My Alien's Kiss

Chapter 2 Audrea

Days passed since I was taken by those bug-eyed grey aliens. Water and food, enough for a whole day, were found on each of the empty cots whenever we would wake up every morning. A little hidden door would open whenever anyone needed to use the restroom; even though no one ever said that they needed to go in the first place. It was as if it automatically knew when our bladders needed to be emptied.

A day after I was placed in this holding area with the other girls, another girl had joined us. Margaux from France. She had short auburn hair that fell just to her ears. Like me, after she had woken up when the sedatives wore off, the only thing she did was cried and cried until she had passed out again. No one could speak French, sadly. So we couldn't truly explain the extent of the situation.

The strangest part of all of this would have to be that none of us have had any other interactions with the aliens since we were placed in this room. Even when a new girl is added to the mix, we don't see them. It's like an automatic thing while we sleep. One night–or day since we don't know how long it's truly been since we were all taken or what time of day it is–we had gone to sleep like normal only to wake up to find that Margaux was added to the mix.

From what Annika told me, it was like that for all of us.

"What now?" I whispered, curled under the thin blanket that had been provided for us.

"I just we just wait to see what they will do with us," Femi said, sighing. "If only they had given us something to do, then I could at least do something while we wait."

Only Femi could make jokes about being bored after being abducted by aliens. But I guess that she did have a point. It would be different if we were constantly being watched by the aliens, too scared to be bored. But just being locked up in a glorified prison cell with no guards watching us, as far as we knew, it can lead to the human mind becoming bored with the lack of stimulation.

It seemed, however, that with Femi's mention of doing something, some of the girls started playing various slapping or clapping games that I had seen a lot in elementary school growing up. I saw Kaya trying to teach it to Ivana, despite the obvious language barrier between the two of them. Ivana was the quietest out of the 17 of us.

I believe that she is from somewhere in the Middle East, an area with a large population of Muslims. During my time here about this ship, I have never seen her without her hijab. She wasn't the only girl that wore one, or at least a similar headscarf, but hers was wrapped very tightly around her head and neck. While it still showed her face, it was clear to me that she was from a very conservative country.

Not that it bothered me in the slightest. It just must be so hard for her to be surrounded by all of us girls when she is used to such a strict lifestyle. I feel bad for her. I feel bad for all of us, really. But at least she seemed to be adjusting to the rest of us. Even if it is a slow process.

All of us eventually got pulled into a game or two. I had to admit that it was quite enjoyable. We all laughed and giggled when someone got their hand slapped for being just a bit too slow. We had gotten to be quite loud with our games that we didn't even notice when the metal doors to our cell opened up. We immediately went quiet as two of those aliens waltzed into the room. I was able to notice much more details about them than when I first saw them now that I was calm and not drugged out of my mind.

They were taller than the stories tell you. Taller than the average human male. Probably closer to seven feet rather than the six-foot average. While their heads were still bulbous and enlarged, they weren't hairless. They had a thin layer of white hair covering their scalps. Their large bug eyes were still freaky to look at, but I did notice that they actually did have eyebrows. Of sorts.

They were also white, but like little dots in a row, the largest towards where their noses would be and the smallest closer to their temples. They were also really thin. Like anorexic thin. But based on their white, skintight clothing, they had lithe muscle underneath their unnaturally gray skin.

They had pointed to Yoselin and motioned for her to follow them. She bit her bottom lip, but followed behind them, giving all of us unsure looks as she went.

We didn't know what to do. We tried to go back to our games, but I knew that the aliens taking Yoselin was on all of our minds. What felt like hours passed before Yoselin came back with what looked like a backpack in her arms. It was even more confusing.

One by one, in the order that we were taken, each of the girls was led away from the cell only to come back a few hours later with a single backpack. None of us spoke. No one asked what was in the bags. We just sat on one of the various cots waiting for our turn.

Finally, it was my turn. I was led down a brightly lit hall, the same aesthetic as the holding cell to a new room. It looked like the main control room. Several other aliens were there, monitoring screens, checking various... things, not really paying attention to me or the two leading me. Their language sounded like high-pitched chirps and whistles, with various clicks mixed in.

But that wasn't the strangest part.

"You get two hours to pack a single bag of items. Everything else must be left behind," a voice stated. I couldn't tell if it was echoing in the control room or inside of my own head since I didn't see who spoke. Not that it mattered because moments later, I was beamed down into my apartment, Star Trek-style with the two aliens accompanying me. I tried not to cry or really think about how we ended up here.

Instead, I got to work packing. I grabbed my largest backpack and filled it with clothing, books, my Nintendo Switch with its case, games, and charger, phone, its charger, and my crystal collection. I didn't know what else to grab, so I just ended up grabbing my metal water bottle and tucking it into one of the mesh side pockets. Doing a quiet once-through to make sure I didn't forget anything, I grabbed just a few trinkets that I couldn't live without and literally filled every f*****g pocket in my bag as I could. If I only got one bag, I was going to fill it as much as I possibly could.

"Human female, are you complete with your task?" That strange echoing voice asked.

"Yes, I'm done. You can beam me up now, Scotty," I said. One of the aliens looked confused. It clicked and whistled at its companion as if asking who Scotty was. I rolled my eyes before we were once again in the control room of the ship. My alien guides led me back to the cell and I tried to remember the way to the control room the best that I could.

Once I was returned to the cell, Margeaux was taken to grab a bag. She was the last one taken after all. While she was gone, I had pulled out some of the items that I had packed. I didn't know if there was a place for me to charge my electronics, but I am sure that wherever they were taking us had adaptors for this type of thing. Either that or I could at least mess around with these until they died. And who knows, if we ever did go back home, I could just charge them then.

I knew it was a big if, but a girl can dream, can't she?

I sighed. It was a silly dream. Because who am I kidding? I will never get to see my home planet ever again. None of us will.

"Audrea, you brought your phone?" Femi asked as she came to sit next to me while I quietly played one of the otome games that I enjoyed.

"You didn't?" I asked in return.

She shook her head, her dreadlocks swinging side to side with her movements. "What's the point when we have no idea what they were planning for us?" She said, showing me the items that she packed. Pictures of her with friends and family, clothes, cards, a few books, but no electronics.

"Silly girls, I brought these!" Annika said, showing me several pocket knives, mini baseball bats, and other self-defense items that were mixed in with her clothes.

"Annika!" I said, swiping her bag and zipping it shut. "You don't want the greys to see that you have these! What if they take them!?" I hissed quietly. She shrugged before taking her bag back. Seriously, what was she thinking?

But then it got me thinking. It was stupid, but hey, no one ever said that I was the most intelligent person this side of the Milky Way.

"Actually, give me one of these, I have an idea."

~

This was a terrible idea. It started off pretty well. Annika would pass out, subtly, the various weapons that she grabbed from her home, and we would hide them on our person. Then one of us, or even several of us, would fake being sick in order for our captors to check on us, hopefully leaving the door open long enough for us to rush them.

While I have never gotten into a fight even once in my entire life, I just wanted to get us home. So I would fight with these girls until we made it to the central control room. We could try and overpower the pilots and force them to take us home.

So, here we were, several of us pretending that we were sick to our stomachs with a random bug, with the other girls "fretting" over us in order to get the attention of the Greys. Surprisingly it was all going according to plan. When the door slid open to reveal two of the androgynous aliens, the first wave of girls attacked.

This included Annika, Femi, Chunhua, Ayame, Kaya, and myself, armed with knives, bats, bear spray, and even a single handgun. Where Annika pulled that from is still a mystery to me. We used strips of our skirts and pants to tie up the two aliens and threw them into the cell behind us.

Annika and myself led the group of 17 to the control room. We almost got lost a few times since everything looks the exact same, but so far so good. We didn't run into any more of them on our way there, but when we finally made it, everything went to s**t.

The bravest of us attacked just as planned, but the clicks and whistles of the greys alerted the rest of the crew. Thankfully, they weren't as armed as we were. Annika had to shoot a few of them. Blood soaked from the downed aliens as they lay there on the control room floor. My ears rang from the echoing bang from the gun.

It disoriented many of us, but Annika just kept going until she ran out of bullets. Those that we managed to overpower, and not kill, seemed to accept their fates quite well. Which, in my book, is never a good sign.

"Which one of you can pilot this hunk of metal back to the planet you took us from!?" I demanded, trying to sound brave. But a slight wobble was detectable in my voice.

"Human, this ship controls itself for the most part. But the one that you would consider the pilot is over there, dead or dying," One voice answered, that same strange echoing voice from before.

"s**t," I whispered to myself and the other girls. "And no one else can pilot this thing!?"

"Negative."

Well, ain't that just a pile of horse s**t. I wiped my face of the sweat and turned to the control panel that I saw them messing with earlier. None of the symbols looked familiar to me. But I guess that is to be expected when you are inside an alien ship.

"How far are we from Earth?" Femi asked.

A recorded, robotic voice answered. It was similar to Seri or Alexa from Earth.

"E N G L I S H Q U E S T I O N D E T E C T E D. S E T A S D E F A U L T L A N G U A G E?"

"Yes!" Several of us shouted.

"E N G L I S H S E T A S D E F A U L T L A N G U A G E, T H E P L A N E T E A R T H I S 2 P O I N T 5 9 M I L L I O N L I G H T Y E A R S A W A Y F R O M Y O U R C U R R E N T L O C A T I O N."

"Double s**t," I stated.

Just as I thought that things were going well yet again, something hit the back of my head. Hard. Stars burst in my eyes and I fell to my knees. I was pretty sure that I had a concussion from whatever hit me.

From my position on the floor, I saw that several of the aliens had gotten loose from their bindings and were fighting the girls. Some, like Ivana, Dumitra, Margeaux, and Nadia were huddled in the corner, but the rest were fighting for their lives. Some tiny part of my brain couldn't help but think about what humans were capable us when you f****d with us, but the rest of me was trying not to pass out from the pain and concussion.

I stumbled to my feet. Slowly, since I kept slipping down to my knees, I managed to stand and grab a hold of the panel. Groaning, I scanned the panel to try and figure out how to get us home.

I tried to prompt the computer to help me, but either it couldn't understand my slurred words, or I was locked out. So, I said f**k it and went to push random buttons to see what they did, only to be stopped as I reached for one.

"Enough, Human! You will kill not only us but your companions as well!"

"Then you shouldn't have f****d with humanity!" I slurred before slamming my hands down on the keys. The ship lurched to the side, causing several of us to fall and slam into each other and the Greys.

We were clearly losing our original trajectory and heading who knows where. It felt as if we were losing altitude and fast. Did we enter the atmosphere of an exoplanet? So quickly?

"Damn it, damn it," I screamed. "Computer, a little help would be nice! Where are we!?"

"Y O U A R E A P P R O A C H I N G P L A N E T D E D A S H 5, A L S O K N O W N A S D E A L A E T O T H E N A T I V E S P E C I E S. S H O U L D I P R E P A R E F O R E N T R Y A N D L A N D I N G?"

"YES!"

"U N D E R S T O O D, P R E P A R I N G F O R A T M O S P H E R I C E N T R Y A N D L A N D I N G. S O P L E A S E R E T U R N T O Y O U R S E A T S A N D S T R A P D O W N."

"You hear the lady! Brace for impact!" The fight for our lives turned into the worst game of musical chairs ever. But thankfully, all of the girls found a seat, stealing all of the seats of the Greys before the remaining ones could. Though some of the girls had to double up their seats.

"A T M O S P H E R I C E N T R Y S U C C E S S F U L," The computer stated in its monotone voice. While I couldn't hear the sonic boom that likely followed our entry into this planet's atmosphere, I could definitely feel it in the turbulence. It was worse than any plane that I have ever been in ever. I heard bodies flailing about. Most likely those of the greys if the chirps of pain were an indication of anything.

I heard several girls praying in their native tongues. I couldn't bring myself to pray to any known deity as my mind was filled with fear for all of our lives.

"L A N D I N G I N 5, 4, 3, 2, 1–" I felt the immense shockwaves as we struck the ground. Screams of fear and pain filled the control room. I'm sure my own scream was amongst them, but I didn't register it.

When we finally stopped moving, and only slight groans of pain filled the air, I was able to bring myself back to reality. My head was still killing me, but I was able to unbuckle myself Only for me to fall to the metal floor, which was followed by my grunt of pain from where hit my knees.

"Everyone alright?" I asked.

"Da," Annika answered first. Following her were 15 more voices of affirmation. Or at least I hoped that's what they were since I couldn't understand them still.

I looked around the hull and saw that we were the only ones still alive. I wasn't sure if I was glad or guilty for the loss of the lives of the Greys. They did abduct us, but they were still living creatures. Ones with intelligence, thoughts, beliefs, families.

"Computer, can you run a diagnostic on the ship?" I tried. But I didn't get a response from it. Many of the screens were cracked and staticky. I tried again before finally getting a staticky voice to match the busted screens.

"D I A G N O S T I C S C A N C O M P L E T E D. T H E S H I P I S M O S T L Y I N T A C T E X T E R N A L L Y, B U T A S F O R T H E R E S T O F I T, T H E S A M E C A N N O T B E S A I D. T H E I N T E R N A L C O M P O N E N T S A R E N E A R L Y C O M P L E T E L Y D E S T O y e d..." and with that, the computer's voice went dead and a hissing sound could be heard. It sounded like a door! A way out!

I looked at Annika. She nodded before heading to where we believed the door had opened. A few of the girls followed. But many stayed behind to access for injuries.

When we found the door that had opened to the outside world, I noticed just how bright it was. Brighter than on earth, as far as I could tell. I had to raise a hand to shield my eyes from the light.

When my eyes adjusted, I could see that we weren't exactly alone. Tall, bipedal hominids surrounded the crashed ship. They looked strange to me, but I am sure that since this is their planet, we were the ones that looked strange.

They looked human to a certain degree, but they had an extra set of arms, two tails swishing behind them like angry cats, and their skin was different shades of purple. They also dressed as if they were much more primitive than human civilizations on earth. Their clothes looked made from some type of leather. And their weapons, which were aimed at us, seemed to be very crude metal.

If I had to guess, they just barely got out of their paleolithic era and entered their neolithic one.

I held up my arms to show that I was no danger to them. While I still had the knife that Annika gave me in my hand, I didn't try to move. Until one of them lunged towards us. I made a big production of setting down my weapon, showing them that I was disarmed and not a danger to them. I also kicked the knife away from me. The others did the same with their weapons.

One of the aliens stepped forward. It appeared to be a male warrior. He was much broader than the others in his party, with many piercings in his face. The closer I looked at them, I noticed that they all had various facial piercings. Maybe some sort of ritual to show ranks?

"Èrè pa mo pi pari

," he demanded. I stepped forward, with my arms still in the air. I noticed how crisp it was in comparison to Earth's air. No pollution, I deduced. He aimed what looked to be an atlatl at me. I froze. He repeated his previous statement.

"Vrak'aer," another from his party said, putting one of their four hands on his shoulder. "Mo ka tè mishe nga pe lokè pi,

" the newcomer whispered. This second alien stepped towards us, three of his arms in the air, mimicking me. But his fourth hand was covering his heart. He patted his chest a few times before speaking to us.

"Ivut," he said. This was most likely his name. I looked towards the others. I shrugged before I patted my chest as well.

"Audrea."

"Ah-Dree," he greeted. Close enough, I decided. I held out my hand to him.

"Ivut," I smiled. He grasped my forearm, much like warriors shook hands in ancient times. So, I mimicked his handshake back, grabbing his forearm to show that I saw him as an equal. He seemed to accept this.

In turn, I introduced the others in my small scouting party. "Annika," I placed a hand on the grumpy blond's shoulder. She crossed her arms over her chest. "Deirdre." She smiled and grasped the forearm of Ivut as well, following my lead.

"Femi," I didn't even need to introduce her as she stepped forward on her own to introduce herself.

Ivut, still being the only one so far to introduce himself, said, "

T

ekake pa hoho pi

." I really hoped that meant nice to meet you. I attempted to copy his words. One of the aliens behind Ivut giggled at my botched words. She appeared to be a female hunter or warrior.

She stepped forward and introduced herself to us. "Fek!" She pounded her chest with just a bit too much excitement. She grasped my hands in two of her own while holding my face in her other two. Very touchy-feely.

"Fek," the first alien guy, Vrak'aer, I believe his name was, called her. He looked at us.

"Kohaka hè,

" he said before starting to walk away, several of his party members followed him. Fek tried to pull me with her. I dug my heels in the ground and pointed behind me. She looked and gave me a confused look.

"Vrak'aer!" She called. The leader paused and Fek pointed at the ship. "Yonè ye mulè mu ku huyo!"