Episode Two A Trip Down Below

A lliana

My fists are balled tightly in my lap as my mind whirls in confusion. What happened? I've sucked his cock and many others since I was 16, the age of consent. It's how things are done. Fathers sell their daughters, use them to make deals and move higher in the order of things.

Women lost the right to vote centuries ago and are no longer considered anything but commodities to be bought, sold, and traded.

What possessed me to say no? How could I even think of refusing? I wonder if I'm going insane.

The thought to attack Bleeker flies through my head, but one look at the difference in our sizes and I think better of it. Bruises are already blooming on my upper arm where he gripped me. He could choke me with one hand while still safely driving this hover.

My other arm is radiating pain where he shot me with something.

I watch out the window, realizing I should get my bearings, see the lay of the land. Perhaps if I know what awaits me, I'll be better prepared for it.

Women are prohibited from going to school or learning to read. We're mostly left to lie around all day, waiting for orders. We're allowed to watch vids, and with enough time in front of the screens, a moderately intelligent person can learn to read and glean a bit of history and science.

I don't see the smog they said was down here. There are trees and grass. Maybe I can just wait right where he leaves me and he'll pick me up in 14 days. How hard can that be?

He's about to set the hover down when he pulls his sidearm from his hip.

"I'm going to set this down and open your door remotely. If you don't leave of your own volition within one second of me opening the door, my boot will be on your ass. I won't be waiting around for the monsters to surround me. Got it?"

Bleeker is so scared he's pulled his gun? He doesn't want to be on the ground for over one second even though he's surrounded by two tons of metal? How am I supposed to handle, what did he call them, the monsters?

Women aren't allowed to worship. We're told we're unclean. I've watched enough vids to have an idea about God, though. Although I don't know how to do it, I pray.

The hover sets down, the door clicks open, and before I can think to move, Bleeker pushes me out the door and hovers away. The door barely misses smacking me in the face as he leaves the surface.

I'm Down Below.

The sky is blue, the trees are tall stalks with brown bark and green leaves. The dirt feels dry beneath my bare feet. Maybe Bleeker doesn't know what he's talking about. Maybe this is just something the men Up Above use to threaten feisty women. Perhaps there are no monsters here. Maybe they banished me to paradise.

Just as my muscles are relaxing and I begin to believe I might live through this, I hear chittering coming from the treetops. What is that other noise? Leaves rustling in the canopy? Other animals seem to howl to each other in the distance.

My body responds, clenching in fear, before my mind catches up.

If there are sentient animals here, they might know to come to where the hover touched down. I'm probably not the first woman to be dumped on the surface as punishment. The animals might be smart enough to know the sound of hovers means… food.

I take off running. Even as I pound through the dirt and grass, almost tripping over rocks, I realize how stupid this is. Where am I racing to? If there's a safe place down here, how would I find it?

And yet, I keep running, trying to find a place to hide.

I almost quit darting through the underbrush when I see him. Coming right at me is a… thing.

My brain doesn't know what to call it. Half man, half beast, he's bounding straight at me on two legs. He's covered in fur, has two pointed ears on the side of his head and his tail is flying like a thin flag behind him.

I pray harder, and veer in another direction to escape him. The soles of my feet hurt with every step I take. They're already bruised from the rocky ground.

He shouts something. It's some foreign language I can't make out. What I do know is that when he opened his mouth, it was filled with sharp teeth. My speed was flagging, but seeing this gives me the incentive to quicken my steps.

Even giving it my best, he's upon me within seconds. He scoops me up, throws me over his shoulder, and runs in the direction he came from.

His shoulder presses into my stomach with every pounding footstep. I'm terrified and in pain, and yet I find the strength to lift my head to look behind us.

It's as though my heart quits beating in my chest. Is every animal in this forest after us? It's a menagerie of animals. No, men. No, animals.

No. They're monsters.

These are mutants. There must be twenty monkey-like men close on our heels. They're hooting. Behind them are wolves with mostly human faces, but they're running on all fours.

I close my eyes, too terrified to keep up my mental inventory of the pursuers following close behind me.

The guy carrying me, the feline-male, is picking up speed. He's graceful and lithe, easily jumping over large rocks. He dodges boulders with the agility of the best pepballers Up Above.

I have no idea who he is or what he wants, but for some reason I'm rooting for him as opposed to the dozens of mutants still pursuing us. Tucking myself against his softly furred body, I surround his furred waist from behind with my arms. This allows me to hang on more tightly, so I bounce less and hopefully keep from distracting him from his mission to escape the horde.

He's been talking from time to time as he leaps and bounds through the wilderness. I thought it was another language, but suddenly one of his phrases cuts through the fog of my mind and I hear, "I'll keep you safe," plain as day.

Those are good words. Much better than, "I want to eat you for dinner," or "you'll be so much fun to fuck to death."

I'm glad he's swift. The mob is having trouble keeping up, although they're still running toward us.