9As he approached the docking bay door, Troth thought about all the alien movies he'd seen, trying to think of possible weapons against the alien attackers. In "War of the Worlds" the aliens had been killed by bacteria, but apparently that wasn't a problem, since they hadn't died yet. They'd been killed by water in "Signs" and they'd been blown to smithereens in "Independence Day." Unfortunately, Troth lacked the artillery to create a large-scale explosion, and he didn't have any water bottles on him. He'd just have to rely on brute strength, and the can of Mace he'd taken from the cab. He hoped that he'd have at least a chemical advantage, if not a physical one.
There was a sound of footsteps, distant at first, but then growing closer. Troth pushed himself against the walls of the ship, hoping that maybe he wouldn't be seen. He looked down at the can of Mace, and then glanced down the hallway. He looked up.
"Look, I know you don't know what's going on here any more than I do, but could you at least give me some sort of protection?"
SPECIFY PROTECTION.
"Oh, I don't know. Smite them or something…Can you do force fields? Because that would be bloody brilliant."
I'LL SEE WHAT I CAN DO.
"Er, thanks, I guess." Troth listened. The footsteps had stopped. That either meant that the alien had changed course or…
"BLOODY HELL!" Troth shouted in alarm. Before him stood one of the aliens. It blinked at him with one large eye. It garbled some strange alien language at him and reached out with a slimy, tentacle-like hand.
Shit, shit shit! Troth thought to himself. What should I do?
USE THE MACE YOU IDIOT.
"Oh yeah!" He took the can of mace and sprayed it directly into the alien's eyeball. It screamed, clutching its eye, and collapsed onto the floor.
"Ha ha!" Troth exclaimed gleefully, "I got 'im! I got the bastard!" He pocketed the mace and continued on down the hall.
Meanwhile at the WOOKIE headquarters in western Kansas, Moth and Caterpillar's helicopter landed on a huge asphalt pad on the roof of the building. The two New Firm agents leapt out of the helicopter, with Moth carrying Wuffles in one hand and Stretchy in the other. A few minutes later, the helicopter pilot joined them.
"I think I'm gonna be sick," Wuffles moaned.
"Don't be such a pussy Wuffles," Moth snapped, throwing the dog to the ground.
"Was the pun intended?" Caterpillar asked.
"Who cares? Let's just get in here and find out what the hell is going on." Moth turned to the dog. "You finished there?"
"Yeah…yeah, I guess so." Wuffles got up, still shaking, and walked away from a pile of fresh dog sick.
"Geez that smells," the pilot, whose name was Cocoon, commented.
"You can say that again," Moth said.
"Geez that-,"
"I was speaking rhetorically. Let's get going." The three agents and Wuffles, clutching Stretchy protectively in his mouth, headed towards the roof entrance of WOOKIE.
"It's locked," Caterpillar said, after trying the door.
"Big surprise. Cocoon, take care of it." The third agent nodded and opened the briefcase he was carrying. From inside he removed and then assembled a large gun with a silencer. Cocoon shot the hinges then delivered a powerful kick to the door. It fell inward and the group continued down the stairs.
"Somebody will have heard us," Wuffles warned.
"That's what we're banking on," Caterpillar replied.
Elisa was having a hard time trying to think with all the other captives shouting and carrying on. Couldn't they at least try to panic quietly?
"I don't want to be a guinea pig!" cried one woman.
"Oh, I don't think it'll be all that bad," said the man from the suburbs, "You heard the man. We could be doing hard labor."
"SHUT UP!" everyone else shouted at him.
"Right." He sat down.
"Will they run tests on us?" asked another woman.
"I just hope they don't have us running on one of those hamster wheels all day long. That would suck," someone else put in.
Elisa had had it by now. "WOULD ALL OF YOU PLEASE JUST SHUT UP?"
"NO!" came the chorus.
"Dammit, I'm trying to think here, okay? If you guys would hold it down a little, maybe I could come up with a plan to get us out of here." But nobody could hear her. Everyone had started talking again and her voice was drowned out by a hundred others.
A random thought popped into her head. Where the hell was Troth? She thought he could still be in the cab, but that seemed unlikely. It would be just like him to hide in the face of danger, but she doubted the aliens hadn't thought of that. If they'd found him though, why wasn't he here? Had they killed him?
"Hey guys, does anyone know if there's another holding dock?"
"How the hell should we know anything about that? We were asleep one minute and then we woke up here!"
"Okay…Well has anyone seen a red-haired cabby by the name of William Troth?"
"Don't think so," somebody said.
"Oh. I didn't think he'd be here," Elisa said, and began thinking again. For some reason she felt…disappointed. She wasn't sure why. She didn't like Troth, at least not like that, but she'd sort of hoped she could find some evidence that he was okay.
Troth walked slowly down the hall. He'd managed to mace two alien guards so far. He was trying to stay hidden though, so that he could conserve his supply. He'd had that can for a while, so he wasn't sure how much was left. Hopefully it was enough to get him and his passenger out of here. Now the question became: Where the bloody hell was she? He'd guessed from the number of abandoned cars in the docking bay that there were too many people to isolate each one by themselves. Troth supposed he'd be searching for a room with a lot of noise behind it. But what if the rooms were soundproof? What if he couldn't hear anyone and he never found the girl? What was her name anyway? She'd never told him, and it was getting irritating. He made a mental note to ask her once he found her. If he found her.
Just ahead of Troth was an intersection of hallways. To the left was a large metal door with two alien guards in front of it. A sort of buzzing was emanating from the door, as though there might be a large group of something behind it. That must be it, Troth thought to himself. But no….No, there were several other doors in this new corridor, each one stocked with guards, each one buzzing. Above each door was written something in a strange language that Troth couldn't place.
"Bollocks," he muttered. This was going to take some serious thought.
In western Kansas, Moth, Caterpillar, Cocoon and Wuffles (with Stretchy still placed firmly in his jaws) were entering the main part of the WOOKIE headquarters. Just as Wuffles had told Moth and Caterpillar before, all the lights were off. None of the electricity was on.
"Shouldn't there be guards here?" Caterpillar asked.
"I told you," Wuffles said, spitting Stretchy out of his mouth for a moment, "Mr. Bacha sent everyone home yesterday. Agents, guards, everyone."
"So where the hell is Bacha?" Cocoon wondered aloud.
"His office is at the end," Wuffles said helpfully, "It's hard to miss. It's got big glass walls and stuff."
"There it is. I can see it from here," Moth pointed.
"His office is actually on the side. You have to go through his reception area," Wuffles said, "But he might be working the reality regulators, which are on the ground floor."
"We'll split up," Moth said. "I'll go into the office. Caterpillar, you go with Wuffles there and check out the reality regulators. , you cover me in case Bacha is in his office and is feeling a little…resistant. We're going to find this guy, and we're going to get to the bottom of this freakin' mystery."
Elisa was resting her head on one of the cool metal walls of the holding area. She was beginning to come to terms with the fact that she'd probably never get out of here. Troth was probably dead, and she was going to spend the rest of her life with these obnoxious strangers in deep space as a zoo animal for aliens from the planet Zed. Some of the people around her were beginning to cry. She wished she could comfort them, but she didn't know how. Anything she could say at this point would probably only make them feel worse.
She was jolted out of her depressive reverie by loud thuds coming from the other side of the door and the hiss of an airlock. Everyone stood up and looked hopefully at the door. Elisa jumped up to see over everyone.
"Have any of you seen a girl, about so high, with sort of frizzy dark hair and a smart mouth?" asked a familiar voice.
"Troth? Holy freaking crap! Is that you?" Elisa elbowed her way through the other people. "Let me through, that's my cabbie!" She finally got to the front of the throng of staring people.
"Have you come to save us?" asked one woman.
"Yeah, sure I have. You've just got to follow me back to the docking bay, and then we'll figure out some way to get out of here," Troth said.
"You mean you haven't got more of a plan than that?" the guy from the suburbs quipped.
"SHUT UP!" everyone else yelled at him.
"Sorry," he muttered.
"Why'd you get out of the cab?" Elisa asked, "Why'd you come for us?"
"Actually, I came for you. Saving everyone else was sort of an added benefit."
"Why?"
"Because you didn't pay your full fare and you promised you would," Troth stated.
"Oh." Elisa tried not to sound too disappointed, though she wasn't sure why should feel that way. "Well, lead on brave captain. How'd you get past those guards?"
Troth held up his can of mace. "Right in the eyeballs. They never saw it coming."
"Wow. That's the first time today you've managed to do something smart. I didn't think you had it in you."
"Look, I could just leave you here if you like. Everyone else seems quite grateful to be rescued."
"No, no. Don't get me wrong. I mean, this place is nice and all, but I'd like to get out."
"Hey," shouted somebody at the back, "Can we get this show on the road?"
"Right, sorry," Troth said, "Follow me everyone." They made their way out into the hall. Elisa gasped. Every door in the hall was open, and the ship was full of strange creatures she'd never seen before, running wildly.
"Um, Troth…"
"Yeah?"
"Exactly how many tries did it take before you got the right door?"
"I'd…I'd rather not talk about that right now."
"Mmm…alright…" Elisa shut her mouth and followed Troth. There came a great noise from behind them. Elisa turned to see one of the aliens, possibly the one who'd come to talk to them before, staring. Due to the fact that his face only consisted of one big eye and a large mouth, Elisa couldn't tell if it were in shock or fury, though she suspected it was probably a mix of both.
"Stop!" it shouted in its Rod Roddy voice."
"Go!" shouted Troth. They all ran for it.
Troth had never run so fast in his life. He was terrified. The hallway seemed longer than before, almost impossibly long. The alien behind them had gained some speed. For being so big, he certainly was fast. Finally the docking bay was visible. He could even see his beloved cab from here. He breathed a sigh of relief as they crossed the threshold.
"Everyone get into your cars! Quickly!" he shouted. Everyone scattered, running towards their respective vehicles. The alien still followed.
"Stop! Stop! How dare you escape! You shall all be punished soundly for this," he said.
"I think not," Troth said angrily. He was sick of all this cat-and-mouse crap. He wanted some answers NOW. He approached the alien, can of mace in hand, and pinned him against the wall. Elisa gave a small gasp of surprise. She didn't know Troth had this much courage in him. It was surprising and, somehow, kind of admirable.
"Alright you Martian bastard," he said, raising the mace to eye-level, "You're going to tell me why you're here and what's going on, or I'm going to spray this stuff right in your eye, just like all those guards back there. And I can tell you right now, you're not going to like how it feels."
The alien gulped. "Alright, I'll tell you what I know," he said. "How much do you know about Kansas?"