Hunger (2 page)

Sleep came quickly. She was exhausted, lack of food making her energy leak away. Her dreams were her only real escape, and there were times when she thought that if she never woke up she wouldn’t care. Perhaps she would join her parents in some kind of heaven when she passed from this world. Yet as each miserable day went by, she didn’t even care if heaven existed. Even the great nothingness of death would be better than this life.

A noise woke her, dragging her from her dreams. She stirred, but tried not to move. If someone else was in here, she should stay still until they had gone. She didn’t need trouble, and she certainly didn’t want to be evicted by some other homeless person who would force her out into the night. Evie had found that it was easy to become invisible if you stayed quiet and didn’t attract attention.

“She’s not here.” The voice made Evie shudder. She knew it, but couldn’t place it. Yet even with no face to the sound, the voice made her cringe, her hand involuntarily going to her shoulder where three cigarette burns made up some kind of brand on her shoulder. A brand that had appeared after
that
night.

“I tell you, the homeless guy across the road swears she came in here. And that police tracker pinpointed this area. She’s here close by, she has to be.” A trace of fear laced this second voice.

“The tracker is old, before they updated the system. And those strays will say anything if they think they will get a coin from it,” the first voice, obviously in charge, answered.

“Then I’ll go back out and rip the coin from his hand.”

“He’ll be long gone by now if he has any sense.” A sound of footsteps going out of the door, but not back down the stairs, they were searching the floor. Should she stay put? Of course, they hadn’t checked the closet, probably had not even seen it was there with the falling ceiling concealing it. If they thought this office was empty it was unlikely they would come back in here.
Stay still, don’t move
, she told herself.

Their footsteps became fainter, and she lay so still she almost thought she had disappeared, her heart hardly beating, her breath shallow. Only her brain raced, moving in circles, trying to figure out why they wanted her. Or were they even looking for her? They might just be looking for some other woman.

Her muscles were beginning to cramp. Straining her ears, she tried to listen for them, but there was nothing, so she risked moving just a fraction to ease the intense pain as it spread up her leg. Shifting position carefully, she settled back down to wait. Yet there was no sound, and she thought they must have gone out another way. Perhaps there was a fire escape. She didn’t care, as long as they had gone.

As the night wore on she found herself dozing, and once more sleep claimed her.

***

“Hello there, Evie.” A voice right by her head made her jump. Was she in some nightmare, because that voice made her want to scream?

Opening her eyes, she was blinded by a bright flashlight being shone in her face. Scrambling to sit up, propelling herself back to press herself against the furthest wall, she covered her face with her hand to try to block out the light.

“No, don’t be shy. You and I have met before. You might not remember, of course, but I am the one who gave you these.” He pulled her sweater down to where the three small scars made up the points of a triangle. Tracing the raised skin, he smiled at her. “You have been a naughty girl, avoiding me for so long. I’ve had to go to a lot of trouble and considerable expense to find you. But you are mine. Do you understand? It will be so much easier if you comply.”

“What do you want?” Evie knew she had outrun luck. He was going to take her somewhere and let men do whatever they wanted to her. Maybe they would kill her.

“You have become a valuable commodity. You are going to fetch a pretty price.”

Evie couldn’t understand why they would go to all this trouble to hunt her down. There was nothing remotely attractive about her, especially with her unwashed hair and dirty body. It had been weeks since she had showered properly.

“No one is going to want me,” she told him, but her words were met with a laugh, hollow and false.

“Oh, but that’s where you are wrong. You see, you thought you could enter into the lottery and be taken away from me without me being paid.”

“You don’t own me,” she said, and then his words registered.
“The lottery?”

“First, I
do
own you.” As if to prove his point, he leaned down and grabbed her by the hair, dragging her out of the closet. “And second, if these aliens plan to take you to their planet, I expect something in exchange.”

She put her hand up to where his fingers so cruelly gripped her hair. “Let go, you’re hurting me.”

“Oh, I’m sorry, excuse me. I never meant to pull your hair.” He released her, and instead reached out and grabbed her wrist, twisting the skin cruelly as he yanked her forward.

Crying out, the last thing she saw was his other hand coming around and punching her in the face. The world went black, and the last thing she was aware of was him saying, “Tie her up, Harri, then make the call. If those aliens want her, they can pay. I’m going to see what I can do about her chip. Don’t want them tracking her the same way as we did.”

A sharp pain in the back of her neck, and then the darkness took her completely.

Ishk tried to relax and think of home. The beautiful planet he loved. He wanted to feel the warm soil beneath his feet and feel the heat of the two suns on his face. To walk in the fields and see the golden grasses ready to harvest. The conditions had been perfect when he had been made to come here to claim his mate.

Only thoughts of home made it easier to endure the thought of having to mate with one of these women. It was his duty. To make a son to carry on his family name, a son to teach all that he knew, just as his father had taught him.

His father. He wished he had known him for longer. At only seven years old, he had lost him in a freak farming accident. There had been a storm coming and they wanted to get the last of the grain stored. A blockage had caused him to go into the silo. Ishk hated to think of his father suffocating under the harvest he had so lovingly gathered.

He hated thinking of the young boy, who had become one of the few young orphans on Karal, moving away from everything he knew to go and stay in the small home where the other boys with no fathers lived. It had all been so alien to him. He belonged with his own people on the farming belt that stretched for miles across Karal. Lush pastures, ideal soil for crops.

At the first opportunity, he had returned to those fertile lands, taking with him the knowledge his father had passed to him. Ironic, really, that he had now given it all up to go and sit on the Hier Council. He had only done it to ensure the farmers were not abused when the breeding females arrived and they had to work harder to fill so many more stomachs.

Okil’s voice brought him back to the distasteful present. “Yes. I see.” Okil was outside talking to a human on his communicator. More technology they had given these people. Ishk disapproved of sharing any of it with them.

Okil came back into the cruiser, his face worried, the emotion spilling over so that his skin lit up, bright orange skimming his hands. Ishk knew he wasn’t going to like what Okil had to say. Cutting a piece of fruit, he put it in his mouth and chewed, letting the juice wash down his throat. Damn, how he missed Karal.

“The Lottery HQ has been contacted.”

“By the woman who is to be mine? So we are going to collect her and then go home?” At last, he could leave this place and put his plan to take control of the council into action. He would never return here and once they had taken the quota of women his people needed, he would perhaps have the wormhole destroyed or placed under constant guard. Ishk would have to be careful whom he chose for this duty, because there were many Earth sympathisers. Of which Okil had to be the worst.

“No. She has been taken.” Okil looked worried, very worried.

“Taken. Where?” Ishk decided he had time to eat another piece of fruit while Okil gnashed his teeth and pulled his hair in vexation. Ishk smiled to himself. “Can’t we just choose another one?”

“Ishk.” Okil’s tone was unusually harsh. Being his superior, there was a certain amount of respect Ishk expected. Okil was close to insubordination when he said, “Don’t you care? Someone has taken the woman who is to be yours. Evie Miller is her name, if you are interested. The people who have her are asking for coin.”

“Then choose another one. That will prevent these people from thinking they can blackmail the Karal.”

“And what about Evie?”

“What about her? There are
countless
other females who would be willing to take her place.”

“And if she dies because of this?”

“There are
countless
females more than willing to breed with us.” Ishk stood now, his temper rising. “Countless. Billions. Why does it matter?”

“She is a person. This is an act against our species. And you just say, take another one?”

“That is the way to deal with these situations. She was worthless before; she will be worthless again if we take another in her place.”

“I am going to find her.” Okil took a reading from the cruiser’s computer display and then stood up. “She is not far from here, although the signal has been tampered with.”

“And if this is a trap? You do not know if they are using her as bait to flush us out.”

“They asked for coin.”

“Knowing perhaps that we would not pay, but would track them down. A Karalian is worth more to them than a human female.”

“You think it is an ambush?” Okil said, looking back down at the computer screen.

“Yes. They are jealous of us. They want what we have.”

“They need us,” Okil said.

Okil was a poor, deluded fool. Maybe the air had got to him and addled his brain.

“Why? You know as well as I there is nothing to be done for this sorry planet. Maybe they hope to trade for a one-way ticket off this place.”

“They do not know we can’t help them save their planet. We have kept that to ourselves. And they would not be stupid enough to think that if they were taken to Karal, we would not hunt them down. They all have tags.” Okil went to the weapons locker and removed a gun.

“Hunting humans. Now, that could become a new sport. Are you authorised to use one of those?” Ishk asked, thinking this had become a little more interesting: the usually mild-mannered Okil would not normally take up arms.

“This is an Earth weapon. I have been trained to use it. Don’t worry, none of our technology will fall into their hands.” Okil checked it was loaded and then made his way down the exit ramp.

“Wait, I will accompany you. Although I do not see why you are so concerned.”

“Because we put Evie in the situation.” He squared his shoulders and turned to Ishk. “It is something you do not understand, Ishk. We need them as much as they need us.”

“We only need to breed from them.”

“There are many of us who see it differently. We came here, we made contact, and then we invited their females to be part of our world. That gives us a certain responsibility. If not to those left behind, then at least to those we take.”

Ishk knew what he was referring to, his behaviour towards Vanessa. Yet he was in no mood to talk about it, especially not to Okil, who was not a member of the council. Ishk did not intend to explain his reasons to a Karalian who was already under the spell of the Earth women. Ishk could see that Okil was going to be a problem.

Eating the last of the fruit, he stood up, jogging down the ramp to catch up with Okil. At least this might hold some amusement. He wondered what type of Earthling thought he could go up against the superior race of Karal and think they could win.

Her face hurt, and when she tried to move, her shoulder did too, and her ribs, but this was nothing compared to the throb at the base of her skull; it felt like someone had jabbed a knife into her. The bastard had beaten her while she was unconscious. Opening her eyes, she tried to look around without letting them know she was awake. The last thing she needed was another beating.

Through slitted eyes, she saw them over by the window, talking. Testing her body, she found her hands were bound, but her feet were not. Shifting her field of view, Evie took in her position. She was at the far end of the office, and there was no way she would get to the door before they did.

Swallowing down a sob, she looked back towards the men. They were talking in low voices, and one of them kept glancing at his phone. Had they already called in their ransom demands? There was no way the Karalians would pay a ransom for her, they would almost certainly just choose another woman to take to their planet, and leave Evie here to die at the hands of these thugs. Or worse.

Letting her body relax, she examined her thoughts about dying. And the sad truth was that as long as it was quick, she didn’t much care. Her life was hopeless. Hunger gnawed at her every minute of the day. Added to this was fear and, worst of all, loneliness.

Closing her eyes, she lay still, utterly defeated. All she had to do was wait and all of this would end. She would no longer be this stinking mess of human flesh. She would be free, light, floating above the Earth. Or there would be a deep, dark nothingness. Either way was fine with her.

Movement. She heard someone moving about downstairs. The two men didn’t seem to notice, and she realised it was because she had her ear to the floor. What she heard were the vibrations of a door been shut. Someone else was in the warehouse. Someone who didn’t want to be noticed.

Evie had to make a decision; she could either lie here and wait for whatever was going to happen, to happen. Or she could try to help whoever was downstairs. But she didn’t know if they were coming to help her; for all she knew, whoever had entered the warehouse had nothing to do with this.
Or maybe someone from the lottery had come to rescue her.
Evie lay rigid, uncertainty flowing through her veins. Did she want to be saved? If whoever was down there was from the lottery, did she really want to go to Karal?