to be growing more unstable.”
The male began to walk swiftly through the narrow hallways that connected the pods. Roth followed close on his heels. They reached double doors with a large red cross on one of the pod entries, and Maith pressed the button. The door opened and the medic went in first.
He came to a rapid halt. Roth almost bumped into him. He saw what the other male did, and growled softly.
A female with light hair sat in a chair, a hyper-syringe in her limp hand on her lap. Her eyes were open but her coloring looked off.
Maith rushed to her and crouched. He turned his head toward Roth. “Dead.” He rose, walking toward one of the exam rooms. Then he rushed out of sight.
Roth glanced around the large room with desks. A loud snarl came from his medic, and then Maith stormed out, going into yet another exam area.
“What is it?”
“More dead,” Maith called out. “They’re strapped down. That last one was overdosed, by the looks of it. The hyper-syringe was inches from him, and I could see the puncture wound.” He came out of the second room. “That one too. Someone restrained them and killed them with toxic dosages of a sedative.” He went into another exam room, and snarled yet again. “Three. This one is also dead.”
“Nancy did it,” the female in Roth’s arms whispered.
Roth looked down at her. “Who?”
Mission: Planet Biter (Veslor Mates Book 4) Page 2
