Barbarian Box Set: Barbarians of Zandipor Books One, Two and Three(5)

I pull my shorts up and hurry back over to the women who are huddled up against the far wall where we normally sit. Everyone is grouped closer than normal with spooked, nervous looks in their eyes now that we don’t have that gas to calm our minds.

It’s been a traumatic experience so far but this is the first time I see tears on glistening cheeks. Now we can see what everyone is really made of.

Some girls have their eyes closed, some have trembling hands, and some looked pissed. Mainly, Rolanda. That chick is a fighter. I’m in the former group so I inch toward her to try and absorb some of her courage.

“We have to take over this ship,” Rolanda whispers to me as she glares at Tin Tom.

I lean in close to her ear. “He said there was a door behind that mat.”

Rolanda stares at the wall and grins. “We have to find out how to open it.”

A girl with black mascara streaming down her wet cheeks is holding her knees and rocking back and forth. “Where are you taking us?” she screams, on the verge of a meltdown if she’s not already there.

Tin Tom rolls over. “I concur from the liquid discharging from your tear ducts that you are melancholic or you are suffering from an eye infection.”

“She’s upset you idiot,” another woman with red hair snaps at the tin piece of crap. “We all are. You kidnapped us and now all of our families are dead.”

“Everyone is dead,” Tin Tom corrects. “Your friends too. All of your acquaintances and pets as well.”

“That’s not making us feel better,” the redhead says.

“Work colleagues, neighbors.”

“Alright!” I yell. “We get it!”

Tin Tom starts blinking. “I have something that will make you feel superb.”

“I doubt it,” Mandy mutters beside me.

The hologram screen appears out of thin air again and Tin Tom rolls under it. “Perhaps if you see where we’re headed to you will feel better. You breeding-aged females are the lucky few who have been selected to be bred by the glorious and heroic Emperor Rsordan. He is the most dapper man in all forty-nine galaxies and his beauty is only matched by his generosity and benevolence.”

The hologram screen flickers on and every woman in the ship gasps as a huge praying mantis like creature sits with an army of naked slave women chained to his golden throne.

The women in the video look horrified as they struggle to get free from the thick chains. One young girl is biting the metal with her teeth, another is just sitting there completely catatonic, and another is begging the other frantic women to kill her.

The green creature with the six long limbs and beady eyes grabs a naked woman by her dirty, matted hair and yanks her close. She screams as his long purple tongue drags up her cheek.

“Behold,” Tin Tom says proudly. “The famous Emperor Rsordan. You are to be his love slaves before you are beheaded and impregnated with his larvae. It is the highest honor an earthling can receive. Do you feel better now?”

The video cuts off just as it looks like Emperor Rsordan is about to bite off the poor girl’s head.

“Fuck that shit,” Rolanda says, springing to her feet. She plows past Tin Tom, knocking him over on the way to the smooth wall over the absorbing mat. She starts clawing at it and before I can process what’s going on I’m running through the hologram screen to help her.

“Where is it?” Rolanda hisses as she frantically feels the wall.

It’s so smooth but there’s got to be a door somewhere. And he knows how to open it.

I spin on my heels and grab Tin Tom. “Open the door,” I order him. He just blinks.

“I’m not f*cking around,” I scream as several other girls race to help us. “I’ll smash you to pieces you annoying f*cking can opener!”

“I am a robot,” Tin Tom says in his crackly voice. “I cannot be threatened with physical violence.”

“Let’s see about that,” I say, opening a panel and grabbing a handful of his colorful wires.

“Wait, wait, wait,” he screams in panic.

“Open it!” I say with my best no-f*cking-around voice. “Or I start yanking and you’ll wake up in a garbage pit.”

Tin Tom blinks his lights and the door appears in the wall. Rolanda hits a button and it slides open.

“Fuck you, Tin Tom,” I say, pushing him over as I follow the women out the door.

He crackles something about not being authorized to enter the hallway but we just keep on going. It’s dark in the circular hallway with only the weird purple electricity running over the ceiling lighting things up.

Rolanda is in front of me and Mandy is behind me, squeezing my shoulder and making me into a prisoner sandwich. “What’s the plan?” I ask Rolanda. She has to have a plan. Right?

She turns back with a clenched jaw. “Murder everything in sight.”

I gulp. I was going to go with finding an escape pod but murdering everything in sight can work too. If only I knew how to murder someone…

“What did she say the plan was?” Mandy asks from behind me.

I glance at her from over my shoulder. “Just stay out of Rolanda’s way. That’s our plan.”

Rolanda stops in front of a door and I bump into her. God, her back muscles are pure rock. She turns around, already breathing hard with a fierce look in her eyes. “Do either of you have any fight training?” she whispers with one eye on the door.