Cowboys and Aliens Ch. 04

The next morning they were up as per usual to do their morning workout.

Mark informed everyone, "Those guys are going to take me today at some point in time. Just so our stories are straight, I took a Gator up to the high lake, as I hadn't been up there this year. I saw a ramp appear out of nowhere, went to investigate and woke up a week later looking like this. When they take me, please don't do anything that would put you in their crosshairs. So let's just pretend like nothing is wrong and let them make their move."

Kat started the workout video and they did their workout just as usual. One of the guys came out eventually and watched the workout, the other two came out of their rooms, once the smell of bacon was in the air. Breakfast went off without a hitch. Everyone's alarms went off and everyone went about their normal chores of taking care of the horses, checking the fence lines and then turning out the horses.

They finished the chores and they came in to get a cup of coffee. One guy had left to get their black SUV and the other guys were checking out of the rooms. As soon as Mark entered the lobby, they made their move.

They flashed some ID badges and pulled out weapons as they did the whole, "Mark Phoenix, we have been ordered to detain you in reference to an incident that happened near here. Come with us peacefully and no one will get hurt."

"OK, I'll go peacefully," Mark said to the agents as he raised his hands in the air. They handcuffed his hands behind his back and as they were taking him out of the lodge, he turned to the family and said, "It's going to be OK, this is all a misunderstanding."

The agents escorted him out to the SUV and, once behind the black windows, they put a cloth bag over his head and drove off.

"Cricket, track where they take me," Mark thought.

"Why did you let them take you? With your enhancements, you could've easily overpowered 3 men."

"I'm curious to see what they think they're on to, plus it throws them off the trail of everyone else. When they take blood samples from me, can you make sure they don't get any medibots?"

"The medibots will already avoid extraction, their assignment is you."

"OK, keep Solara apprised of where I'm at."

"Actually the medibots are also a tracking and identification system, so we already know exactly where you are!"

Mark addressed his abductors, "I have no idea what you think you're going to gain by kidnapping me, but do you really think you need to keep a bag over my head?"

"Keep quiet Mr. Phoenix," was all that was said the entire trip.

After more than 2 hours the vehicle stopped at a checkpoint, a guard asked for identification and then they drove slow for another minute or so.

When they stopped, they kept the bag over his head and guided him into a building, down a hall, turned right down another hall and into a room with a metal door. They sat him on a chair, shackled his ankles to the chair, then handcuffed his hands to a table, took the bag off his head and left, locking the metal door behind them.

Mark looked around the room, it was a basic white 10'x10' room with two cameras along the ceiling, an obvious two way mirror, two stainless steel chairs and a stainless steel table with a bar in the middle, to which he was handcuffed.

He waited for what seemed like hours... no one came in to see him.

Finally when he started getting thirsty, he said, "Can I get some water? Food? Anything? And can someone please tell me what I did and why I'm here?"

Within a few minutes a man in black came in with a water bottle, placed it in front of him, opened it, put in a straw and left. Mark had listened for the cracking of the sealed lid, but he hadn't heard anything, so he was fairly sure the water had been tampered with.

"Get a drop on your tongue and I'll do an analysis."

Mark sucked just enough up the straw to get a drop on his tongue. Cricket said, "The water contains sodium amytal or truth serum as they call it."

Deciding to forego the tainted water, he spoke to his watchers, "Can I please get some water that isn't drugged?"

After no response for an hour or so, he tried asking again.

This time someone spoke through a speaker, "This will go much smoother if you cooperate."

Mark said, "Me? Cooperate? I have been very cooperative up until now! You kidnapped me from my home, which I went peacefully, and brought me to your secret hideout and you've kept me locked in this room, watching me and waiting for me to drink some drugged water and haven't asked a single damn question. How is that considered uncooperative?"

Cricket said, "Mark, you should know those tattoos around your legs, arms and cock can get you out of almost anything. You just have to think what you want them to do and they'll do it."

Mark thought, "Will it be safe drinking that water?"

Cricket answered, "It's harmless to you."

Mark announced, "Fine! I'm not sure what you are after or you think I have, but I've got nothing to hide so if this will move things along for you."

Mark took a few big sucks of the straw and brought the water level down about halfway. "There, I hope you're happy, now ask some fucking questions or let me go!"

After several minutes, a man in black came into the room and sat on the chair across the table.

"What is your name?" he asked.

"Mark Atlas Phoenix."

"Do you know where you are, Mark?"

"Where did they take me?"

"You are currently at what is supposed to be a vacant warehouse on the Southeast side of Calgary, just off 52^nd Street."

"I'm in an abandoned warehouse on the Southeast side of Calgary, just off 52^nd Street," he answered as if he was drugged, giving them just enough information to make them think they weren't as smart as they thought they were.

The man's eyes went wide as he looked at the mirror, then continued, "What happened recently out near the ranch?"

"My wife left me and I had just moved out to the ranch. I hadn't been up that trail this year, so I took a Gator just to go up and spend some time alone to think about everything I'd been going through. I was driving around the meadow and ran into something that I couldn't see, so I walked around to investigate and found this ramp. The next thing I know, I woke up sitting in the seat of the Gator, I drove back to the ranch and that's when they told me I looked younger and that I'd been gone for a week."

"What do you think happened?"

"I don't know, aliens maybe? I've never believed in them before, but this happened to me somehow and I can't explain it."

"Would you mind if we took a blood sample?"

"Go ahead, maybe you can figure out what happened to me?"

The man in black got up and left as a man in white came in and took two vials of blood and then left the room, but that guy did leave him a Gatorade and he did hear the seal crack on that bottle.

After a couple more hours, two more guys dressed in black came in, unshackled him and led him to what would best be described as a prison cell with a security camera in the corner of the ceiling. There was a toilet in the corner and a sink beside it with some little paper Dixie cups, a hand towel and a metal cot bolted to the wall with a basic futon type mattress on it, a pillow and a sheet. There weren't bars on the cell, just a metal door with a sliding peek hole about head high and another slider hole at the floor.

After a few hours, the bottom slider opened and a plate was slid in. It had a hamburger and some fries. It smelled and tasted like a McDonalds quarter pounder meal, sans the drink.

After a while, there was an announcement of 'lights out' and the place went dark. Literally, no light anywhere.

Cricket suggested, "Get some rest, I'm watching over you."