How did I get here? It's so dark and cold. Light outside my holding cell shines through the slits in the wall so dimly that I can barely see my own hand in front of me.

I think that this cell is in some sort of gigantic shaft. It's hard to tell from in here. There are no doors that I know of.

I'm so hungry. The bones in my body are beginning to protrude. Am I going to rot in here?

Am I even on Earth anymore? I'd take all the problems that home has--even in this turbulent year, 3141. I keep thinking that any moment I'll wake up and see my wife sleeping soundly beside me, but I never do.

I heard someone call out today. I responded and it seems I have a new friend. His name is Roberts, and he is in a cell much like my own.

Strangely, he says he isn't too worried, and that he's been through worse. He sounds angry about this predicament more than terrified, unlike myself.

I have been talking with my new friend, Roberts, from another cell. It seems he, too, is unaware of how he got here.

He is a soldier and the last thing he remembers before being in here was opening the front door to his house. We talk about our lives and ourselves to keep from going crazy. I wonder if we will ever find out what happened to us.

It's almost as if we were plucked from where we stood and dropped in here. But that's ridiculous.

I got fed today. Some kind of thick oatmeal. I was so hungry I don't even remember what it tasted like.

Strange. I called out to Roberts but got no reply. He's probably just sleeping.

I have tried on numerous occasions to contact Roberts but I never get a response. I worry about what has happened to him.

It is pointless to dwell on it, particularly given this inhumane circumstance. Nonetheless, it is nearly impossible to think about anything else.

I'm so scared. The horrors I have seen are almost too much to relate, but I'll try.

I heard a strange clang outside and then the cell shuddered and began to move. It descended, and it became apparent that the cell I was in was mobile like an elevator. Perhaps it was raised up so high to deter escape? The front of the cell opened, and then I saw the most horrific thing I have ever seen. Standing before me were several indescribable creatures.

They took me through many corridors and eventually to a small room where they strapped me into a strange chair or bed and began preparing strange medical implements. I was so terrified that my entire body froze. Not so much as a squeak issued from my mouth. I saw some kind of mask with needles and circuitry on the inside of it. Was it some kind of torture device?

Then what must have been an alarm sounded, and they stopped what they were doing. I have a feeling the alarm saved me from a gruesome fate. The creatures began taking me down a different corridor, and there I saw it--a vision so terrible it will haunt me forever.

Through a doorway I saw a wall that seemed almost alive. And attached to it--God help us--were living people! Some kind of organic tissue was growing over them like straps or sinews. Some were completely enveloped; most were unconscious. One of the helpless victims was struggling and screaming as two of the bizarre humanoids approached him with a kind of instrument or weapon. I knew that voice: it was Roberts.

I yelled his name, and for a moment he looked toward me, still shrieking in the hold of those fleshy bonds. His eyes were dead.

The horror of it all must have caused me to pass out because I woke up in the cell. It was not a dream, though.

This hell is no dream.

I cannot sleep or even think properly after what I have seen. Roberts's screams will stay with me till the day I die; I wonder just how long that will be...