In Alien Hands: Crashed

Crashed - Part 9

I slowly woke up the morning after I had been sedated in a haze. No natural light made it to the room my cage sat in, so I had no idea what time it was. I was alone, not even the staring aliens watched me. I realized I was hungry.

Several minutes after I sat upright an alien came in with a tray of food. I wasn't ecstatic to be eating the boring pellets, but anything would do. Moments after the first alien came in, another did. It had a strange plastic ball. I had approached the bars on sight of the food, but drew back when I saw this ball. I wasn't generally the one to back away from strange objects, but I wasn't the most trusting person after yesterday's events.

I was still curious however. Upon seeing me draw back, they moved the ball further from me. I stepped forward again, hoping for a better look. I watched as one inserted a key, twisted open the top of the ball, and the other poured in all my food. The latch was closed and locked once more before the ball was lifted by one of them. There was a compartment on the side of the cage, like the kind I saw at banks back on earth. They door on their side was opened and the ball placed inside. Once it was closed again, I was able to open my side and removed the ball, which I did very cautiously.

Examining the ball, I saw a complicated maze inside. The pellets rattled about inside, I quickly deduced I was meant to move the pellets through the maze until they all fell out of a hole on the other end of the ball. It was a foraging toy, much like the set of drawers I found on my first day living with Merle.

I immediately began work on it. It took me nearly half an hour to get a single pellet out, and I realized this would be an all day affair. It wasn't like I had much else to do. It seemed like they had poured an entire day's worth of food into the puzzle.

I worked on the thing for hours. Every once in a while, an alien would come in and watch me for several minutes. I stopped the first few times, but stopped when I realized they weren't going to touch me.. the thing slowly became easier, to the point where I could get 1 piece out every five minutes. It was taking so long that I immediately popped any piece I got out into my mouth, and I was still hungry.

The aliens had checked on me 16 times (I used their visits as a way to gauge time) when they didn't come in alone. I was in a routine now, I didn't even look up when they came in, until I heard Merle say my name.

I immediately looked up and saw my Dog-man's face. A huge grin spread across my face and I dropped the ball. I scrambled over to where he now knelt by the bars. He spoke to me, saying the words for toy, food, doctor, among others. I did my best to understand everything, but it was clear to me that I was missing huge chunks of what he was telling me. He knew i didn't understand, but spoke to me anyways. I never minded it.

He never came inside, no matter how much I wanted him to come in and hold me. I spent most of the time leaning against the bars of the cage, he stroked my arm, cheek, and back while he spoke to me. The two aliens who brought him to me stood behind him that entire time, watching both of us like he'd try and break me out. I wish he would try. I despised cages, especially this one. It was tremendously boring and exposing to be locked up in there for hours.

All too soon, he rose to his feet. I cried out in an attempt to stop him, all he did was kiss my forehead and walk out with the two aliens. My eyes welled up with tears and his ears folded back with the guilt of leaving me. I sniffled to myself as the door shut behind him.

A bit later, the doctor and the two aliens came back in and spoke to each other, watching me cry in the corner of my cage. I have them a quick glance before returning to my misery.  I had expected them to leave shortly, but no such luck. They stayed for some time before a fourth alien came in with a much smaller cage on wheels.

It was just tall enough to fit me, not wide or long enough for me to lay down. It was the size of an elevator. One side of the thing slid open, the opening placed against one of my cage doors. One of the aliens grabbed a gun again. I was cowering at the opposite side of the cage from the smaller one, I wasn't going to trust this thing. It screamed of another exam, which was the last thing I wanted at the moment.

To my annoyance, the other assistant came to the smaller cage with a plate. It placed the plate down, I could see there was a peach. They were trying to coax me into the cage, and I wasn't having it. I crossed my arm and sat on the floor, as far from the fruit as possible.

My protest didn't last long at all. I felt a soft jab to the small of my back, jumping at the thought that it was a needle. It wasn't, the doctor had poked me in the back. I watched as it undid the latches to my cage, the one with the gun pointing it at me. The door creaked open, but I knew their tricks. Their intention was to scare me into running into the cage so it could be locked with me inside. i crossed my arms once more, trying to seem fearless at the face of my captors.

The alien looked at me for several seconds before taking a half step towards me. I stood still, refusing to cooperate in the slightest. It let out an audible sigh before stepping out, asking for something from one of the others, and returning with a needle.

I decided cooperation was the lesser of two evils and immediately stepped into the small cage. The door was quickly sighed shut. My captors laughed at me, infuriating me further. The only one who didn't was the one who had the needle moments before.

It came around to me, speaking softly again. It had put the needle down on its way over to me. The language of these aliens was incredibly foreign, as different from the language of the Dog-men as theirs was to mine. I made no move to approach this creature, and it didn't need me to. It knelt down and pointed at the peach. I had forgotten about it.

Two more aliens came in through the doors. The cage I was trapped inside was slowly wheeled away from the larger one, moved to the corner of the room. I watched as the two of them cleaned the cage. They took away the puzzle ball, handing it to an assistant, who dumped out the leftover contents onto a scale. They wrote it down on a notebook, the other assistant muttering something to it.

The cage was swept, mopped, sprayed with some kind of chemical, and rinsed. The floor was slick, so they squeegeed the water off. The water flowed into drains near the cage. they put fresh sheets on my bed and switched the drinking water container for a clean one, the dirty one was weighed .It couldn't have taken more than 5 minutes to clean the entire cage.

After they had finished, my cage was moved back so I could reenter the bigger one. I grabbed my peach and planned to eat it once my captors left me in peace. The gate was slid open and I stumbled through. I plopped on the bed, still holding my peach. The cage was wheeled out of the tiny room.

I was offered the puzzle toy again, along with a tray of a little loose food. I supposed I must not have eaten enough with the puzzle toy. The aliens watched me expectantly, so I made a big show of eating the food. It wasn't enough to satiate me completely, but I wasn't starving either. I'd still work on the toy tonight, but I'd be fine with half of what was left.

Seemingly happy with my eating, all of them shuffled out of the room and left me alone. I took a large bite of my peach, finally alone. I relished in the sweet and tangy juice of the delicious fruit before returning to work on the ball. it'd take most of the night before I got enough food out and fell asleep, surprisingly exhausted after the little physical activity I had done.

Published 10/28/18