Page 4 of Infala: The Alien's Bond
“That’s how it is.”
“What is?” Darla asked, alarm flaring in her chest. “Wait a minute. You said it took a minute to wear off. Oh, no. Did that bastard roofie me? But there’s no way he could have spiked my coffee—”
“It’s not roofies.”
“Then what? And where are we? What is this place?”
“Well, you may want to sit back down for that part.”
Darla did not like the sound of that. Not one bit.
“Maureen, what’s going on?”
“Look around us. Not exactly like anything you’ve seen on Earth before, is it?”
“You talk as if we were on another planet or something.”
“Or something, yeah.”
Darla’s eyes widened. The impossible illumination of the metal, the strange design of the chamber. And her winding up here with no memory of how she’d gotten here. It was insane, but it was all starting to add up. Add up to an impossible answer.
“I was abducted?” she gasped.
“Now she gets it,” a deeply tanned man with broad shoulders and several days scruff on his square jaw growled.
“Be nice, Victor.”
“Iambeing nice, Maureen,” he snarked, turning his attention back to the newcomer. “Youwere abducted.Shewas abducted.Iwas abducted. Just about all of us were snatched up in one way or another, get it?”
“Okay, you made your point. There’s no need to be a dick about it.”
“Baby, if you think I’m an asshole, you’ve got another thing coming.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
He flashed a look at Maureen. “You wanna tell her about the Raxxians?”
Several of the other captives seemed to shift uncomfortably at the mention of the word. It was unsettling to say the least.
“Okay, I’ll bite. What’s a Raxxian?”
Maureen shook her head.
“Fine,” Victor scoffed. “I’ll do it. You see, hon, the Raxxians are the scaly green bastards who took us.”
“Don’t call me hon.”
“Whatever you say, babe,” he replied with an annoying wink. “Let me tell you, you’re going to want to watch yourself around them. Don’t get their attention. They’re big sons of bitches too. Taller than any man, and meaner to boot.”
“Worse than you?”
“Ha, you’ve got some fire in you,” he said with an amused chuckle. “Okay, play it your way. We’ll see how long that lasts once you meet our hosts.”
With that, Victor strode off and took a seat against the wall.
Darla was keeping up with the flood of impossible information as best she could. The automatic flare of anger at being spoken to like that had kicked her defenses into overdrive, but as the adrenaline slowed to a trickle and her mind accepted the reality of her situation, she found herself falling into a state of despair. But despair mixed with a sliver of hope.
It was one of her traits her sister had always said she envied. How she could find something positive in just about any situation. But even for Darla, this one was going to take an effort.
