Chapter 24: Decisions

William

I heard his neck snap, and Valin's hands went limp from my throat. I let him go, and his body dropped to the floor. Turning, I rubbed my sore neck, and took a deep breath. Looking down at his body, I rubbed my throat again, and kicked him in the side to make sure he was dead. When nothing happened, I twisted my neck, and felt it pop. Agony flared through my body.

I looked around the spacious room. The desk sat in the center of the room. To my left, a large curtain covered an open door to a balcony. A door was off to the right of the desk and it was open. I could see a bed in there. On the bed was a woman, going in, I leaned over and touched two fingers to her neck and I found no pulse. Her beautiful face was looking up at me, her eyes open, and fear could be seen etched onto her cold face. Her red hair, the first I had seen on these futuristic humans, was fanned out over the pillow. It reminded me of Lisel's hair and when I touched it; my hand came back red with blood.

Closing my eyes, I tried to block out the image, and then another appeared. It was of my beloved Sarla. Her laughter, her nagging of me ... her love for me, and her sister wives and children ... all flashed through my mind. Anger raced through my mind when I remembered the last time I had seen her. Lying on the ship's deck, her body twitching in pain as she screamed out as I did when I remembered how she'd died.

Turning I went back into the office. I bent over and grabbed Valin's body by his crotch and neck. Picking him up, I walked to the balcony that was built off the office. With a scream of pain, I hurled him out of the balcony and watched the corpse as it sailed out into the air and then tumble to the ground forty floors below. As I turned away, an alarm started sounding from below and I went back into the room.

I was searching the desk when I heard the door opening. Picking up the chair, I hurled it at the opening door. It smashed into the door, which slammed shut on whoever was coming in.

The door was kicked open. I bent down, grabbed the desk and lifted it up into the air. With a roar of anger, I ran towards the door and hurled it at the two guards that came rushing in. The two men went down under the shattered remains of the desk. I grabbed each by the hair and smashed them together. I heard what sounded like two melons exploding and I dropped them in a pile as I looked out into the other room. Seeing no one, I searched the two men and found their weapons and their id cards. Their weapons were what Nadil called their glue rifles. With disgust on my face at the non-lethal weapons, I started walking towards the elevator.

Reaching the door, I opened the elevator, and stepped inside. The alarm continued sounding off as the doors snapped shut. I pressed the '1' on the pad and it started descending. I stood to the left of the door with the rifles raised when it came to a stop. As the doors opened, I watched as two blobs of black tar like substance hit the back of the elevator and covered the whole wall. I fired both rifles when I saw someone's elbow, and the blobs hit the person and he went spinning out of sight. Stepping up to the inner wall, I avoided another blob as I hit the door close, and the '2' button. It climbed one level, and the door opened.

Peeking out, I saw the railing a few feet away, and heard the people down below scrambling for the stairs and the ramp. Going to the rail, I fired at the steps and caught three men running up them. They flew into the wall, as I was turning towards the ramp and hit the deck. The six blobs of tar flew right through where I'd been standing. Scrambling between one of the pillars and a large potted plant and knelt there. I raised one of the rifles to fire blind around the marble pillar. It went flying out of my hands, as one of the blobs caught the tip of the barrel.

"Shit!" I said as I peeked around, trying to find a way out the mess I was in.

With more coming up the stairs, and firing at me from behind, and blocked to the ramp, I looked at the elevator, and wrote that off the mental list. The doors were partially opened, but they were covered in the tar. That left only one way out. Wrapping the sling around my right arm, I stood up and jumped over the rail. Dropping the fourteen feet, I hit the floor and rolled.

'Thank god for the enhancements, ' I thought as I ran for the doors.

I hit the doors. They flew open as I burst out into the compound. Turning, I fired the balls of tar like substance at the doors and covered them when they snapped shut. I could see the guards banging on the doors trying to get them open as I ran for the building where the girls were being held.

Sandi

I sat looking at the opening that I had been tossed through. The rest of the girls huddled together, and I wondered what was going to happen now. The alien guards were not very friendly when they had tossed Kili and me through after they captured us. We had killed or wounded six of them before we were subdued by the glue rifles. Once we were disarmed, they had led us down to this room where the rest of the family was being held.

"Sandi, do you think William is ok?" Walian asked.

"I don't know, Walian. All we can hope is that he is free and still kicking ass wherever he is. Lisel, I want you to stop that crying this minute, it's not going to help us. Now are you all sure they didn't say where Sinara was?" I said.

"I don't remember anything after the explosion. Lisel was taken while we were climbing that ladder. Sinara and I were shooting at five of the aliens, the next thing I knew, I was waking up here," Majour replied as she sipped her water.

"Thanks, Majour. What happened to Lisel happened to Walian. Whatever they used to capture them, knocked them out as well," I replied as I walked to the opening and looked out at the guard. He was sitting at a desk doing something. Reaching up, I touched the shimmering field and it sparkled from the touch.

"HEY ASSHOLE. Where is Sinara?" I shouted.

"Shut up or I will shut you up," the guard replied.

"Big man with the guns. Give me a gun, and we will see who's the bigger person," I snapped back.

"I said shut up. Now do so or I will stun all of you!" he snapped back.

"Just tell me where my sister is you fucking asshole!"

"She's dead. Now shut up or so help me!"

I staggered back and collapsed onto one of the beds. I started crying and buried my face into my hands. I felt the girls wrap their arms around me and I clutched them to me as my body was wracked with despair.

Nancy

"I'm going to gut that fat bastard if he tries to touch me," I said as I worked on the bands on Nadil's arms. The bobby pin, I had filed down to a point and had it inside the lock trying to release it.

"Nancy, he won't. You're not Norbin's type," Nadil replied as she watched the door.

"Not his type?" I asked.

"You don't have the right equipment for the job," she replied as she laughed.

I looked at her out of the corner of my eye as I digested the information she had said and then blurted out, "Oh! You mean he's gay?" I asked as I twisted the bobby pin and heard a snap. "Got one! Now let me see your other arm," I said as I dropped the band onto her lap.

"Wow! I never believed you could do that with a control band and yes, he is gay or is it bisexual? Because he does have a daughter ... I think her name is Jasmine, but I don't remember. Now, what are we going to do once you get my hands free?"

"I don't know," I said as I went to work on the other band. Her silver skin seemed to shine as I worked and I asked, "How come you're silver again?"

"Norbin injected me with a new batch of nannites. They're designed to protect me, in space, in case of decompression. The nannites make my skin more resistant to the cold of space," she replied.

"I don't understand. What do you mean protect you?" I asked as I twisted the bobby pin.

"Well, it's like this. Say I needed to replace a sensor on the outside of the ship. All I need to do is pick up an air tank, put it on my back and walk outside. My skin protects me from solar radiation, and the cold of deep space. It acts like a space suit," she replied.

"Then that means..." I gasped out in horror as I realized they were going to leave me here.

"Yes you were not meant to go with us. I assume they plan on killing you," she said as she wrapped her free arm around me.

"I don't want to die," I cried out.

"You're not going to die, Beautiful, neither one of you are."