Chapter 1
Samantha Gaines
“Get on your knees, slave!” Commander Jenku Vade shouted at me as he stormed into my room.
“No!” I shouted back at him.
“When I enter a room, you get down on your knees in obedience. When will you learn?” he growled as he came over to me. He put his large hand on my shoulder and pushed me down to the floor, onto my knees.
“When will you learn you cannot steal humans for Earth just to make them your slaves?” I shouted back.
He circled around me like a lion looking at prey. His heavy boots echoed in the room. I looked up at his tall stature of about nine feet. His red skin was as red as an Anvin, and his eyes were a light yellow that matched his brown-blonde short hair. His black uniform was thick, like burlap, but fitted to his massive muscular body. I hated him. He had brought me nothing but grief and horror since he abducted me from Earth.
“When will you be pregnant? I have taken you many times, and still nothing,” he growled. “You are useless.”
“Then let me go,” I said.
He laughed. His laugh echoed in the room. It was menacing and terrifying. He was an evil Zenkian alien that had tortured and raped me. I wanted him dead.
“Commander Vade, there is mention of the rebels out on patrol over the flatrock areas,” a voice interrupted over an intercom-like device.
He stopped over to a panel on the wall and pushed a button, “And why do you interrupt me with this mundane information?”
“It is said that it might be Commander Trent Qoln,” the voice said.
The commander growled. “That ass! I am on my way. I will hunt him down once and for all.”
He moved back over to me and looked at me. “I will come to your bed tonight, and you will give me offspring!”
I looked up at him and narrowed my eyes at him in hate.
“Yes, save that fiery look for tonight. The more you resist, the more fun it is for me,” he laughed. Then he left the room.
I fell onto my bottom on the floor. I could not take any more of the horrors I was subjected to. I had to get out of there. I had been planning my escape route for weeks. Now was the best time. Jenku would be out on patrol looking for this Commander Trent Qoln. I did not know why Jenku wanted this commander so much. I only knew that he had mentioned him a few times as a slippery son of a bitch because he was sometimes able to fly his speeder into Waysaw lands and escape easily. He must be a very skilled pilot indeed. But I knew that Jenku wanted him, and this meant that he would be gone for hours. I was not going to subject myself to whatever he had planned for me when he returned.
“Get up, Samantha; it is now or never,” I whispered to myself.
I got up and grabbed a large basket and put some folded cloth and dried fruit in it. I waited a good ten minutes until I knew that it was plenty of time for Jenku to be out on patrol and away from the city. He would have been in haste to find his enemy. Then I walked out of the room high in the tower of the Waysaw city. I moved freely throughout the city as the commander had me doing chores on a daily basis. This basket made it look like I was doing the same chore I did every day: carrying items to and from the room for the pleasure of the commander. It was something that was ordinary. I saw many human female slaves carrying baskets or goods around the city at all times. I carried mine out of the tower and into the city. I was going toward the edge of the city, toward the great ocean. It was the only plan that I had to escape.
I looked around and then went behind the very last building that led to outskirts and crouched behind a speeder. I dropped the basket and pushed it underneath it. Then I heard something that brought a chill all over my body.
“Where did she go? Where did Vade’s slave go? We had commands to not let her out of the building until he returned, but some idiot soldier was not aware of the new order!” the soldier shouted.
Oh shit, I thought. Of course he would say such a thing. He had left the city, and I had just showed him defiance. That was stupid of me. It put him on guard that I might run, and he was right. I was grateful that the soldiers on duty at the building did not know he had issued such an order.
“I don't know! I thought I saw her come this way. She had a basket and…”
“She could not have gone far! We must find the human female. If she had a basket, then she was headed for the market. All these humans look the same to me. Let’s go toward the market,” the other soldier said.
The voices of the Zenkian soldiers echoed around me as I crouched down and rolled underneath the land speeder. I was scared for my life. I had managed to escape from my imprisonment, and no way in hell was I going back.
I waited for the shouting of the soldiers to grow distant. I had planned only part of my escape and made up the rest as I went along. I was running for the beach and the ocean. I could see it. All I had to do was run and jump in the water and stay low, swimming along the coastline; it was the only way that I would not be noticed. As a human, I stuck out; there weren't very many of us here in the Waysaw City.
“Come on, Samantha; you can do this. Just do it. You have nothing to fear. They won't hurt you if you are caught, not more than they already have. You are the human female of Commander Jenku Vade, and that means something around here. Just run,” I whispered to myself as I looked at the blue ocean in the distance.
I gave myself the motivation that I needed. I slowly slithered out from under the speeder and looked around. I could see soldiers looking for me running the opposite direction. It was now or never. I got up to my feet and ran as fast and quietly as I could to the white sand beach. I jumped into the water and held my breath. I had made it!
I dove underneath the waves and swam as long as I could underneath the water. I came up for air, barely sticking my face out of the water, and then swam underneath the water again. I hugged the coastline, swimming away from the city. I swam fast, but not too fast. I did not want to wear myself out; this was going to be a marathon. I didn't even know where this beach led to. The view from the tower made it look like the beach went on for miles and into the desert lands, which were very rocky. It would be the perfect hiding place if I could find some crevices in the large boulders and rocky cliffs there. It was as far as my plan had been thought through.
I took another deep breath and then swam farther and farther. I didn't know how much time had passed; I couldn't tell, but my muscles were growing tired. I came up for air and scanned the horizon. In front of me, I could see the rocky cliffs, I looked back toward the city; it was now just a dot on the horizon. I let out some relief. I took this time to float on my back to give my muscles a rest.
“You did it, Samantha. You can do anything. You have already been through the worst,” I said to myself breathlessly. I felt some relief as I allowed myself to rest, floating on my back. I looked up at the beautiful blue sky. If I only looked at the sky, I could imagine that I was floating in the ocean on Earth, instead of on Anvin. I began to grow teary-eyed. I missed Earth, my home.
“No, no time to feel sorry for yourself. Now turn over and continue to swim,” I said to myself. I turned, rolling onto my stomach, and then swam with a wide stroke like an Olympic swimmer, all the way around the rocky cliff. When I got to the other side, there was a beach. I swam for it. I climbed onto the beach and then rested on my back on the rocks. I felt somewhat safe, but I knew that the Waysaw Zenkian would be patrolling, looking for me once they realized they could not locate me in the city. I did not have much time. I got out and onto my feet, feeling very tired and dehydrated, but I had to go on.
I walked uphill, and once I got to the top, I looked out. I could barely see the city in the distance. Then I turned around, and I saw mountains. I wondered if they were the Grantsion mountains. They harbored a rebel sect of Zenkian. It was my only chance. I had heard rumors about the rebels, but I didn't know firsthand what they were like. But it seemed they were completely against raiding Earth and stealing humans. That was good enough for me, for now, but it was only a thought. I had no idea if the mountains I was walking toward were, in fact, the Grantsion mountains. But even if they weren't, it would be a good place to hide. I walked toward them, dragging my feet.
It was only a month ago that I was on Earth. I knew that the alien invaders known as the Zenkian were a threat. But it always seemed to happen in big cities; I never thought that I would be abducted by them.
Two years before, the invaders known as the Zenkian violently attacked Earth in several cities. They made it known that they were not friendly and that they were there to steal our resources. They eventually wanted to conquer and take over Earth. It was a frightening thing, but after two years, it had become the new normal. There were often raids by these alien invaders and battles with our military fighting them off. But we were no match for their technology or their actual soldiers. They were skilled in battle, and we even heard rumors that they made sport of battle, like Gladiator games. Something that I now knew to be true after living among them for a month. They called those games the War Games, and they were just as brutal as you might think.
But on Earth, I had no real knowledge of any of this, other than what I saw on the news. I lived in Minnesota in a very small mining town. I never thought that I would have to worry about it. But one day the aliens came to our area. They wanted the silver from the mines. It was a massacre. They caught us off-guard; we were not heavily guarded the way the cities were. They killed many humans, and they took a few human females, about twenty-six of us. I was one of them.
I was given as a slave to the commander known as Jenku Vade. He was fierce and an angry Zenkian, and from the moment he took me, I planned my escape. For three weeks I planned it. And now that I was away and I had hope, I couldn’t let myself go back. This kept me going as I walked across the rocky surface toward the mountains. It was my only hope.
It was growing dark, and I was growing tired. The sun was setting on the horizon behind the mountains, and there were two moons in the sky.
“I need to sit down, just for a few minutes,” I said to myself. I was in a vulnerable spot. I was on a flat rock; it was brown, and I was wearing a white shredded dress. But I needed to stop.
I sat down, and before I knew it, I was lying down. The exhaustion was getting to me, and as soon as I stopped moving, it took over my body. I didn't realize how dehydrated I was. I closed my eyes for just a few seconds.
“Where did you come from?” I heard a deep voice say.
I gasped. I was startled, but I could hardly move to sit up and be in shock like a normal reaction. I opened my eyes. Hovering over me was a very tall Zenkian soldier. He had long black hair that was shaggy and blowing in the wind. He had a full, dark beard. He was very strong and had light brown eyes as he looked down at me. Had I been caught?
“Who are you? Where did you come from, human?” he said.
I tried to answer. I opened my mouth, but nothing came out. I closed my eyes again, and before I knew it, I was passed out. That was the last thing that I could remember.