ALIEN ABDUCTION (Captured by Aliens) (5 page)

Damon
grinned, in spite of himself.  “I hope you remember that.  I’ve placed my faith
in you, my lord, as have we all--even through the worst of times, when all I
wished for was to lay my throat open and die for the horrors we had wrought on
our own people.  But you have kept hope alive in me--in us.  I trust you and I
trust your plan.  It cannot fail.”

Fallon
sighed, and nodded.  “You are more hopeful than I, Damon.  Some wounds will
never close--will never heal.”

“Ah...I am
sorry, my lord.  I should not have spoken of it.”

“It makes
no difference whether you speak of it or not.  The memory of my crimes against
our people is always fresh.”

“You were
not the only one—”

“But I
gave the scientists the word.  I told them to do it.  If I had not, things
would be much different now.  The women of our world would yet live.  Children
would liven the households of them all.  Chalcydon would be thriving, not dying...but
that is not the way of it now.  Not after what I ordered to be done.  It is
something I will have to live with forever.”

“As we
all will, my lord.”

Fallon
tried to smile a little.  “Do not worry, Damon.  We will not fail.  I remember
my duties, and I remember my vows to you and to the others.  I will not be
distracted--not by anything.”

***

Ebony
sighed and then resigned herself to trudging along the beach with the other
women, and with the six men of Fallon’s who apparently had the task of pushing
the stolen concubines along the beach.  Ebony tried not to wonder where they
were going, or what fate might await them once they got there.  Right now, in
order to escape she would have to either scale the sheer cliff wall or swim out
into a vast ocean. 

There was
no hope in doing either, so she simply walked along with the others and waited
to see where their captors might be taking them.  Yet she could not resist
looking back one more time at Fallon and the other man to see what they were
doing--and as she turned, a movement high above them caught her eye. 

Once
again Ebony froze in place, trying to point up to the sky with her bound hands,
and doing her best to scream even though no sound could be forced out of her
throat.  She simply could not believe what she was seeing, even though by now
she ought to be used to the sight of almost anything.  She was on another
planet, after all, but this was altogether too much.

“What is
it
now
?” roared Fallon, and she could hear the fury in his voice.  Ebony
continued to look up to the sky, jabbing upward with her two hands lashed
together at the wrists, and tried to get him to look in the same direction.

At last
Fallon turned around and looked up.  Instantly, to Ebony’s surprise, he grabbed
her arm and whirled her around to face the way she had come. 

“Damon!  It’s
a scout!  Take her--take all of them--get them under cover!  I’ll take care of
this!” And before Ebony could think, the silvery black haired man--Damon--had
taken hold of her and was pushing her at a run towards the cliff face, shouting
at the other men to do the same with the women under their guard.

In a
moment all of them, men and women alike, were cowering in the sand at the base
of the cliffs, trying to hide behind whatever cover they could find among the
fallen rocks and tufts and weeds--all of them, that is, except Fallon, who went
striding out onto the beach with his silver gun drawn.

There was
a terrible screeching cry from up above.  Ebony made herself look up again, and
this time she got a clearer look at it. 

The Zhala
and its rider circled above them, and its rider looked straight down on them.  The
Zhala itself, as Ebony watched in fascination, did indeed resemble a dragon--a
feathered dragon--like some cross between a bird and a dinosaur.  It had bright
eyes of gleaming blue-black and shining deep blue feathers running along its
slender head and long neck, flowing to two great wings that beat powerfully in
the air and kept it high above them.  Its tail was a similar length to its
neck, and the body was the size of a small elephant but not nearly as wide.  Blunt
talons marked its feet, and its mouth looked more like a beak than a lizard’s
snout.  Ebony could see neither teeth nor horns. 

The rider drew his weapon--some kind of long rifle--but Fallon
shot first.  The flaring burst from his silver gun tore through the Zhala’s
left wing with a burst of feathers and a spray of something that might have
been dark blue-purple blood.  The rider shot back, but Fallon was already
behind cover near the cliffs.

The Zhala screeched and screeched, struggling to use its left
wing, and Ebony almost felt sorry for the hapless beast.  Finally the rider
allowed it to turn away from the beach and fly back towards the land, and then
they were gone.

Ebony let out a sigh of relief, but Fallon quickly ran over to
them.  “Get up.  All of you.  Get moving.  They will be back soon enough,” he
said, and soon all of the crying women and grim-faced guards were moving north
along the beach once more.

CHAPTER FIVE

Ebony and
the other concubines walked with Fallon and his men along the beach, picking
their way through rocky dunes as they headed north along the coast. 

“This
way,” Fallon said, motioning to a sandy, rocky path leading away from the ocean
and up a steeply sloping hillside.  It was barely visible in the clumps of tall
salt grass.

Arching
her neck, following the crooked line with her eyes, Ebony couldn’t discern
where it led--but no matter where it went, she could see right away that it was
going to be a problem.

“Oh, look
how steep it is!” said Cassie.

“They can’t
expect us to climb that ourselves!” cried Rebecca, with the dark red hair.

“Oh, they
wouldn’t
,” moaned Michelle, another pale redhead.

“Well,
we’re all soft from being confined to the harem for months,” said Ebony.  “I
used to have muscles.  I was strong.  And now I’m completely out of shape.  I’m
already tired from just walking this little way, and I can see that the other
girls aren’t doing any better.”

“But
you’re strong, Ebony!” Rebecca said, brushing her dark red hair out of her eyes. 
“You’re the strongest woman I’ve ever seen.  If you would just—”

Ebony
laughed a little.  “If I would just stop being such a troublemaker?”

Rebecca
blushed, and her breathing became faster as she walked through the heavy sand. 
“Even Fallon knows to watch you more closely now.”

“Well,
you’re right about that.  But it’s too late to worry about it now.  And I’ve
always been a troublemaker.  It’s a trait I’ve always had, even back on Earth.”

“On Earth...”
Rebecca’s voice trailed off wistfully.  “What were you like on Earth?  Before—before--”

“Before
being abducted by aliens and carried off to another planet because they need
women?  Too bad nobody would believe that even if we could tell them.” Ebony
took a deep breath and tried to watch where she placed her bare feet, for the
sand was full of  broken shells and tough weeds and heaven only knew what sort
of dangerous little creatures.

“I can
tell you that I was a real outsider when I was young.  I’d bury my nose in
books when most of my friends were out dating and partying.  But I never cared
about what anybody thought, and so to everyone else I was just kind of weird
and quirky.  And that’s usually enough to brand you a troublemaker.”

“You have
a sister, too, don’t you?”

Ebony
looked away.  “One sister.  Adrienne.”

“She is
here, too?”

“She was
abducted along with me.  But she never had to enter the harem when she married
the Captain of the Guard not long ago.  I--I don’t see her much now.  We…”  Ebony
fell silent.

“You must
miss her very much,” said Cassie, joining Ebony and Rebecca.

Ebony
nodded, and stared down at the sand as they walked.  “I hardly see her,” she
whispered.  “It’s hard.”

Then
Cassie started to trot towards the rest of the group, holding her bound wrists
out in front of her.  “Oh, look!  We’re falling behind!  Come on!  Run!  We
could be punished if we don’t keep up!”

Ebony
tried to jog a couple of steps, but stopped again just as quickly.  She decided
she’d had enough exertion already for one morning, and the heavy sand made it
nearly impossible to walk--much less run.  She watched Cassie and Rebecca hurry
away, but suddenly decided that she was not going to run one more step. 

Then she
looked up to see Fallon and Damon walking towards her.  Fallon, the one with
the silvery black hair and the apparent leader, seemed determined to keep her
within reach.

“Damon,
pick her up.  We can’t afford these delays,” Fallon said, and Ebony found
herself abruptly hauled in the air.  She shrieked as she was slung across a set
of broad shoulders. 

Damon caught
her arms on one side of his head and her legs on the other.  He grunted as she
shifted her weight and then trudged towards the path on the hillside, leaving
her feeling embarrassed and insulted at the same time.

She
wanted to argue and fight, but bit back her roiling emotions and merely glared
at Fallon instead as he followed along behind.  Being a hothead wasn’t going to
get her out of this.  She was old enough to know better than that, even though
her first instinct was to rip her nails into this other man’s neck...maybe take
a little off his ear with her teeth...and tear out some of his long, silky hair...

He did
have very pretty hair that felt soft against her arms.

On the
upside, everyone was going to be tired from climbing and walking.  Being
carried gave her a chance to rest.  Perhaps, if she was lucky, she’d still get
an opportunity to get the hell out of this mess.

“There,
you see?” said Fallon.  “You can be a good girl, when you want to.”

Ebony
gave him a sly smile, even as her eyes narrowed. 
Yes, I can.  I certainly
can.

***

At last
they reached the very top of the hillside.  Damon shrugged his shoulders and
allowed Ebony to slide down his back and onto her feet.  Catching her breath,
she looked up and saw only the sea stretching for miles far below them, and
when she turned around there was a dark and apparently endless pine forest only
a short distance away.

“Keep
going,” Fallon ordered, as he came up to the top of the hillside--the last one
to do so.  “There’s no time to lose.”

The men
walked at the front of the group while the women followed them, and all formed
a single-file line as they began moving through waist-high grass that had gone
to seed under the warm sun.  The black seeds clung to Ebony’s damp red skirt
like flakes of pepper as she pushed through the grass behind Damon.  Fallon
stayed right behind her and brought up the rear, constantly scanning the
treetops for signs of Zhala pursuit.

As they
walked into the shadowy pine forest, Ebony felt a rising unease and tried to distract
herself out of it.  She glanced back over her shoulder.  “Fallon.  Hey.  Tell
me about these--these Zhala.  What are they?  The one I saw looked like a
dinosaur with feathers.  Are they dangerous? They sure look like they are.”

She
turned forward again to see where she was going, and then quickly looked over
her shoulder once more.  Fallon looked at her with suspicion, but then began to
speak.

“The
Zhala are huge feathery reptiles.  They are giant beasts that spew acid on
their enemies.  They are extremely dangerous.  That’s all anyone needs to know
about them.”

“Acid.”  
Oh,
fantastic. 
“Well, if it’s up to me, I’ll never see one again.  What do we
do about them?  Can you kill them?”

He merely
stared at her.  “You need not concern yourself about it.  My men and I will
deal with them.”

“Yeah,
well, you know, I like fantasy creatures as well as anyone else, but I don’t
relish the idea of meeting some giant slavering beast that spews acid on its
enemies.  I might get hurt or maimed in the battle, and that isn’t on my
agenda.”

“Just out
of curiosity, what
is
on your agenda?”

She
paused.  “Home.  I want to get home.”

“The
harem is home to you?”

Ebony
glared at him.  “I despise the harem, but it’s the only home I have now.  My
sister is still at the palace and she is my only family now.  I want to get
back there whole and unharmed.”

“All
creatures want to go home, no matter what home is,” Fallon said, and Ebony was
gratified to hear his voice soften just a bit.  “Go on, now.  I promise you
that you will, again, see your home.”

She gave
him a small smile, and then turned back to walking.  She was making progress.

Ebony’s
attention quickly turned to the thick dark forest surrounding them all.  The
tall pine trees, rather sparse at first, soon grew closer and closer together
until they formed an interlocking pattern of needles in a vibrant green ceiling
above them.  The citrusy smell of sap leaking from their trunks permeated the
air. 

The worst
of it was the endless stacks and layers of pine needles, some dead and brown
and some still green, that littered the forest floor.  The needles held sap
which allowed them to stick to the soles of her feet and to the hems of her
sheer skirts.  She frowned in irritation, wishing she could rub the clinging
needles off of her feet and clothes, but also knew that dwelling on it was a
lost cause.

Trying
once again to distract herself, she redirected her attention to Damon’s
backside.  Watching the play of muscles beneath his skin-tight pants proved to
be quite a good distraction, mesmerizing her as they trudged through the
forest.

But they
walked and walked without stopping even once, and soon the ache in her legs and
the soreness in her bruised and battered feet were Ebony’s only distractions
from walking.  “Hey!” she shouted to Fallon, gasping for breath as she turned
back to look at him again.  “It’s been hours.  You’ve been pushing us all day. 
The sun is going down.  It’s nearly dark in these woods.  We need to rest!”

“You mean
the
women
need to rest.  My men and I do not,” said Fallon, in a low
voice.

Ebony
stopped and stood still as anger made her forget her exhaustion.  “Look, you’re
the ones who took us away!  You’ve got to take care of us or else--or else—”

“Or else
what?”

Think,
girl!
 “Or
else--we won’t be worth much of anything to you, now, will we?  What good are
we if we’re hurt, or sick, or dead?”

Fallon
walked forward and stood right over her.  She had to look up and up to see his
cold blue gaze.  “And if we do not let you stop, Ebony, what will you do?”

She
thought her rage would explode.  She clenched her fists and began to pull them
back--but then she heard the soft weeping of Suzanne and Cassie and the other
captive women, and forced herself to smile up at Fallon.

“I’ll run
for it.  I’d rather be lost and alone in these woods than dragged through them
by you,” she said.

“Would
you, now.”

“I would!
 And if--if all of you didn’t stand a foot and a half taller than me with legs
as long as a stork’s, I’d do it!”

He
frowned at her, setting his hands on his hips in a combative stance.  “Go ahead
and do it.  You are welcome to try.”

Ebony
felt perilously close to making a break for it, but the weeping of the
exhausted women only grew louder.  She snorted with as much insult as she could
manage.  “Never mind.  I’d only be trampled to death by your big feet before I
could make any headway.”

He
actually grinned, and then in a flash he caught hold of her bound wrists in a
grip that felt stronger than steel.  “Keep going.  I told you before: Keep going
and do not stop.  You are helpless and you are vulnerable.”

“I am not
helpless, and I will not be vulnerable!  Not to a gang of strange men.  That
does not
sit
well with me!” she shouted, trying and failing to pull away
from him.

“We’ll
see about that,” Fallon said, and dragged her after him as though she were a
rag doll.  “Keep going!” he called to the other men, and soon the group was
moving through the woods once again.

The sun
was setting and they were moving deeper into the pine forest--but after a
little while, Ebony noticed that the sky--what she could see of it through the
tops of the very tall trees--still retained a soft gray light.  Glancing
around, she found that she could still see the ground well enough and even see
the faces of the men and women around her.