• "Donne,"
    My head spun immediately around. That wintery face of Jewel's shone in front of me. I stand and smile greatly at her. What else to do but owe her my life? She's practically evil but saved me from a nightmare I still deny in existance.
    "Yes?" I say greatly.
    Jeweliann, or Jewel, frowns at my too-sincere voice. She ovbiously can't get enough of it. "Can you help skin dinner?"
    Knowing dinner was soon and the process takes hours, I boredly stand and get my cleaning knife, calling for Seth or Ze or someone.
    So let's get to know me first so I don't have to explain the disgustng details of skinning a deer and harvesting it's meat.
    I'm Donne Sanner Pachballe. My friends call me Donne, but hell, what friends am I referring to? All i live with are a bunch of geeks who i am forced to live with for the sake of humanity. The year is 2371, and I live in State 5, one of the 22 States of the US. We were overthrown, books say, in 2231 by a terrorist named Crypt, who now rules our land. God is foriegn to us these days. we believe in the Metaphysical, a being beyond Earth who created us and duisgises as a human to learn about his creations. This is what Crypt thinks. We are very communist, and if you ask why Crypt still hasn't been overthrown, it's because he doesn't die. That man has lived since he began rule.
    So I live in the wilderness of S5, it's called, with seven people: Twins Ed and Kyle, Jewel, Seth, Ze, Dai and Ryley. My hut was set to fire when I was thirteen, but Jewel saw the smoke from the forest and saved my butt. Thank the Metaphysical (ha ha). Ever since I feel as though I cannot repay her enough for saving me, so I live with her and hunt, too. I'm friends with her 'family', Seth and Ze, but other than that...
    I, after skinning, begin to start the fire to cook the meat. Jewel by now has called the house down for dinner. They often hunt for fun in the wild and throw small game to hungry passing families or animals. A group of Foxes seem to like us and visit daily for a catch. Jewel comes to me with the meat and smiles.
    "Here, wanna cook it?"
    As if I didn't skin it, gut it, etc. "Yeah, why not."
    She flicks her long, red hair and wanders off after I get the meat. She then turns to me and glares with her black eyes. "Don't burn it."
    I frown and nod.
    Seth, almost unnoticably, sits by me. "So, how's game?"
    I nod to the meat.
    Seth is, how I say, cool. He's smart and likes to hunt, and knows how to be a nice guy and a man when needed. He's tall, pale, and has long black hair. He often walks shirtless and loves to hug girls, like me.
    He coughs. "So, I saw a Ka today. Scared him off. He thought I was a bear or something."
    The Ka, Crypt's trained soldiers. See a glimpse of orange and white and your doomed. "Oh great. be careful out there. They could be on to us." If you get caught outside the city boundaries, Crypt personally kills you. And we were outside it's borders, and already wanted. Well, them. Not me.
    "They already are." Ze comes to the fire, holding a studded silver sword. "I found this by the hut."
    Only the Ka have those swords, which means one thing. "Umm, Jewel?"
    She turns to me, holding a large wood knife. "Yeah? Getting drinks."
    I pointed to the sword.
    "Ah, give it a rest." She laughs. "Keep the sword, through. It could be use. The Ka never come by here thanks to our pack of Bears."
    Seth smiles.
    Jewel comes with the knife and pulls the browned meat up. "So, yoiu saw 'em today?" She sees Ze put the sword on the countertop.
    "It's been a while. They must have given up the search." Seth closes his eyes in thought.
    Ze pulls her orange-red hair back into a silk braid, slowly and quietly speaking. "Seventeen years, they've scouted for the Twins." She recalls. "Their what? twenty-two?"
    "-Three." Seth corrects, holding up a three.
    "Since they were five?" I say stunned.
    "Well, they were quite the thieves." Jewel cuts the cooked meat quickly, burning her finger in the process. "Ow."
    "The Ka never find us." Ze sits by us and folds her hands in her lap. "I've been here for ten years. The boys eighteen. Their dim-witted and only check in the open. Only the bravest come this far, and not even."
    Jewel sucks on her burned finger and lookes at the meat, choosing words carefully. "If's nawt shoo wait."
    We all turn our heads.
    She pulls her finger out of her mouth. "It's not too late." She clearly repeats.
    Seth looks down. "She's right, the Ka could find us at any waking moment."
    "Hasn't stopped us yet." I nod.
    Jewel sighs and finishes with the meat. "Dai, Ry! Get your booties down here!" She screams behind her finger.
    The two come prancing in- Dai in a washed black coat and grey hair, and Ryley in her night gown and her blonde hair in a braid. They're siblings who we picked up a year ago, Ryley's thirteen and Dai's twenty-one.
    "The twins?" Ryley asks. "Want me to get them?"
    "They won't eat. Leave 'em be. All they do is raise the tension." Jewel, finished cutting the meat, doesn't make eye-contact.
    "Tension-raisers." Dai spits.
    I roll my eyes, because I hate Dai and his small, grey-haired guts. He's an alcoholic and rude.
    "We have some white wine," Seth gestures to the kitchen-area of the small hut. "You can help your-"
    "Beat 'cha to it." I hear behind the arch.
    There he is-it must be a full moon or something. The twins come out like once a month. But there Ed was-Waving his platinum hair over his left, scarred eye, shaking the bottle of wine in his hand. I can tell him from his brother because he has a lip ring. Kye doesn't. He takes a swing of it and glares at Dai.
    "I was gonna-"
    "Sucks." Ed spits, before Dai can finish. "My house, my alcohol."
    Ryley pushes her brother ahead and ignores Ed, who sighs, takes another swing, and wanders back into the night.
    The two sit by the meat, just as Jewel passes it around. "So, we had an in-KA-unter." She laughs a little.
    We all dryly stare at her until her chuckle fades.
    "Anyway," She coughs. "Um, the Ka came by, so we need to do night watch again, and-"
    A loud moan and 'aw man' sweeps over the group as she continues.
    "And," She finishes, "Two people will be awake at a time, okay?"
    Dai rolls his eyes. "The Ka won't get us, and those noisy idiots would wake us up within a mile of us."
    "Thats the thing, Dai," Jewel growls. "They did come near us and Seth only heard because he was up close. We have to be aware of them, getting on our backs."
    "The only criminals in this house never come out," Ryley begins. "But if we get caught, we all die. Is that fair? Make the damn twins suffer. Make them go out and look to make sure none of those idiot bodyguards of that wuss Crypt don't try to slit our throats with spoons."
    "If one was here you'd be dead in a heartbeat." Ze laughs, eating her meat.
    "Go die in a hole, medusa."
    Ze pauses, feels the warm meat, then almost immediately, chucks the food at Ryley. It smacks her face, burning the exposed skin. She screams, falling back.
    "Ze!" Seth cries and we all get up to help Ryley. "What the- Why?"
    Ze stares down the boy until he turns, then she stands and quietly walks away.
    I pull up the meat, getting my water and splashing it on her face. Ryley has hot tears, and her face was pale red with small black splotches. Dai glares where Ze walked away evilly, then continues to aid his sister.
    I blink twice before continuing, asking Jewel for assistance.
    "We need to go into the city," Seth says. "To get medicine."
    Dai stands wordlessly, walking away. I try to look, but I'm too worried about the poor girl. Jewel calms her down, gently rubbing water on the wounds. I stand, heading to the kitchen to see if we have medication. I run my fingers on the bare countertop, thinking. "We had burn medicine..." I think, then remember. It was by where we put found weaponry or traps- like the sword-
    I look once more at the countertop. bare.
    I break into an all-out sprint, dashing to where I knew Ze slept. Dai passed the kitchen to get to where he was going, and the sword...
    I thrust open the weak door, almost snapping it. No one. My heart almost skips a beat. "Dai? Ze? Come out!"
    I panic, looking over at her closet. ha nging on a rach by her small amount of handmade clothes was the sword, with a diamond plucked out of it. and as I look at it, all of the studded diamonds are. They are scatted on the floor, leading to the window. I turn to it, thinking about what hapopened. Ry is all Dai has, and he must have been flat out pissed at Ze.
    "Ze?" I whimper, wandering to the window. "Ze? Zerenda!"
    The window has been opened. I slwoly push it open and look out the window. a trail of blood trickles from the grass. I jump out, following it to a near tree. I heard no scream. Could he...?
    Behind it, leaning against it was Ze. She was hald-asleep looking, her hands on her stomach. And through her fingers was red.
    "Ze!" I cry, knealing by her. "Ze! Are you... Did he...?"
    She takes my hand and smiles. "Get them out. Don't worry about me. Leave Ryley."
    I turn my head. "Why?"
    She coughs. "Dai," She blinks slwoly and dramatically. "He's a Ka."