Consciousness returns to you slowly, your mind foggy and hazy. Your bed feels odd and lumpy for some reason, but you don’t feel like moving or trying to figure out the issue, content to remain in this limbo stage and hopeful to get back to sleep. Unfortunately, the last lingering vestiges of sleep fade away, and this allows the memories of the dream or whatever it was to drift back to your conscious brain. Remembering that unpleasant event, you sit up straight, and then immediately lay back down, a cacophony of pain and aches flooding back and crashing over you, overwhelming your senses. Your head spins as does the out-of-focus view of the world around you, and you bite your lip to avoid crying out from the pain. Any thought of your attack just being a nightmare is banished as the combination of injuries all demand your limited attention.
As you lay there, your eyes screwed shut and tearing up; you become aware of a steady vibration coming up through the bed, as well as an almost imperceptible swaying motion. As the pain starts to ebb, you remember back when your mother took you on ferry trips across a local bay and the similar sensations you got then. Did whoever or whatever that grabbed you from the forest take you a boat of some sort? Opening your eyes slowly and carefully looking around, you see a small window set in the wall at the head of the bed, stars easily visible in the night sky outside; how long had you been out? Maybe if you looked outside you could get a clue to where you are and how to get away.
Even turning over is a chore, your arms battered and with bruises starting to appear when you were trying to free yourself from the larger attacker. You finally manage it turning over though, standing being the next challenge, and a nearly insurmountable, your legs refusing to take your weight. You eventually settle on an undignified slump against the wall, before pulling yourself to lean against the frame bordering the window. Outside, the stars are vibrant and bright, far brighter than you have ever seen before, even away from the light dome in the cities. There is also no sign of any land in sight, the light sky stretching as far as you can see from your limited field of view. The ship tips slightly again and you get a view that doesn’t quite make sense till your mind makes the proper connection: you aren’t on a boat in the middle of the water at night; you are on a ship in space above the Earth. A sense of panic causes you to want to run, but instead you just tumble to the ground with another bump among all the rest.
Spying what appears to be a door across the room, you make your way there, slowly though, crawling and dragging yourself using your forearms. As you move past the bed, you see part of the reason why it felt so odd, consisting of just a thin pad placed in an alcove in the wall. Turning your attention back to the door, you hoist yourself up against the wall next to the door, and realize something rather pivotal: there isn’t a knob, button, level, latch, or anything resembling a way to open the door, just a slightly recessed section of the door that doesn’t do anything in response to your touch. There isn’t enough of a lip to get a grip, and even trying to pull on the edge of the door only results in nearly pulling a fingernail out. A few halfhearted thumps on the door and a hoarse shout provide just as much help, only aggravating your aches and pains. Slipping down the wall to the floor, you pull your knees up and hook your arms around them, despite the flaring ache that causes, burying your head in your hands.
A few moments later, you perk up as you hear footsteps coming closer, before you try to move away from the door, remembering the two that apparently abducted you. With nowhere to hide though, you are easily visible as the door opens, revealing the smaller attacker. That odd warping effect isn’t in place now, and you can get a better view, revealing armor plates attached to a flexible layer underneath. The helmet is elongated and there is a semi-transparent visor across the top and partway down the sides of the helmet. Behind the visor, you can the rough shape of a face but one that is distinctly non-human, eyes partially visible, narrowing as their owner looks at you. Before you can react, the armored figure leaps at you, and in a flash that pistol device from before is pressed into your neck, the shadow of unconsciousness crashing back over you and dragging you deep into oblivion again.
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