Star Catcher

by Kimber Vale

  “I’m with you. If my dorm mate wants to stay, I’m telling her to find another ride home. I want to be out of here before the light goes.”

  “I was thinking the same thing. I guess everyone else arrived earlier, and it didn’t occur to them. This is going to suck after dark. Especially with a buzz on.”

  “I’ll walk out with you—wait for me, okay?” The short girl looked back at Stella imploringly.

  “Sure. It’s a plan. We found our way in. We can find our way out.”

  They turned a corner as Stella spoke, and the light grew brighter.

  “Looks like we made it. Up ahead on the right.” Stella pointed.

  A wide clearing had been opened in the middle of the field. A roaring bonfire in the center looked like the worst idea yet. One loose spark and the whole freaking field could go up.

  A bunch of girls sat cross-legged and stared at the flames, transfixed. Some, obviously passed-out, were lying on the ground. A few rare groups stood sedately with plastic cups gripped in their hands. For all the noise, it was oddly quiet; hardly anyone was actually talking.

  The music sounded like a live recording. Stella couldn’t figure out where it came from. Periodic shouts and excited whistles burst through the unfamiliar chords. It was club music, sort of … techno with a hypnotic trance-beat that the small gang of rave-lovers at her old high school would go crazy over. The occasional bursts of laughter were also contrived. No one here was laughing.

  A foreboding chill erupted through her.

  “Rayna!” Stella shouted, hoping her friend was within earshot. It was tough to see past the blinding flames, but equally hard to match the volume of the music.

  “How much did they drink?” Stella turned to Kate, but the girl was already walking slowly around the center flame, peering at apathetic faces in search of a familiar one.

  Someone moved off to the right. The motion caught Stella’s eye. It was in stark contrast to the sluggish partiers. A tall woman with long red hair and short fringy bangs walked toward her. She had two plastic cups in her hands. Her outfit was wild. Black sateen-type fabric formed billowy pants with multiple pockets on both legs. They were cuffed tight at the bottom and met with a pair of ankle boots with a vicious-looking tread. Her tight-fitting shirt hugged her flat chest and looked like it was made of Lycra, like one of those sun-blocking surfer shirts in neon green.

  She had absolutely zero boobs, and as she reached Stella and mutely offered up a full cup, Stella tried to puzzle through whether or not this person was actually a man in drag. Her obviously fake lashes and drawn-on, surprised brows didn’t contradict the possibility.

  “Drink,” the strange woman said when Stella made no move to take the beverage. She had an earpiece like the woman at the entrance. An odd tool belt of sorts, with two walkie-talkie-looking devices strapped to it, hung around her narrow waist.

  “No, thanks. Have you seen a really pretty Indian girl here? About this tall?” Stella indicated a spot level with her cheek.

  A long pause ensued. The woman continued to hold out the cup, and a confused expression registered on her face.

  “Drink.” She smiled this time, robotic and phony as she pushed the cup against Stella’s hand.

  “Okay. Thanks anyway.” Stella forced a tight smile and took the damned thing. She wasn’t about to accept candy from strangers, but she wasn’t in the mood for a pissing match with She-Man either.

  Plus, she wanted a clear head if she met up with Noth. Then a thought occurred to her.

  “Do you know Noth? Is he here?”

  The woman still looked perplexed, but her eyes widened slightly. Was that recognition passing over her face? She didn’t say a word, but turned in the direction Kate had headed, weaving around the lethargic bodies.

  That’s it. One loop around and I’m out of here. Forget him! Forget Rayna. This just sucks, and I am so not in the mood.

  If she never saw the cheating jerk again it would probably be for the best, no matter how badly it hurt. The thought made her eyes sting and her lower lip tremble.

  A loud whooshing started abruptly overhead. The wind whipped Stella’s hair into a swirling frenzy that blocked her view. She looked up, swiping hair from her face, but saw nothing but the three-quarter moon laughing down at them.

  The music stopped. The fire extinguished in a blink and left the white ghost of a moon the only glow left. It was as if someone had flipped a switch and effectively vacuumed out light and sound.

  In the shocked silence, Stella clamped a hand over her mouth to stifle a scream that would single her out from the rest. The shadowy features of a group of girls nearby barely registered surprise at the turn of events.

  The voices of the dazed women began to penetrate the night in a wave of soft mumbles. Those who were still awake realized something was wrong, but they were too drugged for a normal reaction. Somehow, the subdued demeanor of the surrounding people was far scarier than the abrupt darkness. A brunette turned her head from side to side in confusion. Rayna? No, the darkness played tricks on Stella’s eyes.

  Her misgivings since entering the maze spiked to panic mode. Her heart hammering in her chest sounded louder than the drumbeat snuffed out moments ago. If Kate was still coherent, Stella did not see or hear a trace of her now. She slowly bent her knees and placed her full cup on the ground, and stooped low, she crept to her left.

  It was the nearest route to corn cover. Stella didn’t dare remove her phone for light as she matched her movements to the slow pitch of the intoxicated bodies surrounding her. They stumbled about, knocking into one another and going nowhere.

  A loud beeping sound began. It was drawn out and painfully high in tone. Some girls held their hands against their ears as they gazed about in slack-jawed confusion. Stella winced through it, increasing her pace with a mounting sense of dread.

  It was an alarm bell. Something was coming.

  Farther back in the corn and from many sides, voices floated toward her. They were different from the incoherent murmurs of the stupefied women. The language was sharp, guttural, but Stella couldn’t make out any words. Speech volleyed back and forth in the night; tinny voices answered live ones in the telltale send and receive of radio transmitters.

  She recalled the device the bewigged woman had clipped to her belt. We were all led here for some specific reason. The idea spurred her faster. No voices sounded from the section of corn corpses before her, and she continued her straight path toward the screen.

  The first petrified shriek shattered the quiet just as Stella broke through the husks.

  The cry sent a lance of icy fear through Stella’s heart.

  She turned back to peer through her cover at the clearing beyond. Unwilling to run without identifying her enemy, she stared transfixed at a huge doglike creature. The moon provided enough light for Stella to just make out its features. With long hooked tusks that curled up from its lower jaw, the monster prodded a screaming girl. It swung its heavy snout against her backside as if urging her forward. She sprawled face-first in the dirt, before picking herself up with impressive speed. The thing nipped at her heels, and she broke into a run. It pursued like a herding dog rounding up a head of cattle, and Stella tried to swallow a lump of cold hard fear as she watched girl and beast disappear into the corn on the opposite side of her hiding spot.

  The doped-up women had revived somewhat with the arrival of the animal. The terrified screech, the atmosphere of panic, must have triggered an instinctual response. Still abnormally slow, they scattered from the scene like fat pigeons flying from the grasping hands of a child. But pigeons could escape and tease their pursuer into a futile chase. Birds could fly to avoid capture. These women did not stand a chance.

  A second wolf-beast burst through the corn to the right of Stella’s hiding place. Its obscene face was half the size of a hulking body that easily reached to her navel. She could make out a thick black ruff around the neck. Feral yellow eyes reflected the moonlight as it turned its od
dly flattened snout back and forth, testing the air for victims. The bile rose in her throat. It had three eyes, one on either side of its head—rather like a wild boar—and one just above the nose. The thing was like no animal she had ever seen.

  How can this be real?

  If Stella had imbibed any of the alcohol at this freak show, she might believe she was suffering from some sort of drug-induced hallucination.

  As if to prove its existence, the monster pounced on a girl who attempted to crawl away. The beast seemed about to tear her head off. The wide muzzle bore down on her neck, and Stella gasped involuntarily.

  Its snout pressed against her skin, sniffing. The drooling face rubbed her entire body searchingly, scenting her before it sprang after another victim. The process was repeated again and again.

  After the animal rejected six people, it found one who must have smelled good enough to eat. It tossed the sleeping girl onto her back with its snout, and she revived with a wail. Her affronted yell morphed into one of chilling dismay, and she scrambled to her feet and began to run. Stella wanted to flee as well, but couldn’t seem to pull her eyes away from the creature as it drove the crying woman in the same direction the first beast had gone.

  Another overgrown shape materialized to Stella’s left. It sniffed the air and turned alarmingly in her direction.

  It was all the impetus she needed. Stella turned and ran from the hounds of hell.

  The stalks beat against her. They stung her bare skin and grasped her hair like bony fingers as she forced her body through the canes. She dug a path through the dry material, raking the plants with her hands to make way for her body, only to be slapped in the face as she split the rows. Stella ran like never before. In high school, she had competed in plenty of races on the track team. The act of pushing her body to the limit was not foreign to her.

  This race was far worse, though. The stakes were life or death.

  Fire speared through her chest as she sprinted between the scratchy vegetation with nothing more than moonlight to guide her. Rising hysteria made her breathing more labored than running alone. The thing could hear her crashing through the corn and could detect her scent. There was no point in trying to be stealthy. All she could do was move as swiftly as possible.

  The pale moonlight grew brighter up ahead, and she forced herself not to slow.

  Nearly safe. Get out of this nightmarish maze. Almost there.

  Stella broke from the corn. A breath of unbelievable freedom nearly choked her, cool and remarkable, before she slammed into a wall of glass. Her arm had been pumping upward and took the brunt of the blow, but the barrier was completely unexpected. The breath gushed out of her like a released balloon.

  She lay stunned in the damp grass, shaking and hyperventilating. The blades rose tall around her, and she was tempted to stay down; to hide. Who could see her here?

  But that thing could smell her.

  She wasn’t safe until her car door closed, and she was locked inside. Then she could relax. Stella managed to pull up on all fours and crawl over to the invisible wall. She reached a hand into what should have been open air and was met with ice-cold resistance.

  What the hell?

  It felt like plastic. She noticed a faint give and recoil as she pushed hard against the wall. It was like an invisible force field. Her stomach did a somersault.

  Stay calm. If you lose your head, you’re done. Get to the entrance of the maze. Head right, follow the wall. You can get out of this, but you need to move now.

  The voice in her head gave the command and she obeyed. Stella sprang up. Fight-or-flight hormones surged through her, and she began to run at top speed along the edge of the field. Her hand trailed along the smooth, cool barrier, waiting for a break in the enclosure. Sooner or later she would find the exit—that, or a dog-monster. Or maybe she’d run straight into the freaky sideshow chicks who had imprisoned them. Whatever happened, she wasn’t going down without a struggle.

  If she was bound for Hell tonight, she wouldn’t be the only one.

  But the invisible wall seemed to be never-ending.

  How had the wolf-mutants gotten in if there was no way out?

  As she wheezed and pushed herself harder, she didn’t even begin to contemplate what the barrier was made of or where it had originated. To do so was to question everything she held as truth. It would slow her down and scare her more than she already was, if that was possible. The crunching sounds of demolished corn stalks trailed in her wake and seemed to be amplified in her ears.

  The monster was getting closer.

  She peeled around a corner to the front face of the enormous plot. The entrance, and hopefully the exit to this deranged labyrinth, was in sight.

  Nearly there now. Keep going, Stell.

  If she had been worried about Rayna never asking her to go out again, she sure wasn’t now. She’d be beyond relieved to be permanently removed from that invite list.

  There was no way Noth was involved in this. The knowledge was a small comfort. If the weird transvestite women had trapped them all in here for some nefarious reason, Noth had nothing to do with it. He couldn’t. If Stella was going to die tonight, she didn’t have to leave this world hating him. She could imagine he had gotten a flat tire, or was mugged, or had been the victim of a traumatic brain injury and was in the hospital with amnesia right this second.

  He hadn’t stood her up to orchestrate a colossal gang bang behind her back. He hadn’t planned some twisted human-hunting scenario involving mutant wolves or whatever the hell they were.

  She had that, at least.

  Stella neared the front of the maze, her breathing harsh and hard, and there was still no break in the wall. The voices of her would-be captors remained audible but muffled, farther inside the corn. The rhythm of their speech was calm, controlled. They didn’t sound like they were meeting much resistance from the women. Maybe they didn’t realize she was missing.

  Stella caught a movement in the dark, to her left beyond the invisible barrier. Immediately, she dropped to her knees to shelter in the tall grass. Who or what was that? A shadow passed across the moon, blocking out what little light there was. Stella looked up to see an enormous circular shape hovering above the field. It was blacker than the night sky it blotted out, silent and ominous as a tomb. It actually could be her casket, hers and that of all the other girls in this godforsaken maze.

  A low, rumbling growl came from behind her a millisecond before the weight of the beast slammed into her. The animal flattened her to the damp ground as it hurled itself against her back. Stella’s temple smacked against hard earth. The smell of soil, rich and familiar, met her nose before being snuffed out by the fetid breath of the animal that pinned her down.

  It was the last thing she noticed before she passed out.

  Chapter 10

  Artanian Medical Transport Ship

  Earth’s Atmosphere, Human Collection Site

  Noth absently fingered his human timepiece. The device was critical for getting to his classes at the college. The Embassy had insisted a signal transmitter be placed beneath the watch. It vibrated when he was summoned. The face also flipped open to reveal a miniature teleportation screen, developed by Artanian scientists solely for this mission. He used it to travel to the docking station that served as his temporary work area.

  Right now, the craft waited above Earth’s atmosphere to shuttle the surrogates to the medical satellite orbiting Artanos.

  No doubt everyone on his planet would be wearing the wrist devices in a few years. The portable mechanism was substantially more convenient than the larger, stationary teleporters currently in use.

  Noth planned to keep the watch once he returned to work on Artanos. That way, he would always have a sense of Stella’s day while they were apart. He could look at the timepiece at noon and picture her sitting in the cafeteria, laughing with her friends. The melodic sound of her voice rang in his ears as he visualized the scene.

  At three o’
clock Stella would be playing with the small humans, teaching them how to grow into intelligent, caring adults.

  His abdomen clenched. The human textbooks called it nausea when a meal threatened to be expelled from the digestive tract. The thought of Stella continuing her daily activities without him to see her, touch her, taste her, was nearly more than he could bear.

  Perhaps he should remove the watch after all, as if its absence would stop him from remembering.

  She must know he was not coming at this late time. Did she worry that he suffered an injury? Or did she curse him for deceiving her? Scrion, why does it have to be like this? He had invested everything to receive this assignment. Assisting his kind while ensuring the human surrogates were treated with mercy had always been his sole focus.

  Remarkably, he had no taste for the mission now. The fate of his fellow Artanians depended on him, and he planned to fulfill his obligation, but it would be anguish to be apart from Stella.

  He stood at the docking port and awaited the captives with growing trepidation. The women should be rounded up by now.

  Noth paced from one end of the quarantine suite to the other.

  “Why does Krael not arrive with the captives?” He spoke in a voice rough with frustration.

  Noth’s medical assistant Uryu simply shrugged in answer.

  “The beverage served at the gathering site will make the Earthlings compliant so there should be no trouble,” Uryu finally offered.

  “Yes,” Noth agreed. “But Krael insisted her team have electron bolt dischargers for emergency situations.” The weapons were designed to temporarily paralyze skeletal muscle. “I fervently hope the soldiers have no cause to use them.”

  Krael wanted complete control over the human collection process, and the Embassy had granted her appeal. Before the collection date, Noth had demanded a meeting to discuss Krael’s plan. He worked tirelessly with the project scientists, and together they produced translator buds for the Artanian staff. The tiny chips delivered the translated English directly to the neural pathways of the user’s brain. The wearers only had to form the Artani response in their heads, and the translated version would be silently fed to them. Noth hoped the improved communication would ease the fears of the women.