Numbers

Chapter one: Prolauge

Echo Winters woke up, dizzy and confused. She stood up to find her self in the most unfamiliar place. She steadied herself as her eyes danced around the room. It was a small, 6 by 6 foot area, that has a quaint mattress with no frame or box spring. It had a simple white sheet and pillow with a small pile of books sitting next to it. The main thing she noticed though was just, white. The only color she could see until her eyes fell upon the steel bars facing the east, trapping her in.
She sat back down on her colorless bed, pondering her situation. In a sudden jump, she ran back to the bars. Her mind only thinking about one thing. "FADE! Where are you! Fade!"
"Echo?" A sleepy voice said after a short pause. The sound had trailed over from the cell block to her right. A sudden gasp followed another few seconds of silence. "ECHO! Where are we! Where are you!"
She reacted quickly and reached her hand out the bars so he could see her there. "I'm here, don't worry." Fade then went out and grabbed her hand. "Your fine, brother. We'll make it through here, wherever this place."
"Do you know were we are though?" They glanced around seeing the ten other containment spaces. They were all spread out with a huge empty space. In the middle were 12 chairs that sat around an empty table. Three of the four wall had cells, four on each side. The fourth wall on the other hand, had a huge black scream covering the majority of it.
As minutes past, the unconscious humans woke up, startled and confused. They started to come to life in a perfect and almost weird way, from right to left, almost like it was creating a chain reaction. Everyone had woken up in a pattern as if it were all planed.
The first to wake after Fade was Sara Roberts, a tall skinny girl, about 16 years of age, with long brown hair. She woke up and started to cry. It took a lot of convincing by Fade that she was going to be okay to finally be quite. She was a sweet innocent girl.
Then Morgan Warrick woke up. She was 13 and had a brown Bob-cut. The just stood like a statue. She didn't say much until the words, "Why, WHY JOHNNY!!," slipped her mouth and she started screaming. The others didn't say much to her, but Sara, who had obviously known her before this disaster, for she spoke her name, tried to calm her down.
Nobody noticed the fifth to wake up, Alice Reed. She was obviously in shock as she stood there, motionless with lifeless color in her eyes. Her long blond hair simply flowing down her back like a frozen waterfall. She slowly turned toward the wall blocking her from her screaming friend. She gave a pitiful smile and said, "Your fine Morgan, I'm here."
In a spilt second, The wild child had finally stopped. She paused, sniffed, than replied with a simple, "okay." Alice was obviously still traumatized as she sat back down on her bed and closed her eyes.
Rin Williams' were the next eyes to open. Her chapped lips gave a quick sharp yelled and then she went silent. She only curled up on her bed and began crying softly. She started whispering to herself. No one could here her or understand what was happening to her. After a few short minutes she composed herself and started making small talk with the people on the east wall, who she could see from her north angle. "Who are you guys? Do you know where we are?"
Sara replied, "I don't know were we are but I'm Sara and..." She was interrupted with a male voice. The seventh of them to wake up.
"We're all going to die. I just knew it. The moment I saw that man I said to myself, 'Terrence, you're gunna die'. I knew it!"
"Who are you? Fade asked
"Who am I?" His face shoot towards the bars to reveal a pale face with shaggy dirty-blond hair, drooping over his face. "I'm Terrence, and we are all going to die! I just knew it. I called it. That man was after us all." Terrence was obviously having a panic attack and fade started to try and calm him down.
Meanwhile light sobs could be heard from the eighth barred-off unit. Terrence stopped yelling. He began to walk closer to the wall separating him and the boy in the next room over. His arm slowly extended and reached out to the boy's view. The cries stopped as the arm of a comforting stranger came into his view. "You okay?" The boy slowly stood up, walking into sight. His arm came out and the two hand became interlocked. "I'm Terrence, what's you're name?" A soft smile grew on his face even though the boy couldn't see it.
In a soft and shy voice he spoke, "I'm Allen. What going on?"
"we don't really know," Terrence's voice became somewhat sad but then started to smile again. "But we are going to make it out okay, I promise." As Allen smiled, Echo was the only one to notice the small tear gliding down his boney checks. Along with Terrence, most of them knew that they didn't know what was going to happen to them and the out come might not be ideal. That they all wanted to stand up and leave but they knew that whatever was going on was a punishment to some, a lesson to others, and a chance to end their lives for most.
The ninth to join the 'party' was Susan. She started mumbling and the words, "grandma! What happened! No! Noah?!" Were the word to escape her jittering mouth. Her hands extended out the bars as if trying to hug something out of her reach but the bars were holding her back. The next to wake up was silent and only stood up to grab Susan's arm. She jumped at first but then smiled as tears filled her eyes, "Noah!?" The boys hand released her arm and clenched up. It began to slowly move up and down indicating yes in sign language. Both of them began to smile and cry.
As the eleventh woke up, every one began to ask questions. Each asking names, or where were they, or most common, what was going on. Danny was the one waking up. The words coming from the cage were terrifying. "MOM! DAD! It burns! FIRE!"
Everyone went silent. "Are you ok," Rin asked.
" Where am I?!"
"your going to be ok. Just calm down." Terrence lied to himself again. He knew it still wasn't true no mater how many times he told it to someone. They all began to talk amongst one another but the twelfth just sat in the back waiting for the chance to leave.
They all tiered themselves with questions and confusion and some started to sleep. The next morning they all woke up with a start, (even though most of them didn't actually go to sleep with all the thoughts running through their heads). Twelve expressionless people in white suits came in. One stood at each of the rooms. None of them seemed familiar but they all stood outside each of their units and inserted a key witch hung around their necks and turned it, slowly lifting the cold steel bars in front of them. Each teenager stood and began to walk out side in excitement, fear, or relief. One by one they stepped out to be seated at the table outside, in the center of the room. Some of them stopped to stare and observe the assistant standing outside their room.
they were all sent to sit in order of their cages which they had just notice had clipboards outside On the wall. It listed their name, age, the number, and so much more personal information. The thing that was most confusing was the random animal that was one of the words in the largest script next the their name and number. It was confusing to most. They tried to ask things to the escorts but they didn't say anything.
Allen began asking one an extreme amount of questions witch resolved in a very annoyed face from the assistant. The girl being interrogated by Allen gave in after his question about the animals on the papers attacked to the clipboard. She looked extremely mad but she only say, "classified," through her clenched teeth. All the sudden, every assistant in the room sharply snapped their head to give the woman all of their attention. Each face was holding an angry expression and all of the young lady's frustration towards Allen became an ashamed feeling within her.
She then silently pointed towards the chair with an 8 carved onto the wooden back of it. He sat down and each chair was soon filled. Each one holding a new victim for the jaws of doom. No one knew what was going to happen to each and every one of them but they all wanted to believe the best.
Each sat in the chair correspondent to the order of witch they woke up which happened to be the order in which from right to left their confinement cells were placed, and also the number that had been labeled on the boards. Echo was one, Fade was two, Sara was three, Morgan was four, Alice was five, Rin was six, Terrence was seven, Allen in eight, with Susan at nine, the silent, supposed mute, Noah was ten, Danny was eleven, and no one new the name of the twelfth but he just sat with dead, empty eyes staring down at his hands. None of the others knew him or under stood why or what he was doing. Each of them sat in silence waiting for something. None of them knew what they were waiting for but they knew it was going to happen soon.
In a sudden alertness, a strange man in a white lab coat (much like every shade of white you could see) with iconic white hair and a small beard, drew all of the attention in the room With one long boom. He held in his right hand, a smoking gun, and in the left a clipboard where his soulless brown eyes remained, staring. He looked up to see everyone's eyes dancing between him and the body of Allen's assistant, lying lifeless on the floor. And if automatically knowing the one question on everyone's mind, he said in a gruff voice, "She said to much. And what a shame, I really did like that one."