Chapter 1Camila

Chapter 1

Camila

Camila hid in the bushes, holding her breath, willing her heart to beat more quietly.

"Where the fuck is she?" The first alien bounty hunter stomped right past her hiding spot, missing her completely, thanks to the scent-deadening spray Cami had liberally doused herself with.

She hadn't been sure it would work, but she'd seen her current owner Rehden, the thief these bounty hunters were here to catch, use it to avoid detection, and she'd figured it was worth a shot. He'd called it Olfactinull or something like that. It was supposed to deaden the olfactory nerves of whoever inhales it.

Just because the miracle chemical worked on the aliens, it didn't mean it worked on humans. Camila had no trouble at all detecting his fetid stench from a mile away. He smelled bad. Not like body odor bad, more like chemicals and rot bad. It made her stomach roil, and she was sure that if he caught her and tried to force her to serve him in any way, she'd end up throwing up all over him. It wasn't just the smell either. He looked wrong too, like a mutant.

His face was grotesquely twisted: it almost looked like a monster was trying to emerge from underneath a shedding mask. His skin was an off-putting shade of yellow, and his eyes a sickly radioactive green. Camila had thought he was ill at first, but he still displayed inhuman strength, shocking even for a Tallean.

She'd seen Tallean males fight before. The less civilized ones went into something called bloodlust, where their faces morphed, their fangs extending and their jaws unhinging into something truly terrifying. This bounty hunter looked like he'd been stuck halfway into this state for so long that it had become his usual face.

Not all of the bounty hunters in this bunch were like that, but some were, and Cami would rather starve here on an alien planet than be caught and used by one.

"Forget the female. We already got the thief. Let's get the fuck out of here," said another bounty hunter behind the first. This one didn't look like a mutant. He had the usual swarthy complexion of his kind, with dark brown hair tied up at the nape of his neck, a muscular physique, and piercing green eyes. "We caught the thief already. We'll have plenty of money for the pleasure houses after we bring this one in."

"For you, maybe," the mutant one snarled. "Pleasure houses won't take me anymore."

The other male scoffed. "Just 'cause you were an idiot and took those chems from the Domin—" The two of them froze.

Camila felt it too. The hunters were themselves being hunted, and she had a pretty good idea what would be interested in bagging a couple of nearly seven-foot-tall armed and dangerous Tallean males for tonight's dinner. She and Rehden had run afoul of the terrifying creatures a handful of times in the last few days since crash-landing on this old mining planet seven days ago.

Their ship—Rehden had stolen it as well as Camila herself from Camila's previous owner—had taken too much damage and could no longer fly. The goal had been to make their way inside a nearby abandoned mining station, but the station had been locked, and Rehden had found no other way in.

So they'd switched to Plan B, which was to hide out and live off the land until the bounty hunters after Rehden lost interest. This was when they'd bumped into the terrifying Mountain-Lion-Meets-Komodo-Dragon-Grizzly-Bear creatures that called the cave system near their crash site home.

It was Rehden's fault that the two adults had started hunting them because he'd barbecued several of their young for dinner on their second day here. They hadn't yet figured out that the cute fluffy pom-pom creatures were the juvenile forms of the enormous, terrifying clawed ones.

Mommy and Daddy had not been happy. And now, one of them had its sights set on the two bounty hunters.

Cami wrinkled her nose, hoping that the creature wasn't actually planning on eating the mutant Tallean. Nothing that smelled that bad could possibly taste good. It might give them quite a case of indigestion.

A soft growling noise was coming from the trees on the other side of the two bounty hunters, and they whipped around to stare into the foliage.

Correction: both parents were here.

"I think it's time we left. The female's not worth it," said the normal-looking and okay-smelling one.

"I'm not wasting a perfect human female. Fuck that. I might stink from those Dominion chems, but I'm stronger now. I'm not scared of no wild beast."

"Your funeral." The normal-looking guy scampered off.

The mutant male grabbed a blaster from his belt and pointed it at the rustling sounds coming from the woods. "Come on out, monster. I'm not scared of you. Don't even think about eating the pretty little human. She's mine."

Camila squeezed further back in the crevice where she was hiding, hoping that neither the Tallean nor the other predator would be able to reach her inside the giant tree. Just in time too, because suddenly there was a roar, followed by screaming. Blaster fire rang out in the once quiet forest.

She squeezed her eyes shut and covered her ears, but nothing could drown out the awful sounds of screaming, tearing flesh, and crunching bones. Soon, all was quiet but for the sounds of sniffing and shuffling. Camila prayed to any deity who'd listen that the creature wasn't trying to sniff her out. Someone must have been listening, because no snoutful of sharp teeth came snuffling at her hiding spot.

She waited quietly until the sounds of the forest returned to normal. Even then, she didn't move. It wasn't until the bounty hunters' spaceship took off, leaving her alone, that she finally crept out of her hiding spot.

The spot where the mutant male had stood was nothing more than a crimson splotch soaking into the leaf litter. His entire body was gone.

Camila looked up to the sky. The sun was setting, which meant she had precious little time to make it back to the downed shuttle before the nocturnal horrors of this planet came out to play. As she hurried toward the crash site, a horrible thought crossed her mind: what if the bounty hunters had towed her shuttle away for parts? Without it, she'd have no shelter, no protection from the creatures that were all raring to go to take a bite of her.

She was in a shit situation with or without it, but at least the shuttle would help her survive a few more days. Plus, if she could get the comm unit on the ship working again, she might be able to call for help. Rehden had tried to destroy it to avoid detection, but he didn't really know what he was doing, and had just smashed at it with brute force. It might be salvageable.

She wondered if her old owner would be willing to pay to get her back. Somehow, Camila doubted it. Uctarr had grown bored of her and had plenty of new human females to keep him company now. No, she'd probably end up back on the auction block. That was better than straight-up dying, but not ideal.

Maybe a passing ship would answer her distress call, one not belonging to the Dominion? She decided it was worth the risk. She just had to wait until the bounty hunters were far enough away from the planet not to catch her signal. She didn't know how she'd survive out here in the wilderness until help came, or whether the "help" would in fact be worse than the situation she'd come from, but she had to stay positive.

As she rounded the rock face, the metallic gleam of the light gray shuttle welcomed her. She breathed a sigh of relief to see it. Opening the shuttle door, she stepped inside.

Then it hit her.

For the first time in a very, very long time, there was no one around to tell her what to do. She had no owner. It took her a moment to recognize the rumbling sound that started in her chest before the nearly unrecognizable sound of her laughter burst out of her and filled the small shuttle. She was free.

Holy crap! She was free!

She had no idea how she was going to survive out here in an unknown jungle on an abandoned planet, but she was free.

Ever since that fateful day she was abducted from Earth, Camila had lived by one rule and one rule only: Survive Another Day. She'd done it again. And if she died tomorrow, she'd die happy.

Because she'd die free.