Chapter 2
CHAPTER TWO
I swear, today my clumsiness was trying to break some kind of record. I whacked my shoulders and tripped several times, trying to get out of that damn plane to warn the others. I raced back onto the flight line, bellowing as loud as I could.
“Incoming! Take cover!”
Which was easier said than done, this far out on the flight line.
It didn't really feel safe to take shelter inside the plane when there was a potential for a firefight. The planes would explode with us in them. But we weren’t that close to the buildings either.
We were going to have to haul ass to find shelter.
Half the guys broke into a run, heading for the nearest building, but I paused when I heard a cry of pain. I spun around, my gaze landing on Knightley, who was crumpled on the ground clutching his leg. My eyes snapped from where I’d last seen him and back to the ground.
“Did you just jump off the fucking wing? Are you insane?”
“I think I broke my leg!” he said with a sob.
“Yeah, no shit,” I grumbled, racing over to him. I got his arm over my shoulder and hauled him to his feet, taking the brunt of his weight as he leaned against me. “Can you move, or do I need to carry you?”
He hissed as he tried to hop forward, and it was obvious by the way he moved he wasn’t going anywhere any time fast. “Fuck. Carry me. I’m not gonna be the reason we die out here.”
“No one is dying,” I grunted, shifting to put my shoulder against his stomach and lifting him off his feet.
He cried out from the pain, but there wasn’t much I could do about it right now.
I had an airman backpack situation going on, my grip on his good leg and his arm as I hustled toward the buildings. “Just hang on.”
We got maybe one hundred feet before I heard it.
Over the sounds of the sirens was a high-pitched sound, almost like a whistle.
I looked around for the source, and my stomach dropped when I saw the spaceship heading our way.
The news report made them look way smaller than they were.
It was bigger than a fucking house and coming straight for us.
Knightley’s grip on my uniform tightened as he saw what I was looking at. “Oh, holy–”
“Knightley! Rossi! What the hell are you doing?” Our first sergeant, Palmer, bellowed at us as he pulled up beside us in the transport truck. “Get in!”
“Sergeant! Incoming!” I shouted back. He twisted around, his mouth falling open in surprise.
“Shit! Move, move, move!”
He abandoned the truck to help us right as the shooting started.
It didn’t seem like it was aimed at us specifically, but I was right when I said the planes getting shot would cause one hell of an explosion.
The force of it threw all three of us off our feet.
Knightly landed on top of me, his scream of pain probably seared in my brain for the rest of my life.
We didn't have time to untangle ourselves before a beam of blue light stopped right on top of us. It wasn’t like in the movies, where we were lifted off the ground slowly and sucked up. One minute, we were on the ground tangled together, the next we were inside their damn ship.
I didn’t know what I was expecting when I saw those ships, but it sure as hell wasn’t…
“Wait. Are they human?”
It was confusing. The room was bustling with activity, with people in space suits working on fancy computers and rushing around.
A group of four with what looked like electrified spears stood around us, their weapons pointed in our direction, while three more moved to grab us.
They looked human, same facial features, same body structure. Why did they look like us?
A huge guy with pitch-black hair moved to lift Knightley off me, pausing for a second when Knightley cried out.
He looked over his shoulder, calling out in a language I’d never heard before, and two more space-suited people approached, these two with weird electronic devices in their hands.
They waved one over Knightley and said something else, and the huge guy nodded once before snapping his fingers at Knightley.
More people came out of nowhere, grabbing Knightley and hauling him up.
He shouted, but the pain must’ve been too much because a second later, his head lolled and he went limp in their hold.
“Knightley!” I shouted, shoving to my feet.
The huge guy stopped me when I tried to follow, his arm outstretched and blocking my way.
I tried to shove past him, but the dude must’ve been made from stone or something because he didn’t budge.
He said something in that strange language, and two guards with spears each grabbed me by the arms and started hauling me away, with Palmer following behind me, fighting against his captors.
No amount of struggling did either of us any good.
We were marched through the ship and down some ramps into a hold filled with more military personnel.
All the branches were here; Navy, Air Force, Army, Marines.
Even the Space Force had a few guys here.
Which meant this wasn’t these guys’ first stop.
How many more were they going to grab? And why just the military?
The guards shoved me into the nearest hold, and I stumbled again. I would’ve hit the ground if the marine standing nearby hadn’t caught me. He helped me straighten, patting my shoulder.
“Welcome to hell, man.”
Palmer stumbled in beside me, luckily keeping his feet under him, and the door slid shut behind him.
I looked around warily, the adrenaline still buzzing in my veins.
There were no windows. Nothing even remotely useful, like panels that could be opened.
The walls were smooth, the only mechanisms being on the door itself.
“Has anyone tried to escape yet?”
The Marine, whose name tape said Strauss, hummed and nodded. “A few guys tried to overpower the guards when they brought in new people. Another tried to sneak past them. I wouldn’t recommend it. After taking a hell of a beating, they were taken away and haven’t been brought back.”
There went that plan.
“Do you have any idea what’s going on?” I asked.
Strauss shook his head. “Not a clue. They either don’t speak English, or they’re choosing not to understand us. Either way, I doubt it’s good. Invasions don’t scream coming in peace, you know?”
The door slid open again, and a few more familiar faces were shoved into the room.
Marin, Vail, and… Ugh. Lieutenant Colt. He spun immediately when they shoved him in here with us, screaming at our captors like it was going to do him any good.
The guard just gave him a flat look and pressed the button to make the door slide shut again.
Marin came up to me, and we gripped each other’s shoulders in greeting. “You good, man?”
I nodded, still a little breathless and spooked. “We’re alright. You?”
He made a face, looking over his shoulder at the Lieutenant.
“Asshole told us to go check if they were gone. We basically opened the damn door for the fuckers. They hauled us all out and shoved us into that blue light, and suddenly we’re on a damn spaceship.
Where’s Knightley? I thought he was with you. ”
Wincing, I looked toward the door worriedly. “He was hurt. When we got brought up here, they separated us and took him away. I don’t know what they’re doing to him.”
The worry for our fellow airman was palpable, but there wasn’t anything we could do about it.
My stomach twisted as the ship started moving again, and for the next few hours, all we could do was stand around and wait as more and more members of the military were brought into the hold.
No matter how often we moved, I couldn’t get a signal on my phone, and no one else had any better luck than me.
It was only once the hold was nearly stuffed to the gills that the trickle of new arrivals slowed and then stopped completely. I waited for something new to happen, but nothing did. It felt like we were still moving, but no one came to check on us, and no one explained what was going on.
“Rossi,” Lieutenant Colt hissed. “Can’t you do something to open the door?”
I rolled my head against the wall to look at him with a bored expression. “Like what?”
“I know about your record, Rossi,” he growled. “You used to hot wire cars. Open the door so we can–”
“So you can what?” Strauss demanded. Colt’s harsh whispers were useless in such a quiet room. Everyone could hear him. “It’s not like you can jump out or something. Unless you somehow figured out how to sprout wings?” he taunted.
Colt glared at him, his chin lifted indignantly. “I am your superior, Marine. Show some respect.”
Strauss gave him a mocking salute that twisted into him flipping the lieutenant the bird.
A few guys chuckled at that. The tension had died a little since nothing had happened in a while, and the familiar camaraderie was reassuring.
If I was alone in this room, I think I’d be scared shitless.
But I was surrounded by my brothers and sisters in arms. Aside from being back on Earth, this was the safest place I could be.
It took some maneuvering, but eventually, we all found a way to sit down and get at least semi-comfortable.
I was still leaning against the wall by the door, but I slid down to sit at one point, and Marin joined me not long after.
With my knees drawn up, there was enough room for Strauss to sit comfortably, leaning back against Palmer to support each other.
Nothing like being kidnapped by aliens to put old branch rivalries to bed.
The only person who refused to sit was Colt.
He hovered by the door, trying to figure out how to open it from the inside.
He was determined to escape, even though he couldn’t answer what he’d do once he got out.
He was trying to pry it open with his car keys when it slid open again.
He jumped back with a yelp, stumbling over the people behind him who were sitting on the ground, and nearly fell on a Navy sailor before she was jerked out of the way by the soldier beside her.
The guy in the spacesuit who opened the door narrowed his eyes at Colt but didn’t say a word, stepping back to allow a few others to come in.
First, a set of guards, with their long ass spears, followed by a smaller alien whose gender I couldn’t discern pushing a cart.
They stopped just inside the door next to the guards and started handing out little rectangle packages to everyone.
We were all wary, but took it anyway because they didn’t seem to be hurting anyone. When no one moved to open the package, they made a go-ahead gesture with their hand and said, “Food. Eat.”
“You can speak English?” I asked, because why the hell not? It wasn’t like I was being rude or anything.
Not like Colt, who immediately started shouting again. “You need to let us out of here! You’ll start a war with our people by keeping us and–”
The alien ignored him, checking to make sure everyone got one of the food bar things before backing out of the room again.
The guards went next, and then the door slid shut again.
Colt tried to reach it before it did, stepping on hands and toes in the process, but he was too slow and ended up slamming against it.
“Damn it! Open this damn door!”
“Dude, chill,” Marin said. “They aren’t going to listen to you.”
I studied the package while Colt continued to rant, flipping it over in my hand. It didn’t look like anything specific, just a plain foil package about the size of my hand. I opened it curiously, sniffing the dirt brown bar inside.
“What is it?” Strauss asked, watching me. He hadn’t opened his yet, but he was curious.
I shrugged. “Doesn’t really smell like anything.”
He pursed his lips thoughtfully before tearing his own and giving it a cursory sniff. “You’re right. Think it’s safe to eat?”
“Absolutely not!” Colt snapped, marching over to us. “For all we know, it could be poisoned! You will not eat that!”
Yeah, I didn’t really feel like he was in charge out here.
We were prisoners of actual aliens. If it was anyone else, I’d probably listen, but Colt was an idiot.
And I skipped breakfast. I took a small bite, letting it sit on my tongue for a minute before swallowing it.
It wasn’t bad, but it didn’t have much flavor either.
“Rossi! That was an order! I–”
“How is it?” Strauss interrupted, completely ignoring the ranting lieutenant.
I lifted a shoulder. “It’s not terrible, I guess. Doesn’t have much flavor.”
“Maybe they don’t have taste buds?” Marin suggested, taking a bite of his own bar.
Slowly, one by one, people took bites of their food.
When nothing bad happened after a few minutes, we figured it was safe to eat.
And honestly, it wasn’t terrible. Not something I’d want to eat on the regular, but it’d do in a pinch.
It was better than some MREs, that was for sure.
And even though it was barely the size of my palm, I was full when I finished it.
At least they were nice enough to feed us. That was a good sign. Right?