When Mai opened her eyes, light flooded in and blinded her. Wincing, she pulled an arm up to cover her eyes.

"You're awake," a familiar voice said.

Mai pushed herself up and looked around.

"Where am I?"

"Labour camp," the voice said.

Mai rubbed her eyes before opening them again. She spotted a red-headed female busying about.

"Ayako?"

"So your brain still works," Ayako muttered. "Good."

Ayako bustled over and stuck a thermometer in Mai's mouth while simultaneously shining a light into both eyes.

"No signs of concussion. You're good to go," Ayako stated, removing the thermometer and checking its reading.

"What?"

"You've been reassigned to work in a camp as a farmer. I am sent here once a month to do health checks if required. Be grateful, this is one of the nicer camps."

Mai frowned and took in the rest of her surroundings. There were several other beds with various patients. A pregnant lady, an old man, two young teenagers with broken arms.

Shivers raced down Mai's arms.

"Head out that door, you two boys should get out of here too," Ayako called. "They won't take kindly to you time wasting."

Mai scrambled to her feet and with a confused expression, followed after the two boys. She soon found herself outside. Rows of wooden huts ran down one side of the compound while expansive fields stretched on the other side.

"Oi, you three, get over to the new rice paddy, the soil needs prep."

Mai soon realised that she and the two boys were the ones being talked to, the boys walked off without waiting for her and still confused, she followed.

There were about twenty people in the field when they arrived, all bent over and churning the soil with primitive tools. Mai joined in their work, her thoughts still muddled.

Vague notions of running away and being knocked out swam about her head as she tried to remember how she got here.

"Oliver," she mumbled. "Oliver was acting weird and then… Gene was there… And the bad men turned up and…"

"Will you shut up."

Mai looked around to see another worker scowling in her direction.

"Sorry."

She bent back over and carried on attacking the soil.

When night fell, the workers were herded like sheep into the wooden huts. There were bunk beds shared by several people and everyone seemed to know their place.

Mai did not have a place. She stood by the door and looked for the comfiest bit of floor, as no beds were spare.

"Oi, kid, come here."

Mai spotted the source of the voice that again sounded sort of familiar. A man with sandy coloured hair slouched at one end of a bottom bunk shared by a tall man.

"I won't bite, come on."

"Do I know you? I recognise your voice," Mai said, edging closer.

"You're new right? I'm Houshou, and up until a few days ago I was the voice of the radio."

Mai's mouth fell open.

"I thought it had changed! Why are you here?"

"I went off script," Houshou said. "What about you?"

"I… I think I took the blame for Oliver."

"Blame for what?" Houshou asked, evidently interested.

"He was looking for his brother, Gene, and his friend, Lin, on the computer he had. He got it from work but he was trying to find them with Madoka. I don't know too much about it but he found Gene and I couldn't let them get split up again… So I took the blame…"

"Brave of you," Houshou muttered.

"Did you say Madoka?" the tall man demanded. Mai turned to see one eye visible under a curtain of dark hair. Mai nodded. "Madoka Mori?"

"Yes… Do you know her?"

"Yes. Is she safe?"

"She was okay the last time I saw her, she had a job welcoming new people to the area and stuff…"

"Good."

"Oh Lin," Houshou admonished, "Stop being all dark and mysterious." He sighed. "What's your name, kid?"

"Mai, but hang on, you're the Lin they were looking for?"

"I imagine so."

"But how did you end up here?"

"I was reassigned from Madoka because she could not have children. I had a new woman chosen for me. I refused to do anything with this woman and so they sent me here."

"But why?" Mai asked. "Was she horrible?"

"He's in love with Madoka," Houshou explained, "He's just too grumpy to say it."

"When you have been here for several months, you would be grumpy," Lin muttered.

"Want to share our bunk?" Houshou offered, ignoring Lin. "You're small, and there are a few creepy people about. So you don't want to be on the floor."

"Creepy people?"

"They don't just send people that object here, they send criminals too."

"Then please," Mai agreed.

Houshou and Lin moved up so Mai could squeeze in between them. Her body ached from the hard day of manual labour. Mai yawned.

"When do we get food?"

"In the morning."

"Huh?"

"We only get food in the morning."

"But I'm hungry," Mai complained.

"Then sleep," Houshou advised, it makes the morning come sooner.

He offered her his shoulder and Mai leant into it. Knowing she was foolish to trust these two grown men so easily but not feelingalert enough to question it. Tired as she was, Mai easily fell asleep.

"I've had enough," Mai stated.

She had been at the camp a week.

"This is not enough food!" she shouted, standing up and aiming her words at the patrolling guards. "You can't expect us to work on this little rice!"

One of the guards sighed and walked over.

"Sit down," he ordered.

"No!" Mai yelled, jumping onto the bench where she had been sitting a moment before. "We don't have to work like this! We deserve more food and better conditions! I've seen how it is in the cities and we deserve that standard of living!"

Mai noticed a few nodding heads amongst the other workers.

"I agree!" Houshou said, also standing. "They can't just dump us in these poor conditions because we disagree with their stupid way of running things."

"Sit down both of you."

When neither Mai nor Houshou complied, the guard pulled out a gun from the holster on his hip.

"Sit down or I will shoot both of you."

"You can't kill all of us!" Mai shouted back in his face. "If you kill us all then—"

"Then we will reassign more people to this camp."

"Wha—"

"Sit down. Now."

"I don't believe you!" Mai yelled.

The guard sighed. He raised his weapon. Mai looked straight down the barrel. Her mouth opened to scream.

And then she was lying on the table. Her right arm covered in rice. A bowl digging into her hip.

"Are you going to behave now?" the guard's voice said.

Mai sat up, head ringing. She spotted Lin lying on the table.

Why was Lin lying on the table? He had been eating his breakfast, not getting involved. Mai crawled towards him, blind to the rest of her surroundings.

There was a hole in his chest. Blood seeped from the hole and stained his chest.

"We will kill you all without a second thought to it. There are always more people we can reassign. Less people, less mouths to feed."

Tears rose to Mai's eyes but she blinked them away.

"Resistance is futile."

Author's note: So I have to go to work in an hour so I am posting this before that! Yeah... If any of you want to write a sequel for this where Mai is rescued please let me know because I wanna read it...

Finally, please review!