[ WP ] Aliens have abducted you in a random sampling of men , women and children . Analyzing your cell , and the artificial gravity in the ship , you conclude that your captors hail from a planet with a only fraction of Earth 's gravity - and they have seriously underestimated our strength .

Baby Jacqueline is crying. It's alright, baby - your mama is here, somewhere... But I'm looking around, and she is n't there. She was just here - where did she go? I'm calling her name - where are you, Josie? Your daughter needs you! - but even as the words leave my lips, I know she's gone. Where are you, my sweet girl? Jackie needs you, I need you! My granddaughter is screaming in my arms, and my own eyes are stinging, too. Where are you, my sweet daughter? 
 
 The house melts away, my eyelids cracking open. A dream, then? I rub my eyes; my knuckles come away slick and cool with tears. Prying open my eyes again, I squint around me through bleary slits... then gawk through saucers. 
 
 Have I slipped from one dream to another? No, I wince - the pain coursing through this old man's body makes a convincing argument against that. No, I'm awake now - but where on God's green earth am I? 
 
 Shifting my weight, I prop myself up on one arm - good grief, that's cold! Have I been sleeping on metal? - and try to take in my surroundings. I'm laying on a bare floor, naked as the day I was born ( which would explain the pain, and the cold ). It's hard to see without my glasses, but I'm sure those are bars around me. Am I in jail? No, I could n't be - no jail I've ever heard of looks like this: no bed, no windows, just rows of cages with a single, dim, white light along the ceiling above the central aisle. For that matter, I've never heard of a jail that would leave people naked on the floor... except maybe Guantanamo. God, am I in some secret government prison? But what did I do? 
 
 Another look around though, reveals that this is no American prison - nor that of any developed nation I've ever heard of. No, there's something about the architecture: the lines, the colors, none of it feels right. It's all so utterly foreign, so terribly... 
 
 Suddenly, I realize that one sound has followed me from the last nightmare into this one: somewhere nearby, a small child is crying. I am not alone. 
 
 Through the gloom and the bars I see what must be the huddled shapes of prisoners in adjacent cells. Between the sobs echoing from further in the darkness I hear my neighbors shuffling and occasionally coughing. One other sound grabs my attention: near the sobbing child, a woman across the aisle is reaching through the bars, gesticulating urgently, speaking in low, persistent tones. I strain to hear: 
 
 ``... Afraid, sweetheart? Think how he feels! His parents are gone; to him that's worse than any of this! You've got to comfort him!'' She continues to plead with the person across from her to reach out to the child in the next cage. A young man's voice answers back: 
 
 `` I do n't know - I do n't know how!'' He struggles to make himself heard over the crescendo of screams, `` Come here- Come here, kid! It's okay, it's okay... I ca n't reach him!'' It's no use; the boy's screams are growing more tortured; he sounds like he's having trouble breathing. 
 
 `` Sing to him,'' I hear myself yell. What was Josie's favorite lullaby? `` Sing him a song!'' 
 
 There's no audible response from the young man, and for a few moments there's no sound but crying. Then, I hear the opening bars of `` Row, Row, Row Your Boat'' float down the corridor. My own voice cracks as I start in on a round and slowly, our two voices are joined by more and more until every one of the cages is ringing with song. As the chorus rises, the terrified shrieks grow muffled, then diminished. 
 
 In that moment as the warm echoes of that simple melody pushed back against the darkness and the fear, I knew that however alien this place was, the people around me were truly human. 
 
 EDIT: autocorrect.
