The Game of Undesirables

Chapter 6

        The alien soldiers force us into a small, crowded room, using their electric staffs to move us backwards. I try to fight back with mine, but there's no use. There are hundreds of them, coming at me at once. They pry it out of my hands while about five others try to hold me down. I'm lifted by my arms and legs, kicking and screaming profanities, and tossed into the room. Surprisingly, everyone tries to catch me before I take a hard landing, even Michael. 

        The steel door is closed and locked shut. There's no escaping this time.

        Raina sits on the floor next to me. "Aria? What's going to happen to us?"

        I shake my head. "I don't know."

        "Are we going to die?"

        I look at her, see the tears falling onto her cheeks. I want to tell her no, that everything will be okay. I want to promise her that nothing will happen. As much as I want to, though, I can't. That's not the truth. I'm almost in tears myself as I admit, "I can't promise you we won't. I wish I could."

        Her eyes fall to the floor. She wraps her small arms around my waist, shaking, and I wrap mine around her. We stay that way as the seconds add to minutes, the minutes add to hours. At least, that's how long it feels in the dead, cold silence.

        "I can't believe this!" Jennifer suddenly screams. "They can't do this to us!"

        "They can," Benjamin retorts, "and they did."

        She collapses, curling into a ball on the floor. Michael crouches next to her. While he tries to calm her down, I focus on the three people I don't know, two guys and a girl. One of the boys looks hispanic, while the boy and girl are both American, as far as I can tell. I feel kind of bad that I have no clue who they are. I don't even know their names.

        "Who are you guys?" I ask them, trying not to sound too blunt. 

        They look up at me. The girl says. "I'm Tracy Crawford. We, um, went to school together."

        What hits me the most isn't that I didn't recognize her, but that she said went. As in, we will never see it again. I want to be polite and ask if we had any classes together, but I don't have enough courage at this point. "Oh, sorry, I didn't recognize you." 

        She shrugs. The boy next to her, the other American boy, says, "I'm Graham Foster." The hispanic boy doesn't say anything, but he looks at us. "And this is César Santiago. He doesn't speak English."

        All I can manage to say is, "Oh." Then the room returns to silence again. I turn to Raina. She looks like she's eleven to twelve to me, but she doesn't act that age. "How old are you?" I ask her.

        "Eight. I'm turning nine in a couple of weeks." I see a hint of excitement on her face, but it's instantly faded. 

        I shake my head. "Eight. You look older than that."

        "My family is tall." Tears slowly fall down her face again, and she wraps her arms back around me, where she stays for a long time. 

        This isn't right. An eight year old? She shouldn't have to go through this. None of us should, but she's only a kid! She shouldn't be here, dealing with the fact that she'll likely never see her parents and home again. She's living with the possibility of death hanging on her shoulders.

        Suddenly, Jay speaks up. "What did you think he meant by 'each of you plays a specific role'?"

        "It's just another messed up part of their Game," I growl.