Protected By the Alien Raider (Turochs of Earth #4)

Chapter 1

I’d had bad days before. Really bad days. Days that left my body broken, my world irreversibly changed and set my life on a path I could never have foreseen.

Alien abduction was a new one for me, though.

The people around me were in varying stages of shock. I knew the signs, the dazed empty expressions, the screaming, the hyperventilating, the panicked chanting that ‘this isn’t happening’. Hell, I’d been there before.

But this time I wasn’t freaking out. My emotions had retreated behind a wall of determined pragmatism. Life had taught me too well that crying and denial wouldn’t help me. But a plan? A plan could go a long way to fixing whatever had gone wrong.

I just needed a plan that got me out of this cold, metal room full of screaming humans.

Making my way to the nearest wall, I scanned the seamless surface for anything I could use as an exit.

Someone stumbled into me and I shook them off automatically.

It sounded cold, but the last thing I needed was a hysterical mess ruining my escape.

I’d tried to calm some people down when I’d first been thrown into this room.

No one had listened, whether they were too busy freaking out or just catatonic, and I’d given up fairly quick.

It took a lot of therapy for me to stop feeling that everyone else was my responsibility and I wasn’t going to throw away that progress just because I got kidnapped by aliens.

A wide door slid open and three guards bullied their way into the room. All three were identical, sky blue, with wide black eyes and thick squirming tentacles for hair.

One guard grabbed a man by the collar and ripped his shirt down the front, dropping the shredded fabric to the floor and motioning to the rest of his clothes. The alien barked an order and waved a bulky gun at the crowd of humans. The message was clear: strip.

All around me people scrambled to comply. I slowly pulled my shirt over my head, tossing it to the center of the room, along with all the other half-naked strangers. The guards stalked through the crowd, and I reluctantly pushed my jeans down my hips.

I wasn’t ashamed of my prosthetic leg, but I didn’t want to stand out from the huddled masses, and odds were high I was the only amputee here.

My jeans pooled on the floor and a hard hand landed on my bare shoulder.

I yelped in surprise as a guard motioned to my prosthetic and snarled something.

I lifted my knee, trying to show that it was my leg and not a weapon, but the alien knocked me on my ass, grabbed my metal ankle and ripped my prosthetic right off.

The sudden lack of support sent my stump crashing to the floor.

If I was less freaked out, that would have hurt.

“Hey!” I scrambled back up and ignored the shocked gasps from the nearby people. It’s not every day you watch an alien literally yank a woman’s leg off. “I need that!”

The guard hefted my stolen limb, turned it back and forth like he was looking for a knife and then shrugged. My very expensive leg crashed to the floor with the rest of the confiscated clothing.

Frustration surged through me. I wasn’t helpless without my leg, but it was mine, dammit. I’d been scooped up in a net, dumped on a spaceship and now stripped. I knew things weren’t going to get better from here but I was too mad to panic.

I was dressed in a sports bra, a pair of boyshorts and I was down a leg. Things just kept getting worse and I didn’t plan on sticking around to see what came next. Screw the apocalypse, screw my squirmy-headed alien captors and screw this room of screaming people.

Tightening my ponytail, I blew my bangs off my forehead and did my best to sneakily hop around the edges of the room. I didn’t expect to find a door marked ‘escape’, but all I needed was an opening.

A few minutes later, I found a rough edge a few feet off the floor and I crouched behind a nude middle-aged woman to feel around. Her blank glassy eyes didn’t even register me and for a moment I felt a flicker of guilt.

None of these people asked to be scooped off the street in a giant net and crammed in a spaceship.

If they were anything like me, they’d cowered in their homes for the last few weeks, hoping the extraterrestrial invaders would leave as quickly as they’d appeared.

When hunger had driven me outside, I’d been snatched up in fifteen minutes.

If I believed in luck, I’d say I was cursed. All these people were just as unlucky, but we couldn’t all sneak away. My only chance was using my fellow captives as cover as I made my escape. Shaking off my momentary guilt over escaping alone, I turned my attention back to the wall.

Poking the edge revealed a closed vent, the slits laying so flat they were invisible to the naked eye.

It was big enough for my shoulders to fit through, barely, but it’d have to work.

I just hoped it didn’t lead straight to a trash compactor or a futuristic space furnace.

Cooked alive wouldn’t exactly be an improvement on my current situation.

In the center of the room, the aliens were yelling again, someone started crying hysterically and there was a crash. I glanced over my shoulder just in time to see people scatter and turned back to my vent.

If I got shot trying to escape, oh well. This might be my only chance.

Settling on my knees, I flicked the vent open, crammed my fingers between the sharp slats and pulled with all my strength. The grate popped free, revealing a small square duct that stretched into complete darkness.

Ominous, but I’d take it. I dropped the vent cover, wincing at the slices on my fingertips and crawled into the dark.

If I was lucky, no one would notice I was missing.

Then again, I’d lost my leg at sixteen and been kidnapped by aliens five years later. Obviously, luck didn’t like me.

The metal under my hands was cold, and I squirmed forward as quickly as I could manage.

My knees banged against the duct and I cringed, praying the commotion behind me covered the sound.

My heart was pounding so hard I swore I could hear it echoing against the metal tunnel and I swallowed the urge to hyperventilate the darker it got.

I felt like I was crawling into a void. No light, no heat, nothing but the hum of machinery buzzing around me.

The very real chance I’d get lost or stuck jolted through me and my mouth went dry.

Irrationally I considered turning back before biting my lip and slowing my breathing.

This was scary, but at least I was moving on my own terms, not waiting to be herded away like cattle.

Cold metal stung my palms and knees, I curled my chilled fingers and kept crawling. The claustrophobic duct made a sharp turn to the right and then up at a forty-five degree angle.

I squeezed my shoulders through the tight turn and tried to ignore how dark it was. There were little dots of light in the distance but I couldn’t gauge how far away they were. It was entirely possible I’d get lost up here, and die of starvation in the dark.

That would really suck, but the thought didn’t make me turn around. I was a survivor dammit, I faced my challenges head on and if that meant risking everything at a chance to escape, then I was risking everything.

These alien freaks could choke on my dust.