humanoids around them grunted and groaned and screwed each other’s brains out.
“Oh my God,” Shurla whispered to Penny, her eyes wide. “I can’t believe this! Are they actually all fucking on command?”
“I guess so,” Penny whispered back. The question was, whose command?
They got the answer shortly when the cart passed through the idyllic village—filled with couples who were sexing it up—and came to the sterile glass and metal hospital-like building to one side of the Compound.
“Out of the cart,” one of the Oompa-Loompa guards commanded and they were all forced to scramble naked out of the back of the cart and stand in a trembling line in front of the entrance. Penny hated that her hands were still cuffed behind her and she couldn’t cover herself in any way.
The glass door at the front of the building—which reminded her very much of a hospital—slid smoothly open and out walked…
“Colonel Sanders!” Penny gasped, staring at the man who was holding out his arms to them like a father welcoming his long-lost children home. “Oh my God—it’s Colonel Sanders!”
Twenty-Two
“Who?” Shurla hissed at her.
Penny shook her head.
“Never mind. He just—he looks exactly like a guy who sells fried chicken on my home planet.”
“He sells fried what?” Shurla asked, frowning.
Penny shook her head again.
“It doesn’t matter—it’s just weird, that’s all.”
And it certainly was. The man standing in front of them was dressed all in white and had thick white hair and a luxuriant white goatee and mustache as well. He even had the black rimmed glasses she associated with the iconic fried chicken magnate. In fact, the only thing that was missing was a black string tie around his neck, which Sanders had always worn—other than that, he was the spitting image of the Colonel.
Penny blinked and wondered if there had been some kind of hallucinogenic drug in the purple antiseptic liquid of the showers. Was she seeing things? Going crazy? Of all the strange and bizarre things she’d seen since waking up in the hover cart in the middle of the jungle, this was somehow the weirdest and the wrongest of all.
“Welcome, my children!” the man who looked like Colonel Sanders said, spreading his arms as he addressed the naked captives. “Welcome to the Compound and to your new life, serving our Glorious Cause.”
“Who are you?” Shurla shouted, lifting her chin as she glared at the Colonel. “And what do you want with us? I already had a life I liked just fine back on Hell’s Gate Station and I want to go back!”
There were murmurs of agreement, although none of the other women were brave enough to shout their feelings out, like Shurla had done.
“Your old life is over now, my daughter.” The Colonel Sanders look-alike smiled at her benevolently. “You may be unhappy now but I promise you, soon your unhappiness will fade. In fact…” He raised his voice, addressing them all. “Just give us one night—spend a single evening with us here in the Compound—and I guarantee if you aren’t happy tomorrow morning, you can go home.”
This sounded like a lie to Penny, but she wasn’t about to say so. Something told her bad things happened to people who spoke truth to power here at the Compound. In fact, she was already worried about Shurla, who was still glaring defiantly at the man in white.
“As for your other question—who am I? Well, I am the Glorious Leader here,” the man who looked like Colonel Sanders continued. “I am also called the Shining Star, because I lead so many out of darkness. And I like to think of myself as a father to you all,” he added, smiling benevolently. “All my children who live in the Compound—both the breeders,” he nodded at the women, “And the NeverBreeders alike.” And here, he nodded at the Oompa-Loompa guards.
“We’re not your children and we want to go home!” Shurla insisted.
“As I said, just give us one night,” the “Glorious Leader” said, smiling at her. Clearly her defiance didn’t faze him a bit.
Because he’s used to it, Penny thought. He says the same thing to everyone he captures and brings in here. He hears the same complaints over and over again and dismisses them over and over again. There’s no getting out of here, no matter what he says—he’s lying through his nice white teeth.
“Now, then,” the Glorious Leader continued. “First things first. You’ve been purified, which is good. But now you must have your exams at the Breeding and Conception Center—which is this state-of-the