Page 32 of Challenged

Angie

It seems to me like one moment I’m in my apartment, Rardek standing over me, his proximity sending flutters of heat through my body. Then the next moment, I’m waking up lying in a musty smelling bed. My head pounds, making the thought of opening my eyes singularly unappealing, but I force myself to sit up. Look.

I’m back in the room I was hiding away in before, just as Rardek said. I’ve been dressed in a large, soft nightshirt. A man’s, judging by the size of it. But then I spot a delicate embroidered pattern on the bottom hem. A distinctly feminine touch. I can’t assume that female aliens would have the same tastes and inclinations as human women, but none of Rardek’s clothes had any sort of embellishment. Given the size of Rardek, I can only assume alien women are just as big.

I look around the room. It’s much as it was when I was last up here, except for a tray on the desk. I climb out of the bed,my body stiff and achy, and look at the things on the tray, my eyes landing on a bag made from some animal part. I pick it up, the cool touch of it and the sloshing sound it makes telling me it’s full of liquid. Water, I presume. I wonder what parts of animals are waterproof, deciding promptly not to think about it. My stomach protests enough taking a sip as it is.

The moment the cool water touches my tongue, though, I start to guzzle it, thirst waking in me with an intensity I’ve never felt before. With the thirst comes hunger, and I demolish the strange bar on the tray as fast as I can get it in my mouth, barely registering the salty, meaty taste. Certainly not pausing to wonder exactly what kind of creature the meat came from. The throbbing in my head eases along with the thirst and hunger, and as I wipe my mouth on the back of my hand, I feel almost normal.

“If you need anything else, there’s some human food in the freezers here,” Brooks says from behind me, making me jump. “Coming out of cryo plays havoc with your system if you aren’t used to it, so expect to feel a bit off for a few days. If you’re hurting at all, I’m sure Shemza can give you something.”

“I’m stiff,” I say, because I need to say something, and because it’s true. My legs feel like my muscles have been replaced with metal rods, my back like my spine might snap if I move wrong.

Brooks nods. “Your muscles have been held in place for twenty years. Cryo stops them being damaged, but you still need to get them used to moving again. I’d suggest a gentle walk and some stretches. A hot bath would be good, but the showers downstairs will do. Someone will guard the door for you if you’re worried about being, ah, interrupted.”

Her expression is caught somewhere between cautious and amused. I fight the heat that threatens to rise up my throat, unsure if I’m embarrassed by my actions or if it’s just thereminder of Rardek’s magnificent nakedness that is bringing the colour out.

Lina chooses and she’s never wrong. Well, I’ll definitely award her ten out of ten for physical attraction. I’m not sure what it says about me that I still feel all hot under the collar for him, despite knowing he’s an alien now.

“I’d love a shower,” I say, clearing my throat when my voice comes out a little raspy.

Quite apart from the aches, my hair is straggly this morning from the dousing it got last night and sleeping on it wet. I doubt I’m going to have access to a blow dryer and straighteners out here, but a bit of shampoo and a comb would go a long way to helping me look acceptable. And I would very much like to look acceptable. After all the shattering revelations yesterday and last night, I’d at least like to keep hold of that little piece of myself.

“We can go now, if you like?” Brooks smiles as she inclines her head towards the door.

I follow her down and down again, back to the basement. My eyes are drawn to the pod room at the end of the long corridor, a shiver travelling through me at the sight of it, even though from this distance I can’t see any of the pods, never mind the faces of the women frozen inside them.

“I find it helps not to think about it too much,” Brooks says, noticing the direction of my attention. “Trying to wrap your head around the process, the passage of time - it just hurts your brain.”

Being back in the shower room hurts my brain, too. I’ve had dreams before where you think they’re real when you’re in them, but when you wake up the inconsistencies, the differences between the dream and reality become obvious. Looking round now, I feel like I could have stepped back into the dream. There was really no difference between this place and the dreaming version of it last night.

How does anyone who lives here know when they’re awake and asleep?

I recall the way I could change the location, change my clothes, when I was dreaming. I feel a little ridiculous, but I try to do it now, try to will myself out of the shower room. It doesn’t go anywhere. I’m awake.

Brooks has some fresh clothes for me, and she sets them down on the benches at the edge of the shower area, next to the pile of drying pelts. I strip out of the nightgown and my underwear, head over to the showers and just stand under the spray of hot water until my shoulders start to loosen. I roll my shoulders and neck a few times, stretching my arms up above my head. My back cracks, but nothing jars, no sharp pain interrupts the movements, so I grab a handful of soap from the dispenser and wash my hair, my body, then take another long moment to enjoy the hot water before grabbing a pelt to dry off.

“It won’t take long for the stiffness to go,” Brooks says. “Think of it like recovery after a hard workout. You’ll ache for a couple of days, then it will ease off, and that’s without any raskarran remedies.”

“They have painkillers and heat rub, then?”

“Better,” Brooks says with a grin. “I’ll get you sorted when we head outside.”

“Outside.” The word sends a shudder through me, despite the warm water. “What even is outside?”

“It’s not so dissimilar to back home,” Brooks says. “One sun, blue sky, green trees.”

“Blue sky and trees?”

She laughs at my tone.

“Okay, sure it’s nicer here. Untouched. Mostly. But it’s like the raskarrans aren’t human but they’re familiar enough. It’s the same with the forest.”

“The forest?”

She nods. “It’s a rainforest.” Her expression turns uncertain. “You’re more educated than we were expecting. I assume you know what a rainforest is?”

“Yeah, I know what a rainforest is.”

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