7. Ree

7

Ree

I'm in front of Silver's chamber again. It's becoming a habit. One I know I must break or the slimes will notice and use it against me.

Or worse, use it against her.

But somehow she's become my anchor. The one keeping my mind from fracturing, even though I know it isn't logical. Even though I know it's an unfair burden to place on her.

Our brief conversation wasn't nearly enough to help ease the intervening days of being alone with my terror. I'm not sure why they let so much time go by between waking another of the women. Or why they have only woken up two so far. Or even what the point is of only having me awake.

Maybe the goal is for me to be lonely. If so, they've been wildly successful.

I desperately need someone to talk to.

The ever-present guilt surges when I think about how horrific it is each time one of the women is woken up, and yet I can't help but ache for their company.

For someone to share this hell with me and for once maybe to have someone tell me it's going to be alright.

I choke up on that thought, the despair so big it leaves no room for breath or clear thinking. I make myself walk away. It isn't Silver's responsibility to protect me.

It's mine to protect her. To protect all of them, just like I've always done.

It's just another day in the ER, Ree , I tell myself. That's a far better form of horror and a soothing sort of pretend.

The realization brings clarity and enough purpose to crowd out the lurking hopelessness. To wallow is to let the slimes win and that would be intolerable.

If they weren't such a persistent presence in my mind I would say the thought summoned them.

The creak of the observation room hatch pulls my attention. Three have come for today's entertainment. The slime on the left lets his eyes roam over me and I stare back dispassionately.

It has long since stopped bothering me.

"You aren't being interesting, human," says Left Slime. "I know you're doing it on purpose, so if you want to avoid another round of gas you need to provide our viewers with more entertainment."

I nod at him, letting him know I heard him.

I learned early on that it's best to not respond verbally unless I must, but to not respond at all just invites pain.

I doubt that's the reason they came in here. Usually when they make threats like that it turns out to be just a pretense. An excuse to talk about something else and ignore me.

Sometimes they flood my chamber with gas; sometimes it's just an idle threat.

When Left Slime turns away from me to Right Slime, I have my answer. "Open the pink whore's chamber."

I keep the grimace off my face, but I can't avoid the surge of self-reproach. Careful what you wish for, as they say.

I hasten to the front of Coral's chamber and have just enough time to help ease her fall before both of our bodies are wracked with coughing.

The woman rubs her eyes once the gas is vented out and looks around. For the first time, there is no screaming.

I reach forward and touch her arm. "I know you're scared. I'm here. We were abducted. They took us," I say as I jerk my chin toward them.

Her fully pink eyes sharpen on the three slimes, then return to me. "They do that to you?"

I nod, knowing she means my eyes and hair. "Yours are pale pink."

She scoffs, then looks down to the soft coral waves tangled up in her naked limbs, the color a striking contrast to her cinnamon skin tone. She picks up one long lock and then flings it away. "Couldn't even get the texture right."

I blink, surprised at how calm she is. "I'd share my name, but they punish us with the gas when I try. I've just been calling you Coral and myself Indigo"

"Fuck that shit. My name's Kira."

I cringe, but I like her spirit.

Thankfully, the slimes seem to be ignoring us. "I'm Ree. It's a relief to not think of you as a color anymore."

She lets out a muted dark chuckle. "Oh, I'm used to that."

I'm too agitated to fully appreciate her dark humor, though she reminds me a bit of Tamina. If Tam was a complete badass.

I look back over to the slimes as a wave of homesickness passes over me.

They must be distracted today, or we'd be coughing by now. They're sharing nasty jokes and Kira wrinkles her nose.

"They aren't speaking English."

I shake my head. "No, we have translators."

"What else?"

I take a deep breath. "We heal faster. Adapt to new environments. We'll keep changing, somehow, depending on who we're around. Who, uh, buys us."

She pulls a face, but doesn't comment and I go on. "That belt around your waist will expand to clothes but if you do it they punish you. You'll be aroused and can't control it. There's a live feed."

I look toward the camera and she follows my gaze. The three slimes let out a chorus of honking laughs after a particularly gruesome joke and both of us focus on them again.

The slime in the middle moves forward to press against the glass, leaving disgusting blush-colored mucus smudges in order to get a better look at the rest of the women.

I assume that's the one who seems to have a particular interest in Ruby. Like all the women, she is beautiful and her red hair sets off her porcelain skin to good effect. She is tall and willowy. The type of woman I assume is a dancer or a model.

The slime on the right seems bored and is picking at the short claws rising from his webbed fingers.

I wonder if the rest of the ship is full of water, since their features suggest they are at least partially aquatic. I have seen no evidence of gills, but since my xenobiological experience is nil, I recognize that means very little.

Left Slime turns to Middle Slime. "We're nearing the hunting grounds."

This causes Middle to shift his bulbous eyes away from Ruby to join the conversation. "I hear they stocked it with a whole new range of species this year."

Left seems to shiver in excitement. Or something. I don't really know if I understand their non-verbal communication, even after dozens of observations.

Right sounds less impressed, but still shares what he knows. "They did. After rumors started up about how easy the prey was they focused on much deadlier challenges this season for the southern hemisphere. Some of the most terrifying and grotesque they could find."

Left breaks in, no longer able to contain his excitement. "I heard they caught a manticorid."

"You lie," shoots back Middle, which earns him a gurgling hiss from Left.

"There was a vidfeed about it," whines back Left. "Apparently the beast took out two traders trying to sedate it in transit. They placed it in the southern continent along with the rest of the more dangerous prey."

"Won't it just kill all the rest?" Right asks this with the same bored tone I had picked up from his body language.

Maybe I'm getting better at reading them after all. Kira and I share a look.

Left rises and his voice sounds annoyed. "Is your head dry? Don't you watch any of the feeds? They are loaded with blocks against killing other prey. No one wants to pay millions of credits to capture and transport them just to have them destroy each other before they can be taken as a prize."

Right makes their equivalent of a grunt in response. "They made a mistake adding a manticorid. What stops them from forming an army?"

That seems like a reasonable question.

It causes a lull in the conversation when none of them can answer it. For the first time since finding myself in this miserable cell, I'm actually excited about what the fiends have come in to talk about.

I mean, that it's a planet they use for blood sport is disturbing, but something killing them is extremely satisfying. I can tell Kira is just as interested by the strength of her gaze.

I love the idea of something scaring them, since I certainly never will. I'm small and completely untrained in any sort of self-defense. I went into medicine because I enjoy helping, not harming.

Had I known the slimes existed I might have reconsidered a few life choices.

"It has never happened," Left continues after a long pause. "They are all taken from primitive planets and don't speak each other's languages."

"Manticorids are technologically advanced," points out Right. "We get most of our tech by stealing from the dry headed, limp dick pacifists. Not to mention I doubt any blocks placed on them will work very long. If at all."

That piques my interest.

I hope that means there are even more species in the universe who might be advanced enough to crush these bastards like the leeches they are. I work hard to keep the look of disgust off my face and must manage it or we would be choking on gas right now.

Middle makes a dismissive sound. "I'm sure they would take away its technology, and without it they are just like any felidae. Just a giant version of a tasty snack."

I feel sick when I realize he's talking about cats. I love cats. I think of my sweet, demanding brown tabby. I'm sure someone has found him in my apartment by now, but I miss him with a sharp jolt in my heart.

I have to blink rapidly to keep tears from falling.

"Except with venom," scoffs Right, the gurgling puff of wind causing slime to fleck away from him and land on the floor. "A pacifist wouldn't have killed those traders."

A huge venomous cat sounds like just the enemy they deserve. I look over to Kira. The small smirk on her lips and the narrowing of her eyes makes me think she agrees with me.

I'm fairly sure the look Middle shoots Right is one of annoyance, though it's hard to tell since their faces look like melting wax over whale blubber and the only clue is how much their eyes bulge.

"But how do we really know what happens down there? The same interference that makes location technology useless, and of course the hunt more exciting, makes recording impossible."

Middle says this like they find the last highly disappointing.

"How do we even know they actually hunt the prey at all? There is never any actual evidence and for all we know they can get trophies by poisoning prey."

"Hunters die every year," points out Left. "I'm sure you've seen the feeds of the ones that have been recovered. Ripped to shreds, torn apart, pieces missing. And those are just the few they ever find."

I don't like how excited he sounds, but just imagining these three meeting such a well-earned fate makes me want to smile. To think me, a nurse, would be driven to the point of wanting to grin over some monster tearing someone's limbs off . . .

But if any species has earned it, the slimes have.

Middle turns back to us. "The pink one is poor entertainment. Ratings are going down. Bring out the red one."

"The purple one is on the schedule next," says Right.

Middle lets out a whine. "I'll take a third of your next shift if you bring out the red one."

"Half."

Middle deflates, but agrees. "Go back to your chamber, pink slut."

She lifts a middle finger at him. "Fuck you."

Right Slime presses down on the control to punish us.

She refuses two more times as I hack and cry right along next to her. I'm proud of her, despite the pain. They are demanding her obedience again as I wipe the tears from my eyes.

Kira looks over at me. I can see the question on her face.

"I'll support whatever you decide," I tell her.

Then we are choking again.

When it lets up she looks at me, looks at the slime and his flipper hand poised over the controls and rises. There's a stillness about her and a calculation in her eyes that makes me think this woman is dangerous.

The exact type I want on my side.

"You're dead," she promises Right Slime.

She turns to me as they start up a round of honking laughs. "I'll see you soon," she tells me.

It's the closest anyone's come to comforting me in a very long time and I choke on the rising swell of emotion it causes.

Then she stands up, climbs back in, and engages the controls herself before the slime can do it. There's a hiss of gasses and then she is still. I stare at her sleeping form in shock.

I don't think I could make myself do it, but I admire her for taking that little bit of power away from them.

"I wonder if the captain would take a detour," says Left in a wistful tone and I take a moment to realize they are back to talking about the hunting grounds.

"I'm sure the captain is going to skirt well around the interference and we will be past the planet in a few more minutes," comments Middle. Left deflates. Literally. His mass seems to pull tighter, and he shrinks closer to the ground.

Right blows a very wet raspberry. "Don't you think the conglomerate might notice if the harem's tracking devices all turned off at the same time?"

Great. We have tracking devices.

Nothing about this news is a surprise, really. That doesn't mean hearing it feels any better. I'm distracted by the news and as a result don't move to Ruby's chamber fast enough to help her transition to her new reality. She is screaming after a moment of taking in the environment.

There is no choking gas to interrupt her.

"Delicious," moans out Middle.

I attempt to console her but she pushes me away. She falls to the floor with a sick thud, mewling in pain.

Middle is still making his disgusting noises of appreciation. Left is still whining.

"It's just such a shame to be this close and not be able to pop down to the planet. I hear the resort on the island has any sort of low-tech distraction you could ever—"

He never finishes his sentence.

The ear-splitting alarm that interrupts him makes me startle and look around wildly. The slimes move as soon as they hear it. Left and Right hustle back toward the hatch.

Middle turns to me. The strobing red lights are disorienting, but he has an expression I've never seen on them before.

"She will die if you don't get her back in," he yells at me over the sound of the alarm and Ruby's continual screeching.

A shudder rocks the ship and I believe him.

I turn to her. She's pushed back up against the base of her chamber, her fully red eyes wide and terrified. I try to move toward her again, but she's much taller than me and has horror infusing her limbs and lending her strength.

I go sprawling when she pushes me a second time.

Another shudder and the slime yells out again. "I'll leave her to die."

I scramble up, this time moving fast to get past her flailing arms. I slap her across the face as hard as I can. She stops screaming, startled.

"Stand up," I yell at her in between the sounds of the klaxon blaring.

She does and I push her with all my strength so she falls back into her cryochamber, then I barely move out of the way fast enough to avoid getting my hands crushed by the glass covering.

She throws her hands onto it, pounding and screaming curses at me, but then falls still once again.

"Get in your chamber, human," the slime orders me. "You're too valuable to be lost."

Then he exits from the hatch, closing it behind him.