She almost laughed.
Doubtful.
They moved back to Nung and seemed to confer with each other — again without making any sound whatsoever. One of them walked to the main console in the room and pushed several buttons.
A hiss sounded above their heads and Julia looked up. She could see a clear tube sliding down toward her cylinder.
They were sealing them in!
“Stop it! Don’t hurt us!”
It seemed silly to shout at them. But she had to try. The tubes slid over and Julia felt a vacuum effect in her ears, as if all the sound was being shut out from her. She tried shouting but only heard her only voice.
Another hiss sounded in the tubes and she felt lightheaded.
Gas.
They were putting them out. But what for? Julia tried knocking her head against the tube but only succeeded in hurting herself. The gas enveloped her. It blurred the room they were in.
Julia saw the creatures watching them intently and then everything went black.
When she came to, they were in a different room. This one was gray and metallic like the others but there were several horizontal slabs scattered about the room. Huge machines with long appendages waited.
Julia looked to her right and saw only Wilkins.
His eyes were fixed ahead of him, his mouth drawn tight.
Where was Nung?
She turned and then saw him. On the table closest to them. He was naked and strapped down to the slab. Next to him on another table the creatures had strapped down something that looked like a velociraptor dinosaur. Julia looked at the dinosaur and saw it’s jaws snapping angrily. She could imagine it was screeching or chirping or whatever sound dinosaurs made.
The she saw Nung’s eyes. They were wide open and the fear spilling out of them made Julia shudder. He kept looking at the dinosaur struggling just feet away from him. Sweat ran off his body and pooled beneath him. Or was that urine? Had Nung wet himself? Did he have some indication what the creatures were planning to do to him?
Julia thought about the dinocreatures. Something about them reminded her of the creatures here. Their heads were almost the same. They were…
…part dinosaur and part alien.
My God, she thought. They mean to crossbreed us with dinosaurs? Or with aliens? Or both?
One of the creatures pushed a button on the machine and it moved closer to the dinosaur. A long metal arm emerged from the machine and plunged into the chest of velociraptor. Blood spurted angrily from the hole and dripped off the machine.
Julia turned away for a moment but felt drawn back to the scene.
The metallic arm seemed to be removing the internal organs of the dinosaur and unceremoniously dumping them into a tray nearby. The creatures watched and stayed close to the controls, making minute adjustments.
Nung’s eyes stayed glued to the dinosaur. It had long since stopped thrashing.
Dead.
Julia started crying. She had to do something. She had to get to Nung. She banged her head against the tube again but it just wouldn’t nudge. She glanced at Wilkins and could see him trying his damnedest to break his restraints.
It was no good.
The creatures didn’t even seem remotely concerned about them escaping.
The machine seemed finished with the velociraptor. It moved back and away, blood still trickling from the arm that had gutted the dinosaur.
Julia could see the bright red staining the floor. She spotted a small drain in the floor that was drawing the blood away from the operating table.
The creatures moved over to Nung. One of them prodded him in the chest and then looked at his comrade. Again, unspoken communication passed between them.
They moved to Nung’s head. They put their hands on him. Nung jerked his head from side to side, desperate to get away from them, but he could do nothing. He looked at Julia. She could see his eyes begged and pleaded.
She couldn’t do anything!
Was this what had happened to everyone else? Were Darren and Havel and Vikorksy already dead? Or worse? Were they some bizarre offshoot concoction developed by these aliens? Were they part human and part dinosaur? Or were they something much worse.
The creatures moved the machine closer to Nung. They didn’t even seem concerned about the co-mingling of blood. They made no attempt to clean off the machine at all.
This time though, they operated the machine by hand. Julia could see now that the machine seemed to have some type of cutting device. It sprang to life.
She could imagine the sound it must have made. Something like the high-pitched whine of a dentist’s drill.
Nung screamed. Or at least, it looked like he was. Julia couldn’t hear a thing inside the tube.
The machine came closer.
The blade bit into Nung’s skin by his clavicle. Blood spurted again. The blade moved further down.
Julia vomited in the tube.
Nung’s eyes rolled back white. He’d passed out? Or was he dead already?
That didn’t make sense.
Julia fought to catch her breath, wheezing and retching. No, they’d killed the dinosaur. But they’d keep Nung alive. Wouldn’t they? If they were crossbreeding or otherwise doing something to co-mingle the two species, they’d need one of them alive.
Wouldn’t they?
She prayed they would.
But would it be worse for Nung if he did live as some sort of bizarre half-and-half?
Would he be better off dead?
She shut her eyes again, unable to watch the scene unfolding in front of her any longer. In her mind, she could hear him screaming. She could feel the incredible fear. She could feel the bite of the blade as it cut into his flesh.
Was this how she would die? Was this how they would all die?
She kept her eyes closed and thought about the one chance they had left.
Mick!
He had to be somewhere.
What would he have done once he came back and found them all gone? He’d assume they’d been taken. So that would mean he’d come looking for them. Wouldn’t it?
He would if he was truly on their side and not on someone else’s agenda. Julia didn’t know what to think anymore. All she wanted to do was go home.
Which was when the door to the chamber slid open.
And Kendall walked into it.
Smiling.
He waved at Julia and Wilkins.
Julia passed out again.
22
“You know, it’s very hard for me to have any degree of confidence in someone as a leader when they continually lose consciousness at shocking moments.”
The snide tone to his voice made Julia wince. She kept her eyes closed, praying that she could stay in the darkness. If she just blocked everything out she could almost convince herself that she was anywhere else.
Anywhere but where she really was.
“Open your eyes, Julia.”
It was hard to resist the command. Something tugged at her mind. Forced her to respond.
She opened them.
She was strapped down to a gray metal slab.
Naked.
Nung’s body was nowhere to be seen.
“What did you do with him?”
Kendall smiled. “Nung? Oh I think he’s recovering nicely right now. He had himself quite an adventure here earlier. I think you saw some of it before you passed out. Pity you didn’t have the stomach to see the entire operation.”
“Is he…dead?”
Kendall leaned back. “Good heavens, no. He’s far too important to kill off.” He shrugged. “Now the staff of research station Frederick, the ones missing when we first arrived, well they weren’t all that important. They were used for other experiments. Tragically, none of them seemed able to withstand the demands on their pathetic bodies.”
“You killed them?”
“Not me. I had very little to do with their demise.”
Julia frowned. “Who are you, Kendall?”