by Ramona Gray
“Forgive me, my Queen. It was a foolish mistake on my part and will not happen again.”
“Aye, it will not. You will be punished accordingly.”
“Mother, it was my idea to go after the breeder,” Kila said. “Not Quinn’s. I left without her permission and - ”
“Kila, enough!” Quinn said sharply.
The queen struck Quinn again and then smiled at her. “Hold your tongue, massina. Return to your quarters and get some rest. Your punishment will wait until the morning.”
“Yes, my Queen,” Quinn said quietly.
The queen turned to Akia and the other woman. “Put the breeder with the others.” She held out her hand to Kila. “Come, child. A hot bath and meal is waiting for you.”
Kila took her hand and gave Quinn an anxious look before following her mother out of the room.
* * *
“Silas!” Steve, followed by Craig, Evan and Kyle, hurried over to him. “Jesus, man, we thought for sure you were dead.”
It was early the next morning. Last night, Akia and the other woman had led him through the dark to a large stone building. Two women stood guard at the door and three more guards patrolled the hallway inside. They took him to a small room and pushed him inside before unchaining his arms and giving him a curt demand to stay. A woman dressed in a long cotton skirt and white shirt brought him food while a guard stood at the door. He thanked her and was a little bemused by her blush and the soft glow that emanated from her skin.
The room was small with just a bed and a chair but there was a bathroom attached to it. It reminded him the outhouse at his grandparents’ cottage. There was a small table with a basin, pitcher of water and a towel. The toilet consisted of a wood plank set on top of an alcove in the stone wall. There was a round hole in the plank with a lid to cover the hole and he wondered briefly where the chute inside the hole led before deciding he didn’t really want to know.
He ate the blue bread, the cheese and a meat he couldn’t identify before pacing the small room. He had stepped out into the hallway and a guard immediately hurried over with her hand placed on the handle of her sword. The hallway was lit with a few torches but a great deal of the light came from the closed doors in the hallway. It seeped out from under at least half of them. The guard had ordered him to return to his room and when he’d hesitated she drew her sword and held it loosely at her side. Her point was clear and he returned to his room and stretched out on the bed. It was surprisingly comfortable and after a few nights of sleeping on the hard ground it hadn’t taken long before he fell asleep.
Now, he studied the large room that he was standing in. A large fireplace was built into the far wall and three long wooden tables with chairs were lined in neat rows in front of it. Chairs and floor pillows were scattered around the rest of the room and guards stood in front of the two doors in the room.
“Silas?” Steve touched his arm. “You okay, man?”
“I’m good,” Silas replied.
“What about Gage?” Evan asked. “Did you get the antidote?”
“We did and the old man gave it to him last night. He hasn’t woken though.”
“Well, it’s good that you got the antidote,” Craig said. “I’m sure he’ll be fine.”
“You don’t know that,” Kyle said morosely. “That Akia chick said the antidote only works eighty percent of the time.”
“Shut up, Kyle,” Steve said with a quick look at Silas. “Naveen said it would work.”
New fear stabbed Silas’ heart and he took a deep breath before looking around. There were about forty other men sitting and standing in the room and most of them were staring curiously at them.
“Who the hell is that?” Silas murmured.
“If you mean the big, blue guy, that’s Vida,” Evan said before craning his head to stare at the man. Vida stood a foot taller than the other men and his skin was a smoky blue colour. Silas noted the small black horns growing from each of his temples with a remarkable lack of surprise. Vida was wearing the same clothing they had given Silas this morning – a pair of grey pants and a white shirt – and he returned Silas’ look unblinkingly.
“What is this place?” Silas asked.
“It’s like the common room for the breeders,” Steve said. “They feed us in here and we stay in this room unless we’re working.”
“Working? What kind of work?” Silas asked.
“Not sure,” Steve replied. “We haven’t been anywhere but this room and our own rooms since we arrived. Lloyd said that we won’t have to do anything until we’re given physical examinations and tested.”
Evan shook his head. “Lloyd said they jack us off and collect our sperm. Is that really testing?”
“Wait, who’s Lloyd?” Silas asked.
“Another guy from our world,” Craig said excitedly. He turned and scanned the crowd of men before waving and shouting, “Lloyd – dude, come meet Silas.”
A blond man with a thick beard and a thin and wiry body ambled toward them.
“Lloyd, this is Silas. The guy we were telling you about,” Craig said.
“Nice to meet you.” Lloyd held out his hand and Silas shook it.
“You’re from our world?” Silas said.
“I am. Been here about five years now. I think. Time kind of gets away from you here,” Lloyd said. “Got sucked in by that glowing ball of light just like you fellows did.”
“You’re from Texas,” Silas said.
Lloyd nodded. “Was it the southern drawl that gave it away?”
“My family lived there for a couple of years when I was a kid,” Silas said. He glanced at the guards in the room. “You ever try and escape?”
“Nah,” Lloyd said. “Ain’t no point to that. These women got skills when it comes to fighting.”
“Do they watch us all the time?” Silas asked.
Lloyd nodded. “Yep. Listen, I’ll tell you what I told your buddies – there ain’t no way off this rock so you might as well settle in and get used to your new life. It ain’t half-bad to be honest.”
“If we escaped and found another orb,” Kyle said, “we could use it to return home.”
“I told you before, that ain’t possible. Even if you managed to escape and even if you didn’t die while you were waiting for an orb to show up, there’s no guarantee that it would take you back home,” Lloyd said patiently.
“You can’t possibly know that,” Kyle said.
“All the men in this room came from the orb and we’re the only ones from our world. It’s like Naveen said – there are many other worlds. I’ve got it good here and if I can’t get back to my world I sure as hell don’t want to get zapped to a completely different one,” Lloyd said.
“Got it good?” Kyle scoffed. “We’re nothing more than goddamn sex slaves.”
“That’s a problem because why?” Lloyd said. “You’re a young, healthy male – you honestly going to tell me that you ain’t up for fucking a different woman every month?”
“Some of us aren’t man whores,” Kyle said bitterly.
Lloyd laughed. “To each their own, I guess. But I ain’t got a problem with what we’re doing and neither do most of the other men here. In the five years I’ve been here no one’s ever tried to escape.”
“Not even the big blue guy?” Silas asked.
“Nah, Vida’s what ya call a pacifist,” Lloyd said. “He’s big but he don’t like to fight. Hell, I don’t know why he would. He’s real popular with the ladies here. They like ‘em big. He gets at least twenty women fightin’ for him at every claiming ceremony.”
He eyed Silas. “Although you might become the new favourite for a while.”
“What exactly is the claiming ceremony?” Silas asked.
“It’s a big party they have once a month. It’s actually a lot of fun. There’s lots of food and wine and they’re not stingy about sharing it with us. Tell you what, if I actually could get back to our world I’d make damn sure that I had the recipe for their wine wi
th me. It’s fucking delicious.”
“But what happens at the ceremony?” Silas persisted.
Lloyd stretched lazily before moving toward one of the large pillows on the floor. “We got some time before breakfast. Have a seat and I’ll get you up to date on how this place works.”
Silas and the others joined him on the floor and Lloyd grinned at them as he reclined on the pillow. “So this place is like a real - oh, what’s that word – utopia? Yeah, utopia. They work, eat and play together and you rarely see disputes between them. The women have their own building. It looks a lot like this one only bigger. It has a common room for socializin’ and eatin’ and a big kitchen. There’s another room where they all sleep unless they’re with a man that month. If they win a breeder, they join us at night in our rooms for the month.”
“So any of the women here can sleep with us?” Silas asked.
“Nope. They got a set of rules. The woman has to be at least twenty-one to participate in the breeding and once they’re over forty they’re out. They have a real hard time getting pregnant here and I guess they don’t want to waste our sperm on the older ones. O’course, that rule don’t apply for the queen. She’s close to fifty at least and she gets her choice of man every month.”
“She ever pick you?” Steve asked.
Lloyd shook his head. “No. She picks Vida a lot or some of the bigger men.” He grinned at Silas. “She’ll take you, sure as shit.”
“What do you know about the queen?” Silas asked.
Lloyd glanced at the guards at the doors before lowering his voice. “She’s a right bitch. Meaner than a nest of rattlesnakes as my dad would say. Rumour is that she took over the throne about twenty-five years ago. She wasn’t royalty or anything like that. She just decided she wanted to be queen so she took it. She’s dangerous. If she picks you make sure you stay real respectful. You don’t, she’ll feed you to the pigs.”
“Why would she do that? I thought we were important,” Craig said.
“Oh we are but that bitch is straight up crazy. Anyway, if a woman does get pregnant, they’re moved to another building. It’s like a hospital and nursery and living space rolled into once. They’re allowed to socialize with the other women if they want but they don’t have to. They got their own kitchen and common room. After the babies are born they got their own little rooms like we do so they can have time with their babies. But the other women are always on hand to help. They got tons of them who act like nannies and help care for the babies.”
“So they don’t raise their own babies?” Evan asked.
“They do but they got lots of help if they need it,” Lloyd replied. “Babies and children here are real precious. They protect them and care for them like they’re goddamn gold which, seein’ how difficult it is for them to even get pregnant, I suppose they are.”
“Do you have any kids here?” Silas asked.
Lloyd nodded. “Yep. I got five of the women pregnant since I’ve been here. Three of them are boys.” He spoke with a tinge of pride. “It’s what makes me so popular at the claiming ceremony.”
“You’ve had sex every month with a different woman for five years and only impregnated five of them?” Kyle said in disbelief.
“I told you – it’s real difficult for them to get pregnant,” Lloyd replied. “Five is a high number, trust me.”
“Do you get to see them?” Silas asked.
“Oh yeah,” Lloyd replied. “Not on the regular but occasionally their mamas will bring them to me when I’m working. Let me hold them and shit.”
“What kind of work do you do here?”
“They mostly use us for manual labour, shit like that. But they’re real careful with us. They don’t make us do a lot or anything they think will put us in danger. If we have any special skills they’ll use us for that.”
“What do you mean?” Silas said.
Lloyd scanned the room before pointing to a short, chubby man. “See that guy there? He used to be a teacher on his world. They use him in the school to teach the kids.”
“What did you do before?” Evan asked curiously.
“Me? I was an accountant,” Lloyd said. “Not much help in this place. They don’t have any type of currency.”
“You’re kidding me,” Silas said.
“Nope. Everything is strictly by trade. Each week traders come knockin’ on their door. They set up shop and the women trade with them for any supplies they need that they can’t make on their own. Frankly, I don’t think it’s much that they need. They have a real nice setup going on here.”
“What do they have to trade?” Evan asked.
“From what I can tell they mostly trade services. You seen that big water wheel when you were comin’ through the gates, yeah?” Lloyd said.
The others nodded.
“Well, they use that to grind their grain in the mill. It must be a real uncommon thing in the world because most of the traders who come to this place exchange their goods for having their grain ground up.”
He scratched lazily at his beard. “They do real well on the food side of things here. They’ve got grain crops and a couple of small orchards just outside the walls. There’s a giant garden within the walls and they also grow food in greenhouses with nothing but water.”
“They use hydroponics here?” Steve said. “You’re fucking kidding me.”
“I ain’t,” Lloyd said. “It’s not the same type of food we eat but it’s food.”
“How the hell do they know about hydroponics?” Steve said to the others. “They don’t even have electricity or plumbing for fuck’s sake.”
Lloyd laughed. “It’s a bit weird. They’re way behind us in some things and way ahead of us in others.”
“How do they grow food so well?” Silas asked. “They’re right up against a mountain. The soil must be rocky for miles.”
Lloyd shrugged. “I ain’t no farmer but from what I can tell the grain they grow does real well in rocky soil.”
“What kind of grain is it?” Kyle asked.
“No fucking idea. They’ve got some food that’s the same as ours. They got apples in their orchard, and strawberry plants and a nest of raspberry bushes growing right next to the breeders’ quarters. They grow lots of vegetables in the garden that are the same as ours – carrots and lettuce and cucumbers and shit like that. But they also have a bunch of food I ain’t never seen before. The plants they grow in water have a pink stalk and are sweet as hell. Loena - she’s the woman I’m sleeping with this month - says it has tons of nutrients and if they had to they could survive on it alone.”
“What about animals?” Silas asked. “They have pigs here?”
“Yep, they look just like the pigs on our world. They also got chickens and goats. But that’s about it when it comes to similarities in livestock. They do have a herd of what they call graffins. They’re like a big shaggy cow – or buffalo maybe – and they’re dumb as shit. They use them mostly for milk but I’ve seen them butcher one when it stops giving milk.”
He made a face. “The meat’s kind of tough and stringy. We mostly eat pork here and whatever they hunt in the forest. I’ve tasted meat that’s kind of similar to deer and other stuff that reminded me of bear, but I don’t think they have either of those animals here.”
“What about the claiming ceremony?” Silas asked.
“Hold your horses. I’m getting’ to it,” Lloyd said. “So, the women here all have jobs of a sort. Some are nannies, some are gardeners, some are housekeepers. The queen’s got about fifty of them who live in the castle and take care of her and her daughter.”
“How many women live here?” Craig asked.
“I don’t know an exact number but if I had to guess, I’d say about six or seven hundred. Apparently they’re one of the biggest clans.”
“What about these other clans? Do you see them much?” Steve asked.
“Nah. Some of them do some trading with us but from what I can tell, most of the clans stick to t
hemselves. Unless they’re tryin’ to take this one.”
“Does that happen a lot?” Steve said.
“It’s happened about three times since I’ve been here. Only once was it a real issue. The first two were small and the queen’s army pretty much destroyed them in half a day. The third one was a huge mass of those green women – they’re must have been close to three hundred of them – and they attacked us for three days straight. They got real close to the walls but on day three the massina led the others out beyond the wall and killed the ones that remained. There was only about a hundred left at that point and, Jesus, it was like watching lambs being slaughtered. We was watchin’ from on top the wall and those green women are tough but they’re no match for the massina and the rest of the army.”
“How big is the queen’s army?” Kyle said thoughtfully.
“Oh at least a couple hundred, maybe two fifty,” Lloyd said. “They’re all tough as shit and you don’t want to cross any of them. They won’t kill you but they’ll make sure you never try anything again.”
“Why do they glow?” Craig asked abruptly.
Lloyd laughed loudly. “Ain’t that the coolest thing you ever saw? At night, this place is lit up like goddamn Times Square. Hell, last night Leona was glowing so brightly my eyes were waterin’ while I was fucking her.”
“Do all the women glow?” Silas asked.
“Yep.”
“You’re sure?”
“O’course I am. You’ll see it for yourself when you’re fuckin’ one of them. Or even just walking down the street. Half the women start glowin’ when they’re just starin’ at you.”
“You’ve seriously had sex every single night since you got here?” Steve said.
Lloyd shook his head. “Nah, they give us breaks every other month. I love fucking but not even I could keep up with that pace.”
“So you have a month of sex and a month without,” Kyle said.
“Yes. Mostly. Sometimes they’ll make you go two months in a row but not that often. They don’t want to wear us out. We also have to see Naveen every month just to make sure we’re in good health.”