CHAPTER TWO

Momma dragged me into the building and one thing I could ascribe to these aliens was their architectural advancement. This place was huge but it didn't appear vague. Everything was intricately designed with beauty and functionality in mind, not sparing any dime. The entrance was a big hall where several girls were being scanned and sent into different rooms and the moment I sighted her beautiful locs, I rushed to meet her. Rosa, my best friend who was as disgusted with this whole process as I was, had streaks of dried tears on her face.

“Roe, what's wrong?” I asked, ignoring the weird looks from everyone.

The moment she noticed it was me, she hugged me tightly and began a fresh batch of tears.

“Tess, they are so cruel! How are we supposed to live with this for a year? Three aliens have talked down on me because I'm black and no one can even do anything about it. It's frustrating and I wish I could join the revolution but my mom would die of a heart attack” she poured out and my heart broke for her.

When the aliens came, they took all of our societal problems and magnified it a hundred times. The gender wars, racism, economic classism and so many horrid ideologies became their way of grading us. They didn't have any of that where they were coming from and decided to adapt the stronger side of the debate so thus we find ourselves in conditions like this.

“Roe, trust me. We'll survive this. You just need to toughen up, don't let them think you're weak, okay? In two years max, we'll be out of here and we'll open that coffee shop with a library we've been saving up for since we were seven, okay?” I assured her and before she could reply to me, I heard a jarring sound coming from the speakers before an alien delivered an announcement.

Their voices always separated them from the rest of us. The original aliens. They looked scary but they were the ones making all the decisions on our planet and no one knew till date how they conquered us, especially with all the nuclear warheads we possessed.

“All parents and guardians, leave the premises immediately as the preparation for the auction is about to begin!” the female alien screamed.

There were quite a few females in their original number and they were given very high positions in their society. They just didn't like human women so much with the way they treated us like cattle.

With the announcement, everyone began hugging their daughters and I sought my Momma’s hug as this would be the last time I'll see her for the next one to two years. I hated how much I found it hard to cry as my chest was filled with emotions but no way to let it out.

But regardless, I hugged her tightly and as she cried, she said a prayer for me and I allowed her this time. If she found succor in it, I wouldn't stop her.

“Please stay safe, avoid any unnecessary altercations, Tess. Please come back to us, okay? Your father and I love you so much. Your sister needs you as well, please,” she murmured to me, tears falling from her eyes with each word.

“Momma, I'm going to come back okay, you don't need to be scared. Take care of Anna and don't worry, it's just a Christmas or two and I'll be back. Think of it as me going to the college you used to tell me about, okay?”

“Oh, my precious daughter.” She hugged me again before the XYZ aliens used to enforce order began pouring out of different doors in the hall and everyone knew they had to bail or be forced out and trust me, you didn't want those frustrated asseholes manhandling your parent so I gave Momma a little push so she could quickly leave.

We stood together, Rosa and I, her head on my shoulder as they gave us numbers and told us which rooms to go in to be “prepared” for the bidding. I didn't really know what that entailed but I guess we were going to be primed and dolled up for the aliens to choose us.

These XYZ’s depended on the success of each SOS event to be able to feed properly. It was the biggest event of the world and each locality had the center where it was held so a few hundreds of them would be employed for different purposes.

For example, the guy wearing a suit that was two sizes bigger than him was a TV host in his daily life with a meager salary but this event gave him the opportunity to earn big from the bidding money, so he was obviously putting in all his energy and sweating in a room filled with air conditioners.

“Everyone on this line, head to room, one! This line, room two! …” And so on she went

“Roe, stay at my back so we can be sent to the same room, okay?” I told Rosa and she nodded. I could sense the fear in her body as the thought of being alone with these people crossed our minds.

All through our childhood, we only viewed them from afar, our parents taking the brunt of their cruelty. Most rich families were suddenly only able to feed by working many odd jobs and everyone became a businessman but then, who was buying?

Only agriculture could give you a little bit of stable income and that was left to black people for whatever reason. I hated how they structured our world and blamed us for it. Each time some group of people gathered the courage to complain about something, they always got the same reply.

“We met you this way and are only trying to give you a better version of your world so keep quiet”

The revolution Rosa spoke about was very unsuccessful because they could never agree on one thing. Sometimes, they are popular and in the next minute, everyone hates them for one reason or the other so I guess we were all a mess of confusion and they took advantage of that to control us. Our differences gave them a loophole and they were treating us like inanimate objects.

When it was our turn, we went down the hall on the right and entered the room meant for us which was just an entrance into a larger area. There were doors all over the place and I wondered what it was.

A couple of makeup artists were arranging their equipment and so many other XYZ’s were running around to get one thing or the other done. In shorter terms, the whole place was a mess.

But once they saw us all standing like confused chickens, they got their act together a little bit.

“Why are you all staring like you've seen a ghost? Pick a bag there and go to the bathroom. Bathe and wear your clothes, then come down here for your makeup. Pick up your pace, people! We don't have all day!” one of them, his tail swishing as he brought out things from the big bag shouted at us and the fear his voice wrought sent us all into a frenzy

I picked a bag as Roe did the same and we went down the hall into separate bathrooms.