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IT ALL HAPPENED SO FAST. His body jolted upward when the box came to a complete halt. He cried out in pain when his head slammed into the wall behind him, gasping for what felt like his first gulp of air in forever. He couldn't seem to recall how he'd ended up in this situation, and the darkness that engulfed him made it impossible to even tell wherever this was. It seemed like the walls were closing in on him. That was all he could comprehend. He was trapped.
A ray of sunlight suddenly exploded between the walls, blinding him momentarily. A tiny voice in his mind whispered to him, Perhaps this is the afterlife. Maybe you're dead. Faint chatter could be heard from above and he couldn't tell if those voices were in his head too, or if somebody was lurking beyond the light. He quickly backed up against one of the walls, squinting towards the silhouettes who began to gather around him, blocking the sun from his face. Laughter erupted from above him and he held his breath.
From there, he decided he had to make a choice. He could trust whoever was out there, call out for help and pray that they were good people. Or, he could resist. His eyes darted back and forth around the space. It was lined with wooden crates, bags and other supplies, but nothing to defend himself with. Forcing himself to think of something made him realize that it was all gone. All of his memories of everything were just faded and faint conceptions in his mind, things he could almost grasp like his home and his family, but nothing and no one he could name or picture clearly. He couldn't even think of his name. His own name. This brought tears to his eyes. He didn't know who he was, at least not anymore.
"Don't pick on the Greenie, now," a voice broke through the crowd suddenly, and all of the laughter quickly died down.
Sweat dripped from his forehead and he hugged his knees to his chest, waiting for Judgement Day. He wasn't even sure what that phrase meant exactly, but his mind associated it with something terrible. Something wicked.
One of the figures from above suddenly jumped down toward him and he gasped, locking eyes with a boy who bore a lingering smile. As he stepped into the light and crouched down in front of him, he was able to make out the boy's features. He had very short, dirty blond hair and cloudy eyes.
"Well, aren't you cute?" The boy snickered, cocking his head in an almost playful manner.
He could only gulp in response to the boy's comment, too nervous to reply.
"Hey, Alby?" the boy shouted, glancing back up at the light above them. "What do you want me to do with him?"
After a moment, someone else, who he could only assume was Alby, replied, "Well, it'd be great if you got him out of the Box, for starters, Gally,"
The circle of people above laughed, and he finally got the chance to scan the crowd, his hand hovering just above his eyebrows so that he could properly see. His eyes widened as he realized a dozen other boys, who all seemed to be about his age, stood before him. He blinked twice in disbelief at the scene. Where were the girls? The adults? The children? And more importantly, where was he?
