Chapter Seven
Yulia couldn't believe her eyes. Standing before her was a young human woman, face sweaty and smeared with dirt. Her shoulder-length white blonde hair was messy and windblown, the skin on her arms covered with scattered cuts and wounds. She wore extremely weather-beaten military fatigues, riddled with holes. There were short black leather gloves on her hands and in her arms were a few small green-hued orbs. Native fruit. The young woman took a few steps closer to Yulia and laid the fruit in front of the starving woman.
"Here. Eat these. They look better than they actually taste." the woman spoke gently, but before they even hit the ground, Yulia had torn open the tough rind on the largest fruit, spraying it's juices into the air. Yulia resisted the urge to gag once more as the bitter fruit pulp flooded her mouth. It was like eating an extremely bitter grapefruit, so tangy she could feel it in her ears. Nonetheless, she wolfed down the first, and then helped herself to another. The woman watched as Yulia ate, and reached her hand up to Yulia's forehead.
"Sorry I hit you. I'm a pretty bad shot with their weapons. Your wound healed pretty well. I don't think we'll be wasting anything in the Medcomp for this." the blonde woman spoke again. At this, Yulia remembered her injury. She reached up with a few sticky fingers and found the rough patch of skin across her temple, wincing at it's tenderness. It already had begun to form a thick scab. Finishing the last hunk of fruit, Yulia swallowed, and then began the flood of questions she needed answers to.
"I guess I should thank you but before I get to that part, just who the FUCK are you, and where the FUCK am I?" she spat. The woman stood a few hurried steps toward Yulia and brought her finger up to her lips, trying to silence Yulia.
"Keep your voice down! They can hear you!" she hissed. Yulia gave her a taken-aback look, but contiuned on with her questions.
"Who are you? Why did you bring me here? And who are THEY? Was that you by the river? YOU were the one who shot me? And what do you mean 'their weapons'? " she couldn't stop asking questions. Her mind was racing.
The blonde woman knelt down in front of Yulia and stared into her face.
"Are you sure you can handle it all at once?" she asked. Yulia just stared back, intent on having her questions answered. The blonde woman then rose to her feet, her eyes fixed on Yulia.
"As you probably already guessed, this planet isn't Earth. I've been here a long time, and I still don't know it's name...the only thing that I do know, is that we were both brought here for a purpose." the strange woman spoke. Yulia was becoming frustrated. She sprang up from her seat on the floor.
"What the hell is THAT supposed to mean? For God's sake, how is this even possible? And if we were BROUGHT here, to wherever the fuck HERE is, how is it that I don't remember ANY of it?" Yulia was becoming hysterical. The blonde woman rose up again to meet Yulia eye-to-eye.
"You don't remember because they don't want you to remember...what's your name?" she asked. Yulia looked into the blonde woman's eyes. She felt as if this stranger were deliberately avoiding her questions.
"Yulia. Yulia Merrick."
The blonde woman turned and strode across the room, stopping at the flat rock covered in the feathered skin. She knelt down next to a heap of scavenged goods, and introduced herself.
"I'm Tari Strahle. United States Marine Corps."
Yulia stared unblinkingly at this woman, as if she were studying her. Tari rummaged through some things, overturned a few piles of rubbish, all the while Yulia was boring holes into Tari with her eyes. Then, in a moment's realization, she gasped, then spoke.
"Wait. Tari Strahle. I remember you...you were the..." Yulia began to speak, but trailed off when she saw what Tari had been searching for: from under a pile of stinking rags, Tari produced an M24 sniper rifle, tied with filthy strips of cloth and caked with mud. She then turned to Yulia and spoke.
"...I was sent to Palestine in 1993 to assassinate Yitzhak Rabin, the Prime Minister of Israel. And I succeeded. The tabloids printed that it was some crazy right-winged Zionist, from what I remember. But hey, it was only a few weeks after I read that headline when I woke up here with no memory...of how I got here." Tari spoke, turning to inspect her weapon.
Yulia stared in disbelief at the legendary cold-blooded killer that sat in front of her.
Taking a few cautious steps across the cave floor, Yulia knelt next Tari as the woman continued to inspect her weapon. After being in the presence of Tari for only a few minutes, Yulia was already suspecting that Tari 'wasn't all there'. She watched as the blonde woman plunged her fist into a pile of rubbish, rummaged around some more, and withdrew a fairly-clear scrap of cloth.
"The only thing I know for sure is that THEY'RE out there. They can smell us, they can hear us, they can sense us. But we aren't food. We aren't game. We aren't even toys to be played with." Tari spoke, beginning to wipe the crud off of her weapon. She spoke through gritted teeth, scrubbing violently at the caked-on grime.
Yulia asked one more time.
"Who...are THEY? Who are you talking about?"
Tari looked up from her cleaning duties with blank eyes. She then stood up in front of Yulia, turned on her heel, and walked a few paces over to a small pile of flat scrap metal lying near the entrance of the cave. Bending over, she looked through the pile and within seconds, removed an oddly-shaped chunk of silvery metal. Walking slowly back over to Yulia, Tari then tossed what was in her hand to Yulia, who caught it awkwardly.
In her hands, Yulia held a huge metal featureless mask. It was intimidating and cold, with no distinguishing marks other than a pair of translucent eyes, deep and cunning. Yulia's blood began pumping fast through her veins again. She now knew who it was who was stalking her. Whose blood she spilled in the forest. And whose body she felt near her own merely hours ago. The small place on her calf where the droplet of condensation had touched started to tingle, sending a shockwave through her body. Tari spoke again, even softer than before.
"There's only a few out there...7 or so...but that's more than enough. This place is some sort of prison camp for them. The prisoners are the males...they're big. I've seen a few of them and they're fucking hard to kill. The mask is from the one I managed to get. I'm not sure why they are prisoners, but they are weak and pathetic compared to the wardens. The wardens are the females. I think there's only one, maybe two. They're even bigger. Stronger. More aggressive. And I think it's the females who brought us here." Tari explained.
Yulia listened intently, trying to take in what she was hearing. It all seemed so unbelievable, it made her head spin.
"I still don't understand. WHY were we brought here?" Yulia pleaded.
Tari lowered her eyes.
"I think the males are here because they were cast out of their society. A few of them are dim-witted, disfigured...and roughed up because of it...made a spectacle of. The other males, however, are...different. They have a wild, untamed smell about them. They don't act like the others. I think they're criminals. And this is their prison..."
Tari's eyes turned back to Yulia.
"...When I first got here I wasn't as lucky as you. I didn't wake up in the woods, or even have the luxury of sleep. I woke up in their camp. The first thing that I saw was...was a row of human women. They were lashed together around a large tree. I remember...it was so quiet. But then...there was a scream. One of their females emerged from thin air...they have some sort of... cloaking device. She was...massive. She walked around the tree where were all were tied, as if she were inspecting us. Sometimes she would...reach out and grab at one of us...squeeze us, stroke us, probe us in places. She found the weakest of us. Used her as an example." Tari turned away from Yulia and spoke coldly and in a monotone voice, as if what she was describing were putting a bad taste into her mouth.
She then turned back towards Yulia.
"The female...whatever its called...took the human woman down from the tree, and cut her bonds. The human woman thought she was free. She looked back at all of us, then took off in run out of the camp. She barely had reached the treeline before one of the...prisoners...had appeared...and caught her...he threw her to the ground, ripped off her clothes...took her as if he were starved for...deprived of..." she continued, but then stopped.
Yulia's breath was coming quickly and sharply now. She gazed at Tari with a frightened look while Tari added lastly:
"We're their harem. These criminals aren't worthy of the females of their own race. So the females use us as punishment for the males...WE'RE their sentence. To be nothing but lesser breeding meat for even lesser beings."