"Due to the dense foliage, we have to stay here until their bodies are completely cremated. This could take a while. Why don't we go back to the group and explain to them what is going on? I don't want to split the team, so we all need to stay here together until the job is done." Zelan put his hand on my back and led me over to the other women.
“Do you see this often?” I wondered how often they encountered bodies like this.
“I have not seen it in a while. The fact that insectoids are this close to Earth is very worrisome. The Commander mentioned war. It is possible the insectoids are looking to take human hosts so they can reproduce more soldiers for the war. If that is the case, they were very stupid to bait us like this. Unless, hmm...” Zelan seemed to be talking more to himself than me. He mentioned some war tactics or something. I wasn’t paying much attention.
The images of those women were seared into my brain, and I couldn't expunge that memory. Even though I was trying hard. What could get those images and smell out of my mind? It reminded me of one of those slasher movies- the kind with Jason or Freddie.
There was blood all over the place. The heads of those women were blown to bits. Small cockroaches, that also resembled grasshoppers, were everywhere. The smell was a cross between a garbage dump and burnt flesh. My nose was itching. I wished I had something better to smell.
When we made our way back to the group, Zelan had his arm around me and Rachelle made a stupid comment, “Looks like you’re wasting no time grabbing a man, Natalie. What happened to that precious fiancé of yours back home?”
How did she know about Ben? “Rachelle, you have no clue what’s going on, so just shut your trap.” I was in no mood to deal with a petty, jealous girl.
She looked over to Zelan, who was looking at me. Then she put on a totally fake pout and brushed up against Telan. “Telan, why is she so mean to me? Especially when I have been nothing but nice to her.” Rachelle rubbed her hands across his chest, and he looked to be caught in her trap.
I rolled my eyes, “Pa-lease! You are so obvious in your ways, Rachelle. Grow up and realize we’re not in high school anymore. You know what? Come with me. I want to show you what we are dealing with.” I walked over, grabbed her arm, and pulled her toward the area where the bodies were located.
Zelan ran up to me, “Natalie, you might not want to show her. It’s pretty gruesome.”
“I think she needs to know what we are up against here. Maybe then she’ll stop her juvenile games if she understands the danger we’re all in.” In fact, I thought all the humans needed to know what was really going on.
Most of us had wanted to find a way to escape our captors. The planet seemed like an alright place to settle and re-build our lives. There wouldn’t be any way we could steal a ship and go home. The realization was starting to sink in for all of us. But now, with this new threat, I was starting to think sticking close to Zelan and his friends was the smart move. Well, that is, until they killed all the Zateelians. Then maybe we could risk a jail break.
“Um, hello! Right here. No need to talk about me as though I’m somewhere else.” She pointed to her chest. “What are you two talking about? We crashed, and you guys have killed all of the aliens who destroyed our ship, right?” She looked at Zelan and brushed her hand along his shoulder.
I shook my head and walked into the clearing that the warriors had made. They worked fast to clear an area so that they could burn the bodies without catching the plant life on fire in the process.
Once we stopped, I pointed to the bodies. “Look, do you see that?”
Rachelle, leaned over and squinted her eyes, “Eww, what is that? And that smell, gross.” She covered her nose and mouth with her hand.
"That was two women who escaped our ship only to become incubators for the Zateelians." I crossed my arms over my chest and stood there watching her.
“Ha, ha. No really, what is it?” She screwed up her nose while taking a step closer. She looked back over her shoulder at me, “That is not a human being. Whatever it is, it’s covered in cockroaches and other bugs. Is that some sort of dead animal?”
“Rachelle, this isn’t a joke. Those insectoids infect a human host with their egg sacks and when the babies hatch, they eat their way out of the host body. That is what was happening when we came upon those bodies earlier.” I raised one eyebrow at her.
“Gross! NO way!” She walked to the closest warrior, “Marcon, please tell me the truth about what happened here.” She pointed to the mutilated bodies.
"I am sorry, Rachelle, Natalie told you the truth. This is what the bugs want humans for. Well, they use them for slaves until they are no longer useful, then they become food for their hatchlings." He went back to cleaning out the area of leftover bugs and foliage.
Rachelle's eyes bugged out as she realized I told her the truth. She turned around and ran screaming back to Telan. "Telan, you are not going to believe what I just saw … and smelled!" She shivered and put herself up against his torso and wrapped her arms around him. He looked over to Zelan and shrugged his shoulders before putting his arms around the sniveling girl.
We spent the next couple of hours waiting for the bodies to be turned into ash. Almost everyone was fairly quiet once Rachelle calmed down enough to relay her story. A few of the women eyed me wearily. It almost felt like they were upset with me for showing Rachelle the truth. Why they would be upset, I couldn’t guess. I sat where I was and pondered my life today.
Chapter 5
I wasn't a religious person. However, I did think we should say something nice about the women who died today. Only one other person joined me, Lucy. "Lord, I know I don't talk much to you, but I would ask that these two women be received to your loving arms today. And if there are any more humans in the insectoid’s hands, please make sure they don't end up like this." I waved to the funeral pyre. "Amen."
“Lucy, did you want to say something?” I asked.
"Yes. Dear Lord, none of us asked for this, but here we are. Please bring these two women to safety in your loving arms. I pray that they knew You before they died. And please don't let this happen to anyone else here on this planet or any planets. Will you please stop these insectoids from killing people like this? Amen." She wiped a tear from her eyes, then sniffed.
Telan spoke up, “Alright, we have a long way to go, and this seriously slowed us down. We might have to find a place and hunker down for the night. Since we are closer to the old ship, let’s head that way.”
“I agree. The Commander needs to be notified, but I can do that while we walk,” Zelan announced as he started for the ship.
“Wait, are we gonna stop looking for more humans?” I thought the main reason for this expedition was to look for survivors.
“For this trip, yes. If we stay the night in the damaged ship, we could look on our way back tomorrow. However, we will have some heavy equipment with us. It might be better to come out on a different day and just spend the time looking for anyone else.” Zelan put his hand on my back, and we walked forward.
I used to hate it when Ben would put his hand on my back. He would put it between my shoulder blades and push. It was more like a shove, to get me to go where he wanted me. But, when Zelan did it, he put his hand in the small of my back and stepped closer to me. It was almost like a hug instead of a push. I never realized that it could feel nice to have a man’s hand on my back.
It must have taken us at least an hour of hiking through the jungle to get to our old ship. Strange how I now associated what was once a prison as “our old ship.” Did that mean I was accepting my fate?
“Lucy, how do you feel about the old ship versus the new ship?” I asked as we pushed aside some vines in our path, which were hanging from what looked like a banyan tree.
“What do you mean?” she asked as she threw one vine behind her and almost hit Rachelle with it. I looked back when I heard Rachelle squawk, and I almost laughed. The vine must have had some mud on it as there were splashes of it on her face.
“Do you think back to the old ship fondly? Or is the new ship better? I guess I’m asking because I was just thinking about our situation and caught myself calling it our ship. How weird is that?” I shook my head as I stepped over some rocks.
“Huh, I guess I haven’t really thought of it that way yet. Although, now that you mention it, I do miss the easiness of the last few days before the move to our new cells. Not that living in constant threat of bugs attacking is easy. More like, the freedom we had to move around our part of the ship. Maybe it was just that we weren’t inside of cells anymore.” She sighed and shook her head as she walked around the trunk of a banyan tree.
I followed her around, “Yea, maybe that was…” I stopped abruptly as Zelan pulled me down to the ground. Then I heard phaser fire.
“Zelan, what’s going on?” I whispered to him.
“I hear the insectoids ahead. They have fired at our forward team. Can you use a Taser?” My eyes widened with horror.
“I…I have never used a gun of any sort. Not even a toy gun.” I had always played with Barbie’s and dolls. Growing up I played with girls, none of whom ever wanted to touch boy toys. I guess you could call me a girly-girl when I was a kid. Kinda wish I would have learned how to hold a weapon at the very least. But there was never a need to.
He scooted off me and pulled me behind the banyan tree we had just walked around. “Take this, you point it at your target and shoot. You will need to hold the trigger while you are shocking the enemy. But be careful, you only get one shot with this.”
“When we get out of this, will you teach me how to use a phaser gun?” I was not going to be stuck with just a one-time-use, temporary weapon again.
"Yes, I think several of you will need to learn how to defend yourselves. Normally, we don't arm the slaves, but some of you are going to become mates. We need to make sure you can take care of yourselves." He moved to the side of the tree and took a defensive position.
He motioned for me to stay behind him. “Natalie, this is just in case a Zateelian gets past me. You should never have to fight. I am sorry I put you in this situation. We are so close to the ship too! Ghazem!” I wasn’t sure what that last word meant, but I had a feeling it wasn’t a nice word. I had never heard any of the aliens use human cuss words, but I had no clue if they swore in their own tongue.
Ben cussed up a storm, especially when he was drunk. I didn’t like being around him when he was like that. I usually got into trouble. One time, we had been at his buddy’s house watching a football game, and his team lost. It was stupid of me, I know, but I made a comment about sometimes they lose and sometimes they win. He got really mad and slapped me across the face. After that, I tried to get away from him when he drank.
A cold sweat poured down my back as the fighting came closer to us. I shouldn’t have been thinking about other things while there were evil aliens about.
The warriors leading us raced back to where we were and took cover behind some trees near us. They fired their phaser guns from the sides of the trees, one guy even climbed up into a tree for a better angle. Zelan started firing, but I couldn’t see the cockroaches yet. I craned my neck to look around the tree, and I still couldn’t see them. I needed to find them before they found me.
"Watch out! They are scurrying along the ground and using the underbrush to hide," Marcon yelled as he fired at a bush that jiggled. When he hit it, I understood why. The bug's head exploded, and goo flew everywhere. But there were other bushes that kept moving and bristling closer to us.
Zelan got down on the ground, on his stomach, and fired at the bushes that were moving. "The backside of their carapace is too tough to penetrate with our handguns, but if you can get low enough, then you might have a chance at hitting them in the neck. Sometimes they will also have a sensitive spot on their belly, but that is only the case when dealing with younger bugs." He kept firing and hit one. The bush stopped moving, and I saw a partial cockroach body move up and then down again. Almost like a bowling pin that had been hit hard from the bottom.
By this point, there were only a few remaining cockroaches. Or at least, only a few moving bushes. Another warrior, Tosie I think was his name, got up into a tree close to where a bush was shaking, and he jumped down on top of it. I wished he hadn't done that. The bug wasn't alone.
While Tosie was battling the bug he jumped on, another came behind him and used its hand-pincher. The bug used his appendage as a sword and struck him through the chest. Tosie's eyes flew open in shock, and he slumped down on the ground. I muffled a scream as my eyes flew wide open.
I watched the whole scene play out, and it was the worst thing I had ever seen. No, it was the second worst. The image reminded me of the dead women with their blown-off, cockroach infested heads. I shuddered. This life wasn’t for the faint of heart.
I pushed myself back further behind the tree so I couldn’t see anything. This was not my area of expertise. If you had a tax return that you needed audited, I was your girl. Fighting with mutant cockroaches that looked like they had bred with grasshoppers, not my thing.
Zelan seemed to be in his element. He moved around on the ground while still on his belly shooting at anything that made the bushes or vines wiggle. He focused on one spot and shot it at least five times before it stopped moving. Then he quickly moved around to another position and finished off what appeared to be the last rustling bush.
Several of the surviving warriors went around and kicked the bodies of the bugs over and shot them in the face and chest before moving on to the next one. “Zelan, why are they doing that?” I asked as I watched in horror.
“It is to make sure they are really dead.” He sighed and came over to hug me, but I wouldn’t let him.
“Stop, I can’t deal with anyone touching me right now. My skin is still crawling with the image of the bugs crawling all over the place.” I shivered uncontrollably as I walked towards the other women.
Zelan walked into the center of our group, “We are going to return to the ship. This has turned into a very dangerous trip. Tomorrow I will bring a group of warriors back to the old ship and retrieve a few replicators. Until we eradicate the Zateelians on this planet, I don’t want any more humans outside of the ship.” A few of the women were grumbling, but I agreed with Zelan. It was too dangerous.
I raised my hand like I would have in college. "Are we going to be stuck in those cells again?"
He narrowed his eyes at me and said, “Yes, unless you are mated to a warrior, you are still a slave. I know none of you want that, so I suggest you find a warrior to mate with … soon.” With that, he took off leading our group back to the new ship.
Lucy walked up beside me, “What happened? He looks to be very mad at you.” She raised her eyebrows and looked up at Zelan.
“Yeah, I kind of offended him. He tried to hug me, and I pushed him away.” I shrugged my shoulders and looked at the ground, I didn’t want to look at Zelan.
It was a good thing too! Right in front of me were some small cockroaches. I jumped and screamed, “Cockroaches! Cockroaches!” Then pointed down on the ground.
The nearest warriors ran to me and pulled out their phaser guns and opened fire on them. I wasn’t sure how many there were, but I couldn’t get rid of the feeling that they were on me. I kept rubbing my arms and looking around to see if there were more than the five or six I think I saw.
Lorlo looked at me and smiled, “It’s okay, we got them. They were most likely from the girls we saw earlier. I wouldn’t be surprised if a few more got away before we killed them. We just need to be more careful about where we walk. Keep your eyes open.” He patted me on the shoulder and took up his guard post again.
"Thanks, Lorlo." I shivered as I step
ped over the dead carcasses. Thankfully they weren't any bigger. But I still kept rubbing my arms and occasionally looking at my legs, to make sure there weren't any on me.
We must have been walking faster than I realized because we made good time getting back, that or I was just stuck in my head.
On the trek back to the ship, I thought about Zelan. Mentally, I compared him to Ben. Other than being abducted, Zelan was a much better representation of what a man should be. He had proven himself to be a gentleman repeatedly by opening doors, making sure I was safe, and never once did he raise his voice, or his hand to me. I wondered if I could actually marry this man … alien, whatever.
Zelan was a pureblood, so he looked a bit different from the VZ hybrids with a purple hue to his skin. His veins pulsed different colors. My emotions were affected by the various colors Zelan’s veins pulsed, especially when they were purple. How weird was that?
Considering I had now seen two different alien species, I was surprised at how close the V’Zenians looked to us. It was no wonder they had chosen humans to be their mates. I wasn’t a scientist, but I did wonder how close our DNA was to theirs and what that meant for us as a species. Could it be we were somehow created from the same interstellar ingredients?
The Zateelians were so different from humans and V’Zenians.
Just like the other women, Zelan’s job bothered me. I think that would be the only thing to keep me from accepting him. I couldn’t tolerate slavery. No matter how good-looking the alien was.
So there it was, he would only be a pseudo-friend.
If at all possible, I needed to speak with Paris. How could she mate with the leader of a slave trader group of aliens? That was just too weird. Especially since she was the one who originally wanted to find a way to mutiny and take the ship over and head it back home to Earth.
As we entered the ship, I could hear Rachelle flirting with Zelan, but he wasn’t laughing. I heard her saying something about how she’d make him feel better. It was too much, so I pushed ahead further into the group. Normally, it wouldn’t have bothered me. But he was just showing me what a gentleman he could be and as soon as I got upset, he let some woman flirt with him. She probably had her hands all over him too. Why did he let her touch him?
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