They Called Me FIVE

Samuel Mckinsey (Formerly known as Two)

Sam could not identify where he is. He's in a seemingly harmless room. With seemingly harmless candle. And a seemingly harmless window that looks out to a run down city. The first thing he thought strange is the smell. 

It smells charred woods and burnt flesh. He examined his room. Except for the bed he slept in, there's practically no more furniture inside. He padded his clothes. Clean. A plain white shirt and a gym shorts. Paired with tennis shorts. He remembered this is not the clothes he wore last time. 

Did someone changed him? Who would? He raise his arms and smell his underarms. He doesn't smell. Strange. There's no wind coming inside the room. Since he tends to sweat, body odors can't be prevented. 

He was constantly relieved his companions, Five, Magnus, Seven and Jesper does not complain about his smell. They particularly don't mind it. His father always nag about it. And that woman too… His eyes darken remembering that monster who destroyed his family. 

No. She's gone. No point relishing the past. His eyes wander around the run down room. The walls are crack its on the verge of collapsing. The door is made of wood the edges shows sign of aging and being chow down my termites.

He scratch his head. What was he supposed to do here again? Wait… where is Five and the others? 

"Five?!" he bolted towards the door and tried to unlatch the lock. It won't budge. He pound his fist. 

"Five! Magnus! Are you there?! Let me out!" He keeps pounding on the door he's afraid it might break under his strength. The lock still won't open. He tried slamming his shouler against it. Like men in the action movies always do. He has considerable muscles and biceps. Sam believe he fare fine. 

But the door is sturdy. He tried punching. Drilling a hole. He'll tear down the door if he had to just to get out of here. Unluckily, it still won't budge. Frustrated. He kicked it one last time and groan in frustration.

Sam is convinced whoever locked him in is not Five or Magnus. It's not them. He rake his brain to think what happen last time. Why are they caught in this situation. What did he last remember?

He closed his eyes. His mind clicking, nicking, gluing pieces of extracted information. There were battling in Jesper's house. And then these weird looking men Five call Blue Men appears. They ran. They try to escape. In the sidestreet, something caught after them. And then… everything blacks out.

Sam can't sit still. He's pacing in the wooden floor. Aware how much noise his feet creates as he stomp it hard. He sits by the side of his bed. The window overlooking the city. He studied the structure. The shapes. Strangely there's no glass building. Only run down two three storey houses. And then there were large chunk of empty lands. On that land… there are leftovers of demolished houses. 

The air in the city is strange. It's suffocating. And the same time painful to swallow in his throat. Sam leans closer. His eyes glued to the strange formation of clouds in the sky. Its like the white bumpy cottons is dancing against each other. Or maybe at war. Either way they move faster than any normal clouds. How strange. 

He watch a white streak of gigantic snowball drops into the city. He thought its strange. Oversize ball made of snow. He thought its harmless. He believes it will eventually blanket the first storey houses. 

He prayed no one is living inside those houses. He prayed no one is asleep like he was. When the snow gigantic balls punch the house's roof and an explosion erupted. He heard a little girl scream in utter terror under the snowball attack. He cringe. He rush out of the door. Punch and slam and kick to get out. To render help. 

He tried to produce his power to levitate things. Not working. He tried again. Not working. He does not feel the familiar tug of his gut. The foreign sensation coursing through out his body because stemming from his arms.

He look at his mark. Sam's eyes widen. Nothing. The Mark of Two.The tattoo… it vanished. Panic overcome his nerves. He needed to think. To get out. When he look at the city again he heard people yelling.

People burning. Was those harmless snowballs a ticking bomb? What if it hits his room? Can he get out? No. He needed another solution. He needed to get out. He needed to find the others. He breathes hard, shallow air. His heart roaring. His lungs overworking. Sweat slicken his entire body. People are yelling twice the intensity. What he find strange is the voices. They sound young. Too young. Like they are in the age same of him.

He shake his head. That's impossible. Surely because the mothers are busy running around looking for their children. Or the men are busy driving their cars. That's right. Cars. How come there's no cars under the city roads? He look down at the window. The room he's in is located in third floor. Impossible to jump down. 

The bed he's in has no sheets or blanket. Just a lump of square ragged foam. There must be a way out of here. He search the walls. Is there a reason why this room looks shabby? Looks so run down? The possibility that these poor room poses a chance to escape seems low. 

Sam's heart wants to burst out of his chest. He just watch another gigantic snowball rain down from the sky. Bombing houses. Limbs are flying everywhere. There's one hand manage to fly right to his window. He gasp. His stomach twisted. Despite not eating anything he felt like he vomit the last bit of content his stomach has. 

The dead stayed dead. The dying are trampled down by others trying to stay away from the raining snowball. He too, must get out of here. He does not care about anything. What matters most is survival. If he don't get out, it will be his hand catapulting to another person's window.

He don't know if Magnus or Five is one of the people running around the city. Looking for safety. He grit his teeth. He's scared. As scared as he is after he find out the monster who ruined his family cursed him. Make a plaything out of him. 

He was once died. And Five revived him. He balled his fist. He should not fear death. He must survive. In order to meet the others. He started pounding the walls. Looking for out of place lines, holes, secret passage, anything. 

There must be one. His gut feeling told him there is. He continued searching. The air around him is thick with smoke. And there's a heavy stench of flesh barbecued under the explosion. He did not let it distract him. He push through. 

At the lowest corner. There's a trace of line his finger detects. He trace it. The line is small. Like a size of his palm. At the end, it continued horizontally. A rectangle. He gulp. The line trace to a size of a brick. He tried pushing. Something behind it clicks. He look down. 

There's some kind of mechanism that withdraw the brick sized walls into the left. Revealing a note and a key. Sam take it out and look at the note. 

CLIMB.

He blinks. Climb? That's it? He raise the paper in the light to see if there's any hidden words. Nothing. He fold it in his pants. And the key. He studied the key's structure. He can tell it's customized. Intricately carved. 

There are inscriptions at the handle. Golden in color, the markings seem familiar to him. Where did he…? 

He gasp. His Mark! Right. Just around the number two, there was this circle of inscription he can't understand. This must be it. Whatever is this key for… It will lead him right to the answer of his questions. 

He plodded towards the door and tried the key towards the knob. It work. He burst the door open. He was hopping and overcome with joy he did not notice there's something waiting for him on the other side. 

He bend just in time. An axe flew right towards his face. He hold his breath. Another second and his face would have been skewered in half by that axe. 

Sam looks behind his shoulder. He comes to stare eye to eye to a girl his age. He swallow the recoil in his stomach. It was hard for him to be around girls yet. The only girl he manage to acknowledge is Seven. 

Others? Damn no. 

He see the fear reflected in her big honey eyes. His blonde hair is tied in ponytails. Tears strummed down to her cheeks. 

"I'm sorry…" she sobbed. Sam's eyes travel to the axe she hurl at his face. Despite everything he don't know why he find the situation funny.

"Sorry? After you hurl an axe right to my face you say sorry?" 

The girl trembled. Her hands are shaking. Her lips are quivering. She shake her head. 

"Monty!" she screamed. Her voice is strangely hoarse to his ears. For a moment there, Sam has a ridiculous idea that the girl is actually calling for her pet dog. 

But the person who emerged behind her is clearly not a dog.