Page 25 of Alien Rescue

He got in, and she tensed, but he merely made himself comfortable against the door and closed his eyes.

Rose settled down, biting her lip. She was just paranoid. The trucker’s voice was nothing like the aliens. It was just his formal way of speaking that made his voice feel familiar to her. She tried to stay awake, but eventually she lost the battle.

The next morning, she rose and shivered when the blanket fell away. He must’ve covered her with it during the night. And she hadn’t woken. She reached behind her for the pistol and found nothing. Her heart stopped beating for a moment. Rose moved and felt the weight on her ankle. The pistol was back in its holster. She stared at it, not knowing what to think.

The trucker was gone from the front seat. Rose climbed to the front seat and then outside. She carefully held onto the door until her feet touched the ground. She let go of the door and pulled the large jacket he’d given closer to her body. The early morning air was chilly.

He sat on the stool, next to the small fire, holding a cup with three fingers. “It’s illegal to make fires,” she told him. “I was too tired last night to remember that.” If you asked her, by the time they passed that law, they needn’t have bothered. Most of the trees were gone anyway. Though, there’d been a lot of trees on the mountains, and for quite a few miles, once she’d reached the open road.

He shrugged. “I didn’t use wood.” He motioned her to a small stool.

She frowned at the fire. It looked like wood burning to her. “What did you use?” She sat down on the small foldup stool and accepted a steaming cup of coffee from him.

“Superior technology,” he answered at last.

With the cup between her hands raised, she paused. The smell alone made her want to groan with pleasure. Slowly she drank some of the coffee, trying to still the panic in her mind. It couldn’t be.

He handed her a plate. Rose stared down at the food. The wonderful smell of bacon and eggs nearly drove her to her knees. She took the fork and scooped up a small bite of scrambled eggs. The taste exploded on her taste buds. With the trucker watching her, she took a sip of coffee.

“This is so good.” With that burst of taste, the last twenty-four hours flashed through her mind. The way the trucker spoke, the picnic basket, the way he appeared when the old truck stopped.

She pushed the heavy braid over her shoulder. Braid? Yesterday she’d worn it loose. She’d woken before with a new hairstyle sprouting on her head.

She looked up at the large man sitting opposite her. “I never escaped, did I, Zanr?”

Chapter Nine

The sun coming up was only a faint promise. The flames from the fire crackled loud and threw shadows over his angular face. He might be in human disguise, but now she knew who he was, she could see Zanr’s distinctive bone structure. How had she missed it?

It was the way he held the cup, with only three fingers, that had triggered her memory. Saying he made the fire with superior technology. Zanr had done that, too. His voice, the almost formal way he spoke, the odd cadence, had seemed familiar. Everything had registered and made her uneasy: the cloth that covered his picnic basket had been identical to the one she’d found in the truck she stole. All those things had been nagging at her, but it was when she saw how he held the cup that it had all clicked into place.

Face expressionless, he stared at her from across the fire. Tension crackled in the air with energy that rivaled the fire.

His human appearance dropped, as if someone had swept it down to his feet and away. The alien who’d caught her sat opposite her. “What gave me away?” he asked. As if he didn’t dash her hopes of helping the others. Of escaping.

She shrugged and tried to hide the fear that had her guts in a vicious grip. “It kept bothering me, the way those aliens spun when I shot them.” It was hard, but she managed to sound calm and casual. She should’ve kept her mouth shut yesterday. Now he knew she wanted to blow them up. What would he do to her? Would he hurt her? She pointed to her head. “And the way I mysteriously sprouted a French braid overnight was a pretty big clue.” It creeped her out no end to know he’d braided her hair while she was fast asleep. Why did she never wake when he messed with her hair?

“My fellow warriors were much entertained by the idea of pretending to be injured by a mere female”—of course he couldn’t resist adding—“a weak human and extremely small female.”

She snorted. “It showed. They spun like twisters and made the most dramatic noises. If I wasn’t so anxious to get out of there, I would’ve known what they were doing.” Now that she knew what they did, she could see they’d been trying to outdo each other.

“They had a bet to see who could spin around the most times.”

Rose stared at him. Aliens placed bets? That seemed so...ordinary. Somehow, she’d had this idea that they stayed in little cabins on their mother ship and only came out to kill humans with emotionless precision. A stupid idea to have. She’d seen his home and how he acted. He’d told her they considered the mountain their city.

“It was just too easy. The truck with the key conveniently in the ignition. And we just happened to pass it when you took me to see Zacar.” She frowned at him. “So, do you really think I’m going to give birth to fifty babies?”

“No, Zacar said that to scare you into escaping.”

She nodded, relieved. “You made sure I had a good meal and water handily packed in a picnic basket. Thank you for that, by the way.” It made her feel odd. That he’d cared for her even while she ‘escaped’.

“I would never allow you to starve, my breeder.”

She held up a hand. “Let’s agree to call each other by name. Things would be much simpler for you if you stopped calling me breeder.” It might prevent her from killing him in his sleep. “How would you like it if I just called you by another name?”

He perked up. “You wish to give me a special name like human women do for males they care for?”

Rose rolled her eyes and changed the subject. “Why?”

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