Page 7 of Guardian's Heart

For the moment, I followed him like my fellow cage mates docilely through the parting throng of people, very aware that they were parting forhim. I tried to look past their alienness to concentrate on a way out, but it was hard not to stare at an orange, ape-like eight-foot creature that could have doubled for aWookie. Or a set of two tails winding around another alien's body. A quick glance back confirmed that we had been inside acage on a stage, and it wasn't that hard to deduce from there that this had been some kind of auction, which left me to debate if the grey-silver alien had bought or freed us.

I wasn't a big believer in luck. I wasn't about to gamble my one chance of escape away for the hope of him being our savior.Hope is for idiots and dreamers,Missy taught me. One of the many lessons from her I took to heart.

Besides, from the appearances of it, silver Hulk had just shot another alien in cold blood without batting an eye. I wasn't about to break down crying over the dead alien, but one had to ask oneself what kind of person did that.

So when we stepped outside the building we had beensoldin, I took in my surroundings with every intention of getting away from here. That was my number one priority. Once I got away, I would figure out how to survive. I was good at that. Had to be, otherwise, I probably wouldn't have survived this long. Neither Daddy nor Uncle Boone had been very good caregivers. Most of the raising had been done by Tucker when he wasn't gone at school or running errands for our daddy and uncle. My mama ran off shortly after giving birth to me, so there wasn't always a caregiver at home.

One step at a time,popped into my head.I shouldn't be able to remember that, but it was my earliest memory of Tucker teaching little me how to walk. It probably wasn't a real memory because folk say it's impossible to remember anything from when you were that little. My daddy had actually made some home movies, and I loved watching this one because it was one of the few I had of Tuck, where I could hear his voice.

Tall, silver, and handsome was deep in conversation with another alien. That one was much shorter and of slighter built. Thanks to the implant the Cryons had forced on all of us, which was now sitting smack in the middle of my brain matter—don't think about it, don't think about it—I figured they were havingsome kind ofethicaldiscussion, but I didn't listen too closely. I was busy staring at the myriad of aliens moving about. I wasn't much of a science person, but I was amazed at the number of different species breathing the same air as us humans. Had I had the time or inclination, I would have wondered about it. Oxygen really did seem to be the magic formula for life.

Shiny, cube-like tents stood all around us, with aliens shouting out their wares, reminding me of a farmers market. Missy liked to take me to them. She was a firm believer in fresh produce and buying used items that were much cheaper than brand-new ones and usually lasted about the same amount of time. Only, here, the merchants and customers looked different. Just like the tents made from some kind of shimmering material. Let’s not forget the near violet sky with the hazy outline of not one but two moons. Or the bright yellow sun, so intense, there was no way to even squint at it.

Forcing myself to forget about the alienness around me, I focused on the outcropping of what might have been trees not too far to the left with an outline of mountains on the horizon. That would be a perfect spot to hide out in. I didn't consider the long-term effects of living/surviving alone in an alien forest. I was thetodaykind of girl. If I made it through today, I had a much better chance of seeing another morning.

The area to my right was filled with large buildings, like you would expect to see in a city, only these didn't resemble anything I knew from Earth. They were tall and built close together, but that was where any resemblance ended. They were oval, like eggs, some as tall as a skyrise, taking up enormous space on the ground, while others had only a few stories. If those were indeed stories, it was hard to tell since they didn't have any windows, at least none that I could discern.

My odds of surviving, I figured, were much higher if I could make it to that alien forest than in the city. Even though the citymight have housed a few daring space pilots likeHan-SolofromStar Wars, but I wasn't one to gamble my life on a lucky shot. It would be much more likely that I would run into another slave trader. Besides, I didn't have anything on me to pay for a passage back to Earth. Not to mention that the Cryons were currently invading Earth, which was why I was in this predicament in the first place.

Nope, returning to Earth wasn't an option. Neither did I want to be a slave to an alien master.No thank you!

Right now, I just needed to get away from the silver giant.

His conversation with the other alien became more intense. He had all but forgotten about us humans following him. That was my chance. Slowly, I fell behind the group. They were too busy staring at their surroundings or crying or comforting the other. I forced myself to be slow until I was the last one in our strange procession. I took note of the people around us and realized they weren't watching us but the silver alien, making sure to step out of his way.

As magnificent looking as he was, I doubted this was the reason why. There were other aliens, tall, with strange markings on their metallic shimmering skin that came in all colors of the rainbow, which one could feast their eyes on if they were so inclined. Even the females were spectacular. Tall, dressed in flowing garments, dazzling.

The metallic aliens made up the majority of people milling about, but there were others, too.

No, it wasn't his looks that made the aliens part way for him. He was some kind of powerful figure. Powerful enough to not have thecopscome running after he murdered one of his brethren.

Either that or slavery wasn't that legal here either. We were in some seedy town where no cops dared to show their faces. Silvergod could be some alien version of a mafia top honcho, which would explain the no cop calling and the reverence given to him.

I wasn’t curious enough to want to find out. My goal was to escape him as soon as possible.

The next time my eyes moved over the market, I noticed a few Cryon merchants who made my skin crawl. I moved the hood of the cloak silver bullet had given me higher up to hide my face.

Besides Mr. Silver and the metallic shimmering guys, there were also other aliens. Feathered aliens, scaly aliens, one even was covered head to toe in horns. A tall, shimmering metallic green alien woman was leading an alien pet on a leash reminiscent of someone walking their dog—only that the thing at the end of her leash had eight legs and resembled a dragon more than a dog.

If I had the time, I could have stood there for hours, taking in all the sights and different scents in the air. Everything about this place appeared so… civilized. It was hard to imagine that we had just stepped out of a building selling slaves. So, if this wasn't a seedy part of town, then slavery might have been perfectly legal. Or maybe we hadn't been sold as slaves; maybe we had been sold to be made into sacrifices for some kind of volcano god. Whatever it was, I wasn't about to lose my one chance of escape to satisfy my curiosity.

A shorter metallic alien—making me think he was a kid—moved by me on some sort of hover scooter. For a second, I entertained the idea of pushing him off and taking the thing from him. Unfortunately, I didn't have the first clue on how to operate it, plus I was sure I would have made more of a spectacle of myself than if I just slunk away.

No. Blending in was the tactic of the day.

Slowly, I fell to the left. Silver alien and the guy he was arguing with had stopped walking, deeply involved in whatever they were discussing. This was my chance. Pulling the hood forwardeven further, I kept my eyes down on the ground, looking out for feet. I made my way to the left, to where I saw the crowds of what I hoped were some kind of alien trees and an alien forest.

I wasn't afraid of the wildlands. My daddy had taught me to survive in the swamps. I imagined there might be scarier things in the forest here than the gators in Louisiana, but I would rather take my chances with alien predators than alien men who took me from a slave/sacrificial market.

It didn't matter to me how good-looking he was. My daddy, uncle, and ex-husband had all been drop-dead gorgeous. That hadn't made them nice men. Especially my ex-husband, the no good son of a bitch. It wasn't like Missy hadn't warned me about him, but I had been eighteen, a full grown woman who knew what she was doing—or so I had convinced myself. I rolled my eyes at my own naiveté back then. Rhett had been a miserable excuse for a man and a drunk, on top of it. Well, he was gator food now. Or I hoped he was. When I didn't tell him my daddy's and uncle's meth recipe, he beat me until I woke up in the hospital. Thanks to a neighbor who called the cops. That didn't faze Rhett much since his uncle was the sheriff, but I'm pretty sure it saved my life. Anyway, as soon as I got out of the hospital, I took that no good son of a gun out into the swamp. I promised him I would give him Dad's meth recipe at our old trailer, that Dad had hidden it there. The moment Rhett walked into what was left of the shack, I took off on the boat. Never saw that wife beating bastard again. So I figured he must not have found his way out of the swamp and ended up as gator food. No great loss there.

A few minutes later, I was leaving thetentsbehind. The egg houses were further away as I found myself in what might have been the industrial part of wherever-the-fuck I was. Further to the left stood rows and rows of elongated buildings, with tubes and funnels coming out of some of their roofs. Straight aheadof me was an honest-to-God spaceport where large and small spaceships sat or hovered on a humongous field or tarmac. Hangars bigger than ten football fields took up the outer edges of theskyport. I couldn't help it; I stopped and stared, feeling as if I was a cast member in any sci-fi movie I had ever watched.

The dimensions of this skyport were unbelievable. It stretched and stretched to the right and some to the left of me. Ships were coming and going, up and down in straight lines. The air here was hotter and heavier, and a warm breeze was blowing from the direction of the skyport. I had no idea how or with what fuel those ships ran, but there wasn't much noise to it. Only the air stirred as it was replaced, especially by the larger ones.

What caught my attention most was that straight ahead of me on the other side of the skyport was the forest. As strange-looking as it was, it called to me, promising me the security I had lacked in the last few weeks. To some, a forest, especially the alien kind, might have seemed terrifying; to me, it called like home, no matter how different it appeared.

What to do? I wondered. The forest was so close. Just a quick run over the airfield. Would anybody stop me?

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