Blackout Part I

chapter 4

I woke up with a throbbing head and chains latched me to the floor, attached to a small ring welded to the floor. I pulled and jerked out of surprise and my mind cleared from its fuzziness. What happened? Oh…that’s right…my uncle was murdered. But that didn’t explain where I was, why I was chained to the floor or where my grandmum is!  If those bastards hurt even on wrinkle on that helpless old lady I’ll kill them all, chained down or not!

I looked at how I was chained down, hoping to find some flaw or way out of theses appalling things. A crack in the iron, something?!  My wrists are chained down to the cold ground, the chain itself was short, not giving me much wriggling room and forcing me to work on the balance in my knees. As if it were a joke, one of my ankles was chained down too, only with a longer chain and more room to move back there. I growled meanly, almost spitting. These freaks were some piece of work. So now I’m forced to look around and see how many of us survived the attack. Part of me wished my uncle were here, and it was a gut wrenching agony to know that he wasn’t.

There weren’t too many of us. I wasn’t seeing too many men or children, but here we were and we all want to know why. What value did they see in us? What was the cause for their attack? Why were they keeping us here? What were they?! I’m so sick of wondering already. I want answers, I want my grandmother, I want compensation for my uncle’s unjustified murder, and I want out! I want all of us out!

I hear all these quieted grumbles from the townspeople; they’re just as irritated, confused, and outraged as I am. We all want answers, such a shame that those creeps don’t speak Gaelic or English. “Where’s grandmum” I ask myself, seeing my breath disturb the dust off the floor and cough.

Something cleared its voice from up above us prisoners, thoughs of us who could look up did, some of us had our necks chained to the ground too, but that was only most of the men. We saw one of those things, dressed in its green armor and some sort of robe, same color as the blood I saw on one of them earlier, yet with some sort of silver lining or stitching on it. All us prisoners glared up proudly. We Scots may not have very good luck-but we are absolutely nothing without our pride.

I strained my eyes to look at the thing above me, and caught sight of a silver collar-the alien with the paper I saw earlier, I guessed. The alien put two claws up to the collar and pressed down. “Good people of Earth” it said in a man’s voice and we were all taken aback. So that thing around his neck is a communicator…perfect, so they could understand us the whole time probably and made my uncle only look like a fool before they murdered him. I remembered what their faces looked like up close, when I had confronted the two in my home I got a good look at them, which made up for me not being able to see his face very well. These creatures’ faces were more like a lizards’. A black lizard’s face and those orange eyes…terrifying.

“We appreciate your…erm…volunteering to come aboard our humble ship” The alien continued, a fake smile plastered on that smug, flat, snake like face. I hate him already, and I curse any children that come from him. “I’m the navigator of this fine vessel” He bowed to us as if we were the guests on the Titanic and we all grumbled in disgust “I’m sure you have many questions in need of answering, and all in good time” This was sickening-he was just playing with us, acting as if we were frightened children in need of tending, not a race he’d just captured and imprisoned, not with the respect with we deserved here. “But for now, I am under orders from our captain to bid you welcome and answer but one question. What is to become of you humans? This is simply answered; the crew, the captain, and I are in need of new helpers, seeing as our old ones suddenly and miraculously died off” He waved his free hand as if it were nothing “And though we are invaders, we do have an interest in preserving certain species, given that they are intelligent enough to be worthy of being preserved. Congratulations humans-you’re not the apes we first thought you were,” He chuckled good-naturedly…if you could even call it that “therefore you shall not be completely annihilated. We’ve been watching you and your planet for some time now and have finally made our move for total world conquest.  Thoughs of you who are brought into our many vessels have been chosen to be saved. Unfortunately we cannot save every meaningless human life. So if you have family units on the outside wish them a fond fair well in your mind and pray to your god that they are on one of our many ships. If they are on the ships however, the likelihood of your ever seeing them again is slim. So again-wish them fair well. Soon you will be assigned to your serving quarters, where you and your offspring will be working for the rest of your natural lives. Behave and there will be benefits, misbehave and there will be consequences. We’ve dug up information on some of you human’s habits and what you may think we will do. I assure you males that your females are safe from any groping hands of our kind that you may see on your televisions. My kind does not operate our missions like that. So then, until you are assigned to your posts-farewell” The navigator then took his fingers off his collar and left us to our squalor.

If he thinks we’re just going to serve his people easily and without a fight-the guys got another thing coming to him!

We were left chained to the floor for what felt like hours, choking on dust and grumbling. An army of them came to get us, pulling at our chains and shocking us if we didn’t cooperate. They were cruel to us, shoving and hitting and shocking even for no reason. When they shocked us you could feel inside your bones, crippling us yet we were forced to move on. After feeling that pain only twice-I had no fight left in me. I just wanted to curl up on the floor and close my eyes but I didn’t have that option. We were led into another dark room. Instead of the random rings that held us to the floor, we were tied to poles in orderly rows. I’d seen this kind of thing in movies before, this was designed like a slave trade, meant to observe us and choose which one of us humans would go to which one of these aliens.

I watched helplessly as my neighbors were picked out and hauled away, going who knows where. And would I ever see them again? I don’t know. I guess I’ll know where some are once I’m assigned too. I can’t watch my people be dragged off anymore, so I turn my attention somewhere else. I wish Uncle Angus were here and I regret not listening to all his alien lectures.

I look up to an outcropping above us and notice the scarred alien and the navigator. Now I’m just guessing here but either scarred and ugly is the captain of the ship or general of the entire army-if there’s even a difference. The navigator is pouring over his piece of paper, looking uncaring about what was happening to us prisoners. The captain is looking down at us coldly and then looks at the navigator, hitting his arm and started clicking and gurgling at him. The navigator replies to his companion, looking rather bored. The captain hissed something and then pointed down at us humans. The navigator sighed heavily, scanned us quickly and then pointed to me. I held my breath, unsure what was going on, and scared. The navigator put off this ‘there, you happy now?’ attitude and then went back to his chart and walked away. The captain nodded and gurgled something to the guard next to me and it came towards me, taking my chain in hand and dragging me out of the room. I feel the need to fight, but my bones still ach from being shocked-so I just walk with the creature. The can make my body a slave, but they can’t get my mind to cooperate.

I’m walked down a long corridor; the only noise heard is my chain swinging and the footsteps of both me and the alien guard. Now I could take this guy, since we’re alone here, I could run and escape, but there are two issues; one-he’s taller and stronger than me plus the added bone shocky stick he’s carrying with him. And two; I’d be leaving everyone else from my village to fend for themselves here in this hell.

It pushed me into a room at the end of the hall, filled with a bright blue light that hurt my eyes. The guard bowed and clicked something, then exited the room. It took my eyes a minute or two to adjust before I saw anything. Then the Navigator came into view. He wasn’t looking at me, but this giant lighted computer thing. His claws were dragging icons here and there, spreading the image to show new objects that looked like stars and galaxies.  Then there was another one he was attending, filled with strange symbols and what looked like formulas. Going back and forth between the screens, his claws went up to the button on his collar, “Hello human” he said, still not looking at me “welcome to my inner sanctum, where I do my job away from the prying eyes of the ship members and captain. This is where you will be working, so on and so on, you’re job is to keep the area clean and not to touch anything. Touch something and I might just have to take your hands and make you work with those strange feet of yours. You are not to make any noises or do anything that would disturb me and my work.” His orange eyes finally hit me and sent shivers down my sore spine…they were so strange and frightening.

But my uncle’s face came into my mind and how this thing had just looked at his body as if it were an insect. I charged forward angrily and went in to attack him. The Navigator didn’t even see me as a threat, clutching my throat with his sharp claws and holding me tight. His eyes went my dyeing ones, sending shock waves through my body. It hurt to breathe and I was getting dizzy. “That is one of the many things you can avoid to anger me little human.” Then he dropped me on the floor when the intercom blared loudly in the navigator’s strange language.

The Navigator looked angrily at the intercom, annoyed. He pressed the button and hissed something, only flinching angrily when the voice replied, sighing and replying again, defeated. After what I assume was rolling his eyes, the Navigator turned back to me and pressed his collars button. “The captain has summoned me to his side. He’s not the most patient of us Delrath’s so I must go. Stay here human child and do nothing.” Then he spun around, his cloak billowing behind him and he disappeared through the door.

Do nothing? Gladly. I’m out of air and energy so I’m just going to lie down here on the floor, and sleep…