I woke up in a confined space and I can't remember how I got here. I was unbound but there was not much room for movement. The cell I was in was sterile and constricting, and the plastic walls themselves propped me up.
I could hear the other inmates, in the cells next to me and also the floor above me. I could smell their perspiration permeating the prison air. It suddenly dawned on me that we were moving. The floor beneath me rocked sideways and shook irregularly. Occasionally there was a rough bump which, had we not been confined to such small cells, would have thrown us about like rag dolls considering our weakened state. The inmates collectively breathed in sharply at this, then some muttered and some others stifled a desperate sniffle.
It was pitch dark and I could only guess where it was that they were taking us from what I heard. I tried to concentrate on the sounds coming from beyond the cell walls, but the other inmates were distracting me. Someone from a cell which couldn't have been too far from mine, shouted weakly, "We'll get out of here... soon. Stay strong, broth-". His pep talk was cut short by another jolt as the floor dropped away from us then came rushing back up, flinging us against the roof and slamming us down hard again.
Mustering the fragmented determination that was left in me, I pushed either hand against opposite cell walls and supported my body as I pressed my face to the cold wall. The walls gave off a faint chemical smell. I tried to listen to the moving outside world to learn more of what might happen to us when we get out. If we ever do.
After an excruciatingly long journey, our death camp truck stopped to an abrupt halt and the cells shook savagely one last time. Then silence. Every one of the inmates was listening hard and trying their best to gauge what comes next from the sounds outside. Even the snivelling inmate in the cell at the far corner from me quieted down to a voiceless whimper.
There were two or three different voices I could pick up. They were unclear and very probably obscured by the padded thickness of our cell walls. The voices were loud, full of energy and punctuated randomly by a sharp glassy clinking sound. Someone from a cell behind me spoke to his neighbouring cellmate. I ignored him and continued to focus on our surroundings.
The sounds continued to rise and fall and the glassy tinkles emerged every so often. I still couldn't make a word of what was being said, except when the speakers came close to our container. I heard the words "hung-ery" and "raucous" and also "part-ey" a couple of times.
At one point after a momentary lull there was a sharp loud crack, like a cannon shot, which shook us all. The quiet weeping started again, this time accompanied by the remaining inmates' scared whispers and hushed warnings.
Then it happened. What we were waiting for happened.
The roof of the containment cells were lifted away, ripped off, taking the upper floor of inmates with it. They disappeared into the bright light that blinded us the moment it entered our cells.
By the time the glare subsided and my eyes settled to the glimpse of the outside world, the prison was a raging chaos. Some of the prisoners in my block screamed, others cried, and others rocked about violently against the plastic walls of their cells, letting out only mumbled nonsense. I realised that these inmates had been gagged and bound. Wrapped, from top to bottom in the metal sheeting they used to calm the rowdiest of us. The skies had enormous flesh-creatures hovering above us. They swooped down and lifted the unfortunate prisoner into the bright oblivion above. Someone next to my cell screamed, "The vores! It's the vores!" seconds before he was plucked away from his cell.
Madness struck. The screams turned to moans of pleasure and yearning. The more of us were chosen and lifted skywards, the more I wanted to be with them. Chosen, picked and taken with the rest.
I couldn't help but smile as I watched Vanille, Ms Fudge and Delight disappear with the fingered monster as it snatched the three at once. I pushed down against the cell walls and lifted myself as high as I could go, desperately hoping to attract their attention.
I must be worth something. I did carry a whole hazelnut inside me, after all.
