Worst of the Worse

It was so blue… She didn’t know a way to say it other than that. The big endless scary emptiness above her was blue- a nice, bright blue- filled with puffy white things- that looked way higher up than she could ever reach. It spread brightness over the rocks- and rubble around her- and turned every grey into blue -and every plant to blue,- and every shadow to blue. It was kinda hard to see.

She lived underground to hide from the monsters so this was her first time on the surface.

“Halt”, a man commanded.

With a big Wham- no more boot sounds happened after that. Everyone stopped at the same time. She didn’t bother to see if her boots lined up with theirs. She had stopped when she was supposed to. If any of them were out of line, they would get whacked. Not her, she stopped on time.

They waited… and waited… waited what felt like for forever. She kept her face still and her breathing normal. It was hard. She had an itch on her ankle- and these new boots also hurt really really bad.

Then the pile of rocks above her crackled and shifted. She didn’t dare look, but the scary guys couldn’t hit her for listening.

Boots crunched over earth- loud and lots of boots. One set of footsteps, two set of footsteps, three set of footsteps… she forgot what came after three.

The scary men clinked and clicked and pointed big guns at the incoming people.

“Identify yourselves”, the colonel boomed. Him saying anything always made her feel cold.

“We are Falcon Splinter”, a woman yelled.

Falcon… Splinter? She didn’t know what that meant. Wasn’t a falcon a bird? Did the splinters in their squads look like birds?

“Your real identification”, the colonel reprimanded.

“Vivian Squad”, the woman said with a tone of annoyance. The colonel didn’t hit her when she marched into view so maybe that lady was a higher ranking than him.

She was short- and wore a silver and blue uniform. It was clean and pretty. 108190 wondered how she kept her uniform so clean. Her pants got all dusty and stained with rust just coming up out of the underground. The woman had a waterfall of short black hair on her head and lots of sparkly things in her ear. Like, LOTS of sparkly things. More than she could count. There were three other people, these in blue uniforms likeher. They did not look clean, they looked beat up and sad.

They had drawings of a scary feathered lusus with four sets of talons and two heads drawn on their backs

“Good, you are the first ones here, punctual as always. Where are the rest of you hooligans”, the colonel asked in a niceness rarely gave to people.

“Picking along. I don’t think you have enough”, the woman said in a heavy forign accent. She looked at all of us real scary and moved up and down the line.

“We have enough”, the colonel said.

“I mean proper ones. I see only three who could lift a barrel. The rest look like children”, she concluded.

“You are getting splinters. They are all still the finest we can give”, the colonel answered.

“Present”, someone shouted over the hill. The guys lowered their guns before they could truly raise them. Another person in a blue uniform, no shirt this time, slid down the hill of rubble and metal shards into the space they were in.

“As you can see, Rhino splinter is here. Ladies I’m here to pick you up”, he announced- and spread his arms wide. No one went to hug him. He gave 108190 an eyebrow wiggle and wide smile.

The others behind him were all girls, one, two, three, and whatever came after three, of them. Their uniforms were cut up,- and barely stayed on their bodies- and one looked very sick with a big green cut on her side. Falcon Splinter had both boys and girls in their squad. Had Rhino splinter conveniently lost all its boys?

They had a necklace each with a fat lusus with a row of long horns that ran down its back. It also had two more sets of legs than it was supposed to.

“Gavin Squad”, the colonel greeted like he didn’t really like them much.

“Drop the formalities old man. It’s THE RHINO, now”, The leader of Rhino squad slapped him on the back. The colonel’s frown got bigger.

“The rhino my ass”, a somehow even louder voice boomed over the hill.

A man fell from the sky, blocked by the sun and out of sight of her and her steady head, he seemed to have dropped from the clouds. He landed on the ground with a mighty Thump and rolled and bounced into the air, tall and heroic. His uniform had no sleeves and the hems of it had bright, striped fabric. His arms were scarred and he had wild red hair. No one followed behind him.

He had a catlike lusus drawn on his chest with long swordshaped teeth, two noses and lots of stripes.

“Tiger Splinter, Present”, he smirked.

“Present yourself with your real squad name”, The colonel commanded.

“Hey, Piglet? What happened to the rest of your splinter. Colonel has got to stop giving you dudes and should just give you body pillows”, the Tiger splinter leader ignored.

“What was that? I can beat you into the floor”, The Rhino snarled and trudged up to the Tiger leader, baring his fist.

“No fighting. Save that for when you are on the field”, the colonel ordered.

“We are missing one”, the Falcon Splinter leader tutted, “always late”.

They waited a half a moment before a pair of ears peeped behind a collapsed building. A little fuzzy, doglike creature slid out of the shadows. If she remembered her painful lessons, she knew it was a hemjack, a foxlike animal who lived on the sand dunes outside the crushed city. They tried to eat dead or dying splinters, but was not a threat.

The hemjack stood up, rose from four legs to two human legs. Under its chin was a human face.

Several more popped out, and turned into humans before everyone’s eyes. There was more than Falcon Splinter, more than Rhino splinter.

She didn’t know all the numbers, but she did know the amount here. Seven. Seven was the amount of people in a squad. This was the only complete squad that had appeared.

While most of the other splinters had plain skin and were very young, these splinters looked old- and wild. Their hair was long, not buzzed, and was in funny shapes and styles. They were even more scarred than the leader of Tiger Splinter, older than any splinter- and tougher- and meaner- and browner. Their colors had no blue or silver whatsoever and matched with the scene around them.

They had a patch on their shoulder with a wolf lusus, one with two sets of eyes and a sleek catlike body.

“You all need to shut up. There are a group of mice just beyond that building. If they heard you, they could come kill us all. Wolf Splinter, present”, said the tallest of them, a woman with a claw scratch across her face and over one eye,- but the eye looked ok. She was very pretty with long black hair and a commanding gaze.

“Mice? Huh”? The Rhino asked, “How is th-”

“She means the ratlike lusus you buffoon. Not actual mice”, the falcon leader snapped.

“Right, now that you are all here. Assigning new splinters to your SQUADS. I say, no more 'splinter group' nonsense. 450662, 467819, 453210”.

She didn’t pay attention to who got called, she only listened for her number. If she was not right on time, she would get hit. She had to be ready.

The Falcon Splinter grew from three into seven. The Rhino splinter gained one man and one woman. The Tiger Splinter got a whole new squad.

She blinked as she stood alone, without a line. Without the other, bigger splinters to blend in with, the colonel stared her down.

“108190, you will be with Wolf- I mean, Rei Squad”, he growled.

The hemjack splinters froze, mid itching- and checking their nails-and starting a game of wrestling, to stare at the colonel. Their leader’s expression dropped from serious to a much more human expression of surprise.

“I’m sorry what”, their leader squinted.

“We already have seven? Forgotten how to count”? One of the hemjack splinters spat. Everyone seemed to wince in unison. That one would get whacked for sure.

“Yes, why are they getting another member? I would like another member”, The Rhino demanded.

“You would, wouldn’t you? Because she is a little girl, you meat headed, sex crazed, freak”, the Falcon leader snapped.

“You guys? What about my Splinter group? I got the most kills. I have been the best splinter group leader”, the Tiger leader suggested.

“Psh, you just chuck them at the lusus and hope they slip on their bodies. You are no better at strategy than a stage sit-com”, the Wolf leader snipped.

“Uh yeah, they are splinters, it’s what you are supposed to do, Rei”.

“I’ll show you what YOU are supposed to do, 6 feet under”, a hemjack splinter snarled.

“Control your splinters, Rei”, The Tiger leader ordered.

“She can’t, remember. They learned it from a snippy, spoiled brat like her”, the falcon leader hissed.

“ENOUGH ALL OF YOU”, the colonel yelled, “this has been decided. Rei Squad is getting a new member”.

He grabbed her by the shoulder and forced her towards the dirty, wild group. She wanted to run away. She wanted to cry. If she did though, she would be hit.

“This is 108190, she will be part of your squad now”.

“We don’t need another member”, one of the splinter spoke up, “They’ll mess with how our team works”. She tossed her nail tool aside and got up in the cornel’s face.

“You are getting one”, he said to her chin, “orders from above. This one is a special little snowflake”.

He wandered away from them, announcing to everyone.

“This one was taken into the Splinter program a year ago. Her two month training turned into an entire year, thanks to her issues. But thanks to hardwork and dedication, and the method that has molded thousands of splinters that fought these lusus, she is now… usable”.

The other leaders laughed. She stayed stiff and still. Rei raised a lip in disgust.

“I need to warn you, she woke up months ago and decided she had the mentality of a toddler. As far as the doctors are concerned, she is three years old and stuck in a big girl body. So she will need plenty of care and will have plenty of… accidents”.

She kept her face straight. In reality she didn’t understand. She fought with her memories. The last one was her mother and father and sister over a birthday slice of bread with the number three carved in, then the next moment she had been dragged away by the scary guys. She had to be three. She wouldn’t miss years out of her life like that. She just… she just grew really big after that birthday treat. Her family was poor, they couldn’t get much food so just a little went a long way.

“Ooh, wait to go, giving the Wolf Splinter a broken one”, the Rhino laughed and slapped his bare knee.

“It’s still unfair though. I think we should even out the scales. Like maybe take someone out of wolf splinter and transfer them to one of us”, the Falcon leader suggested. She looked at one big, muscly hemjack splinter specifically.

“Like we’d ever listen to you. What’s that? Is someone talking? LALALALALA”, one of the hemjack splinters sang.

“No need. You have all your assignments. Now for your rations and supplies”.

“So…hello”, Rei greeted.

“Yes sir”, she answered.

“Mmmm, it’s like they get worse every year”, one of the other splinters shook her head. She had dark, curly hair and the darkest skin she had ever seen.

“Well- this one is supposed to be the worst of the worst so- OW”, a gangly blonde one got smacked by a small pixie cut girl with swirling burn scars.

They went into silence for a moment. Rei, the obvious leader, looked a loss for words.

“Darcy”, she ordered.

“Yuh”, said a slightly less scarred boy answered. He was missing an ear.

“You came to us a year ago. What do you remember about her”? Rei ordered.

“Her? Uhhh. Hang on. Yup, she was in my class”, he answered tiredly. He tried to close his eyes, he was tucked under his hemjack skin on a warm rock. He kinda looked like a comfy doorstop.

“And…” Rei urged.

“She got picked out a lot. Refused to answer to her number, refused to give up her name. She got held back those two months because all they did was get up, try to get her to stop using her name, beat her... too injured to do training”, Darcy finished. He closed his eyes and began snoring.

“That sounds awful. You poor thing”, the burnt up one cooed and ran up to her.

She wrapped her arms around her. She just stood there and didn’t move out of her stance. She was afraid if she did, she would get whacked.

“Alright. That is something. Let me introduce you to the squad. You know Darcy, apparently. The one hugging you is Maiya”.

“That one is Gildie”, she pointed to the Curley haired girl

“This sassy, pain in the butt is Ceol”, she flicked her hand to the blonde one

“And the two biting each other over there are Lou and Barely”, she finished.

Lou and Barley were in fact biting each other and laughing about it. It looked like some kind of rough play puppies did.

“And can you give us your name”, Rei asked.

“108190”, she said.

“Oh how we have fallen”, Darcy murmured in his sleep.

“No, I mean your real name. The one you were given by your parents”, Rei ordered.

This conflicted with everything she was taught.

Back when she was forced into a room with other children, they had given her a slip of paper with a number.

“You are 108190. That is who you are. Remember that number”, the horrible, refined woman had growled at her.

“W-what’s going on, what is wrong with her”?

“No, go kiss asbestos, old hag”, she had yelled and chucked the number back at her.

She had been put in a cold, dark room for days. No food or water.

Then when she had been let out, they put her in a line and made everyone answer to the numbers.

“Darcy what is she doing”?

“I don’t know! She didn’t do this back in the day”!

“108190”, the colonel had called.

She didn’t answer. Everyone around her stiffened in terror.

“108190”, he had repeated, this time to her face.

She had rolled her eyes, popped her hips and said “My name is…”

He had kicked her. She had crumpled. He had kicked her in the face, head, neck, and then her hands and arms as she curled up to protect herself.

“Quick, get her to be quiet, she will call the lusus to us”.

There had been a doctor patching her up. He was her usual. She saw him lots.

“Just surrender, it’s been three months. They will kill you if you keep going on like this”, he insisted while stitching up her arm.

She couldn’t breathe. She didn’t remember that part. What she did smelt like wet dog fur.

They never drowned her in the punishments.

She had finally taken the doctor's advice that time. She had surrendered.

“108190”?

“Present”, she said to the pain of her crying heart.

His eyes caught her, he narrowed them.

“Moving on. We are starting with push ups, then a three mile run and obedience classes”, he had said and marched on.

She blinked hair out of her face, long, fluffy dark grey hair. Something hairy slapped against the side of her head.

This punishment was more annoying than painful. Though she couldn’t breathe.

“I think she stopped”, Maiya breathed. She looked relieved.

“What in the hell”? Ceol commented.

“The colonel didn’t mention she had screaming panic attacks”, Rei said and bent down to her, “Bruce, off”.

The furry thing came off her and she could breathe again. It turned and blinked two pairs of eyes at her.

“Giant Lusus”, she cried in terror and pointed at the creature.

It looked like a wolf, but it had a longer snout and taller ears. It was long and it’s back half turned into a kind of big cats butt with a long ringed tail. It was also taller than Rei, so much so that its shoulders was where her head ended.

“Shhhh, shhh, it’s alright”, Rei caught her before she could run away, “he is a friend, look at his eyes”.

Bruce the giant wolf monster twitched his nose innocently at her- and gazed at her with big, yellow-brown eyes.

“Most evil Lusus have white eyes, remember”, Rei reminded her in a sweet, baby voice.

“Yeah…ok”, she said and curled into Rei, her knees to her chest. Rei wasn’t yelling at her, she didn’t tell her to get a hold of herself. It felt… nice.

From there they trudged along the ruined streets and past what remained of buildings. Some paths were over the rubble and Rei cautioned they were the most dangerous.

“A cut from any rusty metal can kill you. But you need to stay away from impact sites like that road back there”, she explained, her hand in 108190’s.

“They sometimes have unexploded bombs”, Gildie finished.

“Scary”, she whimpered and clung closer to Rei.

The rocks clicked and bounced under their feet, slipping rubble, boot tread on slippery terrain. But then the rocks started bouncing.

The Splinter group stopped and raised their heads. The land seemed to growl and the sky filled with the sound of pain. Thunder rolled even though there was no rain.

“The Lusus are here”, Ceol announced in a serious tone so unlike him. His blue eyes fixed over the buildings on the country side beyond the city.

“What?-But they didn’t warn us”, Maiya cried.

“We haven’t even gotten to our own turf yet. I don’t WANNA be fighting in Tiger territory”, Darcy complained.

“No time”, Rei insisted, “All of you into position”.

The others put up their Hemjack hoods and scattered into hiding spots and positions. Each pulled out a weapon of some sort and began loading it.

“Hang on”, Rei said putting her hand on 108190’s head, “We haven’t caught you up on our methods yet. You need to hide with the supplies”.

She nodded. She didn’t want to help. Rei was very nice and she didn’t want her to die… but the lusus were VERY scary. She wanted to go home to her sister and mother and father- and- and hide there forever. Why couldn’t she do that again?

“Here. This has plenty of cover. Here is a gun, you know how to shoot right”? Rei asked.

She nodded vigorously.

“Stay hidden, don’t attack unless they find you. If it comes between you and the supplies. Pick you. Always. Do you understand”? Rei insisted.

This went against what she had been taught. She must always do what her commander says. She must always put herself in between the lusus and supplies. She would sacrifice herself for the commander.

But this was a command from her commander. Hopefully it came before all the others.

She nodded and curled up under the giant slab of rock along with the field bars and med packs. The ground beneath her had a heartbeat, jumping with a rapid beat of feet against earth. A shadow fell over the rubble, something gave a deep, throaty screech.

Big BOOMS came from somewhere behind them. Shells ZIPPED through the sky. Fire WHOOSHED from the rubble around them. One landed right in front of her, a hundred meters away. One of the hemjacks hopped in the air like they had been launched out of their hiding place.

“GOD DAMN DINJARREN SQUAD”, Ceol yelled and shook his fist at where the shells came from.

“Can’t- they- frickin- aim”, Lou coughed and removed herself from the place she was hiding.

“Rat lusus 6:00”, Barley yelled and they all turned to 108190.

She yelped and ducked. Gunfire blasted all around her, aimed directly at the rock over her head. To her horror a giant paw fell to the ground, a handlike paw with black fingernails and no blood.

RAWKKKKRRR a creature hissed above her and leapt at the Wolf Splinter. It’s fat, scabby tail landed beside her. This tail had spikes growing out of it, some burnt and some chipped off. A giant grey back rose into the air, covered in more spikes. It smelled really bad. It let out a shriek and charged at the group.

Bullets sprayed against its front, tearing off flesh and fur. No blood spilled from its body. It tripped over its missing paw and rolled on the ground.

She gasped at its face. Half of it was blown off and rotted away. Its eyeball was a rasin thing, hanging from its face. Its other eye was blank, but filmed over, like it was supposed to be dead… but wasn’t.

“Disable it”, Rei roared. She reloaded a shot and blasted. The creature stumbled over its own front foot mid attack on Lou. It snapped on the ground, drug itself after Lou as though nothing were happening.

Bruce the wolf lusus hopped down from broken building and leaned down to Lou. She climbed on him and he bounded away before the rat lusus could get them.

Several more shots rang out. They sprayed along the creatures haunches. One hit its tail and the tail stopped whipping around. One hit along its spine. The back legs stopped working as well.

Lou shot it in the head

“Miserable wretch”, she yelled, climbed off of Bruce and kicked it in the side.

“Don’t waste bullets. We have a giant one coming”.

She held back a gasp. Behind the standing wall of a building a cat, no, Nuctus, one of the few truly gigantic lusus, stepped out. He was bigger than the building with a large, bow shaped head and a row of sharp teeth that dangled out of its mouth like a crocodile. His ears were shrunken and tiny. He was lanky, strong and with large catlike paws. A tail whipped in the air, armored with a stinger at the end, long cut off by some hero.

“It’s Nuctus, all of you reload and position yourself”, Rei commanded, “Lou and Maiya, behind those rocks, Ceol and Goldie, you are with me-“

What ever Rei said next, she couldn’t hear. Her heart went cold when she heard the growl above her.

Something made pebbles and dust fall from the rock above her. It sounded VERY scary. She didn’t dare look up, in case it noticed her.

She was so scared.

Bad memories flared and breathing got harder.

The creature snarled and leapt down. The rat lusus, taller than her, had its mouth split down the front of its face. It opened its maw, baring the sideways teeth.

“EEEK”, she screamed and tried to run away. Then she stopped.

The colonel would whack her lots and lots for leaving the supplies. But didn’t Rei say something- it was probably protect the supplies at all cost. She couldn’t remember, she was too scared to remember.

She held her gun up and fired. Miss. Another miss. The creature didn’t even flinch as the bullets grazed its shoulder.

It surged forward.

She screamed and fell to the ground. She screamed her head off, curled up and completely stayed paralyzed. She wanted to move away, she wanted run if her body let her do that. She couldn’t move or stop her screaming.

“KID”, someone cried.

The monster breathed on her. It’s stinky breath stinked like blood. It opened its maw over her head. She was going to die. She couldn’t move. She was GOING TO DIE!

Then it reeled back and looked up.

“GET DOWN”, someone shouted.

The rat lusus ran away.

She saw the shadow, fall over everyone and all the world around her. She couldn’t stop screaming, she couldn’t run away. She clawed at herself, trying to get her body to LISTEN to her.

Something hit the ground and sent wind and dust flying up from around them. The rock around her crumbled in an instant. The wind force picked her up and pushed her back.

She felt a blast of hot air on her back. It smelled of smoke. A growl rumbled the ground around her. There was only one creature in the “Lusus Natuera Gigantica” species that could make a shadow that big.

Dinjarren, a giant winged lizard with scales thick as iron and fire breath. She didn’t doubt, if she turned around, she would have seen that he had been knocked out of the sky and nearly landed on her.

She had just went from one giant horrible monster to another worse one.

It sucked in a deep growl and shifted the heavy rocks around as it rolled over. She knew it saw her, heard her. She was doomed.

It took in a breath and let out the most horrifying sound that had ever split her ears. It made her head hurt, deafened her earholes. It was a mix between a horrible growl and a shriek.

Except… underneath the sound was a voice. A cry like someone desperately trying to reach someone. Someone desperately trying to reach HER.

“Maze, Mazie”, a voice called her from beyond her memories.

“Hey Mazie, it’s ok. I am here. What’s the matter”? A face swam in front of her eyes, crystal clear this time. It was a girl who almost looked just like her, except her hair was darker and thicker. She had a smile warm and sad, a strong smile that beat everything. Her eyes were the color of storm clouds.

“Th-those mean boys said I was weak. Then they pushed me a-and took away my crackers”, she had sobbed.

“They did? Looks like I’m going to have to have a talk with them”.

Moments later, she had the crackers back and her sister sat with her while she ate. She protected Maze from any more attacks.

“Listen, Maze. You can’t just roll over when people tell you that you are weak”.

“But I am. I’m small and not really strong”, Maze said.

“Neither am I”, her sister said.

“But you got my crackers back? How did you do that”.

“I kicked them in the nuts”, she shrugged. Maze laughed.

“You aren’t super strong yet, but you will be, someday. But you are smart. Keep yourself in mind, not anyone else, because you owe nobody nothing. If they try to take something from you, use that brain of yours. That is the best muscle you have got. Use it well and it will be better than any muscle”.

The roaring had stopped. She had stopped screaming.

Dinjarren’s head rose in the air, a shadow over her and he launched off the ground. His wings grazed the buildings and sent wind swirling around them. He went right over Nuctus.

She stood at last on her feet. She held her gun at her side.

The giant creature soared in an arc. His snout was long and thin, lined with straight, aligned teeth. He had a mane of horns behind its head which grew into a giant red frill which transitioned a giant paddle like crocodile tail. His two pairs of eyes were the only white thing on its black and red body. Two pinpricks in each side of his smooth head.

What a strange creature.

The rat lusus charged.

Maze put the gun on her shoulder and aimed.

She fired.

The shots landed in both sides of its jaw. They exploded in a shower of fresh blood, unlike the other creature, and one side of the jaw fell on the ground with a meaty thump. Maze rolled out of the way as it slammed on the ground, claws scraped against stone and the creature rose, undeterred.

Maze fired at its back legs, blew off toes and one knee. It skidded to a stop beside her, out of bullets she slammed the butt of her gun into the back of its neck. Exhileration flared in her system as she hit it until its twitching stopped. Its tongue still flailed and slid along her boot, but now useless and harmless.

Maze didn’t stop there. Without thinking she raced for Nuctus who was busy fighting off her splinter-mates.

“I-I’m really s-s-sorry”, she apologized and twiddled her thumbs in her scrunched pout.

“Sorry? Dude it was a GIANT DRAGON- THING... FALLING FROM THE STUPID SKY, you couldn’t have saved the supplies, even with your cool savage mode”, Ceol cried and waved at the flattened rock Dinjarren made. Its head would have been as big as a house and all the remaining buildings had flattened flat.

“I still can't believe you ran up and bit Nuctus in the leg”, Gildie nudged her, “That was some crazy Mo-Fo stuff right there”.

“I don- I didn’t mean to”, she winced.

“You survived nearly getting crushed by Dinjarren AND killed a rat lusus on your own. How did you do that”?

“I-I don’t know. I just… I just did it. I didn’t think”.

“Good old fashioned adrenaline”, Darcy finished.

“You did well, kid”, Rei said and patted her on the shoulder. She buried her face into Rei’s front.

“I-I remembered my name”, she piped excitedly and bounced in Rei’s arms.

“Did you now”?

“Its Maze. I remember my sister called me Maze”, she told Rei.

“Well welcome to the team, Maze”, Rei smiled.

Maze smiled back, then she pouted at the big rock on top of all of their new stuff.

“What about the supplies? Can we get more”, she asked.

“Who needs that stuff”, Lou spat.

“We forage our own food and we have plenty of saved up bullets for times like this”, Rei explained.

“I like our food better. Maiya’s jerky tastes a hundred times better than those stupid rations do”, Darcy said with a yawn. Now that he wasn’t fighting for his life, he looked like he wanted to go back to sleep.

“I thought you hated my jerky”, Maiya asked and shrugged her gun over her shoulder. Everyone was starting to move out again.

“Yeah, that’s how bad the field rations are”, Darcy answered.

The group began to banter freely with each other and Maze listened intently. They were really funny.

She saw a shadow move over them. She looked up. To her sadness it wasn’t Dinjarren. She wondered why he sounded so much like her sister.

To whom it may concern,

For those family members of a splinter by the number 108190, or Powder, I write to you to assure you that she is safe and by this date, Florember 5th, she is still alive. She has recently joined our splinter group, aka Caitlyn Squad or as we call it on the field, the Wolf Splinter. She is currently having some memory issues from her time in training so we are currently unsure if she has a worried persons or family. Please do contact me so if she does perish in the line of duty I can alert you. If that letter does not come in time, you can find her corpse through our uniform which is all brown with hemjack skins. She will also have a patch depicting a wolf lusus.

Sincerely Officer Caitlyn Kiraman, Commander of Wolf Splinter or Caitlyn Squad.

Yendrake gripped the paper as though if it blew away, he would blow away with it. His frustration, rage, worry and debilitating terror melted into a tiny ball of relief.

Maze is ok, he thought, the ball grew, Maze is ok. That ball was growing too big. Tears welled up in his eyes and fell without his permission. He rattled a sob when he tried to simply breath. He fell on his knees and clutched the paper in his hands.

“Hey… You alright”, his wife asked and set her real hand on his shoulder.

Yendrake had to collect himself.

I am f-fine, he tried to sound normal and scary, but his voice failed him. THIS, this had been the first time in a year, even before that where he ever felt any sort of relief.

The city had fallen, they had all been forced underground. Before he could even settle in his new home with his daughter, his last remaining daughter, people began dissapearing. Young people, taken by the government, no matter what walk of life they had above. All to be soldiers.

The stories, had also come flooding in. Parents of those children not seeing them again for two months, then they had been transformed into unhuman soldiers, stripped of everything and sent out into the poisonous, burnt, destroyed city. Then those parents had to check this room, a room of corpses for if their children had died. The same people who sent their children out would not tell them if they had perished. It took too much effort for the government.

He thought it couldn't happen to him. To his daughter. Then it did

He was refused visitation, he couldn’t get into their training facilities. He attended every graduation for a year, searching the bald, stiff, dead eyed line of soldiers for a single glimpse of his precious Maze. He saw her again. She had blended in with the others. She no longer had her teenage sass, she was in a bland, horrid uniform, her beautiful hair was gone. At least she was in one piece and still alive.

Then in the middle of the ceremony, she had collapsed, completely randomly and screamed. It was a horrible, endless, unbroken sound. The guards, the same ones that took her, kicked her, yelled at her, tried to get her to stop. He had tried to reach her, the guards held him back. He could help her. She was in pain, she needed him. If only…

“I understand. This- this is the most awful thing I have ever seen”, his wife growled and looked behind them.

The room stank of rotten flesh, infection and crispy human. Rows and rows of corpses lay covered on the floor, hundreds of them. At the front of the room, fresh ones laid intact with their boots half in the air. That is where the crowd mostly resided. Young people, no younger than twelve and no older than thirty waited as living people examined them. It was hard enough with their baldness and their numbers and how time had changed them. Then there were their injuries, crushed faces, bodies ripped to pieces, burnt from shell explosions. One had to examine every- single- body to find out if their child or sibling or parent was alive or not. The quiet room only broke into noise when someone discovered their loved one and their heartbreak echoed through the hall.

“But she is alright… she is alive… and I must get her back at all costs”.