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He shakes his head in disgust, which somehow makes me like him a little more.
“It took two years of hunting to find the facility. We discovered it had been recently abandoned, so it took another several months to track them down again. When we breached the facility, this is what we found.”
The wall behind him becomes a giant screen as images are projected onto it. It takes a moment for my mind to interpret what I’m seeing. Uniformed men are rescuing men from cells so small they’re barely big enough for the inhabitants to lie down.
Because the pictures are projected onto the log walls of the room, it’s not easy to make sense of what I’m seeing, but after a moment, things become clear.
They’re not rescuing men. Not exactly. Most are bipedal and upright, but they all have animal traits. Some feline, some lupine, some like great, shaggy bears, and is that a snake-guy slithering out of his cage?
I don’t know who reached out to whom, but I’m reassured when I realize Riley, Amber, and I are holding hands. Amber is whimpering, unable to form sentences, while Riley keeps repeating, “What the fuck?”
The Colonel stepped to the side so we could have a better view of the film, but he’s now in front of the lectern again.
“Those males, one hundred of them, were rescued three years ago. They’d been treated like animals and knew very little about the real world. We’ve rehabilitated them, and taught them to read and write, along with other basic skills. We’ve begun the process of socialization, but until today, they’ve only been exposed to men.”
The film stops and the lights turn up. The Colonel looks at each of us in turn before he adds, “We’ve chosen the twenty most compliant males, those we’ve deemed ready for the next phase of the program. That’s where you ladies come in. You are the next step in socializing these males.”
He strides back and forth across the dais, his hands behind his back as he explains that we’re here to bring commerce to the little main street we passed outside. These males will apprentice with us, learning basic skills that might transfer to the real world when they’re deemed ready to leave here. In the meantime, the next step, possibly two years from now, will be to open the front gate for visitors. Then we can bid adios to this crazy endeavor.
My mind is spinning. In the last hour, I’ve gone from being certain I would bolt and return to my life back in St. Louis, to reluctantly signing a two-year contract, to extreme empathy for those poor unfortunates up on the screen.
Did he say socialize? I’m not sure what he means, but my mind throws me pictures of all the heinous things a corrupt, armed military could force a bunch of defenseless women to do. I have the very scary, very insistent thought that we’re going to be given to these males as sexy human treats. My racing heart feels as if it’s going to explode in my chest.
Chapter Four
Jenna
“Tonight, you’ll meet the first cadre of males deemed ready to take the next step toward the ultimate goal, which is to integrate into society.”
The Colonel pauses and a stream of soldiers enters the same door he arrived through. Instead of looking casual in camo like the Colonel, these men are wearing body armor, clear face plates, and carrying guns.
I scrunch up on the couch, my heels on the seat in front of me, as if that will protect me from whatever is coming next.
“We’ve prepped these males every way possible, but they’ve never met a female before. Never smelled one. In the facility we rescued them from, in their barracks in Area 51, as well as here, they’ve only interacted with males.”
He shrugs.
“We think they’re ready, but are prepared for any eventuality.” He makes a sweeping gesture toward his men as if that will provide reassurance.
“Good to know,” Riley whispers, not sounding optimistic.
There must be thirty armed soldiers ringing the periphery of the room, all tense and ready for battle.
“Let’s have our first meet and greet. Shall we?”
The door opens and a wolfman springs in. He’s terrifying. And large. Definitely taller than anyone else in the room. His face is covered in fur, his ears are pointed. To complete the surreal picture, he’s wearing khaki pants and a flowered Hawaiian shirt.
His ludicrous choice of clothing becomes even more of a juxtaposition of incongruity when he leans his head back and howls, then comes prowling closer to the row of couches filled with terrified women.
“Warren!” the Colonel scolds. “We just reviewed the expectations. Remember the five-foot rule.”
The beast lifts his head in a half-nod, edges backward about two feet, then stalks from one end of the semicircle of couches to the other. If I had a measuring tape, I would bet the $25,000 I just earned that he’s exactly sixty inches from the women in the front row.
I’ve been so focused on the wolfman, I didn’t notice the others filing in. For long moments, my attention is fully captured by the naga as I watch him glide into the room, take up a spot near the side, and assess us all as ifwewere the exotic beasts instead of him. I guess we are. Is it possible these males have never seen a woman in person before?
I tear my hands from Riley and Amber and clutch my shins, pulling them closer to my body as I cower against the back of the couch, unable to pull my gaze from the males.
A ginger with a fluffy tail who must have been spliced with a fox makes a direct line to one of the women I haven’t met yet. In between inhaling huge gusts of her scent, he’s talking a steady stream of praises. The words “beautiful,” “delicious,” and “perfect” float to my ears. Is he crushing on her, or does the word delicious signal something far more nefarious? Do half of these males consider usfood?
