TAKEN: Journey to a New Home Read Free Page A

speech, hands on his hips, feet apart. The woman ignored him yet again.
      “Ashaa, are you going to wait so long that we can’t find our way back to earth? You need to do something now. I order you to obey damn it!”
      Her eyes opened and she looked at him with the same neutrality that Taylor often wore when dealing with obnoxious people.
      “You no longer have the capacity to order me to do anything, Dr. Westing,” came the calm reply.
      “I am still in charge and you will do as I say!”
      “Dr. Westing, you are sitting in the same type of cell in which I reside so I fail to see how you can believe you are currently in charge of anything. It strikes me as slightly delusional that you persist in this belief of your overstated authority,” she told him without opening her eyes again. This was the same conversation they’d been having for three days straight. Only the doctor’s count of days and hours changed. Sienna giggled as she thought about the old Bill Murray movie.
      “What’s funny?” Samantha asked. 
      “ Groundhog Day, ” Sienna laughed this time. It earned her some strange looks but the women in her small group laughed, even Taylor. 
      “I see your point. It is rather repetitive, their conversation,” Samantha said with a smile.
      “If she can get out why doesn’t she do it? I want to go home, too!” Blanca whined.
      Rose sneered at her, “You’re assuming he’s correct and that someone could actually figure out how to fly the damn thing.”
      “Probably couldn’t see over the dash,” Taylor deadpanned. They all stared open- mouthed at her. “What? They are about nine feet tall, ya know.”
      Everyone but Blanca laughed again. It was something they hadn’t done in four days but it felt good despite the stares they were getting.
      “If we ever get out of this I’m telling my father on you!” Blanca seethed.
      Taylor simply smiled the serene smile she wore most of the time as Rose rolled her eyes.
    ***
      Sienna wanted a shower and clean clothes. She also wanted to walk further than the sixty feet across the enclosure in which she sat. She wanted to see the sun. She wanted anything but this unending boredom. She was worried about her grandmother and her business. Janice knew where they had been heading with the lunch but would the army tell Grace anything at all? There was no way to know, only unanswered questions for them all. Samantha was the only one of her six married but Jasmine had her elderly aunt who depended on her and the others all had families who had to be worried except for Rose.
      If not for Samantha’s watch, Sienna knew that they would not have a clue how long they’d been here. The trusty and yet hated device told her it had been 15 days since the day they had begun to refer to as Hell Monday. Their days consisted of complete boredom with interruptions from the Doctor lecturing Ashaa, the General cursing Ashaa and bouts of fear with breath-holding as their furry grey keepers occasionally came in and removed one or two of the science types or a single military person. The science types would then be returned sometimes minutes or even hours later. Some appeared completely intact and others a little worse for wear, neither condition seemed dependent on the time frame. The military personnel usually came back angry or unconscious. They had all learned quickly to avoid the sticks the giants carried. A flash of barely seen energy would leave you unconscious for hours and aching for days according to several who had the misfortune to encounter it.
      The clomping of heavy booted feet drew Sienna from her thoughts. Breath holding would begin because they all knew it wasn’t time for either of the two meals they were being fed. The gray aliens appeared and moved toward their enclosure. One entered and glanced around. He (?) pointed the stick at Sienna and waved her toward the path. Then he chose Rose. They knew better than to protest. He came