The next few days were relatively dull. He did not want to eat, and when she offered him water he opened the bottle only to dump it on her head. She figured that she deserved it. Liana left him alone as much as she could, because when he started to growl, she started to pick on him, then he would start to roar, then she would soak him with cold water. He continued to throw things at her. She would torture him by setting the box of his weapons in front of the cage for him to stare at.
Just when she thought she had everything she needed, more questions and curiosities arose. Soon, she decided to sedate him again. She had gone through his weapons and stuff again, sketching them, and recreating the alien symbols on them. But still, there was always more about him that she wanted to know. She stepped in front of the cage with the gun loaded, she watched his body tense and her finger touched the trigger-but her phone began to ring.
Liana answered it casually, the muzzle of the gun still directed at the alien, but as soon the woman began to talk she was sprinting to her Jeep.
Her heart was racing, "Don't shoot it! Tell your husband not to shoot it. Get outside in your car, or upstairs in a bedroom and lock the door. I'll be right there."
Liana shoved the gun in the seat beside her unsafely, but she was determined to get to that house. A woman had just called her, hysterically yelling about a bear in their house, and that her husband was grabbing his hunting gun. She forced her boot onto the gas pedal and the Jeep jumped forward with the roar of its engine. It was good she already had the tranq gun loaded, and had more ammo on her just in case. She could get to the house on time, before anyone got hurt.
Tranquilizer guns weren't that easy though. In the few seconds it took for the sedative to kick in, an angry bear could charge. And if you didn't give it a big enough dose, it could continue to tear into you. But if you gave it too high of a dose, you'd just kill it. The tranquilizer was loaded for something the aliens size, around two hundred pounds. Liana would be putting herself in danger, going into an enclosed space with a bear, but she would do it to try and save its life.
Her eyes were locked on the street signs, searching for a Windchester Drive. She knew her way around town really well, but newer houses around the outskirts were always being built. Like her old little house, it was right on the edge of the park, with no clear division of their acres from the rest of it. The Jeep came to a halt in front of a pretty white house, and she grabbed the gun and jumped from the vehicle to sprint to the door. A woman stood on the lawn, just to the side of the door, and Liana slowed her footsteps, about to tell the woman to get farther away from the house.
But the woman was just standing there, crying and shaking her head. Liana was suddenly afraid that she was too late, for either the woman's husband or the bear.
Before Liana could ask her anything, the woman said, "Its in the living room."
Liana cautiously pushed open the door and headed inside, keeping her gun aimed and ready. She found the living room easily enough. And when she did, her heart stopped. Among the nice tan furniture, down on the rug, there was a dead bear-a tiny thing, just a cub. She gripped her gun tighter, ready to look for its mother.
A man just stood there casually on the other side of the couch though, holding his rifle in his hand, and Liana had to ask, "Was there a mother? Was there a bigger bear in the house?"
"Naw, the bear's right there." He gestured to the body on the rug with his gun.
"You shot it…" It wasn't really a question, but he answered her anyway.
"Yea, I shot it. Its a bear."
"It's just a cub." She said breathlessly, her mouth feeling thick and her throat tight.
"Ida get bigger when its older. Better get rid of them now."
Even so small, she could tell it was a grizzly, "They're a protected species."
"It was in my house. Self-defense. Am I in trouble miss?" He asked sarcastically.
"No." She spat.
"Then you better get rid that body and leave. I told my wife not to call anyone, that I had it taken care of."
Liana lowered the muzzle of her gun to the floor submissively, and walked back to the Jeep to grab the tarp out of the back. She crouched down, feeling her ribcage crushing in around her as she stared at it. It was so small, just a ball of thick fur, and probably weighed only around ten pounds. Liana probably could have grabbed it by the scruff of its neck and carried it out of the house. Instead, thick red blood pooled under it, soaking into the colorful ornate rug, its eyes were disturbingly still, and a line of blood oozed from its nose.
He'd killed it, and she tried not to hate him for it. Liana rolled the cub onto the tarp, tied it shut, and placed its body in the back of her vehicle. The husband could not be talked to, a gun could solve all of his problems, so she talked to the wife instead. She thanked the woman for calling her, went over the procedures of what to do if she encountered a bear, and made sure she was informed of the bear-proof trash cans. She thanked her again for calling, and then drove back home.
A cub that small should not have been alone. Grizzly cubs didn't leave their mothers until they were three years old. The mother must have died, or the cub must have gotten separated from her and started to wander. In the forest surrounding her home, she solemnly dug a shallow hole, and buried the small cubs body. She cleaned up the tarp afterwards, and then headed inside. However, loud pounding noises on metal reminded her what she had been about to do before she got the call.
After what had just happened, she did not want to deal with him...but, her mind did need the distraction. She grabbed her gun and bag again, and shot him with the tranq dart. He knew what it was this time, and chucked it right back out at her. His small, amber eyes started at her with all his hate. The sedative kicked in quickly enough, and she was in the cage tying his wrists to the back of the door again.
With her gloves on, she dug in her bag for a tape measure and checked his height. She leaned over him, trying to look at his fingers to see if they had a unique pattern, fingerprints, like humans. Liana examined him, trying to answer other questions she'd come up with, but found she didn't really care about any of it. The rest of her questions about his weight, strength, speed, reflexes, age, hearing, and sleep patterns could not be answered by sedating him.
However, she knew he would never submit to tests like that, and found that she wanted to dissect him herself. She would never do it though. And especially now with that bear cub still in her thoughts, she didn't want to see any more death. She slowly continued her examination, not really interested in what she was doing, but kept writing things down. Eventually though, she just sat there beside him.
Liana didn't have anyone else to talk to, she she began to talk to him, "A man shot a bear cub for entering his house, and I had to bury its body." Her throat was thick, her words strangled, but she continued, "It was just a cub, and she shot it anyway."
Of course, he did not talk back, could not even move. She stared down at him, observing the rust on his knuckles, and his jagged nails. Tiny pools of water collected on the bottom of the cage in the ripples of the metal, not having evaporated since the last time she had sprayed him with the hose. The bottom of his feet were dirty, and his soft hair had begun to dry out and crack like chapped lips in the winter. Liana just broke down, her lips quivering, and she began to cry.
She let herself be draped over him, her forehead pressing to his chest, and he was cold against her skin. Her body shook with her sobbing as she took in ragged breaths. She squeezed her eyes tightly shut, but she felt the warm tears push past that barrier easily.
She began to babble, "I don't want you to die either; I don't want anyone else to know about you. I dont know what the government would do to you...But I know I can't keep you like this." Her tears soaked his chest and rolled down his skin, but she couldn't stop crying. Her throat was impossibly tight and her muscles tense but she said, "I can't just let you go now either."
As her nose began to run, she started to snivel, and sobbed, "I never meant to shoot you! You idiot, you came up behind me and I thought you were a bear. I never meant to shoot you, I'm so sorry."
She tried to wipe her tears away, even as they still flowed from her eyes. She still had her face pressed against his chest and she mumbled, "I'm sorry for gropping your...your hair too. I'm so sorry."
Just when she was starting to get control of her hyper breathing and tears began to slow, she said, "But you threw your shit at me!" and somehow she started to cry even harder. Tears flowed from her eyes like a dam had broken inside her. Her face was red, her face distraught. Her throat was too thick to talk, so she just made pathetic, muffled whimpers pressed up against his broad chest.
She'd lost track of the minutes, lost track of how long she'd been in the cage with him and how long she had before the sedative would wear off by itself, but the alien suddenly made another noise she had never heard from him before. It was sort of deep and steady purr. It vibrated through her, made her racing thoughts and her tears stop-but she didn't like it.
Abruptly, Liana sat up, shoving her hands at his chest to get away from the oddly calming effect of his purring. She stared at him through blurry vision, small vibrations from his purring still thrumming against her palm. It was strange. It was freaky. But, it was soothing. She felt her shoulders drop and her muscles uncoil. She took in a deep and steadying breath, and lifted her eyes to him.
He was watching her. He was not looking at her with hate or loathing, but it disturbed her nonetheless. She took her hands off him, and the purring instantly faded. She wiped at her eyes, and then untied him. She didn't move immediately, almost wanting to just sit there until he woke up, but she knew that wasnt an option. After all she had done, he would still kill her. She had to go.
Liana injected him with the reversal agent, climbed from the cage, and shut the door. She didn't wait for him to wake before she had left-not to the house or the Jeep though. She needed the fresh air and the release, and so she began to wander around the woods, trying to keep her mind off the possibility of finding his space ship, and her mind off of bears for the time being. She just needed to clear her thoughts.
