Dominant Species Volume One -- Natural Selection (Dominant Species Series) by David Coy Page B

woman’s gaze fell
on Mary, she waved at her to make contact.
    “Come on over,” Mary said.
    That brief human contact made the woman start to cry and the look
was so totally pitiful it broke Mary’s heart. It was a good sign, actually. If
she could cry, she could still feel something. The woman just stood there with
her lips quivering. Mary saw a little girl there, just a little frightened
girl. Mary plucked a few more items up into her basket, then added a package of
Ding Dongs just for the woman. Chocolate could work miracles. She hefted the
basket up under her arm and started to walk over to her when Tom Moon came out
of the tube behind her like a tattered brown leaf and touched the new woman.
She shrank from the touch.
    You didn’t like to be touched much after an extraction, especially
by a rat like Tom. Mary decided right then that she would adopt this one. Tom
had his beady sights on her; and that was enough. It was probably a mistake.
Nobody lasted, and it was best not to get too attached.
    “Leave her alone, and go get yourself some candy or something,”
Mary said to Tom. “Go on. Split. I mean it.”
    “You the only one allowed to have friends?” Tom said with a sneer.
“I got some friends, you know. Some you’d like to have as friends I bet.”
    “Sure,” Mary said sarcastically.
    She took the woman by the arm and pulled her gently away from him.
Come with me. Do you like chocolate, little girl?” Mary thought a little
perverse humor might get rid of the trembling lower lip if she got the joke,
but she didn’t get it and cried even more. “It’s okay. Come on.”
    It wasn’t at all okay, and Mary knew it. Mary could see the fine
lines of new scar tissue on the woman’s neck just under the collar of her
shirt. At least she’d had sense enough not to pick a silk blouse.
    The tube leading out of the grocery to the holes was dark like all
the tubes. There was just enough light from the few dim light organs along the
ceiling to keep you from stumbling into the rubbery walls.
    When they had gone a ways in, the woman stopped cold in the tube
and turned to Mary.
    “They cut me open,” she said plainly, unable to keep her lip from
trembling.
    “I know,” Mary said.
    The woman started shaking her head as if to deny the experience.
She shook her head and shook it. Her eyes rolled up in her head.
    “I know,” Mary repeated. “I know.”
    She s losing it, Mary thought.
She put her free arm around the trembling woman and held her until she stopped
shaking. Several other captives walked past like zombies with their plastic
bags rattling against their legs. They saw Mary and the woman, all right, but
seemed not to.
    They’re
smarter than me, Mary thought. A lot
smarter.
    Mary wanted to move along. It wasn’t a good idea to just stand
around in a tube that the goons used for passage, too. The big bastards were
often unpredictable, and anytime a captive got in their way was a good time to
get hurt. Mary’s hole was at the very end of the tube, and they had some
distance to go. Mary wanted to eat and then sleep. Blessed sleep. In her
dreams, there was no pain. She pulled the woman gently along.
    The woman had to be guided every step of the way. When they came
to the raised opening to her hole, Mary had to push her up into it. The holes
were where they lived and the only refuge from the horror. The holes weren’t
safe, but they were better than the rest of the ship.
    The goons came to the opening to the holes and called them out
with a hissing whistle when they wanted to take them. The whistle noise sounded
to Mary like the way kids who can’t quite whistle whistled. The first time Mary
heard it, it was just a noise they made. After she knew it meant she was going
to be used, it became the prelude to her nightmares, and the silly little sound
itself took on dreadful weight. The whistling would start somewhere down the
tube, and Mary would know they were taking people. Her heart would race until
she