Part 7 -Confined-

Paulie awoke to pain. He tensed, his entire body screaming in apparent agony. He opened swollen and bleary eyes but saw naught but darkness surrounding him. He tried to raise his hands but felt them blocked by some hard surface only centimeters from his nose.

His breathing quickened in panic as he felt around, he was in a box os some type. A coffin it seemed to be, the sides were only just larger than his body and the air was stale and choking with what smelled like rot and filth.

Paulie stifled a cough and made a rudimentary attempt to roll over in the confines of his new reality, but even his relatively narrow shoulders were too wide for him to do so. He thought about pounding on the sides of the box and calling for help, and then stopped. He was alive, why was he alive? The box must have some manner of ventilation or he surely would have suffocated.

He felt his chest and grimaced, the skin was tender and blistered. Parts of his button up shirt had been charred such had been the intensity of the electrical discharge, but despite the significant pain he had been made to endure he was alive.

He sucked in a breath and nearly gagged at the scent. It smelled as if he might have voided himself, he swore quietly under his breath at the realisation. Humiliation and fear in equal measure flashed across his mind as he shuddered. Shimmying around he felt something dig into the back of his thigh and he stopped.

‘What is that?’ He said to himself silently. He shuffled around a bit in a desperate attempt to figure it out, but he gave up when it became apparent that it wasn’t going to budge nor could he reach it in his current position.

He closed his eyes tight, trying to ignore the stiffness in his burned muscles and the uncomfortable closeness of the confining space. That old panic started to creep back, flashes of memories long thought forgotten spinning crazily in his mind’s eye.

The sound of a woman’s voice, cold and hard. The scent of boiling hot pumpkin coffee as it was splashed onto his body, burning him terribly. The darkness and claustrophobia of the small cubby under the stairs where he would be locked whenever she got angry with him. Which was a lot. She had seemed to resent his very existence, her every word dripping with venom that scorched his tender young mind even as his flesh was beaten and bruised.

Paulie shivered in the darkness, but even this relative stillness was interrupted as that horribly familiar thrumming seemed to grow through the space he was in. More and more till he thought his head word burst from the noise, and then something far worse. That terrible twisting inwards pull as the ship was forced through an infinitely small point. He closed his eyes as he thrashed, awareness slipping from his beleaguered mind and granting him the peace of unconsciousness for a time.

Paulie awoke crying softly. He wasn’t sure how many of the faster than light jumps they had made, but he knew that he was losing it trapped in the darkness as he was. Voices that were not his own seemed to echo through the small box in which he was imprisoned, they sounded like the zen’kkalkian barks and hisses but somehow distorted. As if he was hearing them through many layers of plastic or cloth.

He hugged his arms across his bruised and blistered chest and tried to remain silent even as stinging tears leaked from the corners of his eyes. His throat clenched and he heard his stomach growl low and deep. He was so thirsty and hungry, he hadn’t eaten in hours, maybe even days at this point. He couldn't tell anymore, his mind was a foggy haze of half remembered horrors and the pain of his very existence threatened to send him screaming back over the edge of sanity again.

Somehow Paulie managed to push the thoughts back down into the far corner of his mind. He coughed slightly in the stinking, cloying air of the box and tried to think of happier times. He thought of the park where he had been abducted, of all the days he had spent out in the shining fields enjoying the vitality of life. He smiled sadly at the thought and grasped onto it tightly as a drowning man would to a piece of flotsam.

He would go there again, even if it killed him he would walk those verdant grassy plains at least one more time.

WIth that final thought he closed his eyes as if to sleep and willed his body to unclench. The closeness of the surrounding darkness falling away as he allowed his mind to wander wherever it wilt.

He felt a humming sensation as the ship’s drive charged up again and he clenched his teeth. It was going to be a long journey, and he didn’t even know their destination. His body once more tensed as the ship was pushed through a tear in spacetime smaller than an atom, the strange technology catapulting them dozens of light years in a single instant.

Paulie woke in darkness once more, not even sure when he had fallen asleep in the first place. Something about this time seemed different though. The box he was in vibrated slightly, alike to the building of the main engine’s charge but without that all-pervasive humming that he had come to associate with the FTL drive. No, this was another motion, more akin to the slight turbulence one might feel in a moving car or train.

Was the ship moving or was it something else, and why would the ship be using its sublight drives. If indeed that was what was going on. Maybe they had finally reached the end of the line, their destination. Paulie laid flat on the bottom of the box and tried to listen, his ears having grown hyper-attuned from his time spent in the total darkness of his would-be tomb.

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He listened closer, a clank, some distant scraping and then the unmistakable sound of footsteps. They sounded odd, heavier and more spread apart than the little reptilian aliens he had become accustomed to. What was it, was there somebody else out there? The steps grew nearer and then stopped so close that he could swear he heard breathing.

All at once a voice spoke out, muffled by layers of composite and metal, but unmistakable as the voice of that little shit, Jual. The zen’kkalkian seemed to be speaking to somebody else, somebody that demanded a great deal of respect as the insidious little alien measured his tone to a much greater degree than he ever had before. “So, this is the specimen that I was sent to gather. I regret that live transport was impossible due to certain.. unforeseen issues. I-I am going to have to ask for the payment to be double the agreed amount as I experienced losses.”

There was a pause and then a new voice. This one deeper, raspy. It made him think of dry places and the sound of ancient tombs slowly opening in the dark places. “We shall see. Unload this, if it is indeed the correct specimen then you will get your payment in full. And maybe even a bonus for making it back in such quick time. You must have placed considerable strain on your vessel, I noticed that there is damage to various parts. The savage did this, alone?” There seemed to be a hint of disbelief in the voice of the other being. As if they spoke of that which they didn’t themselves believe.

Paulie’s fists bunched as he heard the small zen’kkalk speak callously, “No of course not! You think a stupid apocalypser could really have given me so much trouble alone? No, we had one of my own go rogue, assist the creature in escaping its restraints. The traitor was dealt with, don’t worry. She didn’t get anything on us before I put her down, personally.” The lies piled on and on, each successive one making Paulie angrier till the seething rage boiled just below the surface.

But he couldn't do anything about it, he was locked in a box. ‘Why does the universe hate me so?’ He asked himself silently. What manner of negative karma has he incurred to be afflicted with such trials? Paulie took another moment to settle the self-doubt in his mind. The fears swirling like the deadly rapids of some fast moving stream just waiting to pull him off his feet and drown him. No, he wouldn't let the negativity get him, no matter how hard it got he had been through worse.

He thought back over the last day, parsing the events that had led him to this point. The aliens called themselves the zen’kkalk, but he had also heard mention of a greater power called the GGI. Maybe this GGI would be able to help him, was worth a shot anyway. How could it get any worse than it was already?

He needn't have wondered as the sound of scuffling drew near and all at once the box he was in was lifted into the air, swinging as if hanging from cables.

He heard a snort, the voice low and wet sounding as it gurgled, “Ugh, it’s so heavy. What even is it?”

Another voice, this one similar to the dry rasp from earlier but different. Same species, different individual perhaps? “Who cares. We move it through the junction without getting spotted and we get paid. That's what it is, a paycheck. So stop asking stupid questions, dumbo.”

Once more Paulie was tempted to call out, to scream for help, but he resisted. Clearly whatever was happening was happening for a reason. He was being taken somewhere else, maybe even off the ship.

That thought gave him pause, where on Earth could they be.. He had to stop and correct himself. They were not on Earth anymore, not by a long shot.

Paulie grunted in discomfort as the box set down heavily, the loud thud making his ears ring and his eyes water. More voices, this time arguing. Thumps on the top of his prison, he tensed. Fearing that any minute the lid of the container might be popped open and his life would be cut miserably short.

He wouldn't go down again without a fight. He balled his fists and tried to stretch his cramping muscles in an attempt to loosen up. If he was going to have to make a mad break for it then he needed to be sure that he wasn’t going to immediately topple over as soon as he stood up.

The angry sounding voices stopped and the darkness vibrated as the casket was moved once more. This lasted for a while, minutes at least as the box tilted first one way and then the other slowly in a rhythmic manner.

He felt as though the box were being carried by a hippopotamus, but that was ridiculous. It was simply the best image his partially delirious mind could conjure. He heard many other noises, most of them alien and in the dark they were quite terrifying as he had no frame of reference for some of the more exotic sounding cries, whistles and hollers.

It sounded like some sort of alien throng, the missmass of discordant sounds and voices at once overwhelming and petrifying him as he clamped his hands over his ears in the darkness.

A voice from right outside, “Hey! Careful. You jostling this thing around is going to make it fall off the valt. And then we will both be in trouble.” The voice was low, a bass grumble that sounded oddly feminine to him.

Another alien voice responded, this one a little more airy. As if the being who spoke had vocal chords filled with air. “I did nothing. It was the roadway, damned alley is full of holes and refuse.”

“Well the boss said to be discreet, which means no one sees us if they don't have too.” The gruff one shot back. There was a loud knocking, the sound of shuffling and then a door creaking open.

“Oh good, come in quickly. You have the specimen?” Another alien voice barked.

Paulie blanched, where the hell were they taking him? They kept calling him a specimen as if he was some sort of museum piece dug up from the depths of some forgotten Egyptian monument. He took a breath as the box halted sharply, the slight side to side movement ceased and he was lifted into the air once more before being unceremoniously slammed down to what he assumed was the floor.

Another raspy voice barked, “Hey, be careful with that. Even in its current state it is worth more than your life.”

The grumbling voice from before apologised quickly. “I am sorry, it is just really heavy. Are you sure that it isn't full of steel bars or something?”

Another voice hissed, this one stronger and much more sinister sounding as it slowly approached on soft padding footfalls. “No, it is the real thing. Direct from the source world, Jual would never dare to cross me in such a manner. It would be the last thing he ever did.” The words wormed their way into his mind unbidden, that strange squirming sensation once more making him wince.

“Do you want me to open the casket, my Lady Ooounoo?” Asked another of the voices.

The voice he was assuming belonged to this lady responded, “Yes. Do so now and without further delay. I must see the creature’s remains.”

“Remains. And you are sure it was dead? Did you not ask for the creature to be fresh?”

“It matters little. For my purposes it will suffice, spoiled or not.” Paulie tensed at that. He needed to get out of there as fast as possible, so he started to move his muscles again. He was only going to get the element of surprise one time, and after that he would likely be screwed.

He tensed as the box he was in creaked, a bright line appearing around the circumference of the lid as the eternal darkness was finally broken. Paulie felt apprehension as the lid cracked open another inch and then powered his arms up as hard as he could, smashing the lid entirely from its hinges with a loud bang. He squinted as the interior of the stinking box was filled with stinging light and jumped to a crouch as he prepared to bolt. He couldn't immediately see his surroundings, but that mattered little as he loosed a bellow of anger and jumped fully to his feet amid the sound of surprised screeches and confused hissing.