Alien Skin Market by Lizzy Bequin
CHAPTER 11: MAUREEN
“Rawn! RAWN!”
Maureen jolted out of her dark dream to find herself back on the floor of the dark and smelly holding cell, her upper body propped against the hard metal bars. Her shaggy companion, Rawn, was jumping against her, urgently barking in her ear and lapping at her face with his raspy tongue to wake her up. All around them, the menagerie of alien beasts watched Rawn’s antics with bemused expressions.
Two emotions vied for supremacy in Maureen’s heart. On the one hand, she felt relief at being pulled out of that horrible dream of the purple alien. But at the same time she felt a crushing disappointment to find that she really was a captive in a cell, collared like an animal.
Once Maureen was fully awake, Rawn fell silent beside her, and he directed his eyes toward the dark door. A moment later, Maureen heard the scuttle of arachnid feet, and adrenaline surged through her system, bringing her to full alertness.
The spiders were coming back.
Was that the reason Rawn had so frantically roused her from her slumber? Did her furry friend somehow understand the plan she had in mind? It seemed unlikely—surely Rawn wasn’t that intelligent—but all the same, Maureen was grateful for the wake-up call, just as she silently cursed herself for dozing off.
By the time the spider alien finally entered the room, Maureen was ready. She had quickly rubbed the remaining sleep from her eyes, and her gaze was focused on the array of runes carved into the stones of the outer wall.
This time, when the spider tapped the runes, Maureen easily memorized the five-digit sequence.
The bars of the cage slid open, and Maureen briefly considered making a run for it, but she instantly decided against that course of action. As before, the spider guard was blocking the gap in the bars, and Maureen didn’t feel confident she could take that loathsome thing in a one-on-one fight.
The other animals did not share her trepidation. As they had done before, they amassed around the gap in the bars in the hopes of escaping. But it was to no avail; the spider easily kept them at bay. It selected one of the animals—a small, blue, horse-like creature with six legs and shimmering fish scales—activated the beast’s laser-leash, and led it out of the cage. Then the spider quickly closed the bars behind itself before any other animals could escape.
The spider and the blue horse-thing departed into the shadows. A moment later, Maureen thought she heard an alien crowd cheering in the distance.
That sound sent a shudder up her back.
Whatever was going on out there, she wanted no part of it.
And now Maureen had the information she needed to get out of this place—the rune-code to open the bars. She closed her eyes for several seconds and repeated the sequence in her mind over and over until she was satisfied it was committed to memory.
Now the only remaining obstacle was figuring out how to actually touch the damn runes.
Maureen knew her arm wouldn’t be able to reach. The distance between the bars and the rune-keypad was too far. She would require some kind of tool to make it work.
With Rawn following on her heels, Maureen paced the holding chamber, searching for anything she might use as an implement. Aside from its animal occupants and a few cages, however, the area was completely empty.
But there had to be something.
There just had to be.
Maureen froze as her eyes lighted on one of the creatures huddled in the center of the holding cell. It resembled a giant green porcupine, and the rigid quills lining its back were nearly as long as Maureen’s arm—just the right length to reach the runes!
There was just one problem.
Those quills looked sharp as hell, and for all Maureen knew, they might be venomous too. How the hell was she going to extract one without getting herself perforated? Except for her collar, she was entirely naked, with no means of defending herself if things went sideways.
Oh well. She would just have to take her chances.
A trio of bulbous black orbs protruded from one end of the creature, and Maureen assumed those must be its eyes, so she made her approach from the other end, padding forward with slow, cautious steps. From the corner of her eye, she could see Rawn’s shaggy form looking on attentively.
When she was within reach of the giant green porcupine, Maureen extended her hand, selected one of the long quills, and attempted to pluck it out.
Unfortunately, the quill was more firmly rooted than Maureen had expected, and it did not pull free.
Well shit.
The green porcupine critter released an ugly squeal and spun around to face her with a surprising agility. Its body trembled, shaking its defensive quills menacingly. There was no way Maureen would be able to steal one now.
Luckily, her furry friend was there to help. While the green porcupine was distracted by Maureen, Rawn darted around behind the creature, bit down on the tip of an especially long quill, and jerked it out with his teeth.
The porcupine squealed again and rounded on Rawn, but the crazy furball had already retreated to the other side of the holding cell with his prize. Maureen went to join him, making sure to give the trembling and enraged porcupine a wide berth.
When she reached Rawn, he dropped the quill at her feet and grinned up at her, tail wagging. Maureen gave him an approving pat on the head.
Apparently Rawn was more intelligent than she had realized.
How had he known what she was trying to do? Even the smartest canine wouldn’t have been able to catch on to her plan and improvise that quickly.
Well, that was a question for later.
Right now, Maureen had everything she needed to put her escape plan into action, so that’s exactly what she did.
With her heart thumping madly in her chest, Maureen reached through the bars. The quill was just long enough to touch the carved rune control pad on the far wall. She mentally recited the sequence one more time, and then she started to touch the runes. As each symbol was tapped, it briefly glowed blue and gave out a soft musical chime.
That got the other animals’ attention.
They had heard that sound before, and they had come to associate it with the opening of the bars. Just as they had done before with the spider alien, the animals crowded around Maureen, barking and yipping and hooting. Rawn snarled and snapped his jaws to keep them back, but it was useless. There were just too many of them.
The crowd of excited animals distracted Maureen, and as she reached the fifth and final rune needed to complete the code, her quill missed and she touched the wrong symbol.
The runes flashed red and made an unpleasant sound.
Damn it.
Try again,she told herself. Deep breath. Stay focused…
Maureen began touching the runes again, moving more slowly this time, making absolutely sure she had the quill lined up with each correct rune before making contact. One by one, the runes lighted up and chimed, and once again the other animals went wild with the desire to escape. Maureen could hardly blame them—she felt the same way—she just wished she could explain to them how their eagerness was actually making this more difficult.
She blocked out the sound, and her vision tunneled around the runes. She tapped the third rune. The fourth…
And now the moment of truth.
With great care, Maureen aligned the point of the quill with the fifth and final rune in the sequence.
She was so laser focused on this task, she didn’t even notice the spider alien looming on the other side of the bars until it was too late. The noise from the other crazed animals had masked the sound of the spider’s approach, and by the time Maureen realized what was happening, it was already too late.
An ugly pincer closed around her wrist and squeezed hard. Pain shot through her arm, and a yelp burst from her lips.
The quill fell from her fingers and clattered on the floor outside the cage.
For a moment, the spider alien just held her like that, its mandibles chittering in agitation, its beady eyes darting from Maureen to the runes to the quill on the floor.
Another of its spindly legs worked between the bars and touched the side of Maureen’s collar, reigniting her laser-leash. Yet another appendage took hold of the leash’s end while a fourth tapped out the sequence on the rune panel, causing the bars to open. The spider let go of Maureen’s arm and yanked her out of the cell by the leash.
The other animals surged toward the gap in the bars again, and the spider alien struggled to hold them back.
Right at the forefront of that crowd was Rawn. With a fierce roar, Maureen’s companion opened his jaws wide, sank his teeth into one of the spider’s legs, and started to shake like an enraged dog.
The spider hissed in pain and violently kicked Rawn back inside the cage. Despite his recent growth, the angry furball was still small compared to the spider alien. His shaggy body sailed over the other animals and hit the wall with a thud.
Rage coursed through Maureen’s veins and a red mist descended over her vision.
Nobody fucking kicked her friends.
Maureen might have been naked, but she wasn’t totally defenseless. She still had her feet and her fists, and she had been coached in hand-to-hand combat as part of her FBI training. Okay, she had never sparred with a giant spider before, but she had no trouble selecting a target to strike.
When in doubt, go for the eyes.
Maureen balled her fingers into a tight fist and drove it hard into one of the spider alien’s beady eyes. Maureen felt a jolt of satisfaction when she heard the spider hiss in agony, but an instant later a long, armored forelimb darted out and dealt a retaliatory blow to Maureen’s forehead. White pain flashed behind her eyes, and she tumbled onto the floor.
“Mwuuh!”
Clicking and hissing in irritation, the spider alien wrangled the other animals back behind the bars. Rawn had already recovered from being kicked, and he lunged again, but the bars shot closed, blocking the furball’s attack.
Maureen didn’t even have a chance to stand. The spider alien angrily tugged on her leash and began pulling her body along the floor and into the dark hallway that led to her doom.
As she was dragged into the shadows, Maureen caught one last glimpse of Rawn looking after her, his shaggy face pressed between the bars and his dark eyes filled with despair.
They had tried their best and they had failed.
But at least they had tried.
Now Maureen resorted to the only option she had left. She prayed.
She didn’t have high hopes that her prayer would be answered. Praying was something she had not done since she was a little girl, and back then it hadn’t worked at all. It hadn’t brought her parents back from the dead. It hadn’t led to the capture of the person who killed them. Eventually, she had given up on prayer altogether.
But now it was all she had left. She had done everything else she could think of to save herself.
She prayed that someone—anyone—was coming to save her.