“Looks like Veral set off the dynamite. That had a bit more of a kick than I expected,” Terri said. She brushed the sand from her hair and face and squinted ahead. The torches of the gate glowed just up ahead. She smiled with relief.
“All right, ladies, we’re almost there. Is everyone ready to get the hell out of here?”
A tired murmur swept through the women, but they nodded their heads, and many wore smiles on their faces. Becky lifted a trembling hand and pointed to the gates.
“Let’s get a move on, ladies,” she croaked. Terri glanced at her in concern. The cloth covering the stump appeared to be fully saturated with blood now. That wasn’t good. Becky fastened her with a hard look and shook her head. She didn’t want the other women to worry. Terri pinched her lips together but reluctantly remained silent.
“Time to go,” Terri agreed as she pushed her pack up higher on her shoulder. Once they were a safe distance from the gates, they would take a break and she would distribute supplies.
Everyone began to advance when a woman burst out screaming to the rear of the group. “A Reaper is coming! Hide!”
All the woman flew into a panic, a confusion of voices all crying out in unison. Terri pushed her way back through the women straining to hear the voice calling out to them.
“No. It’s okay! Please wait for me. I’m not a Reaper!”
Terri froze in recognition, her eyes widening. “Everyone, it’s okay. Calm down. It’s Meg!”
The name was recognizable only to a small minority, a few of them twisting their lips in a knowing grimace of distaste. Terri frowned at them.
“Every one of you has had to do what you needed to do to survive. Meg made her choices and suffered for them.”
A commotion erupted as one of the women shoved to the fore. Terri recognized her, the woman’s fingers twisting around the small blanket that had been wrapped around her little girl. She’d refused to leave without it.
“Don’t any of you bitches say nothin’ bad about Meg,” she said tearfully. “She wasn’t like some of the other women in the camp. She never did anything to hurt any of us and tried to deflect anything that Dale had planned. She brought me back my baby after those men hurt her. She didn’t have to do that, and sure as hell none of you would have. You can pretend you’re superior but not a one of you is better than her,” she said to the few smirking women, effectively wiping the superior looks off their faces. Another woman came up behind her, wrapping her arms around the weeping woman as she shuddered and sobbed.
There was a stunned silence. Becky snorted, shattering the quiet. “Hell, I’ll welcome her. It’s not like I haven’t seen plenty of the women in that shed spread their legs for the boys coming through, willingly or not. I don’t shame anyone keeping herself alive.”
Several ducked their heads in embarrassment while other women voiced their agreement with Becky.
“We women need to stick together,” another one said, earning more mumbles of approval.
Meg stumbled over to her, barely visible in the low light from the nearby torches. Terri winced in sympathy at the dirty and bruised woman. Meg’s dark hair was hanging in a tangled mass in her face as her body shivered with nerves. A wide smile stretched over her friend’s face as she cried out.
“Holy fuck, Terri!”
Terri grinned and rushed forward to meet her friend. They embraced tightly and Terri laughed with relief.
“Meg, I am so happy to see you,” she said as she hugged her friend close once more. “I was worried that you didn’t get far enough away in time.” She hesitated and looked around warily. “Dale?”
Meg shook her head with a watery smile. “Bastard tried to use me as a bargaining chip to save his own skin. Yourmatetook care of him—the whole mate thing I’m dying to hear about, by the way,” she joked. Her shaky laughter turned into a sob as she clutched Terri tighter. “I’ve never been so scared.”
“It’s all right,” Terri soothed. “We’re going to get out of here and put this shit behind us. You are going to live in a safe place on the coast, get married and have a crap-ton of kids.”
At the mention of children Meg’s face crumpled and her shoulders shook with sobs. “I can’t, Terri. I can’t go through that again and lose my babies. I just… can’t.”
She stroked a hand over Meg’s face, brushing her hair back. “Okay, well, no pressure on the kids part then. The point is you’re going to have a fresh start.”
Meg nodded her head and sniffled.
Her arm braced around her friend, Terri started forward once more. Her entire body ached from the blast, and exhaustion quickly began to wear at her. It seemed to take forever, but the torchlight slowly grew the closer they got. She smiled as they filed up to the gate at last.
“This is it!” she cried back to the other women. “Freedom.”
She faced forward and staggered to a stop as a tall man stepped out from the other side of the gate. He was accompanied by a pair of males that looked like… Veral.
“My apologies, ladies, but I’m afraid I can’t let you do that. I have struck a deal with these… gentlemen,” he said smoothly, though the aliens looked at him balefully. He didn’t appear to notice as he rambled on. “We’ve come to an agreement. It seems one of you lovely ladies managed to mate with their species. They’ve come to take said lady, and the rest of you, back to their world for observations of some kind.”
“Marcus,” Meg whispered. “What are you doing?”