Chapter 4: Saved... or maybe not.

Chapter 4: Saved... or maybe not.

Murry woke up to more terrible agony than he'd ever felt in his life. His eyes rolled to one side. A hairy creature was eating the layers of skin off the top of his forearm without the armband. His eyes widened at the horrible image. A long green tongue was licking and sucking his mangled flesh. Blood poured out of Murry as razor-sharp teeth scraped and sliced. Murry would never be able to get that image out of his head for the rest of his life.

His body shifted on the glass table as the recruit alien bit at his calf. Fresh tears flowed out of his eyes. He had to die soon. The fat one moved closer, and his wide green tongue ran over Murry's cheek, lapping up the tears. The fat one's breath smelled like rotting garbage. The stench made Murry gag. He almost threw up and tried to keep down his stomach contents. A body couldn't take much more of this, right? He prayed he would pass out again.

Gagging a second time, Murry wondered if he threw up in his mouth if that would kill him. He could suffocate with this pole taking up all the available space. For a second, Murry wished he would choke on his vomit and die. He needed something to kill him and soon.

"I'm finished." The younger alien lifted his mouth and then leaned over Murry's body. Murry's eyes tracked the alien as he licked at a gash along his abdomen. The wound above his belly button was new.

The agony made him feel faint, but the dizziness might've been the blood loss. How much blood could a human lose? When the recruit stepped away from Murry's body, there was only a half-second of relief. Every inch of Murry's skin was on fire. The abuse to his body was too much. He would die here. This was his new home until death, exactly like the monster said.

The hairy alien eating the top of his arm picked up his head. After giving the recruit a nod, he walked around until he stood between Murry's legs. Again, Murry stared up at the ceiling and whimpered. Before anything new ripped into his body, a scratching sound came from the entrance to the room. Everyone's eyes turned to the door.

A fiery blast blew apart the wall, door, and part of the frame. The explosion toppled the table, tipping a tied and strapped-down Murry over onto his side. Cages tumbled. In an instant, everything changed.

Murry was still bound to the table, but now his shoulder and his uneaten arm were planted under him. He was on his side on the floor, and he faced the aisle of scattered cages. The alien who was trying to eat him hit the floor at the power of the explosion. Now that the smoke cleared, the monster jumped to his feet.

As soon as the hairy creature ran, a blue light hit him in the center of the back. Murry watched the monster slide on his belly face-first toward the other end of the room. The smell of burning hair and acid blood was released into the air. A blackened hole smoked in the center of the alien's head.

The fat one and the young recruit hurtled over Murry's table, still tipped on the side. The two monsters separated and then ducked between cages. Murry angled his head up as a new creature stepped over him.

The new alien strolled to the center walkway between the rows of cages like he owned the ship. The six-foot-five man-shaped creature had smooth blue skin that shimmered like he was wet or covered in glitter. Three tentacles were on either side of his body. One set of appendages came out of his shoulders like human arms with no hands. The next set of limbs came from his ribs. The third pair of tentacles came out from above his broad, muscular hips. The alien was perfectly symmetrical and reminded Murry of a Ken-doll. Well, this guy would be a ken-doll if he were a six-tentacled doll with blue dolphin skin.

When the alien stopped in the center of the room, one tentacle reloaded a weapon he held, another one pulled a second gun from a holster on his thigh, and last, a tentacle flipped his black hair over his shoulder. The move was like a flirty girl at the mall, but Murry noted that wasn't hair. What flowed around the alien's shoulders was more like tubes. Out of his head grew tons of long shiny tiny black tubes. They curled at the ends in ringlets.

Murry prayed this creature would turn, shoot, and kill him. He was in so much pain that he wanted nothing else. As if the creature knew what he was thinking, blue-tentacle-man spun around and faced Murry.

Their eyes met.

Although there was a long list of things that Murry could note about the alien, like his high cheekbones, chiseled jaw, or smooth pink lips, none of that had him staring. It was the alien's eyes that took Murry's breath away. The bright eyes were blue like the clearest sky and almond-shaped. His ridiculously long eyelashes fanned his cheeks, and his gaze was innocent and kind. But no matter the sweet expression, the guns on the alien's body were the exact opposite of his harmless look.

After only a few ground eating steps, the alien was at his side. As the creature crouched next to Murry's head, Murry watched the way his six-pack abs flexed. The muscles of his thighs and calves moved beautifully under his skin. Confused, Murry realized he kept using the words he and him, but the alien didn't have a penis. He was naked and where the genitals should be was nothing but smooth skin.

The alien's middle tentacle slipped one pistol-looking gun into a spot at his lower spine. Tipping his head as if asking a question, the alien stared for a moment. Suddenly, the extraterrestrial used one of his long tentacles to unlatch the hard pole-gag in his mouth. He slipped the obstruction free, and Murry coughed.

"Thanks." Murry knew the strange being wouldn't understand him, but he expressed his gratitude anyway.

"No problem," the alien responded, but before Murry could find out how they were speaking the same language, the blue-tentacle-man reached out with all six of his limbs and loosened all the straps simultaneously. Murry rolled onto his belly and then got to his knees cradling his eaten arm.

"Who are you?"