Chapter 4
ROBBIE
“One of us needs to go and see if we can find shelter. Maybe there’s a cave or a hunting cabin, or something," Beth said.
“Not me,” Fred shook his head. “You guys need me here in case more aliens show up and need me to talk to them.”
I gave him the side-eye. If more of these aliens showed up, I doubted they'd be interested in talking. More likely, they’d arrive and point those sticks at us while frog marching us into another cargo hold or other sort of transport.
Or knocking us out and sticking us in one of those stasis boxes, even.
I didn’t blame him for not wanting to go out in the cold, though.
“Maybe we could all go and make an igloo like the Inuit and find some stuff in here to burn,” Bill suggested. “That way, if anyone does come looking, we’re not here. We can come back with the others once the fire is going if they haven’t woken up before we’re finished.”
It wasn’t a bad idea, but none of us knew how to build an igloo, and the consensus was we shouldn’t try and end up freezing to death. I pointed out that we were going to freeze to death at this rate anyway if we didn’t at least start a fire.
Gary pointed a finger at me. “Right you are! So, while the rest of us look for stuff to start a fire with so we don’t freeze in the meantime, you should go out and see if you can find us a better place to hide in case any of them come back.”
“Take Sam’s watch,” Patrick said. “Walk for half an hour and come back. If you don’t find anything by then, there’s probably nothing close enough before you’d become a corpsicle.”
I reluctantly placed her watch on my wrist. Fortunately, I was a slender guy, so it fit, though it was on the third to the last hole from the end.
We stripped the uniforms off the guards, and I put them on over my clothes.
Layers were better, and they sure as hell no longer needed them.
For that matter, neither would I if they hadn’t fucking abducted me.
Assholes. Another two pairs of uniform pants ended up tied around my head, making a sort of hood with one pants leg across my face like a scarf.
I did my best to not think about what the stains on the clothes might be.
Stepping out, it wasn’t great, but I was actually a lot warmer than I’d been in my thin t-shirt and jeans inside.
Luckily, I’d worn a pair of waterproof work boots the day I was taken, the yellowish leather kind that looked like the ones sold by Caterpillar, only very much not. At least my feet wouldn’t get wet.
Standing outside, I was grateful that the wind was only a faint breeze and that it was daylight.
I had no idea if there were any predators here, and figured if there were, they probably hunted at night.
Hopefully. I glanced around. Nothing but powdery snow as far as the eye could see.
I squinted, suddenly noticing a dark smudge on the horizon.
What was that? A building? A tree? Whatever it was, it was something.
I stuck my hands inside the pockets of my borrowed pants and started walking.
At first, I thought it was closer than it had appeared, as it got a lot larger sooner than I expected. Then I realized it was because it was moving towards me. Whatever it was, it appeared to be bipedal and very furry. My heart leaped into my throat.
“Fuck me, get rid of one set of asshole aliens, and find myself about to get killed by a space yeti,” I said, panicking.
Then it dropped to all fours and really began to come at me fast.
I couldn’t lead it back to the others to become chow, but at the same time, my flight response was in full gear.
I made a compromise by turning right and doing my best to run like a bat out of hell.
I failed miserably, thanks to sinking into the snow with every step I took.
I also wasn’t very athletic, and I was wounded, so it was really more of a faster limp while hyperventilating than an actual run.
To my complete unsurprise, I found myself tackled to the ground, and flipped over.
I screamed, knowing that my friends back at the ship would probably hear it.
At least I could give them that much warning.
It would be far better to stay there and get a fire going, maybe use some of the boxes to block the door.
Maybe the aliens wouldn’t come after all, and they’d find some of those cubes to eat, so they wouldn’t starve.
Gold-green eyes stared down at me from a softly furred face.
“Grtz gah?” it asked me, cocking its head.
No, not an it. It was a person, a really big person, who looked like a fan fiction version of a Thundercat, going by what I could see of him or her.
Which was just the face and the hands, to be honest. I decided to think of this alien as a he for now, for convenience’s sake and due to the fact that he smelled decidedly masculine in a musky way and had a deep voice.
“H…hi,” I said, making a valiant attempt at a smile while taking care to not bare my teeth.
He huffed, showing some pretty scary canines. “Ghorgh shfft trhrpt.”
He wasn’t ripping into my gizzards, so I decided to go for broke. “Ah, sorry, I can’t understand you. Um, can you help us? We just crash landed over there. Me and my friends could really use help. You live around here?”
He stared at me in consideration. Had he really understood me?
Fuck, maybe he’d had a translation beam used on him for our language or knew other humans!
He wasn’t looking at me with anything except somber concern, if I was reading him right, so at last I probably didn’t have to worry about him handing me over to more slavers.
“Grkt.” He stood up, shrugging off what I now saw was a large coat made of some animal’s fur.
“You really do look like a cat person,” I said, gazing in awe at his magnificent mane. He pulled me into a sitting position, sniffing my clothes and wrinkling his nose.
“Yeah, I know I stink,” I told him. “Not like they provided us with showers.”
He stuffed my arms inside the coat, fastening it closed.
“Thanks, big guy, but won’t you be too cold?” The coat swamped me, the arms easily hiding my hands from view, and the hood practically covering my eyes. He really was a big guy, simply enormous. I estimated him to be at least seven feet and a chunk of change tall.
He ignored my words, choosing instead to suddenly bend down and heft me over his shoulder, then turn around and run back the way he came.
“Wait! My friends are back there!” I told him, pointing behind us.
I wriggled to try to get him to put me down but he smacked my ass, which jarred my leg, causing me to yell out in pain.
Shit! I guessed he hadn’t understood me then.
I’d just have to wait until we reached his house or wherever and try to get him to understand.
Maybe I could Pictionary it to him or something if he had something to draw with.
At least I was pretty warm now, thanks to his coat keeping me fairly toasty.
If we could get all of us one of these and maybe some fur lined pants and boots, we just might make it, especially if there was enough food to go around.
I just had to get him to understand about my friends and get him to take me back.