Coffee To Go, With a Spaceship: A Jack Winters Detective Novel by M.J. Wahl

Author:M.J. Wahl [Wahl, M.J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Space Opera, detective noir, Science Fiction
Publisher: Franklin Street Press
Published: 2017-12-02T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twelve

Night came, pitch dark, and we kept moving through the dark, surrounded by robed figures riding two-legged reptiles. They used torches for light, open flames burning on the ends of thick sticks.

During daylight I’d paid attention to the direction we moved, hoping to keep our bearings in relation to our spaceship. We’d been moving west, in a line roughly parallel to the hills our ship was hidden in, towards another set of larger hills. But now with night I could no longer see where we were, but there had been no change in direction. Our captors were making straight for the western hills.

Montclair finally roused and sat up with his back to the cage next to us. Sleep was impossible in the back of the wagon as it banged and jolted over the rough ground. Not that I wanted to sleep. I felt much too anxious and my body was covered in bruises that had started to ache. I wondered if our hosts intended to ride all night. Maybe these creatures were nocturnal, sleeping during the day, or perhaps they didn’t need sleep at all.

Donna was little more than a shadow next to me. We kept talking to keep our spirits up. At some point in the night we finally stopped and our captors made camp around us. A large fire was started and they began roasting game on a spit, which one of them turned slowly by hand over the flame. They seemed to pay no attention to us. After they’d finished eating one of them came towards us and shoved a few scraps of meat through the bars of our cage. They dropped to the floor in front of us, but none of us moved to touch it.

Our captors started unrolling blankets on the ground and we watched them settle down for the night. Soon they were all lying on the ground around the fire.

“What are we going to do?” Donna whispered.

“Wait a while to make sure they’re all asleep, then try to get away,” I said.

“I concur,” Montclair said. “I don’t think we want to still be in their care when they reach their destination.”

“Do you have any idea who they are?” I asked, stupidly on reflection.

“I know as much as you do Jack. I’ve never been to this planet before,” Montclair said.

“Can either of you move your wrists at all?” I asked.

“A bit,” Donna said.

“I’ve been working on mine for some time now,” Montclair said. “Not much luck, I’m afraid.”

“Keep wriggling them as much as you can, and see if you can work your way loose.”

None of us were able to loosen the leather straps that bound us. We even tried sitting back to back, to use what little movement we had in our hands to work on each other’s bindings, with no success.

Much later we gave up out of sheer exhaustion.

Now that the wagon had stopped moving, sleep was possible. Montclair, propped up in the corner, shut his eyes and was soon snoring. Donna rolled onto the floor and, using my leg as a pillow, drifted off to sleep.

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