My girlfriends, Mary, Stephanie, and Gloria, had all convinced me to go camping in upstate New York. It wasn’t exactly my idea of the perfect weekend, but it had its appeal. I liked the idea of getting out of the city and breathing fresh air for once.
Our little getaway started off well; we setup camp, gossiped, and drank to our hearts’ content. It wasn’t until long after the sun went down that we finally crawled into our tents and called it a night.
I was nearly asleep in my sleeping bag next to Stephanie. I nudged her arm and said, “Stephanie, I have to pee really badly.”
"I told you not to drink all that champagne before bed,” she groaned to me.
"No, you are just drunk and being paranoid. Don't go all the way to the facilities; just go outside the tent, but not too close,” she said sleepily.
I knew then that I was on my own. I quietly crawled out of the tent and moved away from the two tents that we occupied. But as I looked around, I could see that the other campsites were too close, and a few other people were still sitting around campfires.
I couldn't see the restroom facilities all the way across the campground. The trees were closer to us, so I moved into the tree line. I moved farther and farther in until I found a suitable spot, and then I relieved myself. Afterward, I felt so much better and more confident about being in the dark forest. But as I stood up and buttoned my jeans, I realized that I had become turned around. I could see small fires burning in each direction; which way was the way back to our camping spot?
"Crap, Saramina, you really should have not had so much champagne. I guess I will try this way,” I said as I picked a direction and started to walk toward it. Then I heard a loud swish and air hit my face as though a helicopter was flying right above me. I couldn't see anything as I looked up, but I knew that something was there. “What the hell?”
"What? Who's there?” I turned around frantically in a circle until my flashlight landed on something that I could not believe was in front of me. It was a very tall figure, almost eight-feet tall. I knew right away that he was not human. It was not wearing a shirt and there were blue scales down the right side of his body. I could barely see his blond hair, hanging long down to his shoulders.
"I think you know the answer to that, human female,” he said as he took a step toward me.
I screamed at the top of my lungs, turned, and ran. I knew that he meant to take me. That is what they did. That was why Earth was at war with them over the last few years. I ran as fast as I could screaming, but I didn't get very far. Before I knew it, there were strong arms around my waist.
But it was no use. There was another rush of air and I felt like I was weightless, almost like I was flying.
That is the last thing I remember. When I woke up, I was in a guarded underground room made of rock. I woke up trying to figure out what was going on.
"Where am I?” I whispered to myself. I was surprised when I heard a female voice answer.
"You are in a secret base. You have been taken by the Corillion; we all have,” she said.
I slowly got to my feet and looked around. There were about 40 other females around my age ranging from early-twenties to mid-thirties sitting around a very large cavernous room with a lot of furniture, including single beds, a few couches, plush floor mattresses in vibrant colors, and a couple of tables and chairs complete with food and water. It looked like a harem.
"My name is Jennifer. I have been here for two weeks. We were all abducted, some of us in groups and some of us alone, and brought here. This is as much as we know. The Corillion warriors brought us here in order to take us back to the Corillion galaxy where we will be married to a Corillion leader. Some of us have already left. That is all we know,” Jennifer said.
"You have to be kidding me,” I said, walking around seeing that the only opening had bars on it with two Corillion warriors guarding it.
"No, I am sorry, we are not kidding. This is your new reality,” Jennifer said.
"This is bullshit! We have to get out of here! All of us! We have our own lives! This is wrong,” I said, moving toward the bars and banging on them. “Let me out of here!"
"It is of no use. We all reacted the same when we first woke up here. You will get used to it after a while. But there is nothing we can do. They are stronger than us, and no one knows where we are to come look for us,” Jennifer said as she handed me a glass of water.
I drank the water and sat down on the floor and cried. What the hell was going on? How could this be real?
I turned to see a familiar sight. It was the blond Corillion warrior that had taken me in the night.
"There you are," he said as he looked directly at me. I narrowed my eyes at him.
"Why am I here? Why have you taken me?” I stood up and faced him on the other side of the bars.
"Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Cultan Krillis," he said with a grin. It was the same grin that I remembered from the night before.
"Let me go, Cultan Krillis. You have no right to take my body and do with it what you will,” I said to him.
He smiled more. “I like your anger. You will make some Corillion warrior a good wife. You have the spirit for it. That is what we like,” he said.
"I will do no such thing. Let me out of here. I want to go home,” I said to him.
"You will stay here. You will make a wife for a Corillion, and you will like it. You might not think that you will now, but eventually, you will. They all do,” he said. He started to walk away, and I started screaming at him.
A week passed. Little by little, females were taken out of the cave, never to return. Jennifer had told me that they were being taken to the Corillion galaxy. By this time, I knew that I was still on Earth, and grateful for it. It gave me a sense of hope that I was still on my own planet. It gave me a sense of hope that I was not millions of miles away from Earth. At least there was still a chance that I could get out of this.
Then that chance came when none of us were expecting it. It all happened so suddenly and I was lucky that it did because I was due to leave to the Corillion galaxy the very next day. I had been full of anxiety and sitting with Jennifer, who was scheduled to depart with me on a ship to meet our future husbands. It was all completely insane.
"I think it is going to be fine. I have heard things,” Jennifer said to me.
"Some of the women here have already been with a Corillion before by choice. They rather enjoyed it. They are looking forward to the adventure of living in the Corillion galaxy and being with a Corillion for a husband. They say that sex with a Corillion is unlike anything they have ever experienced with a human,” Jennifer said, trying to talk me out of my anxiety.
"But it is being forced on us. That is not right. I will never get over that. There is a part of me that is attracted to the danger and the adventure of the unknown. But what are the chances that I'm going to like the personality of the Corillion that I am given to? I feel like I will not like them. It will be a prison for me. Don't you feel that way?” I asked her.
"What is it?” I said as I stood up next to her. I listened quietly. Then I heard it. I could hear the sounds of helicopters. But the last time I heard what I thought was a helicopter, it was a Corillion spaceship.
"It is the Corillion. There will be more of them. It sounds like space ships,” I said to her.
The sound of blasters echoed in the underground cavern. It was obvious that there was a fight going on outside. All the girls began to panic. The two Corillion warriors that were guarding us ran out toward the entrance. They stood looking out into the light.
"It is the humans! It is the human army of Earth!” they yelled at each other.
"We are saved!” I shouted. The girls began to celebrate. I was so thankful that the army of Earth had found us just in time. I was going to be saved.
"Get them all to a ship! We have to get them out of here, even if we die trying!” Another guard ran in and shouted to the two guards.
"Oh shit. They're going to take us anyway!" I shouted. Then I had an idea. ”Listen. As soon as we get out of this cave, everyone run in a different direction. They can't catch all of us. Wait for my signal.”
The women agreed. It sounded like there was a lot of chaos outside and it was our only hope of getting away. If we acted obediently and made it easy for them to get us on the ship and get us out of there, then we would have no chance. But if we all ran in different directions, the two guards would have no choice but to only take who they could capture. I tied the laces on my shoes in a double knot. I was ready. I was going to get away.
"This way. Follow us. Follow closely,” the guard shouted as he opened the bars.
"We should chain them together,” the other guard said. I flinched at his words.
"There is no time for it. The Earth army could be storming this cavern at any second. Get them out of here,” the other guard said.
I was glad for it. We all calmly walked in a group out of the bars following the guard. We calmly walked out of the cave into the bright sunlight. I squinted my eyes until it became clear. There were tall trees everywhere. We were in the middle of the forest. The sounds of guns and helicopters filled the air. I looked behind me to see that all the women were now out of the cavern and we were all walking calmly behind the guard. We were very close to the tall trees. It was now or never. I looked at Jennifer beside me, and she nodded.
"Now! Run now!” I shouted as loud as I could and ran straight into the tree line. All the girls screamed in panic, and everyone ran in every possible direction. The two guards were yelling after us. I turned over my shoulder and saw that no one was following me. I was relieved. But now I had to make my way to a soldier in the Earth army. It would be the only way.
I ran and ran and then I felt the swish of air on top of me. I looked up, hoping to see a helicopter from the Earth army. The trees were so tall and dense that I could not see, but I kept running in the direction. Then I tripped.
"Where do you think you're going?” I heard a familiar voice growl at me.
I looked down to see Cultan on the ground. He had his arm wrapped around my ankle. There was blood on his face down the side of his temple. There was a bloody rock nearby. Someone had hit him. He had fought with someone and had lost, and it was obvious that he was angry and he was going to take that anger out on me.
"Let me go!” I said trying to yank my leg from his hands and kicking him with the other.
"Here! Over here! One of them is trying to get away!” Cultan shouted over his shoulders. My eyes grew wide with panic. He was calling his warriors.
"No! No, I will not go!” I shouted feeling extremely helpless that they would catch me when I was so close to the Earth soldiers that I could hear them shouting orders to each other.
I turned away from him onto my stomach and clawed at the forest ground, trying to crawl away from him. It was then that I saw a blaster underneath a limb. I reached for it. I turned and shot.
Bam! Bam! The gun went off in my hands, and it startled me. I had never shot a blaster gun before. I hit Cultan twice, once in the shoulder that barely penetrated through his blue scales and the other in his neck. Blood poured out of his neck, and he fell back. I was in complete shock. I had just killed a Corillion.
"There! That is the new one!” I heard a voice shout. I looked through the trees to see two Corillion warriors running in my direction. I yanked my leg out of his dead hand and ran in the other direction.
"It is Cultan! The new woman! You killed Cultan!” I heard them shout behind me as I ran as fast as I could with tears pouring down my face. I ran straight into a tree.
I looked up to see that it was not a tree that I ran into. It was the bullet proof vest of a soldier.
"There! They are coming for me!” I pointed in the direction that the Corillion warriors were chasing me. The soldier grabbed my arm and led me off in the opposite direction as he shouted orders at the group of soldiers he was with. “There! Beyond the trees! Go! Go!”
"Climb in! You are safe now!” the soldier shouted at me as he led me to a helicopter. I climbed in as fast as I could, and the soldier turned and ran back towards the battle. The helicopter lifted off into the air and flew away from the battle site. I relaxed and laid back into my seat and looked at the other ten human females that I recognized from the cave. They were all shaken and frightened. I did not see Jennifer among them, and I hoped that she had made it to another helicopter. I was handed a bottle of water. I drank greedily and relaxed.
I had made it. My ordeal was over. That was the end of it. That was the end of my time with the Corillion warriors. Or so I thought. Little did I know that my actions in the forest that day would come back to haunt me, and my life would never ever be the same