Hide to Stay Alive (Club Release 1) (4 page)

I wish I was more
cold-hearted because I believe Miss Nasty is always foul tempered
but I’m not. I dig out two pecans and pass them to Megan who takes
them and then looks at Gayle. “If you continue to be mean these
will be the last pecans you get.”

Miss Nasty’s eyes narrow
for a second confirming my suspicion. Then she transforms her face
into a look of innocence. “I won’t be mean anymore.”

Megan huffs out a sound of
disbelief and then passes the pecans to Gayle. Inside, I’m proud of
Megan for calling Miss Nasty out and trying to make sure the rest
of our time together is as pleasant as it can be.

Now that we have a leash
on Gayle things should get better.

CHAPTER

5

~
Hallie ~

♥

Better doesn’t last
long.

The slowing of the ship
throws me into high alert mode. We are probably approaching a
planet. I wish I could see outside. My stomach sours. What is going
to happen to us now?

Megan starts to whimper
and then she blurts, “What’s going to happen to us? Are we going to
be killed? I don’t want to die?”

I feel her panic and try
not to let it escalate my own sense of impending doom. Freaking out
is not going to help at all. I focus on my breathing. In through
the nose, out through the mouth. In through the nose, out through
the mouth. I do this several times and it helps a
little.

“
I don’t want to die,”
Megan screams hysterically.

“
Shut up,” Gayle screams
back.

In through the nose, out
through the mouth.

My nerves shatter as Gayle
and Megan scream at each other for a few minutes. I cover my ears
with my hands to dull the sound of their rising panic. My heart
thuds loudly in my ears dimming the sounds around me. I sink into
my own world for a long moment.

The shuddering of the
spacecraft landing scares the shit out of me. It apparently scares
my companions into silence. I’m happy about that. The last thing I
need right now is their panic filled voices raking over my
uber-sensitive nerve endings.

We wait in deadly silence
for what feels like an eternity. With no windows in the room it’s
hard to tell how much time has passed or even if it’s day or night.
Does this planet even have a sun and moon? What if it’s dark all
the time? I’ve heard of planets like that.

I shiver and barely hold
back a whimper. Earth wasn’t a great place but at least I knew I
could survive on the ailing planet. The metal wire of my cage digs
into me as I move back and forth with my arms wrapped securely
around my body. Rocking hurts my butt. I keep doing it anyway. I
continue to shiver and long to hold my faithful
backpack.

A screech echoes through
the room as the metal door opens. Holding my breath, I wait for my
captors to enter the hellhole I’m being kept in.
Hide to stay alive
,
whispers through my mind. I look around but know for a fact that
there is nowhere to hide. A knot of fear and anxiety forms in my
chest and lodges in my throat. I hate it here. I stop rocking as
though being still will stop them from seeing me.

It’s stupid, I know, but I
stay as quiet and still as possible. My breaths are slow and
shallow. Frozen in place, I watch wide eyed as two beings enter our
stinky room. They communicate in hissing sounds that I can’t
understand.

Fear slices through my
heart when one of them turns his menacing slit-pupil gaze on me. I
cover my mouth with my hand to keep from crying. The smell of old
piss has me changing hands quickly.

The green scaly creature
makes me think it’s some kind of lizard-man. His clawed hands reach
out and open the lock keeping me secured in my cage. I’m tempted to
scoot further back into the cage, but I don’t want to sit in old
pee and shit.

My heart is pounding so
loudly I can barely think. A scream from Megan penetrates the pulse
beat thundering in my ears. I look over to see her being removed
from her cage. A hand on my ankle has me screaming and pulling
back.

The stocky being makes a
loud hissing sound as he jerks me through the cage door. Before I
can fully understand what’s going on, the lizard-man has my wrists
cuffed and secured to one of Megan’s chains. The chains are about
three feet long. Just enough length for us to follow one
another.

While the one alien
watches over me and Megan, the other lizard-man is busy removing
Gayle from her cage and cuffing her. Gayle kicks him and he slaps
her across the face. I watch in horror as blood run down Gayle’s
mouth. The woman seems to be stunned because she doesn’t give the
being anymore trouble as he connects her cuffs to Megan’s other
chain.

The lizard-man standing
near Gayle hisses a loud noise and then starts tugging Gayle
forward and through the door. Since we are all chained together, we
all have to go. The lizard-man near me nudges me forward and then
follows closely behind me. I shiver as I smell his foul breath. My
stomach churns. I will my last meal to stay in place.

When Megan stumbles, I
trip. The being behind me shoves me. I long to glare at him but
know that could cause him to kill me. Not that I’m sure life is
going to be worth living much longer anyway. My natural instinct to
live drives me forward.

Covertly, I look around.
We are in a corridor that hasn’t had a good sweeping in a long
time. Maybe never. We are quickly guided to a massive door. I blink
when it opens revealing a bright planet. I can’t look up to see
what the sun looks like because my eyes hurt just from the rays
coming down.

“
My eyes hurt,” Megan
complains.

“
Do you really think they
care?” Gayle asks without turning around to look at
Megan.

“
No, I was just expressing
what I’m feeling. Is that so bad?” Megan shoots back.

“
Just shut up,” Miss Nasty
grouches.

“
You don’t have to be so
mean.” Megan looks back at me. “Does she?”

I shake my head in silent
support of Megan. My instincts are telling me to not make a scene.
The other female nods at me and then turns back around to watch her
footing.

A sharp pain shoots through
my foot causing me to limp a few steps. I look back and see that
I’d stepped on some type of sharp rock.
Watch your footing, Hallie Mead
, I
reproach myself. Being barefoot on this planet poses new
challenges.

I sidestep the next sharp
rock and look for more with renewed determination. Bloody feet
could prove deadly if some alien infection enters my body through
an open wound. That thought keeps me looking at the ground instead
of around at the planet.

The walk isn’t long. I
look up when we stop and realize we are being watched by a lot of
different beings. Once again, fear lodges in my chest. I hadn’t
even realized the emotion had left me while I was carefully
watching were I placed my feet. With my arms crossed, as much as my
chain allows, my hands automatically start rubbing circles against
my forearms. The feeling is comforting. I calm down a
little.

That small state of forced
peace is broken when the lizard-men with us start unhooking us. The
lead alien guides Gayle and Megan into the dirty tannish building
we have been standing outside of. The one near me holds my chain
and leads me inside. It takes my eyes a minute to adjust to the dim
lighting.

When my sight clears, I
take a step back and bump into a being entering the building behind
me. My captor hisses a warning and glares at me. He pulls me deeper
into the room. I covertly glance around and see hundreds of beings
milling around the large room. My heart feels like it’s going to
explode when my captor roughly leads me to a raised
platform.

“
Please don’t let this be
what I think it is,” I whisper. With all of the noise in here, I
could have shouted the words and not been heard. My stomach twists
painfully with each step I take toward the platform.

When Megan gets close to
the platform, she freaks out and starts yelling and hitting her
captor. He hisses at her and she tugs hard on her chain. The
hysterical woman kicks out at lizard-man.

His yellow eyes narrow.
Then to my horror, he steps back and aims a gun at Megan. A second
later an electrical bolt shoots from the weapon and right into
Megan’s chest. Her whole body shakes, she falls to the ground
unconscious, and then pee dampens the crotch of her
pants.

Several shouts come from
the audience as Megan is grabbed by the arm and dragged up the
steps. Gayle is pulled along as well. Megan’s body is left by a
metal loop in the floor. Her long sandy blonde hair is fanning out
and covering her face. I don’t have long to wonder what is going to
happen next.

My captor leads me to a
sturdy loop and connects my chain to it. With tears welling in my
eyes, I look over to see Megan’s chain being attached to a loop.
Gayle’s is already secured. The crowd looks us over. I shudder and
look down.

Needing to calm myself
before I throw up, I start breathing the way I’ve been taught. In
through the nose, out through the mouth.

I’m several breaths in
when a red colored alien with long white hair and yellow eyes
approaches. It looks at Megan who is still knocked out on the floor
and then shakes its head. White strands float around the being. It
then looks at Gayle and then at me. Its eyes are so intense, I look
away and see our captors standing off to the side talking to some
other greenish being.

A shiver races up and down
my spine. The red alien steps closer to me and Gayle. “If you two
want a happy life, you will do whatever the zaphinian males tell
you to do and you will do it quickly.”

My eyebrows shoot up in
shock. “You can speak English!”

Gayle rolls her eyes.
“Duh, dummy. You can understand it. That obviously means it can.”
Gayle’s cold blue eyes zero in on the being. “The question is, can
you get us out of here? We were stolen from our planet and want to
go back.”

Sympathy fills the being’s
eyes. “You can never go back. There are two zaphinian warriors here
looking for live-sex-playthings. They are to your right. Both have
black hair. One has mostly teal eyes and the other has mostly
silver eyes. If they ask you to do anything, you do it. Out of this
crowd they are the nicest to their pets. Others are here for
food.”

I shiver but Gayle eyes
the alien suspiciously.

Miss Nasty glares at the
red alien. “Are you saying that because they pay well?”

“
That is part of it,” the
alien admits, “but what I said was tr─”

Gayle cuts the red being
off. “Fuck you.”

“
If you are smart, you will
do as I say. If not…” The being leaves the rest to our
imaginations.

CHAPTER

6

~ Hallie ~

♥

Lava rocks heat my stomach
as the red being walks to the edge of the platform and waves her
arms in a graceful motion. When I see several beings head toward
the platform, I guess the being just signaled our doom. At least it
was a graceful ending to my life.

The sight of a big
mouthed, three-eyed being with spotted skin coming our way has me
shaking. I look down and start breathing the way I’ve been taught.
In through the nose, out through the mouth. Over and over and over
again.

I want to scream when the
alien walks up to me and sniffs. It makes a disgusted sound and
then walks off. Heat stings my cheeks. I have to stink after my
time in the cage. I guess the bad odor coming off me just saved me
from being taken by that scary looking thing.

I covertly watch the alien
sniff Gayle and then make the same sound. It then walks to Megan
who is still out of it and sniffs her. It makes a different sound
and then motions for the red being. They talk as others stand on
and near the platform looking us over.

The scary being makes some
strange sound that is creepy as hell. One of our captors goes over
and unchains Megan. To my horror, the scary being grabs Megan
Blaker by the arm and drags her off the platform.

As they pass the red being
I notice that her eyes hold a hint of sadness. Anxiety pumps
through my veins as I glance back to watch Megan being dragged
through the crowd. I don’t stop watching until they are out of
sight.