Chapter 7

(Jax's POV)

Huh. Where am I? I take a look around, I'm alone. This place is not familiar at all to me. "Guys??" I yell. "Sam? Zero? Andromeda." Nothing. I feel a sharp pain in my left arm.

"Shut up!" A voice echoes around the room. I can't find a place where it could have come from. There are no doors, the walls matched the color of the dirt.

Okay Jax, assess the situation. I look around, but still there is nothing. "How the actual fuck am I even alive."

"The boss wanted you alive," comes the voice again.

"And the others? Are they dead?"

"Why should I tell you. You killed one of our own." With a thud, a body falls to the ground. I look up, there are people surrounding an opening staring down at me. Blood wolves…

The one now laying on the ground in front of me was a redhead. She looked as if she was barely ten years old.

"We're gonna do to you what you did to her…" the wolf says. "After the boss is done with you anyways." The group starts laughing.

"Monsters!"

"Us, monsters?" A different wolf says. "We are the monsters? That triggers me. We allow siblings, we don't give all our resources to a person who doesn't care if we can even survive. You are dumb, you are the monster, you kill our children and take others away and turn them against us. If you would just join us we wouldn't need to fight." I can't believe these people think they are the innocent ones. "If it wasn't for your people we would be peaceful and we would have never scorched the ground."

"The boss wants that person to see what we are like and then send him back to his people." A new voice says. "And he wants the man brought to him." A couple of the people got negative looks on their faces.

"All they are, are murderers." The people above began arguing. "They will never change."

"We share the same blood as them, we came from the same group of settlers as them."

"They turned our kin against us. Three suns ago they killed out Luna."

"We tried to kill them, what would you have done."

"Stop arguing," an old and shaky voice says stopping all the noise.

"Boss, what are you doing out here? What if you had fallen?"

"I'll be fine. Get that man out of the pit. For god's sake, get over Luna, she's gone burn her already."

A latter falls down and thuds on the ground.

"Bring the girl with you."

I pick up the girl and struggle to climb the ladder. When I reach the top the dead girl is taken away. I have an easier time getting up.

I look around. I am surrounded by houses. There are children looking at me with scared faces. One person, in particular stands out to me. He is an old man, his eyes are glossed over in white. He has a long shaggy beard that's mixed black and white. He must be the leader.

I think about making a run for it. I scan the area for an escape. No matter where I look I see houses and people. There is no escape.

"Go ahead, run." The old man says. "You will be killed on the spot."

I look at the old man. "For being blind you are quick to catch things."

"Blind?" The old man chuckles, "I'm blind with my eyes, yes, but I can feel your Aura. Young man, you are not normal, I feel it, your biology was changed."

"You don't know anything about me, old man." This man is freaking me out. How could he tell these things? The man just laughs again.

"Father, he's not worth sparing."

"Erin, my son, you are angry about your sister. It doesn't do to dwell on anger. I know what you've been doing behind my back. Attacking them, I can't stop you, but be advised, my dear child. This man could kill you with his bare hands in a fight. You're only advantage is the element of surprise."

How could such a man tell these things? I want to learn from him. "Sir," I say in an attempt to grab his attention.

"I have important business to tend to." The man spoke, ignoring me. "Take him to Lucca. She knows what to do." I watch as the man hobbles his way down the dirt path. I feel a jab in my back.

"Walk."

They push me all the way to a house on the edge of the town. There is a little girl outside watching them.

"That the one?" She asks, looking me over like I am filth.

"Yup." They shove me forward and I stumble on my feet and fall. I get a facefull of dirt while the others laugh. "They are pretty pathetic on their own."

"But they could still easily take us down." The girl reminds them folding her arms. "They spared me, and that's why our father wants to keep one alive. I don't understand you. You won't stop killing them unless they join us. You've already blown all their basses but that one up."

"This one is their chance. If he can't get them to join it's gone. They don't realize it but we are winning this war."

The group of people left, I am still on the ground, I had no motivation to get up. "Just kill me now," I mumble.

"No can do," She shrugs before offering me a hand to help me up. "Their hearts have forgotten, the same blood runs through our veins. They only want revenge for their fallen ones." I grab her hand and get up. "The names Lucca. What can I call you?"

"Jax," I say. I am surprised, this place isn't anything like it is taught. "You are pretty young aren't you?" I tower over her, she's at most four feet. In fact, I tower over almost everyone here, a perk of being almost seven feet.

"Age doesn't matter here. We are born and then we taught the ways, then well now. There is no construct of 'time' it's just a means to control people." She looks up at me with a big smile on her face. "You must be hungry, come eat."

I follow her into her home. It is small, I almost have to crouch so I don't bang my head on the ceiling. I can smell homemade stew, she makes me sit in her chair. I take a better look around. We are in the kitchen and I can see a living room through an open door. All the houses are round, probably the easiest and fastest way to make them.

The walls have a very earthy look to them. They must have been earthbag houses. This one is beautifully constructed, the floor has tiles harden into the floor with the concrete mixture. They did an excellent job of leveling the floor. Grass has started to grow back in areas.

(If you don't know what an earthbag home is here is an explanation:

Earthbag construction is an inexpensive method using mostly local soil to create structures which are both strong and can be quickly built.

It is a natural building technique developed from historic military bunker construction techniques and temporary flood-control dike building methods. The technique requires very basic construction materials: sturdy sacks filled with organic material usually available on site.

Standard earthbag fill material has internal stability. Either moist subsoil that contains enough clay to become cohesive when tamped, or a water-resistant angular gravel or crushed volcanic rock is used. Walls are gradually built up by laying the bags in courses—forming a staggered pattern similar to bricklaying.)

"You have a beautiful home," I say, trying to start a conversation.

"Thanks." She smiles and hands me a bowl of soup. She sits opposite of me and begins eating. We eat in silence.

"What's the training like?" I ask. I am most curious about that, I want to learn if we were taught the truth about that.

"I can't take you there. I do not have permission." She responds sternly. "I'm not allowed near there anyways. That's Erin's area now."

"Then maybe you can answer my questions," I suggest.

"Anything and everything except about our soldiers."

Damnit. I need to sneak out of here. Find a time to escape. Before I could leave I need to figure out which direction will take me home. They couldn't be too far away.

"I don't like the look in your eyes," Lucca says startling me.

"What look?" I lie. She just gives me a stern look.

"I hope you don't mind sleeping on the floor. I don't have a spare bed."

"Lucca, keep him inside. Scouts have told us a search team was spotted where we bombed them." Erin says bursting into her house. "He must be important if they are looking for his body."

"Did they get the other one?"

"Yeah. That was definitely a sight to see. The girl got blasted into a tree, one of the branches Went straight through her. Her guts are still all over the ground."

"Who? Which person?" This was news to me, did this mean they got out except me and whoever died?? They said it was a girl, there was only three of them.

"Oops." Erin has a wicked smile. "Yeah, we killed one of yours. The others got away: they ran. We let them go after one of them killed Luna."

"Quit torturing him!" Lucca yells. "Get out of my house, brother."

He leaves then I turn on Lucca. "Who, who died?"

"Some girl. She was the closest to you."

"Oh god. Andromeda." My girlfriend, I felt the hot tears begin to stream down my face.

"She had a beautiful name." Lucca says watching me cry. I cracked; I showed a weakness.

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