“You are junk, thrown away by your societies as trash, refuse that only burdened them. Now, you will entertain us. You will survive, not for your own goals, but for ours. Win over our approval and perhaps you will be given pity. Earn our scorn and you will regret it. If you refuse to participate, you will be thrown away by us as well.”

As the figure on the screen stopped speaking, the image faded to black. The room itself would have been in complete darkness if not for the faint glow emitted from the screen. Tears began forming in Jason’s eyes and slowly trickled down his face, dripping off his jaw. The words the face spoke staggered him, but he also didn’t quite understand them.

“Our societies?” he said, the words forming on his lips and in his mind, but when he spoke them they were barely audible, an ache in his throat making it difficult to speak. he felt a lump in his throat as though a growth had suddenly taken root and closed his esophagus off.

The only thing that Jason could think of was that the government was throwing him out of the country. There was no reason he could think of as to why that would happen, nor how it could be done legally. It also didn’t make much sense to create such an extravagant show just to remove a kid from the populace. The face he had seen on the screen didn’t look human either. It looked reminiscent of human. it was just a bit off, enough that it stood out, but not enough that he could say it wasn’t a human who had some sort of odd surgery. Jason was lost in his thought, the truth his subconscious had realized causing tears to fall down his face, looking like a zombie, taking small unconscious steps forward.

The others in the mass of bodies were in the same state that Jason found himself in. A few, however, were breaking under the stress of the situation, or were just mentally deranged from the beginning. They began looking around and grabbing those lost in crisis around them. All around Jason came cries of terror as the defenseless people were assaulted.

One voice in particular pierced through Jason’s daze. The voice was that of a young girl screaming for her mother. She hadn’t been making a fuss before— something must have changed. No one seemed to be reacting, being lost in their own despair. He shook his head of its cobwebs. This wasn’t the time to be losing oneself. The next few moments would decide their fates. He also knew that what he did would have consequences, but he could not live with himself anyways if he just let a child be molested to save his own skin.

Jason’s eyes locked on the direction that the hysterical screaming was coming from as he shot through the crowd of people, pushing countless bodies out of his way. Briefly, he thought he’d seen someone he knew, but that had to wait. He was concentrated on reaching the child. Forgetting his modesty, Jason pushed through the crowd wherever he could to get the bodies out of his way. He caught sight of a lanky man, about 40 years old, dragging a little girl off by her arm. The girl was flailing, hitting, and trying to pry off the the abductor’s arm helplessly between screams. Others had started to come around slowly, but they were still entrenched in their own worlds and would be of no help. Redoubling his efforts, Jason caught up quickly with the duo and caught the man by the arm, stopping him from running away any further.

“Let her go.”

The man tried to pull his arm away from Jason, but found no give. Jason increased his grip on his arm, causing him to visually grimace in pain. The stranger sought a way out of the confrontation, but this teenager shouldn’t be bothering him he thought. This was his dream. No one should stop him from doing whatever he wanted and even if this wasn’t a dream, they had other things to worry about than saving a little girl from him. Pivoting on the ball of his left foot, he swung his fist at Jason’s face. Connecting with the punch, he stood breathing heavily over Jason’s prone body.

“Get the hell away from me!”

Jason slowly rose to his feet, not taking his eyes off the man who had just punched him. He wasn’t expecting that to happen, but all the rules seemed to have been thrown out here. Jason looked the man up and down, and observed that he wasn’t just lankey, the man looked like he hadn’t eaten in days. He had very little muscle tone, scraggly hair, missing teeth, and filthy. It clicked in Jason’s head; this man was homeless. He paused as he felt a tremor go through his body. He knew that many homeless were veterans and mentally deranged. Understanding what he was up against, he stood up straight, closed his eyes, took a deep breath and calmed himself down.

“Let go of the girl. Now.”

The man was very angry at Jason. Thinking it through, he growled, let go of the girl, and ran off. For him, she was more trouble than she was worth. He’d have had to incapacitate that kid to be left alone and even then, the crowd of people might have ripped him apart. Jason, for his part, as the man ran off, walked over to the girl and squatted down to her level.

“Are you ok?”

Looking down, trying to hide her tears and fear, the girl asked, “Where’s my mommy?”

“She… I…”

Jason didn’t know what to say. He wanted to help the girl. He wanted to tell her that he’d help her find her mother. The truth was that the most likely reason for this little girl being here was because her mother decided that she was something to be thrown away. She must have been a monster to be able to do this to her daughter. Jason swallowed as he slowly began to try to speak to the girl.

“Uhhhh. Look, I’m sure you’re mother is worried and looking for you. How bout, until she finds us or we find her, you stay with me?” he said putting out his hand to her.

The girl nodded her head, reaching out her hand to Jason’s, “okay.”

Jason took hold of the girl’s hand and was about to ask her name, but at that moment the screen above them flickered back to life with a new almost human face looming over them. The face looked more feminine than the last and almost like a flight attendant in it slight smile and overall appearance. The girl clenched Jason’s hand as tight she could and instinctively moved closer to him to hide herself.

“Welcome to the Debris Reclamation Ship. Clothes, food, and other amenities for each person is available in the barracks that line the walls of the room you are in. One barrack per person. Initiating physical violence in these rooms is strictly prohibited. Preventing someone from claiming a barrack is prohibited. Stealing another’s belongings is prohibited.

“You are not expected to remain within this area long. These rooms will not be broadcast meaning the longer you stay in this area the less opportunity to win supporters. It is recommended you collect your belongings and head into the next area as soon as possible. This space you will grow accustomed to and may be secure to keep any of your belongings in your barrack. The doors marked in green are open.to you, while doors marked in red are off limits. Doors marked in blue have conditional entrance permission. An example of this are your barracks. The owner and any person they register to be allowed entrance can access the barrack. Everyone else will not be granted permission.”

“Each of you have running credit tally, starting at 0, with which you may buy ration packs, goods, and services. When you reach a deficit of 100 credits you will be removed. Earning credits is simple. Compete in the arena, trade, find and sell goods, or get a sponsor. Your fate is in your own hands.”

The screen once again faded to black, returning the room to being just barely considered dimly lit. The eyes of the people in the room had stung from the bright light of the screen, but now were revelling in the darkness returning. Before long, a loud hissing noises could be heard around the room. Cries of fear went up; all all most could think of was that they were about to be attacked by some terrifying beast. Some tensed, readying themselves for a fight. They may die, but they weren’t going without a fight. Jason was one of these few that stood their ground rather than cower, even as his nerves shook his entire body. The little girl let out an ear shattering shriek as she clung to his leg. It was this little girl’s screams that brought Jason back to his senses. Whatever was happening, the people had said that the place had barracks around the room. He hadn’t seen any doors previously. Jason thought it might make sense that they’d have sterilized the rooms and kept them sealed till ready to let them in, and if that was the case then the hiss was just the doors opening.

Jason, deciding to risk it, took hold of the little girl’s arm and pulled her all as he ran towards the nearest wall to them, knowing that it’d probably be best if he could get their barracks next to each other. To do that they had to be quick and make their move before anyone else realized what was happening. The crowd of people close to him had seen Jason run into the darkness with the little girl and thought he’d gone insane. They opted not to follow. This gave him and the girl the time they needed to get to the wall and see that they were right. There was steam like substance coming out incisions in the wall and a panel that looked like a scanner revealing itself. Above the scanner was a blue marking and on a digital display read, “UNREGISTERED.” Jason took only a moment to see what this was, Turning to look at the girl, he told her to press her hand against the pad. In an instant the display changed to, “REGISTERED,” and a door began to form and open. Instead of going in Jason told the girl to wait and to stay with him for now in a quiet voice to, hoping to keep from drawing attention. They moved to the next barracks, registering it this time to Jason, not noticing that someone was registering the next barrack over.

The two entered the barrack to see what they were dealing with. Inside they found that the barracks was a small room with an uncomfortable looking bed just barely able to fit an average human adult to their left. In the back looked to be a 2 by 2 cubicle with a door, perhaps a shower. To the right was a sink with a display and what looked to be a dispensary for items next to it. To the back of this side of the wall, pass the sink was a toilet. Jason wasn’t claustrophobic but he felt very cramped, even with just the little girl in there with him there was only just barely enough room for the both of them. It was clean, but other than that, it felt like it was designed to be as uncomfortable as one could make an adequate living space. He wanted to cry thinking that this was his life now, but Jason held back not wanting to show such weakness to the kid.

“I guess this is our home now kid…”