As they turn down a side street, Alyssa spotted large black burn marks scattered across the stone walls. Sebastian drove the van into a rubble-strewn parking lot, squeezing in between two armored trucks. The girls waited for him to give the all-clear, as they’d been trained to do, before they scrambled out of the van.
Walking closely behind Sebastian, Alyssa and Jess scanned the area around them. Recent classes, taught by Cecily, had instilled a sense of awareness in them. After her recent abductions, Alyssa was more prone to slip over that fine line of awareness and paranoia. Chills racked her body as memories of her last encounter with Kayn played through her mind. Never again...
She slid her hand to her waist, fondling the handgun that never left her side. Even though Sebastian was almost always in the bed with her, Alyssa couldn’t sleep without having her gun on the nightstand, or under her pillow if she had to sleep alone. Gritting her teeth, she yanked her hand away from the gun, ashamed of how helpless she felt without the crutch.
“What is this place?” She wound her arm around Sebastian’s elbow. He pulled her close, kissing the side of her head.
“This used to be a courthouse. There’s a plaque posted inside the front entrance that explains who designed the building and how it’s supposed to look like French architecture of some sort. I only read it once; not really my thing.”
“Looks like it held up pretty well in the war.”
“Yeah. Tom’s team had a hell of a time taking over. The Zooks barricaded themselves in for several days but eventually gave up.”
“What did he do with them?” Jess skipped forward to walk at Sebastian’s other side.
“Pretty sure most of them switched sides. The rest are probably in the jail.”
“They have a jail?”
“Yep. It’s back there.” Sebastian waved his hand toward some large buildings behind the courthouse.
The three of them walked along the fence, past the courthouse, around the remains of a smaller building, and into the shadow of a giant square box. The bland building was missing several chunks of outer wall, with an entire top corner missing from the front. Sebastian led the girls to a guarded doorway, nodding at the men.
“Hey, guys,” he said, exchanging handshakes, “what’s the deal with the angry mob?”
“Some asshole saw aliens with your team that brought in those slaves,” said the guard on the right. “They’ve been demanding we hand them over for public hanging. Fucking barbaric, man.”
“Holy crap,” Alyssa said, shaking her head, “those are coalition members. They’re good guys. Why so bloodthirsty?”
“Since we took over, the supplies have been running short,” said the guard on the left, “you know, since the commander locked himself up in his tower. The crops and the greenhouse aren’t growing enough to cover the supplies he doesn’t send anymore. On top of that, we’ve had gangs targeting the local alien civilians.”
“Not good, dude.” Sebastian slapped the guy on the shoulder and pulled Alyssa in the door.
“We’re not going in the courthouse?” Alyssa glanced back at the stone building, biting her bottom lip.
“Not yet, darlin’, but I promise I’ll take you on a tour later, if we have time.”
Jess giggled, pinching Alyssa’s arm. “I want to go too. That’s the coolest looking building I’ve ever seen.”
Sebastian reached behind to pull Jess up next to him and slung his arm over her shoulder. “You got it.”
***
“So, what are we looking at here, Tom?”
The Spokane coalition leader led Sebastian, Alyssa, and Jess up three flights of stairs to where the command center was set up. Alyssa had seen Tom Andrews on the television screen during a video conference before the recent raid. Visual communications were not the best between the different coalition locations, often displaying lined or jumbled images, if they came across at all, unlike the crystal-clear broadcasts from the Command Compound.
Following two steps behind, Alyssa scanned what she could see of Tom. He reminded her of the dwarves from a fantasy book series she’d read in school. He was nearly a foot shorter than Sebastian, but what his arms and legs lacked in length, they easily made up for in girth.
Alyssa could imagine him wearing full battle-worn armor with a giant double-edged axe strapped to his back. She squeezed her hands into fists, barely resisting the urge to pet his long, full braid of red hair. The sound of his black combat boots stomping against each step told a tale of dense muscle hidden under a layer of loose camouflage clothing, like they’d ran out of sizes to fit his short stature.
“The hospital is full, Bas.” Tom shook his head, disgust clear in his voice. “There are sixty-four slaves and almost all of them are malnourished and abused in some way.”
“Any of them look healthy enough to come back with us?”
“You’ll have to ask Cecily. She’s been handling all the questioning, but I can tell you, from what I saw, there’s a few people that need more than the rehab we can give them.”
“That bad?”
Tom opened the stairwell door, standing aside for the rest of them to pass into the hallway. “Yup. The way things are, I don’t know if keeping them alive is merciful or cruel.”
Jess halted in the doorway, gaping at Tom, all color drained from her face. “You can’t be saying—”
“I’m afraid so.” Tom’s large brown eyes expressed a grim acceptance. His lips pinched together in an angry line, only just visible in the bushy beard covering the bottom half of his face, and his caterpillar eyebrows dug down deep into the bridge of his nose.
“That’s just… just awful.” Jess’ lips trembled and she wrapped her arms around herself as she turned away from Tom.
“We’re headed to the main conference room, Bas. You know the way?”
“Sure.” Sebastian hooked an arm around Jess’ neck and Alyssa grabbed her best friend’s hand.
“I’ll meet you there,” Tom said before he marched back down the stairs.
Sebastian steered them down the hall to a large room with three rectangle tables set up in a U shape, chairs lining the outer edges. Alyssa and Jess sat on the far side, facing the doorway, while Sebastian paced the empty space between the tables.
“Babe, what’s going to happen if those people can’t be fixed?” Alyssa scrubbed her palms against her thighs. “Tom’s not going to kill them, is he? We don’t kill slaves, we save them, right?”
“No, darlin’, I won’t let that happen. Tom’s not going to kill them, even if he thinks it would be more merciful. He’s a good guy, just a little too… practical, sometimes.” Sebastian stopped to stare out the door briefly before coming around to squat down next to Alyssa. “Tom’s a soldier. He’s by-the-book, and will follow orders, even if he doesn’t believe in them.”
Alyssa searched Sebastian’s eyes, finding only openness. Her tense shoulders relaxed and her chest loosened as he leaned forward to give her a quick kiss. She quickly wrapped her arms around his neck, almost knocking him over.
Footsteps in the hallway pulled Sebastian away, leaving Alyssa to grumble her annoyance. Jess grabbed her hand, squeezing gently. They huddled together as Tom came in with Cecily and a mix of people from both coalition groups.
After everyone greeted each other and settled in around the tables, Tom cleared his throat, grabbing the room’s attention. With a stiff nod, he ceded the floor to Sebastian.
“Cecily, what can you report?”
The Amazonian woman appeared calm and aloof most of the time. Her pixie-cut platinum-blond hair made her look cute and friendly, but piss her off and she’d take a bite out of your ass before you can blink. Her ruthlessness came out occasionally during the training classes she taught in between missions.
“Most of the slaves are in terrible shape. They’ve been starved, beaten, and used in awful fuckin’ ways. Many of the women and children are too traumatized to speak. Even some of the newer slaves are broken.”
“Any
of them strong enough to go back with us?”
“You might get a couple men, but they’re all terrified. At least half of them are strung out on Valene. A few might not survive the withdrawals, even with the rehab treatment Tom’s got set up here.”
“What about information? Did they know anything useful?”
“Some of them were brought in from other camps. Apparently the Zooks have hidden camps scattered all over the place, but they transport the slaves in their shuttles. No windows for anyone to see which direction they traveled.”
“And the new slaves…where are they coming from?”
“The ones from this raid said they were from Seattle. One guy was a branded human, completely loyal until he woke up from Asen’Sha to find himself in a cellar, tied up and naked. Doesn’t want to believe his mate dumped him. Total fuckin’ denial, Bas.”
“That one’s going to have to stay in a cell, I’m afraid,” Tom said.
“The others aren’t saying much else. I have a suspicion there might be an Asen’Sha guide set up somewhere in Seattle, feeding the Valene junkies, like an opium den. Be damn easy to take people as slaves when their minds are locked in Zion.”
For the next hour, they discussed possible camp locations and what to do with the slaves. Tom agreed to rehabilitate each of them, repeating promises to Jess as she grilled him about saving lives and preserving humanity. Afterward, Cecily took Sebastian to talk with the most coherent victims while Alyssa and Jess were treated to a tour of the historic building.
Chapter 4
On their way out the next morning, their convoy couldn’t exit the settlement gate. Shouts were volleyed over the heads of uniformed humans and aliens. Sebastian, Alyssa, Jess, and Lorn got out of the SUV, while Cecily and Jack followed suit, joining them at the fence.
Four aliens were planted on the inside of the gate with high-powered rifles held in large hands. Each wore dark camouflage pants and button-up shirts with the coalition symbol, a circle with two lines crossed through it like a pie cut in four pieces, emblazoned across the fronts. Most coalition members had started wearing the symbol openly since the truth about the deadly alien plot had been revealed two months earlier.
The coalition symbol represented Earth. When the Szu’Kara arrived twenty years ago, not all humans believed they were here only to save humanity from destroying itself. After witnessing the terrible things the aliens had done, Sebastian joined up with Cecily and her small band of rebels in California. Over the years, they built up the coalition into a worldwide network with a goal to free humanity and take back the planet.
The Szu’Kara had their own symbol that matched their eyes. Like a cat’s eye, they had thin, black pupils set in metallic or gem-like colored orbs, without irises. Their symbol was a simple outline of an eye with a thin slash down the middle.
“What’s going on?” Sebastian hollered over the roar of the massive crowd to a nearby Szu’Kara guard.
“Protests.”
On each side of the road, people yelled at each other and at the guards. They pushed against the line of armed coalition members that tried to keep the two sides separate. Handmade signs waved over the heads of the protestors, clearly indicating the pro-aliens from the anti-aliens.
“How do we get out?”
“We will push them back from the road, Mr. Roberts.” The Szu’Kara guard ordered the others to open the gate.
Shivering with anxiety, Alyssa sidled up to Jess, wrapping an arm around her elbow. Lorn stepped toward them, extending his arm to direct them back to the SUV. A man’s voice bellowed over the rumbling crowd, startling everyone.
Alyssa and Jess stopped to look back just in time to watch Lorn stumble and collapse as a chunk of red brick smacked against the back of his head.
“LORN!” Jess dropped to his side.
Alyssa fell to her knees on his other side. “Oh no, Lorn!”
An eerie quiet fell around them. Alyssa turned on her knee to peer at the protestors, searching the mix of stunned and angry faces. Unable to spot the guilty party, she looked over to the alien guards.
Sebastian had backed up to act as a barrier between the three of them on the ground and the crowd beyond the fence, while the four guards held their weapons aimed at the anti-alien crowd. The tension in the air felt like pressure in the ear when changing altitude. No one moved or spoke, as if someone had pushed a pause button.
With an inaudible pop, the pressure of the tense atmosphere vanished as Lorn moaned and the protestors started yelling again.
“Is he all right?” Sebastian glanced over his shoulder, then gestured at the short medic. “Jack, check on him.”
“I’m on it.” Jack crouched down to inspect Lorn’s head with stubby fingers. “Looks like a deep laceration. He’s going to need stitches, and he’ll have a wicked goose egg.”
“Yken’Sa,” Alyssa said.
“Huh?” Jack cocked a reddish-brown eyebrow at her.
“Sebastian, ask the guard if he’ll do Yken’Sa on Lorn.” She leaned down to inspect the gash, watching silver blood ooze out of his thick scalp. Jess held his limp hand, rocking back and forth, muttering his name repeatedly.
Within seconds, Sebastian and the guard were kneeling at Lorn’s head. Everyone watched, fascinated, as the guard encircled Lorn’s head with his enormous turquoise hands.
“What’s he doing?” Jack whispered to Cecily beside him.
She elbowed him. “Just watch.” He winced, rubbing his shoulder while turning back to observe.
The guard closed his bronze eyes and lowered his head in concentration, while they all stared.
At first it seemed like nothing happened besides the guard’s hands looking sweaty, but Alyssa knew that sheen on his skin was Valene. Within seconds, Lorn’s skin slowly began to glow around the guard’s hands. The glow spread to the wound, blanketing it as the skin melded together.
Lorn’s eyes fluttered open, and Jess practically pounced on him, kissing him all over his face.
“Thank you so much,” Alyssa said on a relieved breath. “What’s your name?”
“Jae’Val.” He pushed himself up off the ground. Standing above them, he appeared as a living spire from Alyssa’s view at Lorn’s side.
Cecily and Sebastian helped Lorn up and Jess fussed over him, brushing dust off his clothes. Lorn bowed to Jae’Val, stumbling forward a little before Jess steadied him.
“Thank you. I am honored.”
“It is my honor.” Jae’Val bowed deeply in return.
“That was goddamn amazing!” Jack gaped at the two aliens. “You healed him like it was nothing.”
“No,” Lorn said, “it is not nothing. Yken’Sa is sacred, a sharing of life essences.”
“Yes, it is.” Jae’Val bowed his head reverently, then turned on his heel to return to his post.
The group as one began moving back to the vehicles, Alyssa shuffling at the rear. Her teeth ground together as the anger of the last few months flooded her mind, swelling in her chest until she felt as if she wouldn’t be able to breathe unless she let it out.
Spinning around, she stomped past Jae’Val. Him and the other guards followed behind her but didn’t do anything to stop her as she charged out the gate. With a quick glance, she spotted a rusted, green hatchback car parked to the side of the road, almost flush with the fence. In an instant, she found herself perched on the hood of the car, the metal groaning with her weight.
Staring out over the protestors, Alyssa picked out individual voices, her anger ramping up to rage with each ugly word she heard.
“…monsters trying to kill us…”
“…here to protect us. They promised us Zion…”
“…steal our planet from under our noses…”
“…love us, saved us. The commander is taking care of us…”
“STOP!” Alyssa roared, her breath hot as fire. “SHUT UP. SHUT UP. SHUT UP.”
Again, the crowd halted, silent. All eyes were on her, some faces curious, some irrit
ated, some suspicious.
“This is ridiculous! Humans should not be fighting humans! We should be banding together to free ourselves from the slavery that Commander Kayn wants to force us into! You should be helping the coalition take back our planet! Rioting, protesting, ganging up on the good aliens…none of that gets us anywhere! We have to save ourselves! We have to embrace the Szu’Kara that are on our side, not hurt them! One of you almost killed my friend just now! He has been loyal to us humans! He has defended us against his own kind, who want to kill us all!”
“How are we supposed to know which ones are on our side?” someone yelled from deep in the anti-alien side.
Another voice from the anti-aliens: “None of them are on our side!”
“Yes!” Alyssa yelled back. “These Szu’Kara here at the gate are coalition members! They’re watching out for you, protecting you. They don’t agree with what the commander wants to do—”
“They’ve all done this on other worlds! Why save us? We don’t believe any of them care about us!” That same voice of dissension.
“They care about us! They promised everlasting life in Zion!” Pro-alien.
“Zion is a lie!” Anti-alien.
The crowds surged toward each other again, pushing against the line of guards.
“ENOUGH!” Alyssa screamed at them, her arms flung out to her sides. The noise of the protest quieted to a murmur. “Zion is a lie! The commander is a monster. I was his personal assistant, and I believed him. I thought the same as you did about Zion. I thought he would take care of us—take care of me.”
Everyone, even the guards, gave her their rapt attention.
“I thought he was an angel, admiring him all my life. When he gave me his affection, I felt blessed. When I got preg—” Alyssa shook her head, unable to finish the word. “I was wrong. So wrong. He raped me! He beat me! He tried to kill me! Twice!” A collective gasp rang out. “You can’t trust him or his general. I know it’s hard to tell which Szu’Kara are good and which aren’t, but I promise you the aliens here at the settlement are on our side. They are trying to do the right thing.”
Unchained: The Discordant Earth Series Book Two Page 3