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Chapter Fourteen
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2024-10-29 19:42:56His mouth was so dry that it felt like he’d swallowed a cup full of sand. He needed water, but there was no one in sight to ask for it. He questioned if they’d give it to him anyway. Since he’d been captured, the treatment that Rex had received was harsher than anything he’d experienced. The flesh on the goose egg that the blow to his head had caused was broken, yet he’d been given no medical care for it. He was so worried about infection that he’d used most of the water that his captors had provided to wash it out; leaving very little to quench his thirst with.
His head finally felt clearer. For quite a while, his world was nothing more than a dizzy blur. Now, at least, he was able to decipher that he was being transported east toward a community of aliens to be sold or traded for staples that the Amazon camp was in need of.
He’d tried to telepathically reach first Arthur and then Olga, but
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It was almost dawn before Rex stopped to rest. It was then that he put on the sandals. They were a bit snug, but, with the leather ties secured loosely, they stayed on his feet and didn’t pinch. It took him a few minutes to get accustomed to the feel of the edge of the sandal against the beds of his big toes, but he soon moved as if he had custom shoes on his feet.He allowed himself a full five minutes of rest along a fast flowing stream before he forced his body back into motion. By now, the camp was aware of his escape and they’d be coming after him. He needed to get back to the village and get both help and protection. Being half naked with undersized sandals on his feet made for poor armor should they come upon him with arrows.The sun had just come over the ridge when he heard the sound of horses whinnying in the distance. It was coming from a direction that seemed unlikely for the Amazon women, but he couldn&
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Marta waited outside Minerva’s tent for Kendra. They were breaking camp the following morning so this was her only opportunity to get her away from camp unnoticed. The alien village was but a day away. They’d be there the following night and then the girl would be sold and the money would be in Minerva’s possession.She’d already conversed with Minerva and learned that the rogue queen was rapidly reaching her fill of the surface human in the bedroom. It didn’t surprise her. Minerva was a woman of exotic likes and dislikes. From what Marta knew of what went on inside that tent, the foolish girl had allowed Minerva every liberty. Of course, she was drugged the night before and Marta had no doubt that she’d been drugged again; especially since Marta had told her that it was a special Amazon drink that would help elongate her life. She imagined Kendra willingly drank it when it was offered.&
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The sun had been up for a few hours when she heard the sound of battle nearby. Uncertain what to do, Kendra pulled an arrow from her quiver and carefully crept in the direction of the commotion.The sight of an Amazon woman holding a knife to Ari’s neck was the final stone in her tower of craziness. Without thinking about the fact that she was still quite far away, she secured an arrow in her bow and aimed at the woman’s torso. Without a moment’s hesitation, she let out a war hoop to attract the woman’s attention and then let the arrow fly. With the ease of a skilled and competent hunter, she made a clean shot to the heart.Ari groaned as her opponent’s bulk fell, full-force, upon her petite physique. “Are you trying to kill me? Someone get her off of me! The arrow’s digging into my chest, damn it!”With his leg not cooperating, Felix fell to the ground several times while
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They tussled with the idea of Ari and Felix returning to the village. Felix was concerned about the welfare of the baby after his wife having gone through the trauma of having a knife held to her throat and then being pinned beneath extreme dead weight that covered her body completely. Ari held firm to her insistence that she was fine and so was the baby. She wasn’t about to go back to the village when the others were going to Center Land. The academy at Center Land was, after all, her alma mater. Of everyone in the group, she belonged going there the most.Kendra did her best to emphasize that they had no plans of staying. It was their intention to slip in, fetch Eugene, and slip out again. The laughter that Ari emitted upon this statement sounded resentful and almost evil as she informed Kendra that no one simply slipped into Center Land. She reminded her that the academy’s focus was to produce soldiers for t
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With tempers finally at a tolerable level, they climbed onto the horses and headed in the direction that they hoped would take them to Center Land. Noticing that it was more than just her argument with Ari bothering Kendra, Rex watched her every move through the corner of her eye. When he saw his wife wince as she settled onto the saddle, he pursed his lips in anger. He’d heard enough about that rogue group to guess what had happened to his wife and it infuriated him on her behalf. Sure, it was a cruel and rugged world where only the strong survived, but for such a young woman, she’d experienced and endured enough trials to equal what three women twice her age would have been exposed to. It didn’t seem fair.He’d considered this often, even before the lesbian amazons captured her, and had marveled over how she’d remained so kind of heart. After the struggle that he and Olga had in reminding her that
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Felix followed Olga as they walked in silence for a good distance. His mind whirled over what type of conversation with his aunt was about to happen. Was she going to speak to him about his desires for Kendra or his wife’s hatred for her?Ari had, somehow, discovered his secret longing for Kendra. How did that happen? If only she’d spoken to him about it. He could have explained how it was an old feeling from a time when he thought that Kendra would be the only female he’d ever see and it just came and went from time to time.He was never good about change. Anyone could tell her that. He’d battled his aunt when it came time to move and wouldn’t have done so if it wasn’t for the fact that Rupert’s knowledge of where they lived was dangerous. He’d balked when Rex joined their little group and took a while to accept him. It was just his way.Seeing this side
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On the verge of hyperventilating, Ari had to stop and force her body to calm down. She was furious about the fact that Pete had foiled her plan to take advantage of the zombie battle to take down Kendra. Now, she was sure that all eyes would be on her and the opportunity wouldn’t come again.Her hatred for Kendra was so acute that it surprised her. She needed to take the time to analyze it. Was it really simply because she’d heard Felix moan for her while sleeping? Was that really justification for the anger and pure hatred that she felt?No. It wasn’t.Sitting down at the base of an ancient tree, she worked on balancing her breathing while she concentrated on her feelings for Kendra.Memories of when she’d first met her while hunting began a long movie of the different times they’d been in each other’s company. From being sent on a mission to find her by the leaders of Center Land to
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Both Felix and Olga expressed their surprise in the fact that Ari wasn’t amongst the group when they returned to them.“We’ve been gone a good long time,” Felix mused. “She should have calmed down and come back to apologize by now.”“How little you know of your wife,” Kendra snipped under her breath as she tightened the cinch on her saddle.Taken aback by his cousin’s remark, he said, “I think I know her as good as anyone.”Swinging into the saddle with the ease of an experienced rider, Kendra did her best to hide the wince as her tender, overused groin settled against the leather seat. “If you did, then, you’d know that Ari doesn’t believe in apologizing. It’s not the soldier’s way. Center Land teaches them to take responsibility for their actions. Own them, but never apologize for them.”He placed his hand on her horse’s neck an
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It took two days of traveling over what they considered treacherous ground to reach Hope. Between keeping their eyes open for newly made alien and amazon zombies and the wild beasts- many of which were prehistoric- their nerves were completely spent by the time they stumbled into Arthur’s house.Alice was sitting on the porch when she spotted them coming down the hill toward the village. Racing into the house, she frantically prepared him for their arrival.Although Arthur was relieved that his love had returned to him and eager to hold her in his arms again, he dreaded having to give the group the news of Ari’s demise. He’d struggled for days to think of the right way to tell them and had yet to come up with it.Pete’s absence was immediately noticed. Although Arthur was saddened, he wasn’t surprised by the news that his friend had succumbed to the virus. Pete wasn’t immune to it and, therefore, was taking a
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Luck was with them as they slipped through the door and scurried across the wide, well-lit corridor and into the shadows. There was no sign of life, but they dared not speak. Drawing from her experience as a prisoner in the past, Kendra behaved as she had while escaping from the alien camp on the surface and slipped from shadow to shadow as silently as possible.Once again, Olga telepathically spoke to Kendra. “These bastards speak a crazy language, but I managed to decipher the location of Eugene. Look for a door with two ‘X’s’, an upside down ‘V’ and an ‘O’ on it in the west wing. That’s where he is. Hurry, they’re preparing to send a search party out for our bodies.”Feeling the pressure of the urgency, Kendra motioned for Pete and Felix to follow her as she turned a corner and began surveying the writing on the doors. They were already in the west wing, but she saw nothi
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The trio cautiously made their way to the south wall of the settlement in hopes of encountering fewer zombies. They had no choice but to cross a small clearing, but managed to escape notice from the guards patrolling the walls. Fortunately, the zombies that they were forced to battle were ones that had regressed to a manageable state of brain dead and were fairly easy to eliminate.Once they’d reached the wall, Pete looked for signs of a possible entry, but could find none. Although she wasn’t as certain about what to look for, Kendra also searched the exterior of the settlement with her eyes, but saw nothing as well.“We might be too close,” Pete mused. “After all, it would be an escape tunnel.”“Where would it come out, then?” Kendra asked with angst. This was a new situation for both of them. She couldn’t be upset with Pete or Felix for not thinking about that before they’d ri
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Kendra was concerned.Rex was in trance for what she deemed an excessive length of time. What could he possibly be seeing that would take him so long? She was seriously considering joining him in trance to find out, but, then, thought better of it.Moving close to her aunt she whispered, “Do you think that one of us should go into trance to see what’s happening? He might need to be pulled back.”Olga knit her brows together. She’d been thinking the very same thing. It had never happened to her, but she’d heard about visionaries getting stuck in a vision and needing assistance coming back. It was a rare occurrence, but it did happen.She grabbed her niece’s hand and held it to her heart. “It must be me who goes in to see what’s up. If he’s stuck, you aren’t adept enough to bring him back.”She knew that her aunt spoke the truth, but the realit
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Kendra was surprised at how close they were to Center Land. The temptation to enter the city and demand the return of her son was almost all consuming. It took extreme willpower to continue on past it toward the alien’s settlement.“Do you think that alien in the amazon’s cell was from this place?” she asked as they carefully slipped behind a large boulder and looked down upon the modest sized alien settlement.Even though it was modest, it was still impressive. The walls were lined with barbed wire that made the community look more like a prison than a place of residence. Looking off in the distance, they soon learned the reason for the set up. With eyes wide with surprise, they watched as several zombies cooperated with each other to create a mound high enough for one of them to climb over the wall. When it reached the top and grabbed onto the wire, a visible jolt of electricity practically fried it to a crisp.
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Arthur insisted that Olga, Kendra, Rex, Felix, and Pete make haste on their very important mission. Promising to tend to Ari as best he could, he waited until they were well out of sight before turning to Alice.With a frown on his face, he asked with concern, “What do you think, Alice? Do you think she’ll even make it to Hope?”The severe wrinkles on her face made it almost difficult to tell that the young woman’s brows were knit together as she looked down at Ari. “She’s in pretty bad shape. I thought that they were saving her life. It looks more like they were keeping her alive for some reason that didn’t require good health.”Arthur shuddered. “They were a deceiving bunch, wouldn’t you say? All that talk about peace and caring for mankind. I wonder why they really kicked out those rogues. From what I could see, they weren’t any worse than t
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As agreed between Olga and Rex, they informed Kendra of their plans, but nothing was said to the others about them. The main reason was that it was unclear if they’d be successful and, since Alice and Pete weren’t behaving as cooperatively as they’d hoped, they didn’t want anyone doing or saying something to make things go awry.As she’d predicted, Olga replaced the batch of virus that was taken from her with a fresh supply while the guards overseeing her assumed that she was working on the antidote. She cautiously slipped several vials into her lab coat pocket before announcing that it was nearing lunch time and she was excessively hungry to the point that it was interfering with her work. She wanted to be returned to her cell so that she didn’t miss the lunch meal.Since she was required to change clothes before leaving the lab, she slipped behind the screen they’d provided to appease her modesty under the g
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Kendra sucked in air as a vision of Queen Isabo appeared before her. The amazon queen was standing amongst a small group of aliens. It was Kendra’s first view of the aliens occupying inner earth. They looked exactly like the ones on the surface. She shuddered with repulsion as the memories of her time as their prisoner fluttered through her mind.Pushing the unsettling thoughts away as best as she could, she focused on the conversation that was taking place between the amazon queen and the alien who was clearly of status. They were speaking a language that was foreign to Kendra, but their tones and facial expressions led her to believe that their interaction was friendly.Her heart raced wildly with remembrance and trepidation as the rogue amazon leader, Minerva, walked up to them. Kendra recognized most of the rogues following her from her time in their camp. They stood a short distance away from their leader as they wai
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By the time Arthur and Alice were thrust into the cell, the group had come up with a solution for their lack of privacy that gave them some semblance of comfort while taking care of personal needs. The women had seriously considered pointing out their dilemma and asking to be moved to a separate cell, but, then, thought better of it. Staying together would allow them the chance to put their wits to work as a unified group and come up with a means of escape. So, when nature called, they swallowed their pride and braced themselves to endure the humiliation as they made the announcement of their body’s need so that the others could stand with their backs turned toward the individual until the person announced that all was clear.The lack of consideration for their comfort and modesty made Kendra equate the amazons to aliens on the surface who treated humans like they were no better than animals.Several hours passed before Olga was yanked from the
