GHEHT

SIX DAYS LATER

The first thing Charmaine became aware of as she emerged from the black fog were the shadows in the dark and dank room. The only light source was a dull yellow that shone from the top of the wall. It looked like a small rectangular window.

Then she heard the growling. It was soft, in the back of the animal's throat. The kind of grunt a vicious dog has when it wants to say "Stay away, I bite".

It began to get lighter and quickly, every second there was more light coming from the small window.

The shapes noticed it too and all around her, they began to move and then to mumble, and the growling ceased.

The light was bright now, turning night into day and Charmaine could see the shapes were other.... Aliens?

They were different to her, a blue reptile that reminded her of raptors found on earth when dinosaurs lived. That was the source of the growling and she mentally reminded herself to find another spot away from it.

There were two that were the same, they looked exactly like the aliens that never came to earth. Translucent with enormous black eyes and heads too big for their bodies.

There was a sort of bear, but the face was almost human. With it was a wolf, also with a human face.

Suddenly the furtherest wall where nobody sat, disappeared and two figures followed by a flying metal bee walked into the room as if they owned it.

They came straight for her and every alien story Charmaine had ever heard about (all involved ass probing) was about to become true and she started to scream at them while trying to get away from them.

They were faster, one alien grabbed her by the arm, yanked her back, and slapped her face with the other hand.

"Shut up." He said, and she could hear by his voice he was male. She shut up and then opened her mouth again when she realised he spoke English.

"It's a linguistic implant, it comes pre programmed with 153 000 languages from all known universes."

Before she could say a thing, the bee turned into a syringe like instrument and he jabbed her in the arm. She almost screamed again, this time in pain but kept it together and bit on her lip. She bit so hard, she drew blood.

Surprised at herself, she gingerly licked it off her lips. The raptor smelled the blood and charged, Charmaine thought dying was going to happen right now.

The other alien male, calmly took a weapon from somewhere she couldn't see and shot it. It was running towards her and then it just fell flat on the ground and didn't move again. Charmaine bit her lip again, this time because she was crying. Silent tears made a trail down her face. She didn't know if this was a good thing or a bad thing - to have survived.

The first man slapped her none too softly on her cheek to get her to look at him.

"Hey, hey, woman, look at me."

She looked at him, he reminded her of Bones, she already didn't like him.

"Do you understand me? Nod your head or say 'yes'". "

She nodded.

"You see this mess? " He pointed at the dead raptor.

She nodded again.

" That's your mess, get it cleaned up. You understand? "

" Yes. "

Her first word, she noticed the others looking at her as she said it. Some looked quickly, as if they had been caught off guard at a word they understood, others turned their heads slowly, reacting to the word.

" Zalt, cleaning machine."

The bee was a bee again and flew off, returning in almost the same second with a metal thing in the shape of a large capsule, at one end there was a hole.

The men and the bee, turned and left the room. The wall reappeared where they walked out.

"Clean it up before it stinks. The light from the star will begin roasting it in another minute." It was the wolf woman who spoke.

"I - I understand you." Charmaine uttered.

"Yes, it's the implant, everybody understands everybody. Get her cleaned up."

"Her? She - it - she was female?"

"We're all female, now are you going to clean it or not, you better because their scavengers will come soon."

Charmaine pushed the capsule over to the dead reptile, the star was getting too bright to see, and the last thing she needed was scavengers or the wrath of the others.

She wondered how the capsule worked and accidentally pushed it right against the skin of the reptile. She didn't have to wonder any longer, it started to suck the reptile up, blood, bones, flesh, skin, whatever was in front of the hole got sucked in.

Charmaine watched in horror, terror and morbid curiosity. Then it was done, she almost expected a tongue to come out and lick the hole, but nothing happened.

It was so bright she was squinting now. The bar of light at the top of the wall closed and everything became black.

Charmaine sat in the darkness wondering one thing, these aliens who took her away from the others, did not look like any of the females here. Except her.

SIX DAYS BEFORE

Charmaine left work shouting good bye to Eric, it was late but the car park was well lit. She walked to her car, stopping under the lights to dig in her bag for her keys. She finally found them two lights before she got to her car, a personal best in a game only she played.

She pointed her remote to her car to unlock, got in and unloaded her bag and was about to start her car, when somebody with a blinding light shone it at her right in front of the windshield.

Before she could react to the light, someone opened her car door and scooped her up. She was blinded by the light but shouted at him.

"NO! PUT ME DOWN!"

He didn't say anything, before she could shout again, he put his fingers around her throat and strangled her, all the while still carrying her and walking to who knows where.

When she awoke, she felt like her head would burst.

"Ohhh..."

"Shhhh!" Someone replied and she complied because she realised she wasn't alone.

"Hey!" She whispered.

"Shhh. Softly." Came the reply.

"Ok, please, do you know what's going on?" Charmaine whispered.

"We've been kidnapped."

"By who?"

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you."

"At this point... Try me."

"Two human men and an alien."

A long silence ensued.

"Bullshit," she finally whispered back. "That's a conspiracy theory. We've never even seen aliens."

"We'll see. I've heard of it too. Never believed it until now."

"These could be men who just want to rape and kill us."

"True, but how many do they want to rape and kill in one go? There's another room next door to this wall. There's somebody in there as well. We tap against the wall."

She dreaded asking the next question.

"How-how long have you been here?"

"I've had my period once, closest guess, three weeks."

"And next door?"

"Started tapping right back when I tapped."

"Shit."

"Yeah, where are you from? I'm from Miles, Oregon. United States."

"I'm from Shropshire, in the United Kingdom."

"What?!"

"I was kidnapped outside my local. In England."

"It can't be, we haven't moved since I was kidnapped. We have to be in Oregon!"

After a long silence Denise said, "We must have missed the spaceship ride, I think."

The word got caught in her throat and she had to clear it. Charmaine felt a hot tear run down her cheek. She was shackled to the wall, she couldn't even reach over with a hand of comfort.

"We'll get out of this. I promise."

Change the subject, Charmaine.

" So - err, is it just you and me in this room?" She whispered.

"Yeah. There are more than one next door, I think. The day I started tapping, and I heard three different taps coming back, so he or she's either an alien with three hands or a they."

"And 'they' have been here more than three weeks?"

"As I figured it, yeah."

"So many people report supposed kidnappings, but then the story disappears... Fades away. I don't even know if they ever found anyone."

"Shush, they're coming!"

Charmaine heard a last tap on the wall fade away. One of the women (most likely) next door was warning them.

The big door slowly swung open, grating on the cement floor. There was a dim light in the passage behind them. There were 3 men. Two were average size and the third was the largest man in the world.

Charmaine and Denise pushed themselves back into their shackles hoping to become invisible. One man walked to Charmaine. While the giant reached up to the roof of their cave-with-a-door and screwed in a light bulb. It wasn't fantastic but they could all see each other now.

"Are you awake Princess?"

She looked back at him keeping her eyes slightly lower than his on his face. She nodded.

"It was rhetorical, bitch." He erupted into laughter and the other normal sized man joined in.

The giant said nothing. He had a pot in one hand and disposable bowls and spoons in a plastic packet in the other.

The first man grabbed Charmaine and pulled her to her feet. He shone a torch light over her body, checking her skin. He let her go roughly, pushing her against the wall.

"They need to eat." It was the giant who spoke. His voice suited his size, it boomed around the room.

"Uh huh, and she has bruising around her neck. I told you to be careful, one of these days you're going to kill one."

The giant glared at the man in front of her. They were going to fight.

"And they're going to eat right now Bones!" The second man cut in. He looked from the man called Bones to the giant and back, as if reminding them of a warning.

The giant held out a bowl to Denise, which she took, while shooting a dirty look at Bones.

"I wasn't making trouble Nate." Bones said and quickly walked out of the room into the passage. Soon they heard him trying to open a second door.

The giant gave Charmaine a plastic bowl and a plastic spoon. Then he picked up the pot and stirred it slowly before scooping out a full ladle into their bowls. He filled their bowls and nodded to them.

"Eat." He instructed.

"He is Abect, a Nasterian." Nate's voice came from the shadows on either side of the door.

Denise ate her stew, Charmaine watched her, not being particularly hungry and being suspicious of the food.

"They're actually very good with that." Denise said as she pointed her spoon at Charmaine's bowl.

"Eat slow, I will be back with more." Abect's voice boomed, and he dipped his head to her as if he had just solved all her problems.

As soon as they were alone Charmaine all but shouted.

"He strangled me!" She whispered furiously.

"He did it to all of us, next door told me. I was mad as hell too. He hasn't touched me since, I get the feeling that he doesn't understand what he's doing. I think the other two told him to, because it's easy for them, they don't have to deal with a screaming, fighting, woman. They didn't tell him how we'd feel about that. Eat up, they'll be back soon. "

Abect was as good as his word and when he returned, he gave them more stew. Then Abect gave them baby-wipes to wipe themselves. Charmaine wiped her hands and her face, but Denise said she could use the whole pack if she wanted, and could wipe her arms, legs, wherever she felt comfortable.

Nate stood at the door with a plastic bucket of water and airline soap sachets. Bones came in with a pile of clothes. Abect checked everything, then hung the light bulb from a hook above them and closed the door as he left.

"C'mon," said Denise, "Let's get dressed."

"Seriously? What is this Five Star Captivity?"

Denise laughed, it was good to hear someone laugh. But then it faded away...

"Very seriously. Abect and Nate will let you get on with it. Bones will stay and watch. So let's be quick."

"They kidnapped us, why do all this...?" Her voice faded at the end of the question.

They were going to be sold to aliens. Human men, were going to sell them off and it didn't look like it was a get-rich-quick occupation.

"No. I refuse. If we're to be sold to aliens, let them see me dirty."

"Good plan. Two flaws : One is we don't know when the aliens are coming. Two is that if we don't wash ourselves, they will wash us."

Charmaine just about jumped into the bucket to wash and then changed into a pair of black panties with a black bra, and a black sweatshirt and pants. Denise was right, the men only came back later, as if they had anticipated this from her and knew Denise would explain.

"Yet he's the nice one..." Charmaine murmured to herself once they were alone in the dark again.

"Yep.... Might be Stockholm Syndrome."

"What?" Charmaine had never heard of that.

"It's this thing where the kidnapped start liking the kidnappers."

"Not me." Charmaine said defiantly, but there was no answer. She was wondering about that when she heard soft snoring. She shook her head, she was going to escape. Then she fell asleep too.

As it was, she barely got into the swing of things, when, at best they could reckon, five nights later, they were woken in the middle of the night.

"Quiet. That's all I want to hear. Understand? Nod if you understand."

Denise nodded.

Charmaine was shackled to Denise's ankle and the men put cuffs on their wrists and ran a chain through the wrist cuffs and ankle cuffs. They shuffled slowly behind Bones as he led them into the passage.

There were five doors altogether, but only one right next to them. All the doors had a short passage in front which if a person turned out of, led into a large square.

They waited quietly because Bones was unpredictable and despicable, they did not want to ask him anything.

In a few minutes two women both their own age mid-twenty-ish were brought slowly shuffling by Nate.

Wordlessly he shackled the two women onto them, so that they became a string of four women.

Abect carried a woman in and both Nate and Bones had words for him.

"Fuck Abect! You can't carry them! Put 'em down. They can walk. You okay Helen?"

Helen nodded, yes. She and her room mate were shackled onto the growing snake.

Denise turned herself and Charmaine to the right, no sooner had they moved when Nate took a huge and menacing step toward them.

"You turn back. No moving, no talking."

"Ca-"

"No!"

Charmaine looked at Denise, Denise looked defeated.

Abect came with two more women, again carrying them, one in each arm like babies. Bones started in on him but Nate made him shut up and just glared at Abect.

When they were all shackled together, Bones took the chain of the woman behind him and slowly moved forward towards the fifth door.

It grunted and groaned as he opened it and switched on a light. He kept pulling the chain of women. Charmaine noticed Nate at the rear, but Abect was gone. She panicked a little at the thought of being alone with the earth men, she had come to regard her kidnapper as her protector.