Here

by Zolendz, Christine

  “Asshole?” I ask, feeling a spiral of tingly giddiness deep in my chest. Shit this was one of the times when Rune saved me. I need to fight for control of my thoughts. Pious cannot find out where Rune is.

  Rune’s boots shuffle quickly over the gravelly floor and warm hands slip over my skin to my face. “Are you hurt?” His voice is brittle, shaky.

  “What? How?” My words stumble out as I press the palms of my hands over his. “I…don’t understand.”

  He drags his thumb gently over my jaw. Through the darkness I can just about make out his features, yet I know how close he stands from the warm fan of his breath on my cheeks.

  “Those men…” I mumble, my stomach clenching painfully.

  “Are no longer a problem,” he says darkly.

  I stare at his shadowy figure, a twinge of bitterness bubbling in my chest. He and his alien friends did this; they caused all this crap to happen. Now he’s the one to come and save me. I raise my chin from his grip.

  “But you. You’re still my problem.” I’m shaking, getting sick to my stomach again thinking about what’s outside the door.

  “I was never the problem,” he whispers, inching closer.

  I bare my teeth, wanting to lash out. “You and your kind destroying my world was never a problem?”

  His hands, large and hot, press down against my shoulders, flattening my back into the wall. “I’m the one who came to save this world.”

  “What?” I ask, pushing back against his weight. “I don’t understand. You said that...” but I stop, because I’m wrong. He never said anything. He never even told me his name.

  “Rune,” he says into the darkness consuming us, sliding his hands off me.

  “Ruin what?” I ask, mind racing.

  “My name. It’s Rune,” he says, pronouncing it slowly.

  Pious taps over the buttons and lights. “Where is he now? This is useless information, parasite!”

  Parasite. Parasite! I’ll show him parasite.

  I concentrate, focus on a thought, a memory from not so long ago. Something stupid and foolish I did, but maybe something that could help me now. I’ll make him see something I did that would make someone like Pious sick to his stomach with fear of the diseases I may carry.

  “Stop fighting me, female. Your pathetic brain is no competition for our software.”

  I start singing a song in my head, let the bass beat out a rhythm, until the song is overwhelmingly loud in my mind.

  “What is that?” Pious asks, hearing the music.

  The illusion opens up into a crowded club. There’s smoke and flashing colors of lights. A layer of sweat is slicked over my body as I dance with a stranger. His hands are on my skin, every inch of it that’s bare—and there’s a lot of it that’s bare. His shirt is fisted in my hands, lifted up to see the hard, muscular expanse of stomach beneath. His lips are on my neck, his tongue licking out and tasting my skin. He says filthy things into my ear.

  I wanted to get lost that night, wasted, carefree for one night. I scored a hit of ecstasy from one of the guys I knew from my literature class and all I wanted to do was dance and fuck and run from reality for a while.

  “I want to fuck you,” the stranger says.

  I cringe at the memory of me being so reckless, but I smile at Pious as he watches me let a stranger fuck me in a filthy club bathroom.

  More than once.

  With no condom at all.

  “Disgusting parasite!” Pious roars, ripping me out of the uploading station.

  He tears at my faceplate and yanks it off as I scream and curse at him.

  The last thing I see is his metal fist coming at me.

  41

  Kate

  My eyes flutter open. Jesus, I feel like I have the flu. My body aches everywhere, inside and out, as if I’d been wrung out to dry. My eyeballs and whatever muscles that hold them in their sockets throb in sharp stabbing pain across my forehead and spike through my temples.

  What the heck happened?

  Where am I?

  A frantic burst of panic spreads like fire in my chest. I try to move my arms and legs and find they’re too heavy to lift. My eyes are too blurry to focus. A frenzy of terror explodes in a burst of light behind my eyelids and I try to scream but nothing comes out but a hoarse cracked cry. My throat burns and cuts with dryness.

  I reach out to grab onto something—anything—but all I can feel is the cold surface of what’s beneath me.

  The memory of Pious’s hard metal fist coming at me hits me hard and stabs at my eye socket. God, he must have knocked me out cold. I slowly lift my hand to where it hurts the most on my face.

  No wonder I can’t see. It feels swollen and tender to the touch.

  I shift around and try to pull myself up into a sitting position. Around me the bleary world tilts and nausea rolls and surges up in my chest. I dry heave until tears streak down my cheeks.

  “Pious!” I choke out.

  He doesn’t answer me.

  No one does.

  I need to get up. I need to figure out where I am. Pious is going to inject me with that metal alloy crap and stuff me in one of those vats of icy Hell.

  I crawl on my hands and knees, one arm outstretched to feel my way, until it hits a cold slab. Gripping my hands on the top of it, I pull myself up into a standing position and lean heavily on the rectangular shape. I feel the cool smoothness of the metal against my whole body.

  Oh my God. That crazy alien asshole left me naked!

  I lean my hip on the surface and wrap my arms around my chest. “Pious!” I growl out.

  Still, no one answers.

  Slowly, I spin around and try to focus my eyes. Where am I? The counter in front of me is flat, and when I bring my face down close enough to the surface of it and squint, I realize there’s a foggy shape of a girl floating inside.

  I must be back in the preservation lab.

  And I can’t see anything. I can’t see my way out or if Claire is here.

  I’m a sitting duck. I don’t even know if I’m alone. He can be in here, watching me. Laughing his stupid metal head off.

  A cacophony of loud high-pitched hysterical giggles pours from my lips. The noise that sputters from my mouth feeds my panic. It flares itself into gulps of air I can’t get, and black spots form in front of the blurriness in my eyes.

  Every cell in my body is panicking. Leaning back against the cold slab of metal, gasping for breath, my knees give out. My body slides down the counter, and I land painfully hard against the floor. I lower my head between my knees and let my sobs break free. It’s okay to break down. As long as Pious isn’t here to see it. I don’t want to give him the satisfaction.

  No, I don’t want to give him tears, I want to give him all my hate.

  I kick my leg out and hit something that sounds like it slides across the floor. What is it? What the fuck is it?

  I scramble on my palms in the direction I heard the noise and feel around for whatever it is until my fingertips brush against something on the floor. It’s small and round and cool to the touch. Metal gears cover the exterior of it.

  A faceplate.

  I claw at it and slide it over my head. Will it heal me? Will it make my eyes less swollen?

  Fire rips through my skin and pulses around both my cheeks and eye sockets. I scramble around, sliding my body against one of the cold metal counters and slowly, inch by inch, I pull myself up, back into a standing position. This helmet better heal my eyesight. I lunge for the walls of the room, hands stretched out in front of me, feeling my way. I need an uploading dock, don’t I? I need this helmet to fix the mess Pious made of my face.

  God, please don’t let him be somewhere in here watching me. And where the hell is Rune? Did Jex ever make it back to him? And if he did, will he tell Rune I’m still stuck up here in this stupid tin can?

  What if neither of them care?

  Rune would care, right?

  The thoughts frantically spiral around in m
y mind. Rune is the only way I can get off this ship. Who else is there here to help me?

  I flounder against the walls, forcing my legs to move until I find what I need. It takes me a few long minutes of sheer blind terror before I do, but as soon as my fingertips feel the blunt edges of an uploading station jutting out of the wall, I slam my armored head right into it.

  It starts playing Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen.

  What the hell?

  I start pressing buttons and lights flicker and dance across the viewfinder. Bohemian Rhapsody gets louder.

  Pious’s minion wasn’t lying when he said the uploading docks weren’t working. This has got to be Rune’s doing. He’s got to be the one who is messing with everything.

  I keep pushing buttons and shifting things until the tickertape on the bottom of my viewfinder becomes clear and the counter tells me I’m updating and will be at optimal health in less than five minutes.

  Thank God these helmets are good for something.

  While I wait, I sway to the music.

  I can’t even remember the last time I heard a song or anything other than the buzz and hum of gears. I see a little silhouetto of a man…

  UPDATE COMPLETE flashes in bright red letters in front of me and the music cuts. Dammit, it stopped right at my favorite part!

  Cursing, I pull the armor off my face and quickly dart my eyes around the room, searching for Pious.

  He’s not here, though. No one is.

  I scramble out of the dock and run to every counter I see, looking for Claire. There’s got to be a hundred of them in here and I need to look in each one. I need to find her.

  Up and down the rows as fast as I can, peering quickly into each one.

  “Claire!” I call out idiotically, “Claire!” I don’t know if any of these women can hear me. From one to another to another, I lunge at all of them.

  But I don’t see Claire at all.

  Claire’s not here.

  Rune did save her, didn’t he? My stomach twists painfully. My heart flutters quickly and drums desperately against my ribcage. Claire isn’t here. She’s on Earth, safe.

  Hysterical giggles explode out of my throat. Pious. That fucker lied to me.

  But these other women…

  I rush back to the uploading area and grab the faceplate in my hands. Clenching it tightly in my fingers, I raise it up over my head and slam it down against the glass surface of one of the preservation units.

  Once, twice, three times I smash the helmet down against the top to no avail. It won’t break. I try ripping and tugging at the long tubes that hang from the ceiling, but nothing gives.

  Then, with a loud whoosh, the lab doors part open and four huge Caelum storm inside.

  “Oh, fuck no,” I shout, throwing the faceplate at one of them and crouching down behind one of the counters. I have no damn clothes on. I don’t want those assholes looking at me naked!

  They stomp toward me without emotion. “General Pious has asked for you to be retrieved.”

  “Tell him he can kiss my ass! I’m not getting retrieved by any of you jerks.”

  Near the back corner I spot a piece of armor and run toward it, careening into the wall with a loud slap. I jump on it and snap it up in my hands. It’s an armguard! I slide it over my hand and wrist and instantly try to blast the morons with one of the weapons from inside the fingertips.

  Nothing happens.

  The idiots chuckle at me.

  “Come, female. You will not do well to keep General Pious waiting.”

  “No,” I growl, crossing my arms over my chest. I can’t believe I’m standing here naked, rebelling against them. This isn’t me. “I want clothes. I won’t go anywhere without something to wear.”

  Gears turn and spin and the Caelum advance on me, closing the distance between us with inhuman speed. I let out a yelp as I dive out of the way. But I’m slammed in the gut and flung over a shoulder, before I even understand what the hell is happening. I pound my fist against the back of the Caelum carrying me, but he just slaps his metal palm against the back of my legs and hauls me out of the lab, my bare ass leading the way on display for everyone to see.

  My screams and screeches are deafening, but they stop nothing. The guard totes me through the corridors of the ship like a pornographic potato sack, as the rest of his entourage walk close behind us, unimpressed.

  They’re more than unimpressed, they’re completely reticent and impassive, void of any emotion. The loading docks my not be working so well, but Pious still seems to be in control of everyone’s emotions.

  The swoosh of automatic doors comes from somewhere behind me. Great, this idiot just walked me into a room ass first—and who knows what else they can see—probably everything.

  “Well. Isn’t that a sight,” a voice announces. It’s Pious. I can tell his deep metallic voice over anyone’s.

  The guard drops me down the front of his armor and I tumble onto the floor.

  I scurry to sit up and find Pious hovering over me. “Female. I took the liberty, while you were unconscious, to run a full diagnostic test on your entire anatomy. You carry no diseases, even if you have allowed yourself to come in contact with various degrees of them on Earth. Your constitution and your composition are impeccable.”

  I stare at him, mouth gaping open. My plan to disgust him backfired.

  “You, grounder, are a perfect specimen for me to use for breeding the next generation of Caelum.” Not only did my plan backfire, but it denotated right in my face.

  “Never. I’m not breeding anything with you.”

  “I thought you’d say that.” Pious crouches down and levels his vision with mine. “My plan was to extract your eggs and use your organs while you were safely kept silent in a cryo-tank. But Kate, you’ve made me change my mind.”

  I made him change his mind? “How?” I whisper.

  He shifts closer and leans his head toward my ear. “You see, Kate. I’m intrigued by the things you showed me in your memories. I think I want to keep you unfrozen for the breeding process.”

  “That’s not going to happen,” I say steadily. “You’re lying. You wouldn’t touch me and you’re too afraid of taking off your faceplate, let alone the rest of your armor to do any of the stuff you saw in my memories. You’re a liar, and my sister isn’t even here and I’m leaving this tin can.”

  “You’re my prisoner here, female. I’m your master now.” He stands up slowly, tightening his gloved fingers into hard fists. “Guards,” he growls. “Restrain my property.”

  Two sets of icy alloy hands yank me up by the armpits and confine me in their arms. Fear spirals up inside me. “What are they doing?” I stammer, wiggling to break free of their hold.

  “Holding you steady, my pet,” Pious says, sliding his broad frame an inch away from mine.

  The guards are like vice grips on my arms and shoulders. Two more clamp onto my legs, stopping me from kicking out or collapsing down.

  Pious reaches up and touches his index finger just under my chin, stopping my struggling dead.

  “Don’t touch me,” I snap.

  “So feisty,” he whispers, trailing his finger down the long expanse of my throat. I want to jump out of my skin so I don’t feel his touch. I buck and butt my head back, but the Caelum just stiffen their hold of me.

  My heart rate speeds and the room spins. Oh God, please no. I don’t want him touching me. I scream out a cry and bite down on my tongue.

  His finger continues its slow crawl over my collarbone and down the valley of flesh between my breasts and stopping to circle around my naval.

  I want to lash out at him—curse and kick and punch at his face.

  “And since you’re my pet, I’m going to allow you to roam free whenever we aren’t…mating.”

  “I’m not going to mate with you,” I growl.

  His face gets closer to mine. “How will you stop me?”

  My face heats. I don’t know how, but I know I will.

  “Do y
ou think Rune will come to save you?” he asks.

  God, I hope so. But I’d take just about anyone right now.

  Pious tilts his head. “Trave, give me her arm.”

  The guard pinning my right arm to his chest pushes it out toward Pious.

  “No! No, no, no, no,” I scream, squiggling what I can of my body.

  “Hold still, Kate.” A sharp thick needle pops out of Pious’s fingertip and pierces a small area of skin on my forearm. “This shouldn’t hurt…too much.”

  Warmth blooms where he inserted the needle, turning into a burning ripping fire as a small circular shape gets pushed through the clear tube of the applicator and into my skin.

  “What is that? What the fuck is that? What are you putting into me?” I ask frantically.

  The tip of the syringe pulls back into his armor, and his fingers rub at the drop of blood that’s left on my bare arm. “That’s a tracking device, Kate. Now I’ll know where you are at all times.” He leans in even closer now, bringing his cold metallic lips to my ear. “So, let Rune come to stop me. Let him come and try to save you.”

  He drops his hands and steps away from me. “And if he doesn’t bother to, our breeding will begin this evening, female. I look forward to seeing the outcome.”

  42

  Kate

  One of the guards drags me over the grated hallway floors and shoves me into a small square room. It’s the same one they put me in when I first got here, the one I already slipped out from by tricking the maintenance guy, Tore.

  So far, my escape attempt sucks, it’s got me right back where I started from. A cold metal cell.

  There’s nothing in here I could use for a weapon or a way to get out. Everything inside is made of smooth alloy and glowing buttons. The uploading dock takes up one side of the room, which I can’t use because I have no armor to plug in, and in the other half of the room is the same steel slab of metal I used as a bed before.

  I pound on the door. “Hey! I need clothes! I’m freezing in here!”

  Of course, no one answers—why would they? You would think if I did hold the future of the entire human race between my legs, they’d treat me a little nicer around here. Give me a blanket or something.