Alien Enslaved IV: Spoils of War
Page 4
Yeah, Lori thought angrily, but mostly she was too single minded to think beyond ‘food’ and ‘water’.
One of the women came up beside her and tripped her. She might have thought it was an accident except she immediately shoved the woman on the other side and pushed her down, as well.
Fury washed over her, but she couldn’t spare the time to act on it. If she stopped to beat the fuck out of the bitch there wouldn’t be a damned thing left. Instead, she scrambled to her feet and ran harder.
Someone grabbed her hair, flying behind her as she ran, nearly wrenching her head off. Fortunately, the assailant grabbed the ends of her hair not close to her scalp. She swung around, leading with her arm and balled fist and caught the bitch on the side of her head. She tripped over her own feet and went down, damned near bowling Lori down as she fell.
Lori managed to leap over her and kept running.
She needed the water worse. If she’d been capable of rational thought, she would’ve considered that absolutely imperative and dismissed the need for food since she was well aware she had enough fat reserves to hold her for days or weeks. But she was single minded in her pursuit and she managed to wedge herself through the crowd and get up to the food trough first.
It was nearly empty already and too deep for her to reach anything.
She heaved herself up onto the side and fell in when she leaned down to try to snag … whatever the hell it was down there. Bread came to mind and she thought it must be some grain based food, but she really had no clue.
And she didn’t particularly care.
She wanted some of it.
Several other women piled in behind her and she had to drop to her knees and scramble for a scrap. After some pushing, slapping and shoving, she managed to snag a piece roughly the size of a small biscuit.
She dove for a couple of other pieces, but it was pretty obvious fairly quickly that she’d lucked out just to get the one. She stood up to climb out and came face to face with the yellow giant.
Well, one of them.
The one whose ‘beast’ had stood up and pointed at her when she’d seen him before.
She blinked a couple of times, but her mind was gone. She didn’t even think about the food in her hand. It was instinct that prompted her to stuff it in her mouth before anybody could wrest it away from her.
It was a mistake.
Her mouth was so desert dry she started to choke almost immediately.
Someone—the yellow giant, she thought—grabbed her while she was struggling with the instinct to spit the food out so that she could breathe and the fear of losing the only piece of food she’d managed to get. Dragging her out, he caught the back of her neck in one hand and shoved, doubling her over.
Then he commenced to pounding her on the back until she coughed up the piece of food. She thought she might actually have coughed up a lung with it, but she managed to gasp in a breath of air while the yellow man dove for the food she’d choked up.
A greenish looking, bug-man beat him to it.
He stomped the thing and wrenched the crumbled ‘biscuit’ out of his pinchers.
Lori made a grab for it as he straightened, but he gripped her neck and held the piece out of her reach.
She followed the food with her gaze until he dipped it into the other trough, the water, and pulled it out again—disintegrating from the water dripping from it.
And then he shoved it in her face.
She choked again as she gobbled it, this time on the water that filled her mouth.
She covered her mouth with her hand—not due to manners but because she was afraid she’d lose the food again—and she managed to swallow most of it.
The yellow man shoved someone that was hanging over the trough of water and dragged her to the edge.
Scooping up handfuls of the liquid with one hand, he gave her a drink and then drank himself.
She’d managed to get two cupped handfuls of water before someone clobbered the giant hard enough he stumbled sideways and knocked her down.
Pain shot through her as she hit the hard floor on her knees, but the seething mass of alien beings instantly became a raging, fighting, mob and she began crawling away as fast as she could.
She got kicked.
She was fallen on and over.
But she couldn’t tell that anyone deliberately targeted her. She was just in the middle of the mix and she knew there must be an edge. Finally, she managed to clear the bulk of the mob.
And that was when the alarms cut loose and the metal monsters crawled out of the walls and a fine mist coated everyone and darkness rose up to envelope them.
She’d managed to get something to eat and drink, though, by damn!
* * * *
Wariness filled Lori as she rose toward awareness. Without opening her eyes, trying not to move or change the rhythm of her breathing, she ‘felt’ around herself with her senses.
She didn’t know where she was.
But she knew where she wasn’t.
The faint light filtering through her eyelids was her first clue. When she’d awakened in the crate with the other women it had always been blanketed with darkness.
There was someone breathing very heavily beside her and she was pretty certain it wasn’t one of the women she’d shared the crate with.
Because they had bunks.
She felt the fine hairs on the back of her neck lift.
Bracing herself, she eased her eyes open just a tiny crack.
He was staring straight at her and he wasn’t even an arm’s length away.
She sucked in a sharp breath and leapt away, landed painfully on the hard floor below the sleeping platform she’d been lying on, and bounded up again, whipping her head back and forth as she searched for a way to escape.
There wasn’t one, but her mind was slow to accept the unacceptable.
She was trapped in a cell with one of the giant warriors.
Alone.
When she’d put as much distance between them as she could manage and curled into a tight ball, he settled back, staring at the ceiling.
She stared at him until her eyes were burning, waiting for him to pounce.
Slowly, as time passed, in spite of all she could do, her tense muscles began to relax. The fear that had turned her brain to mush began to subside and actual thoughts began to trickle through her mind, disjointed at first, but more purposeful after a time when he still made no move to attack.
Physical discomfort began to chip away at the remainder of her fear. The floor was like a slab of ice and, instead of absorbing the warmth of her body, it transferred the cold to her. Her body almost seemed to suck it up until the cold had reached bone deep and she had to clench her jaws together to keep her teeth from chattering.
A scraping noise close by penetrated her misery and she whipped a frightened look in that direction in time to see a tray shoved through a small opening that contained a chunk of what appeared to be a rounded loaf of bread and a vessel of something liquid.
She stared at it hard for several moments, waiting to see what would happen next and finally whipped a look at her companion.
He’d sat up, she saw.
He glanced from the food to her, waiting, she supposed, for her to make the first move.
She would have liked to but she’d sat so long, curled tightly, on the frigid surface she didn’t think she could move at all.
After a prolonged moment, he got off of the platform and retrieved the food and the vessel. He hesitated when he turned with them and then returned to the platform.
Setting the vessel down near the edge, he broke the bread into two, roughly equal, portions and held one out to her.
It was either a trap.
Or he was actually offering to share.
As if there was any point in him trying to trap her!
Of course, maybe he just didn’t feel like chasing her around and around the small cell, but she didn’t think it would be much of a chase and she dou
bted he thought so either.
But did she want to go closer?
She did, actually.
He was warm. Right up until she’d bailed off the platform she’d been relatively warm because of his heat. She wanted that way worse than the food.
She didn’t think it had been that long since she’d choked down the biscuit sized piece and chased it with water.
Because he had helped her, she realized abruptly.
She stared at his face, hard, when that thought occurred to her, but she just couldn’t be certain it was the same alien man.
She got up with an effort when he finally gave up and lowered his arm, and limped over to the platform.
She should just grab the food and keep her distance, she knew.
But the truth was, she was pretty much at his mercy. If he wanted to rape her, she couldn’t fight him off and nobody was going to rush to her rescue.
If he wanted to kill her—same.
He seemed to be offering to make friends.
She needed a friend—badly.
She climbed up on the platform with an effort and settled within an arm’s length of him.
He held the bread out and she reached for it.
She studied it for several moments after she’d taken it and finally sniffed it.
“Taste like shit,” he said conversationally.
The comment, in English, caught Lori off guard. She snorted a laugh.
When she looked at him she saw his gaze flicker over her. Finally, his lips curled up at one corner in a faint smile.
It charmed her in a way she would never have thought possible.
He really was amazingly handsome, she thought in surprise—in a hard, manly sort of way that made her insides all ooey gooy.
Shaking herself, she transferred her attention to the food, tore off a small piece and stuck it in her mouth.
He was right, unfortunately. It did taste like shit.
Well, more accurately, saw dust or card board.
She made a face.
He uttered a snort of a laugh that charmed her even more than the smile had.
She grinned at him. “Yup. Tastes like shit.” She frowned. “The other tasted like … dirt and hair and god knows what. Don’t know why I’m complaining.”
He shrugged, finished his piece and lifted the cup to drink.
Lori tore off about half of the piece he’d given her and handed it back to him. “You need more.”
He looked doubtful, but he took it and ate—almost in one bite.
Damn the dude was huge!
She felt more than a little self-conscious drinking after him and it wasn’t just because of the germs. She needed the water, though, and it was a sight better just drinking after him than sucking water out of a trough that was a community vessel.
Closing her mind to the fact that his mouth had been on the same rim only minutes before, she drank what she could and gave it back to him, watching as he drained it and then slipped off the platform and placed the vessel where it had been shoved through the wall.
When he returned, he stretched out on his back.
She stared at him for a few moments, but she really was desperate for some of his warmth and she settled beside him after only a brief debate.
He turned on his side, curling around her, tucking her against his length.
She stiffened but forced herself to relax.
To her surprise he merely settled and went to sleep.
She was actually more than a little disconcerted about that, but she finally managed to put her anxieties out of her head and follow him into neverland.
Chapter Five
The flash of bright light and the blaring, commanding voice jolted Lori out of a deep sleep. Drunk with fatigue and or residual drugs in her system, she rolled to the edge of the sleeping platform and stumbled off in a semi-controlled fall. After staggering around in a semi-circle, she spotted an opening and wove her way toward it as fast as she could manage, horrific images of the slow woman prodding her to hurry. She was outside before it occurred to her that she didn’t know if she actually wanted to leave the safety of the cell with her giant.
And then it occurred to her that she didn’t recall noticing whether he was there or not after she was woken.
He definitely hadn’t left with her, she discovered, and the door had closed virtually on her heels so he wouldn’t be following whether he wanted to or not.
She discovered when she’d looked around, though, that there was a small knot of human women near a cell or crate in the near distance. She headed toward them since there didn’t seem to be any other destination in the courtyard she’d found herself in.
She discovered the reason for the congregation when she got there.
It was crude sanitary facilities.
She didn’t care how crude! She was desperate for relief!
It was even sort of private.
When she’d relieved herself, she eyed the sputtering shower heads doubtfully and finally slipped off the ‘hospital’ gown she’d been given and stepped closer to examine it and see if she could figure out how to make it work. Apparently, it was motion activated.
And the water was barely tepid.
She sucked in a sharp breath on the edge of a scream when she was abruptly deluged with water.
Fortunately, it was a short blast.
It thoroughly soaked her from head to toe, but it was a very brief torture session.
And, of course, nothing to dry with.
She retrieved her gown and pulled it on.
Shivering, teeth chattering together when she didn’t clench them, she headed out and found a spot to collapse.
“Another delightful experience of many, courtesy of the grays,” said a woman who plopped down beside her.
The irony was mildly amusing despite the circumstances and Lori flicked a smile her way.
Which was when she realized she didn’t recognize the woman.
She frowned.
The woman nodded, looking away. “No. I don’t think it’s your imagination. I don’t remember you either. I’m Jill, by the way. Actually, Jillian, but everybody’s too lazy to say that so they call me Jill—which I hate.”
“Lori,” Lori said, smiling. “And you can call me anything … except bitch.” She thought about it. “Actually, I really hate cunt, so not that either.”
The woman uttered a snorting laugh. “I’m not even going to ask why anybody would call you either.”
Lori’s heart executed a series of thumps as the woman’s earlier comment sank in. “You mean you just got here?” she gasped.
The woman’s lips flattened. “I was just about to ask you that.”
Lori frowned. “You don’t remember?”
“Do you?” Jill countered.
Lori struggled with what she could remember and finally uttered a sound of frustration. “No.” She frowned. “It seems like ….” She shook her head.
Jill nodded. “I’ve been taken so many times it all just sort of runs together after a while.”
Lori gaped at her. The woman had seemed perfectly sensible right up till then.
That time Jill’s expression was definitely unfriendly. “I’m used to that, but all things considered ….”
“I’m sorry!” Lori said hurriedly when the woman started to rise. “You’re right. It was … just a gut reaction and totally … prejudiced all things considered.”
Thankfully, she seemed mollified and settled again. “Well, if we can dispense judgment on my sanity maybe we could compare notes?”
Lori nodded thoughtfully. “Actually ….” She frowned. “I’ve had these … like nightmares, I guess, that sort of remind me of some of the stories I’ve heard about people being taken.”
“My guess is that they aren’t dreams, or nightmares, any more than mine were,” Jill responded, her voice either tight with anger or anxiety from her own memories.
Maybe both.
Another woman joined them. “I read this
article once where this scientist was studying the effects of magnetism on the human brain. He’d made this helmet thingy and used student volunteers. One of them had what she characterized as a ‘religious’ experience even though she wasn’t religious. She said angels appeared around her. Then they tried it again and that time she said she was surrounded by aliens.”
“So … in a nicer way, you’re suggesting it’s all in my head,” Jill said tightly.
The woman looked taken aback. “I wasn’t. I’ve had them, too.”
Jill reddened. “Oh. Sorry. I guess I’m just sensitive since I’ve been called a nut case so many times.”
“So … What you’re saying is that there could be a possibility that we’re part of some experiment?”
“Well, I think it would be hard to argue that we’ve been part of an experiment of some kind—unless your experience was different from mine. The question is, what kind of experiment and who’s doing it?”
“As in, is there any possibility of getting out of this?” Lori asked.
A couple of younger women found a place close by but with enough distance between their group and Lori’s to make a statement—that they weren’t actually ‘joining’. Their butts had barely settled, though, where there was a loud, high pitched screech that brought everybody instantly to their feet in terror.
A young woman about the same age as the two who’d found a spot close by appeared in the doorway of the facilities, dripping water. “I think I just got blasted with toilet water!” she gasped, clearly deeply distressed.
Everyone gaped at her for several moments while that sank in and they began to feel outrage that the fool had terrified them for nothing.
“It’s sulfur water, dunce,” the woman who’d joined Jill and Lori snapped irritably.
The young woman gaped and then looked at the two other younger women. “Did she just call me stupid?” she growled.
“She did!” the woman snapped. “You scared the shit out of everybody screaming like that! And for nothing!”
Lori thought the woman/girl—because she hardly looked old enough to be classified as a woman—was stupid, too. Who the hell didn’t know what sulfur water was? Granted, the stuff stank like hell, but it didn’t smell like anything from the septic tank. It smelled like rotten eggs.