“Indeed,” Alicia said a little mockingly, and Wanda felt her cheeks heat again.
“Where are you from?”
“Savannah. And you?”
“Edgerton. South Carolina,” she added when the other woman looked blank. “Not too far from Savannah, really. I’m a librarian.”
Just saying the words made her heart ache. This couldn’t be happening. Her life was exactly as she had planned. She loved her job, loved the small town where she lived and worked and where she knew so many of the inhabitants by name. She loved the cottage she had spent the past ten years restoring—everything from hand sanding the old heart pine floors to painting the intricate moldings with fresh white paint.
She had even found a solution for the only thing that was missing from her life: a child. The artificial insemination process had been successful, and she was four months pregnant. Now, in the blink of an eye, her perfectly ordered life had been completely upended. There had to be a way out of here, a way back to her life. Not just for her sake but more importantly, for her daughter’s sake.
Alicia’s eyes followed the movement when Wanda’s hand automatically curved over her stomach.
“You’re pregnant?”
“Yes.”
For the first time the other woman’s face softened. “I’m sorry,” she said quietly. “Perhaps—”
A noise arose in the corridor, and Alicia stiffened. “Keep quiet and do not argue with them. They are not… kind.”
A man appeared in the corridor. No, not a man, Wanda realized as she took a second look. His skin was as white and smooth as plastic, his hair matte black, but his eyes were the worst, glowing red and completely inhuman.
“Move away from the opening,” he ordered. He wasn’t speaking English, but she understood him all too clearly.
Up until this moment, a part of her had hoped that Alicia was wrong, that it was all some giant hoax, but he was all too real. Why? Why had they taken her? She wanted to demand answers, but Alicia’s warning echoed in her head and she kept her mouth shut.
The glass wall at the front of the cell slid to one side and she heard a child’s voice, not loud but frantically repeating “no, no, no” over and over. To hell with Alicia’s warning. She instinctively headed for the distressed child. The alien shook his head and grabbed her arm with long, cold fingers. Six fingers, she realized just before he raised a device in his other hand and pressed it to her arm. The world exploded in a blaze of pain, and she collapsed to her knees, barely conscious.
A second alien shoved two children past her. A young girl, no more than ten or eleven, was carrying a younger child. He was rigid in her arms, his head thrashing back-and-forth as he repeated his litany.
As soon as they were inside the cell, the door closed again. The two aliens stood outside looking disdainfully at them. One of them shook his head. “I still don’t see how this is going to make us any profit.”
“You know the captain. He’s always looking for opportunities. If this is successful, it means we don’t have to specifically search out breeders or infants on each trip.” The other male shrugged. “It would mean faster, easier trips.”
“I can’t see it myself. Who’s going to pay for older children, let alone old females?”
“That’s what Captain Kane wants to find out. He thinks there’s a market for older children because they require less care. And older females…” He shrugged again. “You never know what will appeal to a buyer. I’ve always made a good profit when I’ve been part of his crew so I’m willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.”
“I suppose. But I’d rather be looking at a cell full of young breeders.”
“If this doesn’t work out, you will be next time. This planet is ripe for the taking.”
As the two males disappeared, the fiery pain finally started to subside and Wanda scrambled to her feet. The boy was still safe in the young girl’s arms, and his cries had diminished. She had her arms wrapped tightly around him and she was rocking with him.
“Is he all right? Are you all right?” Wanda asked softly.
The girl glared at her suspiciously from behind long, stringy black hair. She was painfully thin, and Wanda suspected it was due to lack of food rather than just her youth. The boy in her arms also had dark hair, and she thought she detected a resemblance.
“Is he your brother? What’s his name?”
The girl’s arms tightened, but she eventually muttered, “Davy. And I’m Darla.”
“Hi, Darla. I’m Wanda. And this is Alicia.”
“Where are we?” Darla demanded. “Are those men wearing costumes?”
“I don’t think so. I think they were aliens.”
“You’ve gotta be fu—freaking kidding me.”
“I know it sounds crazy, but I don’t know if there’s another explanation.” She looked a little helplessly at Alicia.
“There isn’t,” Alicia said coolly. When Wanda glared at her, she shrugged. “I have always felt it best to confront reality. No matter how unpleasant.”
“But why do they want us?” Darla asked desperately.
“I believe they intend to sell us.”
Alicia again made no attempt to soften her statement, but Darla didn’t flinch. She stuck her lip out pugnaciously. “Then they’d better sell us as a pair. I’m never leaving Davy.”
Wanda suspected that the girl knew as well as they did that there would be nothing she could do to prevent the aliens from separating them.
“How come I can understand them?” Darla asked.
“It is some type of implant.” Alicia winced and rubbed her neck, and Wanda realized that her neck ached as well. “I saw them inject you while you were unconscious. I was not so lucky.”
“I don’t remember.” Darla stared down at her brother, who seemed to have fallen asleep. “But maybe that’s what set Davy off. He doesn’t like it when people touch him.”
“I don’t think they’ll bother us in here,” Wanda said optimistically.
Alicia raised an eyebrow but didn’t contradict her, and they all relapsed into silence.
Wanda kept waiting for something to happen, for the aliens to reappear with more prisoners, but the corridor outside their cell remained empty. Eventually, the tension took its toll, and she drifted off into an exhausted sleep.
She awoke as one of the aliens reappeared and delivered four plastic boxes containing tasteless wafers. Remembering the baby, she forced herself to eat. Alicia picked at one but both children devoured them without complaint. Davy was stacking and unstacking the boxes when the alien came to collect them.
To Wanda’s shock, he shrugged and let the boy keep them. The time drifted past until the lights in the cell eventually dimmed, and once again Wanda drifted off into an uneasy sleep. The next day and the day after were exactly the same. Food was delivered to them at regular intervals, and a bathroom at the rear of the cell took care of their other necessities.
The hardest part was keeping the children occupied. Fortunately, Davy would play with his boxes for hours. In a desperate attempt to achieve some kind of normalcy, she started giving them lessons. The alien who had let Davy keep his boxes unexpectedly produced a chalklike marker for her to use. At first, Alicia didn’t participate, but Wanda often found her watching them with an almost wistful expression. Eventually, she softened enough to volunteer a bedtime story. She proved to be a gifted storyteller and Wanda could see how eagerly the children, even Darla, listened to her tales.