Ben struggled to come around from what felt like his deepest sleep ever, his sluggish consciousness was taking its dear sweet time regaining a grip on his senses. The first thing he could be sure of was that he felt rather cold. Whatever he was lying on was certainly not his soft bed either. He opened his eyes only to be greeted by a blur of light and movement. His hearing slowly caught up, and both the blurs and distorted sounds were gradually forming into something resembling useful information.

  He found himself looking at a multitude of men and women, none of whom possessed a shred of clothing. Some were standing up and looking around, some sat staring at nothing in particular and others, much like him just moments before, were sleeping. Those awake seemed confused and there were questions bouncing around regarding how they all ended up in this non-distinct room and state of undress. Despite the strangeness of the situation, no one seemed too concerned about waking up somewhere other than their beds, or being naked amongst apparent nudists. Ben chalked this up to the dreaminess of the situation. Everyone was likely too dazed to think straight. He certainly felt 'out of it', as the saying goes.

  He hauled himself to his feet and stretched out to pop the odd joint back into place. Sleeping on hard surfaces being a rare event for Ben, his body was making it clear it didn't want a repeat anytime soon. He took in the scene before him. The room was large... at least as long as a tennis court, but a little narrower. The surfaces all appeared a plain, off-white colour. The light immersing everyone wasn't coming from any specific fittings, rather instead emanating from all around. The walls, floor and ceiling all seemed plastic-like in appearance. Light from outside, he guessed, was diffusing into the space within, but the walls were sufficiently opaque as to prevent the discerning of any details of beyond.

  While inspecting what he was considering to be the newest concoction of his over active imagination, he noticed a familiar face within the crowd of strangers... his girlfriend, Jenna. She caught sight of him at that moment too, recognition lighting up her eyes. They made their way to each other, nearing the centre of the room when they met. They immediately hugged each other, both feeling a great deal of relief at having found the other in this weird setting. They held each other for several moments and shared a chaste kiss. Love and familiarity helped to dull the worry that had just begun to creep into their thoughts.

  A sudden jolt took the bewildered people off guard. Ben, Jenna and everybody else standing were brought to their knees or arses by the movement. All were now awake as a sensation of movement, not unlike that of an elevator ride, caught everyone's attention. The direction of movement was difficult to judge, the acceleration feeling strangely indistinct. Light levels through the room's walls and floor began subtly shifting; suggesting objects outside the walls were passing by at a fair pace.

  Before anyone could ask some obvious questions, another jolt signalled the end of the ride. The two shortest walls were now much darker, the diffused light dulled to an almost imperceptible level. The few people near those ends of the room scooted away from the unnerving shadows. Murmurs passing through the group were curtailed before anything meaningful could be said by a sudden flash of movement from left to right across the dark walls. At the same moment, half a dozen small metal cones pierced the ceiling. They protruded a dozen inches or so into the room and were covered in scores of tiny holes.

  All in the room were silent, until the cones began spraying a fine mist of clear fluid over everyone. This turn of events seemed to finally elicit some semblance of normal reaction in everyone as there were gasps of shock and screams of fear heard throughout the group. Ben and Jenna just held each other as tiny droplets coated them and everyone around them in a glistening, slippery film of oil-like liquid.

  Jenna ran a hand over her thigh and then raised it so she and Ben could inspect a larger deposit of the substance on her open palm. It was crystal clear, didn't smell of anything distinct and the little bit of the mist that was finding its way into their mouths tasted uninteresting. It didn't seem dangerous... just very slippery.

  The dark walls began sliding downwards, generating fresh expletives from many of the now floundering occupants of the room. The flashes of movement had apparently been some kind of gigantic slicing blade, severing the furthest walls from the rest of the structure. At one end of the room, the disappearing wall revealed machinery covering the entire opening. Unimpeded light was visible through gaps between what appeared to be stationary fan blades.

  The other end of the room had a different, deeper and far more complicated apparatus revealed. It had various unidentifiable moving parts in front of three funnel structures, which in turn had clear plastic tubes leading away into infinite distance beyond. Each tube was more than large enough to accommodate a whole person.

  The fans roared to life, reaching frightening velocity in seconds. The strength of the gale being generated began forcing their slippery bodies towards the funnelled structure, with a frightening inevitability since there was absolutely nothing to gain purchase on. Ben and Jenna locked their arms and legs around each other as best as they could to avoid being pulled apart. They were chest to chest for now, but the effort to remain so was going to sap stamina very quickly.

  Ben managed to angle his head to allow him to see where they were heading. The people nearest to the funnel assembly screamed as a combination of rubber-like cushions, and stiff rubber armatures manipulated their bodies into position to force them into the funnels head-first, with arms at their sides. The force from the airflow seemed to be amplified by the narrowing funnels until, in rapid succession, the oil slickened people went hurtling away through the plastic tubes. Ben quickly lost sight of the people as they disappeared into the unknown beyond.

  Ben could make out flashes of laser light over the people just before they passed into the manipulation zone. In a moment of clear thinking and earnest observation he noticed that the people, who were already orientated as the machinery seemingly desired, were passing through the apparatus untouched by the manipulation equipment. Realisation dawned that the lasers were sensing people's orientation, and commanding their reposition as needed.

  Ben immediately feared his forced separation from Jenna, should those lasers pick up their entwined forms. He mustered what energy he could spare to roll their bodies such that they were head-first towards a funnel, with himself atop Jenna.

  Though the sound of the machinery, wind and screams were making communication difficult, he managed to instruct Jenna to keep her arms around his lower body, and to try to match her leg's positions to his own. Even though this would reduce the strength of their holds on one another, he knew that no amount of raw strength would be enough against the manipulation equipment anyway. The only hope of staying together was to fool the sensors into believing there was only one person passing though.

  Dozens of people were disappearing down the tubes before them as they all too quickly found themselves sliding into the manipulation zone. Ben held his breath in worried anticipation as the laser light washed over them. In mere moments, they passed through the zone untouched and found themselves flying down a tube together.