The Missing 1,000

The Abduction

I opened my eyes to an enormous, frigid room.

What originally woke me was a heavy blow to my right arm. My eyes snapped open in shock as my body absorbed the impact, and I turned instinctively to anticipate the source, but curiously enough, I did not find myself in my twin bed, and the heavy blow was not caused by my tenacious and plus-sized cat, Cosmo, chasing a moth, as he typically did on nights like tonight.

No, indeed. I opened my eyes to unearth a concrete jungle, complete with unforgiving metal infrastructure and filled with hundreds of screaming people.

The blow had been caused by one of said people, a young male with a red shirt and a face like a field mouse, as he ran to confront the faceless concrete walls. I was surrounded by people banging on the surface- crying, yelling, pleading- the desperation was palpable; I could taste the tears of the masses.

At this point, I was half wondering if I had died in my sleep and had been sent straight to Hell, without so much as a deliberation, and half thinking that if I was still alive, I was absolutely fucked. I am aware that a normal person would have started running, begging, and pleading alongside the others, but to be honest, they weren't really getting anywhere, were they?

I observed the people around me and I did notice two similarities- everyone was in my age range, late teens and early twenties, and everyone was wearing pajamas (or not...some people evidently liked to sleep unencumbered). There were males and females, and strangely enough I did recognize some of the people that were around me: all people from my town.

At this point, a girl ran towards me and scooped me up, dragging me towards one of the walls. She was shorter than me, around 5'6, and slim, with coily black hair in double French braids, and I was honestly shocked with the ease in which she lifted me.

"Come on." The girl's voice was soft, yet firm.

"What the absolute hell is going on?" I dug in my heels in an attempt to thwart my well-meaning kidnapper.

"I don't know." Her voice had lowered to a whisper. "I assume your goal in life isn't to be trampled, right? So stop making me drag you. Your legs appear to be in working order."

"Attention to all New Arrivals."

The pandemonium abruptly and eerily silenced itself. The girl and I both froze mid-struggle.

"We would like to extend a warm welcome to all our our New Invited Guests. This group is comprised of all people aged 18-22 from Collinsville. I am sure that if you looked around the room, you too would see some familiar faces." The voice over the intercom was bubbly, teasing- a woman lovingly ribbing her husband, or a the friendly razzing between friends- the tone seemed out-of-place and borderline cruel. "Spend the next hour getting to know the people in your Arrival Class. Lights out will be in sixty minutes. Have a splendid night."

Everyone here is truly from Collinsville? In that case, I need to find my boyfriend.