After Humanity

Chapter Five

Rachel

It had been difficult to sleep through the long bumpy ride. The ground of the trailer was hard and the metal bars of the cage kept digging into Rachel's sides as she was pushed and jostled among the other prisoners. The unpleasant smells of body odor and human refuse had grown stronger and stronger as the journey went on. With nowhere to relieve themselves, they had no choice but to use whatever space they could find, and there was no space to be had. Some had become nauseated and their discomforted stomachs only added to the noxious smells when they could no longer hold back their retching.

Locked in her cell with no prospect of escape, Rachel had tried her best to find rest, but with little success. By the time the trailer finally came to what seemed to be its final destination, her head was pounding in protest to the lack of sleep and water it had received since the sibla had taken her hostage. She felt sick, cold, scared, alone. She wondered how long this sort of misery could continue before she would be unable to keep going.

The sound of screeching metal rang out as the doors to the trailer were swung open, flooding the dark carriage with the harsh light of day. Rachel squinted, quickly shielding her eyes as best she could with her bound hands, cowering along with her fellow captives, from the light as if the sun's rays were toxic. Of course, it was not the daylight they feared, but the sibla it illuminated so clearly. Their captors were back, and Rachel could only imagine what now lay in store for them.

"Rise and shine," one of them jeered. "Got a long day ahead of us."

A few of the bounty hunters climbed up into the trailer, handing out paper cups to each of them through the bars of the cage and filling them with brackish water from the pitchers they carried. The water tasted terrible but Rachel was so thirsty she gulped her cup down quickly, her parched throat crying out for more. It didn't come, and she was instantly envious of the older girls around her who seemed to have had the sense to drink more slowly. None of them offered up any of their portions.

"These humans stink," one of the sibla commented as he peered into the trailer and wrinkled his nose.

"Yeah well, we'll be rid of them soon enough," another answered. "What's the boss's plan?"

"Gorn says to unload one of the cages," the man outside answered. "Wants a collection of young, decent looking, mature females. Thinks the slaver who owns this shop will pay well for em but wants to make sure the product looks premium."

The sibla in the trailer nodded and began roaming among their cramped prisons, eyeing them all critically. Rachel shrunk back from the bars, slipping in-between two other girls in her cage. They didn't protest, obviously too terrified to notice, their gaze focused intently on their captor and he circled back to stare at them again.

"This one looks good enough," the sibla man said, squinting to peer past the girls on the outer edge of the cage.

Rachel felt her heart pounding in her chest. Her cage. He'd chosen her cage!

"I'd say there are close to twenty in there, all decent looking. Young breeders from what I can see. Most look to be about fifteen? Seventeen?" Boss selling em by the cageful again?"

"Yep," Rachel heard the man outside respond. "Get rid of them quickly that way. Make the slavers deal with the ones that might not make the grade."

"Bring the crane around," her captor shouted out the door of the trailer. A few moments later Rachel heard the sound of a small engine and then the clang of metal against metal as a chain with a heavy hook landed on the top of their cage. Rachel screamed along with her fellow captives as they were lifted off the bed of the trailer, their cage swinging precariously back and forth with an ominous creak.