All my friends are heathens, take it slow
Wait for them to ask you who you know

Screams of panic and terror rang out from the various holding cells. Women. Men. Children too. Crying out for their loved ones. Crying out for the dead. In every language from every corner of the world, thousands upon thousands of confused human beings stood shoulder to shoulder - unable to move more than an inch even as the hoarse attempted to push forward and escape crushing those unfortunate enough to be nearest to the door.

And then the most mechanical voice began booming followed almost immediately by rippling silence interrupted only by gasping sobs.

"Remain calm. Remain calm. Remain calm. Remain..."

"THE HELL YOU MEAN STAY CALM?! WHERE THE HELL ARE WE?!" one lone man snapped over the loud repetitive phrase from his position among the masses- followed by a gentle roar as confusion and sheer panic began overriding humanity's survival instinct.

"Welcome volunteers of EGT 7528780612890145..."

"Jesus Christ. Get on with it," a man with short ebony hair muttered under his breath as the woman next to him continued sobbing into her hands and the eerie voice continued rambling off seemingly endless numbers with all the emotion of a voicemail system. Some good it would do to those who didn't speak a lick of English. He wasn't even close to fluent but he knew what 'welcome' and 'volunteer' meant. Problem was volunteer implied a choice and there had been none. At least on his end anyway. The last thing he clearly remembered was watching the news after a full day of delivering the lazy man's groceries and medication just to make rent for the bathroom and kitchen deficient closet he kept a mattress in...

Just saying he sure as hell didn't volunteer for jack shit and definitely wouldn't've fucking volunteered to be kidnapped and locked inside with far too many people who failed to keep up the minimum level of personal hygiene. It didn't help the smell or situation that the monstrous cell itself appeared to be a hollow cube of concrete, one way in, no windows. A large, presumably impenetrable metallic wall stood at one end with a strange blinking red light. There was no way to determine whether it was night or day or, fucking hell, if they were even on Earth anymore. This holding pen, which was basically what it seemed to be, was totally disorientating by design.

"...86. Your planet thanks you for your sacrifice. Intake will be in order received. Remain calm. Remain calm. Remain..."

Letting out an exasperated groan, the man glanced at the faces he could make out in the poor lighting and got the distinct impression he wasn't the only one who had no idea what any of this meant but he might be the only person staying calm. Everyone, and he meant everyone, seemed to be in varying stages of shock. Mothers were looking around desperately for their children. Husbands for their wives. Children for their parents. With each passing second, the likelihood everyone would begin a collective scream increased exponentially.

"Order received" the voice spoke in the distance followed by a thousand screams that cut off unnaturally. The sudden silence caused almost everyone in his general proximity to start panicking - rocking and pushing against the person in front of them in a desperate and clearly futile attempt to bust down the door making the cramped conditions almost suffocating from the pressure of thousands of bodies pushing up against one another.

Pushing himself up by the shoulders of the two people closest to him, he gasped for air and stared in a strangely disconnected apathy at the tear stained faces below. For a split second, he took note that three or four other people had also pushed themselves upwards. One of the girls had a child on her shoulders who visibly wasn't related to her and one of the men who had done so was pointlessly bellowing about the need to stay calm. What was surprising was not the fact that others had thought to go up rather than forward but rather the fact that only a handful of people had done so.

The girl with the little boy on her shoulders made eye contact with him for several long painful moments while her free hand general rubbed the child's arm in an attempt to soothe him. An impressive balancing act to be sure since she was practically balancing all her weight on one hand atop the shoulder of someone who was actively being jostled around by a panic driven hoarde.

"I'm going to try to get to you!" the ebony haired girl suddenly screamed as her eyes began frantically scanning the throngs of people around her, "I need someone to..."

Just when he'd realized this complete stranger was actually talking to him directly, the girl suddenly and rapidly dropped when her support went out from under her.

She didn't come back up and the strange mechanical voice repeated its ominous statement again and again and again - each time the distant screams of pure unadulterated terror seemed to grow quieter. Maybe this was a population control type of thing. Just round up everyone the government thought had no purpose and just exterminate them all to better allocate resources because why not? Strangely, he wasn't afraid to die. Not in the slightest. Everyone he'd ever known died horribly in some way or another. There was no one left to mourn him and honestly, it'd be nice not to be alone again. Assuming, of course, there was an afterlife but worst case scenario, if there wasn't, he wouldn't be around to know the difference.

Letting out a very resigned sigh, charcoal black eyes watched wearily as the doors to his particular holding pen slid open with an audible thunk and a blinding crimson light flooded the room.

"Order received."