Once when I was a child my dog got hit by a car. It wasn’t until someone told me the dog was dead that I reacted and broke down. Who was there? What was my dog's name? This swims in my thoughts. My current situation is somewhat similar. The information was all there and if I took a moment to put the pieces together I am sure I would have come to the same conclusion. However, Mac just blurting it out in a few simple sentences knocked the wind out of me.

Strength leaves my body. I attempt to sit back onto the bed, but instead I fall hard ass first onto the ground. Then fall over onto my side. I want to shut everything out. So I curl myself into the fetal position, shut my eyes and cover my ears. It is all futile though. My extra sensory perception doesn’t shut off. If anything it intensifies with the lack of other inputs. The room and the other people come into painful detail to me. Reminding me of the truth.

It takes a while before my mind calms down. I want to throw up but I imagine that the taste of those pellets would be even worse coming up then going down. I do manage to sit back up and face everyone.

“Bloody hell” is all I can really choke out. The four just stared at me.

“Things could be worse,” Mac states, giving me an apologetic look.

Moments pass and with it silence lingers.

“Let me guess. No one knows anything about the state of earth or the humans on earth ” I almost whisper.

“Ding ding ding look who gets a gold star”.

“How can you be so chipper, Mac?” Steph barked.

“If you can't laugh at the shit then you'll just go insane” I reply for him.

Mac looked at me laughing “The mans got a point Steph”.

Steve chimed in again, "All this doesn't matter. Our floor is going to be chaos without Goliath in charge and I don't think we can depend on the rapist here to help keep things in order. Even if he can step up and take control. Big if there. Chances are he will be worse.”

I was starting to get annoyed with Stevie boy. Anger coursed through me lightly.

"So your eye color changes and glows a bit depending on your mood. It's gonna be harder to pull off your more stoic nature like this. Not that curled up was particularly stoic." Mac’s looking at me intensely, studying me. “Your skin gets paler and your veins darken as well. Can you feel these effects”

Presenting me with questions calmed me down a little bit. They don’t know everything. Maybe it should upset me more, but a problem to solve is better than basically telling me I am fucked.

“I don't think there are any physical effects, but who knows with these things all over my body. What is the deal with these?” I gesture to the metal implants attached all over my body. “Why didn’t those three have any?”

“I call them nullifiers,” Says Mac. “From what we can tell, they are a combination of sensors and something else”. I eyed him questionably. “When we discover a new ability or skill, our hosts can somehow turn them off”. Everyone shudders. “They can also cause pain if a person tries to continue to use that ability. Which is why I call them nullifiers instead of nutrilizers”.

Blinking at mac and shaking my head, “You really shouldn’t be naming things.”

Yesterday's activities were quite exciting and I used my new abilities plenty of times. A growing concern about Steve's words about stepping up. If I played my cards wrong then it is likely that I will be royally screwed in the very near future.

“Hit the wall like you hit Goliath” Steph suggested.

Not a bad idea. Standing in more of a boxers posture in front of the wall. Pushing off with my foot I begin the motion. The kinetic energies flow through me like before and just like then I am able to funnel them into my fist. Then force it all out in a singular direction. The wall. There was no visible vibration but there was an immense boom sound.

“What does this mean?” I ask them.

“Nothing” says Steve.

“That they haven’t figured out how to stop you from doing that, they don’t want you to not be able to do that, or they can’t stop you from doing that. My advice is don't do that.” The bodyguard lady gives some simple but pogent advice.

I look over the condition my body is in again. Mac took notice of me doing this. “We don't know if it was part of the procedure that gave us our abilities or not. But pretty much everyone is in peak physical condition. Apparently it doesn't mean we are all ripped. Just in extremely good shape. With some body fat”.

“You are taking this all remarkably well,” Steph says.

“How do you figure?”

“You got up in under a day. Nearly half those people out there still haven’t recovered from what has happened and a lot of the others are in denial.”

Humans are humans after all. I wouldn’t be surprised if there are a large number of people who worship these aliens. But at the moment I can not figure a positive outcome for us that involves being kidnapped, given super powers, and imprisoned. In that order.

I scratch my head to ponder some more. Then scan everyone else’s head. Back to my head. I have very little hair. So do they. My fingers run over what is left to try and use the length to determine how long we have been here.

“Don’t bother. They laser off our hair periodically. Everyone has short hair except for a few who can grow their hair faster.” The bodyguard lady explains with irritation in her voice.

“OK laser showers are apparently a thing here. Why doesn’t everyone smell like feet, armpits and ass?”

“We think they pump something into the air to mask the scent. We can barely smell anything in here. Like with hair, there is a small percentage that can smell everything. They keep to themselves.” Steph grimaced.

“I think it’s the nullifiers,” Mac argued.

“Dimitri is right you shouldn’t be naming things, and you are wrong it is the air. If it was the implants wouldn’t everyone have them near an area that has to do with smell and taste? Chuck says that the implants are all exterior.” Steph was looking cocky now.

“Ya like we can trust everything Chuck tells us” mumbled Mac

“I can,” She is smirking at him. Mac started to argue back, but something stopped him.

“Can I get a change of clothes or something.”

They all responded with some version of “No”. The bodyguard lady pulls at her shirt sleeve hard. It tears a little. She motions for me to look closer. So I walk over to her and examine the shirt.

“Self repairing clothing?”

“Yes and it doesn’t stain. I’ve seen these clothes go from stained rags to like new in about sixteen hours. Blood takes the longest to come out. I think it’s on purpose. They want us to walk around with blood stains”

Mac walks up and points to some symbols on his shirt. “This is most likely my identification number of some kind”. He points to the same spot on my shirt. “This is yours”. Reaching down he pulls his shirt over his head. “Let's switch”

I follow suit. Their heads snap back a bit. The sudden reveal of my implant riddled abdomen is an apparent shock.

“That’s a lot of implants,” Steve says shakily. They nod in agreement. I suspected that the number, size and or complexity of the implants may suggest a potential threat. This began to confirm my theory.

“Well not much different then Mac” Steve regains his composure. He must think he has some sort of bond with Mac. To be fair he could. Though, the look on Mac's face is more annoyance than agreement.

“Put this on,” Mac shoves the shirt at me and grabs mine. We dress and he points to the ID spots again. The numbers have changed to the corresponding wearer. Not wanting him to have to walk around with my bloody clothing. We exchange shirts again.

So I shrug, ran my hand through my almost non existent hair, and say “I need to go for a walk”.

Steve seems to want to object but stops himself as I walk to the doorway. Did he stop himself? He seems even more agitated. Mac turns off the forcefield and leads me out. Him and the two ladies follow me. Still too uneasy about facing Cindy, I just walk into the middle of the main area. Only after we stop does Steve come out.

I look around this large room again. Almost with new eyes. Rooms like the one we were just in line the walls. Which were about a hundred feet apart. In one direction I can see the elevator like things I rode before. In the other direction I can’t see an end to the room.

“How many people are there?” I whisper.

“Do the math. This is one section of one floor. There are sixteen floors and eight sections” Mac Whispers back.

“So a shit ton”

Mac put his hand on my shoulder in solidarity.

“Which floor and section are we on now”.

“Don't worry when it is time for you to come back I will find you”. I look at him inquisitively. He isn’t tell me everything. I sense whatever it is won’t be good news.