text: [Themes: sci-fi, science fiction]
  
  You're walking back to your dorm room. It's the last night of final exams and your brain is exhausted, but finally, you have finished. Your backpack feels lighter than it has all semester (since you have already sold back most of your books), and the weather has finally gotten warm after a long winter.
  
  You still haven't finalized your plans for your summer. Some friends have invited you along on a road trip for a couple of weeks. Exploring the south western United States could be fun, you think. But then there are family obligations. You promised your uncle that you'd help him run his newspaper over the summer. This would be a great job experience, especially considering the fact that you're majoring in Journalism.
  
  You weigh the pros and cons of both choices as you cross the deserted campus. It's almost eerie this late at night and you realize that you've only seen two other people since you left your exam.
  
  You pull your backpack closer and try to think back to the self-defense lecture you had had once in high school. Although comically all you can remember is to hit someone in the groin. As you are trying to remember whatever you can from that class you hear a metallic scraping sound from your left, making your skin crawl.
  
  Again you contemplate your options:
  
  > get into a self defense position and prepare to fight
  You quickly drop your weight and make a defensive stance, finally remembering something from that self-defense class all those years ago. You quiet your breathing as you listen for that sound to repeat, unsure if you actually want to hear it again or not. You swear you feel like you're being watched, and ordinarily that would make you feel silly considering the position you are in. Instead it makes you feel more tense.
  
  Finally you hear the sound again. It makes you jump, your heart racing. Your instincts are pushing you to make a choice...
  
  > find your foe and fight!
  (you are either very brave, or very foolish...or maybe a ninja?)
  
  Whoever is out there is going to need a hospital bed when you get through with them. You did not survive a crazy intense semester and miserable finals to be scared by some loser freshman on the last night of exams. You raise your fists and call out your challenge as you prepare to deal out some pain.
  
  Unfortunately, you are not prepared for what comes next. As you stand there under a streetlight on the deserted campus a harsh, intensely painful, white light surrounds you. Your whole body feels as if it is on fire and you instinctively cover your eyes.
  
  You pass out from the intense pain...
  
  > wake up...
  You wake up freezing. You are naked, bound to a futuristic metal chair, and surrounded by about fifty other people, also naked, also bound to chairs. Some of them are awake, crying and mumbling, struggling to get free. They are of all different races and ages. You can only understand a few others who are speaking. The rest seem to speak various other languages, you're pretty sure you can make out Spanish, and maybe Russian, as well as some Japanese.
  
  The man in the chair next to you turns and asks you "Parlez-vous français ?" you shake your head no, you had taken three years of German in college instead of French. You try to listen for anyone who seems to know what is going on while absentmindedly pulling at the metal bars that hold you in place.
  
  You hear the loud screeching noise again. The same sound which lead you to this position in the first place. Only now it is much louder, and right above you. Awkwardly you tilt your head to the side and glance up. You quickly wish you hadn't. Above you are hundreds of aliens. Blue skinned, three translucent blue eyes, and lots of big scary teeth, all staring down at you and the other humans. You panic, struggling more against your binds, but to no avail. The other humans also panic, some are screaming, which makes your ears ring. You just wish it would all stop...
  
  You hear a humming sound to the sides of your head as metal bars start closing in around you, trapping your head in place. A strange helmet begins to lower down onto your head. You can see that the same thing is happening to the other humans, most of which seem to be in various stages of terror (for obvious reasons). The helmet settles onto your head, completely cutting off your vision of the other prisoners, intensifying your feeling of claustrophobia. You're starting to wonder how things can get much worse when you feel needles shove into your head, originating from the helmet. You scream in pain as millions of thoughts, images, feelings, scents, and sounds start pouring into your head from these needle like things.
  
  Through the helmet, you can hear everyone else screaming and you realize, yet again, that you have a choice to make.
  
  You quickly drop your weight and make a defensive stance, finally remembering something from that self-defense class all those years ago. You quiet your breathing as you listen for that sound to repeat, unsure if you actually want to hear it again or not. You swear you feel like you're being watched, and ordinarily that would make you feel silly considering the position you are in. Instead it makes you feel more tense.
  
  Finally you hear the sound again. It makes you jump, your heart racing. Your instincts are pushing you to make a choice...
  
  > RUN!
  You did not survive an incredibly challenging semester and miserable finals to die at the hands of some creeper on the last night of exams.
  
  Quickly you start to run away when suddenly you are surrounded by intense white light.Your whole body feels as if it is on fire and you instinctively hide your eyes from the light. You lose consciousness due to the intense pain...
  
  You're walking back to your dorm room. It's the last night of final exams and your brain is exhausted, but finally, you have finished. Your backpack feels lighter than it has all semester (since you have already sold back most of your books), and the weather has finally gotten warm after a long winter.
  
  You still haven't finalized your plans for your summer. Some friends have invited you along on a road trip for a couple of weeks. Exploring the south western United States could be fun, you think. But then there are family obligations. You promised your uncle that you'd help him run his newspaper over the summer. This would be a great job experience, especially considering the fact that you're majoring in Journalism.
  
  You weigh the pros and cons of both choices as you cross the deserted campus. It's almost eerie this late at night and you realize that you've only seen two other people since you left your exam.
  
  You pull your backpack closer and try to think back to the self-defense lecture you had had once in high school. Although comically all you can remember is to hit someone in the groin. As you are trying to remember whatever you can from that class you hear a metallic scraping sound from your left, making your skin crawl.
  
  Again you contemplate your options:
  
  > run as fast as you can to your dorm
  Quickly you jump into action, throwing everything you can into running away from that sound. You didn't fight through three months of hard classes and a week of miserable exams to get killed by some creepy thing on the last night of finals!
  
  The entire way to your dorm you feel as if something is chasing you, finally however you burst through the doors and look out the window, searching for whatever was following you. But there is nothing. You feel ridiculous and a touch disappointed in yourself for being so paranoid. But hey, at least you're alive.
  
  Congrats, you survived college and go on to marry a few years later. You settle down with a decent paying job in a nice neighborhood. You have a couple of kids, but they are cute and way too clever for their own good, and you live to the ripe old age of 93.