The Pits: Part Two
#2 of The Pits
Author's Note: This story is no longer being worked on.
There was warmth. He could feel it on his back, through his fur. There was grass beneath him, lush and fragrant. He stretched out his hands, raking gently at the cool soil. There were voices near him, and other, stranger sounds far above.
He opened his eyes.
Green grass led to a concrete wall that extended up into darkness before him. The grass was patchy, with dandelions and other weeds taking root in places. Pushing off the ground with his hand, he rolled over onto his back. He was dazzled by the floodlights above that glared down at him.
The fur on his back felt soft and ticklish, scrunched up against the dirt. He guessed he'd get used to it eventu- no, wait, he'd always had fur, hadn't he? He shifted his hips to free up his new tail. Wait, what did he mean by that? He had always had a tail!
Doubt and confusion rose in his mind for all of a moment, before he heard voices coming closer. He raised himself up on his elbows, and looked around. The concrete walls led off into the distance, forming a high-walled enclosure lit from above by floodlights. The grassy ground before him was lumpy and hilly, obscuring his view of the far end of the enclosure.
Two figures came into view over the nearest knoll. They looked like wolves but walked like humans. One was taller than the other, and had thick grey fur. The other was smaller and more slender, and had light tawny fur. As they came near, the shorter of the two spoke up.
"I told you, Six! I told you it was a newcomer!" The brown one laughed. Her voice sounded female, but a bit thicker and harsher than one might expect from a woman.
"Hah, I think you might just be right 'n all!" Her companion said jovially. His voice was much deeper, but still held that curious grizzled feeling that the girl's had. "Hello, stranger," he said, standing over the newcomer, "can I see your hand for a moment?"
The newbie didn't see why not, so he obliged. He reached out his hand, and the tall wolf took it, turned it over and looked at the palm. He smiled, and showed the woman when she peeked over his shoulder. He let go, and turned to her to talk quietly.
The newbie looked at his hand. The numbers "454" were printed on his black palm in blue. At first he thought it was a tattoo, but when he rubbed the numbers they smudged. A cursory glance at his other hand showed no such numbers.
The two wolves before him spoke in hushed tones, but with his good hearing he heard them anyway, even if he didn't understand what was said.
"...We've already got a Four. He can't be Four," said the man.
"Well Five just sounds weird to me," said the woman.
"Four and Five are the only numbers there. He's gotta be one or the other."
"Maybe he has his own name?"
"Why would he? No-one else ever did."
"Well, we haven't exactly been in the habit of asking, have we?"
"Do you have your own name?"
"No, but he might be the exception!"
The tall wolf sighed.
"Fine, I'll ask. Can't hurt, I suppose..."
The big wolf turned to the newcomer and asked: "hey, what's your name?"
The newbie was stumped. There was something in his mind; a fragment of a shard of a dream of a memory perhaps, that was telling him that he did have a name. But it eluded his grasp every time he tried to recall it. Eventually he just said:
"I don't know."
His own voice sounded strange to him, coming out of a strange mouth. Once again, his mind told him that it shouldn't feel weird since he'd always sounded like that. But his memory claimed differently, yet stubbornly refused to say why.
"See. I told you," the tall wolf said over his shoulder. "Listen, friend. I know you're confused. Everyone is when they first arrive. We've all been through it. You probably feel like you don't belong in your own body, am I right?"
The newbie did agree, but he didn't say it. Instead he asked uncertainly: "we...? Who's we?"
"I'll tell you in a bit. First, you need a name. And for that, we've got a system going already. We look at those numbers that you've got on your hand, then we take one number out, and that's your name. I'm Six," he said, pointing to himself with his thumb.
"And I'm Two," the lady-wolf added, "and we reckon we should call you Five, since Four's already taken."
Five... Five...
The newbie turned the word over and over in his mind, and it started to sound pretty good. His memory protested, but he ignored it; he finally had a name.
"Okay, I'm Five I guess," he said, giving in to the strangeness of the situation. "So who did you mean by 'we'?"
"Oh, we meant the others that are in here with us. One, Four and Seven are their names. You've already met Two and me."
Five counted the names off in his head. It seemed like a good system, at least with only a few people. But something was off.
He asked: "there's no Three?"
"No, we've never had a Three, as far as I can remember," Two said.
"And... what do the numbers mean?" Five asked.
"We don't know," Six stated flatly.
That answered some of Five's questions, but more kept popping up. He was about to ask "where am-" but Six cut him off.
"Listen, don't worry about it. You're safe here. Come on, you should come meet the rest of us. Four will be happy to have someone new around," the big wolf told him, "then once you've met everyone, we'll tell you anything you wanna know. Sound good?"
Five conceded that it did. He sat up, and tried to stand. At first it was uncomfortable, since his first idea was to stand on his heels, but his long feet weren't built for that. Two chuckled quietly, while Six stepped forward and helped the newbie up.
"Stand on your paws, not on your heels," he said helpfully, gently guiding Five onto his feet. At first Five felt uneasy standing on his toes, but his brain cut those thoughts short. Once again it told him that it was how he used to- no, always walked, despite his memory claiming otherwise.
He took a few tentative steps, choosing his footing carefully. Six helped him along for the first few, but Five quickly got the hang of it, and was soon walking on his paws like a natural.
"Yeah, see? It's not hard, is it?" Six said warmly, "Come on, come meet the rest of the gang."
For all my enthusiasm at the time of writing, I am sad to say that this story will not be continued. I do apologise if you were hoping for more, but I can't recover the "spark" I had when I posted this, almost a year ago. The story behind the transformation machine and Five's uncertain future will have to remain untold, Sadly.
I apologise for any dissappointment caused.