The Alien’s Stowaway

by Alyx X

  "The bells. I thought it was an alarm."

  She shook her head. "No, it's a device used to contact others. They used to call it a telephone, but they're much more advanced than that now."

  "There has to be a stairwell," I said. "We can climb it with fewer eyes."

  She looked around and pulled on my sleeve. "Here."

  A shout down the hall sent ice down my spine. Not waiting to see if it was for us, we burst into the stairwell and ran up as fast as we could. I kept Evvie in front of me. Even though I could've easily outrun her, the thought of leaving her behind made me want to face the entirety of the building's guards on my own. We knew we'd been spotted when more shouts erupted below us. "Stop, or we will open fire!" a voice boomed over loudspeakers in the wall.

  Evvie's legs moved faster, and she burst out into a hallway just in time. Laser hot shots of ammunition ricocheted off the walls of the stairwell. Heart thundering, desperately searching for a solution, I slammed the door and ran to catch up to Evvie. She was going down an empty hall at full speed, and I quickly caught up. I didn't know if she had any idea where she was going, but all we could do was keep moving.

  21

  Evvie

  I didn't have any clue where I was running. I only knew two things. One, I'd never been on this floor before, and two, we had to get the fuck out of here. It wasn't fair that we'd be this close to freedom to die now. My heart beat hard from both adrenaline and the exercise of escaping, and I willed it to quiet. We needed to think our way out of this, we had to be smart.

  The end of the hallway approached, so I slowed. When I was about to peek around the corner to see if anyone was there, a guard marched out right in front of me, making me stumble back. He looked as shocked to see us as we were to see him. "Duck!" Jarix shouted behind me, and I didn't stop to think, I just ducked. He threw a hard punch and the soldier went down fast. We jumped over him and darted down the hall.

  We were lucky to run into no one else for several more turns and decided to duck into an empty room to see if we could hide there for a while. Our luck continued to hold, because the door opened without a lock. I strode into the room, quickly scanning for anyone who might turn us in. Jarix entered behind me and immediately placed his hand on the light switch. "It's not connected to anything but electricity," he said. He busied himself by searching the room for any form of technology while I pressed my ear to the door.

  Of course, it had no lock. That was helpful for letting us in here, but it meant we couldn’t prevent anyone else from coming in. I smacked myself on the forehead. They would all have keys anyway, idiot. I chastised. Then I jerked my ear back to the door.

  "Someone is coming," I hissed.

  I whipped around, panic in my expression. The room was pretty bare. There were no other doors for us to go through, and not even a window. All it held was a single big table that made me wonder what the hell this room was even for. Not easy to hide behind. "Get behind the table," Jarix said. I did so, sliding beneath it like a damn secret agent.

  Jarix pressed himself against the wall behind the door. I watched from under the table and behind a chair, tucked down low. The door opened and two legs walked in. Seconds later, I peeked over the table when I heard a thump and a grunt. "Come on," Jarix said. He dropped the unconscious man on the floor and dragged him fully into the room. "Keep moving."

  I darted around the table and out the door. Nobody else was around, so I ran down the hall. Two soldiers appeared at the end and aimed their guns at us, making me backpedal so fast you’d think I was on a reverse treadmill. Jarix shoved me out of the way and launched his powerful body at them, grabbing the ends of the guns and shoving them upward.

  Deciding I could maybe help this time, I barreled into the guards with my arms out to knock them backward and give Jarix the chance to jerk the guns out of their hands. It worked. He leveled one of the guns on them while I took the other. When I had both soldiers frozen under the aim of my weapon, Jarix turned his own rifle around and hit them in the face, one after the other. It knocked one of them out, but the other just moaned. It didn’t matter. We took off, now armed, leaving them on the ground. We made our way back to the stairwell, but no shots ricocheted off the walls this time, so we continued up.

  When we made it up another couple of floors, we heard a door open above us and boots on the stairs. I stopped and slowed, heart racing, continuing on my tiptoes. Jarix made no sounds as he followed me. We slipped through the door and onto another floor. This one was crawling with guards and I secretly cursed my luck for being all used up on the stairs and that pointless room. As we approached I noticed that somehow, they all had their backs to us. The hallway was wide, and they were gathered around something, looking down at it. Probably a picture of me and Jarix, with our quickly waning luck.

  We couldn't go back into the stairwell, so we tiptoed over to the closest doorway. It looked like a classroom with several small desks in the room, a whiteboard, and a big desk at the front of the room. This door had a lock on it, but Jarix shook his head and leaned close to me. "A locked door would be too obvious," he said. "They’d know we were in here. There are more places to hide in here that are less noticeable." Jarix began exploring the room immediately. He made sense, actually. I was once again grateful to have him with me. As he searched, I stayed close to the door, listening again.

  "Where are they?" a voice shouted. "We saw them come through this door."

  Murmured voices responded. Then, "Spread out! Check all the rooms!" Darting away from the door, I waved at Jarix wordlessly. He ducked behind the big desk and I looked around for my own hiding spot. There was a line of cabinets on the back wall. I hurried over and found them unlocked and empty except for what appeared to be beakers and test tools.

  Climbing inside, I scooted back as far as I could, ignoring the tickles on the back of my neck that were probably spiderwebs. My heart was in my throat, which was starting to become its natural state lately. However, I'd dealt with far worse in the desert. I focused on controlling my breathing, just praying silently that they wouldn’t discover the very large alien hiding behind the table in the back of the room.

  "Who are these people anyway?" The voice was masculine but still sounded young. A soldier, human if I could guess by his voice.

  "I don't know. They're loose in here and we're supposed to find them is all I heard." That was a different voice. He sounded bored. Or maybe tired. "We were supposed to have a cushy job here. I don't feel like crawling all over this building looking for a couple of people that are probably just here trying to mess with TerraLink."

  The first guy spoke again. "Seriously. I thought working for this company was supposed to mean I could finally relax." I swallowed quietly from my hiding spot as I listened. A tiny surge of anger washed over me at their flippancy. What I wouldn’t have given for a job like this. Easy, air-conditioned, and they probably had regular meals and a real bed, too. Stupid, ungrateful— "Clear!" one of them shouted. The door slammed shut, leaving me alone with my still racing heart. I waited a few minutes, then peeked out of the closest cabinet door.

  Jarix was still behind the desk, but he'd stood up. He looked at me and shrugged. "I guess they don't care. Are all humans like that?"

  I held a hand over my heart, pretending to be shocked. “Have I ever struck you as lazy and ungrateful?” I smiled at him, daring him to insult me. Even in the belly of the beast, literally the most dangerous place we could be right now, I loved teasing him.

  Jarix gave me a wicked grin from across the room, and I could feel the intensity of his gaze from here. “You, my little warrior, are nothing like those two males. Although, I’m sure you’re an exception among your race.” He cocked his head, inviting me to take the bait.

  I strode out of the cabinet, aiming for sexy and confident. “I really am. I might even be the best human on this whole damn planet.” I contained my laughter, waiting for his reply.

  Jarix strode over to me, exuding power and sex appeal. Ev
en with his ragged haircut and sweat stained clothing, he dominated the space. My pussy grew warm as I sized him up. When he was close enough to tower over me, he leveled me with a golden-eyed stare and said huskily, “I agree.”

  I burst out laughing, unable to hold it in. Jarix closed the space between us quickly, slapping a hand over my mouth. I giggled harder, wrapping my arms around his waist and pulling him into me. He removed his hand and I pressed my face into that glorious chest, still chortling, though quieter this time. After a moment of my adrenaline-fueled giggling, Jarix finally joined in. His deep laugh rumbled through my face, and for a moment, I thought I might be the happiest person alive. Which was really fucking weird considering the circumstances.

  After a few minutes of crazed laughing, just holding each other, we both finally calmed. Jarix pulled back and looked at my face. “We’ve got to get out of here.”

  How many times had we said that since we’d met? Probably a thousand. I nodded at him and released his waist. He bent over and turned on a computer on the desk, and the large monitor lit up. It was risky. If anyone else came in they'd wonder why it was on.

  "This is going to take a while," he whispered. "Search the rest of the room?" I nodded. I knew the cabinets at the back were empty, so I started with the drawers. They were filled with slides, test tubes, and other scientific equipment I didn't have much experience with. I continued around the room, looking in the desks, drawers, and through the closet. There was nothing useful here, nothing that might help us. Unless Jarix knew of some concoction we could make with the bottles of chemicals in the closet, we were no better off. At least we were still alive.

  I sighed and walked back toward the desk. I'd gone through it while he simply sat with his hand on the computer. It was strange to watch him, eyes closed and completely unmoving. Aliens, man. "Anything?" I asked after he was silent for too long.

  He opened his eyes slowly, mimicked my sigh, and leaned back in the desk chair. "Yes, but it's taking time to get done. I think I have our identities taken out of the system, so they no longer have a picture of us, but we don't have time to do more than that."

  "It's been getting quiet," I whispered. "I haven’t even heard anyone in the hallway for a while.”

  He furrowed his brow and put his hand on the computer again. It only took seconds for his eyebrows to raise. "Most everyone has gone home. The search for us has been moved to the city. They assume we got out since they checked the entire building." Wait, they think we got out? Hope soared through me, and another strangled laugh escaped my throat. I couldn’t believe we were off the hook, at least for a little while. "This is our best chance. Let's go."

  He stood and pulled me under his arm. "Let's get out of here."

  We darted to the door and peered around the office without walking out. "Did you check the camera system?" I asked.

  "Yeah, and linked the feed to a recording of last night. Unless the guards notice themselves walking around, they'll never know we were here."

  I took his hand and stepped from the room. "You're so smart."

  He preened as we turned toward the staircase and elevator. "Let's take the stairs," I said. "In case someone is here and notices the elevator moving."

  He nodded and pushed at the door to the stairs. It didn't budge. "Locked," he said.

  “Can you unlock it with your… magic tech fingers?” Jarix looked back at me, a smile playing at the corner of his mouth.

  “Magic tech fingers?”

  “Well! You never told me what the ability is called! To me, it is magic.” I put my hands on my hips, challenging him.

  “Well, the proper name for my magic tech fingers, as you call it, you won’t be able to pronounce.”

  “Oh. Well, I guess I’ll be sticking with magic tech fingers then.” I smiled impishly up at my alien. Jarix stepped away from the door, planting a kiss on my mouth. He pulled back, both of us grinning. We sure were handling this whole ‘running from the law’ thing well. Or maybe we were going insane. “So, can you?” I asked.

  “Unfortunately, no. This door is locked with a regular deadbolt—a few, actually—and the door is made of metal, so I won’t be able to just kick it in or anything.” Jarix sighed, frustrated.

  "There might be more stairs somewhere else on this level," I suggested. It was an enormous building. It was worth losing a bit of time to avoid using the elevator. A bit of time turned into hours as we searched through each room. We picked up a few useful items along the way. A knife, another backpack to even out the load—which was pretty light at the moment. At least, until we found a refrigerator with several bottles of water. We split one and packed the rest of them in the new backpack.

  By the time we explored the entire floor, we had some food, another water bottle, and a new coat that fit Jarix perfectly, but no other stairs. Jarix figured that they locked up the stairs at night to prevent people from doing exactly what we were doing. Only, they’d trapped us in instead of out.

  "Looks like we’ll be using the elevator," I said when we made our way back to the first room we'd hidden in. Jarix nodded and stood off to the side while I hid around the corner in case someone was inside when the elevator came. I watched him push the button to call the lift.

  It didn't even light up. He pressed it a few more times, then moved to the other side of the door to the identical button there. "Oh, no," he whispered. He ran back into the classroom and put his hand on the computer, which lit up again at his touch. It took a few minutes, but his shoulders slumped. "We're locked in." Shit.

  "Can't you override it?" I asked.

  The expression on his face told me all I needed to know. "It's biometric. Only a couple of people have the authority to unlock the building in the morning. We're locked in until one of them gets here in the morning."

  "Well, okay. We can prepare ourselves, and as soon as it unlocks in the morning, we make a break for it before they get their bearings." I tried to sound hopeful and positive, but my voice just sounded pathetic. Jarix nodded at me, still determined to get out of here.

  We were locked in, but being locked in wasn't dead. There was still hope.

  22

  Jarix

  "You're right. I can use tonight to create new identities for us. It won’t fool them for long, but it might buy us enough time to get the hell out of here," I said, gazing into Evvie’s eyes. "Let me get to work.

  She dozed off as I worked, but sleeping in the uncomfortable desks couldn’t have been pleasant because, after a while, she got up and put her hand on my shoulder. "How's it going?"

  My eyes flew open in surprise, and I had to shake my arms and head after sitting still for so long. Refocusing on the real world after spending time in the code was always a little jarring. "Good. I've got us new identities that should pass any scrutiny.” I hope. “I'm a pilot and you're about to be sold to someone on my home planet as a breeder.”

  Her jaw dropped. "How dare you, sir. You presume I'm willing to become a breeder for you?" The light in her eyes danced as she teased me.

  I turned the chair and looked her over, scrutinizing. "You're right. You're a bit skinny, but if I remember our time in the cave correctly, you should make a good product for your future master."

  Her face paled and she let out a small gasp. This time I wasn’t sure if she was teasing me. "What do you mean?" Her voice sounded wary.

  I'd said the wrong thing. "Just that, I’ve already… tested the product, if you know what I mean."

  Evvie’s eyes widened in shock. She took her hand off of my shoulder and stepped back. "Am I just a product to you then?" I watched her face grow angry, and my mind raced for a way to fix what I’d said. I was only joking, but her reaction told me she never wanted to be compared to a TerraLink slave. Not even joking.

  “Evvie, I’m sorry. I wasn’t serious! Yes, you and I—we—have become intimate with each other, but that was never my only intention. I care for you… my people don't spill our seed unless we want to," I explained, obviously
floundering. Why had I brought up my species’ intimacy rituals? Evvie folded her arms across her chest as she waited for me to continue.

  I gulped, "It's an evolutionary trait of my people. We can only impregnate the females we desire to impregnate.” Her eyes widened at that, and she looked like she was about to say something, so I hurriedly continued. “The men ejaculate, but there is no way you are impregnated without my intention.” Gods, how had things gotten so off track? “You are not a product, and I was trying to tease you back, and make a joke." I took her hands and pressed them to my lips. "Evvie, I'm sorry."

  Walking forward, she straddled my lap and pulled her hands from mine to put them on my chest. "I know. Gotcha." She tilted her head, a smile finally breaking that concerned look on her face.

  I burst out laughing. She had still been messing with me, and I was too stupid to understand. Again. This female might be the death of me one day. That is, if we made it out of this situation first. Still chuckling, I pulled her tight against me. "So, you thought the fighting was hot?"

  She nodded, the tips of her fingers tickling the back of my neck, then moving up to my ears. She didn't know it, but that was my favorite spot. I hummed in pleasure as she trailed them over my lobes. "I like that," I whispered.

  "Oh, you do?" Leaning forward, she captured one in her mouth and sucked gently. "How about this?"

  "It's a fast way to end up with me fucking you," I growled. My blood raged to my member, which hardened and ached to sink into my little human.

  “Don’t you mean spill your seed?” She whispered into my neck. That was sarcasm. I could recognize that one. I used my hands on her hips to show her exactly how much I liked to be teased this mercilessly, giving them a strong squeeze. She yelped, but swung her hair out of her way, which had come out of its bun at some point. Then, she moved her head to my other ear, sucking it into her mouth and biting down with the softest pressure. "How about this?" she whispered.