Numbers That Follows

Chapter 3

Armin left and when he came back he had Flint with him. Armin then left and Flint looked at me .

"When I came down to talk to my dad, I heard what you said about the scars. He's right, you know you just defended yourself." Flint looked at me. "So I am telling you to come out of here."

"What happens when I walk out?" I asked

"What do you want? Because If my dad had it his way you would stay here. After talking to you the last few days I think he would be more at ease if you stayed. " Flint looked at me.

"He wants me to stay?" I was confused. I thought he was going to send me on my way.

Flint held his hand out for me to follow. I took it slowly and he helped me off the bed. We walked out of the cell and walked up stairs. We got to the top and made it to a door. He opened the door for me. I stepped out into the sun.The area was covered in trees and grass. I turned and looked around then saw Armin standing waiting.

"Glad you came. Follow me." Armin said

I walked out of the tree line to see a large building. 3 stories tall log cabin style. It was sitting on the side of a large hill. We walked to the door and went inside.

"Let's get you something to eat." Armin said.

We walked down a long hallway and turned right into one of the doors. It was a small room. In it was a table with a couple chairs around. And out the window you could see a small town below.

"Why don't you have a seat and I can get us some lunch." Flint said to me.

Armin sat down next to me and smiled.

"While we wait I would like to talk to you some more." Armin said, "do you know how packs work?"

"I mean kind of, they are a group of wolves that obey one wolf." I said,

"Kind of yes, a pack is a large network of wolves, they each contribute something, one way or another. Everyone depends on one another and you can generally trust everyone. The alpha keeps everyone safe, he is more like a protector than a dictator. Though some packs run like one." Armin took a breath, "I am the Beta of this pack, we currently don't have an active alpha because the next alpha in line is not 25 yet."

"So you act like the alpha until the next one is ready?" I asked.

"Basically." Armin said. "I would not feel comfortable if you left. I have heard your story and I think it's time you had a family and a pack. If my daughter was in your shoes I would be devastated if no one took you in. So I would like you to join the pack, as well as stay with me and my family."

"I could stay here? Like for good?" I asked.

"Permanently. If you would like." Armin reassured me.

"I would like that." I said.

After a quick second Flint walked through the door. Carrying three plates. He set them down in front of us and sat down himself.

"Ham and cheese sandwiches, with some veggies." Flint said.

"Thank you." I replied.

"So, are you staying or what?" Flint asked.

"I guess I am." I replied.

We sat around the table and talked a bit more about what would happen next. I needed clothes, shoes, toiletries and a tour of everything. I felt like this is where I should be. Arrah, Armin's daughter, would be taking me to get clothes, something about "a woman knows best" or something like that. I finished eating when I heard a door open.

In walked this girl, she was tall, had long brown hair. She looked right at me. She smiled and sat down at the table on the other side of Armin.

"So, I guess I will take you shopping." Arrah smiled looking at me.

"Let me grab you some cash from up the stairs." Armin said, getting up.

Armin got up and left the room. I kind of sat in an awkward silence for a few moments. Flint then got up and left the room as well leaving me alone with this girl I just met.

"Flint was right, you sure are talkative." Arrah jokes. "So how was the food?"

"It was good," I replied.

I really had no clue what to say to her. Armin was easy to talk to, but I had just met this girl and I know that I can trust her. It's Armins daughter.

"Sorry I just don't really know what to say or talk about." I decided on the truth.

"It's fine, we could just talk about what we are going to do today. That way it's less personal and we can get used to talking to one another." She replied.

"That sounds good." I agreed.

"So you need changes of clothes. pants , shirts, socks, undergarments. Those are the bare essentials. We can also get dresses, pajamas, jackets and coats." She listed

"Okay, what's a dress?" I asked, I have never worn anything but training clothes.

"I will show you it would be easier that way." She said, "next we can get stuff like shampoo, conditioner, soap, deodorant, and other bathroom supplies."

"Do I need anything else?" I asked.

"Most likely but I can't remember right now so it will be later." she replied.

Moments later Armin came back into the room. Holding a small card and handing it to Arrah.

"Get her everything she needs." Armin looked at Arrah "and both of you please, be safe."

"We will," Arrah said, getting up.

I also got up and followed her lead as we walked out of the house. There was a car and a man standing to the left of us. Arrah walked toward the man.

"This is Vincent, he is my driver and one of my friends." Arrah said. "He is going to drive us around and stuff."

"Nice to meet you." Vincent said.

"Um, you too." I replied. "I'm... uh One."

He opened the door and we got in. He started off towards the town down below.

"Hey, let's go to design first. I really like her clothes." Arrah yelled at Vincent from the back seat.

After about 3 minutes we pulled up to a long stretched building with lots of doors and each door had words over the top. We stopped at the third door down with Design written in block letters above. It had massive windows you could see into the Building. Standing on platforms in the windows were fake people without faces, each with different colors and looking cloths.

We got out of the car and headed inside. I looked all around the front of the room and saw clusters of clothes, there looked like almost 20 of everything lined up together. This room was neat and clean. I looked around further and saw in the middle of the left wall I saw a counter with 2 Girls sitting behind it on stools.

"Welcome in!" Said one of the girls.

Arrah just waved and grabbed my hand and headed to the back. There were rows of different types of pants. She grabbed something off the back wall. It was long and white with little black lines all over.

"Come hear" Arrah motioned me over.

She reached around behind me and wrapped it around my waist. She looked at the number the end fell on. She hung the white thing back on the wall.

"What was that?" I asked, unsure of what just happened.

"Oh, I took your measurement, your waist is about 32 inches so you wear a 12 in jeans." Arrah explained, "All the hangers have numbers we are going to get you ones that say 12 on them, then I will have you try them on and see if you like them."

"Okay" I now understood