Joe and Carrie stood over the large green alien, watching her struggle with her chains. There wasn't anything she could do. Her wrists and ankles were tied to the bed, spread wide, and her torso and neck were held down by chains. She was screaming in a strange language that sounded something like Latin but wasn't.
Zack had left the room to assign someone to stand guard at the bunker's main door. The heavy iron door locked securely, the long iron rod placed in the large metal ring that served as the lock and what was used to open the door itself.
All the others were waiting in the base control.
Zack sauntered in, blaster in one hand, glaring down at her as she writhed and screamed in the bed. He sat in the chair beside her, aiming the blaster at her shoulder. "A friend of mine was shot with this blaster. It wasn't a bad wound, but it caused him to get a virus. Tell me about that, or I'll shoot you with this." He said, waving the blaster so she could see it.
Growling, she turned away from him, her lips tight; she refused to speak.
A ping sounded, and she screamed, a thin line of smoke coming off the cauterized hole in her shoulder. She started breathing heavily, wheezing.
Zack looked at her, sneering. "Let's try this again. Tell me about the virus after being shot with one of these." He punctuated it by waving the blaster at her.
Whimpering, she turned her head toward Zack. "Poison; blaster poison, no virus."
Zack sat back, still pointing the blaster. "Does the poison spread like a virus?"
The prisoner turned her head away, growling; lips tight, not wanting to answer.
Another ping sounded, causing her to scream. A thin line of smoke rose from her other shoulder. After her screaming subsided, whimpering followed. Finally, she began to wheeze as if she wasn't getting enough air.
"Does the poison spread like a virus?" Zack asked. His voice was steel, teeth clenched. "Is it contagious like a virus?"
She was crying at this point; her face still turned away. She didn't want to answer.
Zack, still looking at the prisoner, "Carrie, go get something sharp; then, we can carve her up, one small slice at a time, until she tells us what we want to know," he stated evenly.
The alien's eyes widened, fear evident as she watched Carrie leave the room to get what she had been ordered to retrieve. She writhed and screamed. The thought of being carved up scared her.
Zack watched her struggle. "Tell us what we want to know," he seethed.
The alien started to hyperventilate, taking quick breaths. Zack just watched and waited.
Carrie walked into the room, handing Zack a machete and a pair of bolt cutters.
Their prisoner's eyes grew wide; she struggled harder. Zack just watched, pointing the blaster.
After her struggles subsided, Zack began his interrogation again. "Does the poison spread like a virus?"
Tears streamed down the alien's green-tinted face. "No." she swallowed, "it only kills the one shot."
"I shot you," Zack told her, then asked, "Does the poison affect your kind too?"
"No, just human," she whimpered.
"Why did your people come here to this planet?" he asked, pointing the blaster.
"Need home," she whimpered. Tears streamed down her face, dripping onto the bed.
"Why kill us all?" Zack asked. "Why not try to live in peace with us? Your people killed innocence, the elderly, and children for the only purpose of taking their home."
She whimpered again, tears streaming rapidly.
Zack watched her tears before continuing. "Our people have done nothing to yours; we don't deserve this. If your people truly need a home, there is always a better way than slaughtering innocent lives."
Her tears increased, and the look on her face was sadness coupled with shame.
Zack sighed. "My name is Zack." He pointed to his sister. "That's my twin sister Carrie," he said, "and that's Joe," he said, pointing at Joe. "We don't want to hurt anyone. We don't even want to hurt you. We are just trying to survive. Your people started this. Your people should have found a better way than to become murderers."
Zack stood up to leave, "I am Shelia," the alien spoke. "I am sorry for what we have done. It is without honor."
Zack stood there, observing her. "It is without honor," he said evenly, then left the room, leaving Carrie and Joe standing guard.
***
Zack walked into base control. He had observed Shelia. He saw the change in her. He saw the shame in her features as he spoke to her about what her people were doing.
Everything in him told him that she felt remorse. He didn't want to kill her unless he had no choice. But, with this female alien, Shelia, he had a choice and didn't know what to do with her.
Jamie was guarding the door while Alice, Tammy, and Tracy waited in base control. All three girls looked up as Zack walked in.
"Did she say if the virus is contagious?" Tracy asked, fearful of dying the same way Nick did.
Zack, sitting down heavily, "the alien said that it was poison and not a virus. It's intended to kill humans who have been shot. She also said that it was not contagious like a virus."
The three girls sighed in relief. Then Tracy spoke up, "Do we believe her?"
Zack looked up at the three girls, "My gut says that she's telling the truth. I don't want to take any chances, however. We need to treat it like it is a virus and contagious." He breathed in deeply. "I don't want to be wrong. I'd rather be safe than sorry, as they say."
The three girls nodded in agreement.
***
Three days later...
Sheila was sitting in the bed, a solemn look on her green-tinted face. She had not tried anything. She knew that the humans didn't want to hurt her. They had done so only because they were worried about the poison that had killed one of their friends.
She waited patiently, not caring what they would do. Part of her wished they would kill her and get it over with.
After the torture, they cleaned and dressed her wounds. They even fed her, which was not something that her people would have done. Instead, they would have tortured, then let them rot in a cell until they became corpses, food for their pets. Instead, they showed compassion despite what her people had done to them. Despite the situation, she felt respect for them.
While she listened to the one called Zack, she felt the shame and dishonor of what her people were doing. Even if they let her go, she would not return to her people to help them destroy the people of this planet. It was wrong. Her honor told her to help the humans, not destroy them.
***
A banging sounded at the large metal door of the bunker. Zack, Joe, and Carrie stood facing it, listening intently. The banging sounded again. Suddenly someone yelled. "Is anyone in there? I need help!" The banging continued, then the large iron wheel on the door began to jiggle back and forth, rattling the long bar stuck through the door's wheel to help keep it locked.
As the banging continued, Shelia shuffled in, chains rattling, Jamie and Alice, who were guarding her, following. "They smell of toxins. They are human, but something is wrong with them," Shelia told them. "It is not the poison; it is something else," she warned.
Just after Shelia spoke, the banging on the door got louder and more insistent.