'Bumped into something. I'm okay.'
'I'm at the wall.'
Julia put her hands back up. It felt like she was back home playing two minutes in the closet with Tommy Wilson at the first boy-girl party she'd ever gone to when she was twelve. The way she'd reached out in the darkness for him. The way his hands had groped at her, fumbling in the dark. The way she'd inadvertently poked him in the eye resulting in his running from the closet to the bathroom with a dislodged contact lens.
She touched wall.
'Julia?' Wilkins was talking again.
'What?'
'Did you…did you find Nung?'
'No. I found Kendall instead.'
'Kendall? They didn't get him?'
Mick's voice sounded loud. 'What about Kendall?'
'You wouldn't believe me if I told you,' said Julia. 'Turns out he masterminded this whole thing. This whole expedition and everything that's befallen us was one of his little tricks.'
'How is that possible?' asked Wilkins.
Julia found a panel on the wall. There were knobs and buttons. She stared pressing them hoping that none of them were some type of alarm or location device that would bring hoards of those dinocreatures coming for them.
'We're all abductees,' she said.
'Abduct-you mean like aliens?'
'That's exactly what I mean,' said Julia. 'Only Kendall figured it out long before any of us. And he made himself genuinely indispensable to our intriguing hosts.'
'How so?' asked Mick.
'He offered them us in exchange for some of their mental power.'
'Mental power?'
'Yeah. They communicate telepathically. Kendall can do that. I think he can do more, too, but he wasn't exactly into detailing his newfound abilities. He was too busy staring at me naked.'
'Lucky you,' said Wilkins.
Julia sniffed. 'Is that luck?' She kept pressing some more buttons. Nothing seemed to be working. 'I found a panel over here Mick but I can't make of these things work the lights.'
'I haven't found shit over here,' said Mick. 'Keep trying.'
'So,' said Wilkins, 'if we're all abductees, then what's the purpose of this whole affair? To take us forever or something?'
'Near as I can figure,' said Julia, 'they want to cross-breed us with members of their race. An alien-human hybrid.'
'How clichZ,' said Wilkins. 'That's been done to death already. Couldn't they figure out something original?
Julia laughed. 'Good to see you've still got your sense of humor, Wilkins. We might need some more of it before too long.'
'Glad to oblige.'
Julia bumped into another piece of machinery. 'Dammit.'
Mick's voice came from across the room. 'I found a panel on the wall. There are buttons and stuff. I'll give them a try.'
Julia found a corner and started working her way down another wall. 'So, anyway, Kendall there even arranged for me to be placed in charge of this expedition. Can you believe that?'
'Piece of shit,' said Wilkins. 'I'd like to kill that fucker with my bare hands. I get a shot at him-'
'You'll have to wait in line,' said Mick. 'I want a piece of him, too.'
'You guys play after I get my turn,' said Julia. 'I got shafted the worst. Kendall says the aliens wanted to use me to crossbreed some new strain of them. This one is part-human, alien, and dinosaur.'
'Dinosaur?'
'Yeah. That's what they did to Nung.'
'Shit,' said Wilkins. 'That's right. I remember seeing them do something horrible to him. What was it, limbs or something like that?'
Julia pushed away the visual reminders flooding her mind. 'Yeah, something like that.'
'How the hell are we going to save him?' asked Wilkins.
'One thing at a time,' said Julia. 'Let's get you squared away first. How you coming on that panel, Mick?'
'Nothing. None of them seem to work.'
'Great.' Julia felt her way down the wall toward another corner. How big was this room? There had to be some sort of light switch in here somewhere.
Her fingers stumbled across another panel. 'Got another one here.'
Mick's voice sounded closer to her now. He must have felt his way over toward her. 'Where are you?'
'Sounds like you're close.'
'You feel this?'
She felt his fingers brush hers. 'Hey.'
'Hey yourself. I found some clothes and a pistol.'
'Clothes are good,' said Julia. She started pulling them on and then Mick pressed the pistol into her hand.
'Keep it under your shirt, okay?'
'Okay.'
'Uh…' Wilkins cleared his throat. 'If you guys are done getting all cozy over there, I'd appreciate some light on the subject.'
'Sorry,' said Julia. She pushed Mick's hand away and felt the knobs. One of them seemed larger than the rest. 'Got one. Hang on.'
She pushed it.
Dim light spilled into the room. But not enough to see clearly.
'Maybe it's adjustable,' said Mick. 'try turning it.'
'Okay.'
Julia turned the knob.
And heard Mick gasp.
'Holy Jesus.'
She turned. She could already hear Wilkins moaning.
'Mother of God, no…'
In the middle of the room, Wilkins lay on a gurney.
Half of him, anyway.
27
'Jesus Christ.'
Wilkins voice sounded small, the fear evident to Julia as she watched him mutter it over and over again, looking down at his upper torso, arms, and little else. An extensive series of tubes ran out of him and into various machines around the gurney.
Mick came over and shook his head. 'I don't know what to tell you. You ought to be dead.'
'Thanks a lot.'
'Sorry. It's just that, well, shit, this is pretty fucked up. They took pretty much everything except your arms.'
