The Erotic Mind-Control Story Archive

Somewhere in Middle America, Wednesday evening

For the tenth time in as many minutes, Paul questioned his decision-making. Heading to the field beyond the old farm gate seemed like a good idea, at least when the sun was setting and before he had time to think about what would happen to him if he were spotted. It had been a record dry fall and the woods were full of crunchy leaves and sticks, the perfect things to betray Paul’s position to any shadowy government operatives in the area. Too late, he realized that they would probably come equipped with motion sensors and night-vision goggles that would pick him up in an instant, snapping twigs or not.

Of course, that was only if shadowy government operatives were even out in these fields. It was hardly a given. Just because Nicole remembered coming out here with her boyfriend and then bringing Jenny to the same place, presumably to get the same Stepford treatment… in the end it was still a wild guess that she would return here for a third time. For all he knew, the shadowy operatives had moved their base of operations to Nicole’s dorm, or to the library’s basement, or anywhere besides here in the open where just about anyone might wander by and catch them in the act.

Unless they have the place guarded, he thought, and he was back to where he’d started.

He crunched through the underbrush, secretly hoping that the noise he was making would attract the attention of the Men in Black. At least then he’d know then that what was going on was real, and not a prank, and not some weird fever dream. To his slight disappointment, no black-suited figures awaited him when he reached the edge of the next field. No spies, no soldiers, just patches of tall grass and a stiff breeze that reminded him that he’d forgotten his jacket. His new location did afford him a great view of the farm lane back into town. If Nicole was headed this way, he would see her long before she would see him.

Not that she would see him, anyway. Paul imagined that blank, mindless stare from their first night, and shuddered. Whoever was doing this to her could make her do anything, including making her climb aboard a black helicopter bound for who-the-fuck-knew-where to spend the rest of her life as a harem girl or a lab specimen.

“Come on, Nicole,” he whispered. “Get up here. Prove that I’m right.”

Meanwhile

“Drinking in the woods! Ah, the SWU classic! I feel like I’ve really evolved as a young woman, Nicole.”

“Do you want to spend all of your money on those overpriced drinks?” Nicole slowed her pace, allowing Laura to catch up with her. “We’ll get good and drunk on grain alcohol or whatever and then we’ll hit the club.”

“Is this an Alphas party? They’re just gonna have Everclear and Kool-Aid in a Solo cup, you know.” The brunette drew her thin coat around her shoulders. “It’s getting cold again,” she said. “Wish we had last night’s weather tonight.” How Nicole was going to get through the night without coming down with hypothermia was anyone’s guess. It wasn’t officially freezing out, but Nicole’s dress left little to the imagination, and left even less for protection against the weather. Maybe, Laura considered, she was counting on the insulation a good drunken buzz could provide.

“The party’s just up the road, and then we have to cut through the next field and we’re there.” Nicole turned until she was walking backwards, facing Laura, her feet moving with confidence over the bumpy, rutted old road. “I’m so glad you came, Laura. I worry that you don’t get out enough. We’re only in college once, you know?”

“Ha ha. In this economy, maybe not. Anyways… are you sure there’s a party out here? Everything is super quiet and I haven’t seen any cars or lights or anything.” They made it to the field and began to march across it, the tall grass cold and hard against Laura’s feet. She bent her head forward and kept marching, eyes largely glued to the round in search of any large rocks or clumps of dirt that could trip her. Every tenth step or so she’d glance up to catch a view of her friend’s ass, confirming that she was still trailing in Nicole’s wake.

She looked up again to find, unexpectedly, that the ass was right in front of her. They were apparently here, but Laura sensed the worst before she even bothered to survey her surroundings. No music. No shouting. No frat boys daring each other to shotgun a beer, or cheering when one of them did so.

“Fuck. I hate to say it, Nicole, but I think we just got stood up.”

The brunette said nothing, choosing instead to take a few steps forward.

“Nicole, come on.” Seeing her like this made Laura feel bad for her. She’d been suckered, and she’d believed the lie so much that she’d managed to get Laura suckered, too. But it was well past time to go the fuck home. “You’re not going to find anything out there,” she called out, hoping to talk some sense into Nicole before they ended up spending half the night combing the fucking woods for a party that didn’t exist. “Did Danny tell you there was a party out here tonight? Because he’s always—hey, Nicole?”

Laura stopped moving.

No, it was worse than that. It was as if every single muscle in her body had frozen, locked in place no matter how much she willed them to move. She was halfway through shouting “What the fuck, Nicole I can’t fucking move” when she realized that she wasn’t shouting at all. Her jaw was wired shut as well, her lips still forming the same half-frown she’d been making when everything went nuts. Desperate, she took a deep breath, and to her slight relief found that at least her lungs were still working.

What’s the disease that causes lockjaw? Rabies or tetanus? Did I step on a rusty nail? That had to be it, she must have stepped on something in the field and not noticed it, and now her muscles were frozen from the toxins in the rust. And now she was unable to warn Nicole of the impending danger, or to let her know that she needed to run like hell back to town to get help. She willed the brunette to turn around, to slow down, to do anything besides plunge deeper into the farm fields in search of a stupid party that didn’t even exist. C’mon Nicole, look at me!

And then, magically, Nicole did exactly as Laura willed, slowing to a halt like a boat pulling up to a dock. She turned around just as lazily, shoulders slumping, all of the joy and excitement draining from her pretty face. She stopped about two-thirds of the way into the turn, so that instead of facing Laura, her gaze and attention was centered on something behind her. She seemed entirely unfazed by her friend’s immobility.

Too late, Laura realized what was up. She was being pranked. Seriously pranked, by Nicole and by others, probably the goons who ran Tau Alpha, or worse. It wasn’t a rusty nail that had caused her predicament, she’d been drugged somehow. Nicole must have spiked her water back at the dorm and then deliberately led her out here to walk in aimless circles until the drug took effect. But what now?

She expected Nicole to crack a smile, or laugh, or gloat, but the girl did none of those things. She was nearly stock-still herself, seemingly entranced, waiting patiently for whatever was going to happen next. Dammit, Nicole! What the fuck did you DO to me?

Then she heard it. A buzzing and clicking, the sound of locusts on a stifling July afternoon, launching themselves from stalks of grass only to crash clumsily to the dirt below. “Bal glip! Glik kzzrk glik!”

“I hear, and obey,” said Nicole, her dull eyes still locked on whatever was standing behind Laura. “I serve and obey the Kzzrk Empire.”

“It’s Kzzrk,” someone responded. Their voice was tinny and stilted. Not quite the robot voice of an AI or a translator app, but still… it was off somehow.

Oh goddammit, it’s a fucking TV show. I’m being pranked for a fucking TV show. That’s why the voice was tinny; it was one of those voice modulators, the thing people used to disguise their real voice. Nicole was pretending to be hypnotized by it. Next, they’d all have Laura thinking that they were about to turn her into a pod person, too, or a mindless sex slave, and she’d start freaking out until they all started laughing at her expense.

“Well fuck you,” she would have said, if she’d been able to. “I’m not going to play along with your FUCKING—”

The speaker came into view.

If Laura’s legs could move, they would have chosen that moment to collapse.

They were short and stubby, with mottled green skin that reminded Laura of an old and much-abused leather coat that her younger brother habitually wore in the rain. They looked like aliens from an old movie, with odd proportions, and with little antennae sticking out of their fat heads. If they were aliens, Earth’s air did not appear to bother them. Neither wore a space helmet. They were engaged in a busy conversation that didn’t involve Laura or Nicole, and the former found herself wishing that they would wrap things up and get around to doing whatever they were going to do to her. If she knew their plans, she reasoned, she could try her best to ruin them.

Nicole, on the other hand, wasn’t trying very hard at all to do anything.

“You have again served us well, humanoid female,” said the shorter creature, in a weird-sounding voice that didn’t seem at all to match the motion of its mouth and lips. “This one is almost as good as the last one!”

The brunette’s response was slow and deliberate, as if she were repeating a fundamental, unalterable truth of the universe. “Yes. I serve and obey the Kzzrk Empire.” Her voice was flat and emotionless.

So she really is hypnotized. Had it just done that to her? Nicole seemed perfectly normal all the way up until she wasn’t. Maybe the green things had mental powers, or maybe they had little brain parasites that could control humans like puppets. Nicole was obviously that, if nothing else. As good as the last one meant that the brunette had been luring others to the same field, over and over again. And now Laura was one of them.

A good one.

“I told you this would work,” said the shorter alien holy fuck Laura it’s a fucking alien to its companion. “Even without the control unit, she’ll carry out our orders. Giving her that programming turned out to be a good plan.”

The taller alien responded with what, to Laura, appeared to be a shrug. “We’re out of control bracelets, though. What do we do with this one?”

“We don’t need any more drones. The rest of them can go straight to the brain-smoother.”

Oh SHIT. Whatever a brain-smoother was, Laura was certain she wanted to go nowhere near it. She willed her body to move, and cursed when it didn’t. Then, to her amazement, she felt her left foot loosen a bit. Inside her shoe, she wiggled her toes. Concentrate, Laura. You can break free. She could feel the strength returning to her feet. She could flex the entire appendage now, squirming around the inside of her otherwise motionless boot, a motion hidden from the alien. I just need a second. Come on Nicole, stall it…

The shorter alien, thankfully, chose that moment to do the stalling itself. “Humanoid female,” it said to Nicole, “listen and obey.”

“I hear, and obey.”

Laura could move both feet now, along with her left hand. Quick twitches only, just enough to confirm which muscles were working and which ones weren’t, but nothing that would give away the illusion of being frozen stock-still. Whatever the aliens had done to her, it was wearing off. She just needed to be able to run…

“I’m going to set up the brain smoother,” said the taller alien. “Did you leave it at the science station?”

“It’s wherever you left the parts, Q’nan. I saw you messing around with it earlier.”

“It needed new cables. I borrowed some from the plzzblkk, if that’s okay. We won’t need it until we get back home.”

“You’re probably right. Thanks, Q’nan! I’ll catch up in a bit. I just need to update this humanoid female’s programming before she goes back.”

“I’ll get everything ready for the other one,” said the taller alien. It began walking away.

That left Laura alone with one alien and one very out-of-it friend. Not quite two against one, or even one against one—it could move, and Laura could not—but the odds continued to shift in her favor. She just needed to buy more time.

“Humanoid female. You will speak nothing but the truth to me now. Listen and obey.”

Through the field? Hide in the woods? Back down the road? It had to be back down the road. If she tried hiding in the woods, it could find her again, freeze her again. The closer she got to town, the better the chances her screaming would get someone’s attention. Like someone with a fucking shotgun.

“Yes. I hear, and obey.”

For the first time, Laura could see the raygun in the alien’s hand. If she tried making a run for it, and it saw her doing so, it was likely to shoot her in the back.

“Where is the other humanoid female?” it demanded of Nicole. It kept the raygun pointed straight at the ground. It wasn’t looking at Laura at all.

Could I attack it? It’s small and if I could get my hands on that gun…but what if it bites me or something?

“I don’t know. I will bring a humanoid female to this place. I will tell her nothing about you. I must serve and obey the Kzzrk Empire. I have obeyed my commands.”

Legs… legs? LEGS!

Laura flexed her now-working legs, then again, and again, a little more each time, not caring now whether the alien saw her or not. She knew she had to move, fast, and reach the trees before the alien could get a shot at her. If what it was saying to Nicole was true, that meant that there could be other human zombies prowling the woods, eager to betray her location to their new alien masters. And if they did… I’ll be just like her.

That was enough motivation for her. She gave the alien a few more seconds, waiting for it to point that damn raygun back towards the ground, hoping that would make it harder to get a good bead on her. As soon as it did so, she willed her entire body to MOVE, and with an electrifying jolt of adrenaline, she launched forward and began sprinting across the field.

There was shouting behind her. She turned right and then left, zig-zagging in an attempt to throw off the thing’s aim. The trees were only a hundred feet away, maybe less. Once she got into the next field she could make a sharp right and follow the tree line; it would expect her to keeping running straight, and at that point it would lose her. All I have to do is stay low and quiet until I… wait… oh fuck! There’s the other one and… fuck… it’s… the… the… uhhhhnnnn…

Q’nan kept his X77 pointed straight at Laura’s face as her body slackened. The pink spiral ray washed over her.

Spinning… deeper… faster… spinning… The new alien was speaking to her, commanding her to do things. It told her that she would obey. Obey without question. She nodded. She would do exactly that. It then told her to follow it, and she allowed herself to do that, too. Obey. Obey without question.

“Pkrar, B’nak! You almost let this one run away!” Q’nan pointed the new humanoid in the direction of their slave, and waited for her to take her place by the slave’s side. “What happened?”

“It started running.”

“I saw that,” said Q’nan, his antennae twitching. “Why did it start running? Did you forget to use the freeze ray?”

“No!” B’nak held up his X77 and scowled at it. “They’re not supposed to break like this. Eighty thousand charges per core! And these are brand new cores!”

“Did you test the cores first?”

“I did!” He had. Tested the two backup cores as well, even though the likelihood of the two of them firing off that many charges was impossibly distant. “Either this one has a stronger will than the other two, or this gun is starting to nag gr on us already. I don’t know which is worse.”

They examined their latest captive, who was now gently swaying from side to side, her lips slightly parted, her eyes vacant and distant. “Strong-willed or not,” Q’nan noted, “the mind ray of my X77 was strong enough to stop her by itself, without having to freeze her.”

“She does seem to be fully under now. And the brain smoother will destroy any free will that she has left.”

“Considering how this mission has gone so far, B’nak, I wouldn’t bet on it.” Q’nan raised his weapon and gave the humanoid an extra faceful of mind ray, just to be safe. It did not seem to react, or to sink any deeper into an entranced state. “Humanoid female, can you hear me?”

“Yes. I obey without question.”

“Turn to your left and begin walking forward. You will soon reach our spaceship. When you do, you will enter it and await further instructions.”

“Yes. I obey without question.”

“If you begin to think, freely and of your own, you will immediately enter an unconscious state, as if you were at rest. Do you understand?”

“Yes. I obey without question.”

B’nak watched as Laura carried out her new orders. “That was a nice touch, Q’nan. You know, you’re a natural at this stuff!” He slapped his companion on the back. “That was a close call though, wasn’t it?”

“I almost bzlst myself when I saw her running away from you. I thought we were done for. Imagine crawling around this landscape trying to find her again!”

“I think I did bzlst myself, Q’nan. Good thing it’s so dark on this planet!”

For the first time in days, the two aliens shared a laugh. “Ah, and look! Here comes the other one, with another fresh humanoid female in tow. These are going to be our first two real mind-slaves, Q’nan! Even that’s probably enough to pay for this entire trip, and I haven’t even told you my new big plan.”

“Big plan? This is a pretty big plan already.”

“Yes, but… this is better, I promise! Bigger and better! Let’s try making this drone handle the new humanoid female. It will be a good test for what I’ve got planned for her.”

He returned to Nicole. “Humanoid female. You will greet the other humanoid females who are approaching us. You will act completely normal. You will let no one suspect that you serve the Kzzrk Empire.”

“I hear, and obey.” Nicole began to retrace her steps through the field.

From the trees, out of earshot but well within view thanks to his trusty binoculars, Paul saw the whole thing.

Five minutes later

“Woo! Oh my God, Jenny, I can’t remember the last time I went to an underground rave party,” said Becky, skipping and twirling through the field. “How the hell did you guys ever find this old secret bunker, anyway?”

“Don’t ask me. It’s probably a leftover from when the Army owned this land. Devanni and her boyfriend… ugh, who’s that guy with the scar?”

“Mike?”

“No, the guy with the, you know, the scar on his face.” Jenny squinted, her mind flipping through an imaginary yearbook. “Andrew McCormick! Anyway they said that it’s the perfect spot because no one really knows about it, and the cops are too lazy to walk all the way up here from the road. There’s gonna be plenty of drugs and booze and guys who look a lot better than Richard. It’s just over in the next field. We’re close.”

“I wish I’d ignored you and taken a jacket. This dress is waaaaay too short for October.”

“It’s gonna be so hot in that bunker, Becky. You’ll thank me when you get home tonight and your jacket is still in the closet instead of lost out in a field somewhere.”

Becky looked up from the ground to get her bearings. “Oh look! There’s a girl here already.” She waved to the girl in the tan dress, and got no response. “Hey HEY, are you headed to the party?” She twirled again. The cool air felt good against her pale skin, and she reconsidered her earlier regret at not bringing a jacket. This new girl wasn’t wearing one, either.

“Shhh!” the new girl giggled. “You never know if the farmer might come by. Hey Jenny. Hey… Rachel?”

“I’m Becky. Nice to meet you. Is this your first time too?”

“Oh, no! Nicole here knew about this place long before I did. Come on. It’s just up ahead.” Jenny dashed across the rest of the field as fast as her shoes would allow. Laughing, Nicole and Becky followed.

But instead of continuing on to wherever the bunker was, Becky watched Jenny slow to a stop. Nicole joined her, and they both just stood at the edge of the woods, looking at something that Becky couldn’t make out. “Hey, guys? Is something wrong? Is there… hey guys?” She approached the two girls, confused. They were standing like zombies, not moving, not speaking.

She sensed movement to her left, and turned into a beautiful, blissful pink light. It’s so beautiful. So… pretty… spinning… spinning… faster… spinning… pretty…

From his location, Paul could only watch as the cute redhead from the Homecoming fundraiser fell victim to the same pink ray that ensnared Nicole’s friend. Judging from the way Jenny and Nicole passively watched it all happen without moving, it was fairly obvious that the aliens had taken a few extra steps to bring them even further under their control. No doubt the two new girls were next on the list, probably to be sent out in turn to lure even more girls to the same spot. Serial recruitment, just like a cult. Only in his case, there was no telling what would happen to them in the end. Breeding stock? Food? Foot soldiers in a future conquest of the entire Earth?

Jesus, if they take Nicole and Jenny now, there’s nothing I can do.

He felt his stomach rise again, and found himself praying for a miracle.

Meanwhile

“I will admit that I’m impressed, humanoid females.” B’nak paced before the two entranced coeds, admiring their forms. These new outer fabric coverings were far superior to the ones they usually wore.

“I serve and obey the Kzzrk Empire,” said Nicole.

“I serve and obey the Kzzrk Empire,” added Jenny.

B’nak looked at the blonde. “See? You got it right. Kzzrk. I don’t know why this one can’t seem to get it. Kzzrk. It’s not that hard. Show some respect for my home world, humanoid female.”

Nicole’s empty eyes stared back at him. “I serve and obey the Kzzrk Empire.”

“Q’nan was right. You’re as dumb as a brumtart.” He turned his attention to the newest captive. “Humanoid female, turn to your left and begin walking forward.”

“Yes.”

“No! Not… wait!” His antennae quivered. “Great, we caught an extra dumb one. Turn to your left and begin walking forward when I say so, and when you reach our spaceship, you will enter it and await further orders. Understood?”

“Yessss.”

“If you get lost, humanoid female, I swear…”

Becky said nothing, leaving an awkward silence.

“Go. Now. Obey.”

“Yes.” As instructed, Becky pivoted towards the ship.

Q’nan passed her on the way, headed in the opposite direction. He paused to watch her pass him by, captivated by her appearance and her long red hair. He’d seen a few humanoid female slaves in his life, usually from afar, glimpsed in the company of someone far, far more important than himself or B’nak. The humanoid females left to walk freely around this planet put the ones back home to shame. If they could get their ship back home in one piece, and if they found a broker not in league with the cartels or the r’amb’kaks, and if they could find Kzzrks who could actually afford to buy off-market slaves… they hadn’t spent much on fuel or food, certainly not nearly as much as they’d wasted on Tomesh, so even the red-haired humanoid female alone would pay off so, so many bills…

He found his companion where he’d left him, in the company of the two stupid Ouiaiian-controlled drones. They were excellent specimens in their own right, but B’nak’s faith in their ability to carry out important missions bordered on insanity. There wasn’t a single humanoid female in the entire universe who could be trusted with such tasks, and yet here there were, using the Ouiaiian bracelets—designed for controlling Kzzrks, not humanoids—to try to make it all work.

“B’nak,” he said, “should we brain-smooth the drones, too? It would probably make our job a lot easier.”

“It would make our job a lot harder,” B’nak countered. “We still need them.”

“I guess. But they’re not very smart. What if we found two new humanoid females and turned them into drones instead? Two smart drones. Drones who don’t need as much Ouiaiian persuasion.” He pointed at the shorter humanoid female. “Drones who can actually pronounce ‘Kzzrk’ without making my antennae wilt.”

“Drones who don’t exist yet? Drones we’d have to capture and program with just the one remaining control unit?”

“Because you lost the other one!”

“I know! But, still! Once you hear about my plan, you’ll understand.” He checked his drzznkr and then looked skyward, as if to confirm its accuracy. “I wish it wasn’t so late already. But the humanoids are all active during the daylight hours and we can’t risk any delays. It will have to wait one more solar cycle. Humanoid females, listen and obey. Answer me to the best of your knowledge.”

“I hear, and obey,” they said in unison.

“Taller humanoid female, where is the nearest place where you would find a large number of humanoid females, and not many humanoid males?”

“The school gym,” Jenny droned. “The women’s locker room.”

“Are humanoid females there at this point in the Earth solar cycle? At night?”

“No. It’s closed. Opens… in the morning. It closes at… ten, I think.”

B’nak sneered. “You do not think, humanoid female. You obey.”

“Yes. I hear, and obey.”

“Shorter humanoid female. Is there another location besides this ‘gym’ where you would find many humanoid females and no humanoid males?”

“Yes,” said Nicole. “Gamma House. The sorority house.”

“Would we find humanoid females there at this moment? At night?”

“Yes. They’re asleep. It’s their home.”

“You have done well, shorter humanoid female. I forgive your horrible treatment of the word Kzzrk.”

“I serve and obey the Kzzrk Empire.”

B’nak turned to his companion. “So. Here’s the big plan. What you said earlier got me thinking, Q’nan. About how risky it is to remain on this planet. We have room for twenty on our ship, but at this rate it will take another twenty-four solar cycles to fill the hold. We’ll never make it that long without being discovered by someone.”

“Or wrecking on a piece of orbiting space junk. That reminds me, we need to check the hull for damage. That last hit was nasty.”

“It was! And did you see that tube with the sun fins? It looked like an orbital docking station. All it takes is for one humanoid on board that station to see us at exactly the wrong moment…”

“Then maybe we should go home right now? We have four slaves. I’ve never seen one with red hair before. I bet we can sell her for a premium. That’s more than enough to pay for the expedition and to pay off the ship. If we sell all four, I bet we could even quit our jobs!”

“But what if we could have the best of both stars?”

“Don’t be so greedy, B’nak. What if we went home now? We’d be back before anyone noticed we were gone.”

“True, but… what if we try to collect as many humanoid females as we can in one go, and then head for home? We can always brain smooth them all on the way back. We can program these two to guard and watch over the others.”

“It figures! The one time you listen to me, and it’s that. I should have thought about it more before I said anything to you.”

“I don’t think it was that bad of a plan,” said B’nak. His antennae twitched. “You liked it then. What’s wrong with it now?”

“For one thing, we won’t be able to land the ship any closer to the humanoid settlement than we are now. We will have to go there on foot and herd the slaves back to the ship with us. That’s a long time away from safety, especially if the X77s are starting to fail.”

B’nak looked at the ground.

“What, B’nak? I know that look. This is bad news coming. Let me just say no right now, and make it easier. No, that’s a terrible idea, let’s do anything else but that.”

“Okay, hear me out. What if—”

“No.”

“What if our servants here—”

“B’nak, this already sounds bad.”

“What if our servants here did the work for us? We give them the X77s, we program them to go to this Gamma Habitation Unit, they use the mind ray to entrance the humanoid females, and then lead them back to this ship? No one will see us, and we can easily escape if it goes wrong. I can still control the taller humanoid female with her control unit, and she can control the shorter one. Each X77 can dominate multiple minds at once. It is foolproof.”

“In theory, B’nak. In theory, each X77 can dominate multiple minds.”

“Yours stopped that humanoid female in her tracks! You can dominate multiples, you just have to wave it back and forth in front of them.” B’nak pointed his X77 in the direction of Nicole and Jenny and did just that. “If the setting is on the highest level, you can catch them with a peripheral sweep. Like you did with the one that tried to run.”

“What if, Pkrar forbid, it goes wrong? If they get caught? If they do something stupid?” He looked them over. “They will do something stupid. Are you okay with cutting and running if we need to do that?”

“Absolutely. Worst case, we go home with two brand new humanoid female mind-slaves and a map that takes us right back here to get more of them when we’re ready. We can even track these two down and instantly put them under control again. They can’t take off their bracelets themselves.”

Q’nan reconsidered. “Okay, B’nak, It’s your ship and your mission. I trust you.”

“Really?”

“No, but it’s your ship and your mission.”

“Good enough!”

B’nak approached Jenny and Nicole, who were starting to turn blue from the cold. “Humanoid females! You will receive your new orders now. Listen and obey.”

Two mindless voices spoke as one. “I hear, and obey.”

Later

Paul waited for the aliens to return to their ship, noting with a growing annoyance that they were far too happy about whatever it is they were up to. They’d spoken to Nicole and Jenny for quite some time before thank God directing them back down the road towards town. The other two girls remained inside the ship. Paul guessed that they were never meant to come back out again.

He decided to retrace his steps through the woods rather than risk being spotted by the aliens. He wasn’t sure what they’d do if they did, but he suspected it wasn’t good. Charlie’s sudden disappearance made a lot more sense now.

“This is bad,” he muttered, over and over again, a depressing mantra that overlaid the crunch and crackle of the underbrush. “This is bad bad bad holy SHIT this is bad!”

He wrapped his left hand around a sapling to steady himself, fishing his phone out of his jacket with his other hand and ignoring his brain’s demands that he keep moving. He needed to call the cops. The military. Someone with enough firepower to blow that UFO to pieces before it had a chance to escape.

With those two girls still inside? Dammit Paul, keep moving!

Reluctantly, he slipped the phone back into his pocket. “Who’s going to believe me, anyway? ‘Oh yeah, hi, U.S. Army? I just saw a UFO and two little green aliens! Oh, and also, they’re using mind control on my girlfriend and forcing her to kidnap other hot girls for them… hello? Hello?’ Yeah, sure Paul, they’ll understand completely! Fuck, fuck! What the hell am I supposed to do now?”

He knew the answer immediately. A new mantra replaced the old one as he picked up speed, no longer afraid of being spotted, crashing through the woods with a gait that was half-running, half-tripping. “Just got to get to Nicole. I just need to get her out of here. Get Nicole, get out. Get Nicole, get out.”

It was that simple. Grab her, grab Jenny too, and get the hell out of town. Go hide in a cave with them until the aliens gave up and went back to Alpha Centauri.

He reached the road and began to run.