The night was long. Without Bruda to help me pass it, it felt like it stretched on forever. Like I had actually lived several nights instead of just one.
I was exhausted when one of the guards finally opened the cell door.
“Get up," he barked.
My joints felt frozen with the cold, and I stumbled a bit trying to get up. He led me down a long hallway. When we finally got outside of the arena, I was relieved to see the rest of the female prisoners waiting outside of a small spaceship that I assumed would be transporting us to where the hunt began. It reminded me of the ship we had been taken on during the Vepar trials.
That had seemed a lot less foreboding then the situation now did, however.
Looking around, I realized that I didn't see Bruda anywhere. Were their multiple ships? Had some of the female prisoners already been taken? I hadn't counted how many of us there were, but it looked like all the other prisoners were here based on the ones I had remembered. What had happened to her?
I felt a sense of panic. Once I was released by the guard to mingle with the rest of the prisoners, I turned to the alien closest to me. "Excuse me, have you seen the Vepar that I was with yesterday? The one dressed in a leather outfit with dark brown hair?" I asked her. The alien I spoke to was gorgeous, just like all the others, with shiny orange skin and hair that was a flaming red color. Her eyes matched her hair.
She scanned the crowd around us. "I haven't seen her. Not since last night. I didn't notice anyone being taken away though, so she must be around here somewhere."
“So there hasn't been another ship that's left for the mountain?" I asked.
She shook her head at me sympathetically. "No, as far as I know, with the exception of the ones who died yesterday, the rest of us are still here."
I nodded despondently. There wasn't anything I could do about Bruda’s disappearance at the moment. I just hoped that she was okay. It was a stupid thing to hope since how any of us could be okay in a situation like this as a prisoner of the Khonsu. But I still sent up a silent prayer that something good had happened to her. She deserved it.
If I ever got a chance, I would try to find out what happened to her.
The golden skinned alien had asked me a question, but I'd been so lost in my thoughts that I didn't hear her until she was almost done speaking.
She tapped me on the shoulder to get my attention. "What planet are you from?" she asked curiously. “You look like you could be a Vepar, but with that performance yesterday, there's no way that you are,” she continued, studying me closely.
"I'm from Earth," I responded absentmindedly, my thoughts still on Bruda’s whereabouts.
"I've heard of that place. It is one of the Vepar colonies, isn't it?" she asked innocently. Earth being called a Vepar colony filled me with a hate so strong that I could barely answer.
"I suppose you could call it that," I said stiffly. "Colony does denote that the planet was taken over. Which is what happened," I continued.
She nodded uncomfortably. Obviously, I wasn't doing a great job of keeping my emotions in check when it came to that subject.
"I'm sorry, as you can imagine by my presence here, it's a little bit of a sore subject," I said conciliatorily.
"My planet was taken over by another as well. You don't have to apologize to me about having anger over such a thing."
I opened my mouth to respond, but just then a horn sounded, and we were surrounded by a horde of Khonsu guards who began to push us towards the spacecraft. A long plank descended from the opening of the craft and we walked on it into the ship single file. The inside of the ship was set up somewhat like the aircraft I had seen in military movies on Earth. There was a long row of seats on each wall with harnesses attached to each seat. Staying in line, we all took a seat and strapped ourselves in the harnesses under the careful watch of the guards.
There was still a part of me that expected one of my guys to appear at any moment to save the day. But as everyone filed in, and the doors were closed, it looked less and less like that was going to occur.
I was truly on my own.
The ship took off, and I felt my stomach heave at the sudden movement. There were no windows inside the craft, and that didn't help my motion sickness. Obviously the Khonsu hadn't bothered installing the technology or didn’t possess the Vepar technology that allowed you to travel without sickness.
I couldn't decide whether it was a good thing or not that we landed so quickly. On the one hand, I didn't feel like I had to throw up anymore, but on the other hand, this meant that the hunt was about to start.
I guess there was no sense in delaying the inevitable.
We unhooked the harnesses and again left the ship single file. Stepping out, I could see that we had landed at the base of the Khonsu’s sacred mountain. The mountain was covered with an assortment of trees. The trees all had different colored leaves, kind of like how fall had looked back home. Things were different here than where the Vepar lived, however. The colors weren’t nearly as vibrant. It actually reminded me a lot more of Earth in general than the Vepar side had.
When I was younger, my parents took me on a trip to Utah during my school’s fall break and we had hiked Mount Timpanogas. This mountain reminded me of that, and a sudden bout of homesickness hit me.
Looking around to distract myself from the feeling, I realized I didn't see any of the purple tunic clad Khonsu anywhere in sight. Where were they? Were they hiding in the mountains, intent on pouncing on us as we tried to run for our lives?
My question was answered when a more decadent ship that was obviously superior to the ones that they had put us in (it had windows at least) landed a little ways away from ours.