The Shadows

3

It had been three and a half days since the battle with the Leaons, and Rose had already started to feel at home in the small group. Sam taught her how to use her sword better, Jack took her on walks through the monsterous woods, and Quick entertained her with jokes and just silly things. Even Scar was growing to like her.

Sam had been explaining to Rose the reason they were there. He said that, like he said before, they were there because of a bunch of greedy, horrible millionaires and scientists.

"Since mostly all of the sane, nice people were killed with the others three-fourths of the population, there was nothing anyone could do. All of us teenagers were captured, and they built this stupid place so they could watch us die. Sounds just peachy, doesn't it? Well, that's not it. They had to make it even more challenging. Like, 'Hey I know, let's put some terrible monsters in there! That would be bloody brilliant!'. " Sam sighed, but continued. "But, anyways, they had to make it worse than even monsters. So, they 'modified' us. Basically just gave us a bunch of mutations. Jack's is obvious, Quick, as you have seen, can run at the speed of light, I'm stronger than is humanly possible, and Scar can literally hear everything. She can also disappear. That reminds me, you should have discovered yours by now. Have you noticed anything unnatural?"

Little did he know, she actually had been experiencing something strange at 'nighttime'. "Well, I think I have night vision. Like when 'night' comes, I can still see perfectly well." Rose explained, and, to her surprise, Sam was nodding like he knew it all along.

"That would explain the eyes." He murmured, guzzling some water from his leather canteen. Rose raised an eyebrow to show her utter confusion. Sam motioned towards the smooth, running river, his mouth too full of water to talk. Rose remembered seeing that her eyes were hazel colored, but she hadn't paid much attention to them. As she looked down into the clear, glassy water, she gasped and shot her head upwards, almost falling into river in the process. Rose was shocked that she had gone that long without noticing.

"How come no one told me I have cat eyes?!" Rose asked, exasperated at Sam for not even checking if she knew. He just laughed as Rose plopped down beside humans punched his arm.

"I thought you knew! Honest!" Sam exclaimed, throwing his hands into the air. Rose laughed. Sam could be really funny sometimes. Rose started to eat her lunch, but then a question about something Sam said popped into her mind.

"Hey Sam, how come you know all the stuff about the Creators and stuff?" Rose inquired. "I don't seem to remember anyone or anything about here." Sam thought for a moment, trying to find out how to put it into words.

"Well, um, you see, we think it has something to do with if we were related to the Creators or not. I mean we don't remember everything, just that they are the reason we are here." He explained. Rose nodded, and Sam continued. "Either that or it's because Scar, Jack, and I were some of the First."

"Wait a second! How long have you guys been in this place?" Rose asked as it suddenly dawned on her. It couldn't have been a short time because they were all so experienced at everything they did.

"Um, well, Scar has been here since the beginning, like two years ago. Her and another girl named Annabeth were the first two. They kind of didn't get along and, well kinda wanna kill each other. But back to the First." Sam explained, getting a little of track witch happened pretty often. "Um, Jack came later on, but he's still been here for about two years as well. I myself have only been here around a year and a half."

"Wow! That's still a long time!" Rose exclaimed, astonished. "I can't believe everyone isn't dead!" She immediately regretted this though, seeing a hurt look flash across Sam's face. "Oh, I'm sorry! I didn't mean-" Rose was cut off by Scar's shout from across the clearing, where she had just finished sharpening all of the weapons.