SIX DAYS LATER
The first thing Charmaine became aware of as she emerged from the black fog were the shadows in the dark and dank room. The only light source was a dull yellow that shone from the top of the wall. It looked like a small rectangular window.
Then she heard the growling. It was soft, in the back of the animal's throat. The kind of grunt a vicious dog has when it wants to say "Stay away, I bite".
It began to get lighter and quickly, every second there was more light coming from the small window.
The shapes noticed it too and all around her, they began to move and then to mumble, and the growling ceased.
The light was bright now, turning night into day and Charmaine could see the shapes were other.... Aliens?
They were different to her, a blue reptile that reminded her of raptors found on earth when dinosaurs lived. That was the source of the growling and she mentally reminded herself to find another spot away from it.
There were two that were the same, they looked exactly like the aliens that never came to earth. Translucent with enormous black eyes and heads too big for their bodies.
There was a sort of bear, but the face was almost human. With it was a wolf, also with a human face.
Suddenly the furtherest wall where nobody sat, disappeared and two figures followed by a flying metal bee walked into the room as if they owned it.
They came straight for her and every alien story Charmaine had ever heard about (all involved ass probing) was about to become true and she started to scream at them while trying to get away from them.
They were faster, one alien grabbed her by the arm, yanked her back, and slapped her face with the other hand.
"Shut up." He said, and she could hear by his voice he was male. She shut up and then opened her mouth again when she realised he spoke English.
"It's a linguistic implant, it comes pre programmed with 153 000 languages from all known universes."
Before she could say a thing, the bee turned into a syringe like instrument and he jabbed her in the arm. She almost screamed again, this time in pain but kept it together and bit on her lip. She bit so hard, she drew blood.
Surprised at herself, she gingerly licked it off her lips. The raptor smelled the blood and charged, Charmaine thought dying was going to happen right now.
The other alien male, calmly took a weapon from somewhere she couldn't see and shot it. It was running towards her and then it just fell flat on the ground and didn't move again. Charmaine bit her lip again, this time because she was crying. Silent tears made a trail down her face. She didn't know if this was a good thing or a bad thing - to have survived.
The first man slapped her none too softly on her cheek to get her to look at him.
"Hey, hey, woman, look at me."
She looked at him, he reminded her of Bones, she already didn't like him.
"Do you understand me? Nod your head or say 'yes'". "
She nodded.
"You see this mess? " He pointed at the dead raptor.
She nodded again.
" That's your mess, get it cleaned up. You understand? "
" Yes. "
Her first word, she noticed the others looking at her as she said it. Some looked quickly, as if they had been caught off guard at a word they understood, others turned their heads slowly, reacting to the word.
" Zalt, cleaning machine."
The bee was a bee again and flew off, returning in almost the same second with a metal thing in the shape of a large capsule, at one end there was a hole.
The men and the bee, turned and left the room. The wall reappeared where they walked out.
"Clean it up before it stinks. The light from the star will begin roasting it in another minute." It was the wolf woman who spoke.
"I - I understand you." Charmaine uttered.
"Yes, it's the implant, everybody understands everybody. Get her cleaned up."
"Her? She - it - she was female?"
"We're all female, now are you going to clean it or not, you better because their scavengers will come soon."
Charmaine pushed the capsule over to the dead reptile, the star was getting too bright to see, and the last thing she needed was scavengers or the wrath of the others.
She wondered how the capsule worked and accidentally pushed it right against the skin of the reptile. She didn't have to wonder any longer, it started to suck the reptile up, blood, bones, flesh, skin, whatever was in front of the hole got sucked in.
Charmaine watched in horror, terror and morbid curiosity. Then it was done, she almost expected a tongue to come out and lick the hole, but nothing happened.
It was so bright she was squinting now. The bar of light at the top of the wall closed and everything became black.
Charmaine sat in the darkness wondering one thing, these aliens who took her away from the others, did not look like any of the females here. Except her.
SIX DAYS BEFORE
Charmaine left work shouting good bye to Eric, it was late but the car park was well lit. She walked to her car, stopping under the lights to dig in her bag for her keys. She finally found them two lights before she got to her car, a personal best in a game only she played.
She pointed her remote to her car to unlock, got in and unloaded her bag and was about to start her car, when somebody with a blinding light shone it at her right in front of the windshield.
Before she could react to the light, someone opened her car door and scooped her up. She was blinded by the light but shouted at him.
"NO! PUT ME DOWN!"
He didn't say anything, before she could shout again, he put his fingers around her throat and strangled her, all the while still carrying her and walking to who knows where.
When she awoke, she felt like her head would burst.
