Curiosity Killed the Cat

It was once again time for the national UFO convention, and that meant that we had to keep especially close track of certain individuals of interest to us. Most of the convention's attendees were harmless enough, some just as crazy as we tried to portray them to encourage the population not to take them seriously, and others just plain fun and out to make a buck.

There were of course some true believers in the group with real experiences, and it was my duty to keep track of one of those specifically, and the others generally. She was twenty seven years old and the guys on the detail with me called her Red, even though she had a more official code name for surveillance purposes. Red was a natural red head (the guys had told me, as if I truly wanted to know) and quite stunning, and I had drawn the duty of watching her because she was very distracting to the male members of our detail. Red was pretty sharp too, she never carried a cell phone of any kind, and she drove an older car manufactured before tracking technology had been embedded into their systems.

We had at times placed a tracking unit on her car anyway, and when she was in close proximity to a sensitive area for the purposes of gathering information for her newsletter, we then followed her about from the air with our latest gadgets, but one had to give Red an A for effort as she did slip past us with alarming frequency. If we caught her too close to a scheduled event but still on public ground we had a huge bag of tricks to use to redirect her, staged car crashes and the like on her route, and once just for fun we had arranged two little alien hitchhikers walking along the remote highway in front of her. They were dressed as little greys that night, and when she pulled over to check them out she looked about to have an orgasm she was so excited as she snapped away with her digital camera. The look on her pretty face was priceless however when her two little alien friends took off their elaborate masks and asked for a ride home from their costume party. Some might have called that cruel, but this business makes one develop a kind of gallows humor less we all loose our minds.

The national UFO convention was held that year (and many others) in Las Vegas, and that was uncomfortably close to the infamous area fifty one, (also known as Groom Lake to some), the latter specifically a favorite stop for our little friends that I had yet to see in person. I had been told unofficially that they had been coming here for decades, long before the area became quite so built up, likely drawn to our nuclear testing that announced to the entire universe that we either had come of age, or more likely had become exponentially more dangerous to others.

Unknown to us at the time (need to know and all of that) a scheduled provision stop that weekend was planned at an alternate location for obvious reasons, and Red, whom I had befriended at the convention far more easily than my male counterparts could, somehow got wind of something she suggested we should slip away together to see. I was unarmed and had no badge or other identification that would contradict my carefully fabricated persona of a young woman interested in all things extraterrestrial, and Red insisted I leave my bag and smart phone behind so "they" couldn't track us.

If she were a man I might have thought she had some nefarious intentions toward me, perhaps she instead keying in on my preferences for female company over that of any men. If that were the case I could either go along for the ride as it were even though it would be hugely unprofessional, or completely blow my cover which would be even more so.

Red and I slipped away together as my fellow agents watched their charges, two women in nice dresses and heels driving out of town and toward the Toiyabe National Forest late at night to do who knows what. Her white dress fit her frame as if it were custom made for the curves of her body alone, and my simple black dress not nearly so flattering to my own physique that I kept in prime shape in the company gym. I was muscular in comparison to Red's voluptuousness, and as my fellow agents had commented once or twice, "bony". I also was dressed so as not to stand out in a crowd, and on that score my simple dress at least worked.

Red apparently knew where she was going, and she found the dirt road and drove up it with her headlights off, we driving slowly by starlight as the sky was typically very clear. Her window was open as she drove along slowly, and I found myself caught up in whatever she was seeking, her enthusiasm contagious. If she were in search for a quiet place to make love in the back seat of an old car I thought that would at least not be a first for me, and I let Red lead to see where she were taking me, both figuratively, and literally.

Red stopped the car after she thought she had heard something, and with the engine off I thought I heard it too. Red confided that she had once seen an alien ship of massive size gathering cattle at her family farm in the early morning, it's mass so great as to occult the sky above, and ever since had made it an obsession of hers to discover all she could about the ships and their purpose. I had read all this in her newsletter, and in her bio as well, and shortly after that incident we had taken to procuring what our little friends wanted on the open market and placing them in an area of their choosing for collection instead of them stealing what they needed from the locals.

I had heard the rumors, but since I wasn't part of the procurement crew I had no specific details as to how it was done, nor where, and at the moment it seemed that Red was better informed that I. There were also rumored to be three different groups of visitors that stopped by for provisions with us in exchange for who knows what, again another department. The little greys were friendly and harmless little humanoids, but obviously had the ability to defend themselves if necessary. The big greys were also humanoid and rumored to be tolerant of us, but just hardly, we not a true threat to them and more of a curiosity. The last group I only knew existed, and little rumors were even heard about them.

It was Red's car, and she slipped out of her heels and into a pair of her sneakers she wisely kept at the ready and made her way toward the noises we both heard, she carrying nothing but a high end digital camera to record what she could. I was curious as well, but had the primary duty to keep her out of trouble, both for her own safety and so as not to cause an incident with our guests. Red easily outpaced me in my heels, and I had to resort to kicking them off to catch up with her, jogging on the grassy side of the old dirt road, and if not for her white dress she might have given me the slip sooner than she did.

As it was I lost her, but I continued toward the noises we had heard, it sounding like someone's remote farm despite the unlikely location. It took a moment for me to realize why I had lost Red, but it had gotten suddenly very dark, the starlight on this clear and moonless night instantly gone. We were in the trees and that could have explained it, but I had little time to look up if I ever wanted to catch up with my better prepared charge, less she get herself into trouble.

I followed the dirt road, but I had a feeling Red turned off toward the noises on my left, but I just plain couldn't see a thing in the more dense trees there. I suspected that no matter the intention for the animals I had heard, the cows at least didn't walk themselves through those woods off to my left, but rather were likely driven in on the dirt road I was following. If Red had the intention of stranding me out here by doubling back to her car and leaving me, she easily could, and I knew it would be hell to write that report up later.

Barefoot and hitchhiking in the middle of night, and in the middle of nowhere, what a sight I would make I thought without the slightest humor. If the wrong sorts were armed and picked me up first I could be in for a bad time, hand to hand combat training or not. People disappeared all the time out here, especially young women, could I be just another on that growing list? I then wondered if harmless Red had discovered my identity and had created this elaborate charade to get rid of me, but there was no evidence to support that.

Red and I had been separated for less than ten minutes by the time I made it to the field I suspected the dirt road lead to. It was still eerily dark, the open field revealing nothing but silent blackness above as I walked through it at first, proving that the tree cover had little to do with me loosing Red. I saw several small and empty fenced in enclosures as I walked near them, chickens, pigs and goats respectively if I had to guess by what they left behind, but I'm no farm girl like Red. I was still barefoot, and could hardly see where I placed my feet, and I was therefore thankful for the enclosure's containment.

The noises of the animals had ceased at some point, but with all the excitement I would be hard pressed to tell exactly when that happened. I had allowed myself to forget about Red for a few seconds as well with all the mysteries before me, my situational awareness not keeping up with events that seem obvious now. Deeper into the field I saw a glow on the ground, and like a moth to the flame I approached. Red's camera lay still recording on the ground when I picked it up, it's screen illuminated and drawing me to it. I then saw a pile of what had to be her dress and undergarments nearby, I wondering what the hell was going on.

I scrolled the video backwards at double speed and watched the camera jump to head level, and then groups of animals appear with a flash one by one as the camera took in the scene from a distance. I stopped the action and walked to where a large cow had been tethered with a collar in the video, it being the last to pop into sight in my backwards scroll. There on the ground was a chain and empty collar, the grass chewed down to nothing in a perfect circle around the iron stake pounded into the ground that the chain was still attached proving this was no illusion.

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Before I could watch the video forward, or for that matter before my mind could catch up with what I just watched there was a flash of light in that field with me, and in an instant I felt as if I were being sucked out of my clothing as I too dropped that camera and shot up into the air toward the dark mass overhead. I found myself naked and suspended spread eagle in a compartment staring at Red similarly displayed as I hung from my invisible bonds, about the only thing I able to move being my eyes. I took in the scene before me, I so far not feeling panic strangely enough, possibly due to the effects of whatever was holding me immobile, or even shock.

Red's eyes told a different story, but she didn't seem to be able to struggle any more than I could, and yes she was a natural red head. I saw the 'other animals' from that field penned up behind the suspended Red, the thought popping into my head as if on it's own, but accompanied by an unfamiliar voice.

"Oh, another one?" the same voice asked as if surprised by my appearance, but rhetorically as I didn't know how to respond. The apparent owner of that voice in my head walking into my field of view, it being a large bipedal lizard that reminded me most of a Komodo dragon on it's hind legs in a uniform.

It would be irrational (even with the business I was in) not to be terrified by what stood before me, and I was, but at the same time I was helpless and pinned motionless inside that compartment and could only watch.

"This is a rare treat, but we only have room for one surprise at the moment," the dragon opined most reasonably in what could be called a British accent, "and this one my dear appears to have more meat on her bones than you," it further spoke in my head without moving it's mouth. It then gestured over it's shoulder with what looked like it's thumb in a very human way in the direction of the suspended Red, just in case I didn't know which "she" it was referring, she however strung up for inspection much closer to the other meat than I for the moment.

I finally felt the same terror that Red apparently did, (she seeing the creatures before I had), we apparently just some kind of new hors d' oeuvres for these beasts from another world to sample by mistake. What if they liked us? Could we humans be obligated to provide more of this potential delicacy for their table in the future? What if they already knew they liked us, and it was they or others like them that were responsible for the unsolved disappearances recently?

The creature's five clawed "hand" pushed on my belly and I floated closer to the other animals, and Red, I feeling like a side of beef on a hook as it's rolled about the processing plant on it's overhead tracks. I saw the creature mash Red's large breasts as it's claws dug in ever so slightly, and then it pinch her flanks, then moving on to her legs to evaluate those as if shopping at the market. The last part of the inspection made me wish I could cringe as the creature took it's long forked tongue and tasted Red from her ankle up and across the front of her body ending at her neck.

It was no surprise that I got the identical "inspection", I however never so happy to get picked as second best. The creature told me telepathically as I was pushed over toward where I had hung seconds before a simple "next time", it sounding like I should be disappointed not to be chosen over Red rather than relieved. It was a selfish survival thought, and I regretted it the moment I thought it...

Another flash of light and I woke some time later to what I thought for a second was the strangest dream in the world, until I realized I was still naked and somewhere in the woods as the sun began to rise...

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18.06.15