The Red

Hideout

I slowly woke up in a dark and musty-smelling room. My eyes were blurry and unfocused, I saw a person walk into my field of vision. They helped prop me up some more and gave me some water. I looked up at them my eyes were slowly starting to come back into focus. The person looked down at me and said their name was Charlie. Charlie wore a large hat that cast shadows on their face. A hint of a deep red peaked out from the front. They then helped me back into a laying position and walked out of the room. 

The next time that I woke there was a new person by my cot. He looked up at me and helped me fully sit up on the bed. He asked what I should call me. I looked at him confused. Looking back at me with an exasperated look on their face they said that they were called Smith, it was something that they were address as. I told Smith that I was just called Red or that one over there. Smith gave me some names to pick out of. These included Mar, San, and Roan. He had included some other names, but those were the ones that sort of stuck with me. He said he would leave me alone for a while and come back in a few minutes. So I sat there just pondering over which name I should pick out. Later, Smith came back it felt longer than a few minutes, but who knows. Walking over to me they handed me some clothes and ask if I had decided on a new name other than just Red as I have been going by. I looked at the clothes then back at him, meeting his brown deep-set eyes. I told him I like Roan, I wanted to use Roan. He said that was fine, and told me to go through the door he had just come out of when I had changed. Turning and walking through the door, I was left alone with my thoughts and a bundle of clothes. I looked at the bundle and started unfolding them. A pair of pants which were a somewhat darkish brown slightly faded, a black shirt with buttons only going part of the way down, thick socks that had been mended on the toe and heel, and a pair of undergarments. I got out of my smock-like dress that I had escaped the inferno in and walked through a desert, and placed my new clothes on. The pants were about two inches too short but they fit pretty good maybe a bit tight, and the shirt fight nicely. I will say I was glad that the socks were longer because I put them on and had the pants come over them so that I didn't have my leg really showing anymore. I then grabbed my old dress and walked to the door wondering what the other side would show.

I opened the door and came into a dimly lit room with Charlie, Smith, and in the corner was another person. I could not make out the other, but Charlie soon came up to me and took my dress. They then introduced me to Jack the man in the corner and told me to follow them. I looked back at Smith and he gave a small nod. Charlie lead me around the place. It was larger than I thought it would be. They gave me a run-down of what they did and how they found me. They basically were a small force of Reds that escaped from the Inferno somehow that same way I had, I apparently was found under the tree that, Charlie had found both of the boys under. Apparently, I had been out for around three days before I had first woken. I looked around at the place and asked why they had picked me up. Charlie shrugged, saying might as well have me come along they needed an extra hand around sometimes. We soon got back to the room where we had started in. Jack had gotten up and had been moving around some things and got dinner read, while Smith was in the corner reading a brown book. Charlie led me to a chair and told me to sit. I was glad that they had because my legs were starting to ache because of my lack of movement and then practice walking for 3 miles. Smith soon came and sat on my left, and Charlie was at the head of the table. Jack came around with plates of food, everyone seemed to get a small amount of long green things, and a small piece of I think chicken. I had eaten many of these things in the room before we had gotten our colors. Charlie then removed their hat and propped it against the chair. We all started eating and then sat around the table for a long time. Charlie then asked Smith if he could take me to the room I would be staying in. Smith gave them a small nod and then got up from his stool. Looking at me I took that as my signal to follow him. Leading me out of the room, we turned up some halls, and stopping at a small wooden door he said this would be where I stayed for the foreseeable future. I looked up at him and nodded. I opened it and saw another cot and a small section separated from the great of the room with a curtain. On the cot, there was another set of clothes and the walls had hooks. Smith said to put the clothes I had on currently on the hooks and wear the ones on the bed to sleep. He then left me alone in the darkroom with a small overhead light to see. Changing my clothes I got into the bed and laid down, falling asleep to the sound of running water overhead and the murmur of voices in the hall from the others.