The Disappearance of Cow Creek

A Most Pressing Question

I woke up gagging on a piece of dry grass. My skin was uncomfortably hot from laying beneath the heat lamp for so long, and my eyes watered from the dust all around me - a disappointing transition from the peaceful dream of earth I had been having. I slowly rolled onto my stomach, the itchy grass unpleasantly jabbing my skin. All the other women were laying around, many beneath the heat lamp, seeing as there were sauna-like temperatures here, and others were trying to make beds by sorting sand from grass and wood so that they would have something less itchy to lay on. Most of us were simply sitting around, just like we did in the shop.
I turned to someone sitting beside me.
"Where did the boxes we were taken here in go?"
She looked confused at me, then realized something.
"Oh, the alien came and took them. You didn't wake up I guess because it didn't make any loud noises, and went slowly so nobody was startled enough to make noise about it."

I'm not sure how I felt about sleeping so close to some huge alien like that. It was a risky thing, but I guess I was fine.
"I see, Thanks".
I stood up and walked a bit further from the heat lamp so I could cool off a bit, then realized that in the place where the door met the wall, I could see light. Immediately interested, I jogged over to the spot and peered through the tiny gap. We seemed to be outdoors. Cold air pressed against my nose as I scanned what I could see. There were alien plants of some sort, as well as a huge expanse of land, like a grass covered field, except that there seemed to be a dense, green webbing of plant-like material growing, rather than grass. In the farther distance, there was a fence, and behind it were much taller plants, very strange in appearance. The sky was blue, but darker in color than earth's sky, and I could see a far-off flock of flying creatures of some sort. The location seemed to be rural, like a space equivalent of "the country".
What the heck are we here for?
A noise caught my attention, and I suddenly saw the freakish alien that had bought us coming in this direction. I gasped and hopped away from the gap, then ran to hide in the back of the room/cage. (Whatever this thing was that we were stuck in now)
"It's coming back, guys!" I announced to the group, and everyone scattered to less open areas. I could hear the alien walk up, and watched as the door was opened. I didn't even want to think about escaping, not after what had happened to Jesse and I when we were caught. The alien peered into our box, an unreadable expression on its face. It bent down, and took something out of a bag it carried. The item was the size of a sink, a short basin which the alien set on the floor in a central location. There were three of these giant "bowls", and they were all set down next to the first one. The alien then reached back into its bag and poured something into one of the bowls, then filled the other two with water. Seeming satisfied, it closed the door (I could more accurately call it a wall) and left.
I exhaled a long breath I was unaware I'd been holding, and stood up slowly, my legs shaking. A couple other women and I walked over to the bowls, and examined the contents. The water seemed normal, and in the other was a mix of nuts, fresh fruits and vegetables, and some chunks that looked like a bunch of random grains stuck together.
"Oh my god, thank you" one of the ladies muttered under her breath. The store food really had been disgusting, and I swear some of us were starting to look like we had scurvy. All of us grabbed for the fresh fruits and vegetables, audibly sighing about the much-needed nutrients and tastiness. Some of them looked like normal earth stuff, and others were like weird tropical plants that I'm guessing were not native to our little mud-ball. But everything was sooo good. I munched into some soft, tiny-seeded, thick skinned fruit, not caring about the juice running down my hands and neck, just savoring the amazing flavor. I grabbed an armload of other things, and ran over to the few women who hadn't moved from their hiding places to join everyone at the food bowl.
"Try this, it's real!" I walked around, handing out random hefty vegetables and succulent fruits. I was so happy just to have real food, I didn't even care in that moment about the lack of clothes or the fact that I would likely never see earth again.

About an hour later, everyone was much happier and less stressed after our small and delicious feast. We had eaten almost all of the fresh plants, had munched a bit on the nuts and grain chunks, and the clean water was nice too. Most of us were laying around in the heat or stretching a bit. However, my food "high" had worn off, and I wasn't feeling too happy about our situation anymore. I groaned quietly as I sunk into the uncomfortable heaps of
"Bedding" and shut my eyes. That unrestful sleep didn't last, however. I woke abruptly as heavy footsteps approached our box. They were far too close for me to dare looking through the gap between the door and wall, so instead I quickly burrowed myself behind a mound in the "bedding". There were a couple of clicks and the door swung open, a blast of cold, moist air preceding the creature who had put us here. The alien was back, but it didn't have food this time. It reached a massive hand into our box, and grabbed a fear-paralyzed woman from the corner. She didn't struggle, nobody wanted to make this thing mad. We all watched silently, it was like a horror movie where you never know what's going to happen and you want to look away, but can't. The alien held the woman firmly, it's rough looking "hands" able to wrap completely around her body. It grabbed her hand between two of its giant fingers and moved her arm in all directions, then prodded her in the stomach, legs, and face, then unexpectedly just set her back down in the cage. She flopped out of its grasp as it let her go a couple feet above the bedding. Its eyes swept over us all, so I guess we weren't hidden very well, but then it simply shut the door and left. The woman who had been manhandled sucked in a long breath, which I suppose she had been holding, then scrambled behind a heap under the heat lamp. A couple women crept over to her, to see if she was alright. I got up slowly, and made my way to the gap, where I watched the alien creature amble out of my sight, away from our cage.

What are we to them?

I sat down beneath the heat lamp, where the other woman was now gasping a bit in stress and shock, and I flopped down on the sand mixture, that single question burning in my head.