They walked in silence, save for Ortega occasionally giving him direction to veer to the right or left. After about five minutes, she said, “Stop.” He wanted to plead his case to take a piss, which he could probably pull off even with his hands tied now that his arms weren’t strapped to a tree, but his mouth was still gagged, and there was no way for him to gesture that he needed to pee in a way that she was likely to appreciate.

She got behind him and marched him forward, holding the back of his shirt. Then he saw where she was taking him—a cave. Clearly, not a natural one, as there were no caves in this part of the world, let alone the kind that opened with giant gaping holes in the side of a mountain.

The inside of the cave was perhaps thirty feet in diameter, rounder than it was square. The walls were glassy like obsidian, and at the center of it were the two aliens surrounded by a ring of dim light, a few dim light balls hanging in the air like fairies. The white one stood over the black one, which was lying prone on the floor, practically one with it. There was black bile all over the floor like tar, leaking out of the creature. It was grotesque.

“Sit down,” said Ortega. He did as she said, and she tied the twine around his chest, locking his elbows in place, and this time, she tied his feet. Oh, if she only knew that in a different context, he would totally be into that sort of thing (although ideally not the one being tied up).

He backed himself up against the smooth wall of the cave and waited. Ortega moved close to the horrifying spectacle at the center of the chamber and sat down, drawing her knees up to her chest. Occasionally, she’d ask questions like, “How much more is there?” or “Have you ever seen that before?”

After about an hour, he saw a thin blue light emanating from the mouth of the cave. Sunrise was coming; he might live to see another day after all, whee. By this point, Ortega had started to nod off, and the white alien monster wasn’t being so violent to the black one’s body anymore. He dearly hoped the black ones were the Decepticons, because what he was beholding looked downright cruel. It was hard not to feel for the black one. It was affixed so firmly to the floor with so many harnesses of mysterious alien make, it could barely move.