She's Too Naive

Chapter 42

Greg was watching me, and I simply nodded so he knew I understood where he was coming from.

He had been standing the whole while, but now took a few cautious steps and sat on the bed opposite of mine.

"So you have to stay here all night?" I asked, feeling uncomfortable at the thought of him staring at me while I slept.

He nodded with a grim smile. "Looks like we will be close friends for a while."

"What happens after i'm not on lockdown?"

Greg hesitated, seeming unsure if he should tell me or not. "You'll start training with some of the breeders," he finally relented. "But after Rosen and Cole finish their re-training you all are being shipped back to home base in Italy where you'll officially be a breeder. Most of the breeders here are just doing maid duties, not reproduction."

I cringed at the word breeder ever time he said it. Like I was a dog and they needed me for my pedigree to produce the best offspring.

"Good to know." I didn't want to ask what type of training I had to go through to be a breeder.

There were a few moments of silence between us before Greg spoke up again. It was strange how he went from being so quiet to now very free speaking as soon as he was out of the eyes of the Defaecatio.

"Do you know the meaning of your name?" asked Greg. I frowned, but nodded not sure where he was getting at.

"Yeah, it means shining light or something like that."

"The Defaecatio strongly believe in the meaning of names." he explained. "I believe part of the  reason they kept you is because of what your name stands for in Hebrew. In that origin it means pledged to God. It may seem like they are killing a servant of God if they kill you, so they want to keep you around to please God. But, if you act up anymore against the Defaecatio, they will see it as treason and have you killed."

Wow.

"Oh." I was speechless.

"Names have power here," he continued. "Rosen actually means ruler in Hebrew-"

I interrupted him. "Do you only go by hebrew meanings?"

"No," he responded. "But they look at all meanings and take them into consideration. Most meanings of Cole's name are people's victory. My name means watcher, and Armanno's name means soldier."

"How do you know all of this," I asked, awed at his knowledge on names.

"I have a lot of free time," Greg smiled.

"What does Chez mean?" I was curious now. I thought back to how helpful Chez had been to us, and how he claimed he would help me if I needed. Would he help me now?

Greg frowned, thinking. "That's not a very common name, I would have to look into it..."

"That's okay," I waved him off. "Thanks." I examined his uniform  and decided to ask a question that had been bugging me for a while. "Why do your uniforms all have different colors?"

"It stands for our rank," Greg replied. "I'm not yet graduated, so I wear dark green. Graduated wear red, council members wear purple, and future council members wear blue."

"That's what I thought, but I wasn't quite sure," I said. I pointed to the symbol on his chest of the star inside a moon with a sword going through it. "And that's the Defaecatio's logo?"

"Basically." Greg's walkie talkie that was hooked to his waist suddenly went off. He picked it up. "Yeah?"

"We got an attempted escaper, need some backup. She got ahold of a gun," A crackly voice said through the speaker.