"So why exactly am I trying to wash this slime off?" I ask myself. I mean the alternative is to walk around with one foot bare on the rough ground and with no protection from the elements.
It seems a no-brainer. But still, I am not used to being covered in alien slime, so I decide to reserve judgment. But for the moment I am not going to look a gift horse in the mouth.
The next decision I have to make is where I am going to travel next. For the moment I am not feeling hungry. Another gift from the slime perhaps. But sooner or later I shall have to eat.
I look up and down the river and realize that I do not know which direction I came from last night. Heck, I am not even sure if this is the same river. But regardless I guess that traveling down steam is going to be easier. But on the other hand, traveling to the top of a mountain might let me see what the surrounding landscape is like. There might be an alien city just next door for all I know. Or at least an alien ski resort, or whatever they might have on this alien planet. I definitely think that I saw a city as the shuttlecraft came down from orbit. Though, of course, that might be thousands of miles away on the other side of the planet considering I was in a shuttlecraft flying down from orbit at the time.
"So basically I've walked down to the bottom of the mountain, just to walk back up again," I say to myself.
With a sigh, I turn and start walking away from the river, back uphill again. With the tall trees all around me I can not really make out where I am. Presumably, the river is running down the middle of a valley, and there are mountains on either side. I need to get up high to see what the land scrape around me is like.
Also, I have no idea which direction I came from the previous day. I do know that the shuttlecraft had landed on flat ground. But we had been flying over mountains for some time before we landed. So I am guessing that I will have a lot of mountains to climb over if I am to walk to any nearby city. It is also likely that the aliens pick a more remote location for their exchange of slaves.
Then a noise snapped me out of my thoughts. I stop and look around.
There I another scraping noise behind me.
Turning I see one of the creatures from the previous night standing there looking at me.
"Oh, shit," I whisper.
I hear another noise from my right, and I look and see another alien predator emerge from between the trees.
"OK," I say as I crouch down to pick up some stones. "Back for another round." But this time I feel like there is going to be no escape for me.
Something heavy impacts me from behind knocking me to the ground.
As soon as I am down the entire pack descends on me. I am at the center of a storm of sharp open mouths, teeth and cutting claws.
I lash out hitting one directly in the muzzle and feeling a crunch under my fist as the animal yelps. I get my legs under me and push myself up into a kneel, sending whatever is on my back flying through the air.
Another locks its jaws around my forearm. I can feel its teeth bite down, but there is no pain. Instead, it is the alien creature that cries out as it recoils in pain as I twist my arm free.
Yet another sinks its teeth into my thigh.before I can react
Then I am on my feet again, kicking another animal as it tries to turn away from me. Again I can feel a solid connection and the creature rolls onto the ground with a strangled cry of pain,. Before climbing to its feet and limping off as quickly as it can.
All around me the creatures are fleeing.
It is all over as quickly as it began.
One moment I am at the mercy of a vicious pack of alien creatures. The next I am standing alone in the middle of the alien forest with no sign of the creatures anywhere.
I am breathing heavily, shaken, but apparently completely unharmed. I pat down my body, but can feel no injuries. Apart from my clothes being ripped there is no blood, or scrapes, or any sign that I have just been attacked. Well, all that I can see of my skin is covered by this slime. Maybe I am bleeding underneath. But I do not think so.
I do not know what to think.
I am in shock, and so I start to walk again. Making my way through the alien forest, keeping an eye out for any more dangerous creatures. I can't afford to get too confident. That last encounter must have been just a fluke. The next creature I encounter might know how to eat this slime. And me with it.
One piece of luck is that there is no sign of alien slaver's drone that had searched for me the day before. Perhaps they have given up on finding me and have already left. I hope the others are alright, I think. But there is nothing that I can do to help them right now.
The ground seems to be leveling off somewhat. And I guess that I have reached some kind of plateau.
As I push my way past yet another tangle of leafs I hear something. I stop and look around. There it is again. But this time instead of alien predators I can hear the sound of someone talking. I creep forward carefully, unsure of what I will find, and unwilling to expose myself to any more danger. At first, I am hopeful that I might have found some aliens that can help me. But as I inch my way forward around an alien tree I see some very familiar looking aliens. It is the giant warthogs in their bulky, orange jumpsuits. And there sitting on the ground beside the shuttle are the other girls who were kidnapped with me.
"Fuck," I say to myself, as I realize that I must have walked around in a complete circle and come right back to where I started from.
The alien cops are still at the landing site.
Two of the cops are bent over a drone that is parked on the ground beside their aircraft.
I guess they spent the night here and are planning on restarting their search for me now that it is light.
One of the Dracktari looks over at me. He shouts something in his strangled cat language. And I know that he has said, "Who's there!"
All the aliens look around as he calls out.
I've been spotted, and I guess there is no point in running away again.
As I step out from behind the tree both the Dracktari and the alien cops pull out weapons and point them at me. My vision immediately goes all green. I put my hands to my face wondering what has happened to my eyes.
"Don't move you ugly fucker," the Dracktari captain shouts as she takes a step towards me. "One false move and I'll blow you away!"
"Hold on a moment," I say. "Can't we just talk."
"Talk?" the Dracktari captain asks.
Somehow I can hear both the screech of her alien voice and also understand what she is saying at the same time. I open my mouth to talk. But I am confused
"Who the fuck are you?" the Dracktari captain shouts.
"What do you mean?" I reply. "As far as I knew you were looking for me."
But before I could say another word the Dracktari captain fires her blaster.
Chapter Eight
I can almost see the energy bolt arch through the air towards me. But all I feel is a tingling, like static electricity, across my entire body, from my toes to my fingertips. I even feel like my hair is standing on end. I look down and see a big hole with scorched edges in the front of my T-shirt.
But that is nothing to the shock that I feel at still being alive. And still standing.
The aliens seem just as shocked. We all stand there looking at each other for several seconds. The alien captain directly in front of me, the other Dracktari and alien cops spread around the clearing.
The Dracktari captain takes aim and shoots me once more.
Again all I feel is a charge of static washing over me. I had even braced myself for an impact, but I guess the alien blaster is an energy weapon and so does not have any projectiles to impact me.
Then I thought that I should probably have dived for cover. That would be the sensible thing to do, I think to myself. But I guess the shock of running straight into the alien camp that I am trying to escape from distracted me.
Them I feel another surge of static.
I look up to see the alien captain looking from her weapo
n to me and back again.
"Did you just shoot me?" I ask, more in shock than anger.
"Fuck you!" The Dracktari says and shoots again.
Another bolt of energy strikes me. And another hole appears in my t-shirt.
"Hey!" I say, thinking this is my only t-shirt.
"What the hell is happening?" the alien police captain comes to stand beside the Dracktari. "Are you firing blanks?"
"Fuck no," the Dracktari captain replies. But she looks down at the blaster in her hand again.
"What the fuck type of halfassed weapon do you have!" the alien police captain says. She raises her own blaster and fires straight at me.
I look down and see that almost my entire t-shirt and jeans have been vaporized. But not my body. My body has turned a bright shade of glossy green. Like someone has poured hot wax all over me.
It is the slime I realize.
"How the hell..." I start to ask.
But then the alien shoot me again.
Now I am angry. I point at the alien cop and a bolt of lightning shoots from the tip of my finger to her exploding body.
I freeze in shock. As does everyone else. The alien's torso has just vaporized. Her arms are scattered out to each side and her head is rolling around on the ground behind her legs and waist, which stand up for a moment, before slowly crumpling down into a tangled heap.
Then all hell breaks loose. I am enveloped in a hail of blaster fire as every alien in the clearing shoots directly at me.
And one by one I point at each of them and their bodies all explode.
It seems at once to happen in slow motion, taking many minutes, and also to all be over in a matter of seconds as I blink and find myself standing in the center of the clearing with the disintegrated remains of a dozen aliens spread around me. I know that I am responsible for shooting them. I just don't remember doing it. Never mind understand how.
Something makes a beeping sound behind me and I spin and point and before I even realize what I am doing the wing of the alien cops' aircraft separates from the fuselage in a shower of flying sparks as a long streak of lightning arcs from my finger.
"OK, stop!" I shout, holding up my hands like I surrendering.
But there is no one to surrender to. All the aliens are gone.
My stomach tightens up and I feel like bending double to retch. The smell alone is enough to bring tears to my eyes. The through that I have just taken the lives of a dozen people shocks me to the core. I can't do anything except just stand there looking at the carnage around me.
There is no way I could be responsible for that. Is there?
I hear a noise behind me.
Slowly I look over at the Dracktari shuttlecraft and see the terrified faces of my erstwhile companions staring out at me.
For a moment nobody says anything. Then Angela asks, "Who are you, esteemed traveler?"
I understand what she is saying, but I also know that she is not speaking English.
"Who am I?" I ask confused. "It's me, Cari."
"Cari?" Angela replies. "How do you know the Interstellar Trade Language?"
"Interstellar Trade Language?" I ask. "What are you talking about?"
"You are currently speaking the Interstellar Trade Language," Angela says. "Also you do not look human."
It is only now that I realize that my vision is strange. Everything is tinted green. I look at my hands, which are now once again covered in the glossy, green coating. Just like my body had been this morning. I touch my face and feel a smooth texture rather than my skin. Except that I can feel my fingers touching my face.
"Is that you Cari?" Jane asks.
"Yes, it's me," I say. And I know that I am now speaking English. I look from my hands to Angela. "What Is this stuff?" I ask her.
"I do not know," she replies in English.
"How do I get rid of it?" I ask. But I am still looking at my hands as I do.
"Again, I do not know," Angela replies.
I take a few deep breaths to calm myself down. The remains of my T-shirt and jeans hang off my shoulders and hips. Though the still smoldering edges of the scraps of cloth are a bit disconcerting. Quickly I pull them off me. Then realize that I am now completely naked.
I close my eyes and imagine a Si-Fi style jumpsuit. When I open my eyes I see that I am wearing a skintight, glossy jumpsuit. My vision is no longer green and my hands are uncovered. I look down and see that the slime is still covering my foot like a boot. But the untouched shoe looks out of place on my other foot. However it is my only remaining piece of human clothing, so I leave it on for the moment.
"Wow," Julie says.
"Wow?" I ask her.
"It just like, flowed away from your head," Julie says. "Like some kind of movie special effect."
I didn't know what to say to her. So I look at the others. Angela has a thoughtful look on her face. But mary and Jane are both scared out of their wits.
A blast of energy goes off behind me.
Everything turns green once more and I turn around, raising my hand and only just stop myself from shooting Julie, who is standing with an alien blaster in her hand facing a smoldering tree. I see that my hands are once again completely covered by the green stuff. And I know without checking that my head is too. "Don't do that!" I shout, more scared than angry.
"I sorry I was just trying it out," Julie replies. "It might come in handy now that you've killed all these guys.
"Handy?" I ask.
"Don't you think their friends are going to come looking for them?" she replies. "And when they find them dead..."
"Oh, right. I hadn't thought of that." But to be honest, I hadn't thought of anything. I had just reacted. Moved on pure instinct. At least I am calling it pure instinct. For the obvious alternative is that this slime, whatever it is, was able to take over my body and make me into a killer.
"Does everyone here know how to shoot a gun?" Julie asks.
"No," Mary shakes her head.
Jane looks terrified at the thought.
"Do you know how to shoot an energy weapon?" Angela asks Julie.
"No, but I fired everything from a colt 45 to an AK47," Julie replied. "And I have even shot down a drone with a stinger missile."
"Really?" I ask
She smiles at me. "I grew up in Texas, and I had a boyfriend who has some friends."
"I see," I say. "I'm from Ireland, so no guns in my house."
"But have you ever used an advanced energy weapon," Angela asks again.
"What's to know," Julie says. "You point it the person you want to kill, and you pull the trigger."
"Emm, Quite," Angela replies.
"Is this the safety?" Julie presses a button on the side of the blaster and aims it at another tree. "I'm just checking it out," she says as she looks at me.
"It's OK," I say. "I have it under control." But I am not too sure that I do have it under control. I do not even know what it is.
Julie pulls the trigger, and nothing happens. "Sweet," she says as she looks at the weapon. "My very own alien blaster." She tucks it into the waistband of her jeans. "Anyone else want one?" she asks as she starts to gather up the other blasters.
Nobody answers her. "More for me," Julie says with a laugh.
"What should we do now?" Mary asks, looking around at the remains of the Aliens and looking like she is about to be sick.
"Well, I'm not digging any graves," Julie says, as she picks blaster from a dead alien's hand.
"Will anyone come looking for them?" I ask.
"If you kill cop someone always comes looking for you," Julie says.
"Their craft is definitely an atmospheric craft," Angela says. "So they must have some kind of base here on this planet.
"So there could be more of them," Julie says.
"Most likely," Angela replies. "There would be no reason to post just four officers on an isolated outpost."
"I guess the others will come looking for their friends when they do not come back," J
ulie says.
"Yes," Angela agrees.
"So we should perhaps not be here when they arrive," Julie says.
"No, we should wait for the authorities to come. We can explain what has happened," Angela says. "Both the Dracktari and the Alturian 'Interstellar cops' were killed during the commission of a crime, we should be able to argue that we were acting in self defense."
"So you want to explain to the colleagues of the dead cops that we were justified in killing them?" Julie says. "And these new cops are going to be honest, and just turn around and let us go on our merry way?"
"Well, yes," Angela says.
"And nobody is going to ask why Earth girls from a primitive planet are suddenly walking around where we have no legitimate place to be?" Julie asks.
"Well..." Angela looks unsure for the first time since I have met her. "But if we tell them the truth they must believe us."
"Yeah, sure," Julie says. "And nobody is going to kill the illegal contraband and cover everything up."
Angela says nothing. Mary and Jane look like they are going to die of fright.
"I guess we should get out of here," I say as I turn to the shuttle and start to walk towards it.
"Do you know how to fly a shuttle?" Angela asks, as she falls into step with me.
"I'm sure there's some kind of autopilot that will fly us back to the starship," I say. Though, of course, I have no idea if there is one or not.
Julie comes along as well. "What if we don't want to fly back to the starship?" she asks. "I mean, wasn't it falling apart?"
"It was quite damaged," Angela says.
"I think it was just realigning itself," I say.
"Realigning itself?" Angela asks.
"Reconfiguring and rebuilding itself," I say.
"What does that mean?" Julie asks. "Do starships do that?" she asks Angela.
"Starships are machines made by people," Angela says. "They don't just spontaneously 'realign' themselves."
"I didn't think so," Julie says.
"It will be fine," I say.
"But what are we even going to find when we get back to the starship?" Julie asks.
Kidnapped Page 8