The Cage

Cora Mason wakes alone in a strange desert with no memory of how she got there. She soon finds other teenagers, discovers the landscape is a patchwork of impossible biomes, and realizes they are being watched from hidden windows.

The group learns they have been taken by an alien race and placed in a controlled habitat with rules, puzzles, and incentives. As they struggle over leadership and survival, they also have to navigate secrets, shifting alliances, and growing suspicion about who can be trusted.

When the aliens' caretaker appears, Cora begins to question the true purpose of the cage and whether escape is even possible. The story builds toward escalating revelations about captivity, the captors' motives, and the dangerous emotional ties forming inside the enclosure.