Gladiator (Gauntlet Prime Book 1) Read online

  Poor fool, she dimly thought. He'll understand in a few minutes. There was no hope. Only darkness and loneliness and death. The man dragging her thrust her into her cell, where she crumpled into a heap on the floor. She gasped, drowning in a dark sea. A moment later it engulfed her completely and she fell into it, welcoming the end.

  Chapter 2

  When Mel woke, she was back on the bed and could hear people talking. Closing her eyes, she tried to ignore the voices. Maybe if she didn’t get up, then none of this would be real.

  The awareness of an absence finally roused her. She no longer had to go to the bathroom and didn’t feel thirsty. Puzzled, she sat up and looked around the room. Had they had done something to her when she was unconscious? Just the thought of it creeped her out so much, she immediately put it out of her mind. Sighing, she rose to her feet and moved over to the ‘door’, pressing it with her hand to open it.

  The seven other teenagers stopped talking as she entered the open space. Riley smiled at her, but he clearly was frustrated about something. She recognized some of them. She and Nick were both seniors at the same high school, although he wasn’t exactly a friend. They’d met Anna and Jeff on a sailing charter. She had met Jeff’s friend Jon but they hadn’t really talked. The final two, a boy and a girl, were familiar. She remembered seeing them around the hotel, but she didn’t know their names. Everyone was within a few years of her in age, all in their late teens.

  Anna pursed her lips at the sight of Mel, but immediately turned back to Riley. Unsurprisingly, Anna started yelling, although she still had the presence of mind to make a dramatic show of brushing her hair out of her face first. When Anna had shown up at the 9 am sailing departure with her parents, she had already been high. Even though party girls and stoners weren’t people Mel would normally hang out with, the two had formed an odd friendship.

  “This is ridiculous,” Anna said, the pitch of her voice getting higher with every word. “We have rights and… and… rights and things! People are going to get into trouble when they get caught.”

  “I doubt the aliens are going to care too much about your threats of ten years in jail for kidnapping,” Riley replied.

  Pushing Riley aside, Jeff stared at the formerly black wall. The sun was gone, but an arc of the green-blue orb was at the top of the wall and the rest was covered in bright stars. Jeff looked down at Riley, which was impressive because Riley was easily six feet tall.

  “So there’s a screen with planets. Doesn’t mean anything. I’ve probably seen this show on the Discovery Channel.”

  Riley shook his head, looking at Mel for help. “Believe whatever you want. It doesn’t matter. We are where we are, and you’ll figure it out soon enough.”

  Nick laughed, in that forced ‘ha-ha-ha’ way he did whenever he was nervous. Mel could remember him doing that since middle school. “It’s more like the trailer from Star Hunter 4. Then they come in and blow us away and steal our DNA.”

  “Anthura wasn’t that green, more of a water planet,” the fourth boy said.

  Jeff spun on Nick and the fourth boy. “What the hell are you two talking about?”

  The fourth boy shrugged, drawing slightly away from Jeff. “Star Hunter 4. It’s just a video game.”

  Jeff covered his face with his hands and shook his head. “This isn’t real… this isn’t real…” He looked at Jon. “How did we get stuck in prison with a bunch of morons?”

  The fourth boy mumbled an almost inaudible apology as his name suddenly popped into Mel’s mind. Evan. “Have they gone through the emotional rollercoaster ride?” she asked.

  Riley’s lips tightened. “Anna’s always going through emotional rollercoasters. But otherwise no. That only seemed to hit you and me.”

  Anna gave Riley a withering look. “You’re such a jerk. So sorry that I’m inconveniencing you by being an actual human being.”

  “You mean an actual dysfunctional human being?” Riley shot back. “You’re right, it’s my fault. I’m not used to you being sober.”

  “Well, I’d rather be drunk than a prisoner in some creepy prison. Whatever this place is. Look at these clothes, for God’s sake. And who dressed us in them? Someone took my clothes off and dressed me in these ugly things. They don’t have the right to do that!” Anna face was turning red and she was yelling just inches from Riley.

  “Anna,” Mel said. She stopped for a second, not really knowing what to say. “Look, you’re right. Riley and I are just as upset as you are. But we need to do something about it. Yelling at Riley isn’t going to help anything.”

  “I wouldn’t have to yell at him if he wasn’t such a jerk, would I?” Anna replied. “And what exactly is it you think we’re going to do anyway? I guess you’re going to wave your pompoms and scare away the… the…”

  “Aliens,” Riley said flatly.

  “Aliens don’t exist,” Anna said, gritting her teeth.

  “You don’t deal well outside your bubble, do you?” Riley said.

  “Riley, that’s not helping,” Mel said in exasperation. “Look, Anna, I don’t know what we’re going to do. But I do know that we can do something. We don’t have to just sit here feeling sorry for ourselves. If we work together and help each other, we’ll figure it out. We won’t let anyone hurt you.”

  “Oh, really?” Anna said, casting a derisive glance at Mel. “Like there’s anything you can do about it.” Mel sighed. Calming Anna down wasn’t going well and, in the end, Anna was right. There wasn’t anything Mel or any of the others could really do about where they were. On the other hand, whining about it wasn’t helping either.

  In an effort to cut off a new argument, Mel turned to Evan. “Hey. Evan, right? My name’s Mel.”

  Evan stared at her, looking confused. “Uh. Oh, okay. I’m Evan.”

  Jeff and Jon both snickered. “She already knows your name,” Jeff said, smirking at Mel. “He’s not used to a girl actually talking to him.”

  “We’re all nervous, it’s not a big deal,” Mel said. Evan had drawn back when Jeff interrupted, but he nodded and smiled slightly at Mel.

  Mel turned to the other girl she didn’t know. “I remember seeing you at the hotel, but I don’t think we’ve met.”

  The girl looked up in surprise. Her eyes were red; she had clearly been crying and had her arms crossed in front of her as if she was fending them all off. “Sharon. Sharon Hartman,” she mumbled.

  “Great. Great to meet you,” Mel said. Oh well, she thought, it was worth a try.

  “That’s awesome that we’ve had the class reunion and stuff. But can we please discuss exactly what we’re supposed to do?” Anna said, much more loudly than she needed to.

  “We should learn as much as we can about wherever we are,” Nick said.

  “Brilliant idea, genius,” Jeff replied. “I feel closer to freedom already.”

  “It’s a better idea than your ‘I’m a jockstrap and I’ll kick your ass’ routine,” Nick said. Mel had seen people dismiss Nick before, probably because he was overweight and had a pale, bland look about him. But Mel knew he was smart, at least when it came to being sarcastic. “I suppose you’re saving your brilliant idea for the final chase scene, you know for maximum emotional impact.”

  Jeff stared at Nick for a long moment and Nick swallowed but didn’t back down. With a quick laugh, Jeff slapped Nick on the arm. “Shut up or I’ll kick your ass. Just kidding. Probably. Can’t say I’ve come up with a brilliant idea yet, but when I do, you’ll be the first to know.”

  “To answer Nick’s question, we’re in an alien spaceship prison,” Riley said.

  “There aren’t any frigging aliens!” Anna screamed, spitting on Riley in the process. Rolling his eyes, Riley took a step away from her. He began to reply when the middle door opened and a figure loomed in the entry.

  It stood a bit over six feet tall and looked almost human, but in an off way that made it seem even creepier. The arms and legs were a bit too long compared to its body. Bony spike
s and ridges covered its head, especially above the eyes, but it had no hair. The face looked like a frozen mask, with a hard, unmoving line where the mouth should be that was set in a permanent and severe frown. Large eyes glared intensely at them. Behind the alien stood four zombie people and two insect-like robots.

  The robots were medium size with six legs and no recognizable head. A curving spine ran along the back, curling up to end in a spear point like a scorpion. Armor-like plates attached to the side of the body towards the front and back. Since they were pointing their tail spears at Mel and her friends, Mel assumed they were weapons.

  Striding forward, the creature wrapped long fingers completely around Anna’s neck. She shrieked and tried to fend it off, but her flailing had no effect. Jeff threw a punch across the alien’s jaw. The blow landed with a thud and the creature’s head moved slightly to the right, but it didn’t seem fazed. Jeff screamed and pulled back his fist, cradling his hand. It sounded like he had punched a rock. The creature stared at Jeff for a moment with no change of expression, then dragged the screaming girl away as the others looked on helplessly. He dropped Anna on the floor in front of the zombies and two of them grabbed her by the arms. Anna kicked and screamed as they disappeared into the hall.

  “Help! Help me! Jeff, please, don’t let him take me, please! Jeff! Mel!”

  The screams echoed in Mel’s ears long after the door faded shut.

  Chapter 3

  Mel sat on the floor in the main room, looking at the black wall and the slowly turning stars. By a rough estimate, it took two hours for the planet to travel from the bottom of the wall to disappear at the top, not to be seen again for many hours. That was the only way she had to keep time.

  She sighed and stretched. It had been maybe a day and a half, about six viewings of the planet, since the alien had taken Anna. The door had opened a few times, as the zombies had brought them a barely edible brown porridge. The bathroom situation had worked itself out. Riley had discovered that the wall in their rooms across from the main door would fade back to reveal a small alcove that had something resembling a toilet, a small sink attached to the wall and a pipe in the ceiling that could generously be called a shower. Although it did have warm water. Mel was torn. Having hot running water, or water period, was a huge relief. But she hated it because it made the whole thing almost comfortable. The last thing she wanted was to get used to this.

  Riley sat down next to her. “Is it morning or evening?”

  Mel smiled and shrugged. “I guess I’m thinking it’s morning time. It comes back around in the evening.”

  “Oh, I was thinking it was midnight, and then it comes back at noon. Hard to keep track here. Why do you think the ship is spinning like that?”

  “Based on my extensive training in space travel from watching Star Wars, I would say that I have no idea.”

  Riley laughed. “Really? So you’re not a rocket scientist then?”

  Mel smiled but shook her head. “Sorry to disappoint. I just got promoted to captain of the cheerleading squad, though. Unfortunately, I got kidnapped before I could start physics.”

  Riley’s eyebrow arched up slightly. “I took physics, and its usefulness is highly overrated in alien abduction. At least you’re the captain of something. I’m studying poli sci on my way to getting a law degree. Maybe I can sue the alien dude for detaining us against our will.”

  “You’re hired,” Mel replied. She already knew that Riley was in college, they had talked about it at the hotel pool a few days ago. She frowned. Or had it been longer? She was sure the planet that glided by the glass wall wasn’t Earth. Could they have traveled across the galaxy in just a few days?

  “What do you think they’re going to do with Anna?” Sharon asked. She sat a bit farther along the wall with Jeff and Jon. Mel looked over and noticed Sharon’s lips trembling. She didn’t know who Sharon had been talking to, but immediately felt badly for the girl.

  “I don’t know,” Mel said. “But we’ll figure something out. We need to find a way to escape.” She wondered if she sounded as stupid to the others as she did to herself. But they needed some kind of reassurance, some kind of hope. Giving up wouldn’t solve anything.

  They all turned as the main door opened, yelling in unison. Mel, Riley and Jeff jumped to their feet while the others shrank against the glass wall. Placing its front hands on the floor and swinging forward, a large gorilla-like animal dressed in gray entered the room. The creature stopped when it saw the group, and then stood to its full height.

  At least eight feet tall, with white fur like a polar bear, it bore a passing resemblance to an ape. But when the creature stood, its legs were clearly much longer and looked more human. Overall, it had fairly human proportions, except for the extremely long arms. The alien wore clothes exactly like Mel’s, even down to a pair of slippers that Mel guessed were at least a size 25. The creature’s face was a dark blue with large, expressive eyes and a wide mouth. It surveyed the room, a low rumbling growl in the back of its throat, before it moved slightly to the side.

  Two more aliens came in behind the first one. The skinny one stood about Mel’s height. Moving with a strange sway and unnatural grace, the alien looked remarkably human. Mel wanted to think of the creature as a she, even though she had no reason to expect that the human female form should apply to an alien. Her features were oddly, exotically human, except her eyes were green, oval patches with no eyeballs or eyelids, almost like an insect eye. Her nose was a tad too long to be normal, but her mouth had a pouty expression that almost made Mel laugh. Long, thick red hair hung to her waist and a short reddish-brown fur covered her face and body.

  The last one was creepy. Five tentacles supported a body that looked like a squid. The main body was thick at the base and tapered up slightly before widening out again at what Mel thought of as the head. There was no discernible neck, mouth, eyes or ears. The whole body glistened a moist, pale white. A perverse fascination kept Mel from looking away from the pulsing blob.

  The first creature, the ape-like one, grumbled in a low-pitched sound that Mel could almost feel as a vibration in her chest. All the kids had congregated by the wall, with Sharon hiding behind Jeff and Riley. Mel snorted. Like the two boys would offer any real protection against that ape thing. Mel realized that the three aliens hadn’t moved forward at all or done anything terribly aggressive. For all their strangeness, there was something different about them, about their attitude, than the one that had come in earlier. These three might be dangerous, but they didn’t seem threatening.

  The lithe one placed a hand on the ape creature and pointed at the wall behind Mel, at the planet that was just receding off the top of the wall. She said something to the creature, a low sing-song. The ape creature nodded and shook in a rumbling fashion.

  “They’re freaking aliens,” Nick muttered.

  “He… it… whatever. He’s laughing,” Mel said.

  “How can you tell?” Riley replied.

  “The girl, the cat-like one, she said something and he did this rumbling thing. I think he was laughing.”

  “I guess you paid more attention in your space exploration classes than I did,” Riley joked weakly. “Who do you think they are?”

  “They’re freaking aliens,” Nick repeated, louder.

  “They could be prisoners,” Evan said. “Just like us.”

  “I thought the same thing,” Mel said, taking a step forward.

  “Mel, wait!” Riley hissed. He reached out and grabbed her shoulder. She paused but then shrugged away from his grasp and took another hesitant step towards the aliens. The cat-girl moved forward, saying something in her sing-song voice, but the large one held out a hand to stop her.

  “Is no one going to grapple with the fact that we’re face to face with a bunch of aliens?” Nick said.

  “Shut up, Nick. Don’t interrupted her,” Jeff said.

  Mel stopped an arm’s length from the big one, her heart thudding in her chest. She came up just ab
ove its waist and had to crane her head back to see its face. The creature looked down at her, the face impassive, but the eyes full of expression. Curiosity, Mel thought. She reminded herself that these three beings weren’t human and that whatever she was reading as curiosity could be anything. Boredom, rage. Even hunger. For some reason, that thought made her smile. She reached out a hand and placed it on the creature’s midsection, below the chest.

  “Be careful, Mel,” said several voices at once behind her.

  “He’s going to eat you,” Nick said. Someone punched him and Nick swore. She felt a presence behind her but tried to ignore them.

  “Go slow, Mel,” Riley said. “You don’t know what he’ll do.”

  “How do you know it’s a he? Maybe she’s a she.” Riley didn’t respond and Mel concentrated on the alien.

  She placed her palm firmly on the creature, like she had been taught with horses when she was seven. The fur and muscle moved beneath the gray shirt, as it breathed in and out. A deep rumbling laugh vibrated through her hand. She held her hand firmly and flexed her fingers, as she looked up at the creature’s eyes. Black pupils surrounding bright red irises. The ends of its mouth curved up. Mel hoped that was a smile.

  As she flexed her hand, the creature shuddered. The rumbling in its belly grew a bit and it spasmed, finally taking a step back as the corners of its mouth flexed alarmingly, showing teeth.

  Mel blinked as the ape creature backed away, rumbling deeply, and the cat-girl swatted Mel’s hand away. Mel thought the alien girl had a look of fury on her face, but something else behind it as well, more like disgust. Apparently, Mel had done something wrong, but she wasn’t sure what.

  “Take a step back, Mel,” Riley said. “Show them you’re not a threat.”

  Mel glanced at Riley. “Does it really seem at all likely that I would be a threat to this guy?” But she took his advice anyway, and took a few steps back to stand next to Riley.