Hello! Sorry for the false update, I've decided I want this story to be in 1st person pov and I am planning on changing some things here and there as well as edit as I go. I'm sure I will still miss some things along the way, but I am excited to see where things go! My vision for this story has stayed the same for the most part, just needs a bit of tweaking on how we are gonna get there. Anyhow, enjoy if you're new here and welcome back if your not!
xx MM
BENNETT
I knew I had royally fucked up from the moment I blinked my eyes open, feeling hazy and disoriented. For a moment everything seemed blurry and out of focus in a dimly lit room I didn't recognize. The last thing I remembered was being lost on a mountain somewhere in Colorado. It had been pitch black and bitterly cold then, so I must be in either the ER somewhere along the outskirts of Denver or, I was dead. Surely if it was the latter of the two I wouldn't wake up and be this thirsty.
In an effort to take in my surroundings; I attempted to roll into a sitting position, trying and failing to lift myself off my back. As I did so, something jerked painful at my neck, causing a low wheeze to leak from my chapped and cracking lips. The clang of metal rang in my ears then my hands flew to my neck purely out of instinct. A soft whimpering cry left my throat without my concept as I felt what I could only describe as a thick and heavy collar secured into place around my throat. A chain only about 1-2 feet long tethered me to a eyelet secured into the wall about a foot above the floor. Grabbing the chain I pulled with all the strength I could muster, knowing before I even started that it was futile, but trying anyhow. The wall I was secured to was as thick and sturdy as concrete, but looked nothing like the porous stone.
Definitely not a hospital, so dead then.
And I was dead. I had to be, there was no other way to rationalize being chained to a wall. My mother had finally been right, I had gone to hell for all those porny mags. Or maybe it was the sex before marriage? Drinking and smoking or any number of other sins I had committed in my short twenty three years of life.
Abruptly a loud buzzing chirp sounded from above my head, just as a burning sensation jabbed me in the side, sending bolts of electricity zinging all the way to my fingers and toes. With a cry I dropped the chain and rolled in the direction of my attacker, feeling the tug of the to short chain against my windpipe as I pulled it to its limits. Instantly I regretting my decision as the ugliest monster I had ever had the displeasure of dreaming up, towered above me.
Because that's what this all was right?
A dream I had gone to hell?
Yet as I eyed the 4 foot tall lizard looking blimp above me, with its six beady little black eyes, grey-ish purple leathery skin with pockmarks and welts that seemed to ooze a grey substance, everything was much to real just to be something I conjured up in my head. Where a nose should have been was empty space, and what I could only assume was a mouth sat vertically on its leathery face; splaying open and closed like a fish sucking in water. Rows upon rows of needle like teeth flexed in and out every time the creatures mouth moved.
It's body shape made even less sense; like an orangutan and a chicken had fused itself together but only barely. Long arms with clawed 4 fingered hands, touched the ground as it hunched over a heavy pot belly that sat upon thin bird looking legs with large 3 toed feet.
I shuddered as another buzzing chirp left the leathery things mouth, that grey substance dripping from an open orifice along its arm and onto the ground with a spat as it did so. Four fingers grasped a long black stick with two prongs on one end and a trigger on the other. The monster jabbed the stick at me again before grasping the chain attached to my collar and yanking so hard I swore my neck snapped. A choked cry left my throat as the monkey chicken creature detached the chain from the eyelet against the wall and lifting me by my throbbing neck, dragged me from the room.
Choking as the cold metal bit into my skin, I flailed and kicked my feet as I was dragged down a hallway and into another much larger room. My tear filled eyes shot wide as I made out creatures of all shapes and sizes lined up along a wall, all attached to the same chain with similar collars around their necks. Monsters shaped just about every way you could imagine. There were gills and wings, claws, scales like an alligator, tails and tentacles. Some were so colorful they hurt to look at and some so deadly looking I was almost too afraid to look directly at them, but none of the creatures even glanced my way though, heads drooped down in submission as they stood along the wall.
Once I was in place against the wall myself, more of the chicken monkey creatures began to roughly strip everyone with a collar of any items and articles of clothes they possessed. I fought, clawing and screaming at the chicken monkey in front of me as he tried to pull my clothes from my body, but one good shot from the stick in the things four fingered hand and I was a pile of Jell-O on the floor. Jerking and seizing so hard I could hardly breath, not that my collar was letting much air in anyhow.
Once our clothes were fully removed, every creature in line, including myself was forced forward by the chain attached to our collars into another room full to the brim with cages barley large enough for me to lay down in.
I struggled the whole way, jerking and pulling on my chain as I was dragged into a cage and stabbed again with what I was starting to referred to as the cattle prod from hell. My muscles spasmed and tears pricked my eyes once again. Holding in sobs of pain, I curled into the back corner of my cage -which wasn't even tall enough for me to sit up straight in- in silence and watched with tear hazed eyes as the ugly grey monsters with the cattle prods filled every cage around me the room with every kind of creature imaginable, or not imaginable in my case.
If this was a nightmare, I was really hoping I would wake up soon.
____
The Banty's - I had decided to name them that based off of the fact that their god awful personalities, strange chirping language and creepy three toed chicken feet reminding me of the many Banty Rooster's that had often terrorized me as a child while visiting my grandfathers farm in Texas- had hardly paid any of the creatures they had locked into cages any mind for what I could only guess was a day or two now.
I wasn't sure how much longer I could go without food and water, but more pressing than my hunger was how cold I was. I hadn't hardly been able to sleep I had been shaking so hard and nothing I said or did made any of the Banty's come into the large windowless room; not even to punish me. And even if they had I wasn't sure how I was even going to be able to relay to them what it was I needed. They were more likely to eat me than help anyhow.
To my relief a door suddenly appeared from a wall across the room and three Banty's entered, chirping and oozing up as storm. They made their rounds through the room, opening cages and tossing buckets as well as a container of something liquid from the sloshing sounds it made as it hit the floor. When they finally made it to my cage I attempt to crowd the door, hoping for an opportunity to slip out, but the Banty didn't even blink, there mouths gaping open and closed as they jabbed me roughly in the side the cattle prod. I collapsed like a lump of rocks onto the cold concrete floor. The zap sizzled through my body more aggressively than any of the hits I had taken before and it was a couple minutes before my vision cleared and my body stop spasming against my will.
When the shocks did finally ease and my muscles relaxed I pulled myself into a slumped sitting position, taking in items left in my cage. The grey five gallon bucket was empty, but was rimmed with yellowing stains smelled like stale feces.
Gagging, I quickly pushed it with my foot as far from my person as I could get it this tiny cage. The canister on the other hand was short and cylinder shaped, like a large unlabeled can of soup or veggies. The lid wasn't the peel off kind though but instead had a small black button- like you would find on the side of a flashlight- that you pressed and the lid rotated out of the way with a hiss. Inside was a almost iridescent grey substance that would have reminded me of the ooz coming off of the Banty's if it wasn't for the fact that it smelled fresh and clean. Like cucumbers' or roses, but not quite.
Tentatively I took a sip, praying it was actually supposed to be eaten as food. It was a thick almost slimy texture, more like a can of goop than water, and reminded me of an Aloe Vera drink. For the most part it tasted bland, yet slightly sweet, like hard candy that had sat for to long in its wrapper.
I waited for a moment then, to see if I would grow sick, but all I felt was bit warmer, slightly full and little less thirsty than I had five seconds ago. What exactly was this stuff? Three in one go-go juice? I couldn't help, but chuckle softly to myself before gazing around to the other occupants currently trapped alongside me.
The creature directly to my left could only be described as aquatic. The very air around it seemed to roll and sway like it was encased in its very own bubble of water. Their skin seemed to shimmer impossibly bright in the dimly lit cargo hold. It was a beautiful opal sort of hue along its torso, but deepened into a dark blue almost black along its arms and legs. The color and patterned reminded me of a exotic fish.
Its thin almost reptilian eyes were high up on it's faced and between it a ridged nose with two vertical slits for nostrils that looked kind of like gills. The ridges were shaped almost like an arrowhead, the sharp ends growing larger with ever ridge, jutting upward into a Mohawk of sorts that went through the center of the creatures head and seemed to follow a straight path all the way down it's back, coming to a stop at a deep blue and very sharp looking tail.
Said tail began to flick irritably at my attentions and when I raised my eyes to meet with the creatures ghostly white gaze, a chill ran up my spine. I smiled nervously anyways, feeling like prey caught in a predator's gaze, and to my surprise the creature returned the sentiment, with a dangerously sharp and hungry smile of its own. What seemed like a million bright white, sharp teeth flashed in the low light, a long snake like tongue swiping out to taste the air in my direction. My heart raced with fear and I suddenly felt almost thankful for the thick metal bars that separated us.
With a weary shiver, I decided I had done enough recon of my surroundings for now, and scooted to the center and back of my cage, an even, safe distance from both of my potentially dangerous neighbors- the other of which I was to scared to make eye contact with now- before bringing my knees to my chest and curling in on myself.
I didn't exactly feel happy, despite my earlier laughter, but I did feel better after drinking a few more small sips of the strange drink the Banty's had given me. I didn't know how long it would be until my strange chicken monkey captors gave me more, so I knew I had to be smart about my intake even if I was far from full. Otherwise I would most likely go hungry. I didn't trust aliens to know how to keep a human alive. Even if it seemed like they had perfected the art of human trafficking. Or exotic creature trafficking from the look of my real life Siren of a cage neighbor.
Better safe than sorry.
If only I had thought of that before I had stranded myself on a mountain in Colorado, simply for a view.