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viciously back into the terrified mass, herding
them toward the exit like terrified cattle.
    Then
Joe realized what Lagrah had said.  We will break away in nine hundred tics.   They were leaving Earth.  The sharp sting of adrenaline began to
trace Joe’s veins.
    I’ve
gotta get off this ship.
    The
thought kept pounding his brain as he stayed well in the center of the group
while they were funneled awkwardly into a sleek black hall bathed in the eerie
red glow.  Every passing second felt like a knife in his chest.
    I
gotta get off now.
    The
aliens spread out around the perimeter of the group, herding them like squat,
brown, tentacled sheepdogs. They took it for granted that everyone would
cooperate, spreading themselves thin over hundreds of kids.  Seeing that, Joe
drifted to the back, his panicked mind listening for the sound of the ship’s
engines. 
    When he
saw his chance, he bolted.
    The
Ooreiki watching his section of kids gave a startled grunt of surprise, his
see-through eyelids flicking startledly across his big, gummy eyeballs as he
twisted to try and catch Joe.  Joe, blessed with bones, was faster.
    Joe
quickly outdistanced his startled guard and barreled down the tube-shaped hallway,
gaining more courage as the shock anklet failed to activate.  Maybe he was out
of range.  The hall out of the domed cavern ended with suspicious abruptness
and Joe slowed, scanning the surface for any indication of a door to the
outside.  Nothing.  He kept going, choosing a smaller side-corridor.  Nothing
but gleaming black walls, no sign of a way out.  Joe was anxiously turning a
corner into another section of the ship when the anklet activated.
    Joe
cried out and tumbled to the floor, his momentum carrying him crashing into the
wall.  The aliens didn’t end the brutal agony after a couple seconds this time,
but instead let it continue for what seemed like excruciating hours.  To his
shame, he heard himself bawling like a baby.  Somewhere along the line, he peed
himself again.
    Joe was
curled in fetal a ball when Kihgl found him.
    “I
save your life and you act like a spoiled Takki.”  
Kihgl kicked him.  “I should’ve let you die, furg.”
    “Kill
me, then,” Joe moaned in a mixture of hatred and misery.
    “Get
up.”
    “Screw
you.”
    A
stinging tentacle wrapped around Joe’s arm and brutally tore him from the
floor.  With his other arm, Kihgl grabbed him by the skull and forced his head
down until they were eye-to-eye.  “You were supposed to die for what you did
on Earth.  You humiliated the Prime Commander himself.  Robbed us of an entire
battalion.  Don’t make me regret saving your sooty life, asher.  I can make you
wish we’d sold you to the Dhasha.”
    Joe
swallowed hard and Kihgl released him.
    “Stop
running,” Kihgl commanded.   “We’re three days
out from Earth.  You do it again and I’ll toss you into space.”
    Where
they had once shown a bit of kindness, even compassion, Kihgl’s sticky brown
eyes were now hard with fury. 
    Cringing
there, stared down by the only ally he had in this alien place, Joe realized he
had made a mistake.
    He
wanted to apologize, but it was far too late.  Kihgl shoved Joe and a few
others inside a small room with triple-tiered shelves and left them there, the
unnatural black doors oozing shut behind them.   In the silence that followed,
the kids clustered around Joe, waiting to see what he would do.  The hazy red
glow highlighted their faces, leaving their eyes looking huge and frightened.
    “Where’d
you run to?” a boy asked.  “I thought we’re on a ship.  How you gonna get off a
ship?”
    Smartass.   “I’ll find a way out eventually,”
Joe muttered.
     “Are
you sick, too?” a freckled little girl asked, tugging on his T-shirt.  “Why’d
they make you stand out there with those sick kids they shot?”  Like it was
completely natural to shoot the sick kids because they were sick.
    His gut twisting, Joe