Total pages in book: 182
Estimated words: 171288 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 856(@200wpm)___ 685(@250wpm)___ 571(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 171288 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 856(@200wpm)___ 685(@250wpm)___ 571(@300wpm)
“I didn’t need to be rescued!” Shurla snapped. “I was perfectly happy as a joy-girl back at Hell’s Gate! At least back there I got paid when somebody shoved something up my hoo-hah! Why do you even want us here, anyway? You keep calling us ‘breeders’ and you examined our wombs. But if you think I’m going to have a baby for you crazy assholes, you’ve got another think coming!”
“My, you’re a feisty one, aren’t you, my dear?” Mother Toone remarked, still smiling, though she appeared to be fingering something in her pocket. “That’s all right. You’ll see things differently in the morning, after a good night’s sleep. Once you’re well-rested, we’ll explain your true purpose in life and how you can serve the Glorious Cause.”
Shurla opened her mouth, doubtless to argue some more but Penny had caught a glimpse of what Mother Toone was holding in her pocket—it looked suspiciously like a miniature pain prod.
“What about something to eat?” she asked, quickly, hoping to keep her friend from getting shocked. Plus, she really was hungry. It had been a long, long time since the half protein bar Granny Two-two had given her back on the Hell’s Gate Station.
“You’ll get your nightly portion of Mother’s Milk very soon,” Mother Toole promised her. “That will fill you right up—I promise.”
“Mother’s Milk? What’s that?” Shurla demanded.
But their new attendant didn’t answer. She simply swept out the door and then the clicking sound of a lock being turned echoed in the long dormitory.
Shurla went to try the door anyway and Penny went with her.
“Hey! Hey, let us out of here!” Shurla yanked on the latch and pounded on the door uselessly. “Hey, you can’t keep us here!”
“I think they can,” Penny murmured to her friend. She put a hand on Shurla’s shoulder. “I’m sorry—I’m scared too.”
“I’m not just scared—I’m angry!” Shurla stopped pounding at last and they both went to sit on two of the cots, which were side-by-side. “Who the hell do these freaks think they are, swooping us up and taking us to this crazy place?”
“Do you think they’ll really let us go if we want to tomorrow morning?” Penny asked hesitantly.
Shurla made an incredulous sound in the back of her throat.
“I don’t think so—these bastards are playing for keeps.” She sighed and put her head in her hands. “This is all so crazy—it just feels like a bad dream, you know?”
“I was thinking the exact same thing,” Penny said fervently.
She thought again of the Oompa-Loompa NeverBreeders and the public orgy they had witnessed out in the town and the way the “Glorious Leader” looked exactly like Colonel Sanders. Maybe she had fallen asleep somewhere and this was all just a really vivid dream.
In fact, maybe she had fallen asleep even before she was captured—possibly she was in her bed on the long-range shuttle with Rive and Y’lla and everything she’d gone through in the past two days was all just a nightmare…
It was such a seductive idea, Penny was really tempted to give in to it. Maybe once she went to sleep, she would wake up in the real world, back aboard the Kindred ship.
It was all she had to hope for, since at the moment, she saw no way to escape.
Twenty-Four
About an hour later, when Penny was so hungry it felt like her stomach was gnawing on her backbone—as her very Southern mom would have said—the door to the dormitory/prison opened and a normal looking humanoid woman came in. She looked to Penny to be in her early to mid forties and she had short black hair and guarded eyes.
There was something different about her, though, Penny thought. She was the first humanoid person, other than her fellow prisoners, who wasn’t smiling like a loon.
She doesn’t look like a Disney cast member, like all the rest of them, Penny thought, watching as the woman brought in a hover-cart loaded with large, frosty glasses filled with some kind of thick white liquid. In fact, she doesn’t look happy at all.
“What is this?” Shurla asked as the woman attempted to hand her a glass.
“Is it some kind of milk shake?” Penny asked. That was what it looked like, anyway.
“It’s a protein shake,” the woman answered evasively. “What flavor would you like?” she added, addressing Penny.
“Uh—they all look the same to me. Is this that Mother’s Milk stuff everyone kept talking about?” she added.
“It’s a protein shake,” the woman insisted. “And you pick the flavor this way.” She reached for a small metal canister on the end of the cart and opened it. Inside were lots of little flat sticks that looked a little like tongue depressors to Penny.
“What are those?” Shurla asked, suspiciously.
“They’re flavor-sticks,” the woman said patiently. “Just think of what flavor you want—I recommend something sweet—press the stick to your tongue and then stir the protein shake with the stick. The flavor you thought of will be instantly transferred to the shake.”