Chapter 11 Taz
I planted my elbows on the ground and lifted my scavenged binoculars to my eyes. Below me, a massive encampment filled the space between two hills and it was absolutely swarming with aliens. All of them looked like Dargo, and most of them were armed.
The center of activity was a giant bonfire, the flames stretching at least a hundred feet into the air.
Chunks of metal and piles of junk were scattered all around the fire, a few aliens were crouched over animal carcasses, efficiently gutting several deer and what looked like a dozen feral hogs.
The smell of cooking meat teased at my empty stomach and my mouth watered as I watched one male tear a hunk off a cooking hog and chomp down on it.
My plan hadn't extended farther than finding this camp and now that I was staring down at easily a hundred alien males, I felt my confidence waver. I couldn't just stroll into camp and demand they release Penny. I wasn't even sure Penny was here.
I couldn't see her, but there were so many bodies milling around she could be anywhere. There were a few shelters made of metal and some sort of fabric where she could be hidden, but no sign of my friend.
There was a good chance Dargo had taken me straight into a trap. I needed to confirm Penny was here and plan from there. Maybe I could sneak in after dark, free her and scamper off before I was stampeded by a herd of horned aliens.
The mental image was enough to break me out in a cold sweat and I dropped my binoculars to the ground with a groan.
I was so freaking tired and over-caffeinated that I was seeing double and I couldn't figure out a way to get a few hours of sleep without Dargo escaping.
Somehow I doubted he'd leave me in the truck and wander off.
I'd be lucky if he woke me up before he started licking me.
A hot flash, half of panic and half of arousal at the thought of waking up to Dargo's tongue on me, skated over my skin and I took a deep breath as I shoved the image away.
I wasn't going there, mentally or physically.
Scooting back down the hill, I stood up once I reached the truck and brushed the dirt off my clothes. I needed to eat, drink some water and figure out where I went from here. Dargo was watching me, and there was a calculating gleam in his eyes that made me nervous.
It didn't matter if he was tied up, and I had my cattle prod, I still felt like I had the disadvantage. But I was too tired and hungry to think of a way to adjust our dynamic right now.
With a sigh, I grabbed my bag of supplies and a folding chair from the truck and settled my chair far enough away that I knew he couldn't reach me.
"Are you hungry?" I asked, praying he didn't take the chance to say something dirty.
Surprisingly, he didn't.
"I could eat."
Plopping my butt in the chair, I dug through my bag.
"I've got mixed nuts, some pretzels and beef jerky.
" The hardware store had been low on actual food and now I regretted not looking for more snacks before I knocked him out.
My stomach was trying to eat itself, but I couldn't just starve my prisoner.
His giant ass would eat all my food by tonight if I wasn't careful.
Drago was still staring at me when I looked up and he shrugged when raised an eyebrow.
"Anything will do."
Helpful. "Well, I want the nuts, so you get a bag of jerky and some pretzels." I tossed the food at him, and he caught the bags easily even with his hands tied. Opening a bottle of water, I grimaced as I chugged half the warm liquid and threw the rest his way.
As far as food went, I rated this apocalypse one out of five stars.
I'd been hungry and thirsty since day one, and the brutal Texas heat wasn't helping.
Wherever Penny and Hope were, I hope they had actual meals.
Just thinking about my missing friends made my stomach twist and I forced myself to stay positive.
Optimism didn't come naturally to me. That was more of a Penny thing.
Aside from her breakdown when Hope went missing, I'd never seen my friend freak out before.
Watching her lose it had scared me, and ever since I'd found myself faking her sense of calm.
As if pretending to be okay with everything would make it okay.
I popped a cashew in my mouth and grimaced when I realized they were spicy.
Just what I needed, more heat when the sun was trying to rotisserie me.
Sighing, I slumped back in my chair and forced myself to finish the whole can of nuts.
Spicy and salty as they were, I needed calories if I was going to pull this rescue off.
"Are you guys nocturnal?" I asked, trying to build a mental picture of what I was up against. There were way too many aliens down there for me to face them head-on, which left me stealth. If Dargo's people got extra perky after dark, I'd really need a good plan.
"We rose with the sun on Oska, but we've been in space for many years, I don't know what schedule the camp is operating on."
"Why were you in space?" Why aren't you still in space was a better question.
Dargo shrugged, and carefully opened his bag of pretzels, sniffing them like he thought I might be trying to poison him. Maybe he had a gluten allergy and I was, who knew?
"We were slaves, we didn't have a choice."
That got my attention.
"You're a slave?" Despite the fact that I had him tied to my truck, I couldn't picture grinning, dirty-talking Dargo as a slave.
He crossed his legs and eyed me in amusement.
"I was a slave, I'm free now."
Except for the fact that I'd knocked him out and threatened to electrocute him. Now I felt kind of bad about that. Then I remembered he was hunting me and his friend had stolen Penny, and my guilt evaporated.
"If you were a slave, what are you doing on Earth?"
"We escaped our syto masters and shot their cruiser out of the sky while they invaded your planet. All the turochs in the camp were in the cruiser when it crashed here."
"Syto?"
"I believe you called them squid heads." He sounded entertained. "All the turochs on your planet are escaped slaves, it wasn't our choice to be here, but anywhere was better than where we were."
So the dead alien I'd taken the translator from had been one of his masters. This whole time I'd just seen any alien as an invader. To find out that Dargo was a victim, too, was messing with my head.
"I understand escaping from slavery, but why did your friend steal Penny? And why were you hunting me?"
"I told you, it isn't safe on your planet anymore. The sytos are still capturing humans to sell as breeding slaves, and when our cruiser fell, turochs weren't the only things that escaped."
Realization dawned as I remembered watching Dargo kill the giant alien monster. It said a lot that I'd forgotten that thing existed.
"The creature you killed-"
"A percer sow," he offered. "She was already injured or I wouldn't have been able to kill her. The sytos forced us to fight them in a Pit. If she'd been healthy, it would have taken at least three skilled males to defeat her."
"So you were a gladiator?" I could picture that. Everything about him screamed fighter, and I could imagine a percer could leave scars like the ones that covered his body.
"I was, so was Adak."
"Did you like it?" I cringed as I heard the words. He'd been enslaved and forced to fight for his life, why could he like it? But instead of being offended, Dargo looked like he was considering my words.
"Adak hated it. We fought as a team, against percers, other turochs, other slaves. We were very good, almost the best, but it isn't easy to kill someone you don't hate."
I noticed he didn't say he hated it.
"But you always won." Obviously, he was still alive. Man, I needed sleep.
Dargo eyed me like he didn't know if he wanted to reply to that.
"You don't have to tell me about this," I said, wishing I hadn't asked. Hearing his backstory wouldn't help me save my friends, and I knew better than anyone how tender a subject the past could be.
"I always lived," he finally said, ignoring me.
"I lost myself to my blood rages, my body took over to keep me alive, and I killed whomever or whatever threatened me.
But it breaks a part of you to cause suffering, even if you can't remember the details afterward.
If I never kill another turoch, it still won't erase what I've done to survive. "
I couldn't imagine.
Our conversation slipped into awkward silence and I finished off my food, feeling a little sick after everything I'd heard.
My mission to save Penny and find Hope hadn't changed, but knowing that Dargo and his friends had escaped slavery and survived who knew what horrors to get here, made it hard to see them as the enemy.
Suffering didn't make you a good person. I knew a lot of people from a shitty childhood that used it as an excuse to make other people miserable. But it did change the way I saw Dargo.
"Taz."
My head snapped up at my name and I realized I'd started dozing off. Dargo had moved closer, his legs hanging off the edge of the truck bed as he stared at me. His expression strangely serious.
"You'll be safe in our camp. Turochs prize females and I swear on my honor you'd come to no harm. You and your friend would be well taken care of."
Well taken care of.
I'd heard that line before. From a long line of social workers and bullshitting foster parents.
It'll be different this time. These are good people. You'll be safe here. This is your chance at a real life.
Somehow it was never different no matter what anyone promised.
Either the foster family was crazy, the other kids were fucked up from past trauma or something would change and I'd be woken up in the middle of the night and shipped off to a new 'family' without a single explanation or promise it wouldn't happen again.
Until the day I was out on my own, I hadn’t felt safe. Life was hard as fuck when you were alone, but depending on other people never worked out for me. Maybe some people had families that came to the rescue and stood by them. But all I ever got was fucked over.
Penny was the only person I'd ever really trusted, and that was a two way street. I had to be there for her when she needed me. And right now she was alone with a freaking alien. So no, I wasn't going to trust Dargo or his promises when my friend was waiting to be rescued.
I chucked my empty can at the ground.
"Sorry, not interested."
Dargo's face fell and for a second I felt bad.
"I'll win you over," he said. "I never wanted a mate, so I understand your reluctance."
I snorted.
"You really don't. And I'm not going to be your mate."
He grinned, his expression going from disappointed to leering in an instant.
"I'm sure if you let me get my face between your le-"
"Nope!" I almost shouted it before I realized I'd be giving myself away to the other turochs. "Just stop talking, Dargo. It's not happening."
He leaned back in the truck, kicking his hooves like a kid on a bench.
"I can be patient, little Firebrand."
Damn that fucking pet name. It lit up a warmth in my middle I couldn't ignore and I had to fight the urge to smile at him. Even when I wanted to smack him, he somehow turned into this silly charmer and made me forget he was a fucking alien gladiator.
I yawned and slouched deeper into my chair.
The sun had moved enough that I was in the shade of the scrubby bushes and I felt relaxed for the first time in days.
It was a stupid feeling. I was parked outside an alien camp, I should be on high alert, but Dargo's endless teasing made me feel like the world wasn't completely fucked.
My eyes felt so damn heavy, but I knew I needed to stay awake. I didn't trust Dargo, even if I was starting to like him. And one mistake would ruin my only chance to save my friends. My head nodded forward and I forced my eyes open, only to feel them drooping shut again.
I wasn't going to sleep, but one really slow blink would feel great right about now. I could blink without falling asleep. I just had to open my eyes before I passed out. My eyelids dropped, and it felt so good I let myself enjoy the sensation for one more second.
I'd open my eyes on three. One... two...