Links from the Show at a Glance:

 

Artist: Joshua Fox

Title of Art: TM (3 of 4)

Instagram: @jfox720

 

Art Ink Submission Guidelines: rebekahnemethy.com/artinksubs

 

 

Art Ink Podcast Transcript:

 

[Intro:]

 

I am the epitome of a believer – I was born believing in aliens. And the more I’ve learned about space, the more I’ve realized that the probability that we could ever possibly be alone in this universe is practically nonexistent it’s so slim.

 

After having some strange experiences in 2019, I took a deeper dive into all things extraterrestrial, I listened to abductees tell their stories, I watched chilling UFO documentaries, I sat enraptured as several whistleblowers spoke of their experiences in top secret government programs. All I can say is that either this shit is real, or I have some serious imagination envy because you gotta be real creative to tell those kinds of stories… and I also realize that, in many instances, truth is stranger than fiction. So for me, the weirder it sounds, the more likely I am to believe it.

 

So while the following story is a fictional account, it is the amalgamation of many seeds of truth, all planted together just to see what could grow. I guess that’s what all fiction really is at its core, though, huh?

 

But before we dig into today’s story, let’s set the scene with our featured cover art!

 

[Art Description:]

 

Joshua Fox is our artist of the hour. His black and white Sharpie art often features UFO and alien themes, along with the most soothingly geometric shapes and patterns. The piece I chose for today’s cover art is no different.

 

A saucer shaped craft hovers in the night sky among the stars, a few gaseous-looking planets, and wispy, swirling clouds. Also present in the pitch black sky are a couple of mandalas. The smaller mandala is half cut off at the top of the page, and it features a daisy-like flower at its center, with hourglass shapes stretching out past its dyad shaped petals, which is all resting atop a base of concentric circles rippling beneath them. The other larger and more prominent mandala takes up the top right quadrant of the page and much of the sky. Five concentric circles ripple out from the center, and these are surrounded by four overlapping triangles that create a 12-pointed star all together. Inside each of the twelve triangular-shaped points is a circle, and in between each of the points are two more overlapping circles, one much larger than the other.

 

Below the spacecraft is a beam of light made up of three separate lines of progressively larger white circles. The light is beaming down upon what looks like the surface of a mountain. But from our perspective it’s as if we’re seeing the cross-section of that mountain, and within it seems to be what I interpret as an underground base of sorts. There are five, mostly horizontal, levels all filled with patterns made up of unique combinations of black lines and circles. The patterns are reminiscent of mazes, computer chips and mother boards. In the center-most hallway of this underground base is an alien face, with no other feature other than its prominent black eyes, and stretching behind its floating head is a strand of DNA.

 

While much of the piece is a high contrast solid black and solid white, Joshua uses pointillism to shade some areas, like in the whimsical clouds and in the planets.

 

You have to check this one out when you get a chance, my friends, and most of you should be able to view the cover art of this episode right in your podcast app of choice. If not make sure to look at the show description to see a link to where you can see the art I’m describing. You can also check out more of Josh’s work on Instagram @jfox720.

 

And now, onto the story that has haunted me for far too long now… I hope it doesn’t haunt you… too much… which reminds me, listener beware, this episode contains allusions to sexual abuse and self harm. I did my best to avoid being overly graphic, but if these are triggering topics for you, you might want to skip this one.

 

If not, well then, enjoy the show my friends. I call this one Milked.

 

 

[Story:]

 

The sickening sound of suction woke Thea from blissful sleep. The pump was about 12 feet away, 3 cells down the line, and 60 minutes from latching onto her– from sucking some more of her life away from her… at least that’s what it felt like.

 

It was the worst part of her day, 12 times a day… every. day. But it was hardly the worst thing about her stay here.

 

Thea snorted at the thought: her stay. Like it was some kind of vacation home or resort. The square cell was a 4-foot wide prison— a torture chamber. And Thea was nothing but a captive slave. But the daily torture was nothing compared to what happened at least once per year. The insemination was when she came face to face with them. Those things that had taken her. That was when she was violated… humiliated… by more than just machines.

 

How long had it been, again? Thea answered her own question with a glance down at the crescent-shaped markings on her forearm, carved in rows and rows– grouped by fives. “5, 10, 15, 20…” Thea started.

 

The counting had become a kind of morning routine for her. Something to do to keep a firm grasp on her sanity as it was being tugged away from her, day by day; as firm a grasp as she could keep anyway. “350,” Thea said as she counted the last bundle. Only a couple of weeks away from the one-year mark. One year from when she’d had her newborn baby boy ripped from her body. She’d never even gotten to hold him. And now he was nearly a year old.

 

Where was he? Were they taking good care of him? Was he walking yet? Talking? What would his first word be? Who was taking care of him? Would he call them mama… papa?

 

They weren’t new questions. He was the only reason she was still alive, still clinging to life… to the hope that maybe one day she’d get out of there… escape with him.

 

She breathed in deeply, imagined the joy she’d feel when she had his warm little body in her arms again. What it would feel like when they were finally safe and free.

 

The last time she’d seen him he’d been blue; so blue that Thea had at first feared he’d been stillborn. But then he’d opened that miniscule mouth of his and let out the strongest cry a baby could possibly belt out. Surely.

 

She didn’t name this one. He was simply baby 6; the strong one. And despite the hope her heart wouldn’t let go of, Thea knew he was gone and it was very unlikely that she’d ever see him again. Or any of the others for that matter. Ashley, her firstborn, would be almost 5. Thea tried to imagine her… the details were fuzzy, but she could practically hear her giggling as she ran around with her younger brothers. The ones who could run, anyway. She imagined the younger two would still be crawling.

 

The sucking stopped and a mechanical whirring signaled the pump’s movement another cell closer, breaking Thea out of her reverie. A few seconds later a sickening slurp sounded out alongside a resigned sigh.

 

In the beginning it’d been hard to account for time. It wasn’t like there was a clock in her cage. And back in the early days she was more focused on escape than in entertaining herself. It wasn’t that Thea had given up on her escape… she was just… temporarily out of ideas.

 

And in the interim she’d gotten good at counting. It’d become a mathematical meditation: counting seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months… years. It had been years since she’d been a free woman. Since she’d lived in a space large enough to accommodate her outstretched arms, which she could just barely do here if she twisted to reach from corner to corner instead of wall to wall.

 

Thea had always been aware of the days passing, the bluish light came on before the first pumping each day, and disappeared into the blackest night imaginable just after the last pump moved on, but the days had blended together into an infinite loop of torture. And Thea wasn’t sure which kind of torture was worse, what the machines and those little gray bastards did to her, or what she did to herself within her very own mind.

 

The only thing she knew for sure was that she was a slave, though why she was a slave was what kept Thea’s imagination churning out the most horrifying answers to her endless list of questions.

 

What happened to the babies? What did they do with the milk?

 

Why me? Why me? Why me? on repeat. And sometimes a why us? When someone new broke the silence, reminding Thea that though she felt alone, she was not– a fresh strong voice would be spewing out the same old insults, demanding desperately to be told the answers to the same old questions… Thea counted the time it took for each of them to stop trying, waiting for the next record breaker to arrive, giving her another brief spark of hope to cling too. The question was never if, though, it was only when. They all gave into silence eventually. Crying out only interrupted the one pastime they all had in common: dreaming.

 

It was only when Thea was asleep that she could escape the endless loop of her brain’s fabrications. If allowed to wander around awake, her brain came up with stories like:

 

Baby brains as a delicacy on an alien menu. Or mudslides made with breast milk.

 

It was a ridiculous thought, those stoic, wide-eyed creatures kicking back and having a good time. They wouldn’t know a good time if it ran them over 3 times and backslapped them into yesterday. Seeing them at a bar was such a stretch that the thought looked distinctly like a cartoon in Thea’s mind; she’d never seen even one of them stretch their tiny, lipless mouths into anything close to resembling a smile.

 

But the hybrid children were what she imagined most, they were the most unwelcome visitors, interrupting her fleeting good dreams, and haunting her well past waking. Children genetically engineered to be amphibious, or to fly, or worst of all to be some strange combination of humans and grays; children with big bulbous heads and enormous, glossy black eyes, blinking slowly at her, tilting their heads at her as if they were dogs hearing a strange, unknown sound.

 

Thea wondered if all of those dreams were just dreams. Some of the children she’d seen behind her closed eyelids bore a striking resemblance to photos she’d seen of herself as a young girl.

 

The memories of life before were so faded now. She’d outplayed them. But when she was dreaming? That’s when Thea could feel the memories again. When she could almost convince herself she was actually there. The other night, Thea had felt the sunshine on her skin. She’d bitten into a plum and could taste the decadent pairing of sweet and tangy on her tongue. She could feel the juice dripping from both corners of her mouth. As she’d chewed she’d swiped at her face with a finger and pressed the purple droplets against her tongue, the saltiness of her skin biting into the other flavors. God, she missed real food. The beige oval pellets they fed her here were dry and bland. They did nothing but keep her alive.

 

The mechanical pumping sounds halted and the whirring and clanking that signaled its movement to the next cell began. Now the pump was only one cell over from Thea. She was next.

 

“Thea.” It seemed to be coming from the cell next door, opposite the approaching pump. Thea squatted down, pressing her face as close to the foul-smelling grate in the floor as she could, forcing herself to breathe through her mouth when she caught a whiff.

 

“Jamie, is that you?” Thea whisper-yelled at the floor. Luckily the machine next door would cover up most of what she said.

 

“No. But there’s no need to yell. Try answering me in your mind.”

 

“What in the world?” Thea thought, but she didn’t realize she’d thought anything until the words were repeated back to her, in someone else’s voice!?

 

“What in the world indeed.” The voice that infiltrated Thea’s mind was feminine and flourished with an English accent. She sounded young.

 

“Who are you?”

 

“I am… someone you can trust, but unfortunately we don’t have time for introductions. The Rotolactor is on its way to you, and I need you to follow my instructions very carefully if this is to work.”

 

“If what’s going to work?”

 

“Your escape.”

 

Escape? Was it possible? Could this really be the day after five long years of hell? But the excitement Thea felt at the prospect was suddenly overshadowed by a dark realization: what about her babies?

 

“I can’t leave without finding my babies first.”

 

“Your daughter will be with us, I assure you.”

 

A spark of hope lit up Thea’s heart with warmth. “What about my boys?”

 

“I’m afraid all males are immediately rejected at birth… your sons were lost long ago… I’m so sorry.”

 

Bittersweet was a euphemism for the rapid twist she felt wrenching her heart at that moment. “All five of them?”

 

“I’m afraid so m-Thea.”

 

Thea let out a feral sob as she slid down the wall and onto the cold stone floor. She hugged her knees to her chest, feeling as helpless as a fetus herself.

 

The girl in her head gave her a moment of silence until the life-sucking contraption unlatched from its latest victim and whirred into action again.

 

“We must act quickly lest we miss this opportunity.”

 

Thea sprung up from the floor, ready for action. She may have failed to protect her boys, but she still had one child left to protect. Though her face was still drenched in tears she pushed her self-pity and guilt back behind her instinct to survive. “What do I have to do?”

 

“Get into position as usual…”

 

Thea moved to place her feet on the well-worn markers and pressed her back into the wall to steady herself. Her body was buzzing with adrenaline.

 

“When the Rotolactor latches onto you, you must disconnect a very specific tube. It’s programmed to self repair most problems, so this will only work if you cause it to malfunction in a way that won’t allow it to self correct. I’ll describe exactly how to do this once you’re hooked up.”

 

“Ok,” Thea thought resolutely as the machine approached the front of her cell.

 

Everything was happening so fast, and part of Thea wondered if she was finally losing her shit. And though the hopeful part of her wanted to believe what this strange voice in her head was telling her, she’d already attempted to disable this machine dozens of times without success, she was sure every woman in this wing had.

 

“Ok, it’s latched,” Thea thought urgently, and in the brief silence that followed she began to think she really had imagined the voice up.

 

But not a second later the posh voice filled her head again, and Thea let out a sigh of relief. The girl instructed her to pull at several strategic tubes and wires, and when the self-repair arm was extended she detached one more wire before she felt the suction finally release her breasts. The machine went still and silenced, and Thea pressed her back against the wall to slide herself out of the machine’s imposing reach.

 

She squeezed around the life-sucking behemoth through the small gap between it and the open door. Her heart thudded with excitement and fear as peeked through the doorway. Seeing the infinitely long hallway was clear in both directions, Thea darted outside her room for the first time in 5 years. Even that one step into freedom felt exhilarating.

 

“You have only minutes to do exactly as I say or else you will be caught.”

 

But Thea was already on her own mission, though, her hands running up and down the smooth surface of the doorway next to hers. She was looking for the proverbial doorknob and she wasn’t having any luck. “How do I open these doors?”

 

“Your door should already be open,” there was a hint of panic in the voice.

 

“Not my door, I’m out, but I have to let the others out.”

 

“Did you not hear wh—”

 

“Jamie! I’m here,” Thea whisper shouted, “I’m gonna get you outta there.”

 

“We don’t have the time for—”

 

“I’m not leaving without Jamie, so if we’re short on time, maybe you should tell me how to open these fucking doors instead of arguing with me.”

 

“Look at your door…” the voice gave in, “there should be a half-sphere there…”

 

Thea was already on it, tugging and twisting to remove it to no avail. “How. The fuck. do I—” Thea grunted out as she struggled.

 

“Push on it and hold until it releases.”

 

It finally came free, and Thea juggled it, caught it and rushed back over to the next cell, pushing the circular key onto what she hoped was Jaime’s door. As soon as it was attached the door automatically opened. A girl looked up from her seat on the floor with wide, strikingly blue eyes that were in sharp contrast to her dark chocolate skin.

 

“Jamie?” Thea whispered, for she’d only ever heard the girl’s voice in their late night conversations through the grates.

 

The girl shook her head rapidly with a furrowed brow and clutched her naked knees closer to her body.

 

“Well what’s your name then?”

 

“Ashana.” she rasped.

 

“Well Ashana,” Thea reached her hand through the open doorway, but only because she couldn’t bring herself to step in, too afraid of getting trapped inside again herself, “what do you say we get the hell outta here?”

 

Ashana was shaking in fear, and when she stood Thea could now see the baby bump she’d been hiding. Their captors didn’t allow them the decency of clothing, and Thea suddenly became aware of her own nakedness as Ashana crossed her arms over her bountiful chest. Thea dropped her arm awkwardly and turned away to remove the round key from the door.

 

Then she rushed over to the cell on the other side of her own, thinking Jamie must surely be in there. But the pale looking girl on the other side of that door wasn’t Jaime either. Her stringy black hair barely moved as she shook her head.

 

“I’ve created a diversion,” the voice was back, sounding breathless, “but really you need to make your way out of that corridor or I will no longer be able to help you.”

 

“And you’re sure you have my baby? My daughter?” Thea thought. She was already silently asking Jamie for forgiveness in her heart, but if this woman was telling the truth, Thea chose her baby. It wasn’t a choice so much as an instinct; a driving need.

 

“I’m positive.”

 

“Which way?”

 

“Go right.”

 

“Come on,” Thea called aloud to the two women behind her, and as she made her way past Ashana’s open doorway, she slammed the key onto the next cell door and sprinted away as it opened.

 

She ran as fast as she could for what felt like several minutes until she finally came to the end of the long, metallic hallway. “Now where? Left or right?” She looked back over her shoulder as she waited for an answer, and was shocked to see a mob of naked women in the distance behind her. It looked like Ashana had stayed behind to open more doors. Thea had lost the stringy haired girl too. She was alone.

 

Should she go back for them? But she didn’t have time to contemplate that decision. Not if she wanted the best shot to make an escape with her one remaining child.

 

“Left, quickly.”

 

Thea took off at a run.

 

“Go down the next corridor that opens up on the left, then take a quick right.”

 

“This is a dead end,” Thea panted aloud out of habit, forgetting for a moment that speaking was dangerous and unnecessary right now. She was in a small, square room about double the size of her cage. Only a single light illuminated the center of the room in a cone-shaped beam that reminded her of movie depictions of inquisition-style trials and pleas of innocence.

 

“Step into the light.”

 

“What? Why?” Was this lady for real?

 

“Yes, I am, in fact, for real… now please, if you would?”

 

Thea stepped into the light tentatively.

 

“Now I recommend you close your eyes.”

 

Thea squeezed her eyes tightly shut. She felt her body start to buzz, as if a luke-warm jolt of electricity had overcome her from the inside out. Then it was suddenly as if her entire body had fallen asleep and was now coming alive with pins and needles.

 

“You can open them now.” The voice sounded different, though… as if it was no longer in her head anymore, but coming from right in front of her.

 

Thea opened her eyes to her own reflection. That’s strange, she hadn’t seen any mirrors when she’d first walked in here… but… wait… is that what she looked like now, somehow… younger? And with… bigger eyes? But then the eyes in the mirror blinked when Thea hadn’t. And as Thea’s gaze traveled downwards it was the clothing that finally solidified it; this was her bittersweet nightmare come true.

 

“Hello,” the girl said, and it was the voice that’d led Thea to freedom that came out of the girl’s mouth.

 

“Who… are you?” But before Thea even finished the sentence, she already knew, and without waiting for an answer she embraced the young woman in front of her, which wasn’t a reflection at all, but somehow her full-grown daughter.

 

“Mother,” she whispered on a sigh.

 

Thea pulled back to explore her face. “Ashley, is it really you?”

 

“Ashley?” she repeated.

 

“That’s what I called you before… before they took you away.”

 

“I like that.” Ashley’s double-sized hazel eyes grew shiny, full of heartfelt tears she managed to hold back.

 

“How are you so big?” Thea asked, looking the girl up and down again. “You’re only five.”

 

Ashely blinked the wetness away and seriousness swept over the sentiment on her face. “Your body has been in cryo for the past 21 years. We must leave. Now.”

 

“Wait, cryo? As in I’ve been frozen? I don’t remember being frozen. And… what about the others?” Thea looked behind her towards the door she’d entered just a moment ago, but it wasn’t there. And as she quickly scanned the room around her she realized it had somehow grown much bigger, and was full of unfamiliar equipment, like a lab or a hospital might have back home. “Where are we? I could’ve sworn this room was smaller, and empty.”

 

“I’ve brought you here via the telebeam,” she pointed up towards the source of the bright light Thea was standing in, which was the only familiar thing that had remained from before she’d closed her eyes. “You are in a different room.”

 

Obviously done explaining things, Ashley grabbed Thea’s hand and tugged her between an aisle of small, glowing tables.

 

Thea followed her in a speed walking daze, trying to take all of this in, but stopped abruptly when she realized Ashley hadn’t answered her. “Where are we going? What about the others?” she insisted.

 

“I’m afraid this rescue plan only has room for you and me, mother.” She didn’t look very sorry though as she grabbed Thea’s hand again, urging her to move. “Your setting the other humans free, though, that will most likely aid us in our escape. They, however, will have to make due with their own efforts to get away.”

 

“No, Ashley.” Thea tugged her hand out of her daughter’s grasp as she stopped short again. Instead of turning around this time, however, Ashley kept on charging forward, disappearing around a corner.

 

“There are literally hundreds of human women aboard this vessel,” Ashley said, her voice growing louder as she reappeared again, holding a bundle of fabric, “we simply don’t have the means necessary to rescue them all.”

 

“But what about the girls I let out, they’re already halfway to freedom, we can’t let those bastards capture them again, we just can’t.”

 

“Put these on,” she said as she held the bundle out.

 

The soft fabric unfolded into a white tunic as Thea lifted it in the air. She pulled it over her head quickly, and watched Ashley frown in concentration as she picked up the matching pants that’d fallen to the floor.

 

“I don’t know who any of the other women are, I’d have no way to contact them.”

 

“Can’t you just talk into their heads like you did with me?” Thea asked as she slipped on the exquisitely silky pants.

 

“Not without a name or some oth—”

 

“Ashana.” Thea said in a rush. “The first girl I let out told me her name was Ashana.”

 

“Ok, I’ll try.” In a blink it was as if Ashley’s body went vacant as she stilled. The life, the soul, was gone from her eyes and she stared straight ahead for several seconds. When she finally blinked again, the recognition returned to her eyes as she found Thea’s gaze. “There are 6 of them, we’ll need more clothing.”

 

Thea nodded in understanding and hurried over to where she’d seen her daughter disappear before. When she returned, clutching a stack of clothing to her chest, Ashley was blinking herself out of another trance.

 

“We’ve got to return to the telebeam, quickly.” She said, and took off, Thea following closely at her heels.

 

In front of the beam of light, Ashley stood still, her eyes vacant again. And this time when her body came back to life, Thea watched as the cone of light rippled into, first shadows, then a pixelated mass of flesh tones, and then into actual people. A bundle of six women clutching each other materialized before her eyes, as if they were a hologram someone just turned on.

 

The women stood straight and separated, taking in a collective breath of fresh air as they looked around in confusion and sheepishness.

 

“You’re safe now,” Thea said as she passed out the clothing, though she really had no idea how true that was considering Ashley had been so worried about time and Thea had continued to delay her. But she told the girls what she wanted so desperately to hear herself, and she didn’t feel the least bit sorry or regretful for that. If they were going to go down now, she’d go down with pride; she’d go down knowing she’d given it her all.

 

But all of that fluffy, floaty confidence quickly lost its feathers when she saw the black-eyed monster that was staring them down in silence from a couple dozen feet away, and suddenly a bowling ball of fear was crashing into the pit of Thea’s stomach. “Ashley!” She thought instinctively, and her daughter’s head twisted, without hesitation, toward the child-sized gray being, who only blinked in response.

 

“Back in the light, now!” Ashley thought, and she must have sent the message to all of them, because like a flock of birds the women moved together at once.

 

Thea watched as the light above them began to intensify and the huddling women in front of her began to disappear. No, they weren’t disappearing, they were disintegrating! Thea looked at her own arm in horror as it brightened into an almost blinding light, and then, like a bad digital photo, the pixelated pieces of her faded to black, until there seemed to be nothing left of her.

 

“Wha—who are all of these people, Ashley?” A deep voice called out, but it was like Thea had just come inside after spending hours in sunshine, and everything was black. Slowly the darkness began to lighten up into shapes as her eyes adjusted and the familiar wave of pins and needles began to subside. “And what were you thinking?” The voice asked incredulously, and Thea saw that the hulking shadow it was coming from was towering over the hugging mass of women, off to their right.

 

“Reprimand me later Rayou,” Ashley said as she pulled herself from her mother’s grasp, “I had no choice, and we have more pressing concerns now.” Ashley’s form marched over to, and then past, the towering Rayou, and Thea could now make out more of his features as his eyebrows rose in realization.

 

“You were seen.”

 

Ashley didn’t look at him, but nodded curtly as she tapped at a keyboard along the far wall. But Thea was too far away to see what she was typing. Despite this, a cold wave of fear washed over her body as her eyes, almost fully adjusted to the warm, dim light now, began to dart around, assessing the women coming alive around her. It sounded like they weren’t done running yet, they still weren’t safe.

 

The stringy-haired girl was closest to her, and she had her arms wrapped around herself, eyes open but unfocused, her body swaying gently. Ashana was looking at her hands in awe and confusion, as if her fingers had turned into snakes, and she twisted her palms towards and away from her face. A couple of women were doubled over and heaving, and one girl was comforting them, rubbing one’s back and holding the other’s hair. Another girl had collapsed onto the floor and was sobbing into her hands.

 

Seeing this brought attention to Thea’s own queasiness and she swallowed down a bit of bile. The first time she’d gone through the light she’d been fine; and she suspected keeping her eyes open through this latest trip might have something to do with her amped up disorientation. In the chaos of their escape, Ashley hadn’t reminded them to shut their eyes.

 

The contrast of where they now stood compared to where they were just a few seconds ago was vast. This room was warm, dingy, and cluttered with unsteady looking shelves filled with books and papers and things… marvelous little knick knacks crammed into every possible space. Compared to the blue, shiny, sterile place they’d just come from, it felt good… comfortable even; despite the fact that it was obviously an unorganized mess.

 

A few short, sinister notes sounded from the computer, and then a rhythmic beeping followed. The screen was awash in blue light, and a digital clock counted down from 2 minutes.

 

“Holy shit, is this place about to blow up?” Thea thought frantically.

 

“No, mum, it’s not,” Ashley thought back. “But we do have to get out of here. Now.”

 

“Mum?” Thea was taken aback – the sudden sweetness of that one, strange word resonating from her daughter’s telepathic voice… it overpowered even the fear of being blown to pieces. And Thea froze.

 

She was frozen in love, but she was simultaneously frozen in anger. There was so much tenderness in that one word. But Thea was also overcome with frustration at the implications of it. She was so angry that she’d missed 26 years of her daughter’s life – she wasn’t a mum, she was a mom, and if she’d had the chance to raise her own daughter, she’d have heard that sweet word on the lips of a toddler saying it for the first time. That was something she’d imagined countless times coming from each of her lost children. Who was Ashley’s ‘mum’? – who had raised her to speak like that?

 

“No need for any jealousy,” Ashley said wryly as she clutched Thea’s arm and led her, gently but quickly, up a rickety flight of stairs.

 

Oh, shit, had she thought that aloud? Ashley smiled slightly in answer.

 

Ahead of them, the rest of the women were already heading upwards. Rayou was just behind them, carrying the sobbing woman who’d refused to get off the floor herself.

 

“I actually taught myself English…” Ashley continued, “I didn’t speak a word until I escaped the base. I knew you were American, but I just liked the sound of British English better… it sounds so much more proper, don’t you think?”

 

The beeping grew distant as they climbed away, and once they shut the door to the basement behind them, it disappeared completely. Ashley tapped at control panel and the door sucked at the air, seeming to snuggle deeper into the wall with a few clicks.

 

Rayou and Ashley watched the window to the basement in silence as the seconds ticked by. The warm orange light suddenly went blue as veins of ice grew across it. Rayou nodded and they both turned to face the flock of lost women. They were like ghosts in their white, flowy clothes; and their haunted faces just added to the effect.

 

“We’ve bought some time.” Rayou said as he gently placed the woman he was holding onto her feet. She still had tears running down her face, but she’d stopped sobbing for now. “But we still have some getting lost to do.”

 

He grabbed a pile of keys that jingled all the way out of the happy yellow kitchen, into the lush green of summer, and towards a detached two-car garage. Two matching SUVs were revealed as the doors rolled open; one silver and one a shimmery dark gray. He spun one of the keys off the ring and tossed it to Ashley.

 

Thea followed her daughter to the darker vehicle, “What did you do back there? What will happen if someone transports into that room?”

 

“Just a little karmic justice.” Ashley replied.

 

“Karmic justice?”

 

“That entire basement is now a cryo chamber. Whomever telebeams in will be put on pause for the next hundred years… or until someone finds them. Maybe we can send an anonymous tip to some scientists… give them the same kind of respect they gave you.”

 

Thea didn’t like the elation her body felt in hearing those words. She didn’t like it one bit. Regardless, her lips still spread into an involuntary smile.

 

The rest of the women divided themselves among the two vehicles, and soon, they were driving down a highway. Their sensory starved bodies were still and silent. A tear of gratitude here, a sigh of freedom there. Thea was hopeful there would be plenty of time for talking later, but for now, she just wanted to bask in the glory of this moment. If she allowed herself to think too much, to blink too much, she feared she’d wake herself right up and out of this dream.

 

 

[Conclusion:]

 

I feel like there are still so many places I could go with this story, but for now I’ve purged another nightmare… and I’d like to think I’ve healed myself a bit with this imaginary rescue.

 

If you were disturbed at all by Thea’s enslavement, I’d like to level with you: there are creatures on our planet who are living strikingly similar stories right now… dairy cows cry, and cry out, when their babies are taken away from them, and pigs are escape artists who are well known to actually let out their fellow prisoners after they’ve freed themselves. True stories my friends.

 

By writing this story I was doing my best to empathize with the various species we ourselves are enslaving. To know what that might feel like as a human being helps me to see more clearly what I want support with my money and energy and what, more importantly, I do not want to support.

 

While I really, really hate to identify myself as a consumer, that is actually where much of my power lies. So I do my best to make every dime count, especially at the grocery store. Whatever that means for you, I hope you will do the same.

 

Once again I’d like to thank Joshua Fox, our featured cover artist for this story, for sharing his work with us today. Take a peek at the cover of today’s episode to see the very art that inspired me throughout writing Thea’s story, and I hope you’ll take a minute to check out his work @jfox720 on Instagram. So much fun stuff over there!

 

Ok, my friends, that’s a wrap! Ciao for now, mwah!

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