Page 1 of Keeping Freya (Warriors of Arracate #3)

Freya

“ D o each of you know what you need to do?” Five dirty faces look back at me. Their expressions are a mix of fear and determination.

“We can do this, girls! They’re distracted right now, so this is our chance! The opportunity we have been waiting for. They will never see us coming.” Also, they plan on ‘getting rid of us’ and I don’t like the sound of that. But I don’t tell that to the other girls.

Daphne juts her chin forward. “You’re right, Freya, we can do this.” Attagirl.

“Remember, stick to the plan. We all need to do our part. If one of us backs out, it doesn’t work.

” I give them all a pointed look, one by one.

Daphne, Anna, Jodie, Crys, and Brittney.

Five faces give me confirming nods. Slowly, I let myself take a full breath. We can do this. We can totally do this.

We’re huddled together in the back of our cell. But they will come back, they always come back. Taking one of us with them, doing whatever they like. I swallow down the bile in my throat. I have had enough of being used and abused.

Life used to be good. I lived in the little cottage of my dreams with my cats to keep me company if I was lonely, which was not often because my entire family lived in the same small town: my brothers and their wives, my nieces and nephews.

I had friends. No, I have friends. I refuse to give up on them, and I refuse to give up on myself.

I move closer to the other girls, looking for warmth and comfort. The plan is simple: we'll attack when they return to pick their next victim. They never like the same girl twice. I was their last victim, and while the disgusting monster was raping me, I devised a plan.

The entire ship is in distress because it was hailed by another ship and ordered to escort some hotshot general to his next destination, so now we fly in formation.

They were commanded to get rid of us before they get to the destination.

I shiver. I guess that explains why they have been abusing us more often than usual, to get their fill before we are gone.

Did they really think we would go down like lambs to the slaughter? Apparently so, because they didn’t notice the knife I snatched and hid in my sleeve. Idiots. They should’ve put it away after they used it to torture me. Now, it’s securely tucked into my pants, and I’m itching to fight back.

Time passes slowly while we wait, the girls sleep, but I am on high alert. I hear the distinct buzzing of sliding doors in the distance, and I nudge Anna and Daphne.

“Wake up!” I whisper-shout. “They’re coming.”

Quickly, we jump up and huddle together.

We don’t have to act like we’re scared because we are scared.

Shitless. I push it down, though, deep down.

I was named after a freaking Nordic Goddess, and I will show them what I’m worth.

I slide the knife from my pants, holding it behind my back while taking a step back to create space between me and the girls.

He looms closer, murmuring, “Tick-tock, tick-tock, time to choose…” before landing on Jodie, “You…” he slurs, reaching out to grab her.

Before he can get his hands on her, I jump him. With a ferocious yell, one I didn’t even think I was capable of uttering, I lift my arms above my head and with both hands, I plunge the knife into his neck. His entire body is covered, but his face and neck are vulnerable.

I yank the knife out, stepping back as I hear shouts to my left. I see Anna running towards us, carrying a heavy bucket. It’s the bucket we use for our waste, she’s making it an excellent weapon. Anna hits the guy in the head, and he falls to his knees. Blood streams from the wound in his neck.

He gurgles, blood leaking from his mouth, but he still looks menacing, and he gives us a feral smile.

I shudder and raise my knife, stabbing him on the other side.

He’s expecting it now and tries to fight me off.

I hear the girls shouting behind me, terror lacing their voices, but I’m like a feral beast. I keep stabbing, over and over and over.

“You will regret this,” he hisses before closing his eyes and letting go.

Heaving, I step back. I’m covered in blood and filth from the bucket, but before us on the ground lies one very dead alien. Yes, alien. Because we have been abducted by fucking aliens.

I don’t know about the other girls, but I’ve been around them for a while.

I went to sleep in my own bed and woke up on an examination table.

Being probed and tested, they inserted a translator in my ear before I knew what was happening.

That’s when I knew I was in real shit. They sold me on some sort of market, like cattle.

I was sold multiple times before I ended up with these crazy ass fuckwits. In a sense, I was lucky; I wasn’t tortured or abused much in the past year (I think). The last few weeks were definitely the worst. But they are also the last because I am done.

So here I am, standing over the dead body of the ugliest alien I have ever seen.

He’s big and a greenish-gray color, which isn't a good look.

His upper body is covered in some kind of shell, and he looks like a reptilian species—beady eyes and a scary, toothless mouth that almost looks like it's smiling, beak-like.

“What do we do now?” Daphne’s voice jolts me from my thoughts.

I step forward and grab the gun the alien was holding. “Search him for knives and keys. Then we’ll kill the others.”

There are four more of these fuckers on this ship. We don’t know the layout, so we have to be smart.

“Do any of you know how to shoot a gun?” I look at the girls. Crys hesitantly raises her hand. She’s from the Midwest, of course, she knows how to shoot a gun.

I walk towards the exit while Daphne searches the body. “Three more knives!” she exclaims, and I grin. This is looking better by the minute. The keys are dangling in the door to our cell, and I shove them in my pocket as I walk to the sliding doors, which won’t open.

The girls join me, and together we study the mechanism.

“I think it needs a handprint,” Jodie whispers, pointing towards a black touchscreen.

I curse as I walk back towards the cell.

“What are you doing?”

I keep walking stoically. “We need a handprint.”

Luckily, the alien doesn’t have scales on his arm, but sawing off the hand is not an easy task. It’s bloody, and it takes up a lot of my strength. He also smells really, really bad, and I have to stop multiple times to keep myself from throwing up.

At last, I walk back towards the girls and push the hand against the screen. The doors open, and we look at each other. Now what?

Crys takes the lead and steps into the hallway, quickly moving the gun from left to right. “It’s clear!” she says softly, and we enter the hall.

The hallways are dimly lit, but we can see the hall ends on the right, so we should definitely go left. The metal floorboards make too much noise for my liking, so we try to walk on tiptoes to the next corner. We hear chatter coming from in front of us, and I turn around to the girls.

“Crys, shoot them the minute they come into view, we have one chance and one chance alone.” She nods, her mouth a line of grim determination. “The rest of you, plaster yourself to the walls.”

The girls move into position, and I follow Crys as we creep as close to the incoming aliens as possible. They turn the corner, busy talking with each other.

“NOW!”

Crys opens fire. Laser beams shoot from the gun, and damn, but she is an excellent shot. She moves the weapon like a villain in a movie; she just keeps on shooting, waving from the left to the right.

Silently, I step forward and put my hand on her shoulder. “They’re dead, honey. Like super dead.”

She looks back at me, eyes wide, blinking like she’s just coming out of a trance. Impulsively, I hug her.

“You did good, girl, now let’s grab those guns. There are still two left.”

I gesture for the others to come closer, and we move as a group.

I peek around the corner, but luckily, it’s empty.

The girls grab the guns, and I hesitate, trying to decide which way to turn.

There’s a window here, and when I look outside, I see stars and am momentarily stunned.

It’s not like I had much time to admire the view after the kidnapping, and I must admit it is breathtaking.

“It’s beautiful,” Brittney whispers. The others utter murmurs of agreement, and I look at Crys. She gives me a chin lift, thinking the same thing: we have to split up.

“Crys, you take Jodie and Anna, Brittney and Daphne are coming with me.” I turn around to face them.

“We don’t know the layout of the ship, we don’t know where they are.

We have to move quickly, remember there’s still another ship out there, and we have to terminate them before they raise any alarm. ”

The girls are a mix of unshed tears and fierce determination: fear and bravery. I lift my chin, grab a gun, and take the lead. I hear two pairs of footsteps echoing behind me, and relief floods my system. I’m not alone; we can do this. I can get us home.

We walk through the hallway only to come upon another sliding door, and I push the hand on the panel. The doors open with a buzz, and we walk into some sort of control center.

“You’re taking your time with the humans, are you? The High Commander wants us to go into hyperspeed; he wants to be at the Den on Tekrov tomorrow.”

I don’t wait for him to turn around, I aim and shoot, hitting him straight in the head.

He falls forward, hitting the console and making the ship shake and spin.

The girls yell, and somewhere to the right, a door opens, and the last asshole enters.

He looks at me, and it’s the last thing he does because I blow his head off with a continuous stream of laser beams.

As his body falls, the ship stops spinning, and it feels like the world stops for a minute. I turn around, running footsteps come closer, and all the girls enter the control center.

“It’s over,” I say out loud, but my voice trembles, and I feel my body starting to shake.

“It’s over,” I say again, tears streaming down my face. I drop the gun, then my hand, and then I fall to my knees.