Free Alien Mine by Marie Dry

"That's the most disgusting thing I've ever heard anyone say. Do you kill babies on your planet just because they are weak?" she asked.
     
    "Yes." There was no hesitation or shame in his response.
     
    She stumbled back from him. "I can't believe you'd do something so...so disgusting." Natalie held up a hand. "No, wait. After seeing the way you chopped off heads earlier today without even flinching, I can believe it."
     
    And now she knew for sure he hadn't done it to help her. He probably saw all humans as weak. Walking toward the corner of the cave where she'd put up her survival tent, she said bitterly, "I'm trapped in this cave for probably six months, with an alien who kills babies. You'll probably kill me, too, the first time I get an asth--"
     
    Natalie bit her lip and rushed into her yellow, top-of-the-range, survival tent. Images of murdered babies flashed in front of her eyes. Would he find her weak because of her asthma and kill her as well? She fell onto the patchwork quilt draped over her narrow bed while shudders racked her body. Touching the quilt, she tried to think of happier times, times when she used to snuggle next to her mother as she hand-stitched quilts.
     
    The cave was only supposed to be her workplace, made comfortable enough for her to sleep in if she worked late. Yet, that was the only reason she still had one of her mother's handmade quilts. Everything else had been consumed in the fire.
     
    A teary laugh escaped her lips. With his typical paranoia, her father had immediately started to turn the cave into a backup retreat, in the event something should happen to the ranch house. She and her mother had just smiled at each other and helped him with his crazy plans. But time had proved him right. Everything he'd predicted had come to pass. The government had lost its grip on nearly everything. Water was rationed to two litres per household per day, and electricity was cut several times a week. And now, on top of all that, she had an alien infestation.
     
    She shook her head, clearing her melancholy thoughts, and moved to the corner of the tent to put on her pyjamas. Once dressed in her thick, insulated pyjamas, she trudged over to her bed and lifted the blankets and quilt to climb into the sleeping bag beneath. Laying her head down on her pillow, she tried to enjoy the warmth of her sleeping bag. After the worst day, bar none, she was ready for a good night's sleep.
     
    She tossed and turned for a few moments then groaned and got up. Her conscience wouldn't allow her to let the alien to freeze to death overnight. Even if he came from a race of baby killers. She could feel his gaze on her as she walked sluggishly to the storage cave to collect the silver survival blankets she kept there.
     
    The alien hadn't moved when she returned.
     
    "This will keep you warm." Keeping a watchful eye on him, she moved to slide it under him. When his lip curled back, showing a fang, she said, "Don't be so stubborn. It will protect you against the cold of the cave floor." It took every scrap of courage she had to ignore that flashing fang.
     
    "Warrior not cold," he said with arrogant disdain.
     
    She turned her back on him, making sure to exaggerate the shrug of her shoulders. "It's okay to kill babies, but I get my head bitten off for trying to keep him from freezing to death," she muttered, not caring if he heard her, then went back to the dubious safety of her tent, shivers racking her body. The long-life coal that had kept the cave comfortable through autumn was now as effective as old fashioned bullets against the alien. Putting the shotgun beside the bed, she lay down, facing the clear plastic entrance of the tent. But even when she closed her eyes, his unblinking stare burned through her eyelids.
     
    Every time she drifted off to sleep, she would jerk awake, convinced he'd gotten loose and was on his way to kill her, only to find him in the same position, staring at her. That night for the first