My hands are filthy. I bet my hair is a tangled mess. I doubt I even look human. I lower my gaze while the alien continues to shout. The guards do not respond, which makes me believe the third man must rank higher than them. He seems to be barking orders.
When I hear footsteps trailing away, I glance up to see the angry man leaving. He doesn’t glance back.
One of the guards unlocks my cage. They reach in, grab one of my biceps each, and yank me out of the enclosure before carrying me away in the same manner as the guards who hauled me from the potato farm.
I dangle between them. They’re both well over seven feet tall, so I’m held pretty far off the floor. I try to look over my shoulder at the other women, but I’m not able. I wonder if I’ll ever see them again.
A new level of panic consumes me. What if these men are going to dispose of me? Maybe because I’m so filthy. Perhaps I don’t meet their standards—whatever those might be. The man who was shouting could have been telling them I’m not worth keeping.
I’m a fighter. I start screaming and struggling even though it’s useless. I’m no match for these men. I jerk against their hold on my arms, not even caring if I fall to the floor. Maybe I won’t break a leg when I land.
They ignore me and seem unfazed by my attempts.
“Put me down!”
“Let me go!”
No reaction.
They leave the room with all the cages and move down a hall, eventually entering a smaller room. This one is bright with whitewalls. Clean. I think it’s a medical bay. There’s a strange giant basin at the end of the room. The two men lift me higher so that my legs don’t hit the sides before lowering me into the sterile container.
As soon as they release me, I scramble to get to my feet. The metal is slippery, mostly because my own urine has run down my legs to drip off my feet. Every time I get my feet under me, they slip, and I fall on my knees. All the while, I’m sobbing. Words are futile. They either don’t understand me, or they don’t care.
Two other men enter the room. They rush toward me, wearing white. I think they might be nurses. They start talking to me. Their voices are calmer than the man who was shouting in the cage room, but I still don’t understand a word they’re saying.
One of the guards rounds to the other side of the basin. They each grab one of my wrists and pull my arms up and out, stretching me and forcing me to stand almost on my toes.
The darker-skinned man in white comes toward me with a giant pair of scissors, making me scream so loud my ears start ringing. Fear consumes me.
When I kick out to keep him from stabbing me, the two guards bend over to each grab one of my ankles with their free hands.
I nearly faint when the man with the scissors clasps the hem of my dress and starts cutting. I can’t breathe, and I stop struggling. When I realize his goal is to remove my stinky clothes, I don’t dare move, terror consuming me.
Holding my breath, I tip my head back and close my eyes as the cold metal slides up my body, between my breasts, slicing my disgusting dress right up the middle. He efficiently snips the sleeves next, causing the soiled garment to fall into the tub.
I’m mortified. Four giant alien men can see me almost naked. And that becomes totally naked as soon as the man cuts bothsides of my panties so that the scrap of material flutters into the bottom of the basin.
NowI’m embarrassed. And freezing cold.
The man with the scissors grabs my ruined clothes and turns to drop them into a waste container. Meanwhile, the guards tug my arms downward, forcing me to sit on the cold metal.
My heart rate picks up when each of them wraps a cuff around my wrists and restrains me to eye hooks on the edges of the basin. My teeth chatter. My nipples are hard points. I’m beyond mortified.
The other man in white turns a knob on the side of the basin, and it begins to fill with water.
I cry out because it’s so cold. All I can do to avoid it is lift my knees, but that won’t last long.
The man frowns at me, his head cocked to one side. He reaches out to touch my cheek, says something to the other man, and adjusts the faucet.
Luckily, the water begins to warm up. I think he realizes I’m freezing. Why wouldn’t he know? The room is frigid, the water is, too, and I’m shivering.
The guards say something and then leave the room. I’m grateful. They’re more intimidating than the men in white.
I can’t stop the combination of sobbing and pleading. My words fall on deaf ears. My tears make me feel weak, which I hate.
I’m not used to being around males. I haven’t seen a human man since the day I left Earth twenty years ago. These aliens are so much bigger. I’m pretty certain their features are nearly the same as humans’, but they’re proportionately much larger.
The lighter-skinned man removes the nozzle from the edge of the tub and lifts it so that water pours over my head.