The Interstellar Slave

Chapter 15: Forced Hands

Now that question made Bituin still. She had no idea that they already had that in mind even before they appeared before her. Well, what did she expect from this place? These ETs used and treated them like animals—the lowest dregs of creatures in the universe that were their food source.

“Of course, you’re right,” I concurred, nodding a bit. “But I will still try to avoid that because you know why? I am not a criminal. Yes, I’m desperate but I’ll—”

“We’re going to kill you, SF98889, so you do what you have to do!” the short-haired guy butted in, patience wearing thin. His beautiful but livid eyes scanned the alien population present in the vast stadium. “We’re already f*cked up in here. We have no choice. We kill each other if that’s what we have to do to survive in this f*cking galaxy!” His eyes settled on Bituin. “You hear me?”

“How long have you been here?” she queried, kicking the superhuman in front of him.

“We don’t know but it’s been a long time. We lost track of time. Or rather, we don’t have time to track anyway. We’re all screwed here, sweetheart,” the long-haired man replied to her instead, moving his eyes to hold her gaze without moving his head.

Bituin looked down at the bald guy. Her eyes went round when he grabbed both her legs and grappled her. He was so strong, but she did her best to wriggle out from underneath him. She elbowed his face and caught him in a headlock, choking him.

The short-haired guy rushed to help his teammate, kicking her in the face. She heard a ringing sound in her ear, as it was hit by his instep. Her chokehold loosened but she held on after a couple of seconds. She didn’t want to lose this opportunity to decrease the number of her opponents. She ground her teeth while her free hand formed into a fist, meeting the second attacker’s kick, hitting his shin. He growled in pain when his tibia was broken. A c***k was audible enough to tell her she did him good—er bad. He bent forward, facing her as he held his assaulted leg. It gave her the advantage to punch his face while she was still half-sitting and never letting go of the chokehold on the first contender.

Bituin slowly felt the bald guy go limp in her hold as he lost consciousness. She let him go to get up and face the second one. The bald guy disappeared from the cage like it was magic. She really thought teleportation was possible. The neckbands were programmed to have this possibility for humans. Now she wondered if the rest of the ETs in this stadium had the ability to teleport using such advanced technology.

Well, there’s a high probability to that, she concluded. She now believed there was nothing impossible in the universe. Every single thing could just happen. And yet, she could not also shake off from her mind that these could just be like some sort of computer simulation in the flesh. Who knew that her opponents were merely computer-generated humans?

There’s that if their technology is truly that advanced, she reflected.

“Are you really humans?” she couldn’t stop but ask the two.

The two men chuckled. The second one faced her as his bone appeared to be healed. He could now stand without wincing. Meanwhile, the long-haired third guy was still in his corner, waiting for his turn. It seemed that he still played like a gentleman, letting Bituin face them one by one. It seemed that it didn’t matter whether they were placed in the cage at the same time. The players had a choice, at least.

“Why are you not attacking me at the same time?” her follow-up question when it was clear they didn’t want to divulge such information about their real identities.

“We don’t do this normally, but we’re experimenting,” the third guy answered.

The second guy threw a bluff, but Bituin dodged it. She gave back a couple of roundhouse kicks that he evaded easily. She now speculated that he could be playing her somehow.

“Experimenting on what?” she asked, slightly heaving, as she threw punches and kicks in her enemy’s face and stomach. She hit him in the midsection with a front kick. He staggered back while the stones pounded their heads. She winced especially when everytime she was hit by a bigger one.

“We were told we’re going to face a girl this time. We used to face just guys. They’re tough and all, but at the end of the day, they just… expire.”

Bituin gritted her teeth when the second guy struck her in the left side. She heard her ribs cracked, and she could not breathe properly. The intense pain was distracting her a bit. She was hit in the leg that bent her knee to the uneven floor. She groaned when her knee connected to the stones.

“Expire?” She panted, glancing at the third guy. She raised her arm vertically and elbowed the second man’s shin. He tried to suppress a groan but was not able to when she hit his genitals. He dropped to his knees.

“What the f*ck? You’re such a trickster!” he complained.

“Oh, yeah? I thought you were attacking me one by one earlier? But you came at me while the first one was not done yet. Now, we’re even.” She ignored him for a second to stare at the most gentleman among the three, in her opinion.

“For the record, I didn’t agree to Wyatt’s experiment. I f*cking told him that you might be dangerous!” He said it haltingly, still hurting in his private area.

Bituin’s eyes were dragged back to her second enemy. “His name’s Wyatt, huh? And what’s your name?”

“That’s not important. We’re not going to see each other again after this experiment,” his reply, with a mocking tone. He gave Wyatt a hostile look.

“Come on, Colt. Roper wouldn’t have been sent to the—ugh!” He hadn’t finished his sentence when he was stunned. He shook violently and fell down the stony floor. He was then beaten by the stones that fell from the cage ceiling.

“Sent to where?” she asked, kneeling beside the second guy as he lay there still. She then heard the audible sigh from Wyatt after he was stunned. “What? Aren’t you going to tell me?”

“You will learn as time passes by who brought you here or where we are, okay?” Wyatt played safe as he crawled back into the safe corner, and she understood it well. “I’m not going to tell you more. I only advise you to take caution.”

She was almost amused by his warning since they were going to face each other after she rendered Colt unconscious. For that to happen, she had to take action now.