He finally got a glimpse of these creatures that Jake spoke about. After what seemed like hours, the ship they were on finally stopped rumbling. He guessed that they had arrived. Viktor had no idea where they were, however. Maybe Peru? Japan? He didn't know how fast this thing traveled.

The door that had opened to load them all in opened slowly, letting in light that silhouetted at least a dozen bulky creatures. They were vaguely humanoid in shape but stood at least 10 feet tall. Viktor's 5'6 frame seemed puny in comparison. They had two arms and two legs that were filled with muscle. As they grunted and gestured to humans, shoving them out the door before the rest got the message to start walking out, Viktor could see that their skin was tough looking, quite like the rhinos he had seen at a zoo. They were maroon, but some of them had tints of blue or red in them. Their faces were stocky and looked like an orc's. Their mouths were lipless, and when they spoke to one another, sharp teeth lined their jaws. Their teeth were as long as his fingers. They had small horns along the ridge of their skulls, along with small fleshy spikes from their cheeks and eyebrows. He even saw one that had a tail like an alligator's. Not all of them seemed to have one, though.

They looked scary as hell, is all Viktor cared about right now.

As he walked out of the door, blinking at the sudden glaring light, he could hear people arguing with their kidnappers. Shouts of why are we here, where are we, hello can you hear me, and let us go were all he heard, along with a murmur of other languages he could only vaguely recognize as he stepped outside of the ship.

He almost fell to his knees in shock, his legs suddenly felt very weak. Viktor didn't believe his eyes. They were not on Earth, anymore.

The sky was a hazy yellow as if too many pollutants got into the air before anything could've been done about them. The ground underneath his feet was a dull brown, but the plants that sprouted between the cracks of what looked like sloppy cement were various shades of red, dull green and brown. He didn't know anywhere on Earth where these things grew. Were they on a different planet?

He was pushed angrily by a bulky alien, a sharp grunt of annoyance echoing in his ear. Viktor glared, facial features contorting with fear and confusion, but he kept trying to move forward. Surely, this wasn't an alien planet? Was this some elaborate movie set? Maybe his dad had signed a permission slip the school had sent him that allowed this, but doubts were creeping on him. Why, then, did everyone look so frightened? His classmates would be excited to be on a movie set. Plus, they would've explained what was going on, wouldn't they?

Creepy movie ruled out, then. Viktor was ushered into a large corral, the fences as tall as him. It was much larger than the cargo bay he had exited. He looked behind him. The ship that everyone had thought was a freak meteor was huge. He had to crane his neck to see the top, and even then, he couldn't see where it ended on either side. Tall buildings blocked his view.

He swallowed nervously, looking around for a familiar face in the crowd. He really didn't want to be here. He wanted to find his dad if he was even here. He wanted to go home and watch corny YouTube videos and scroll through TikTok until he passed out.

"Dad?" he shouted into the crowd. About ten men turned to look at him worriedly, but once they realized he wasn't their kid, they looked away. "John, Jake?"

There was no one around. He chewed on his lip nervously, watching as the ship seemed to empty of humans. There were millions here. Far more than he could count. He was pressed uncomfortably against others. They were crammed in like a box of sardines.

A scuffle broke out nearby him. Someone had shoved another and shouts erupted from the humans. Viktor watched nervously, trying to squeeze past everyone to get away as the crowd around him started to get riled up and angry. The aliens that were watching shouted something in their grunting, clicking language. One of them shouldered through the crowd. Viktor couldn't see what it did to the men, but their yells of pain and surprise were enough for his imagination to make it up.

Just before he was sure he was going to go crazy with fear and worry, the aliens started to shout at each other, waving their arms. The crowd around him was shifting with nerves and started to move in one direction. There were other streams of people moving in opposite directions. Standing on his toes, Viktor could see that gates had opened in the corral and the aliens were ushering them forward through them. He looked towards the direction his group was moving in. There wasn't anything special about it. It was a grey building that had strange pictures on it, as well as a weird script.

It must be the alien's language, he thought, just a tad delirious. What did they think of ours?

Viktor was just through the gate when he felt himself getting grabbed by the arm. Yelping in surprise, he could barely keep himself on his feet. The hand that grabbed him wrapped around his entire forearm. The claws were dangerously close to his face. He looked up in fear. The alien that had grabbed him peered at him with disinterest. There were a lot of other aliens around the group of people walking through the gate and into the building, muttering with fear and nervousness. The alien that grabbed him barked something at the others, and Viktor found himself getting dragged away from the swarm of people.

"Help!" he shouted at the group, fear making his voice high. "Someone help!"

The hand tightened around his arm and its pace quickened, making him stumble as his legs tried to keep up. He was being dragged across the ground to a nearby car. At least, he thought it was a car. It was floating, like something straight out of Star Wars. But it was large and had no windows in the back, like one of those sketchy white vans. Oh my god. Was he getting kidnapped?

He was lifted off his feet as the hand lurched his arm forward, throwing him into something. The breath left his lungs in a short burst of air as he landed on a hard, metallic surface. He could barely get his bearings before he realized that the alien had locked him up in some sort of cage.

The cage was barely high enough for him to sit, let alone stand. He grabbed at the door, but whatever was locking him in seemed to blend in with the metal because Viktor couldn't find the locking mechanism. His breathing quickening, he looked around. It was one thing to be abducted by aliens, but being shoved in a small cage?! He'd have to pass.

"Calm down, kid, you're alright," someone said from behind him.

Viktor whipped around, finally noticing that he wasn't the only cage in this weird car. There were at least seven others, but it seemed like he filled the last one. There were a variety of different people trapped in these cages. The man that had spoken looked like he could bench seven of Viktor. He had tattoos all up his arms and chest. He looked very badass. There was a Hispanic man, a white man with a beard, an Asian woman, and some others that he couldn't quite see in the dark.

Viktor tried to get his breathing under control, feeling his eyes burn with unshed tears. "Do you know where we are?"

The man shook his head, regretfully. "I don't. I don't think we're on Earth anymore. What's your name, kid?"

"Viktor," he replied a bit tearfully, wrapping his arms around his legs as he huddled as close as he could to the man.

The man introduced himself as Ezekiel. The Hispanic man was called Pedro and introduced himself with a grin. He didn't have a clue where they were, either, but he claimed that he would bust them all out. Viktor realized that all the people around him were in pretty good shape. It made him a bit nervous about why they needed a scrawny kid like him.

The man with a beard, who Viktor found out later was called Nikolas, had reassured everyone that they were probably going where everyone else was going. Maybe the aliens just needed extra room in the building, so they brought them all out into this car.

The excuse was flimsy, but it was all they had. They discussed reasons why these aliens had suddenly come to Earth and abducted what seemed like almost everyone, but they couldn't come up with anything.

"Maybe they're here to harvest our blood because it makes them live longer," Aiko, the Asian woman, suggested lightheartedly, earning a chuckle from Ezekiel and Viktor.

"Nah, they definitely got us because of our good looks. Cages? Corrals? They probably want us as pets!" Ezekiel said.

"Maybe if they made these cages bigger, I'd be okay with that." Pedro groaned, trying to stretch his legs.

The noise outside had gotten quieter and quieter as if all the humans had gone into the buildings. Viktor was still worried about what was going to happen to them, stuck in cages in an obvious transport truck. But, he figured, maybe it wouldn't be so bad with the people he had gotten to know.

Their conversation was cut short as an alien got into the front of the truck, accompanied by another. Ezekiel rattled the bars on his cage and called out, "Hey, ugly! Where are we going?"

"I don't think they understand our-" Viktor piped up before flinching as a loud noise cut them all off. The alien had banged on the side of the vehicle and barked out something in their language. Viktor looked fearfully at the adults, who all looked a bit nervous themselves.

The car started moving, humming in the odd way that was similar to the ship they had traveled to this planet on. Viktor settled in for a long ride, stomach twisting nervously.