The path along the side of the canyon twisted and turned as it snaked its way down the side of the sheer drop. Jasyn stumbled and went to her knees, her head hanging over the drop. The constant breeze blew in her face, rising up and over the top. She swallowed hard, trying to get her breath back.
A giant golden-skinned man jerked her to her feet and set her on the narrow trail. She glared but walked sideways down the path, keeping as far from the edge as she could. He prodded her with his wand. The wands looked flimsy but they sent bolts of pure pain when activated. She and Clark had both found out the hard way.
She glanced back, past three of their captors to where Clark stumbled down the path. He tried to smile. It only pulled his split lip. He dabbed blood from his mouth. She turned forward again.
The white tunic of the man in front of her stood out starkly against the rusty rock of the canyon wall. Tiny grayish green plants clung to tiny cracks in the stone. She grabbed one by accident and jerked her hand back. The plant was covered with tiny stinging hairs.
Far below, a solid wall of green lapped against the sides of the canyon. The wind carried the smell of thick jungle, a fetid smell of warm dampness. The trail turned a sharp bend and took them another step lower.
Jasyn stopped to catch her breath, leaning against the solid rock cliff.
“Agarus noda,” her guard said.
She looked at him blankly. She'd never heard anything like his language.
“Agarus noda,” he repeated. “In sothinga maru, noda,” he added more impatiently.
He lifted the wand. She started walking again.
The sun crept overhead, moving slowly towards afternoon. The air thickened as they dropped lower into the canyon. Gravity levels crept higher, closer to ship norm. The temperature rose. Sweat trickled across her forehead. Her hand stung where she’d grabbed the plant.
The trail widened as the bottom of the canyon drew closer. The slope leveled out. Loose soil allowed thin grasses to take root. The plants grew larger, more green. Large, widely spaced trees covered the floor of the canyon. Bushes and other plants grew between the trees.
The path twisted again then leveled out, running diagonally into the trees.
“Harupt shet!” The leader broke into a trot.
Her guard prodded her with the wand. She stumbled into a run. Her feet ached with each pounding step. The heat clung like a wet blanket.
The jungle closed over them, thick and dark with damp shadows. The path turned to coarse sand, beaten into a hard track by the passage of many feet. She kept moving only because the guard behind her threatened her with his wand.
The path twisted and turned, dodging through the trees. The golden men kept up their pace. Jasyn stumbled and fell. Her guard barely paused as he dragged her to her feet. He shoved her into motion again.
The path dipped through a narrow stream. They splashed through without slowing. Jasyn stumbled climbing the far bank. Her guard swung her over his shoulder and carried her. She bounced upside down, exhausted and humiliated at being handled like a package.
The path took another wide turn, climbing a hidden rise, buried under trees and bushes. The men broke out of the canopy, then stopped in front of a bare rise. Jasyn’s guard dropped her to her feet. She staggered before finding her balance. His hand landed on her shoulder, pinning her in place.
Not one single rippling muscle twitched as the aliens faced a stone cave in the hill. Huge rounded stones framed the entrance. The cave mouth gaped wide on a pitch black interior.
The men hummed, low and constant on the same note. They swayed side to side. Her guard gripped her shoulder so hard she winced. The humming echoed into the cave and came back, doubled in volume. The men raised the pitch and the cave reflected it back, the volume rising. The leader threw his hands into the air. The humming stopped abruptly.
The cave resonated with sound. Her guard shoved Jasyn forward. She fell onto her knees in the blackness of the cave. Clark landed on the sand beside her. She tried to reach for his hand, but the buzzing echoes were everywhere, in her head, blinding her eyes. The dark filled her mouth so she couldn’t scream. It wrapped her body in long strands until she couldn’t move. The humming grew in volume. She tried to fight, tried to push it away. It filled her, smothering her.
She caught whispers of words along the edge of hearing. The darkness forced her mind open. The buzzing hum rearranged her thoughts. The voices slid inside then settled, speaking an unfamiliar language that echoed harshly. Their words filtered into her brain, filling the spaces created by the darkness.
Splitting pressure built until her mind fragmented, whirling through the darkness. She was a disconnected series of thoughts that coalesced back into a person. The darkness and voices slid away, sinking into her head.
She blinked, gasping for breath. She was on all fours in the shallow cave. Gritty sand stung her hands, dry and dusty. She coughed and sat back on her heels, exhaustion and sweat blinding her. She wiped her face with one grimy hand.
Clark sprawled in the sand next to her. His face was gray. His eyes were closed. She reached for him with one swollen, reddened hand. Her fingers touched his cheek. He opened his eyes, then coughed.
“Are you—” She fumbled for words in her jumbled, disordered mind. The words she wanted wouldn’t come.
He closed his eyes, reaching for her hand.
The golden men dragged them out of the cave. One of them moved towards her with a strap of cloth in his hand. She tried to back away. He grabbed her arm, then wrapped the cloth around her neck. She grabbed at the cloth and pulled. It wouldn’t come off. She felt no seams, no evidence that it would open. At the front was a thin strip of metal.
“You will obey,” the leader spoke. “Or you will be punished.”
Something was wrong with her ears. She heard the strange language they’d spoken before, but now it made words in her head.
“Take her to the cooking pots,” the leader said. “Take the other one to the fields.”
They took Clark’s arm and hustled him down a new path. She started after him. Her guard stepped in her way.
“No!” She tried to dodge around him.
He did something with his wand. Shards of pain lanced out from the collar they’d put on her. She clutched her throat, whimpering.
“You will do as you are told,” her guard stated.
The pain ended. She slumped in defeat. They took her arm and marched her away, out of the clearing in the opposite direction that they had taken Clark.