"Eli!" Elizabeth turned her head away from the well that she had been sent to earlier in the day to collect the days worth of water. One of the other children that had survived the colony's attack five years earlier ran towards her.
"Tobin! What are you doing here?" Eli asked in surprise. The human children that had been abducted during the raid were not normally allowed to associate with each other outside the weekly inspections at the main square. That was one of the ways their captors kept control of them.
"Crazy things are happening in the centre… I can't explain until you see what's happening! They're leaving!"
"Who's leaving?" Eli asked as she sloshing the heavy buckets of water up over the edge of the well.
"They all are!" Tobin returned excitedly. "Quickly too! They aren't even packing anything, they're just being beamed off the planet." Tobin told her as he took Eli's hand and started to run back along the path away from the well. The two of them ran quickly over the rocky terrain and then up through the edge of the main community centre and then into the square. Two other children ranging in age from nine to 12 were hovering in the shadows watching as well as Eli and Tobin joined them and watched the new situation develop.
"Where do you think they are going?" Jessa asked as she turned to whisper to Eli. She was the youngest of the group, not remembering much of her previous life prior to their captivity.
"I don't know." Eli returned and hunched down to watch. She saw the main leader, the one that Eli spent most of her time 'working for' look around as the last of the group disappear and then without warning looked over at the five children and nodded to the children before he disappeared as well.
"What just happened?" Daisy asked in surprise when they found themselves alone on the planet, with no other living beings.
"I have no idea." Eli sighed and looked over at Caleb. "I was ordered to prepare their ritual baths for tonight. I've been lugging water to the purifier almost all day."
"I just heard a lot of commotion and they were suddenly taking their idols and disappearing." Caleb shared.
"Are they coming back?" Jessa spoke the words that all of them were thinking. Eli shrugged her shoulders and placed a hand on the little girls back and brought her into a hug.
"I hope not." She whispered into the girls braided hair. "I hope to God in Heaven that they don't come back."