ALIEN ABDUCTION (Captured by Aliens)

by Fox, Jaide

  Then the entry door slammed open and some five Zhala riders climbed up into the cabin. The first thing they did was shove Damon out of the way and grab the four women sitting in the very front row, dragging them towards the door. The fifth one kept his small silver gun pointed at Damon.

  As soon as she was outside, Ebony turned back towards the flyer. A few high wispy clouds covered some of the red and blue stars, but there was enough light for her to see the still-smoking burn mark on the top and side of the flyer from the acid breath of one of the Zhala.

  In a moment, Damon stumbled down the steps with his hands bound behind him. The Zhala rider had his own weapon jammed into Damon’s back. Damon fell hard to the ground but immediately rolled to his feet and started towards the four women. “Ebony! Run for the woods, all of you! Do not let them take you captive again!”

  But before any of them could move, one of the mounted riders forced his snarling Zhala around to face Damon. The rider used his long, metal-shod stick to goad the beast into opening its fanged and drooling mouth.

  “No!” all the women screamed at once, for they knew right away what he intended to have the Zhala do to Damon. The rider turned and looked at them.

  “Very good!” he said with a laugh. “Listen to them, Damon, my friend. They are very right. My fine beast here would be happy to spray you, too, with his blistering breath, just as he did your little flyer just a short time ago. And you saw what his breath did to that.”

  With a look of pure hatred, Damon slowly got to his feet and stood tall and alone beside the crippled flyer. A couple of the Zhala riders ran up the steps inside the flyer, and in a moment the other men began filing out to gather near Damon. Their hands were bound behind them, too.

  Then came a heavy shuffling sound from out in the darkness. Ebony turned to see what it was, and thought she would scream again. She saw four more of the enormous Zhala walking awkwardly on their hind legs, wings a little raised to help them balance. Their riders were steering them straight towards her and the other three women.

  The Zhala riders halted their four beasts just a few paces away. Seeing them up close, Ebony saw that the Zhala were huge and ugly and even more frightening than she had known, with snarling heads, thick coarse feathers covering their long reptilian bodies, and enormous skin-and-feather wings. And their riders were no better, with long black leathery coats and thick boots and heavy leather helmets with something like silver-rimmed goggles.

  Before any of the women could move, a couple of the other riders grabbed each of them from behind, carried them to the waiting beasts, and lifted them up onto the leather saddles strapped to each Zhala behind its rider. “Hold tight,” the rider said to Ebony, glancing back at her through the goggles with a little sneer, “and don’t look down.”

  Ebony shut her eyes and found she was too terrified to scream. She threw her arms around the rider’s waist, over the long, thick black leather coat he wore, and held on for her life as the monster beat its huge wings against the air and rose up into the deep darkness of the night.

  ***

  The awful beasts flew and flew, and Ebony tried not to think of how far up above the ground she was. She was grateful for the warm gowns that Fallon and Damon had given to her and all of the women, for the wind was very cold as the Zhala flew through the night.

  Eventually, when she realized that they were, finally, coming back down, she dared to open one eye ever so slightly. Ebony saw that the dawn was beginning to show along the horizon--the horizon just beyond Auresial Palace.

  For an instant, she was ready to throw herself from the Zhala and just fall to the palace walls below. At least her suffering would be over and she would never again have to live as a prisoner...as a slave...

  But she simply could not make her arms let go of the rider’s waist. As Fallon had once said to her, the pull of life was too strong, and so she rode the terrible Zhala all the way down to the inner courtyard of the palace.

  In something of a state of shock, all four women were soon surrounded by five of their old familiar guards and walking through the old familiar marble hallways once more. To Ebony it was almost surreal, almost as strange as her initial capture, and she saw the same look of shock on the faces of Cassie, Famke, and Jane.

  But before they reached the harem itself, they were pushed into a smaller side room. Ebony recognized it as a storage room for clothes and jewelry. One of the men guarding them raised his weapon, and for a moment Ebony thought he and his guards meant to rape them. But all he did was wave the weapon towards four small stacks of sheer silk-like fabric on the nearest shelf and order them to change into those clothes--into harem clothes.

  Weeping and angry, the four women took off the fine heavy gowns and beautiful necklaces and soft leather boots that Fallon and the other men had given them and dropped it all in one large heap in the middle of the room. They each picked up the little stack of fabric assigned to them--orange for Jane, blue for Cassie, white for Famke, and red for Ebony, just as before--and found only a sheer silk bikini that could only be fastened by tying the bottom piece together at the hips and fastening the top behind the neck and the back. The women did not even have the long sari-like skirts and veils that they had had before, and were barely covered at all.

  And they were once again entirely barefoot

  Ebony was humiliated and furious, as they all were, but there was nothing she could do without risking all of their lives. The four of them walked back into the great harem room and heard the huge heavy doors slam shut behind them.

  ***

  For the next few hours, Ebony and the three other captives got reacquainted with the other women of the harem and tried not to think about what their lives might be like after this. Their harem sisters still had long skirts and sari to wear, though they were still barefoot, and they were shocked at seeing the four recent captives forced to walk around virtually naked. “It’s so cruel,” one of the women said. “And humiliating.”

  “Sure it is,” said Ebony, sitting down on a pile of the thick soft cushions that always covered the floor. She picked up one of the red velvet pillows and held it in her lap, feeling at least a little more covered up. “It’s punishment and it’s humiliation and it’s to keep us from trying to run away again.”

  “We will never leave this place,” whispered Famke. Her eyes had a haunted look. “We will be slaves and prisoners here until we die.”

  Ebony tried to smile at her. “Hey, Miss Sweden, now, don’t give up yet. Things are a little different now, remember? Remember the men that we bonded with--yours was Vin, right? Do you think he’ll want to leave you here without a fight?”

  Famke’s eyes flicked toward Ebony. “I--I do not know. I am not sure what any of them can do. Even that flyer’s weapons were as nothing against those Zhala.”

  “Yeah, well, it isn’t just Vin by himself,” Ebony said. “It’s Ryan and Brenzir and Damon and Fallon who will be looking for us, too, and all the rest of Fallon’s men. And I don’t think they’ll give up too easy.”

  Famke smiled faintly, but her eyes still had that look of vacant despair. “I hope you are right, Ebony, but….”

  Just then the tall, heavy doors of the harem were pushed open and several guards came walking through them. Ebony sat up very straight and covered as much of herself as she could with the pillow.

  And then King Kore came striding into the harem right behind the guards, grinning and smirking and looking very, very pleased with himself.

  The other harem women drew back at the sight of him, but the four newly returned captives gathered close together around Ebony. Kore stopped in the middle of the huge room with his hands on his hips, his long, heavy, red-and-black silk robes swinging around his ankles. He looked straight at Ebony, Cassie, Famke, and Jane, and gave them an especially leering grin.

  “Fine clothes you wear today,” he said, looking up and down at the thin strips of silk that were all that covered the four women. “And such beautiful shoes.”
/>
  Ebony’s lip curled as she stared back at him with a cold glare of undying hatred. She did not have to see the other women to know that they all looked at him the same way--she could feel the rage and hate pouring off of them. But all of them remained silent, and waited.

  “You’ll be glad to know,” Kore went on, “that it took only a short spate of torture for your two pilots to give up the location of your home base. I know that it is the abandoned chalcedonite mine only a short distance from here. It will be no trouble at all to destroy it.”

  Ebony looked away from him and kept her silence, though she ground her teeth in anger and frustration.

  “And even better, that big one that was on the flyer with you--the one who tried to fight back, but failed--he told me some even better news. He told me that your leader is a man named Fallon--a man we all thought was dead--a man who is my own twin brother and who tried to take my throne from me.”

  All of the women looked up at him, stunned. Kore’s eyes shone with pleasure at the sight of their fear. Ebony felt cold all the way to the bone, and it was not just from the thin bikini she’d been forced to wear. He was talking about Damon.

  “Where--” Ebony began.

  Kore cut her off. “Where is this man who was with you, you ask? And all the other men, too, I suppose? Oh, they are very well, very well indeed. That big one took almost no torture at all to get my brother’s name. We scarcely had to do more than threaten him, and he talked right away.” He laughed. “Strange how their bravado disappears the instant the tables are turned.”

  “Fallon is your brother,” Ebony hissed through her teeth.

  Kore coldly stared her down. “You didn’t give me a chance to finish, Ebony, my dear,” he said. “There is more good news. I’m going to contact Fallon on the plasma radio so that I may tell him--and show him--that I have his women. And all four of those same women, briefly Fallon’s but now returned to me again, will be watching and listening to what my brother and I say to each other.”

  He turned to the guards and snapped his fingers. They pushed open one of the doors and two other guards came in.

  Ebony got to her feet and stayed very close to the other three women. Between the two guards floated a basketball-sized sphere with what looked like dials and lenses all over it. “Show them,” Kore said, and Ebony caught her breath as the image of the mine entrance materialized in the air just above their heads. It was like a television picture, or a movie, but there was no set and no screen--just the picture appearing in thin air.

  Kore grinned at them again. “Watch,” he said. “This is the image from their camera, which has just been delivered to them. They will be able to view the image from this one, just as we are viewing theirs. Smile prettily, girls--it may be the last thing those men will ever see.”

  ***

  Fallon was on board the second flyer inside the cave, trying again and again to raise contact with the first flyer, when he heard the sound of weapons fire from somewhere outside.

  He leaped down the steps from the flyer to the corridor floor and then dashed towards the entrance. The sky was just showing the first light of dawn and he could see the silhouettes of several of his men with their weapons drawn and aimed out over the valley below. Fallon drew his small silver pistol as he skidded to a stop, and then ducked down beside the cave wall as two more screaming shots from his men tore through the air.

  Fallon looked up through the flaring dust left by the pistols and saw what they were shooting at--it was a plasma radiocamera, floating in the air above the wooded valley below. It slowly moved left and right, and then up and back down, as though looking for the best place to get a clear image.

  “Stop!” came a thundering voice. An image appeared before them, projected right onto the air, of a grinning King Kore. “You might want to wait before destroying this camera,” Kore said, “for I have something to show you.”

  Fallon stepped forward. “Lower your weapons,” he whispered.

  “But--”

  “Lower them!”

  “Ah, Fallon, my brother! I cannot tell you how pleased I am that you are alive and well. Here--let me present you with a gift to celebrate your return.”

  The image changed. Kore was gone but now, hovering in the air just outside the cave entrance, was the clear picture of Ebony and the three other women whom he had sent out on the flyer just a few short hours ago.

  Instantly a torrent of raging emotions hit Fallon all at once. He was furious at the failure of the mission, terrified for what Ebony and the others were going through, and coldly enraged that these women were once again held captive by his cruel and twisted brother. He almost feared to think of what Kore’s soldiers would do to the men who had been on board the flyer.

  Fallon clenched his fists and willed himself to silence and stillness. “Just tell me what you want,” he whispered, looking straight at the camera.

  Kore smirked at him, and then laughed outright. “Oh, no, it is not what I want that matters,” he said, chuckling. “It is what you are willing to give for these women--that’s what I want to know. I want to hear what you are willing to give not only for these women, but for your men, too--including the one called Damon.”

  Damon...Fallon did not think his anger could burn any hotter, but he was wrong. “I will give you what you want most, Kore,” he said. “I will give you myself. A simple trade. Allow everyone who was on that flyer to go free, and I will put myself into your hands.”

  Kore’s smirking grin grew even wider. “I am delighted by your offer, my brother! I will accept--but only if you come alone, unarmed, and wearing only your pants. No boots. No shirt or coat. And, of course, no weapons.”

  “Of course.” Fallon took a deep breath, and then threw his own pistol back inside the cave entrance. “Let them go and I will surrender to you.”

  The picture shifted to the four women, standing huddled together barefoot and nearly naked. Then it shifted again and showed Damon and the other men from the flyer walking slowly through the forest, all with their hands tied and their feet bare.

  “You, my brother, are in no position to bargain for anything,” he said. “Here is what I will do: I will send a Zhala rider to get you where you stand right now. You will walk the last mile of your journey to the gates of the City of Anetahr, alone and unarmed, and then walk inside and give yourself up.

  “That is my only offer. If you refuse, all of those captives will be made to suffer. I assure you that they will not die. But they will suffer, in ways that even you cannot imagine.”

  Fallon pulled off his long black leather coat and his white shirt, and threw them aside. He took off first one boot and then the other and threw them after the coat and shirt. “Send your Zhala,” Fallon said, standing up very tall and bare chested and barefooted with his hands at his sides. “Send it now.”

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  Fallon stood on the dirt path in the forest and shielded his eyes from the bright sunlight, watching as the Zhala beat its rough feathered wings hard against the air and lifted itself and its black-clad rider back up into the sky. Looking around, he saw nothing familiar. There were only the tall pines of the forest which surrounded the City of Anetahr and blocked it from his sight. But he knew the proper direction, and so he started out straight for the city--and for Auresial Palace.

  In a few moments Fallon walked out of the forest on the narrow dirt path and picked up the wide road which led to the city gates. Moving along above him was the same sort of plasma radiocamera that Kore had sent to communicate with him at the mine entrance. Fallon was well aware that at this moment every denizen of the City of Anetahr was watching his movements, and so he simply kept his head up and walked along as though he had nothing troubling him at all.

  The radiocamera tracked him closely, and he could hear the whine of its tiny motors and the low humming sound of its power source. It stayed very close, just out of reach above his head, and Fallon followed its shadow all the way to the walls of the city.
/>
  He began to approach the enormous gates. They began to swing open. But before he could walk through them, some seven or eight guards in full black leather gear and closed helmets stepped forward and kept their silver rifles aimed straight at him.

  Slowly, Fallon raised his hands. The guards looked him over and then the one nearest him jerked his head towards the inside of the city. The guards stepped forward to surround him as Fallon began the long walk down the main avenue of the City of Anetahr.

  A wall of noise rose up around him. He glanced left and right and saw that the streets and balconies were lined with jeering, shouting men, some of them throwing dirt and rotten food and even stones.

  The radiocamera continued to follow him, and he could hear a voice coming through its speakers. “King Kore has captured the most wanted criminal on our world--Fallon, his own brother, who chose to do a great evil and has now forfeited his life in doing so. Fallon is the man who gave the order--the order to release that hideous virus, that same virus that killed every last woman of childbearing age and child on Chalcydon!”