Looking up, Penny saw why. There was a shimmering green barrier across the road, keeping the cart from going any further. On the other side of it, barely visible through the energy field, was yet another silver jump-suited Oompa-Loompa.
“Who goes there and why do you come to the Compound of the Glorious Cause?” he demanded, leveling a weapon at them.
“We have come to pay tribute and honor to our Glorious Leader,” the head Oompa-Loompa of their own group shouted back. “And we bring new breeders to further the Cause.”
“Welcome home then, faithful one. Welcome to the bosom of the Shining Star—he who leads all of us in the Paths of Greatness,” the guard behind the gate said. And then the barrier was deactivated, allowing the cart to have clear access forward.
The entire exchange had the feeling of a scripted call and response—as though the guards on both sides had said the same things about a thousand times. Clearly they were used to going out and capturing people and then bringing them back to their compound.
The question was, did the prisoners ever escape? Or were they stuck here for life…or death?
The thought sent a shiver down Penny’s spine.
Now, whispered a little voice in the back of her head. If you don’t get out now, there’s no getting out. Run, Penny! RUN!
She turned to look over the side of the cart. Yes, her hands were bound but if she could throw herself out of the open cart and head into the jungle, she might get away. The undergrowth was so dense she could lose herself in it and never be found. She—
“Do you see that pretty yellow flower over there, breeder?”
Penny’s head jerked up and she realized it was one of the Oompa-Loompas talking to her.
“Wh-what?” she quavered, uncertain what he meant.
“There—just there inside the boundary of the road.” He pointed one stubby orange finger and Penny saw the flower he was talking about. It really was beautiful, she thought. Like a Tiger Lily but with a bloom as big as her head.
“Yes.” She nodded. “What about it?”
“That’s a Death Touch bloom. Barely brushing against its petals would kill you in an instant.” The Oompa-Loompa smiled at her, as though he was just making friendly conversation. “And it is one of the least poisonous plants here in the Deadly Jungle. A jungle which covers all of Yown Alpha. It is beautiful but there is death at every turn—and no way to escape, since we here at the Compound of the Glorious Cause are the only ones on the entire planet.”
“What are you saying?” Penny asked. She tried to sound defiant, though inside her heart was sinking down to her feet.
“That to escape is to die,” the Oompa-Loompa told her. “And why would you wish to die when we can offer you eternal life? Many years after your mortal body has perished, your genetic material will live on among the NeverBreeders.”
“The who?” He was saying too much, she thought—throwing too many religious buzz-words at her. “Who are the NeverBreeders?” she asked.
“We are.” He nodded at himself and the other Oompa-Loompas who surrounded the cart. “Though we never bring forth life, we will never truly die. For we live all our lives in tribute to the Shining Star.”
“Um, okay…” Penny murmured, not knowing what else to say. Was this some kind of a cult? The way he was talking made her think it had to be.
The cart was past the barrier now. The green energy field sizzled back into place and she realized that she had lost her only chance to get away. But if the Oompa-Loompa who had called himself a “NeverBreeder” was telling the truth, she would have been dead the minute she hit the jungle.
Penny wondered if death might not be better than whatever awaited her and the next minute her fears seemed to come true. Because the cart rounded a curve and came to stop beside a long, low, white building.
“Attention!” the head Oompa-Loompa shouted, “Now all must strip!”
Twenty
“What the hell are they talking about?” Shurla muttered to Penny. “I’m not taking off my clothes for nobody!”
But all around them, the other women were reluctantly removing their clothing. Even worse, the Oompa-Loompas were taking their silver jumpsuits off as well.
They probably want to rape us, Penny thought, feeling sick. They kidnapped us and brought us all this way and now they have us behind a barrier where nobody can help us and they can do whatever they want!
But the next minute, her assumptions were blown out of the water. As the NeverBreeder who had been telling her about the deadly yellow flower shucked down his silver jumpsuit and stepped out of it, Penny saw that the place between his legs was completely smooth.
He doesn’t even have a bulge like a Ken doll, she thought, unable to tear her eyes away from the smooth, hairless patch of orange skin between his legs. There’s nothing there at all—not a damn thing.
So maybe rape wasn’t on the menu after all. But then why were they being told to get naked?
“All must be cleansed of the dirt of the outside world,” the head NeverBreeder said, as though answering her question. “Come, we will go into the showers and rinse the sinful grime from our skin together.”
Though she didn’t like it at all, Penny was forced to take off her warm-skin and boots and leave them in a pile in the cart. They unfastened her hands to make this possible but the minute she was naked, her arms were cuffed behind her back again and she and Shurla and the other women were led into the long, low, white building which turned out to be a communal shower.
They could
