Numbers That Follows

chapter 1

"Put the spear down and we can talk." the same man said.

Like hell I was going to put it down. I grabbed it and pointed it at him. I kept silent. He stepped toward me and I swung at his head. When one of the wolves knocked the spear out of my hand, I rolled out of the way. The second time the wolf launched at me, I let him pin me to the ground and put my hand on him. I forced him to go back into his human state and go unconscious. I was more than just a wolf.

The second wolf backed up a bit and stupidly tried to lunge at me too. I moved out of the way and touched his side as he flew by. He also landed on the ground and was knocked unconscious. The first man looked at the second and the second took off into the trees. The first man then locked on to me. I do admit this was fun and all, but this was way two easy. He then came at me and did everything in his power not to go near my hands. Although he could fight well, he took the wrong step and his balance was thrown, and with one easy sweep I took out his legs and ran to the tunnel.

I could hear more people coming after me and I just ran. But one of the new sets of men came out and caught me off guard and body slammed me to the ground. I got up and he was shocked and then I got hit in the back of the head and then black.

Waking up, I had a major headache. I was in a room with no windows, but similar to my old room. Three of the walls were made of jagged rocks, the fourth was cell bars stretching across. I walked around my new room and looked for any weaknesses. I was interrupted by sounds of footsteps. I went to the far side of the room and sat down. Two men came into view.

"You're awake, wonderful." the older of the two said.

"Who are you?" the younger one said.

I just sat in silence. I sat criss-crossed and stared at the men before me. I knew better than to say anything. The older one looked like he was trying to gauge what he thought of me.

"Who are you?" the younger one said again.

I still sat in silence. This time I looked directly at the young one and raised my eyebrow. This seemed to make him mad. I thought it was hilarious a slight smirk I felt form on my lips. Just like at home, I liked messing with the guards, making them mad to focus on me.

"Are you okay?" the older one said

He sat down on the ground close to the bars. I watched him very carefully. My eyes were looking between the two men. Still I stayed quiet. He then stood back up and nudged the young man to leave with him. After what seemed like an hour, the older man came back this time alone.

"Looked like you needed some food," he said as he placed down the plate.

He sat down at the other side of the bars.

"The thing I am most curious about is those scars on your back," he pointed at me. "there are all different ages based on the scarring."

Those scars. Every time I was insubordinate, I was given lashes. I get them weekly and sometimes daily. Because I was the only one who remembered life before being taken. So I was a lot more stubborn than the others. Sometimes if one of the others fell behind they would start to get punished and I would out do whatever they did to get the focus on me.

"Life must have sucked before you came here" he said, dragging me out of thought.

I looked up at him. Slowly, I got up and grabbed the plate. I took it up to my nose to smell it. There was no poison. No wolfsbane. I looked back at the older man and tried some of the fruit off it. It was amazing. My face must have slipped and showed some emotion.

"We grow them. They are my favorite."

I placed the plate back down on the ground. I will finish later.

"You must be tired, I will leave you alone." he said as he got up to go.

I waited till his steps were gone and finished the plate. I sat for a while and slowly began to become tired. As I slept I dreamed of the day I decided to run away.

One day I woke up and today was different. We were taken to a room with chairs and we all sat down. There were 22 of us. We hadn't seen anyone new in a while, so the youngest, 22, was about 5. We all sat in the room silent and waited for what to do next. Arken came into the room. I watched him carefully. He stood in front of the room.

"I have made a decision. I only want those of you that are purebred. I need the most powerful of you, the others are a disgrace." Arken finished.

A group of men came into the room and each one stood behind one of us. The exceptions were myself, 5, 9, 14, 17, 18, 22. All at once, the men drew knives and slit the throats of all those Arken deemed unworthy.

"You may have the day of training off. We need to clean up this mess," Arken said with a smile.

I shot awake and sat up. I rubbed my eyes and took a deep breath. Trying to calm myself down. I closed my eyes trying to get their faces out of my head.

"That looked intense. Must have been a really bad dream." The young man was back.

I looked away, I wanted him to leave. About a second later, the older man came down and looked at the younger one.

"I told you not to come down here." the older one spoke

"But" the younger one tried to say.

"Go," the old man said.

He looked irritated and left. I smiled a little.

"I am sorry for my son, he never listens when I speak. Much like his mother." the old man sat down. "I brought some food for you."

He sat the plate down on the ground and I grabbed it, sitting closer to the cell bars. I put the plate to the side of me and looked at the old man.

"I am Armin. My son's name is Flint." Armin said. "Flint is a headstrong young boy. He is just worried about you. You know considering what happened when you touched his friends. I have to admit when they first told me what you did I couldn't believe what they said."

I looked down at the ground. I looked back at him, letting him continue.

"If you're not going to tell me about you, I will tell you about me. Let's even the playing field shall we let's see. I was born 46 years ago, my favorite color is blue. I'm absolutely horrible at any card game, and have the worst poker face. I have 2 children. You met Flint and I have a daughter named Arrah. She is probably about your age. Maybe younger i think" He smiled. "They are both truly a handful, let me tell you. Arrah is about twice as stubborn as her brother and looks just like her mother."

It sounded like he was really happy with his kids even when they misbehaved with him. He seemed like a gentle man. I dropped my tense shoulders just a little and continued listening.

"I keep a very busy life working, but I try to make time to have fun and relax. My family is extremely important to me. My best friend since I was five died unexpectedly about a year ago. And since then, I have watched over his pack and his son. And what you did, I am not saying it is your fault what you can do, but it did harm some pack members. I told him I would protect his pack. I know you did what you did to defend yourself. Wherever you came from, it's clear to see that it was horrible. I need you to know that we will not hurt you while you are here, but we do not know you and I have to protect this pack." He looked at me and got off the floor. "I will leave you to your thoughts."

"One." I said.

"What?" Armin stopped in his tracks, turned and looked at me.

"My name is One," I said.