2. Taylor #2
And then I stopped, as a new horror filled me.
Part of the ceiling was hanging down in the hallway on the other side of the wall.
The ship was falling apart. And if the ship fell apart, that meant no atmosphere, no breathing.
Oh my god, this was not how I wanted to go.
None of this is what I wanted to have happen on a Thursday in the Colombian jungle.
I snapped, screaming and kicking the wall like an absolute madwoman.
"Stop!"
The shock of hearing English knocked me out of my...
mindless tantrum. And I spun to the right to see that blue alien standing there, pushing at a small area of dull gray on the transparent wall.
That must have been where the controls were — the release for the cell partition, not whatever generated the force field — and the panel was completely dead.
But we still had lights in the cell. Well, I mean, they were dim, but at least we had light.
And the hallway still looked lit. So the electricity, or whatever powered this thing, wasn't out all over.
I turned behind me, trying to find something we could use.
But there was absolutely nothing. Just five of us in here.
Nothing else available to use to ram or break this wall.
I looked down and thankfully I still had my boots.
My tool belt was gone, which meant the slavers had searched me at some point.
Still, they had left me the boots, still covered with mud from the jungle.
Well, I hoped they enjoyed some earthen muck.
I stepped back and started kicking, slamming my heel against the wall. It had a little give but held firm. Finally, I stopped and stood there breathing hard, staring at it.
"Don't you think we tried that?"
I narrowed my eyes at the blue alien. "Look, I had to give it a —"
The ship tilted again and we went flying against the wall that everyone had been sitting against earlier.
I was getting really tired of this shit.
Damn it. If this ship was under attack, I didn't know what would be better for me.
To stay with the bad guys I'd at least seen, or to go with the bad guys I hadn't.
But they could be good guys. And maybe I could escape somehow.
Though I had absolutely no idea where I would go.
I didn't think there were lifts to Earth in the nearest interplanetary space shuttle system or whatever was out there.
I was amazed at how easily I was taking this introduction to actual aliens. But then again, when you're trying to save your own life, that really does take precedence.
Another bang, and I screamed, covering my head.
It came from directly above. I looked up, my eyes probably widening to ridiculous comic proportions.
The ceiling was crumpled. Oh my god. Then movement caught my eye.
That bang, then — the wall. The blue alien was crawling through an opening where the transparent panel had blown out in the lower right corner.
I scrambled to my feet, ran, and crawled out right behind her, almost sliding over the backs of her boots because I was so desperate to get out.
She immediately took off to the right, running, but I stayed put after almost going after her.
I mean, that would be a great way to get myself killed: run around the corner and right into a firefight or whatever they had for weapons up here.
The last impact had torn the mesh bin opposite our cell from its rack.
Its contents had spilled across the corridor: scraps of fabric, strange cuffs, and, holy miracle, my muddy tool belt.
I grabbed it and buckled it on with shaking hands because flashlight, multitool, anything from Earth mattered right now.
Also because I was not philosophically opposed to having a knife.
I didn't know where I was. I didn't know the layout of what I was on.
I didn't know where to go. I didn't know to run from the sounds of fighting or to run towards it in case it was help.
So I stood there like an idiot, looking from right to left, right to left, trying to figure out what to do as my roommates and cellmates crawled out from that same hole.
Except the giant grasshopper got stuck. High-pitched chittering noises.
I turned around and saw that she was too big to get through the opening.
God, that sucked. There was no way in hell I was gonna let somebody stay stuck in that cell when none of us knew what was gonna happen next.
Everybody else had immediately left and ran.
So I kicked at the wall with my heel over and over and over, widening the cracks, lengthening the cracks, until finally more of the corner broke away and the giant grasshopper skidded out and also immediately ran away.
"Thanks! No problem! Glad to help!"
I let out a breath and looked from left to right again. I didn't know what to do, and I wasn't really someone who blindly followed people either. But I assumed they knew more about what was going on than I did.
God, was I an idiot? I probably should have followed them.
I turned, taking a few steps to the right, when a tall armored figure came around the curved wall.
They were dressed completely in black, a shiny helmet enclosing their head, and they held what had to be some sort of weapon aimed at me.
Oh great, I was going to die because a nightmare in discount armor found me first.