Then she caught sight of the other gurneys.
The other women.
Women of all shapes and sizes.
Women in thin cotton nightgowns or in sports bras or in T-shirts—whatever they’d happened to go to bed in before the abduction.
Some had their eyes open, like her. They were glancing around, their pupils wide and their bodies tense with horror. Some were still unconscious, or maybe they were still suffering the effects of whatever concoction these slimy aliens had given them earlier.
There were dozens of them.
Simone tried to swallow, but her throat had gone dry.
None of this made sense.
She had to escape. Get out of here.
Her shoulders tensed and she tugged against the restraints with all her might. The octopus didn’t seem at all concerned by her struggle. It moved briskly, heading inside a large warehouse.
As they paraded through the darkness, Simone caught sight of the other beings huddled in cages. They were all strange-looking. Some had wings and others had blue skin that glowed in the darkness. A few stared at her while others couldn’t lift their heads at all.
Her eyes bugged.
What were all these creatures?
And why were they so quiet?
The cages filled the room, numerous and plenty, but the inhabitants didn’t make a sound.
She could feel their eyes on her.
She could taste the fear swirling through the air.
It was like a funeral procession.
Or a traitor’s death.
Come on, Simone. Think.
She had to look for a way out. She’d survived worse than this.Muchworse. Waking up in the custody of aliens was a piece of cake compared to waking up bruised and bloody from a pair of fists that were too drunk to tell that she wasn’t a punching bag.
The octopus creatures pushed her into a room and locked the door. She cringed as she heard the finality of the deadlock springing into place.
Another octopus alien emerged from the shadows. He had gloves on his eight tentacles, and he clutched a strange tool. Simone bucked against her restraints and screamed for help.
“Is anyone out there!” she yelled. “Can anyone…?”
The alien cut the rest of her pleas off with a needle to her neck.
The room turned foggy.
Simone’s limbs tingled and then went numb. She felt the alien’s inspection as if she were watching a movie and detached from the world.
The creature took her clothes off and inspected every crevice of her body. Her chest heaved and she tasted bile, but he didn’t do anything more than run the tests and then dress her in a tunic.
She still felt violated.
And pissed.
