I hope you're enjoying these weekly installments of my alien abduction science fiction romance, CAPTIVE. If you've missed the first three installments you can find them here:
Chapter One, Chapter Two, Chapter Three.
An abducted cop and a gladiator prisoner must learn to trust each other with their lives…and their hearts…to escape their alien captors.
CAPTIVE
Chapter Four
The smoke swirled and crackled as it solidified back into a solid wall once again. She was alone. Hyperventilating.
Head between her knees, she tried controlling her breathing but couldn’t concentrate. What was that thing? It single-handedly dragged out a six-foot-two-inch, two-hundred-pound man like a pair of old jeans stuffed in the back of a closet.
And it pulled him through a wall that turned into fog then back into a wall again!
A deep inhale through the nose filled her lungs, tightening her chest. She held the breath for three counts before slowly exhaling out the mouth. After a few more deep breaths, she could lift her head without feeling nauseous.
The urge to run was overwhelming. Seeing as there wasn’t enough space, she did the next best thing. Careful to avoid breakfast puddles, Addy paced back and forth across the tiny room, unable to quiet her rapid-fire questions. What was going on? What grabbed Max? An animal? A monster? What would it do with him?
Her heart skipped a couple of beats. Her breathing came fast and shallow again. If the cult murdered him, it would be her fault.
No. Not her fault. She had done nothing except defend herself. But her actions triggered his outburst, which led to that furry arm-thing taking him away. His death would be on her conscious.
Stop it, Dawson.
None of this was real. It had to be a conspiracy. Maybe she was in one of those human behavior experiments. Like that authority study where scientists made unsuspecting volunteers believe they were administering painful shock treatments to other volunteers who gave wrong answers.
But that couldn’t be. There were laws against things like that. Of course, that was back in the States. Max said they weren’t in the US, and he used the word alien.
She paced again.
What about the other word he shouted? Earthling. Who described themselves as an Earthling? What the hell did he mean by that?
She stared at the disappearing-reappearing wall. It had to have been a smoke-and-mirrors trick.
Pulling her hair back, she clumsily twisted it into a braid, hoping the rhythm of it would help calm her nerves. What if it wasn’t a trick? What if alien didn’t refer to another country?
Could it be true?
Slowly, she lowered her body to the floor with thoughts of vanishing walls, tiny heating cubes, flowerpot toilets, perfectly cylindrical wood that ignited without aid, and delicate yet indestructible shock collars.
Don’t forget the enormous, furry arm, which had only four fingers!
She smacked her cheeks, hoping the sting would arrest this nonsensical thought. The guy was obviously a mental patient, and she had been sucked into his delusion. How she wound up in the same room as him, she had no idea.
There had to be a logical explanation. There’s no way she was on another planet. Sorry. Not considering that as a possibility. After all, she had to keep her sanity in order to figure out how to escape. But still, that one word haunted her.
Why would he say Earthling?
Who the heck knew, but she wasn’t about to waste more time trying to figure it out. Eventually that thing would come back.
No shadows moved outside the walls. Addy scooted across the sticky floor to where the creature had entered. A door was hidden here somewhere. She had to find it and get it open. Pressing her hands flat against the wall, she pushed upward hoping it would retract into the ceiling like a garage door. Her sweaty palms slid. The wall didn’t budge.
She tried pushing it downward. Then to the left. To the right. Diagonally in four different directions, but not a damn thing worked.
There had to be a way to open the door.
She rubbed her hands over the fire. Heat seeped into them, evaporating the sweat before the next try. Wait a minute. The wood.
She grabbed the last remaining log and stuck one end in the fire. It ignited. Then, carrying it like the Olympic torch, she padded between sticky, gooey breakfast blotches, stopping to kneel and peer inside the water pitcher.
Empty. Damn.
She faced the hidden doorway again, and took a deep breath. She’d either burn a hole through it and escape, or she’d catch everything on fire and kill herself.
Well, better a suicidal escape plan than homicide by a baby-selling cult.
Heart racing, she inched toward the wall, praying she wasn’t destined to die in a fire after all. She licked dry lips then touched the flame to the door. When it didn’t ignite, she exhaled and breathed normally...well, as normally as one could when worrying about the plastic-looking material emitting noxious fumes.
Exactly how long she torched the door, she couldn’t say, but enough time passed to warrant a peek. Lowering the torch, she squinted, blinked, and then wiped her eyes. Nothing had happened. There wasn’t even a brown burn mark.
She touched the door with a finger. Three fingers. Her palm. It was warm and solid.
What kind of material doesn’t burn? Or melt? Or get hot? Deflated, she tossed the log in the fireplace, which was made out of the same heat-resistant material as the walls, ceiling, and floor. At least she had tried.
Now what—sit here and wait for that thing to come back? Her stomach roiled at the thought. Max said there was no way out. She hated to admit it, but he was right.
The wall burst into fog again. Addy jumped up and sprinted to the back of the room, cursing herself for not keeping that last log for a weapon.
The gray creature stuck its enormous head and shoulders into the room. She wouldn’t have been able to beat the monster. She needed her firearm. Too bad it was at the bottom of the Klamath River.
The monster reached with both of its four-fingered hands. She jumped to the side, cornering herself. It caught her around the waist, pulled her out, and cradled her like a small child in its furry arms.
Her terrorized heart lodged in her throat, blocking her screams.
The humanoid creature stood at least ten feet tall. Dense yet neatly groomed gray fur covered its entire body except for the black leathery pads of its hands, lips, and flat nose. Eyes like black beads shone colorfully iridescent, like an oil spill.
The monster looked like he could be Bigfoot’s cousin.
The beast exposed its teeth, and her heart skipped more beats than was healthy. Its undersized mouth housed broad, flat, closely grouped teeth typical of herbivores. It didn’t have the ability to eat her. Her heart started again.
Wriggling and pushing did nothing to break the creature’s grasp. Mighty arms held her firm against its thickly padded chest, though not tight enough to hurt.
Was it murmuring or purring? She couldn’t tell with the sound of terror drumming in her ears. She wanted to throw up and felt her stomach contract.
It stroked her hair as if trying to soothe her. A shroud of calmness lay over her. She could sense it but couldn’t feel it inside her body. The calm came from someplace else. The monster?
It turned and carried her away from three stacks of two huge, transparent boxes…er, cages. Three other couples were trapped inside. Though they didn’t appear to mind.
The creature—walking surprisingly graceful for its height—carried her down a long corridor and through a monstrous doorway into what looked like an examining room complete with a cold table upon which she was placed. Another large, furry humanoid creature, the color of wet sand, moved around the room preparing for something.
Oh God. They may not have canine teeth, but there was nothing to stop them from dicing her up and boiling her in soup.
She inhaled deeply, smelling that same pungent cleanser odor from the pitcher. It was reminiscent of a sterile hospital. Was this a lab? Was she a specimen for dissection?
As soon as the gray creature released her, she jumped from the table, ignoring the shooting pain in her ankles and sprinted for the open doorway. The air crackled before the fog began to swirl, signaling its change into a solid wall. She had to reach it before—
A powerful hand caught her ankle. If she hadn’t braced for the fall, the floor would have broken her nose. The creature brought her back to the table.
Addy kicked. Screamed. Thrashed her body. If this were the end, she’d leave this world like she came in—fighting.
A pinprick in her thigh sent cool fluid rushing into her bloodstream.
Her body grew light, as if gravity loosened its grasp and released her into space. She stopped yelling. Not because she wanted to, but because she couldn’t.
Get up and run, dammit.
Her muscles wouldn’t obey.
She blinked heavy lids. The room blurred.
The creature released his grip. She couldn’t move. They had drugged her, and she could do nothing more than close her eyes and await death.
#
I hope you enjoyed Chapter Four of CAPTIVE (The Survival Race, book 1). Click here for Chapter 5. Or find the entire story at these stores: Amazon, Apple, Barnes & Noble, and Kobo.
Stay safe out there!
Romance with a rebel heart
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thank you for chiming in! We love to see your comments. (All comments are moderated so spam can be terminated!)