Unless Gary was relaxing in bed, we can guess they didn’t bother taking people straight out of their homes. Then again … probably would be irresponsible to jump to any conclusions.”

“Interesting.” Warren rubbed his chin. “I’d love to understand how they divided us up.”

“I think a more important question,” Dex said, “is where the hell we are right now?”

“Space,” Warren replied. “Heading back to the mother ship. Congratulations. You’re all officially astronauts. Though I’m guessing none of you are particularly excited about the prospect. Have any of you tried anything? Get through a panel? Look for a door?”

Dex nodded. “Yeah, I walked the room. The walls and floor are smooth. I didn’t find any seams or gaps. However they got us in here is obscured. Not saying I’m an engineer or anything, but for now, I think we’re trapped.”

“Okay,” Warren said. “Not the best news but better than if you would’ve figured something out and cast us all into space.”

“You don’t think they’re going to probe us, do you?” Jake asked, drawing a withering glare from Gary. “What, man? You know what they say about aliens. They’re always sticking things in people’s asses.”

“Always, huh?” Gary asked. “You make it sound like aliens are running a convenience store where folks show up to be tortured by them.”

Jake shrugged. “I’m just sayin’. I know you’ve heard the stories. I sure as hell have and they’re horrifying. I mean, creatures like these have no feelings. They’re not like us at all. They lack um … that thing … it’s like … eulogy? No … that’s not it, but it’s an ‘e’ word. Damn it!”

“Empathy?” Debra offered.

Jake nodded. “That’s it! Yeah, they lack that!”

“Good to know.” Dex turned to Warren. “What do you think, man? What should we do?”

“Well, our young friend might be exaggerating but the spirit of his concern is very real. We don’t know what these things want or why they took us. I think it’s safe to assume it was hostile and we should definitely prepare accordingly.”

“How so?” Gary asked.

“I don’t really want to find out the hard way that these things are intending to do something terrible to us.” Warren looked around the room but it was simply a metal box. He had no idea which might be the way out. For all he knew, the floor might open up on their arrival and dump them.