Nameless (on hold)

chapter seven (Ten)

Ten

Ten sat around a fire with Jon, Dany and Ed, and a few other people. They all had their numbers still on their arms, but they called themselves by names they chose. After she had picked her name, Jon had grabbed her arm and dragged her through the forest. Even though Ten was more physically fit than the rest of her family (because of her trips to the fence), she had trouble keeping up with them.

They had kept the brisk pace for at least several miles before they finally stopped. Ten was thirsty and she almost collapsed from exhaustion. Jon helped her over to a small creek where she drank some water. He explained to her that everything they had they either hunted or found, or made.

Now, Ten was picking pieces of squirrel off a stick. It was the first time she had ever eaten a squirrel and she was trying to get used to the flavor.

"This tastes like chicken." She said, examining her piece of meat. Everyone around the fire looked up and stared at her.

Dany was the first to speak: "How do you know what chicken tastes like?" she asked.

"What do you mean? We eat it all the time back home." Ten replied.

"I've never had it before." One of the kids from across Ten said.

"I heard chickens lay eggs; big fat blue ones that glow in the dark." Someone else said.

"They lay eggs, but not blue glow in the dark ones. They are just medium sized white eggs... like any other bird." Ten said. She had seen a chicken once, in a picture, and they had eggs for breakfast sometimes too.

"Robins lay blue eggs." The first boy said.

"Chickens aren't robins." Jon said sternly "Enough talk about chickens. Ten, where did you come from?" he asked abruptly.

Ten stuttered for a moment. "I- uh... well what do you mean?" she asked "Where do you come from?"

Jon scowled "This is no time for games."

"I agree." Ten said. "First, tell me about you guys and then I'll tell you about me."

"Okay." Jon agreed. "What do you want to know first?"

"When I asked about your names, you said they were 'regenerate' names. What does that mean?" she asked.

He took a deep breath. "It's what we call ourselves." Jon said.

"What do you mean? How did you escape the fence anyway? And why is Dany here the only girl? How have I never heard of all of you gone missing? Why do-"

"Just shut up!" Dany snapped "If you'd shut your mouth for one second and let Jon explain, maybe you'd learn something."

"It's okay Dany, you've got to remember how it was when you first joined." Jon said.

"I wasn't like this... was I?" Dany asked "and who says we should let her join us?"

"She can't exactly go back." Jon said "And that tribe has seen her numbers."

"That's not my problem." Dany said.

"Is anyone going to tell me what's going on?" Ten asked. She was impatient.

"Let me start by saying that the world is much bigger than you thought." Jon said.

"How?" Ten asked.

"What is your city called?" Jon asked Ten.

"Called? It's not called anything. It's just the city."

Dany laughed. "You are so stupid." A few other people around the fire laughed too.

"Dany!" Jon snapped. "Be quiet." Dany glared at Ten but she quieted anyway.

"We call your city Alfesi." Jon said.

"Why?" Ten asked.

"Every city has a fence around it. For some reason, the tribes surrounding your city call your fence 'Alfesi', so that's what we call the city." Jon said. "My fence was called Dorshun."

"Mine was Rutchnik." Dany said.

"Who are the tribes?" Ten asked. All of this was new information, but for some reason, Ten felt like she knew that her city wasn't the only one. She always knew there was something else.

"We call the tribes surrounding a city 'Rostum' tribes. There's a group of them outside every city." Dany said.

"The people in the Rostum tribe outside my city were savages. They painted themselves with wildberry paint and danced around in fire. You're luck the tribe outside your city is relatively civil, or else you wouldn't have made it." A boy from the group said.

"In the Dorshun Rostum tribe, the people were very kind." Jon said. "They were still uneducated, but they didn't question where I came from. They simply helped me." Jon said.

A few other boys began talking about their Rostum tribes and Ten realized there must have been at least 10 other cities with Rostum tribes. Some of the boys came from the same city and escaped the fence together, but others were alone.

"what about you Dany?" Ten asked. Dany hadn't said a word the whole time everyone was talking.

"I don't talk about it." She said, looking away. "It's late. I'm going to bed." She stood up and walked away from the fire until Ten couldn't see her anymore.

"I'd better go." Ed said standing up. He followed the direction Dany had gone.

"How do you know all this? About all the cities I mean." Ten asked Jon.

"We've seen them. That's how our group is so big. After I first escaped, I stayed with the Dorshun Rostum tribe for a long time. I didn't know who they were but I knew they were different. I decided to leave and see what else was out in the world. I was walking for days before I found Dany. Then slowly, our group became bigger" Jon said.

"So why is Dany the only girl?" Ten asked. Jon and his group apparently knew much more than Ten and she wanted to know everything.

"Let's save that for tommorow." Jon said, beginning to stamp out the fire. "I'm tired."

"Where do you sleep?" Ten asked.

"The ground." Jon said.

"How? You don't have a bed?" Ten asked. She had expected them at least to have somewhere to sleep.

"We travel around outside in the woods... how did you expect us to have beds?"

"I- I don't know..." Ten said. She had never slept on the ground- or outside for that matter- so she watched Jon in the dim light.

Once the fire was nothing but a few glowing embers, Jon laid down and began clearing a few twigs. He took his jacket off and bunched it up into a makeshift pillow.

Ten cleared away the sticks like Jon had done, but she didn't have a jacket. She had left her bag with all of her supplies back at the fence. She began to lay her head down on the dirt when Jon handed her his jacket.

"Here." he said, placing it under her head. She thanked him and he laid back down in his spot.

Ten turned her back and saw a few other dark figures moving around. Some where laying on the ground, already asleep, and others were still clearing out their own area.

She turned back to see Jon asleep. His hair was long enough to cover his ears and the brown maple color complimented his tan skin. When he was awake, Ten had stared at his hazel eyes while he talked.

Her whole family had had brown eyes. In fact, everyone in the city had dark brown eyes.

Ten began to think about everything that happened today. Her life had changed in one day.

She left her family and escaped the city, met a tribe of people she didn't know existed, almost killed by a man with a knife, recruited by a group of people who still had numbers on their arms but had names, learned about other cities that existed, ate squirrel for the first time, and named herself.

"I have a name." She said aloud. "I named myself Ten and I am no longer nameless." She never thought she would say those words. But now, laying in the woods, using a jacket as a pillow, she tasted the words in her mouth. They tasted like victory.