Written for 1000 Strong - Prompt One by dystopianapocalypse

Word count: 444

Inspired by backstory of 'The Mystery of Toynbee Tiles'

***

"Have you ever watched 2001: A Space Odyssey ?" I asked Soo, a young Korean girl with short hair. She shook her head.

"I have. What does that have to do with any of this?" Ernst, a middle-aged German man, said.

"Are we going to Jupiter?" Matias, a Chilean and of the same age as Ernst, asked.

"Not us, but our dead bodies." I said and let out a sigh. My words had seemed to alarm my five companions.

"Why us?" Elin, an Icelandic woman of my age asked me. I could hear panic in her voice.

"The same reason responsible for accidental deaths all over the world: wrong place, wrong time." Adamu, a teen from Kenya said. I nodded in agreement.

"I don't want to die." Soo whispered and I took her in my arms. Out of all of us, I pitied this nine year old the most. Her time on this planet had just begun and she's already on her way to bid goodbye to it.

"I don't understand any of this? What purpose do they have of our dead bodies?" Elin cried.

Everyone looked at me with the same confusion. Just a week ago, I was in the same condition as them - clueless. That was until I managed the rile one of the Ogls to tell me everything. I, obviously, couldn't understand their words, but I did manage to catch one word.

Toynbee.

As a scientist who had always been fascinated by Arnold J. Toynbee's work, it didn't take me long to figure out what they had in mind. The diagrams I managed to take a peak at during my daily medical checkup helped in strengthening my belief that we were a part of an uncertain, and possibly deadly, experiment. 

"So, you're telling me, that they'll use our dead molecules to resurrect us on Jupiter? That's stupid. Why kill us if they're going to bring us back to life?" Adamu asked.

Ogls and Humans had been engaged in war for past ten years. I was lucky to study one of the prisoner of war, during which I found that the Ogl and Human genes were ninety seven percent identical. Moreover, the Mongoloid gene match was slightly higher than that figure. The Ogls didn't know this, which was why they captured one from every corner of the world. 

Ogls had been on a verge of extinction since their planet had been destroyed. After annihilating everyone here, the only thing they can do to increase their population quickly is to resurrect them. This was where Toynbee's theory came into the picture.

"So, we're merely lab rats for them." Matias asked, dejected.

I wish I could save them, but there was no hope for us anymore.