by Sonia Nova
Garr had known that Mehelians were scum, but he hadn’t known about their connection to the Krezlians. He didn’t work for the Alliance, so all this had been news to him, including the fact that humans were the only race in the universe who could have children with his kind.
Garr had been listening to Hazel and Zeriq’s conversation with open curiosity. When he had seen Baby Maya for the first time, he’d wondered how an Ezak-X-human baby came to be. Now, it all made sense to him.
It also made sense why his evil creators would stop at nothing to get humans for their experiments. He knew the Krezlians weren’t beyond anything – even abducting a child. It made his blood boil in his veins, knowing the kind of torture the Krezlians would put Lila through if they got their hands on her.
He would make sure they didn’t.
Even though Shea hadn’t blamed him for not realizing the Mehelians were following them, Garr still felt awful. If he had made the connection between the green lights and the Mehelians sooner, none of this would have happened. Lila would be safe at home right now.
“I’m sorry,” he said as they continued to trek through the snow. He wasn’t able to say anything more, but Shea seemed to understand just what he was apologizing for.
“It’s not your fault, Garr,” she said. “If they’re using illegal stealth technology like Zeriq said, then it’s a miracle you even spotted them in the first place. You had no way of knowing it was a ship full of Mehelians rather than a military stealth ship going on a test run.”
Garr nodded, but he didn’t feel any better. What she said was true, but that didn’t change the situation. He had failed her.
Still, he couldn’t give up. He would fix this situation and get Lila back. No matter what.
“Anything?” Shea asked after a while. They had been walking for over ten minutes since splitting up from everyone else. Shea was clearly desperate for any kind of news on Lila, and Garr’s heart ached for her. “Are we getting close?”
Garr shook his head.
The scent of Mehelians was all over the place, but he had yet to catch any evidence of Lila. The scent trail led through the residential streets and into a warehouse district.
That made sense. An abandoned warehouse was the perfect place to wait for the right moment to take a ship through the atmosphere. It was also remote enough to hide a child – or children, if they’d abducted several.
Who knew how many other children the Mehelians had kidnapped? Lila may be their first, or she may be the dozenth child they snatched.
Garr tightened his grip on the handgun as he approached the warehouses. Of course, Lila might not even be here. Maybe one of the other two paths had led to her, and there was nothing but a never-ending scent trail of Mehelians in this direction.
Just as he thought that, a sugary sweet fragrance drifted into his nose.
Lila.
He stopped dead on his tracks and gestured toward the warehouses. Shea’s eyes widened and her mouth dropped as she took in his meaning.
Garr made a move onto the road in order to track which specific warehouse Lila’s scent led into, but Shea grabbed his arm.
“Wait! What if they’re inside and jump on us?”
Garr hadn’t considered that, and he should have. He was getting so caught up in wanting to find Lila that he was letting his desire get ahead of his training. He was constantly listening in, but that didn’t mean that the Mehelians couldn’t be standing still around the corner, holding their breath without a sound and just waiting to trap them.
He stopped and observed the area. There were no lights and no sign of movement. In an ideal situation, they would spend several hours hidden and observing the area before going in. They didn’t have that luxury now. If Lila wasn’t here, they could lose her by waiting that long to investigate a single area.
“We draw them out,” he said. “I go–”
“No,” Shea hissed, grabbing his arm. “No one is going alone. What will I do if they get you?”
Garr wasn’t used to talking nearly as much as this situation demanded he did, but he had to try. He could break free of Shea’s grip and go, but he didn’t want to do that to her. She deserved to understand first, even if getting the words out was hard for him.
“I won’t get caught,” he said. “I just draw them out.”
Shea looked at him skeptically. “You want to draw them out?” she said finally. “Fine, agreed. Stand back.”
Before he could stop her, Shea pulled out her gun and shot a few bullets in the air. The sound of gunshots rang through the street.
Garr couldn’t deny that her tactic was effective, but he had hoped to evaluate the situation more – possibly even take the Mehelians by surprise. Now, there was no chance of that happening. If the Mehelians were here with Lila, they now knew that they were too.
Still, he couldn’t blame her. Her child was in danger. Lila wasn’t even his, and Garr still felt the persistent prickling under his skin that made sitting still almost impossible. Lila was in danger, and he wanted to act now.
Garr wasn’t at all surprised when a few moments later, two Mehelians came flying out of one of the warehouses. Bald-headed and bruise-colored, they weren’t the prettiest of races. Not that Garr could judge.
They started shouting and waving their arms around as they spoke. Garr couldn’t make out their words as they spoke over each other – not that they necessarily even spoke a language he could understand – but he didn’t need to.
They were seriously worried about all the noise, which was bound to draw the police. And if they were worried about the police, that meant they had something to hide.
Like a four-foot tall child.
Shea lifted her gun into position at the same time as he did.
Garr spoke quietly into her ear. “I take left.”
Shea nodded and aimed at the Mehelian on the right. Their shots went off a mere second apart. Both Mehelians dropped to the ground, bleeding. Garr was amazed by Shea’s skill. Again, she had taken him by surprise. Clearly, this wasn’t her first time using the weapon.
Garr didn’t know if the Mehelians were dead or just unconscious, and he didn’t care. As far as he was concerned, monsters who kidnapped children did not deserve to live. When neither of them rose after a minute, it gave him more satisfaction than he liked to admit.
Shea started forward, but Garr grabbed her arm and pulled her back.
“Wait,” he said. “Make them come to us.”
He was surprised by how quickly he was becoming comfortable with speaking to Shea. He was looking forward to trying to talk to her more in a situation where their lives weren’t in danger. When they had Lila back.
Shea didn’t pull out of his grip, but he could feel the impatience radiating off her.
Her patience paid off, as less than a minute later, another Mehelian came out of the warehouse. This one was heavily armed, clearly having realized that the shots had been directed at his people. He scanned the area carefully, looking for the source of trouble.
Garr quickly pulled Shea behind a trash bin before he saw them. Then, he held up a finger at Shea, telling her to stay put. Shea nodded, and he crept a few steps closer to the edge, hoping for a better angle. Then, he aimed his gun, shooting the Mehelian right through his chest.
The purple and blue alien dropped to the ground like a stone.
But clearly, his armor had protected him, because a minute later, this one rose – and then fell again.
Gar looked back in surprise, and saw Shea standing behind him, her gun pointed at the fallen Mehelian. Garr couldn’t help the grin spreading onto his face.
They waited a few more minutes, but it seemed like the Mehelians had wised up and weren’t coming out. Garr and Shea would have to go to them. They needed a plan.
“Call the others,” he said. “I stay and shoot.”
Shea bit her lip, clearly loath to leave when Lila was so close. After seeing the Mehelians, they both knew that this had to be the place.
But they needed backup. They didn’t know how many Mehelians were in there. They couldn’t just rush in, just the two of them.
“Trust me, Shea.”
Finally, she nodded. Shea turned away and was already headed back in the direction they had come from – to make the call out of earshot of the Mehelians – when a small cry issued from the open warehouse door.
Garr recognized it at once. Lila.
Shea spun around. She had clearly heard it too. She immediately took off running toward the warehouse and the sound. She was too quick, and Garr missed grabbing her around the waist. He had no choice but to run after her.
“Lila!” Shea screamed, holding her gun steadily in front of her as she ran.
The two of them burst into the warehouse. It was dimly lit, but Garr’s eyes adjusted quickly. Lila was lying on a small wooden pallet in the corner. She looked woozy but unhurt. At the sight of her mother, she cried out again and held her arms out piteously.
Garr growled at the sight. He had just enough time to note that Lila was the only child in the warehouse before the Mehelians emerged from the shadows. Shea didn’t even seem to see the five aliens that were quickly converging on her.
Garr tried to warn her, but before he found his voice, a Mehelian jumped on him from the right. Garr threw him against the wall. His skull made a cracking noise upon impact, and he didn’t move again.
Gripping his gun, Garr shot the next one, trying to make it to Shea and Lila before they did. He could hear Shea’s voice in the distance as she cursed the aliens and shot at them, but he couldn’t afford to look in her direction. He shot again, but the shot had been hurried and only hit the Mehelian’s arm, which left it still in the fight.
The Mehelian raised his gun at Garr and pulled the trigger before Garr could move out of the way. Instead of the searing pain of a plasma shot though, Garr felt nothing but a small prick by his neck.
He grabbed the dart and pulled it out, but it was already too late. He could feel the sedative inside him, making his movements sluggish. He growled at the Mehelian, biting his tongue until he tasted blood. He had to neutralize the Mehelians before the sedative knocked him out, or Shea and Lila were as good as dead.
Garr roared and snatched the gun out of the Mehelian’s hand, tossing it aside. He grabbed the Mehelian by the neck and squeezed until his neck snapped.
The next Mehelian also had a gun, but it wasn’t a tranquilizer. Garr felt the charge of a plasma shot slam into his stomach. His eyes saw it, but his feet were too sluggish to move out of the way. He pressed his hand over the suddenly gushing blood.
The Mehelians might have orders to capture any Ezak-X they found alive, but if they were simply working with the Krezlians for money, those orders wouldn’t override their survival instincts. Garr had clearly made himself too much of a threat to remain alive.
Spasms of electric heat coursed through his entire body, and he groaned in pain as he lifted his gun and shot the offending Mehelian. It was getting difficult to hold his arm up though, and the shot went low, hitting the Mehelian in the stomach rather than the chest. The bastard still dropped, and likely wouldn’t get up for a long time.
That left two, as far as Garr had seen, but his vision was quickly growing blurry. Garr staggered as he tried to turn. The sedative was affecting him strongly, despite his attempts to fight it.
He could see Shea and Lila in the distance. Lila didn’t move. She seemed to be unconscious, but Shea was cornered by the two Mehelians. She had her rifle aimed at them, but the Mehelians swiftly avoided her shots.
Garr took an unsteady step toward the three of them. He realized he couldn’t run, so he lunged at the nearest Mehelian with a roar. His leap was clumsy and fell short, causing the two of them to fall on the ground together. Garr had strength on his side as they wrestled, but he was close to passing out, and it showed. His vision kept switching between the blurry Mehelian’s face and complete darkness.
He finally got an arm over the Mehelian’s throat and pushed down as hard as he could, but his head was swimming. He didn’t know if he could keep the grip long enough to make the Mehelian pass out, let alone die. It was already struggling beneath him.
Finally, the Mehelian went limp, and Garr rolled off it, not knowing if it was alive or not, only caring that it was no longer moving.
He turned to the last one, but found himself unable to get up from the ground. Garr screamed internally at his muscles, but they wouldn’t obey him. Between bouts of blackness as his vision failed him, he saw the last Mehelian point his gun at him.
Garr knew in that moment that he was going to die.
The blackness quickly encroached on his vision. His head fell to the ground and everything faded away.
His last thought was to protect Shea.
Chapter 11
Shea
As soon as Shea entered the warehouse, she realized her mistake.
The Mehelians had ambushed them.
They had lured them inside with Lila’s cries, and as soon as Shea and Garr had entered, they’d jumped on them. It was a stupid mistake, one that could now cost their lives, but when Shea had heard Lila’s voice, she had acted on instinct. Her baby was in danger, and she had to go help.
At first, the Mehelians had rushed at Shea, but they had quickly recognized Garr as the more dangerous threat and teamed up on him. Shea had shot at them, but they’d never used lethal weapons against her. There clearly had to be a good price for human females, or else they would’ve likely killed her on the spot.
Somehow, they managed to hold the Mehelians off. Garr took out most of them until there were only two left, trapping her in a corner. Shea reloaded her gun as quickly as she could, shooting at the aliens, but they avoided her shots.
She watched in shock as Garr leaped at one of the approaching Mehelians. He was injured. Badly. There was blood everywhere on the floor of the warehouse, some of which was Garr’s and some the Mehelians’.
The two remaining Mehelians quickly switched their focus from Shea to Garr. Garr wrestled with the first Mehelian and managed to take him out, but when Shea expected him to rise and attack the next one, he didn’t. He lay motionless on the ground in a pool of blood, and Shea’s breath caught in her throat.
Was he dead?
The last Mehelian kept approaching him and raised his gun at Garr – clearly intending to finish him off.
Shea acted at once. She aimed her rifle and shot the bastard. The alien lurched forward with a spray of blood coming out of his shoulder, but he didn’t fall.
Shit. She hadn’t taken him out.
The Mehelian turned around, his eyes narrowed and his lip twisted in a snarl.
Shit. Shit. Shea’s hands shook as she dug into her pockets for more bullets to reload the rifle. The Mehelian started to slowly approach her, like a predator stalking its prey.
“You stupid female…” The Mehelian spoke to her in Alliance Standard. Shea had taken some courses in college, but she was by no means fluent in the language. Every other word was lost to her, but it was clear the Mehelian wasn’t happy with her.
“…Take you all… Ezak-X… Human… Child… Baby…”
Shea’s heart thudded in her chest. She dropped a bullet by accident, her hands too shaky. The Mehelian was now within ten feet of her. Realizing she didn’t have another option, Shea swung the rifle at the alien’s head, using it as a bat, but the Mehelian ducked and grabbed her by the throat.
“Now, look – dead!” The Mehelian squeezed her throat, lifting her toes from the floor. He swung her in the direction of the bodies of his friends, clearly pissed off. “Wanted to… Trap you… Bitch.”
Shea sputtered, clawing at the Mehelian’s hand as she struggled for breath. His words only half-registered in her mind as she gasped for breath, but his intention was pretty clear. They’d had plans, but Shea and Garr had ruined them by killing his friends, so now he wanted to take revenge on her. Great.
Somewhere in the back of her mind, Shea reme
mbered the kitchen knife she had slipped into her waistband. Blackness threatened to swallow her, but she tried to hold onto her consciousness. If she didn’t, they would all be dead.
Slowly, she inched her fingers to her waist until she managed to grip the handle of the knife. She flung it out, breaking her jeans and scraping herself in the process, but she didn’t care. When the blade cut into the Mehelian’s stomach, he staggered back and let go of her neck.
Shea saw stars for a moment as she pulled in a breath of sweet air. The Mehelian clutched his stomach, howling in pain. Shea knew that if she allowed him to get up, he would kill her and Garr. Maybe Lila too.
She didn’t want to kill him though. Not because the bastard deserved to live after what he had done, but because the police would have questions.
This Mehelian might have information about other human kidnapping operations that could save many more people than just Lila. As much as she wanted to destroy the bastards who took her child, Shea had to think of all the children she could help by letting this one live.
So, she took the dull end of the knife and hit him hard on the head. When the Mehelian went down, she stripped off her jacket and used it to bind the alien’s arms behind his back. She dragged the semi-conscious Mehelian to a long pole and bound him there. Shea didn’t know how strong the Mehelian was and how long the jacket would hold him, but it was the best she could do for now.
The police would be here soon. Someone must have heard the gun shots and called 911.
Shea glanced at Garr. He was bleeding badly. She rushed to Lila and checked her pulse. Her breathing was steady. The Mehelians had clearly drugged her and she was drowsy, but she didn’t seem hurt. She’d woken up a little earlier, when she cried out in fear, but now she seemed to have reverted to her sleepy state.
Shea was quite happy to leave Lila sleeping for the moment. This was no situation for a little girl to have to witness.
She scrambled over to Garr, hoping to God he wasn’t dead.
Garr lay on his back, not moving. His stomach was covered in blood. A lot of blood.
