The creatures don’t take kindly to my screams. The one closest to me grabs onto me and strikes me across the face, which succeeds in making me stop screaming, but now I’m gasping sobs as tears start rolling down my face. The other two turn to leave the room and he begins to drag me out behind them. He’s unexpectedly strong and I can’t find anything to help leverage myself. My socks are useless, sliding all over the floor and there’s nothing else in the room for me to hold onto. The best I can do is grip onto the side of the doorway in an attempt to keep them from taking me any further.

“There is no use fighting. There is no one here to save you.” I gasp and at the same time one of the other aliens turns and grips my arms, pulling them free from the door. How is it possible that I can understand what these creatures are saying?

“Are you speaking English?” I ask as they drag me down a hallway.

“No, foolish one. We gave you a language transplant when we first brought you on board. You cannot be a successful slave if you cannot understand what your masters are saying to you.”

The gravity of my situation hits me immediately. I thought being kidnapped by my landlord was awful. I wasn’t prepared for something much worse. As I’m being dragged down the cold, empty corridor, I look around, frantically. There must be other women besides me — someone was talking to me not ten minutes ago. There must be a series of rooms like the one I was in, connected by the pipes running through up above. It’s impossible to know how many other women are onboard. We must be in the basement of the building because there are no windows to give me a sense of where I am. Most likely I’ll wake up having been checked in to a mental institution … because, aliens? Aliens don’t exist, and I’ve clearly lost my mind.

At the end of the corridor, they pull me into a room. There’s a table in the middle with straps, medical equipment and special lighting. It looks like an alien’s version of an operating room.

Panic overwhelms me and I suck in a huge breath only to let it out again in a scream that sounds like it’s coming from someone else. Someone completely overcome with terror. I’ve never heard that sound come out of me before. I try to pull my arms away from their grasps but they’re too strong for me. My legs are free so I try kicking and flailing, fighting against them with everything I have. But their green claws just dig deeper into my arms. Then, one of the creatures flicks his tongue out at me with a hiss, baring his sharp fangs. His forked tongue wraps around my neck, preventing me from taking a breath. All of the fight leaves my body as I singly focus on getting a breath of air. The others release me and I fall to my knees in front of the alien that has me around the throat. I use my fingers to try to pry his tongue loose but the more I struggle, the tighter it gets.

Finally, as black dots spot my vision, his tongue releases. I fall to the ground, gasping for air. There’s no fight left in me this time when they pull me up again and put me on the table. I’m not ready to take my hands away from my neck, but they pull them down by my side and strap them to the table. When my feet are also strapped and I can’t move, I succumb to the tears that have been threatening to spill from my eyes since the door first opened and I realized that this nightmare was my new reality. I’m a blubbering mess, ugly crying on this surgical table, when they pull a machine of some sort over to the table.

“What are you doing to me?” I ask through my tears. My breathing is coming in loud gasps. I can’t calm down, I’m so worked up that I might pass out if I can’t get a deep breath of air into my lungs. They don’t answer me. One of the aliens starts pressing buttons on one of the devices in the room. A mechanical arm extends with a needle at the end. Within a second, the needle pierces my arm. The lack of oxygen in my lungs keeps me from screaming but the tears continue to pour down my face. “What is that?” I whisper as I feel a cold substance snake its way through the blood in my arm. I clench my fist, feeling relieved that I still have feeling and control over my movements, at least for now.

I’m distracted, looking at my arm and wondering what the hell they’re doing to me when I feel another sharp pinch in my right ankle. I look down to see a second mechanical arm pulling away from my leg. The black dots are back and swimming in front of my vision, threatening to pull me under. I’m terrified that if I pass out now I’ll wake up in a different place, another hell, having no idea how I got there.

There’s only one alien left in the room. He walks over to the machine and programs something into the computer and then walks out. The whole machine makes a loud sound and then extends over the table above me. A bright light flicks on down by my feet and begins to scan my body slowly, inch by inch. It must be some sort of x-ray or body scan. Maybe they’ve left the room to avoid the exposure to radiation, like at the dentist’s office.

I don’t know if they injected me with some sort of drug or if it’s a relief to be alone, even for this short amount of time, because I feel a calm spreading through my body for the first time since this all began. The scan has just reached my knees when I sense another presence in the room. I turn my head toward the door, expecting to see my creepy, green captors but I see something completely different instead.

There’s a huge alien standing next to the table, at least three times the size of the others. At first glance I think he’s human, but he’s too large to be human. Not to mention, he’s blue. Instead of their tall, slender physiques he’s barrel chested with an overabundance of muscles roped around his arms protruding from his short- sleeve shirt. There are dark markings on his skin, some sort of tattoo or design. His hair is short, like a buzz cut on Earth, and the shade of brown matches his eyes. He stands frozen in place with a strange look on his face. My heart starts to beat a little faster as his eyes take me in.

Oh shit, what is he going to do? I wonder to myself.

He begins walking toward me with determination, a scowl etched on his face, making him look angry…and very intimidating. When he gets to the table, he doesn’t bother turning off the machine, he just blasts it with the weapon in his hand, making it spark and die and making me jump in the process.

He’s wearing clothes that resemble a uniform, which makes him look like a member of a military or police force. On closer inspection, his eyes are a deep, mahogany brown, and when I gaze into them I know he’s not like the others. I don’t know what his intentions are, and I could be wrong, but I don’t think he’s going to hurt me. He gives off a much different vibe than the other guys. He pulls a large knife from his waist and slices the restraints, freeing my wrists and legs.

“Come,” he says, motioning with his hand for me to follow him. My limbs feel strange from whatever drug they injected me with and I struggle to swing my legs over the side of the table. It takes a lot of effort, but I do and as soon as I put my weight on them, I fall to the ground.

“Bug-eyed demon shits,” he says as he hurries back to my side and sweeps me up in his arms. I’m not sure if the language translator was correct or if that’s a common curse for men from his planet. He carries me out of the room and back into the corridor. The lizard aliens are lying in the hallway, unconscious. Or dead. It’s very possible that they are dead. And I wouldn’t know … I’ve never seen a dead person — or a dead alien — before. I look away and hope I’ve made a good decision in taking my chances with this guy. Not that I really had much choice.

He’s moving at a fast clip down the corridor, twisting and turning until we reach another room. It’s full of cargo packed in strange looking containers, as well as stores of food and supplies. He leads us down a small ramp. When we get to the bottom, he sets me gently on the floor next to him while he programs a code into the keypad by the door. Within seconds, the panel in the floor slides open, revealing a small pod underneath. My eyes grow huge in my head as he lifts me and starts to carry me down.

Holy shit, we’re in a spaceship?

He sets me in a seat directly behind his, and secures my restraints. He looks into my eyes and nods. I nod in response. Something tells me I better steel myself for a wild ride. The alien climbs into the seat in front of me and closes the hatch, securing us in this tiny excuse for a spaceship. I take a deep breath and nod to myself again. because ready or not … I’m taking my chances with the blue guy.