3 Penny #3
Finally, fatigue got the better of me and as I was leaping over a stone, I missed my step by a hair and went careening to the ground.
I rolled, praying the knife in my hand wouldn’t slice me open in the tumble.
On my hands and knees, I tried to crawl forward and felt a big, heavy hand on my shoulder.
I was tossed onto my back, forced to stare up at the ugly, alien face hovering over me.
His skin was leathery. His eyes were intelligent, but his expression was beastly.
His blunt teeth were humanlike, but so much of him was not.
He let out something akin to a laugh and I couldn’t help myself.
I was too tired to struggle. Too frustrated to surrender.
Too terrified to lay there and take it. I let out a loud, angered scream, swinging the blade toward him.
He grabbed it with his other hand and twisted my wrist so hard, pain lanced up to my elbow and I was forced to drop my only useful weapon.
I still had my dull knife, though. It was better than nothing.
I jabbed at the ape’s ribs, hoping it would at least wound him. When it hit his leathery flesh, he grunted, glancing down as if offended. He knocked my hand away, disarming me completely.
I thought that would be it. I thought that was the end.
But then I felt the quakes of heavy footsteps slamming toward us.
I barely had time to process what I was hearing before something big crashed into the ape, knocking him off me so hard that I could hear bones breaking and crunching at the impact.
The two figures rolled across the ground in a heap of sand and pebbles and limbs.
When the dust settled, I spotted the gray hunter on top of the ape creature.
His hand moved in a subtle yet powerful motion toward his ribs and the ape bellowed in pain.
The gray one drew back and I saw one of his blades covered in black steaming liquid as thick as oil.
I rolled away from the tussle, grabbing for the curved blade again when I heard the ape cry out one final time.
The other one grunted and the sound of a wet, solid thud filled the clearing.
I didn’t want to look, but I forced myself to turn anyways.
Maybe for the closure. Maybe because I wanted to see my attacker ripped to pieces.
The ape was convulsing on the ground just before the gray one used his other blade to slice open his thick neck. Black blood spurted across the sand toward me.
I nearly gagged at the stench when the gray one straightened over his kill and turned, setting his eyes on me.
close, he was just as menacing as the rest, his bare chest covered with blood and filth.
His eyes were overtaken by large pupils until they shrunk to thick slits surrounded by a reptilian yellow-green.
I stood on weak legs to face him, clutching the blade hard for a fight I knew I’d lose. My eyes swept over him in a rapid assessment, searching for a weakness, an injury, anything I could turn to my advantage.
I found nothing.
He was a wall of muscle, a full head taller than me, broad-shouldered and immovable. Two blades rested easily in his hands, balanced with the casual confidence of someone who’d been using blades his whole life.
He made no motion to attack, but if he wasn’t going to make the first move, then I was.
If I was going to die, I was going to die fighting, so I lunged, swinging the too-heavy curved blade with all the strength I had left in me.
He knocked it to the side so hard, it slid right out of my hand.
I shouldered him, shoving my entire weight against him to throw him off balance.
He barely budged and when I reached for one of his weapons, he didn’t seem to make much of an effort to hang onto it.
I snatched it right out of his grip and jumped back, lifting the blade to defend myself.
When he didn’t move toward me, I decided to go on the offensive again and swept it toward him only for a debilitating shock to radiate from my collar.
I screamed, collapsing to my knees as jolts of agonizing pain invaded my muscles.
The blade dropped from my hand, and I folded to the ground, squirming until the shock ebbed.
Eyes blurry with tears and the taste of burnt flesh in my mouth, I lay on the sand, taking shallow, strained breaths.
I’d never felt a shock like that. Never. It had gone straight down my spine like a long needle, grazing every nerve with fire.
The game was designed for us to lose, just as the valerian woman said.
We were meant to be chased, wrestled, and fucked for the entertainment of some twisted, alien audience.
I felt sick to my stomach and didn’t know if it was the shock of the collar that did it or the thought of what was about to happen, but I was certain it wasn’t about the food anymore.
But then I saw the brute in my dizzy haze walk over me and do something with his blade.
There was a muffled announcement over one of the many speakers, but I understood nothing.
I didn’t have to. By the time the hunter turned back toward me, my eyes fell closed and unconsciousness claimed me yet again.