Prey

by Jon F. Merz

  "He wouldn't do that."

  "No," said Kendall. "He wouldn't. Which is why the visitors have their entire dinocreature force out searching for him."

  "In the tunnel?"

  "Tunnel, the jungle, even outside in the snow."

  "How can they survive in those cold temperatures?"

  "Part of the hybridization process. They flushed the warm blood out of the dinosaurs and left the visitors' own circulatory system. Don't ask me how they did it. Their technology is light years beyond our own. And even an enlightened chap like myself can't grasp everything they can do."

  "Humility from you? I never would have expected it."

  Kendall leaned closer. "I'd be a fool to think myself their superior intellectually. So would you."

  "I don't think myself superior to anyone."

  "Nonsense. You've thought yourself the best to lead this mission, haven't you?"

  "I was chosen to lead this team."

  Kendall smiled. "No, actually, I'm afraid that was a bit more of my influence on things."

  "You?"

  "Clever, huh?"

  "But you've been dogging me from the start. You've resented my leadership every second of this mission."

  "Well, it makes it all the more believable then, doesn't it? Me, the disappointed wanna-be leader forever heckling you. Who would ever suspect me of manipulating things behind the scenes? No one."

  "How did you ever manage to get me appointed?"

  Kendall grinned. "Turns out the chairman enjoys sexual dalliances with very young children. That research trip he took to Thailand last year? A sexual vacation. Lucky for me, pictures of his escapades were rather easy to come by, pardon the pun."

  "You're a real sick bastard, Kendall."

  "Undoubtedly."

  "And what about when we go home? How will you explain everything then?"

  "'We'?" Kendall laughed. "You aren't serious. Julia, I am the only one going home from this excursion. I can't very well let you or anyone else get back there and spill the beans on my little adventure, can I?"

  "You could wipe our minds clean like you did the other abductees."

  "Not reliable enough. No, I'm afraid your fates are sealed. You and Nung will most likely live out the remainder of your lives, short though they may well be, here or else the visitors may take you to another base."

  "Another base?"

  Kendall nodded. "They have a lovely little outpost on the moon, believe it or not. Charming place."

  "And you've been."

  "Once. Yes. I think it was a gift for my years of service to their cause."

  "Years of service?"

  Kendall nodded. "I've been doing this for a long time. I am the most seasoned person on your team remember. I've led several Antarctic expeditions."

  "But none of those ever turned deadly."

  "No. But they did provide the visitors with ripe subjects for experimentation. They were doing a type of tag and release program back then. They wanted to see how the abductions would affect the lives of the victims they experimented upon. Quite fascinating."

  Julia found it hard to believe everything he was saying. She found it even harder to maintain the control over her bladder. The steel gurney was so very cold. It tickled the inside of her stomach. It made her desperately want to relieve herself. The warmth of her own urine would at least take some of the chill away, even if only for a moment.

  Kendall must have noticed the look on her face because he smiled. "That gurney's awfully cold, isn't it?"

  "I hadn't noticed."

  "No? That's interesting because I could swear you look ready to piss all over the place."

  "I'm not."

  "There's no shame in it, Julia. You should have seen Nung when he woke up on the slab. The poor lad sprayed so much urine everywhere, the visitors had to stop the operation and clean it up. Terribly impolite of him to do so, too."

  "I'm sure he'll appreciate the talking to."

  Kendall laughed. "I marvel at your sense of humor even now. Even as you know what's coming next."

  "I'm just waiting for Mick to get here and kill everyone in this place."

  "Really? You think he's coming back for you? Do you think your promise of passion after all of this is over is enough to lure him in here? You really think that you have that much allure?"

  "Allure's got nothing to do with it. Mick's a good man. He wouldn't leave us all here to die."

  Kendall sighed. "That's the problem with people. No one's pragmatic anymore. All this ridiculous emotion certainly musses things up. If people could just see the big picture, they'd realize the futility of their quests."

  "You think a lack of emotion is a good thing."

  "Absolutely. The visitors do, too."

  "That why I don't hear any laughing?"

  "Make a joke while you can," said Kendall. "The time is fast approaching when you'll scream for your mommy and daddy to come and rescue you from the twisted fate they have in store for you. But you know what?"

  "What?"

  "It will be too late. Nothing can help you now. The visitors will see to that. You belong to them now."

  "Don't count me out yet, Kendall."

  "I already have."

  Julia frowned. "When Mick gets here, I'll ask him to leave you alive a little while longer so I can kill you myself."

  Kendall smirked. "You don't have the guts to kill me, Julia. If you did, you'd just be exactly what you despise about me. A cold-hearted killer."

  "I think I'll be able to live myself," said Julia.

  Kendall looked at her for another second before sighing. "Perhaps." He looked at his watch. "It's time for me to leave now."

  "Where are you going?"

  Kendall smiled. "Things to do. People to see. Places to go. You know. Very busy being what I am."

  The door slid open behind him and Julia could see two visitors enter the room.

  Kendall smiled more. "Besides, I think our hosts want to spend some quality time alone with you. Can't say I blame them."

  Julia struggled against the straps. "Kendall!"

  His smile oozed across his face and he waved at her. "Good bye, Julia. Enjoy the procedure."

  He left the chamber.

  The door hissed shut.

  And Julia saw the two visitors move closer to her.

  She screamed.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Their eyes sucked her in.

  The deep black pools of obscurity that at once seemed to grow and then shrink within her mind. She saw her reflection in them, stretched out and naked on the cold metal slab beneath her body. She felt herself gripped by such fear and anxiety.

  Then strangely, it vanished.

  A wave of relaxation slipped over her. She felt her muscles slacked. The tension in her body seemed to melt out of her.

  She felt a bit drowsy.

  Where had the visitors gone?

  She tried turning her head but found she couldn't.

  Her sense of control over her body was gone. Almost as if she'd been so anesthetized that she could no longer control her nervous system.

  A small glimmer of fear resurfaced. What were they doing to her? What were they going to do to her now that she couldn't feel anything? Was it true what Kendall had told her? That they were going to impregnate her and speed her along to birth?

  No!

  She could hear the sound of a machine running. It reminded her the mail-sorting machine she used to work with back in high school at the post office in her town. That steady sh-shoop sound.

  Memories flooded her head. She was sixteen again. Back in the mailroom with the ceiling fans turning in the slow summer humidity. Sweat soaked through her uniform. She wiped her forehead and her hand came away wet.

  And next to her, old Bettina Clark, the heavyset Alabama transplant who used to talk to Julia all the time about life, men, and cooking with lard - the only way to really cook.

  "This here'd be some fahn weather for smokin' ribs like m
y old daddy used to make in the barrel smoker he had made up from an old oil drum he got out of Sked James' junkyard in Birmingham."

  And Julia would just smile and nod and agree with it all. Bettina had taught her a lot that summer - in her own way of course that Julia had never forgotten. And most importantly, Julia'd learned the preciousness of family.

  Bettina would run on and on all day. Long sentences that reminded Julia of translating Cicero would amble out of Bettina's mouth and hang in the bloated air, full of history, mirth, and a refreshing outlook on life.

  And at the end of each and every workday, Bettina would step away from the mail sorter , wipe her brow, say a small word of thanks to the Lord, and head on off home to cook for her grandkids.

  Julia would wave and walk home in the evening breezes that dried her uniform shirt. At home she'd wash the shift, hang it out to dry, so it would be ready to wear the very next day.

  Again.

  Sh-shoop. Sh-shoop. Sh-shoop.

  Her mind switched back.

  Bettina disappeared.

  Julia saw more inky darkness. The visitor eyes swallowed her again.

  More images slid on to the screen of her mind. The summer when Julia was nineteen. The first year she'd come back from college.

  Heartbroken.

  After a full academic year of chasing after Scott Johnson, Julia'd finally secured a date with him. But all Scott wanted to do was hang out, drink, smoke weed, and bang her brains out - not necessarily in that order.

  The realization that everything she'd built him up to be fell far short of the reality of who he was, crushed Julia's heart like never before. And even hearing the soothing words of Bettina telling her that "It's just a man, baby. Ain't nothing worth getting yourself all caught up over," did little good.

  Julia came home, dejected.

  And that first evening home, she wandered out beyond old man Crawford's cornfields to the abandoned husk of a barn that had burned partially twenty years previous. Julia had climbed up to the loft, dangled her legs over the side and watched the sun chase the horizon in slow motion while the fireflies danced in the fields far below.

  She wondered then what her life would hold for her. Still a virgin. Still unsure of the ways of the big wide world.

  Scared.

  That's what it was, she decided. She was scared of life. The uncertainties of what she might become. The reality that this place she'd called home for so long would invariably be left behind and she'd have to find new places to feel secure.

  It scared her.

  Her mind clicked over again.

  Sh-shoop. Sh-shoop.

  What were they doing to her? Why force her to relive these memories? What good would it do for them? Were they peering into her mind for some reason? Were they trying to figure out if she was a good mother candidate for their heinous offspring?

  No!

  The eyes returned. She decided she could find absolutely no trace of emotion in them at all. They seemed utterly devoid of compassion. No mercy.

  Just cold.

  Like the rain.

  She used to enjoy reading those Choose Your Own Adventure books for young adults when she'd been a teenager. What was it about them that she loved so much?

  Choice without risk.

  She could vicariously live out any desire and never have to fear that she would pay a price she wasn't ready to pay. If she didn't like the way things were going, she could simply start over.

  Be nice if life was like that, she decided.

  Would she still be here?

  Or would she have never tried to get this leadership position?

  I didn't get it, she reminded herself. Kendall manipulated the proceedings for his own evil purposes.

  A surge of resentment filled her heart.

  Kendall.

  She had a score to settle with that guy.

  And so help her God, she was going to see that she did.

  She couldn't imagine the visitors really needed all that much help from the likes of Kendall. If they were as advanced in their technology and mind control as they seemed to be, why would they need the petty skills of a greedy power-hungry fool like Kendall?

  It didn't make sense.

  Something jabbed her.

  But it didn't hurt. Just felt like sudden pressure.

  Were they implanting something in her?

  She tried to look down. She tried to crane her neck.

  "What are you doing?"

  Her voice surprised her. She wondered at first who had spoken, but then remembered it as her own voice.

  It echoed off the walls and reverberated around her.

  "What-?"

  Her mind clicked over again and this time, Julia fought it.

  "No!"

  She could feel the tug get stronger. They wanted her occupied with something else. Julia could remember reading an article about surgeons who used misdirection as a form of anesthesia for their patients. Get them so utterly engrossed in something else, like a challenging crossword puzzle or something that they would concentrate solely on that and on nothing else. In effect, the nerve impulses that sent the pain signals to the brain would not register at all.

  But she'd never heard of anyone having the kind of success where they could actually operate on them.

  Wouldn't it be interesting if-?

  "No!"

  They were so subtle about it. They would take anything. The slightest thought that came into Julia's mind could be manipulated into a painkiller.

  She wouldn't let them.

  She wouldn't think about anything.

  Julia emptied her mind.

  She imagined white filling her mind's eye. Nothing would show up on it. Nothing at all.

  She could feel the tugging become more insistent. There almost seemed some urgency to it, now as well.

  Did they realize she was battling them?

  Julia knew if she could keep her mind from being stripped away, the pain would come back. She didn't want to experience it, but she also didn't want to simply wake up and have no idea what they were doing to her.

  She would take the pain.

  Accept it.

  Embrace it.

  No matter what.

  "Stop messing with my mind!"

  It felt good to shout.

  She sucked in a breath of cold air. When had the temperature gone down? She could only remember it as being nice and warm. But now she could almost see her breath in front of her face.

  And here she was with no clothes on. She hoped they knew about hypothermia, frostbite, and all those other cold weather nastiness.

  "No!"

  The mist in front of her face disappeared and the room's temperature returned to normal.

  They could do anything!

  Julia wanted to give up. She wanted to give in to the desire to yield and let her mind simply expand into the nothingness they demanded of her. It would be so much easier that way, so much easier than fighting.

  She was tired.

  Tired. Alone. Hungry. Thirsty.

  She shook her head violently and felt it snap against the gurney.

  And felt the pain.

  Yes!

  She moved toward it. Embraced it.

  She screamed.

  More pain swallowed her now. Her lower body felt like it was being cooked in flames. Burning sensations spread from her crotch. Sharp lancing pain seemed to jut out of her abdomen.

  What were they doing?

  Tears streamed out of her eyes. She felt them trickle down the side of her face. She tasted a bit of the salt.

  "No!"

  Such pain!

  God!

  She tried to squeeze her legs together. They were down there.

  Working.

  Somehow they must have secured her legs in some type of stirrups like at the gynecologist's office. She couldn't bring them together. She imagined being on the thigh machine at the gym, the way she squeezed those extensions together with almost one hundred pou
nds on each one.

  Squeeze!

  Feel the burn!

  The pain got worse.

  Julia wanted to give in to the visitors. She wanted the pain gone now!

  "No!"

  Take it away! Take it away from me!

  PLEASE!

  More tears. More pain.

  Waves of it enveloped her body.

  She was blacking out now. She could see the gray fuzz reaching up for her. Ready. It was ready to take her away.

  Now.

  She dimly heard what sounded like an explosion.

  And the gray vanished abruptly.

  The pain did as well.

  Julia was panting for air.

  Gunfire.

  Somewhere in her mind she could feel waves of pain and agony wash over her. But they weren't her own sensations.

  The visitors'?

  A rough hand touched her on the forehead.

  She opened her eyes.

  Mick?

  He smiled down at her.

  "Hey kid."

  She gasped and sobbed and retched and puked at the same time. Mick patted her gently and waited for her to regain her composure.

  "You okay?"

  Julia looked down, expecting to see some god awful contraption jutting out of her groin.

  She saw nothing.

  "I...I guess so."

  Mick nodded. "Sorry it took me so long to find you. You wouldn't believe this place."

  "Really?"

  He nodded. "I'd love to explain it all to you now but unfortunately, we'd better get going. I have a feeling we aren't going to be alone much longer."

  And as he said it, a sudden alarm filled the chamber.

  Mick nodded. "So much for surprise."

  Julia tried to grin. "I think the explosives might have ruined that for you."

  "Let's get out of here!"

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  "Put this on." Mick tossed her his sweatshirt. He grinned. "Best I can do right now, sorry."

  "I think my modesty went out the window lying on that gurney exposed for all the world to see," said Julia. "Cripes, I flashed aliens."

  The door to the chamber hissed open. Mick gestured to Julia. "Get down behind the gurney." He swept the barrel of his M16 up and aimed.

  One of the dinocreatures came rushing into the chamber with an awful shriek.