And now it's time. Back to the hell I started from, back to see if Howard's short speech is going to work properly. It's a simple one- the gist of it is 'do work or get tortured'. The jet's landing area was fairly close to the small expanse of flat land suitable for farming, and there they were, in cages, under powerful spotlights, near some hastily-constructed grass huts and a giant mound of fertilizer. Four cages full to the brim, guarded by the dozen Enforcers he was allowed. He looked at them and recited, in something of a monotone, what he planned to say. "This is an American experiment.", he told them in perfectly-accented Spanish, and his echo got their attention immediately. "This is a simple test. If you do work for five weeks," When he came up with that, I laughed hard. It's a good idea to overshoot the time frame lest they start slacking near the end. "we will let you go. Escape, however, is forbidden. We will put you in groups of ten. If you escape, we will kill the other nine people in your group." He says he forgot where he got that one- the North Vietnamese or the Japs in World War 2.
"When we release you, we shall give you all a home in America. But to resist is to feel pain. You will grow your own food. You will find water on the other side of the island. You have no way out of here, and you have no rights until you are let go." As if they had any anyway.. "Do you understand?" He was received with weak "Si"s from the huddled, caged masses. He then motioned to me, and it was my turn- I gave them the details of how the engineered potatoes were to be farmed, avoiding tripping over my tongue while speaking their language. As I looked at them, I realized that this part of the test was going to be easy. They were scared of the enormous Enforcers surrounding them, they were scared of their environment, and more importantly, they were scared- more like positively terrified- of Howard.
"That is where you will live.", stated Howard, motioning to the huts. "You will begin work at daybreak tomorrow. Do not be afraid- if you comply, you will have nothing to fear. Enforcers, put them in groups of ten and ensure they know which group they're in." As I looked, I found a few rows of the plants, in various stages of growth, near the fertilizer. Ah, so we won't starve right away.
He didn't need to say anything more to them- better to let them worry. Howard led us back to the mansion at an intentionally leisurely pace, and then to the stairs, the whole of the mansion lit by softly-glowing, well-placed night lights.
"Billy, as of right now, how confused are you?", he asked, leaning up against the door to his room.
"Not confused. Lots of stuff I don't know, but that's different.. only one thing getting me at the moment. How are you going to get to sleep after resting in the jet all day?"
"Simple. I'm just going to think about how tiring the next five weeks are going to be."
"Yeah, enjoy it while you can.", Sarah added, taking off her two-piece suit in a few seconds and opening the door to her room. I realized that that was the first time I've seen a girl naked in the flesh- she excited me on a primeval level, but I was too shocked by the day's events and the general situation to feel much lust.
"I'm gonna have some fucked-up dreams tonight..", I said, as I opened the door to the room where this whole nightmare started. I'm not sure why both of them found that amazingly funny, but they laughed hard before we all went to bed. Wait, make that 'I'm gonna have some fucked-up dreams tonight if I can actually get to sleep'. I've accepted this whole freakish scenario as reality for a long while now, but I'm still very on-edge and my senses are still on full alert, how the hell do I hope to-
Wham. The blackness took me like a tidal wave. I'm not sure whether or not I managed to think 'That wasn't so hard after all' before I passed out.
And then I had a nightmare.