Mia sighs and crosses her arms, staring at Eric like a disappointed parent. "And what intergalactic law did we break to be swept off to a prison, huh? I haven't been read any rights or any trial or-"

"Not like that." Eric scoffs, waving a hand. "I mean that we're captives. There's no way out of this place. Even if we leave this area, it's an entire world of nothing. No way off. No way of getting home."

"Then why did you say prison? That's an entirely different thing!" Mia drops her head in her hands and lets out a low groan of frustration. "Why are you being like this?"

Eric shrugs, a strange sort of melancholy passing over his face. "You said I should talk. I'm talking."

That silences Mia and she pulls her head up out of her hands, resting her cheek on one and looking away.

Eric stares at her, and then, after a moment, he closes his eyes and leans back against the wall. "Not that it matters. Whatever reason we're here, there's no getting out."

I finally can't help but speak.

They've just been speaking back and forth on either side of me like I'm not here and, honestly, I'm tired enough that for the most part I don't care, but...

"I think it matters." I shift and try to sit up more in the bed. It hurts, it makes me feel even more dizzy, but I succeed. "A prison sentence means we'll probably go home one day, a concentration camp or...meat processing factory means-"

"It's slavery." Another voice chimes up. Someone I don't recognize, standing nearby. An older man, though I can't pinpoint his age. "Were none of you listening? We're being gives skills and the ability to understand commands. Why would they do that if they were just going to eat us?"

Oh.

...Well, when he puts it that way.

He scratches at his chin, a frown knitting his brow. "Whatever they are, they don't need slaves that can't communicate. Think about it. Are you going to give a bunch of language skills and training to an animal for food or to a slave to give commands to?"

A...slavery kind of place, then.

Mia pressed her lips together. "It...might not be nefarious. They can't communicate their intent until we can understand them! Maybe this is just some kind of...planet rehabilitation kind of thing. Where they go planet by planet and drop in humans to introduce new things like agriculture, language. It doesn't have to be some kind of horrific slavery!"

Silence falls for a long moment after Mia's statement.

That older guy...I don't recognize him, but he doesn't seem to be hostile in any way. "Maybe it's both. I'll keep my theories, I've got nothing better to do. What are they going to do if I'm wrong, take away my water privileges?"

Maybe I just...don't want to be in a prison or a slave training camp, but...Mia's words do make sense to me.

"We stopped having slaves before we had cars, right?" I'm like.

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

90% confident on that.

95%.

"If they're so advanced they have space flight, they should be more enlightened than us, right?"

Eric scoffed lightly. "Didn't feel particularly enlightened by those shocks."

"So..."

...Okay, yeah, I don't really have a response to that.

It's possible.

Just...

Really unlikely.

It's not like they've done anything to suggest that they are and they've done plenty to make me think otherwise.

I must look as dispirited as I feel because Mia reaches forward and grips my shoulder, giving me an encouraging smile. "No matter what's going on, we're here together, not alone. If there's a chance we can escape, we'll take it."

Eric snorts softly from behind me. "Or not survive."

I can't help but flash a dark look over my shoulder at him.

What's with that defeatist attitude?

...Not that I'm any more optimistic, but at least I can put on a smile to pretend I am.

But...

He looks just as depressed as he acts, if not more.

It's the same look I used to see in the mirror a lot during my sophomore year.

The realization washes over me with the same jolt as if I'd been struck by lightning.

I'm not the only person who was taken who doesn't have a happy family, who doesn't have a nice home to go back to.

Who was content to wander around unnoticed through a small town without any ambitions, without any dreams.

I...

Don't know why I thought that would be the case but.

I can't help feeling an odd sense of sympathy looking at him right now.

Even though Mia is the one talking to me more often, I think...maybe I'm more like Eric than Mia.

But that makes sense.

Given the choice, I'd never be the one starting up a conversation with a stranger.

I'd probably just hide somewhere quiet in a place like this if Mia didn't constantly seek me out and pull me out of my proverbial shell. Maybe Eric is like that too, and that's why he's just...lingering. Nearby. But not really doing anything.

I know I should do something to reach out to him, but I don't even know where I should start.

Before I can formulate anything resembling a plan of action, the door to this hut bangs open, and two of those yellow-orange people I've come to associate with misery come in carrying...some sort of instrument I can't identify.

It's hard to tell in this light, but it appears to be a glowing rod.

Mia immediately steps in front of me as if to shield me.

But those people aren't there to abduct me away somewhere or drag me into some kind of nightmare chamber of horror.

They don't even seem interested in the people in this room at all.

They march directly to one corner and in unison, jam their glowing rods into the walls.

Then, nothing.

All of us wait tensely for something to happen.

But.

Nothing.

After a long moment, Mia releases a breath she'd clearly been holding for that tense period of silence, and I follow suit.

I am way too on edge here.

Not that it's much of a surprise.

This...place doesn't exactly encourage relaxation.

The moment doesn't last long before the door swings open once more and more of those alien figures - all the same stocky build with the same drab, dirty-orange clothing - pour in to the building.

One of them moves with enough purpose that the others avoid standing in front of the door, so I assume...that's the leader or something.

That alien man has a basket strapped to his back that's so overfull it looks like it could spill at any moment.

He marches into the room and up to one of the walls and flings open the lid to his basket.

Some kind of vegetables cascade to the floor, rolling toward everyone.

As the other aliens in the room watch, the alien man sweeps out of the room without a second glance.

It doesn't look like a vegetable I'm familiar with, but.

Mia glances at me with a little smile. "It's just in time for a meal. They look like vegetables, but they taste like fruit. And they're filling."

Like she's proven her point, Mia crouches down and picks one up, tossing it from one hand to the other a couple of times before she sinks her teeth into it.

She must not like the look on my face, because she raises an eyebrow and, chewing, mumbles. "It's better than starving, trust me."

Well.

Yeah. Probably.