The Mamluks (The Mamluks Saga: Episode 1) (3 page)

Chapter 9

The next day during our break, the Mamluks dropped some food
on us. The pile was about six feet high, plenty for our area. We made a circle
around it and dug in. But just like with the water, we didn’t have much time. I
stuffed my face, gagging as I gobbled the food.

A horn sounded, and the soldiers ordered us back to work.
Madison and I went to our hole. But before we could start digging, I looked up
and saw a group of ships approaching. They swooped in and landed about twenty
yards from us.

“Attention, Humans!” a soldier called out. “All female
humans—to the ship.”

Madison looked at me with panic in her eyes. I turned around
in a fluster and saw women walking to the ships with their hands up. The
Mamluks marched from group to group, making sure all the women were moving.

“
Shit
,” I snapped, trying to think of something.

Madison put her hands up and walked forward.

I desperately grabbed her. “No!”
I need you.

She cried out and tried to pull away. “It’s no use.”

The soldiers were getting closer. Then, finally, it hit me.

“Get in the hole.”

“What?”

“Just do it.”

Madison hurried into the hole. I grabbed my shovel and
scooped some dirt.

“Lie down and stay still.” I shoveled dirt onto her as fast
as I could. I kept looking up to check the Mamluks. They were now a few feet
away. With only seconds to spare, I stopped and put my shovel down. Madison
wasn’t covered all the way, but it was still hard to see her at first glance.

A soldier walked past me, pushing through the crowd,
checking for women.
Don’t move, Madison. Please don’t move.
Shortly
after, more soldiers walked by, going near the hole. My heart pounded like
crazy when I heard them stop. I froze and closed my eyes, praying.

“The area is clear.”

I opened my eyes and let out a huge breath as they carried
on. Then, I glanced at the hole. “Just hold on, Madison. I’ll get you out of
there.”

Chapter 10

An alien found me and pushed my back, pointing to a row of
spaceships that just landed nearby.

“Move,” she barked.

I stared at Robert as I walked forward. He stared back at
me, giving me a look of encouragement. Finally, I looked away and released a
few tears.
Thank you. And goodbye.

I walked to a ship and headed up the ramp. When I got
inside, I took a seat against the wall and wrapped my arms around my legs. Once
the ship was full, the ramp closed and we took off. Minutes later, we landed
somewhere and the ramp opened. One by one, we left the darkness and walked into
the light. I stepped off the ramp and realized we were on the roof of a
sandstone building.

I looked up over our heads and saw a massive hovercraft that
resembled an upside-down mixing pot. It stopped about thirty yards from us and
a spaceship flew over it. The top of the hovercraft opened, and the ship poured
a thick, tan-colored sap into the opening. After a few seconds, the spaceship
stopped and few away.

The hovercraft closed up and made loud, swirly noises like a
blender. Finally, the bottom opened up and a block of sandstone dropped to the
ground. A group of soldiers walked up to the block and began to mold it with
their laser gadgets. Up until then, I'd thought their devices were just
weapons. It was shocking to see that kind of advanced technology—and it made me
wonder what else it could do.

An alien came forward and moved us along. She took us to an
entrance at the far end of the roof and headed inside. We followed her and went
down a long hallway. The entire building was made of sandstone, and crafted
nicely. The alien brought us to a huge room that had a pool in the center of it.
There was steam coming from the water, and tiny pellets of what looked like
soap were lined up along the perimeter.

We all looked at each other, not knowing what to think.
Another alien came in the room and guarded the door. The one who led us in took
her gadget off and set it on the floor. Then she undressed, taking off her
black boots and pants.

I froze and stared hard. Her body was an impressive showcase
of muscles. She turned sideways, revealing her backside. Like her breasts, it
was so firm it hardly moved as she stepped into the water.

“Undress and follow me.”

I stepped forward and quickly undressed. The other women
followed along. We went into the pool and followed her to the far end. Being in
the water felt great. I had forgotten how soothing a warm bath could be.

I stopped a few feet from the alien. She carefully fluffed
out her hair a bit. Watchfully, I copied.

She reached over and picked up one of the pellets—but it was
bigger than the others. And gently, she scraped it against her skin. “Go to the
edge and take a piece of
mula
.”

We hurried to the pellets and took a piece.

“Clean yourselves.”

I softly scraped the substance against my arm. It was a
little sticky, and it smelled like leaves. There was so much dirt caked on our
bodies that within minutes the water was a big puddle of mud.

The alien got out and went to a sandstone bench that was
built into the floor. She grabbed a thin piece of cloth off the top and dried
herself. Then she walked to the front of the room and put her clothes on.

The one guarding the door lifted her arm to her mouth and
pressed a button on her device.

“Prepare the next group,” she radioed to someone.

Seconds later, the pool drained and sprinkling water came
down from the ceiling.

“Rinse yourselves and exit the water.”

I dropped the mula and stood in the water for a minute. This
was even better than stepping into the water and feeling the blissful warmth
take over me.
It’s the little things that add up to so much.

I climbed out with the other women, and the alien guarding
the door pointed to another sandstone bench. There was a stack of thin cloths
on top of it. When we got to the bench, the first thing I noticed was that it
was human sized. I looked at the other bench to make sure. Clearly, it was
larger. I stood there for a moment, at a complete loss.

Why would they go out of
their way to make a smaller bench for us?

Chapter 11

At
sundown, the Mamluks ordered us to the ground to sleep. All the women from our
area appeared to be gone. Still, the soldiers took their time and double
checked. There were ships flying around, too, shining lights on us.

Madison
was still in the hole, sticking her head out of the dirt to breathe. I was
lying right by the edge of the hole, trying to shield her.

A
soldier stopped in front of me. “Are you hiding something, Human?”

“
No, Sir.” I stumbled to my feet and moved away. He
kneeled and sniffed at the ground. Then, he pressed a button on his device, and
a flashlight came on. My palms got sweaty as I watched him scan the hole.

Finally,
he put the light on me. “Return to the ground.” He got up and walked away. I
exhaled and got down.

After
a while, the patrolling dropped off a little.

“
Madison
?” I
whispered into the hole.

“
Yeah
?” she
whispered back.

“
I think it’s safe to come up now.”

“
No way.”

“
Trust me. They’ve backed off a little.”

I
waited and listened to Madison climbing up. She stayed low and got face to face
with me. I reached up and helped her brush some dirt off her face.

“
So, have you thought about it?”

She
nodded, trembling. “Yeah—I’m in.”

I
smiled. “All right. But we have to go now.”

“
What
? Are
you insane?”

“
If we wait until morning, they’ll catch you. This is
our only chance.”

“
Andrew, I can’t. I’m scared to death.”

“
I know. So am I. But we have to try.”

“
Psst, psst. Hey, it’s me from before,” the guy from
before said. “Word from the grapevine is, there’s an opening not too far from
here. Going that way,” he went on, pointing to my left. “I heard a few jumped
in when they took the women.”

I
nodded and reached out to him, tapping his arm. “Thanks, Buddy.
Hey
—you
sure you don’t want to come with?”

He
laughed. “
No, I’m not that brave—but good
luck to you.”

Chapter 12

We got on our stomachs and checked the area. There were four
soldiers nearby and about ten ships flying overhead.

I took a deep breath and looked at Madison. “All right. We
can do this. You ready?”

She gave me a speedy nod. I closed my eyes for a moment,
said a small prayer in my head, then opened my eyes.

“OK—go.”

Madison crawled ahead, weaving through the sleeping crowds.
I stayed right behind her, watching the Mamluks from the corner of my eye. We
went on for a few minutes and stopped when we got close to a soldier. He walked
past us, shining his flashlight a few feet away.

The soldier kept going, and when we were a good distance
from him, Madison continued. I followed her for another five minutes or so.
Thereafter, we came up to another soldier, and Madison stopped. She was
thoroughly checking the area with her flashlight. I looked at Madison and saw
her shaking uncontrollably.

“Relax.
Relax
,” I whispered as the soldier got
closer. “Curl up and put your head down.”

Madison quickly got in a ball and pretended to sleep. I did
the same and closed my eyes. The light went over us, and I felt the soldier’s
footsteps go by. I waited as I listened to her move along. Finally, I opened my
eyes and peeked at Madison.

“All clear.”

She got up and went ahead. The path we were on had no
Mamluks in sight. We took advantage and sped up a little. But after a while, we
got tired and slowed down. Then Madison stopped completely and gasped.

“What’s wrong?”

“My legs are cramping up.”

I looked up and saw the sky turning blue. “We can’t stop
now, Madison.”

She tried to continue but quickly stopped and took a huge
breath. “I can’t. My legs are shot.”

Someone tapped me from behind. I crawled at an angle and
looked back. It was a young boy.

“Are you trying to get to the hole in the ground?”

I nodded. “Yes. Is it close by?”

“Yeah, I remember passing it right before they told us to
stop for the day.”

It hurt to see someone so young going through this. I
exhaled and gave the boy a sorrowing stare.

“Where,
Kid
?”

He got up and pointed to his left. “Over there.”

I looked up ahead and glanced to my left. The opening was
about fifty yards away.

“See, Madison? We’re almost there.”

She took a quick look. “All right, come on.”

I crawled backwards and patted the boy on his back. “Stay
strong.”

He nodded.

I looked back to Madison and saw her dragging herself
forward. I followed her for a few minutes. Finally, she stopped and sat up,
gasping for air.

“We made it.”

I smiled and let out a sigh of relief. Then, like a sharp
wind from a raging storm, a horn sounded and a ship flew over us, shining a
bright light.

“Run!” I yelled, jumping to my feet.

I heard the ship make a buzzing sound like it was about to
shoot. I tackled Madison from behind and leaped into the opening. As we fell
into the darkness, a laser came out of the ship, brightening the hole. It
struck the splintered opening, evaporating the rocky edges. Chunks of dirt and
rock caved in on us as we dropped down.

We landed hard on a pile of rubble and got covered in
falling debris. I rolled away and protected my head. The debris stopped soon
after, and I staggered to my feet.

“Madison? Are you all right?”

I heard her coughing from afar. “I’m fine.”

I limped forward with my hands out. “Where are you?”

Madison tapped the rubble hard. “Over here.”

I carefully moved toward the sound. “Keep doing that.”

I quickly found her as she continued and pulled her up.
“Come on. Let’s go before they send someone down.”

Chapter 13

I was stunned to see the kind of treatment we were getting.
At first, I thought they were going to take us to a dungeon and lock us in.
Instead, they brought us to furnished rooms that were very spacious. And, we
all got our own room. They even gave us silk nightgowns to wear. But as I
enjoyed the hospitality, I still couldn’t help but wonder why.

The rooms had no doors. Just wide entryways. And there were
stone candles embedded in the walls.

I sat on the edge of my bed, looking around like a restless
child. Moments later, I heard a knock from the hallway. I turned my head and
saw a woman waving at me, peeking into the room.

“Hey there. Can I come in?”

“
Ah
, sure.”

I watched her carefully as she came into the dim light. She
had long red hair, light green eyes and freckles. “My name’s Katie. I was just
walking around, looking for someone to talk to.”

“It’s nice to meet you, Katie. I’m Emily.” I moved over a
little. “Have a seat.”

She walked to the bed and sat next to me. “This is all so
exciting.”

“
What
?”

“Well, yeah. I mean, they’re like making us part of their
tribe or something.”

“How do you know that? What if they have something awful
planned for us?”

Katie gave me the dreaded airhead stare. “
No
, I don’t
think so. I mean, why would they treat us so good, ya know?”

I narrowed my eyes. “
So
… you’re
OK
with all this? You’re OK with them
taking all you’ve ever known and destroying it?”

“Well, it’s messed up and all. But what can we do?”

“What about your friends and family? Don’t you wish you
could see them again?”

Katie looked down and picked at her nails. The look on her
face told me I had struck a nerve.

“They’re all dead.”

I didn’t know what to say at first. Then, I reached down and
took her hand.

“I’m sorry.”

She cried a little before going on. “I can’t get them back.
So I might as well make the best of things.” She reached up and wiped her eyes.
“You probably think I’m crazy.”

I shook my head. “No. But there’s still so much we don’t
know. These are aliens from another world. Who knows what they have planned for
us?”

Katie shrugged. “I know. But you have to admit—so far things
have been pretty awesome.”

I chuckled. “
Sure
—but let’s hope it stays that way.”