*Mae*
"Mama? Mama, where are you?"
Smoke encompassed my vision, obscuring my view from trying to find my mother through the haziness of the fuel filled air that circled around my younger sister who I was currently holding in my arms as I spun around in a circle.
People were moving around us, screams of terror, fear and panic swarming throughout the sea of crowds.
I was lost in this maze of people and I couldn't quite remember where we were, only that Mama had left us here to grab some essentials at a nearby convenience store.
But the stores were all raided, picked through as locals and travellers alike were scrounging around for anything they could get their hands on as the prepper types had already taken stock of any and all of the necessities to survive our everyday lives.
I couldn't remember the last time we had water that wasn't boiled over a stovetop oven that we couldn't afford anymore but we still needed it, especially since it was one of the few things we still used to have decent meals every now and then.
Couldn't remember the last time I ate noodles that weren't completely crunchy or had a bad aftertaste since we were having to make them stretch for weeks on end at times.
Heck, the last time I had a decent meal was the last time I had a decent shower that didn't consist of the outdoor shower which was basically a bucket filled with cold creek water that may or may not have been sterilized as I could never tell with how murky it was.
"Mama?"
I shouted out for our mother as I could feel my panic begin to arise, why couldn't I seem to find her?
She didn't just disappear on us, did she?
No, I thought as I forced myself to steel my thoughts against anxiety induced reckless wandering of the mind.
Mama wouldn't just disappear and abandon her children like that.
She just wasn't that kind of person, that type of mother.
She loved us more than anything else, that much I was aware of.
She wouldn't just leave us like that, it wasn't who she was which is why I was suddenly deeply concerned for Lettie's and my own safety.
Because if Mama disappeared, if something came after her….Would it be targeting us soon as well?
Or were we already within its sights?
Gulping as I tried to push those negative thoughts away, I tightened my grip around Lettie as I scurried over to a half dilapidated house, crouching down as I shielded my baby sister from the damaging harm from other anxious and hysterical passer-bys that could soon ensue if Mama didn't find us quickly.
Collette made a noise of fright, of fear as she whimpered and clung tighter to my body.
My heart started to crack in two as I shushed her the best I could, smoothing my hands over her sweat-dampened red locks as I tried to comfort her.
"Shh, it's all okay. It's okay, Mama will be here soon."
I reassured her even as I didn't believe the words myself but I had to instill hope in us.
Because hope could survive anything.
It could outlive famine and danger.
Poverty and terror.
It could outlast anything thrown its way.
That's what hope could do to desperate people in desperate times of measure.
But I wasn't sure how much I stood on the belief that hope could fix everything.
Because it clearly hasn't brought Mama back from her adventure.
If she was even coming back at all.
And then, I heard an ear piercing scream, a cry for help from a voice that I knew all too well.
It was Mama.
And she was in trouble.
Jolting awake from the memory with such a startling force that could've kick-started the Calypso back into gear if it had been working right in the first place, my eyes flew open, blinking the sleepiness haze out of them as I surveyed my surroundings.
The viewpoint from earlier hasn't changed, as I soon discovered.
My vital weapons for hands and feet were still tied up, the old cloth wrapped tightly around my mouth now soaked with saliva from me trying to scream for help earlier.
What was new about me waking up this time around was the fact that these beasts had decided to bind my chest and abdomen against the base of the tree to ensure that I had little to no chance of escaping.
A frown crossed my face with a hint of confusion lagging behind, how did they manage to even find some rope and tie me to this tree while I was asleep?
That's when I realized that the rope around my upper and lower body wasn't exactly the same coarse material as what was wrapped around my wrists and ankles.
This material wasn't something that could be used very often because they were vines.
Green vines wrapped so tightly around my body, it felt like I was slowly being suffocated to a painful death by a boa constrictor.
And if that wasn't bad enough, the overgrown woods were rapidly darkening around me, clouding my vision and making it even harder to see what, or rather who, was near me.
Suddenly, an eerie crunching sound behind the base of the tree drew my attention.
The hairs on the back of my neck stood up as I held my breath with anticipation, what was behind me now?
Was it going to kill me?
That's when I saw one of the male creatures from earlier scurry around the base of the tree, his eyes watching me with curiosity instead of the anger and hatred like how the other one had been staring at me earlier.
No, this one wasn't nearly as intimidating as that man from before.
He was less bulky, more scrawny then he appeared from a distance to be.
He didn't have nearly as much muscle on his body as opposed to the other male but he seemed more timid and shy, more cautious of my spontaneous appearance unlike the other male who probably wanted to kill me any second now if given the right opportunity to strike.
But instead of freaking out like I really wanted to since this male stood closer than the other one did, I stayed silent as the male approached me, the sound of joints cracking inside his hairy kneecaps making me cringe behind the cloth as I leaned back further against the tree base, not wanting this alien to come any closer but it wasn't like I could predict what he was going to do or say next.
They were aliens after all, who knows what their intentions could be when it came to foreigners to their native planet?
Even though I had thought that the alien would devour me since the other one had been a bit rude to be honest but I was strangely surprised when the unnamed male leaned forward and removed the cloth from my mouth completely, his dirty covered hands barely scraping the skin but he jumped back as if he was suddenly burned by my presence, like the mere sight of someone like me would scar him for life.
Well, that is entirely possible since I don't think there's been any humans here in…
Probably forever now.
But nonetheless, I still thanked the nameless male with tears of gratitude burning behind my green irises.
"Thank you for that help. It does mean a lot to me."
That part I definitely couldn't lie about, I was immensely grateful for the small break from the cloth digging into my chapped lips and bruised skin.
The male only frowned as he couldn't seem to understand the language I was speaking and then, his eyes seemed to sparkle with realization before his deft hands then pulled the vines off my upper and lower half, my own eyes widening with shock as he ripped the coarse material off my bound wrists and ankles.
He was untying me and all I could think about was the fact that I was now free and I had to get as far away from these creatures as possible.
Which is why I smiled at the male to cause him to relax around my presence as I slowly pushed myself up to my feet, one of my hands frantically searching behind my back for one of the weapons I always carried on myself.
Then, my fingers grazed the blade tucked into one of the back pockets of the jumpsuit and I stiffened when I saw the male wearily eying my hidden hand behind my back.
Letting go of the blade momentarily, I decided not to hurt this specific male for now.
He was nicer than the other one so he should be spared.
Or at least, that's how I rationalized my logic about the self defense techniques I was about to unleash on my next unsuspecting victim.
"So…um…I have to go to the bathroom and I'm sure none of you guys have a toilet around here so I'm just gonna–"
Making up a lie as I went, I pointed to a towering pile of bushes nearby, hoping to get my message across to the young male even if the language communications barrier was slapped between us like an immovable stone wall.
"--Go over there?"
My statement was poised more as a question then a command and I wanted to slap myself smack dab in the brain, why did I think pointing at those bushes not too far away from where we stood would make him believe that I was going on a temporary bathroom break?
Don't get me wrong, I absolutely needed to pee but I could hold it until I got out of these woods and off this planet.
The young male glanced between the bushes and me, the foreigner who was ready for fight or flight but preferred flying away from the barbarians she's already encountered, and he made a noise of indecisiveness before a short nodding of his head was plenty of an answer to me.
Even though our nonverbal communication was shit at the most, I could only hope that the awful communicating levels between our different species would be enough of a distraction for me to be able to escape through the woods and back out into the beach for the escape pod hidden away inside the Calypso.
If it hadn't been for that dream, which I still think might've been reality at some parallel universe next level shot here, I never would've remembered that there was an escape pod inside the Calypso which could only be used for drastic, dire emergencies.
And right now, this was as good as any drastic, dire emergencies were going to get.
And so, with that plan in mind, I headed for the bushes, leaves and fallen twigs from the various tree crunching beneath my feet and once I saw I was well out of sight from those males, I took off running faster than I've ever ran before.
Mama would be happy to know that I've kept in relatively good shape to be able to run this quickly, my speed could've probably beat that of the Legendary Usain Bolt back in his glorious days of track running.
My lungs burned like fire as I sprinted through the forest, indistinguishable sounds of anger in the form of dark growling sounded off from behind me but I was too far gone to care.
I had to get back to the Calypso and get the hell off the planet.
I couldn't risk being around these creatures any longer unless I wanted to be roasted over a spit and that wasn't my intention.
I wasn't ready to die. At least, not yet anyways.
Now, if only I could just remember the way back to the beach through all of these damned forest patches that probably spanned over their entire planet, I'd be all set.
And then, everything would be all hunky dory then and I would have to kiss quite a few asses when I found my way back onto the Celestial.
But something powerful out there had a different story in mind.
And it didn't include me getting back to the Calypso anytime soon.
If the way the growling noises were sounding, the males were closing in on me again.
Which started our little game of cat and mouse.
Capture and kill.
And God, what I wouldn't give to be the cat in this situation.
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-Ro♥️