The door made a beep, and a guard came in and pushed down four bowls of porridge on the ground. The children stopped, but he paid them no attention and left. The door automatically shut behind him. They stopped playing and quickly went to eat the food while it was still hot.
"Hmmn… Hey, what do you think they're going to do with us?" asked Number 2 while eating with his mouth full.
"I don't really care as long as my stomach is filled," said Number 1.
"Um, what are your names? We didn't actually tell each other. So I'll go first — my name is Heng," said the boy who had once been Number 4, taking the chance to stop thinking of them as numbers.
"Shun," said Number 3.
"Jiang," said Number 1.
"Haha, mine is Ying," said Number 2 confidently.
Then they continued eating in silence.
It was awkward.
"Is it really bad to ask, but how did you end up in here?" asked Number 3 shyly. "I really want to know, since there's nothing else to do right now."
"Well," said Number 2, patting his belly, feeling very good and full, "it was very simple for me. Do you know the planet Feraqu?"
"Wait, aren't we on Feraqu right now?" asked Heng, dumbfounded.
"Well, no. We were transported — don't you remember flying in a spaceship?" asked Ying.
"No, I was in slavery and sold to military men. Then I fell asleep and woke up. They called me to follow them, and after walking through corridors like a labyrinth, I ended up in the line. It's kind of foggy," said Heng, trying to recall.
"Well, I was just taken with a few others onto a spaceship by military personnel. It wasn't big — looked like a traveling one. And we definitely ended up on a different planet than where we started," said Ying.
Heng stayed silent, trying to comprehend the information.
"Well, I also ended up on one of those traveling spaceships," said Jiang. "I was on the streets when a military man shouted for children who wanted food. So I asked how to get the food, and they said, 'Follow us, it won't be hard.' And yeah — I ended up here. I was a street beggar."
"Oh yeah — my family got blown to pieces by a bomb. They were engineers and built small ships like the traveling ones," said Ying, clearly trying to impress.
"Wow," said Shun. "My father served in the military as a foot soldier. He never returned, and my mother died of illness. I was left alone, and the same thing happened to me as Jiang."
"Well, my parents didn't die — they just sold me for a piece of food," said Heng, his voice a little sad.
"I ended up on the streets because I was a burden to my family," said Jiang, quietly. "My mother… we were starving, and even then, the little food she had, she gave to me. But I acted from my heart and left it for her. I left a note and walked away. My father worked in the administrative office and supplied the family with money. I learned to write early from him."
It looked like he had lifted a heavy burden after he finished speaking. They all did.
They talked more — about what might happen next, about other things. Then the lights turned off. It looked like it was nighttime. They all went to bed. This time, they chose the four beds closest to each other. Of course, they changed the mattresses of the bloodied ones.
"Goodnight," they said to each other.