Free Charged - Book One by L.M. Moore Page B

didn’t put the Magnum back in the holster. I
was going to chastise Aaron for his foolish idea that we were okay,
but a series of doors banged again somewhere in the distance. Then
the creature reappeared, moving slower and more gracefully towards
the center of the large dome, stopping ten feet from us.
    “Thank you. Please follow me. You look tired and we
have living quarters here for your size,” it said.
    The creature walked a few feet and then stopped. No,
we weren’t moving. We weren’t following anyone or anything.
    “I don’t know how to make you feel more
comfortable.”
    I still wasn’t moving. My feet had grown roots and I
wasn’t about to dig them up. I looked at Aaron and he shrugged his
shoulders at me and walked toward the creature.
    “Damn,” I said, forcing my feet and legs to move. It
wasn’t like I could leave Aaron alone.
    I followed Aaron, finding it impossible not to limp,
never taking my eyes off of the creature. He walked ahead of us
slowly. I gripped my gun tightly and nothing was going to take it
out of my hand.
    First, we passed through a smaller garden with
several fountains. The walls were all encased in what appeared to
be a dark, shiny metal with overhead lighting. The low blue light
was identical to the light in the elevator and in the first large
garden. We followed him down three long hallways before he finally
stopped. He opened a door and led us into a room that reminded me
of a three-room hotel suite that I once stayed in.
    “Lighting for humans,” he said, as he covered his
eyes.
    But there wasn’t an actual light that turned on. It
was more like the entire ceiling emitted a bright yellow light.
Seeing him more clearly just made all of the muscles in my body
contract and I could feel the adrenaline pumping through me.
    Behind the skin of his face and hands I could see the
spiral veins moving slowly. The circular things were moving in
various directions. It was almost as if its skin was only a thick
plastic mold holding a jelly-like being into a humanoid form. If it
weren’t for the eyes that were clearly attached to the skin, I
would have believed this to be true.
    “You can get some rest here. It has everything you
need for the night,” it said, closing its eyes for a moment. “A
covert will get you in the morning. If you need anything, just
press the ‘call’ option on this screen and someone will come to
your suite and get you what you need,” he finished, pointing to the
wall next to the door.
    I could’ve blown it away. I could’ve simply put the
revolver right up to its head and pulled the trigger, even though I
wasn’t sure if my gun would injure it. The only thing stopping me…
was that I couldn’t kill something that wasn’t trying to kill
me.
    Then the creature started to slouch, as if the light
in the room was affecting him.
    “This is a liquid anesthetic,” it said, retrieving a
small glass bottle out of its suit pocket. It wasn’t that the
bottle was small; it’s just that its hands were enormous and
would’ve miniaturized anything they touched. Its five fingers and
two thumbs gripped the bottle lightly.
    “Apply it to your knee with a towel,” it said,
handing me the bottle with the clear liquid in it, “and it will
keep the pain away until Jessica can fix it in the morning.”
    Not really caring who or what Jessica was, with a
trembling hand I reached for the bottle. As I grabbed the base of
it, trying not to touch the creature, I noticed five of its fingers
had one more joint than the human hand. It then turned and left the
room. And the feeling of being miniaturized, dwarfed and
insignificant lingered.
    After he left, Aaron and I just stood there for a
moment. Slowly, I limped over to a chair next to a table and
started to wonder if I was actually here, or if I was in some
mental hospital and it was just my brain creating some delusional
world from some traumatic injury.
    Aaron paced a little in front of me, “denial, fear,
acceptance…