Episode 4- Adam
He walked ahead of me at all times, his steps always more silent than a whisper. Now that I look back on that walk through the back pipes of the Catsora, I have now seen how clumsy I truly was compared to such grace that stepped ahead. It had been a few days since I had seen him slay the hunters, and thankfully we hadn’t ran into anymore Reptilians, especially members of the Rotundra.
Sometimes, when the tunnels came close to the surface, we could hear raging alarms ringing in the Rotundra camps beneath the purple sky domes. The only emotion I had ever known was fear, for I took a chance of getting killed every day. Not because I had done anything wrong, or that I was living life on the edge, but only because I had been created. For the nineteen years I had been living, that’s simply the way things were. We never questioned it, the other humans and I, we only lived it.
I honestly didn’t know what was scarier. At least before, I had had a chance to live, because another human could always be chosen for feeding, but now, I’m with a being that had slain a Rotundra official, killed two hunters, and was in every way defying the five kings mandates of supreme beings. I had now become kill on sight with every Reptilian that lived, and I knew it was only a matter of time before they found us.
We walked endlessly, but due to the amount of digging I had done in my life, I had no problem keeping up. He stopped me periodically and changed the bandages on the wounds about my side. I couldn’t believe what I had seen the first time he placed the bandages on my gash. Medical treatment for humans was unheard of.
“At least you’re warming up to me.” He said with a snicker.
“I’m doing what to you?” I asked. I had no problem asking questions, because at the time, more often than not, I didn’t have a clue what he was talking about.
“Just forget it,” he shook his head and continued to walk. He usually kept his mask off, revealing the thick head of jet black hair that behooved me. I reached to feel the top of my own head. It was rigid and rough. I was actually going to have hair… but more than likely would be eaten before I could see it.
“Ok 13931…,” he paused for a moment before continuing, “you know what, I am sick of calling you that. 13931, that’s more like the first few digits of a telephone number than it is a name. Is there anything you’d like to be called?” He stopped and looked contently into my eyes.
“Called…,” I thought to myself, “what is telephone?”
“Don’t worry about it,” he sighed and rolled his eyes, “Just tell me something else.”
“I don’t know. 13452?”
“That’s practically the same thing!” he hissed.
“No,” I reassured him, “134 humans are laborers at the Rotundran masonry camps. My ID is completely different, I am a 139 human—a digger.” I never looked away from him. A violent cold chill swept my body and I shuttered. For some reason, I actually wanted to be right.
“Ok,” he said, “I’m going to tell you everything that was wrong with that last statement, then, you’re gonna get a real name. First, you’re not a digger human; you’re just a human human. Secondly, you’re completely different from the laborers, yes, but you’re also different from all the other humans that share those first three digits. And finally, you need a real name.”
I was having trouble taking in the information he had said. It’s as if my brain rejected the words automatically. He stood in front of me with a dark gloved hand cupped over his mouth thinking deeply. I didn’t know how this helped him decide, but I wasn’t going to question him again, I could tell I was already getting on his nerves.
He looked back up to me and smiled. “Welcome to humanity, Adam.”
I questioned myself for a moment. I didn’t know what an Adam was, but he was smiling and nodding his head, so clearly an Adam pleased him.
“So how do you like it?” he asked.
“Adam?”
“Yep”
“Well, it’s fine an’ all I guess, but what is it?”
“It’s your name!”
“Oh…” I thought it had a nice sound to it, but one thing bothered me.
I whispered as if I could be heard, “I had a pit commander we had to address as Adam. I liked him better than Kilja, though; his appetite wasn’t nearly as big. He would only feed on one human in two days. I wasn’t nearly as scared.”
He looked to me in disgust. “There’s a lizard here named Adam?”
“No, there’s a Rotundra official named Adam.”
“Rotundra, lizard, whatever, one’s just a little bigger than the other,” before turning and walking away he continued, “by the way, I’m Captain Nicholas Roberts, but since you have no idea what I just said, my ‘ID’ is Nick, got it?”
“Yes I understand.” I began following him again, I know I didn’t have a whole lot to live for at the time, but there was no way I was going to let him get too far ahead of me.