text: > alien Abduction
  It was the start of summer and you really wanted to be doing what you had planned for many months: sleeping. Well, of course you weren't going to sleep ALL day, but you certainly were not planning on getting up a five in the morning just so you could go stand in line... and then stand in line again... and then again.
  
  Summer had arrived and while you had planned to spend the week sleeping and gaming, your parents had decided that instead you were going to spend a week with Aunt Mary. You really didn't have anything against Aunt Mary, but she was pretty plan and boring. Worse, she lived in a town with absolutely nothing to do. Last time you spent a week there, you spent most of the week sitting on the front porch watching the grass grow. Sure, you might catch up on some of your sleep in the first part of the week, but she didn't have a gaming system, so you knew you were going to be seriously bored. Then again, it's not like anyone asked you what you wanted to do. So you got up early and rode to the airport.
  
  After getting dropped off, you stood in the line to check in. The days of the skycap were over, you know, because of "terrorism." Instead you had to walk inside and stand in line for an automated kiosk. You managed to make it through the line only for the machine to tell you that you had to check in at the agent counter. You trudged over to that line and waited at least 30 minutes before you made it to the front of the line. You handed ID, she pressed about 500 keys, then took your luggage with a seriously fake smile. This was really going to be a long day.
  
  Thinking about Aunt Mary's tiny house, you headed over to the security line. Of course there were about 1,000 people in that line, most of them confused when the blue-uniformed Wal-Mart greeters told them they had to take their shoes off. Or leave them on. For some reason, some people had to take shoes off and some did not. The confused ensured the line would continue to move very slow. That and the "special" people who managed to cut into the front of the line after paying some bribes or some crap. You were just glad that when you finally got to the front of the line and through the scanners that you didn't get felt up by the goofy guards.
  
  Next you had to wait for your plane to start boarding and then watch as all the people who were not called to board ran to get in line first. You had a ticket with an assigned seat, so you just waited until your row was called and then went to stand in line yet one more time. As you walked down the aisle of the plane, you counted the seats and knew before you finished counting that the seat next to the really fat guy that was having trouble breathing was your seat. Hooray for coach seats! At least you had the aisle seat so you wouldn't be squashed into the wall of the plane. You took your seat, fastened the stupid seat belt, and promptly closed your eyes, trying to ignore everyone and everything around you.
  
  At some point in time, you woke up, wide awake. You're not really sure why you woke up. The plane was filled with the sound of airplane noises. You looked around and realized that there was some sort of odd greenish light coming in through the windows of the plane. A few people started talking about just that as more noticed it. You heard a popping sound and looked around for the source. Everything looked normal, but then you heard someone towards the front of the plane yell. You stood up, like most of the plane, and looked towards the front. Suddenly there was another popping noise, and half the people in front of you simply disappeared! They were there one moment and not the next. More people started to yell and run into the aisle. There was another pop, and everyone in front of you disappeared. You looked around towards the rear of the plane, and saw others staring at you, eyes wide open. Then there was another popping sound and suddenly blackness...
  > continue...
  When you start to wake up, you feel cold. Actually, mostly just your rear end feels cold. And quite uncomfortable for some reason. You slowly open your eyes and blink in the bright white light. You realize that you're lying down on your back and your pants are down around your ankles. You are lying on a cold metal table. Well that explains why your rear end is cold, but why does it feel like...
  
  You sit up and look around, pulling your pants up. You are in a small, strange, round metal room. The floor is flat, but the silver metal walls curve up and around, creating almost a bubble. You are sitting on a table in the middle of the room and there is a large machine of some sort sitting right next to you. It has long probes on it that are pointed in your direction. Fortunately, none of them are moving at the moment, but your butt clenches as you stand up from the table.
  
  There is an opening in the wall to the east that leads into a hallway, but you don't see any other ways out of this room. The floor and walls appear solid, but they also appear to be glowing a little, enough to provide light so that you can see all around you.
  > head out of the room to the east.
  You stand at the west end of a long hallway. The walls are silver and curve up and around the ceiling so much that you feel like you are walking in a long, strange tube. The floor is flat and level, but there are small dips at the edge, looking almost like gutters that you would find on the roof of a house, but not quite as deep.
  
  To the west is the room where you first awoke with the strange table and probes that make you feel strangely uncomfortable. The hallway continues to the east, slowly bending out of sight to the right. To the south is a rounded doorway that leads into a well-lit room that looks like it might have some other metal tables in it.