2. Jody

Chapter 2

Jody

W hat was going on? Where was I?

My eyes flickered open and any hope that I had collapsed from low blood sugar evaporated. There was something metallic overhead and lights flashed. My body felt weird. Like I wasn’t where I was supposed to be.

Was I on a spaceship?

I had never left the planet before. I didn’t know what it felt like to be subject to anti-grav. But a quick shift of my head revealed the toys that I had been looking at only a few minutes ago.

Was it a few minutes? How long had I been out?

Why had I been out? I had never fainted before in my life. I hadn’t been feeling sick. Had the Evil Santa done something?

I had no proof. No reason to really think it, other than the fact that he looked kind of scary. But the suspicion made me bite back a groan as I turned over and scrambled onto my hands and knees. I didn’t want to stand all the way up. With the way my stomach was roiling and my vision was fuzzy, I wasn’t sure that I could. And I wasn’t going to risk falling back over and making a noise.

I had to stay quiet.

Something was up. I had to figure out what, or there was no getting out of the situation. Or maybe I had hit my head when I fell, and now I was suffering from paranoid delusions.

Wouldn’t I know if I was suffering from paranoid delusions?

No. That’s why they call them delusions.

I was getting sidetracked. Delusions or not, I needed to act, otherwise I was never getting out of the aisle.

Crawling wasn’t as easy as some of my preschoolers made it look. The floor underneath me was some kind of hard tile, and though it looked clean when I was standing up, now that I had my hands on it I could tell it was filthy.

I shuddered. Gross.

I kept my head down. Eventually I made it to the edge of the aisle, where I could peek out and see what was going on. Was I the only one who had collapsed? Was this really something that was just about me? Or had the other people in the store been affected?

My answer came swiftly.

It wasn’t just me. The human Santa and his green-clad elf were sitting against a counter and they looked terrified. From the vicious look on Evil Santa’s face, it was obvious why. He had done something. He was saying something. Ranting. But I was too far away to make it out. I didn’t even know if he was speaking English.

I didn’t have a subdermal translator. They were expensive, and I didn’t really need one in my day-to-day life. So hopefully the alien either had a translator of his own or he spoke English. And maybe he just looked angry. Hopefully.

Resting alien bitch face. It was a thing. Right?

Given the way human Santa and the elf flinched away from his latest roar, it wasn’t resting alien bitch face.

Damn. I crawled back into the aisle before anyone could see me. But not before I saw Evil Santa banging something against the counter. It was dark and small enough to be held in his hand. A communicator? No way to know without getting close. And there was no way I was getting close.

But that made me think of my own communicator. If something was up… if he was doing something to us… if he wanted to hold us hostage… I needed to get help here.

I pulled my communicator out of my pocket and pressed the screen to wake it up. Nothing happened. I pressed again and still nothing. And then I pressed the power button, hoping that maybe it had just accidentally turned off.

Still nothing.

Completely blank screen.

What the hell? I knew it had been completely charged when I’d walked into the store. It was important to me that I never ran out of battery. I hated the idea of being stranded somewhere with a useless communicator.

So why was it dead? It wasn’t exactly the most high end device on the market, but it had served me well for the past couple of years. It had never died on me before.

Could it be something that Evil Santa was doing? He possibly had the power to knock people unconscious without being near them. Could the same go for communicators?

Bad thought. I did not like the sound of that. And I didn’t want to stick around for much longer.

It felt risky to go for the entrance of the store. But I was pretty sure Evil Santa couldn’t see the doorway from where he was standing. Besides, he was faced away from the door and yelling at the other humans. Even better, the doors remained all the way open. He wouldn’t even hear the whispering slide as it opened and closed. It was just a doorway. If I could get there I could get out and get help.

It was risky. Really, really risky. He didn’t know I was back here. I could just stay curled up in a corner, maybe find a display to hide myself behind, and hope that he went away before things got even worse.

That would save me. Maybe. Only if Evil Santa didn’t start looking around for other people. He would have to eventually. The store was too big to assume that only human Santa and his elf were there.

What about that other alien?

I didn’t know where he had gone. And I hadn’t seen him when I’d spotted Evil Santa. Were they working together?

I had no reason to think that. Just because they were aliens didn’t mean they were friends.

So could I find that alien? Could he help me? Could he hide with me?

I was a coward. There were at least two people being held hostage. I thought they were being held hostage. And here I was thinking of staying hidden and letting whatever happened to them happen.

Not good. I couldn’t do that to them. I had to get help. I was in the position to do it.

That meant I had to get out the front door. Surely there were other exits in the building. There had to be a back way in for deliveries and maybe an employee entrance. But I was backed into a corner. There were only a few aisles where I was crawling, and if I wanted to get to the rest of the store I would need to go into that central area where Evil Santa was standing.

My only option of escape was the front door.

I had to try it.

I crawled even slower than I had earlier. If this was my one chance of escape I couldn’t screw it up. I didn’t want Evil Santa to see me. But I also didn’t want human Santa or the elf to see me either. I didn’t think they would sell me out. They looked terrified. But they might accidentally give me away.

I made it to the edge of the aisle and had to stop. This was where it got dangerous. There were a few displays between me and the entrance. I could use them for cover. Could put them between myself and Evil Alien Santa. I had to hope it was enough.

I wanted to move fast. Wanted to get up and sprint for the door. But speed like that would draw attention to me. Attention I could not afford.

So I moved slowly. Achingly slowly. So slow that I could practically feel the blood pounding in my veins. Every beat of my pulse sounded like a banging drum. But I made it to the door. I could almost feel the cold wind from outside blow on me.

Why couldn’t I feel it? I should be able to feel it.

I crawled towards the opening, but before I could cross the threshold, my body met some sort of resistance. It wasn’t a door. There was no door there.

It was a force field of some kind. I tried again, throwing myself at the opening. But nothing happened. It didn’t hurt, but I couldn’t go through.

This was bad. Very, very bad. I was exposed, and if Evil Alien Santa looked my way he would see me. I scrambled back towards the aisle. Something was keeping the door shut. Or rather, keeping a force field in front of the door. That was very, very bad.

And I had a feeling it had something to do with the device in Evil Alien Santa’s hand. Or maybe he had another device. Maybe the device in his hand served an even more nefarious purpose. One that clearly wasn’t working.

Apparently the frustration a person felt at a malfunctioning remote-shaped device was the same no matter the species.

“Puny human, are you crying? Are you scared?” The sound of his voice was enough to make my stomach turn. He sounded like he was a minute away from torturing puppies.

“My name is Jeff.” That had to be human Santa. Jeff. And Jeff sounded scared, his voice trembling. I wanted to help him, but I was frozen in place. “And she’s Wendy,” he continued, some of his fear transforming to bravado. “We’re not puny. What are you doing? Let us go.”

Evil Santa let out a little laugh. It sent a shiver of terror down my spine. “You will be tribute for my brother. He will have a feast unlike any he’s ever known. I will bring honor to my family.” He got loud at that declaration, almost loud enough to make my ears hurt.

“You’re going to eat us?” Wendy asked.

I was glad she did. Because tribute and feast were not words I wanted to hear from an evil-looking alien who was holding us all hostage.

Evil Alien Santa did not respond. Wonderful. My wrists and knees were starting to ache. I didn’t know how long I’d been crawling around. It felt like hours. It had probably been two minutes.

I had just come here to buy Christmas presents. How did I end up getting held hostage by Evil Alien Santa?

What was I going to do? He was just one man. He didn’t seem to have any sort of special powers. Except for the whole knocking us all out thing. But I didn’t know if that was a psychic power or if he had used a tool of some kind.

If I turned myself in, maybe I could help Jeff and Wendy and we could overpower Evil Alien Santa together. The eight foot tall alien with tusks and a giant horn coming out of his head.

Yeah. That wasn’t going to work.

But how was he going to get us to his brother? It sounded like he wanted to abduct us. Was a spaceship coming? A shuttle of some kind? Or maybe he wanted to teleport us.

That wasn’t good. None of this was good. But if he was using a teleporter, we would disappear before anyone had any idea we were even in trouble. A shuttle at least might call some attention to the place.

I still didn’t know what to do. I couldn’t think. Tears pricked at the corners of my eyes, and I was afraid that I was going to start crying at any minute. I wasn’t a pretty crier. There was snot and gasping and a whole host of other things that really just didn’t look great. Worst of all, I would definitely call attention to myself. I did not want to do that. I had to stay hidden.

I had to get help. Somehow.

I was trying to think. Trying to figure something out. But before I could do anything a hand collapsed around my mouth, making me swallow my gasp of terror and pulling me deep into the aisle.