Bo and the Beast (Book #1) (Completed)

45. Keep Fighting

Bo told the Beast how she and her mother had been captured by the aliens while on a scavenging mission. She briefly explained their time in the small wooden cage, which didn't seem to surprise the Beast much. He probably knew of many human prisoners kept that way. Finally, she told how she and her mother had been separated. And then she reached her mother's last days alive. It was the memory she avoided at all costs.

"I spent four days not knowing where they took my mother, and the aliens thought it was hilarious to make me fight their children. Whenever I cried, one of the adults would smack me with a wooden stick."

The Beast nodded. "That is how they train the young ones to be ruthless. Tears are never allowed, especially not in training."

Bo grit her teeth. "Well, they certainly beat me enough that I caught onto that pretty fast. In fact, they broke my hand and then left me in the cage on the last day. I was so hungry and tired, and I hurt all over. I just wanted my mother, but I was certain they had killed her. I never thought I'd see my dad or my sister ever again."

She took a shaky breath, trying not to remember the tidal wave of helplessness that had devoured her back then. "I had promised my mother I would be strong. I'd promised her that I would survive and make it out. But I broke that promise. I gave up. As a little kid, I just gave up on living."

"What happened then?" the Beast asked.

"I refused to eat, and I refused to fight their children. I didn't want to help them learn to fight, so I just stood there and let them hit me until they grew bored. And I guess they decided I wasn't worth the trouble anymore, because once it had turned dark they took me over to where they slaughtered their meat for meals. I remember one of them gripping my neck and forced me to my knees. I knew they'd slash my throat like they did for the wolves they'd been eating."

The Beast's jaw worked. "And this is where your mother comes back into the story?"

Bo nodded. "They were readying the gun to end my life, but just then one of the groups of working prisoners walked by. I guess they'd been using them to fix the machines or something, but when they walked past I saw my mother was among them. They were all heavily guarded, so she really couldn't do anything. She just stared at me as I screamed at her with tears in my eyes. Then the alien pressed a gun against the back of my head, and I thought my life was over."

"But it wasn't."

"No." Bo coughed against the lump forming in her throat. "Before he could shoot, my mother shoved the nearest guard down and ran for me. They shot her almost immediately, but she didn't fall. She ran to me, knocking down guards as they came after her. The other prisoners saw her example and tried to help her. She even made it to me. She grabbed my hand and pushed me forward, and we ran nearly to the edge of the camp. I made it into the cover of darkness, but when I turned to see where my mother was, I saw that she had fallen behind. They'd shot her in the side, and she was already bleeding too heavily to survive. I didn't know that then, however. I thought she just had to hurry and we'd be safe in the darkness."

"And then the guards caught up to her," the Beast said, already seeing where the story was going.

"They shot her in the back of her head." She coughed out the words. With them came the metal bite of blood as the crimson mist splattered across her skin. With that came also the gentle thump of pieces of bone hitting the dust. The way her mother's body flopped to the ground like a limp doll. The mangled mess of flesh and brain that now replaced the gentle face she'd thought she'd always see smiling at her each morning. How her mother's body had twitched, still barely alive for a few more seconds. It was that twitching, the knowledge that her mother must have suffered, must have seen Bo standing like the coward she was in the shadows, that was more burning than any acid.