Page 7 of All or Nothing
Pinche Cabrones, I thought drowsily, my knees buckling. I had the random thought that my abuelita would be so disappointed that most of the Spanish that had managed to stick were swear words. Then I was out once again.
WHEN I CAMEto it was pitch black and stuffy verging on hot even with how little I was wearing. I felt the press of bodies up against me and thought I felt fur brushing my shin. Djelani, maybe?
The wall of flesh to my right let out a now-familiar sounding grunt, and I reached out blindly, seeking the source of that grunt. I got a handful of what had to be orc-boob.
I snatched my hand back and patted the arm I found, hoping she hadn’t noticed. “Uraka?” I whispered.
“Joss,” she responded, her own hand finding my shoulder in the dark. “I think we have all been bought together. I have felt the others in here with us.”
I nodded, forgetting Uraka wouldn’t be able to see it. “Yeah, it’s really cramped in here so I’d believe it.” I hugged my arms to my chest, biting my lip as I considered some questions. “Hey, so I was wondering…why didn’t you try to rush him back there? When it was just Cherr—er, the red guy by himself?”
Uraka grunted, the rustle of fabric telling me she was trying to move. “They implanted control chips while we were out. I found the incision site shortly after I woke up. I did not think any of us would get more than a few steps before they would have activated the chips and put us down. With our new owner, we might have a chance to catch them off guard before they can do this. We can pretend we are asleep still when the crate opens and make our move if they get in close.”
I bit my lip, tears threatening at the back of my throat. “That makes sense,” I said softly, thinking about just how sucky and unfair the situation was. Had I been bored and lonely in my life back on Earth and throwing myself into fantasy after fantasy to make it through the day without spiraling into dark places? Absolutely. Did I spend my days constantly wishing that I was a romance heroine, whisked away to a new life full of excitement and love so beautiful and deep it shattered you only to rebuild you into something more? You betcha. But did I think I would be able to handle that situation or survive for more than a couple of minutes if it actually happened to me?
Big no. This was not sexy. This was not exciting. This was not full of promise or adventure. None of the aliens had been hot and desperate to eat me out so far, and that might have been the greatest tragedy of all. I had been abducted by aliens in my sleep and sold into slavery…and it fucking sucked. It sucked ass. It sucked big, stinky ass.
I sniffled, the sound pathetic and overloud in the dark, and I felt Uraka shift again beside me, her big callused hand settling on my shoulder and squeezing, then lifting to honk my boob.
I jolted, too shocked even to swat at her or cry out, but it was over as quickly as it had come, leaving me very confused. It hadn’t been sexual, I was pretty sure—had Uraka thought my earlier faux pas was intentional? I decided not to say anything since she’d been so nice to me this whole time when she hadn’t needed to be. Or maybe I’d stumbled on a three-eyed orc cultural thing without realizing it. Wouldn’t that just be my luck?
“Is it just us awake again?” I asked, realizing I hadn’t heard anything from the other three ladies yet.
“I think so. Most tranquilizers do not work well on yvrenii. My people,” she added helpfully. “Perhaps it is the same for you?”
Interesting. “When I woke up the first time they did seem shocked that I was awake. But Ghena’s just as affected as the other two, so I don’t think it’s all humans.”
“Interesting. I have never seen your kind before, so I thought perhaps they simply misdosed from lack of experience.”
Of course humans would be rare out here. Weird that alien romances had gotten so much right. “You’ve never seen another human before?” I asked, just to be polite.
“No. That is what you are? From what sector?”
“I don’t know. Uh…the Milky Way galaxy? Planet Earth?”
“This means nothing to me. Perhaps it is restricted space. Are your people space-faring yet?”
“Not really,” I said, shifting my weight from foot to foot to try and calm my nerves. “I mean we got to the moon like fifty years ago but people think that was fake. And sometimes billionaires like to stick their dick in outer space just to say they can. But we haven’t even made it to another planet yet, really.” After thinking for a second I felt compelled to add, “But we got some robots on Mars. They’re very good little guys.”
“That sounds like it would be in restricted space. I hope you were not overly fond of Earf, my new friend Joss. Because I do not know that you will be able to see it again.”
Ouch. Thanks for that, Uraka.“It’s Earth, with a -th. And because we’re friends I feel like I can tell you that aside from the fact that I wasn’t a sex slave back home I can’t say I’ll miss it too much.” I shifted, the hard surface beneath me digging into my butt uncomfortably. I tried not to think of my mom and way I’d left things with her. “What about you? What did you leave behind?”
Uraka grunted, her leather boots creaking faintly as she shifted her weight. “Also not much. I spent my youth in the vanguard, hopping around the Galthus sector from warfront to warfront as our chief needed. But I…have retired now. I was thinking of trying bounty hunting, or perhaps private security next. No kin, no friends still living. I think this is probably intentional. These th'rak slavers know what they’re doing,” Uraka admitted grudgingly.
I was starting to feel very hollow and cold now. It was gradually settling in just how fucked I was, crammed in this crate with four strangers, probably billions of light-years from anything I’d ever known, waiting for a fate that might be nightmarish.
I could feel my heart racing faster and faster, my skin going clammy and tingling, the air thinning in my lungs.Oh god I’m going to have a panic attack, I’m going to die, I’m going to—no, no I’m not. I’m going to BREATHE, I am going to remind myself that I don’t know what’s coming and that I am strong and capable and I have a huge, absolutely jacked new friend who’s looking out for me. It’s not over yet…It was hard to say whether or not it was helping, but I thought I felt a little less weepy, at least.
“I haven’t felt us moving at all,” I mused out loud once I’d managed to get calmer, flattening my hand to the side of the crate that was behind me; there was a faint vibration coming through the material, but I couldn’t feel anything else, or hear anything beyond the breathing and snuffling of my cratemates.
“You are right, little Joss,” Uraka agreed. “Perhaps we are already on board our purchaser’s ship?”
I swallowed, sweat beginning to run in tickling rivulets from under my breasts and down my back. I was potentially in space. On a goddamn spaceship. There was already basically no hope of escape, but if we were already out in open space…
I let my tears fall in the dark. It would be my little secret, this moment of weakness and fear. I didn’t want to be the first one to freak out and start everyone else off; Uraka didn’t need that in her life. But in the dark no one would know but me if I cried a little.
As hard as it had been to tell time in the cell, it was a thousand times harder to tell in the crate. It was like a sensory deprivation chamber, and after a while my brain was so starved for some action that it started making shit up. I was moments away from screaming until I passed out when I heard what might have been an actual sound from outside the crate. I froze, my hallucinating still-aching ears straining for more. Uraka’s hand found mine and squeezed.
