Viktor was only fifteen, and as such, had never been in a dogfighting ring. He had heard the stories. The odd abused dog whose story was traumatic enough to end up in the news or on the internet. At first, the horrific stories of bait dogs and cruel owners had left him feeling a bit empty and a lot sad. He always made sure to give his family dog a few extra pats when he heard of those stories. But as time went on, and more exposed he got to the internet, he found that they didn't phase him as heavily as before. Sure, he always frowned and sometimes sighed, but they were always far from his mind as he continued scrolling.

In short, he had rarely given it any thought. He would most likely never come across a dogfighting ring, so why would he ever think about one?

But perhaps, Viktor thought, as the vehicle he was trapped in opened to reveal a large warehouse-esque building, maybe he should've looked more into it.

The building was unremarkable. If Viktor had been an average alien, he probably wouldn't even give it a second glance. It was only when the aliens started picking up and dragging the cages he and his new friends were in did he get a view of the inside. They went through the front entrance, and right in the middle, lay a large metal netted fighting ring. The arena was filled with dirt and had a few rocks large enough to lie on comfortably littered throughout it. Bleachers towered around the arena, probably able to hold thousands of humans, if not hundreds of these weird aliens.

Viktor looked worriedly behind him, trying to catch the eyes of Ezekiel or Aiko. He had been the last cage to be loaded, so he had been the first one out. The others were being carried by two aliens each, lugging them as if they were a particularly heavy piece of luggage. Viktor was being carried as if he were a light bag of groceries by just one alien. The one who had been driving the vehicle.

He peered through the bars at the alien carrying him. He (at least, Viktor was assuming it was a he) was much bigger than the other aliens, and he seemed to be the one in charge. He had no tail like some of the others but seemed to have tougher skin. There was a nasty scar that Viktor could see stretched up his neck and over his face. He couldn't quite see too much from this angle. He hadn't been paying too much attention when he had been grabbed from the corral of humans.

Maybe he would've been better off in the crowded corral. At least then, he would've been anonymous. He didn't like how these aliens peered at him. They looked malicious. Big teeth stretched in a weird, threatening smile. They were chattering amongst themselves gleefully.

His thoughts were confirmed as they were dragged downstairs and unloaded in what seemed to be a strange menagerie. He definitely would've been better off in that corral. Monsters like he's never seen before prowled large cages that would put the most highly secured prison in America to shame. They howled and shrieked when he was brought in with the others. Strangely, they quieted almost immediately upon seeing a few of the aliens.

The cages they resided in were... normal. Thick metal bars reached the top of the room. Small flaps were located on the bottom of the cage, big enough for food but small enough so that any of the imprisoned were unable to escape. His heart fluttered nervously in his chest at the thought of being shoved into one.

Viktor was set none too gently on the ground, grunting as his elbow hit the edges of the small carrier cage he was in. "Ow," he groaned, rubbing his elbow as he tried to see what the big alien was doing.

"You alright, kid?" Ezekiel said, air expelling from his body in a sharp huff as he was set on the ground. He whipped his head around, observing his surroundings just as Viktor had done. Viktor saw him mouth 'what the fuck' as he stared at some of the creatures in the cages around them.

"Yeah..." Viktor said, trailing off a bit as the big alien started shouting orders at the others. It, obviously, wasn't any language that he recognized, but he could pick out the rhythm of the language. Verbs, nouns. Even if they didn't make sense, Viktor could tell that whatever they were speaking was definitely a fully-fledged language.

These aliens were huge, scary, and fully sentient. They must not have thought humans were, especially since they rounded almost everyone up like cattle. He wondered if there were anyone left on Earth. He couldn't see the whole cargo bay they had been shoved into, but he didn't think it was big enough for all the humans on Earth, was it? He hoped not. Viktor hoped that there'd be a rescue soon. He didn't want to linger on the thought of being stuck on some alien planet indefinitely.

He didn't have much time to ponder it, as the big alien stopped shouting orders and instead opened a large cage. Well, it was larger than his current one, at least. It had what Viktor assumed was dull brown straw and some weird floating water trough. The door to his cage opened with a thump on top (maybe that was how they were unlocked? Viktor could only guess at this point, but it could've been a coincidence.)

He edged back into a corner as a large hand grabbed the side of the doorway and shook the cage. The hand of the big alien was easily the size of his head. Viktor swallowed nervously as the cage was given another vigorous shake. It started to tip forward, making him slide a bit. Obviously, they wanted to get him out of the cage and into the bigger cage.

Hell no, Viktor thought, a bit frantically, gripping the bars as his battered sneakers fought for traction on the smooth metallic surface. He was not going to get in some larger cage. Shit, he didn't even want to be in this small cage, but he had no choice in that matter.

Apparently, he didn't have any choice in this either, since the large hand that gripped the side of the cage grew impatient and reached in and grabbed him by the leg. Letting out a shocked yelp, Viktor found himself getting dragged out of the small cage and into the big one. He tried to resist, but the alien was much stronger than him and threw him into the cage easily enough. He weighed absolutely nothing to this alien.

Before he could get his bearings, the cage door shut with a resounding bang and soft click. Cursing, Viktor stood up for the first time in a couple of hours and, with a little wobbling here and there, rushed to the door, shaking it uselessly. "Fuck!" The aliens were already exiting the long room, chattering and what seemed to be laughing with one another.

Those stupid bastards. His life was on its head, and they were chuckling!

His fellow humans had suffered the same fate. They were relatively close to one another in this large room, sharing cell walls with one another. He was on the end, sharing a side with Pedro. All of them were in various stages of denial. Shaking the bars angrily, sat on the ground with their head in their hands, blankly staring at the wall. Viktor grew dizzy.

It was finally setting in. That they... that they weren't on Earth anymore. They were on some strange planet, with no idea of where they were in the galaxy. If they even were in the same galaxy. Big, buff aliens with thick skin and even thicker hands, speaking a strange language that they couldn't understand. It was hopeless. Viktor had a suspiciously pessimistic feeling that they were never going to get out of there.

"Cheer up, Viktor," Aiko called from a couple of cages down, stretched out with her arms behind her head, leg propped on the other. Her foot was kicking to an imaginary tune. He must've looked pretty miserable if she was speaking up. "Maybe we're just here to be looked at. Maybe we're a circus act."

"I don't know about that," Pedro said, sounding as though he hated to be the voice of logic. "It looked like a dogfighting ring out there. Look at those things." He waved over at the other animals locked in their cages.

They were all relatively quiet, or maybe they vocalized in frequencies the humans couldn't hear. Either way, the only sound coming out of them was the occasional huff of breath and dog-like whine. They were hulking beasts, large as bears, but some were as big as bobcats. They all seemed to take after the aliens, with big muscles and fierce eyes. Maybe they were bred that way. Some were smooth, reptilian, while others were furry.

"Do you..." Viktor started, swallowing several times as the realization came over him in a wash of cold dread. "Do you think we have to fight them? If this really is a dogfighting thing?"

Silence met his question, and he turned away from the beasts to look at the other humans. Adult humans. He was a kid! A teenager, nearly adult, but still, just a kid. He couldn't fight, no matter how hard he bluffed his friends. He didn't even know how to throw a punch, let alone take on something wild as those evil-looking things. The others were all muscle; at least they stood a chance. Viktor was probably going to end up being alien food.

"No way in hell," Ezekiel said firmly, though his eyes betrayed his nervousness. "We're definitely a circus attraction. I'll jump through a thousand hoops if it means not fighting those things."

A few weary chuckles met that declaration, breaking the thick tension between them. A chorus of 'same here's followed that statement. It did nothing to break the nervousness that still filled Viktor, but he forced himself to relax, looking around his cell to distract himself.

He wasn't going to be alien food, he wasn't going to be alien food, he repeated internally, patting his shirt down. His hoodie and t-shirt underneath was the only thing he had, along with some sweatpants he had pulled on this morning. At least the climate was relatively mild compared to Earth.

He felt a stab of longing and despair at the thought of Earth. Would he ever see it again? Would he ever see his dad again?

He shook his head. Wrapping his arms around himself, he looked around his cage with a slight frown. The straw was bunched in a corner, which was thankfully a solid wall. The others had to share walls with bars between them, but since he was at the end of the warehouse, he got a wall. Lucky him!

The trough was in the opposite corner, mirroring Pedro's water dish. He dipped a finger in the water. It was lukewarm. "Think it's safe to drink?" he murmured to Pedro, who shrugged. Viktor mirrored his shrug and cupped his hands to get a swallow. He smacked his lips, wrinkling his nose, "Tastes like pennies." Pedro smiled, eyes crinkling.

"Could be worse," the man said. Viktor shared his smile. That was true.

The sun, which was not the comforting yellow he was used to, but instead a sickly white, was starting to dip below the windows of the warehouse. Soon enough, they were cast into almost complete darkness. The only light source was the dying sun and some flicking light near the exit. Viktor was suddenly tired as if every last molecule of energy had been sucked out of him.

It had been a really, really long day.

Viktor sat down on the sparse pile of straw, trying to make himself comfortable. He wondered what tomorrow would bring.