Why does life exist anyway? It just complicates the universe more.

I wish I knew.

We both sigh.

Lying here on the ground of an alien planet, looking up to see the rings up in the turquoise sky, like an unreachable race course beyond my grasp has got to be the most exhilarating sight I've ever seen. It's beyond what mere words can convey. This feeling.

A little breeze is wafting against my white robe. My mum would have had a stroke if she saw me lying on the ground with white clothes on, but she can rest assured it's not as dirty as she might think. Whatever the green layer is that envelops this field, it doesn't get on the clothes or come off the ground that easily. It's not grass, that's for sure, but it's even too tough to be moss. Some alien planet this is.

So for that matter, what little dirt I've got on me, is plain old dust which would come right off with a bit of smacking.

I close my eyes and breathe in, the mixture of strange smells stimulate my nostrils; and all inclusive, it smells a bit sweet.

But it can't beat the best smell I had smelled when I first came here.

Thinking about the bath bomb, I smell myself again. I mostly don't reek. They must have washed me regularly.

Okay, enough with the spiralling thoughts. Aren't you hungry, brother?

"So much so, that I'm finding it difficult to move."

Great. We'll be dying of starvation on an open field, because this lazy ass lacks any kind of resolve.

Wow, that was harsh. I turn over and push myself up. I wonder if I've ever felt this weak before due to hunger.

My joints ache and my muscles are heavy. I also feel tired and sleepy because of that, even though I just woke up like a few hours ago.

Somehow I jog my way back into the building. I do a quick look around once the doors close shut automatically behind me. Usually, the hallways should have some aliens roaming about. But there's nobody when I enter.

They're still not back yet.

_____________

Since I was able to escape just fine, I should have no problem getting myself a meal right? Right?

Still taking no chances, I sneak inside the open dining area like a secret agent. I jump, I do vaults, and I tiptoe for the most part.

I'm starving for something edible. Haven't had the feeling of chewing food for so long. It's making me mad. Even if it's slop, it's still food, and it's still gonna keep me alive.

I hear him grunt. We're getting there, space buddy. Hold on.

I am.

I smile, looking at my mutated hand. Then I clasp it tightly. I'm holding you right back.

_____________

I find the machines. They are all placed in a laaaarge room which I find after I come out of the back door of the dining room. The same one through which they first handled me through to finally go up to the lab.

Eeeesh. Scary memories.

So anyway, the machines. They are all stationed together, kept in rows. There're about twenty of them in each row.

Sweet pineapples, that'd feed quite a few mouths.

About thirty thousand.

...

I do a double take on that.

How do you know that?

Well, there are fifteen rows. And each machine is capable of feeding almost a hundred inmates.

Inmates huh... Can't really criticise on that part.

But surely, there aren't that many of us here. There couldn't have been more than a thousand of us in the dining area on our first day, right?

I should have just kept my mouth shut. Is your hunger for knowledge that intense that it overwrites your physical requirements?

I grunt. Well, you brought it up. But it's odd. Really odd.

I survey the machinery trying to figure out how to turn it on. I don't want it to do laps. I just want one serving, for now.

These are not the factory machines I'm familiar with, nor the kinds you find on airplanes. The material looks metallic, like everything else, with a purplish tinge to it. There are numerous circular mechanisms which look like gears but definitely aren't. Maybe they churn the food. All total, it looks like some industrial machinery got turned into an art project, while still being functional. I don't know how else to explain it.

There are no buttons. How inconvenient.

They didn't know a biped was coming to hijack their machinery so why not.

Wow, you know of that slang that alien used on me.

It literally means two-legged creature!

Well, when said like that it sounds offensive.

Humans are funny. I do realise it being offensive. I used it on purpose, haha! I'm inside your head after all. I know how the world works for you!

I grunt loudly. I really wonder if you are a boon or a bane.

And at the same time, while fiddling with a cuboidal opening, something clicks in.

"Yay! Bingo!"

It starts churning, the machine starts moving forward.

Here it is! The meal!

A brown bowl comes out underneath it and a pipe pours in a white slop inside. It looks different than what we had last time. Different recipe? How thoughtful of them!

Next, water is poured out, but not in glasses but on a flatter kind of bowl. Huh, that's odd. They didn't have to change the glasses.

I click it back off and the machine stops, a bit displaced from it's parking slot. The appendages of these insects probably get in that box-like cavity and switch it on. Mine hands are thankfully thin enough to have got through. Well, time to dig in.

"Oh right, no spoons."

I take some of the water and wash my hands. Maybe I should have taken a bath anyway.

Just eat, dammit.

I scoop out the white slop and put it in my mouth.

I blink, then spit it out so fast, I could pass for a llama.

"THAT WASN'T FOOD!"

That was not something that grows on earth. It was so salty and gross. Acidic too. Yuck.

"Can't I even eat in peace on this goddamned planet!"

I sip the water and spit it at the corner.

"I need to find that recipe back."

You can't possibly check three hundred machines.

No. I can't.

Then what would you do? His voice is tense.

...

I don't know. Going back to the lab is an option. I can hook myself back on what they were pumping into me. But, I want to eat!

They probably don't do room service so finding leftovers in the human hive is out of the question.

I can't hold on much longer. He's been talking less and less for a while now. It's all because of the meteor incident (what even was that?). Anyway, I must do something quick.

A heart beat thumps not in my chest but all throughout my body. I clench my teeth.

"We're going back into the lab. It's the only way."

_____________

I don't know how you're supposed to move up these pipes when you don't have wings. But I'm too hungry to figure out something clever.

So, I just crawl my way up. The surface is slippery, a lot like plastic, so my hands stick well to it. I even stick my belly to it, to give me extra traction. I'm a genius.

But it takes long and quite a lot of concentration to get all the way up like this. It's not as easy as walking upstairs, that's for sure.

But once I do get to the floor after painstakingly rubbing my belly all the way here, I quickly pick myself up and hurry out.

Barging in from where I silently escaped just a while ago, I find myself in the eeriely familiar brightly lit space. But I pay no mind. With a bolting gait I run over to my bed, hop on and put my pipes with syringes in. I wince but my body is ready and cooperative.

I turn the machine on. Since it's a human machine, I can at least read the letters.

...

I feel my brain lighten up. It all freshens up and I feel...good.

Feeling better, Space buddy?

Yeah, thanks. I see him squelching in a melllow fashion on my hand. The white hairs on them move.

I lie down and think about whatever happened back there. "Something's wrong. They won't mess with our food like that...And why are so many machines in a single building? There're clearly not so many of us here, on this building alone I mean."

We can figure that our later.

I can't help but nod. Yeaaah. But it sucks. I get a machine working and what do I get? Not even slop for humans. Slop for aliens or the like.

Looks like slop is the go-to food for this generation, like pizza is to yours.

I snort. Yeah.

...

Still, there shouldn't be so many of those demonic insects on this building alone right? This can't be a shipping facility. They are loaded and functional!

I'm trying to replenish my energy here.

I roll my eyes. Yeah, maybe we can figure things out later. Not much of anything makes sense anyway.

_____________

Lacking any kind of clock to measure how much time has passed is annoying. Even the sun doesn't set, the sky doesn't change. It's like I'm stranded in an eternal moment. Which lapses so slow, I could die before the next moment arrives. I cheated death today. So that's a literal truth.

All in all, I think I'm good to move out now. I switch the machine off, pick out the tubes from my arm and get off the bed. Okay, how about I check my quarters? Didn't ever get to live in my place in the human hive. They should have a separate area for me, right? 'Cause I'm special?

You seem excited.

This place is huge, it's fun exploring.

Do me a favour and don't get into more trouble. That signalling earlier depleted most of my energy.

But now you're rejuvenated right? Both of us are.

Doesn't mean you can-

Chill, chill. I was just joking. You're too serious.

This is not something to mess around with. Yttr is not a power so easy to control.

Looks like I'd be needing plenty of training sessions, I grin.

Ugh, don't get on my nerves you-

He stalls midway and then, Wow, I grunted.

That's what's important to you right now?! Unbelievable.

I traverse the path I've crossed a handful of times now and reach the human hive.

Home sweet home.

There better be some honey.

I laugh. Well, all the bees are out! Let's search for some.

I look around in wonderment. This place has a generous number of windows. Not too many personal articles though. We didn't pack any luggage when we came here for that matter.

But there are a few, I must say. Which is incredibly odd.

"These must have been given to them by the aliens," I say scratching my beard that's grown quite a lot in these past few weeks. On that note, not once have I shaved after coming here.

"They should give me a trimmer," I grumble.

Anyway, so regarding the articles that I find lying around- they are mostly pamphlets- as weird as that sounds. Do they have a printing factory around?

"Pff-" I pick one up randomly. "It's in English alright." It looks just like something printed back on Earth.

But it wasn't.

How can I tell? Well, it has the alien mechanisms displayed on them. There are diagrams regarding some kind of material and how to assemble them together.

"They weren't joking. They are making us work full-time." But this one is surprisingly simple work, that a child could do-

"No way." I turn the pamphlet around.

There's a name on it.

"It's Kevin's."

______________

Hold on, Kevin is in assembly? Boy has a keen mind for experimentation and is a pro thrower (if last time's any sign). Him being in assembly doesn't make too much sense. Well, I can understand that he's still a kid so handing him a pair of goggles and a lab coat can be risky.

I shift my view to the other beds. The amount of stuff I'm finding here is actually bonkers. There's named plates above every bed so I can tell right away which belongs to whom.

But I don't find beds of everyone I've come to care about side by side. Life is not that convenient.

For that matter, it's not even sorted in any way! How do they navigate?

Oh. Oh no. I think I get it.

All the pamphlets I'm finding right now are either of assembly or of other labour that aren't too physically intensive or challenging.

All these beds belong to the younger ones.

"So that means... "

I keep on, as I move further and further inwards.

"Beth... Beth,"

Where is her bed? Where is it?

She's twelve or thirteen, if my estimate is correct. She shouldn't be too far in.

Kevin is ten and I immediately ran into his bed.

"That's right." I haven't seen any kids below age ten here. From Beth's account, her brother, Henry is a toddler. Makes sense why he isn't here.

"But if not here, then where?" The thought scares me.

Fiona's brothers are older than her. They play football so it's reasonable to assume they have good physical prowess. That means they'll most likely be found in heavy-lifting jobs if the aliens do make us do that kind of work. I don't see why they wouldn't.

But that also means they are not adults and they both still go to school if they had football practice afterwards. So by that logic, shouldn't they be with us? I mean now that I think about it, Helena is not that older than Sally. Big sis should be here as well!

"But they are clearly not." It's just not possible to be in the same place yet not encounter people you know of. And to begin with, Fiona would have said something had she reunited with her brothers.

"What's going on...", I feel like someone's grabbing my neck from behind. I choke on the discomfort.

How many of us were brought here? A specific age group? Specific people to do the jobs? With no relatives attached?

Or is everyone on here. But in different buildings and facilities. Separated, on purpose.

This is maddening.

But, I do see something that brightens me up just a little bed.

It's Beth's bed.

"Oh sweetie, " I feel like I can cry.

I sit on her bed and stroke it. What are they making this poor girl do?

Pamphlets. My eyes instantly search for them. I don't have to look around for more than a second to find it lying on her drawer. They have one of these beside each bed. Cold, metallic drawers.

The pamphlet is there resting on the top.

I pick it up, open it and steel myself.

"Oh."

I'm relieved. So you do have someone by your side while you're working. You're not alone.

And it does make sense. It suits her personality even. Both of theirs.

"Looks like Fiona is there for her."

A curious thought springs up in my mind. I open her drawer. Sorry for intruding, Beth.

There, I find a second pamphlet.

Looks like this one's the first they all got. I didn't check the other drawers but I get the feeling.

I open it.

"Oh my god."

Then I catch my breath.

Makes sense why I didn't see them around. Because they are not around. They are above.

This marks the completion of our first mission. The others have been successfully located.

"You guys are in orbit. Holy sizzles."

Gimme that barbecue.

Shut up.