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I rub my throbbing forehead. My poor head has had enough today.
There’s a smacking sound. “Humans don’t have fur, Faelin,” the female admonishes. “Except for on their heads and around their genitals, that is.”
“Hmm, their genitals, you say? That’s interesting. Are there anymore humans in that escape pod?”
“Shut the fuck up, both of you!” Tareq intervenes. “Astra. Can you hold on until we get there?”
A spear clangs against the door. “I guess so,” I say. “It’s not like we have a choice. They don’t have any explosives, do they?” As long as we can keep them outside, we should be fine, but if they whip out machine guns or grenades, we’re toast.
“No,” the female replies confidently. “They have only mastered metal smelting, so you can expect swords, spears, or arrows, but nothing more advanced than that. Their venom is designed to incapacitate their prey, not kill it, so even if you get infected, you’ll survive.”
“You have a strange idea of what’s ‘fine’,” I mutter, gripping the spear tighter.
“By the way, do these pods have first aid kits?”
Tareq immediately sounds worried. “Are you hurt?”
“A bit banged up, but I’ll be fine. Some of the others are worse. Nikolai is tending to them, but he can’t do much without supplies and all of these boxes seem to contain just food and clothes and some weird sticks.”
“Those are for building shelters,” the female replies, ever so calmly. “Medical supplies will be near the door. It should be a bright orange box marked with a circle with three dots in the center. That’s the medical sign.”
Orange circles instead of red crosses. I realize I’ve seen that symbol before. It was on the door of the freaky medical bay where the scientist probed me. Now that I know what I’m looking for, it doesn’t take me long to locate the first aid kit conveniently placed by the pod’s entrance.
“Nikolai!” I call to get his attention, waving the sizeable box in the air. Next thing I know, something hairy grabs my arm and yanks me out of the pod.
Chapter 24
Astra
I scream, startling both myself and the creature that has grabbed me. It’s the ugliest motherfucker I’ve ever seen in my entire life. Just like Tareq’s friend said, the lower half of the creature’s body is spider-like, with spindly legs and an egg-shaped stomach. He’s covered in disgusting sticky fur and I want to peel my skin off just feeling him touch me.
His upper half is humanoid, save for the fur, and he seems to be just as nimble with his two arms as he is with his many legs.
As I scream, the spider-man lets go of me, dropping me onto the rocky ground right in front of the pod entrance. I try to roll out of his range, but it’s a little difficult, since he’s about the size of a horse. A spider-horse-man.
I curse the stupid universe up and down for dumping more shit on me. I wasn’t even done dealing with the whole being kidnapped by aliens thing! Now I’m about to be killed by a horse-sized spider-man? Fuck no!
I’d dropped the spear back when I was searching for the first aid kit. Since I’m determined not to go down without a fight, I grab the nearest stone, a bountiful resource on this shithole of a planet. As I raise it to defend myself, I hear a muffled puff. Red light shoots from within the pod, hitting the spider alien straight in his chest. He staggers, and I roll away just in time not to get crushed under his body.
“Found guns!” Nikolai announces from the pod entrance while Lizardman helps me back inside.
Nikolai peeks out of the doorway I just entered, holding a rifle of some kind. “I guess it scared them off,” he says, offering the weapon to me. “Here, take it. I have to tend to the injured people. There are more in that box over there.” As if I needed more than one alien rifle.
I gawk at it, surprised by how normal it looks. Sure, it’s somewhat futuristic, but all in all, it’s still a rifle. It has a long barrel, what I assume is a battery, and a trigger. One doesn’t need a university degree to operate it.
I point it through the door crack, aiming at nothing in particular, and pull the trigger. The gun puffs and a red beam flies out, clearly visible against the gray landscape. It hits a large rock, leaving a charred mark.
“Huh. No recoil.” I fired a shotgun once and had bruises on my shoulder for two weeks. This one feels like a kid's toy compared to that, but as I look at the dead alien near the pod entrance, I realize it’s much deadlier than a shotgun.
Lizardman watches me with unbidden curiosity. I hesitate, then hand him the rifle. He seems intelligent enough to use it. His fingers are too thick to wrap around the trigger comfortably, but he taps it with his claw, letting out a barking laugh when the laser beam shoots out.
I roll my eyes at his excitement. “Boys and their toys. I guess species doesn’t count for much when it comes to guns.”
Dark shapes move in the distance. We’ve momentarily scared the aliens away, but they’re coming back. This time, we’ll be ready for them.
“Hey, Tareq?” I say into the comm even as I shoot at an enemy in the distance. I miss, but my shot makes him duck behind a rock.
“Tareq is gearing up,” the female responds. “He’ll be with you soon.”
