One would think that on a government building of maximum security there wouldn’t be problems like energy failures that would cause shutdowns, that in turn would cause the automated doors to be locked, that in turn would cause people to be trapped in whatever room they were in. Or that, at the very least, they’d give the guards that could end up trapped in a room with an alien that had (somewhat) admitted to experimenting with humans, capable of throwing them around with his telekinesis, some sort of key or way to get out if such a case ever happened.

  Fifteen hours had passed under the red emergency light, and they had received nothing besides an order to remain on standby. Fifteen hours. Alan felt worse than a lion in a cage, although he didn’t dare say that in front of Dr. Kraussen, who had spent who knows how long in there without seeing the sunlight. But finally, in an act of desperation, he borrowed a pen and used it as a substitute to play spin the bottle.

  “You in?” Alan asked Jaime while sitting on the floor.

  “Yeah. Sure. Whatever”, his colleague replied scratching his head. Clearly, not even he was immune to the horrors of boredom.

  “And you, doc?” Alan looked at the alien, that seemed specially tired due to the constant presence of the two humans that had disturbed him when he tried to sleep just by knowing they were there. He took his glasses off and rubbed his eyes, the golden marks in his cheeks as shiny as ever.

  “Yes… I think a little distraction would benefit me. Could you explain the rules to me?”

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  They started the game, all sitting around the pen on the floor. Every time they asked ‘truth or dare’ when someone was chosen, but since none of them was choosing ‘truth’ they quickly changed the rules to only dares: these many push-ups in a minute for Jaime, these many objects in the air for Kraussen, these many minutes doing a handstand for Alan. Eventually they started accusing the doctor of cheating by making the pen move since he stop being chosen by it altogether, and began a little court case where he eventually admitted to it. They changed games, and Kraussen was in charge of keeping count as the two humans got into competition of who could correctly name the most plants in the lab.

  Three hours went by and there was no change to their status as prisoners. They ate some of the fruit from the trees that was ripped (Alan found out he was allergic to bananas when Kraussen told him they weren’t supposed to be spicy) and continued killing time with more games. The humans taught the alien how to play I Spy, charades and say some tongue-twisters. Kraussen taught them easy rhymes that were used in his world to teach children science, history and math, trying his best to translate them. Alan and Jaime talked about their favorite sports, children games like hopscotch, and shared stories of videogames, while Kraussen spoke about tabletop games where the pieces change shapes, sports where athletes didn’t move but used telekinesis instead, games that mixed strategy and chance at equal parts.

  More hours went by, but they had stopped tracking time by then. While they all took turns to sleep, the conversation never ended whether it was between just two or the three of them. They kept sharing stories about their respective worlds, since Kraussen hadn’t spent much time trying to learn human culture beyond what was necessary to remain hidden, instead focusing on his biology research. Food, events, weather, memories and other trivialities were subjects they all went through in their chatting. And while they still felt tired, and hungry, and ready to fall asleep as soon as they touched a pillow, for the first time ever they didn’t feel like a prisoner and two guards.