Beyond Our Stars by Marie Langager Page A

circle, and keep talking. Just close your eyes and forget about the lights. Or lack thereof.”
    This would be fine as long as they didn’t leave us like this for too much time.
    But they did. They left us like that for what I think was a full day. I guessed that length of time because of the hunger that got progressively worse and worse. There had been no food.
    Then around the time we’d started to get sleepy and faint the lights came back on, only they went from dim orange to a bright yellow light. Then a loud sound began, like a piercing ringing that ebbed and flowed.
    No one was able to sleep.
    The lights and sounds would go off again for short periods but as soon as one of us got relaxed it would all start over. They didn’t
want
us to sleep.
    While the lights had been on I’d seen that they’d given us a pee-closet. We had these sometimes, a slim gray door that opened to a small standing space. These only appeared when we were going to be left for more than a few hours, already it was…I wasn’t sure any more, it had been about a day and a half now, maybe. But no one needed to use it because they hadn’t given us any water. I’d always found the closets funny before, because we must have been peeing into empty space in reality, but when you were as thirsty as we were nothing was all that amusing anymore.
    The water was the thing. I knew how long we could live without food. But water was necessary. Two, three days, more, and we’d be hurting. We’d need medical care after we were released. I wanted to know what these aliens thought they were accomplishing. What purpose this was serving.
    More long hours passed without sleep, food, or water. I thought we were headed into day three.
    â€œI’m so tired,” Grim mumbled into my shoulder. He shuffled in his uncomfortable sitting position against the wall and my side. He was trying to sleep with the lights on, with the noise blaring. I was nearing the point of passing out myself. Sometimes I think I got a minute or a few seconds. But I mostly tried to stay awake and keep my hands over Grim’s ears.
    â€œThey’re loving this,” Legacy suddenly spit out.
    I was so tired, and my head was pounding. “Shut up Legacy! No one needs to hear you! Shut up!”
    I was normally more diplomatic, but the intense pains in my stomach, the pounding headache, my dry mouth, the loud noise, were adding up to more than I could manage.
    â€œYou shut
your
stupid mouth! Stupid bitch who believes these things are our friends! Do you feel friendly now?” He tried to move toward me in a threatening way but was too fatigued and slouched back down. “Stupid bitch,” he said again.
    Chance got up shakily, surprising both Legacy and I. Legacy looked scared. Chance looked over at him but then came over to sit next to Grim and me.
    Leaning close to my ear he whispered, “Legacy is an idiot, but maybe he’s right.”
    I glared at him.
    â€œHe’s not right about anything,” I said slowly.
    â€œFirst they hurt people, now this!”
    I motioned for him to be quiet and he lowered his voice, putting his mouth close to my ear. “All I’m saying is, it doesn’t seem like they have our best interests at heart.”
    The blaring noise stopped, and we all heard a loud popping noise. A circle came shooting down through the ceiling on top of Legacy, enveloping him in a shimmering tube. He threw his hands against it and yelled to us but we couldn’t hear him, and he couldn’t get out. Total panic filled his eyes. He pushed and kicked at the force field. After a minute of this he finally stilled. When he did, a bowl of water appeared at his feet. We all gasped. Careful not to knock it over, Legacy picked it up with shaking hands and gulped greedily, streaks of water running down his shirt. As soon as the bowl was empty, the field disappeared.
    We all looked above our heads, waiting for our