I was in and out of consciousness for a while. My watch would wake me up with its sudden bursts of light, only to faint again as I took in my nasty environment. My mind kept shutting down to protect me from breaking down completely. Still, one cannot wage a war on an empty stomach, or simmer in a glorified tin can in the belly of a giant monster as it was in my case. Except there was nothing to eat. Needless to say, I wasn’t going to go near the melting bodies in the stomach acid, for one, because I couldn’t tell which was human and which wasn’t, and for another, they were gross, unappetizing, and unsanitary. My thirst, however, was worse than my hunger, but again, there was nothing to drink, and the acid was obviously not a choice.

To save my energy, I decided to keep still and sleep as much as I could. There was also nothing else to do. Interestingly, throughout all this ordeal it never once occurred to me to take my life. Somehow, maybe due to sheer stubbornness I insisted on surviving for as long as I could.

Starvation made it hard to keep track of time. I was so thirsty my parched, dry lips peeled and cracked as I tried to moisten them. Hunger slowly grated on my reasoning and I grew apathetic towards my surroundings.

I pulled open the shutter lid and looked around. The things in the stomach acid were out of the question, but I was inside a living, breathing creature. I briefly considered cutting open its stomach and eating the thing that ate me, but I didn’t have my hunting knife (the one I used to finish off meerrats). Why didn’t I have it…?

Oh, right. I was still in my sleepwear, wearing light pink, frilly lace briefs, and an off-shoulder transparent nightdress along with a pair of gray bootie slippers and a short, satin kimono – I was hardly dressed for battle.

Oh, well. At least I wasn’t naked or cold. As much as I hated being inside of this beast, at least it was warm.

Food… food, food, food, foodfoodfoodfoooooooooood… Where can I find some… Huh?

I was looking up. On the ‘ceiling’ of the stomach, there was a giant hole. That’s where I arrived from. Since it seems like this thing needs to eat too, sooner or later there was bound to be some incoming food falling in. Maybe it would eat some meerrats whole. If I could catch them, I could eat them!

There was a problem though. I was currently next to one side of the stomach wall, and I needed to be directly under the hole to catch anything edible. There was nothing I could paddle with. Maybe I could push myself to the middle?

I mustered what meager strength I had, and placed my hands on the slimy stomach wall. I hissed and grunted in pain as the acidic mucus burned my palms, and pushed myself away. I frantically wiped my hands on the metal surface of my impromptu boat and watched anxiously as I floated towards the middle. I overshot and I ended up on the opposite side. I tried again, and this time I used less strength, but this time my aim was off. On the third try, I managed to end up where I wanted to be.

I stared up and waited. After what seemed like ages, I heard a slithering noise, and I knew the beast had just eaten. Smacking my lips I anticipated the much welcome boon. Only instead of meerrats or some other meat, it was debris that was falling.

“Fuck!” I cursed out loud, and quickly closed the shutter of the container. Terrified, I curled up clutching my head, and squeezed my eyes shut. I could feel the vibrations of the falling debris raining down on my only protection. After a few minutes, it stopped and I carefully opened the shutter and looked around wearily.

It was mostly chunks of buildings. I saw a flat, metal rod stuck next to me at an angle. I quickly snatched it out. I ended up with a short, serrated shiv. The rest of the rod melted.

I watched the rest of the debris dissolved in the stomach acid, while I tore off one of my kimono’s thin sashes and wrapped it around my knew knife to make it a handle.

Then I examined the shutter. It wouldn’t be good if I couldn’t close it again, this being my only protection and all. Fortunately, there wasn’t even a scratch on it even though the shutter was the weakest part of the container because of its structure.

What the heck was this thing made from…? Doesn’t matter! It’s amazing. I decided then and there that I would never part with it.

Suddenly, the nasty liquid I was floating on started to wave violently. A drop of acid fell on my back and I screamed from the pain. I clumsily closed the shutter and bit into my hand to stifle my voice. After all, this creature I was in, the bloated dragonfly-dragon was the type that carried other monsters inside itself. What if they heard me? They seemed crazy enough to enter the bloated dragonfly-dragon’s stomach willingly en mass and risk death, just to get rid of me.

I wiggled closer to the wall my back was facing and tried to rub myself against it to get rid of the acid eating the small of my back. I wasn’t very successful, but it was better than nothing.

Meanwhile, the waves got even bigger as they sloshed around in the monster’s stomach. My life-saving vessel was tossed around like a matchstick box in a hurricane. I groaned as I fought with nausea due to seasickness while I tried to fight off the urge to claw out my flesh where the acid hit me.

When things finally calmed down, I quickly opened the shutter and vomited into the stomach acid. Or tried to, but as I didn’t have anything in my stomach, there was a whole lot of dry retching instead.

“Tsk!” I clicked my tongue in annoyance. I’m even feeding this thing now! Can’t it eat something that I can eat already?! I’m hungry here! Hungry! Hangry, in fact!

Out of spite, I stabbed my knife into the stomach wall next to me. I was prepared to duck under the shutter in case things got shaky again, but the little shit didn’t even feel it!

“Hmph!” I huffed and I started to stab-stab-stab-stab-stab-stab at the thing’s digestive organ. Get an ulcer, bitch!

Suddenly, I felt pain stab into my left calf. I turned around and viciously scratched at my leg to get rid of the acid drop that dripped on me. But currently, the stomach acid was still. Why did it…

While my back was turned, it started to rain meerrats. They were dropping into the stomach by the dozens. All this food is right in front of my eyes and it’s all going to waste! Noooooooo!

“Shit!” I quickly pushed against the wall to position myself under the hole. Meerrats rained down on me, desperately trying to hold onto dear life, as they clung to me scratching my skin, tearing into my hair. I didn’t even have to do anything, they didn’t try to get away from me at all.

After it was over, I ended up with about twenty meerrats in my container. I quickly grabbed one that was sitting on my lap, and swiftly killed it with my shiv. Then after peeling off its skin, I ate it raw. It tasted awful and it was gross, but right then it felt as delicious to me as heavenly manna.

Weirdly the meerrats didn’t try to escape me even after they saw me eat one of their own. They just stuck to me trembling like deer in the headlight waiting for their fate. They also started to mate like crazy, as if saying that they refused to die out. I guess this was their way to defy fate. I felt bad for them, but my survival depended on them, so I didn’t stop eating them.

But I still thought that none of this was fair. Before the monsters attacked, I hunted them, and they chewed electric wires, their main source of food. They could hide and run away and I was lucky if I managed to nail one of them. That was fair.

I wanted to get back at this foul creature that dared rob us of our shitty little homes and shitty little lives. I wanted to give the meerrats a fighting chance.

So I dug a hole into the stomach wall of the bloated dragonfly-dragon and put meerrats inside. They didn’t have to be told twice to go make merry in the monster’s body. I don’t know what happened to the little buggers afterward, but I bet they managed to make a new home for themselves and live well. At least that’s what I told myself. It made me feel better.

I kept about half of the meerrats. I had to eat after all, and who knew when this thing would feed next.

I passed time by eating, sleeping, and playing with the still living meerrats. When I ran out of food, I starved and mostly slept. Days turned to weeks. Eventually, my watch ran out of juice and I couldn’t tell anymore if it was day or night.

Even though I couldn’t hear myself, I talked to the meerrats and the bloated dragonfly-dragon to keep what was left of my sanity.

After an unknown amount of time passed, I ran out of meerrats to eat again. The thing didn’t eat again. It was still alive, I could feel its flesh move when I put my hands on the stomach walls. Only, for whatever reason, it stopped feeding. All I could do is curl up, and hope it would feed again. Sometimes things fell down the hole, but none of it was food, just more debris. And a gun I watched explode as it came undone in the stomach acid.

I lost a lot of weight. Even moving was difficult. I slept almost constantly to save energy. Every time I closed my eyes I worried I would never open them again. I eventually didn’t even have the strength to open the shutter. I have completely given up hope.

I had no idea that the next time I opened my eyes I would see the sky. It was vast and blue and even though the air still smelled like death, to me felt as fresh as an alpine forest scented air freshener. I… I wasn’t inside that thing anymore? Did it get to the surface and pooped me out?

With effort I didn’t even know I had in me, I pulled myself up and looked around.

I was on a battlefield.

There were craters, gore, and monster corpses everywhere. And things that looked like huge transformers robots. Some were moving about, some were smoking wreckage.

The monster I used to be in had its belly cut open by something, so I guess, my container must have slipped out along with its insides. Maybe the shutter opened from the impact when I landed on the ground.

Out of nowhere, a shadow fell over me. I looked up and saw one of the robots ‘stare’ down at me. Its face opened up and revealed a man inside. My vision started to blur from hunger, but I could still tell that he was as handsome as he was shocked to see me there. I think he said something, but I couldn’t hear him and I fainted soon anyway.

The rest you already know.

Please let me have the container. I don’t feel safe without it.

Also, I can’t read or write in the language you are speaking in, and I don’t understand the signs you are using in your sign language. Please teach me.