Chapter nine

Escape

[A few months since the Auction]

How long had it been? Weeks? Months? She had lost track of time. It was all blurred into one long nightmare that seemed to have no end. A tunnel with no light at the end. Her life had become one moment of pain and embarrassment after another. If she wasn't getting shocked by that stupid weapon she had come to know too well, she was being shown off as some trophy to other humans that had been invited over to the space that had become her new prison.

She hated this so much.

On top of this, they had sone something to her, something was very different when she had woken. They had done something to her mind. Whatever it was now had taking over body, she would react to things without her even realizing it. She sat when commanded, lay on the floor when told, climbed upon the walls like some toy. Like some animal for entertainment. Did her owner not realize that she had thoughts, feelings and dreams? Did they even care?

Jeff, as she had come to learn her owner to be addressed as, had made sure she knew her place within his house. There were times that he would electrocute her just to make sure she remembered who was in control. The space that he had created for her to sleep was a cold box made of iron bars and chains. It was cold and dead like the very feelings he showed towards her. She was just another item that he had in his collection, nothing to have feeling towards.

She wanted him dead so very much. As much as it went against all that she wanted in this world, she would throw her values out the window because of how this man had treated her. It was in these moments of anger and rage that she remembered her. The only human who had shown her a sliver of kindness in her life.

Evelynn.

She spent so many nights wondering what had become of her female human friend. It had grown to be a small splinter of hope that she might one day see her again. To hold her within her arms and protect her from this cruel world that they had both come to know too well. She did all she could to keep this dream alive, but with each passing day, it seemed to fade a little more.

Other nights, Astarte would attempt to reach out to her mother, but Jolene never answered her. Her warm presence never graced her mind with the caressing feeling of love and kindness that it once knew. Sometimes Astarte had caught herself having conversations with the void in her mind, just hoping that one word would reach her mother. That she would just know that she was still alive. A response never came.

She had never felt so alone.

For one night as she slept in her zen like state within her cage, her only company being the sound of her own breathing, the recognizable sound of the door opening snapped her back to reality. She did not move as she saw Jeff enter her vision from around the corner of the hallway that led to the front door of the penthouse. He was accompanied by a woman attached to his arm, obviously drunk from a night of drinking and partying with the man.

This was nothing new, she had seen this scenario happen more times than she could count. He would bring a female home, show her his dangerous 'pet', take her to bed and indulge in a night of pleasure. All the while, exposing Astarte to the scenario that she would truly wish to never see, or hear, again. She let out a huff of air in a type of sigh as she mentally prepared to run through the routine once again.

She started to check the boxes as the two humans predictably went through them. They came it, attached at the hip, the female looked over the space in amazement, he insured her that it was nothing special before he gestured towards his pet within her cage. Astarte, not a stranger to how this would play out, got up from her position on the floor to be shown off to Jeff's new mate. She sat in silence, waiting to be shown off as a shiny toy.

She listened as the two bantered back and forth for a short while before the woman gasped as her gaze finally fell upon the xenomorph that was caged across the room. The woman stumbled as she approached the alien, perhaps full of one-to-many drinks, and gazed upon the strange creature before her. Astarte just sat, wanting nothing more than this to be over.

"Jeff…ca-can we…let her *hic* out?" Astarte hear the woman say, this grabber her attention as this was not usually the routine. Her senses spiked at the notion of this abnormal event. It was Jeff's response that had Astarte's blood racing.

"Ye-yes we c-can b-beautiful. S-s-she can't…hurt-hurt us. W-watch this." He said through slurred words. He had never let her out when he had been drunk before, let alone with another human in the penthouse. There was an opportunity here that she would not let pass, but she would have to play this right, or it would pass her by and never return.

Astarte watched as Jeff performed a hand motion towards her cage, a small device on his wrist blinked and made a small beeping noise. The proper hand command caused the front door to flip open, granting her an exit from the metal cage. Being hesitant of the situation, she did not exit right away, rather looking towards the human that she had come to fear out of pain. She waited, almost expecting the door to snap shut as a joke, making them both laugh. However, when it did not, she simply shared a moment of silence with one another before he spoke out.

"Well…come on t-then! Get o-out here you s-slug!" He commanded. This was reinforced with the hand command for her to approach. Her body took over as she watched the gesture through her gray scale vision. She tried to resist, but there was no use as her body exited the cage, coming to a stop just a few feet outside of its door. There she sat and waited.

She did not move as the woman approached her, surrounded by a fog of yellow and purple pheromones. Astarte did not move a muscle, especially when she saw that Jeff had his hand upon the electrical weapon upon his hip. She did not wish to feel its sharp sting this night.

The woman reached out her hand as she approached, her fingers trembled slightly as the grew closer to Astarte's smooth, moist head. Astarte played into the moment and lowered her head so that her mouth was as far from the woman's hands as it could be, making it more inviting to touch her. It did not take long for the woman's hand to find the smooth surface of her head. She felt her finger glide upon its surface as they went further towards the back of her elongated dome.

A moment later, the woman's second had found its way to touch her hard exoskeleton, wanting to explore the surface of this alien creature before her. She was probably excited to see such a rare specimen, something that only nightmares could bring to life. And now, such a thing was sitting before her, under control and safe to touch. Or so the woman thought, little did she know that this nightmare was merely playing alone.

From previous conversations between her owner and his 'friends', Astarte knew that she was an outsider in this world, a thing of rare occurrence. Over the months that she had been shown off to others, it began to become truth, that she was a prize among humans. And how she hated it.

Every inch of her smooth, ebony exoskeleton crawled at the thought of being some object to be shown off, not to be cared about or loved. She had tried, too many times to count, to escape from this place. She never seemed to be able to rid her mind of these horrible hand commands that controlled her. There had been one night, her owner had forgotten to double check the lock on her cage, that she almost made it out without being caught. But a hidden alarm on the door had caused him to wake from his slumber, find her in the act, and forced her to obey.

She had no idea how it worked, only that it was her biggest obstacle between her and freedom. Something that had been planted deep within her mind that had to be overpowered…or tricked.

So, the xenomorph sat and let this strange woman run her fingers across her moist body. Let her poke and prod her without her consent. Even though every inch of Astarte wanted to lunge forward and sink her teeth into this human's neck, she had to keep her mind on the end goal, had to keep that thought of freedom within her gaze. It did not take long before Jeff came to stand beside the woman he had brought home. The cloud of pheromones around him giving off his intent of where he was hoping his night would end. It made Astarte shiver in disgust. She pushed all memories of that aside, her freedom was close, she could almost taste the fresh air, the dirt under her feet, the trees around her. She wanted this with all her soul.

"Yup, this here…she's a 'beut antshe." Jeff said with slurred words as he slapped her domed head a few times, as if he was trying to sell a cheap car. "Sssshe cost a 'prty penny she did."

She waited and watched, waiting for the perfect moment.

"Ant nothn like 'er. One ofa kind."

Wait…she had to wait. It had to be perfect.

"She's a bit scary." Replied to woman as she continued to look over the alien before her. "Where did you get her from"

Jeff put his finger to his lips. "Can't tell you, itsa secrets. But she's one of a kind she is." Again, he slapped her hard on the head. "I've got something else that's oneofa kind, let meshow you." He said as he pointed up towards his bedroom loft.

Now.

As his right arm was extended towards his bed where he spent so many nights with random women, Astarte lashed out her tail, blade forward, reaching for its target. Jeff's right shoulder. Her mind rushed with adrenaline as she felt her tail blade sink into human flesh, deeper and deeper, cutting tendon and bone. In an instant the feeling was gone, as her blade moved through the soft tissue and out the other side, severing the limb from the man.

She did not wait to listen to the man scream, even thought she wanted to hear that sweet sound all night long. She turned and sprinted across the room towards the large plane of glass. She knew it would take all he speed to break the structure so she dug her talon like toes into the floor and put all her strength into her legs. It was then that she heard the scream of the man who had caused her so much pain, so much humiliation. It was the last thing she heard before she leapt into the glass and shattered its surface.

Then, she fell.

Her excitement was quickly replaced with fear as she had her first glimpse of just how high up her prison had been. She had spent so many days staring out past the glass of the apartment, not really thinking that she would be falling from it one day. As she looked to the ground, some sixty feet down, the fear that she might not survive the fall flashed through her mind. Perhaps she had made a fatal mistake choosing to escape this way.

Just then, her body took over, her limbs began to flail, looking for something to grab a hold of but finding nothing but the cold touch thin air. Her vision was filled with small pieces of glass as the ground twirled and flipped in and out of sight. She lost track of where she was until suddenly, she stopped. Her hard exo-skeleton slamming into the concrete of the parking lot that had been beside the apartment building. Her head began to swirl as a ringing took over her mind. She tried to take a breath and found it difficult.

She did not realize the pain right away. No, it was a strange feeling or warmth that took over her body first, like hot water being slowly poured onto her. More intense in some areas than others, her right arm being the center of it. A moment passes as she lay upon the cold concrete. A strange silence took over the scene as her gaze was filled with the sight of the building that she had just come from. She looked at its strange shape and curves. It was not as geometric as she had thought, but she had never been able to see it from the outside before. There was an artistic feeling to it as the outer walls wrapped and curved in a unique egg-like shape. She thought it rather interesting. Her attention was taken from the building by the noise of soft hissing and something melting. Something all around her. She tried to take another breath in and was met with a lash of pain. It caused her body to react and curl in upon itself, the movement only causing more pain in a few spots on her body.

She somehow managed to raise her upper half from the cold surface, she almost wished she hadn't. Because as she moved to look at her arm, she was met with the image of it limply hanging from her elbow, in a position it should not be in. Her acid blood flowing quickly from large cracks that were now carved into her exoskeleton. The sight caused her mind to react to the gruesome image and an ear-piercing shriek left her maw, echoing into the night.

She screamed until she ran out of breath, or until the pain took her breath away, she was not sure. It was then that a pain in her leg drew her gaze downward, not really wanting to see the damage that she knew would be there. It was almost a blessing that she had no breath within her, because the mangled left leg would have drawn yet another shriek, but nothing found its way from Astarte's mouth. She pulled her legs in close, hoping that it would stop the pain somehow, but realized that nothing would rid her of the feeling.

It was at that moment that she heard something from above, something loud, piercing and cause for concern. She raised her long head to the apartment she had escaped to see Jeff looking from the window as the security system began to bark loudly behind him. He was holding onto the stub of a shoulder that he now had as he looked down at his prized possession now half splattered on the concrete below. Her acid blood slowly creating a bubbling crater around her as the man's own blood flowed forth from the wound she had caused.

She knew that no good would come from the tripped alarm system, someone would either be on their way to handle the situation, or worse. She had to move, she had to get away from here. She had to do something to make sure she was never shoved into that metal cage again, and fast. She tried to lift her body with her uninjured arm, to stand on her only functioning leg. It was not going well.

As the alarm bells howled into the cold night air, she somehow found the strength to stand, the pain still running through every nerve in her body. She did all that she could to ignore it as she started to hop towards the edge of the parking lot, where she was met with the encouraging image of trees and bushes beside the road.

She had no time to marvel at the vegetation that she was seeing for the first time, she had to get far away from here, and quickly. Foot by foot, inch by inch she moved away from that building. Her entire body was burning from the pain. Part of her wanted to give up, to fall to the ground, curl up and just give into the pain. Maybe then it would stop…maybe then this nightmare would end.

Reality was not so kind. Thankfully the pain was also helping to keep her anchored in the present, in the now that beckoned her to move forward, to find the freedom that she had longed for since her mother had told her of the outside world. Somewhere far from this place of pain and horror. Far from the laboratory and the cold touch of scientists or her buyer, far from the tests and people that caused her so much pain. Far from the people who wanted her to be nothing but a killer and a trophy.

So, her body moved, pulled by the promise of freedom, pulled by the hope that she still had. She came to the edge of the parking lot, to the edge of the man-made surface. As her clawed feet came dig into the dirt of the flower bed, she had to pause, even when every inch of her told her to run. This feeling… this sensation, her body was almost overwhelmed with it. This feeling of dirt for the first time upon the pads of her feet, of the soft dirt surrounding the claws of her toes as they sunk into its surface.

It was intoxicating.

She had known nothing but laboratory floors and concrete since she first came to be. Even the small patch of vegetation that she had encountered in the obstacle course room had been growing through a metal grate in the floor. This was so strange yet wonderful, she had to stop and let herself be consumed by the feeling for even a moment. Her breathing became shallow and excited as she flexed her toes, forcing them to dig deeper into the soft soil. She let out a quick huff of air in pure happiness.

Unfortunately, the world had other plans in motion.

Her head snapped to the side as something impacted her shoulder. It threw her to the ground as the sharp pain began to form. Her clawed hand snapped to the area that had felt the impact. She wasted no time and rolled her body to look for the source of the attack. It was not hard to find the lone human standing only thirty feet away, pointing something towards her. She could only assume it was some weapon, what else would have caused her so much pain?

She did not give the human another chance to harm her. She kept low and, on all fours, snapped away from her attacker, sprinting into the night. Her limbs protesting from the wounds that they already had as they continued to leak acid.

Crack! Crack!

She heard the loud noises from behind her. She did not slow as the firearm barked its attack into the night air. She dodged back and forth, making herself a very hard target to hit. Crack! Something hit the dirt beside her, causing the soil to fly into the air. Something small and moving extremely fast. She cut away in the opposite direction. Crack, crack! Two more sharp sounds from behind as something small zinged past her head. Suddenly, she felt something hit her leg causing her to shriek in pain, but she did not slow down. Some unseen force pushed her forward, pushed her to ignore the pain that came from so many parts of her body.

As she continued to run, there was no more sounds from behind her. She must have been far enough from her attacker that she was safe. Part of her knew that she was not truly safe yet, she had to find a place to hide, somewhere she could heal and rest. But not here.

So, she ran.

She bolted across the street, across another sidewalk that was lined with more trees, from there she saw some kind of pathway or back alley that she decided was the best way to go. From there she followed the tall buildings until they all started to shrink in size, going from multiple stories to single levels. For Ten, fifteen, thirty minutes she ran as the environment around her changed dramatically. She was somehow taking in everything that was changing around her, her curiosity pushing back the pain she was feeling. Soon, there was nothing but smaller buildings that looked like they would only hold a single family. Small patches of vegetation sat between them and large pathways of something hard upon the ground. That was when she slowed her pace, letting her heavy breathing become her focus. She needed to focus on anything but the pain that was running through her body.

In and out, in and out. Slow and controlled.

Her chest expanded and collapsed over and over again as her gaze fell to the hard surface that she had come to stop upon. The material was not as nice on her feet as the dirt had been, whatever this was seemed to dominate the landscape of the city. She took a moment and looked around and was a bit disappointed as she noticed there was not much soft soil and vegetation around as she had hoped. It was as if humans were attempting to cover up nature with their own designs. Maybe they did not enjoy it as much as she did. As she looked around, she discovered that she didn't like this landscape that she had escaped to. It didn't feel right. The images that her mother had shared with her of the forests, water and nature were nothing like this strange, constructed environment.

As her breathing slowed a bit, she continued forward at a slower pace, wanting to take in the environment around her more. Her long head went from left to right as she studied each of the buildings around her. They almost all looked the same. Then she noticed a pattern, there were six different designs before the pattern repeated itself. How odd. It felt as if there was no creative process behind the creation of these dwellings. When she was building her room within the labs using her resin, she had made curves and swirls that were pleasing and beautiful. This had none of that. Squares and boxes as far as she could see, nothing that seemed to have any creativity in it.

Her train of thought was cut short as a large machine appeared from around the side of one of these buildings. It was still a few hundred feet in front of her but was closing fast. She darted off to the left and saw a narrow space that she could slip into between the buildings. There was some kind of fence blocking the path, but it was easy enough to leap over and land on the other side. A large wave of pain shot up from her leg as she landed, but she ignored it. She lowered herself to the ground and turned slightly to make sure the machine passed her by without issue. It was more the sound that told her it had passed than anything else, she could not see well past the barrier she was now hidden behind.

Feeling that she was in the clear, she stood to her full height and looked to the path ahead of her. The small canyon between the buildings seemed to lead to a more open area that caught her curiosity. Doing a quick scan and not seeing anything of concern, she walked the small distance to the corner of the house, slowly peering around it to make sure there was no one around. Her gaze was met with a few chairs, some kind of table, and a few patches of dirt with flowers growing in rows. Her body relaxed as it realized she was alone.

That was when she noticed something of interest. There was some kind of raised platform attached to the house that seemed to have a crawl space underneath. Her mind told her that it might be a good potential hiding spot, so she wished to investigate. She lowered herself to the ground and slowly made her way towards the structure. All the while realizing that it would indeed serve her purpose. The deck was large and tall, leaving around three feet of space between it and the ground below. More than enough room for Astarte to crawl underneath and rest. Finding an opening was easy, there were a few large spaces between the decorative wood lattice that lined the outer edge of the wood structure.

Carefully she slid her way between the wooden beams and the decorative exterior. Once she passed the portal, it was easy enough to find the far back corner that was hidden away where she could do what she needed to be done. Crawling the twenty or so feet across the exposed dirt, she came to rest where the building met the wood. That was where she let out her first real breath of relief and rest.

However, it was short lived.

She did not want to waste time. A tickle in the back of her throat and a not so pleasant feeling caused her to call forth the resin that her kind used to build their hives. She caught the sticky blob in her hand as the slime oozed between her clawed fingers. She knew she didn't have long, so her hands began to stretch the substance from the wood above her, to the hard surface of the building beside her. Then, she called forth more resin and continued the process. Handful after handful of the substance was stretched and stuck to the surfaces around her. In no time at all, her cocoon was built, creating a protective shell that she knew she could be safe in.

As Astarte smeared the last of her resin in front of her, her hands came to rest upon the sides of her head. The silence of the night was the only company that she had as she stayed curled up like a stone statue within her protective cocoon. As time slipped by, a feeling was growing inside her…a feeling from deep within her. Something that she had not felt with this intensity before. It was sadness, which was no stranger to her, but this was nothing like she had ever felt before. It was intensified by the realization that she was alone in a world she did not know. A world outside of the walls of a lab, a world where anything could happen. She had no one to help her and no one to guide her. She had no idea where her mother was and her sisters, who could be anywhere within this vast world, were far from her mental reach.

Her body began to tremble and shake as fear began to seep onto every inch of her body. It took over every nerve and muscle as if it was being directly injected. Her breathing became shallow and small. She unconsciously curled in tighter upon herself, trying to find some sort of comfort from her own body. It helped, but only a little.

As she lay there in the cold night, within the dark of the hidden corner of the deck and within the shell she had created, only one word drifted into her mind before she fell to rest. The word only a whisper in the vastness of the terrifying new world she had fallen into.

"…Mother…"