7. Chapter 7

Over the next few days, I wasn't exactly becoming used to the alien scenery around me, but it was starting to feel a bit more familiar than that first day. I kept to myself, trying to figure out how to be a scientist or, more accurately, how to look like a scientist. I knew I couldn't be around the others without giving away my ruse, so I figured exploring and noting things down was scientific. None of the other scientists joined me, claiming to be exhausted from all the walking Khadahr Tzar-Than, the head honcho, forced us to do.

Apparently, they didn't have wagons or horses or any other kind of beast here they could tame, so we were hoofing it like marines. Except, none of us were in any physical shape, marching miles on miles over this uneven terrain. Not even me, not anymore. Not after spending years behind the poker table, enjoying the good life.

I couldn't sit still, though. As soon as I did, I stared at the guards, trying to figure out which one of them, if any, had killed my sister. My main suspect was Commander Willis, the leader of the guards, but I wasn't sure he would personally get his hands dirty.

Unfortunately, due to the open terrain, I couldn't just grab Pierre and beat the truth out of him since I had no idea how that would go over with the Vandruk. As muscular as they were, it would be hard for me to take down even one, and I wasn't about to risk any relationship yet. But as soon as I closed my eyes, I saw Dawn's lifeless body in front of me, wondering if they were giving her the funeral she deserved. Marybelle, I supposed, would be the only one attending it. I doubted they would let our parents out for that.

Pierre hadn't tried to talk to me again, but I had seen him twice in deep discussion with Willis. Regrettably, it wasn't enough to throw any accusations out.

So I roamed the countryside whenever I had a chance, jotting down notes about the plants. Astonishingly, what started as a pretense became kind of cathartic, and eventually, I even enjoyed it. It turned out I was a pretty good sketch artist. Who would have thought? Over the days, I moved from writing things down to hunting for samples. Only I had no idea what I was doing. Equipped with my basic and pretty useless knowledge of high school Biology, I got out some slides and started filling them with random things, like leaves, insects, and so on. Inside a side pocket in Dawn's backpack, I discovered an assortment of bags and a Sharpie. I took them and filled them with more plant samples and rocks, writing elaborate names on the outside, like, twisted flower's leaf or neon green rock sample .

Coincidentally, the same woman I had decided to befriend, Gwyn, joined me on my sample collection. The daily foraging had been a ploy to get closer to the guards, but surprisingly, none of them ventured out, preferring to stay within their own little group. They didn't act like any soldiers I had ever known. They didn't show any curiosity about their surroundings and had no initiative to scout. It was almost as if they were biding their time for something, arousing my suspicion that there was more going on here than the murder of my sister.

Gwyn was like a burr, stuck to my side, making my plan to befriend her so much easier. Strangely, I was starting to feel myself drawn to her. She was easygoing, smart, and a no-nonsense person, very much the opposite of the other women. At first, I hadn't been very pleased that she was sticking around, but as the days passed, our slowly progressing friendship began to mean more and more to me. I began looking forward to the times we spent together. I knew I was beginning our friendship with a lie, but that couldn't be helped.

I was beginning to enjoy putting things into plastic bags and in between sliding glass. I enjoyed walking through this alien world and looking at it through explorative eyes. I was beginning to wonder if Dawn and I might have had more in common than I had thought possible. Maybe it had been our competitive nature that had kept us apart, which was a painful notion, because I would never have another opportunity to find out.

It was also fascinating to watch Gwyn's and Tzar-Than's budding relationship. There were moments when I felt a pang of envy for that hunk of a man so obviously attracted to Gwyn. I had always been a sexual person, and it had been a while since I had fucked a man as desirable as these Vandruks. No strike that. No Earthman came even close in comparison to these men. Male strength had always been something I deeply admired, and these guys took it to a whole new level. Plus, they went out hunting for our food, gave us furs… I mean, how primal can you get?

Learning Vandruk was also making some progress. I made a point of approaching the Vandruks accompanying us and peppering them with questions under the guise of needing names for my plant samples.

The men were more than happy to oblige, and I honestly didn't mind them ogling me at all. There were a lot worse things out there than being admired and pampered by these hunks of muscles. They seemed to get into a competition to see who would bring me an insect or plant I hadn't yet cataloged. They also loved bringing me water and food when they realized after the first day that we humans needed a lot more nourishment than them. I even found myself from time to time forgetting why I was here or that I wasn't Dawn. Usually, it was a glimpse of Willis or Pierre that brought me back to reality, but sometimes it could be as simple as closing another slide, thinking how much Dawn deserved to be the one to be here.

Then, one evening, things changed when Tzar-Than approached me .

"Dawn." From what Gwyn had told me, Tzar-Than had learned English from a man named Matt, whom he had taken prisoner when he came through the red fog.

"Khadahr Tzar-Than," I greeted back, nervous about what he wanted from me. We hadn't exchanged more than a few words so far, and he had never singled me out before. He seemed nervous, too, which raised my apprehension.

"Have you seen Gwyn?"

His question made my heart drop because I hadn't seen her all day, which wasn't like her. A knot grew in my stomach as a picture of Gwyn appeared in front of my vision, dead like Dawn. Had the killer struck again?

That would be on me because I had known there was a murderer among us. I had just never considered that he would strike again; I had thought Dawn had been a single incident.

"I was going to ask you the same thing. I haven't seen her all day. She and I were supposed to find more samples this morning, but she never showed." I filled Tzar-Than in, almost blabbering, which was also something I had never done before. "I asked Kenley this morning," I added. Kenley was Gwyn's friend and tentmate. "She said Gwyn slept in. And later, she told me Gwyn went hunting with you."

"Kenley!" Tzar-Than yelled, raising the fine hairs on the back of my neck. My eyes flickered over the group of guards standing in their corner of the camp. Who was the one who killed Dawn, and had he hurt Gwyn, too? Please, I prayed, don't let it be so. I never prayed, but I didn't think I could bear it if something had happened to Gwyn, and it was my fault.

I followed Tzar-Than on his heels as he strode over to where Kenley stood with a group of women Gwyn called the Queen Bees. They thought of themselves as the hottest thing since hot sandwiches had been invented. Women who openly despised Gwyn. Was Kenley hanging with them full-time now? Just the other day, I had made an offhand comment to Gwyn about Kenley hanging around Sandra. But I had been so busy trying to figure out who had killed Dawn that I hadn't given it the thought it deserved. Damn.

Tzar-Than didn't mince words and grabbed Kenley by the arm.

"You lied to me." Tzar-Than came straight to the point.

Kenley gasped. She paled and her eyes moved pleadingly to the Queen Bees. What the hell was going on here? Did this have nothing to do with the guards after all?

"Where is she?" Tzar-Than snarled.

"Ouch, please, you're hurting me," Kenley complained, trying to jerk her arm away from his grip.

That's when the guards and their leader, Willis, stepped forward.

"Take your hands off her," Willis ordered.

One of Tzar-Than's warriors, Szun-Var, moved in between Willis and Tzar-Than to give Tzar-Than the time he needed to interrogate Kenley.

"Where is she?" Tzar-Thank yelled.

"Please. She asked me not to tell," Kenley wailed.

"Tell what?"

Even I, standing back, could see that Tzar-Than was losing his patience. Kenley would be better off telling him what she knew. I hadn't liked her from the moment Gwyn introduced us. There was something sneaky about her that sent all my spidey senses off.

"She left." Kenley sobbed now. "She left early this morning. She said she didn't want to deal with this planet any longer and that she wanted to go home."

"You're lying," Tzar-Than yelled before he shook her, taking the words right out of my mouth.

"No, it's true," Michaela, another woman Kenley and Gwyn shared a tent with, came forward. She was wringing her hands and looked distraught. "I saw her pack her bag and leave."

I couldn't stand back any longer.

"She's lying," I called out. Gwyn loves Vandruk. She had been dreaming of being one of the first settlers here ever since the wormhole opened ten years ago. "Gwyn would never want to go back to Earth. She loves Vandruk."

A commotion distracted us, and when I turned, I saw Szun-Var and more Vandruk warriors stopping the guards from interfering.

"I'm not lying. It's the truth," Kenley wailed. "Let go of my arm."

"I will lash you myself if you don't tell me right now where she is," Tzar-Than threatened.

"It's the truth," Michaela cried and flung herself against Kenley.

"They're both lying," another woman called out. Her name was Sophia, and she was the fourth person sharing a tent with the group. "When I woke up this morning, Gwyn's bed looked like it hadn't been slept in. I never saw Gwyn come home last night."

"You were sleeping," Kenley spat. "How would you know."

"Because I woke up in the middle of the night to go pee," Sophia said, glaring at Kenley, "and she wasn't there."

"Fine, so she left in the evening." Kenley shrugged. "Who cares? She's gone?"

Suddenly, Tzar-Than let go of Kenley and jumped forward at the Queen Bee, Sandra. He ripped something from her hands, and I realized it was the necklace Tzar-Than had given Gwyn the previous day. The one with the teeth of the xythrax she and Tzar-Than had killed. It had been a big deal, killing that beast. I would have never thought Gwyn had it in her to kill anything. She proved me wrong. Not many people did.

Unceremoniously, Tzar-Than grabbed Sandra by her throat, raising her up into the air. "Where is she?"

His emotions and worry for Gwyn were clearly written over his features, and I doubted he would have manhandled a woman like this if he hadn't been out of his mind with worry for Gwyn. On the other hand, I was sure if Sandra had been a man, he would have already beaten him to a bloody pulp.

Sandra's face turned from red to blue, and her eyes bulged as only grunts and groans escaped her lips. Tzar-Than must have realized that he was choking her and set her back down to allow her a few gasps of air before he fisted her shirt into his hands, "Where?"

"She's dead," Sandra spat. "The stupid troll tripped over her feet and hit her head on a rock. She's dead. "

No, I thought, that couldn't be. I didn't move, couldn't take my eyes off the spectacle that played out in front of me like a bad movie.

"I'll go back to find her, and you better pray I find her alive; if she is really dead, you won't see another sunrise when I return." Tzar-Than spat at her.

He added something in Vandruk. I had learned enough of the language so far to understand that he was ordering his soldiers to stay put while he went to search for Gwyn.

I was thankful that I'd always been good with languages; I spoke, read, and understood seven, and even though Vandruk didn't resemble any of those languages, it helped make it easier for me to pick it up faster.

While they were making plans, I dashed into my tent to get a first aid kit. If Gwyn was still alive, she would need it. I didn't believe that she tripped and fell, and I didn't think Tzar-Than did, but until Gwyn was back, there wasn't much of a choice.

"Khadahr Tzar-Than," I called out when I saw him leaving, running after him. "This is a first aid kit. There's medicine inside she might need. Please find her."

A tense forty-eight hours followed Tzar-Than's departure. True to his command, the Vandruk warriors had taken the guards' weapons and kept them and the Queen Bees under close observation, ironically penned up in the part of the camp the guards liked to erect for themselves.

This was my chance to finally get some information from the men I suspected had killed my sister.