Taken

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Turning, the demon jerked hard on the chain attached to the collar, dragging Cass off her feet, and pulling her, scrabbling across the floor and shrieking for help, away into the darkness of the Hitchers warren, and past another half dozen or more of the blue creatures who began silently moving up the tunnel towards the surface
</snip>

Whether or not anyone up above had heard her was largely a moot point as they, no doubt, had problems of their own to contend with, with the other “demons”; leaving Cass in the unenviable position of having to contend with one of the huge blue skinned creatures on her own
Faced with the stark choice between either capture or fighting for her freedom, she twisted over at the end of the chain, up onto her feet and, acting largely on instinct, sprang forwards to cast a loop of chain up and over the creatures head, before pulling it back as hard as she was able, tightening it around the demon’s neck
For a few brief seconds, she almost dared to believe that her desperate scheme might just work, but her hopes were dashed as the creature causally swung a massive fist around and into Cass’s abdomen, winding her and making her ribs pop painfully
The fight was pretty much over from that point, as Cass, clutching at her bruised ribs, collapsed wheezily to the floor and the creature disdainfully loosened the chain from around its neck and turned to continue dragging her through the passageways

Some minutes later, scuffed, bruised, and still struggling, Cass was hauled by her captor out into the daylight on the other side of the Hitcher’s warren, near to where Phil had recently been performing his homebrew experiments, where, waiting out of the heat of the early afternoon sun in the shade at the edge of a clearing, were another couple of the blue skinned creatures, who were standing in watchful guard over a bound and chained group of around twenty or so of the grey skinned hominids the Dwarfers had seen the day before
The three blue creatures exchanged a few unintelligibly gutteral words as Cass was dragged towards the group to be presented for inspection, her captor levering her painfully around by the collar round her neck to hold her firmly in place as the other two scrutinised her intently
One of the creatures, an older, scarred and ugly looking specimen, bought his face in close to hers and narrowed his eyes as he peered at her, Cass shying away as much as she was able in the firm grip of her captor, as the creature raised one of its clawed fingers to poke the skin on her cheek beneath her eye and then run a length of her long hair through between its thumb and forefinger
Growling a few low words, the creatures’ mouth split into a horrifically toothed grin and it threw its head back to let loose a bellowing laugh, making Cass, if it were possible, feel even less at ease with herself and her position

The inspection apparently over, Cass was dragged roughly over towards where the greys were tethered in the shade of one of the spreading fern-trees, and pushed down on to the ground amongst them while her captor began work on threading the chain attached to her collar through onto a central link, that bound five of the grey creatures together in a gang
It was hardly any sort of a chance at all, but Cass took what was possibly the last shot she would have at her freedom, and suddenly snapped the chain from between the creatures fingers as it began its work, and made a break for it; her feet pounding hard against the ground as she dashed across the clearing, trying to put as much distance between her and these vile creatures as possible
One of the blues, apparently younger and faster than the others, arced around to loom large in front of her forcing her to dodge to the right to move past it, amidst yells and whoops of excitement from the greys many of whom were suddenly on their feet, cheering her on
She almost, almost made it, but with the greater reach afforded by his massive frame, the “demon” was able to wheel around and catch hold of the chain trailing from her collar as she hurtled past, and pull her firmly up to a halt
“Smegging no!” Cass snarled, tears of anger and frustration prickling her eyes as she fought against the creature as it pulled her back towards the greys, her boots slipping and sliding through the dirt but having little in the way of any effect in halting her progress “No!”
The creature turned at this to regard her, its lips curling in what Cass took to be distaste, before it yanked hard on the chain, overbalancing her and pulling her forward to land grazed and bruised in the dirt at the creature’s feet
“Smegger” she hissed, pushing herself up from the floor, but the demon was on her in an instant, hauling her up by her collar’s chain and lifting her almost clean off her feet with just the one hand, her own fingers involuntarily scrabbling at the collar trying to support some of her weight as the tips of her toes danced and scraped around in the dirt beneath her
Growling a few unintelligible words, the blue skinned creature waved the vicious looking claws of its free hand in front of her eyes in a worryingly threatening gesture before it unceremoniously dumped her back onto the ground and turned, the instructive lesson apparently over, to continue leading her back towards the greys, where she was soon chained into a gang with a group of the other creatures

Cass shrank away from greys chained around her, her eyes darting around her new companions as they in turn regarded her with suspicion as the three blue creatures began something of a discussion, each of them regularly staring over at her and then back towards the direction of the Hitchers warren
Able to examine grey skinned creatures up close for the first time, Cass noted that although they were quite obviously of the same species as the ones that had assisted the blues in the tunnels yesterday, these seemed somehow different – While they obviously had the same feral looking claws and teeth, these seemed far less wild and obviously insane than those they had encountered yesterday and instead just seemed... what?
Defeated?

Eventually one of the greys near her murmured something in warning in a soft sibilant tongue as the scarred blue “demon” clapped an arm around the shoulders of the one that Cass recognised as her captor and began making his way towards where she and her new companions waited
Evidently a decision had been reached
Approaching, Scarface yelled something that had those around Cass up and on their feet in seconds, the rattling chains securing her to them, pulling her upright as well, her eyes scanning the distant entrance to the Hitcher’s warren while Scarface continued barking orders, finally finishing by cuffing one of the greys in front of Cass hard around the back of the head, and making the group move forward, pulling Cass unwillingly along with them
Her desperate struggles against the movement of the group earned Cass a staggering blow to the side of her head from Scarface as he and they moved away into the undergrowth, Cass stumbling and nearly falling, only to be caught by one of the greys with a strong and steady hand around her upper arm
Her eyes wide in fear and surprise, Cass glanced back over her shoulder to catch a final glimpse of the entrance to the Hitcher’s warren, before it was lost to view in the undergrowth
Jay would come... Wouldn’t he?