Number 00148 nodded towards 00149 to show her appreciation, but the realization that she had finally escaped hit her full force. She wiped her tears from her face as she smiled. She wished she could laugh, but then she heard shouting and knew they still needed to get farther. She grabbed 00149 and started running away from the wall and deeper into the forest, not noticing that he didn't want to go just yet.

Riku realizes as well that he finally escaped. As he's being pulled by #148 he still hold his side and looks back and smiles. They run though the forest and fade out of sight far from the holding facility.

Number 00148 yawned and rolled over on her bed of thick grass. In the back of her mind something warned her to get up and get up and go to breakfast, but she was outside. When her stomach rumbled, she opened her eyes. What were they going to do about food? Remembering number 00149, she looked at him lying a foot away.

She had a thought that they would need names instead of numbers. She decided that she wanted her name to be Lindy, it reminded her of trees and birds and sky.

#149 wasn't asleep when he heard #148 wake up. He was on duty all night to making sure nothing happened while #148 slept. He couldn't sleep cause of the bullet in his side was still hurting him. He stopped the bleeding in the middle of the night. He sits up and looks into the distances wondering what lies ahead of them. #149 stands up and stretches and sits on a nearby log.

Number 00148 looked over at her partner, then down at the dirt under his feet. Pushing it aside, she wrote:

LINDY

Then pointed at herself. She looked questioningly at number 00149.

#149 realized that what she wanted to be called. #149 also realized that she wasn't talking either. He wrote RIKU in the dirt besided the word LINDY. And asked why she couldn't talk.

Lindy thought for a moment, not sure how to tell him. She rubbed out the words as she thought, trying to commit his name to memory. Riku.

YOU CAN'T HEAR ME

She tried speaking as well. "You see?" A butterfly paused and came over and landed on her head. They could hear her, but her voice was out of the range of hearing of any of her brothers or sisters or any human. The butterfly flew away.

Luckily, only her screaming was harmful to people, but she couldn't go lower than her scream to be heard when she spoke.

Riku thought to himself deeply.
Hmm... maybe I can buit a chip that can help her speak at the right level Riku said in his head.
Riku tells her that he's going to build a necklace that will help her speak until he build a chip that can help her communicate freely. As Riku got up he felt dizzy and things all around him started to get blurry until he falls to the ground and passes out. His side starts to bleed again, but it doesn't come out as fast as it was doing before.

Lindy smiled, happy. Then Riku fell over. She gasped, and jumped forward to see what was wrong, and saw the blood. Most of it was dried, but then some of it was getting wet again. She felt stupid and horrible for not noticing it sooner. Looking around, she tried to remember what she had heard about in field medicine.

She ripped a strip of cloth off of the bottoms of her pants and the bottom half of her shirt and made a makeshift bandage. If she had a knife and a lighter, or something else to make heat, she could cauterize the wound, but that wasn't the case. Scrambling over to where she had laid the gun, she stuffed it in one of her pockets and tried to pull Riku onto her back. She could probably find someplace where they'd be safe, and probably take him all the way there.

Hours into Riku's unconsciousness was dreaming about the tournaments that they had when they were in the prison.
He won all the fights except one. The guy Riku loss to was covered in darkness He looked like a walking silhouette. Riku feels like he knew the guy from somewhere. Then the guy starts laughing evilly and throw darkness all over Riku. Riku tries to break through it, but it just too strong for him. His get sucked through and everything blacks out in his dream.

Lindy watched as Riku slept. They were in an abandoned house just outside of a small town. Lindy had been able to break in by herself, and had moved them into a room on the opposite end of the house, facing the backyard where a tree grew surrounded by weeds.

Whoever had lived had left it in a hurry, there were still curtains and a few pieces of furniture, but it was all mostly broken or infested with rats. She had taken down all the curtains to cover his wound and wrap him up because he felt cold. It seemed like he was finally doing better, or at least she hoped he was.

While Riku was still unconscious his body started vibrateing. His body starts to glow black. Black steam starts to rise from his body. As the steam rises a silhouette of Riku rises out of Riku's body and stand up. Riku's body goes back to normal. The silhouette's head turns towards Lindy. He has not details on him just the outline of him appers to be the same as Rikus. He's like a dark Riku. Dark Riku looks at Riku and does a evil laugh and runs out of the scene at super speed just like Riku. Riku starts to come to consciousness.

Lindy sat, shocked and terrified. What was that?! She watched the place where the black thing had been, shaking and feeling cold even though she had been fine a moment ago. Was her partner some sort of monster? Should she be afraid?

Riku opens his eyes with relief cause he's not still dreaming about the darkness. He looks around unaware where he is. He sees Lindy looking at him with fear in her eyes. Riku looks around.

Riku: Whats going on here?

Riku stands up and looks outside.

Lindy shrank back a little, did he not know what was going on? She looked all around, trying to find some dust to write in. How could she explain what she saw? Just a shadow, but it was something more than that. It had mass. It was a person, but instead of being exposed to the light, it was just cut out from everything. Like a hole in everything.

When Riku saw what Lindy wrote he got pale and looked sick. He held his stomach. Riku asked her what did it look like and where did it come from fearing the answer she was about to say.

Lindy looked up at him, shocked. So he didn't know, although that was sort of a good thing.

SHADOWS

That was all she could describe it as, at least in so few words. She didn't have enough dust for more detail.

Riku bangs his fist on the wall and thought about it. He gave Lindy an ink pen and some cardboard and asked her where did it come from. Hoping it was not what he thought it was. He thinks it from his dream and it manage to escape his dream. He now remembers what the shadow man looked like it looked like him. Now he is waiting to see if it came from his body or somewhere else.

Shaking, Lindy grabbed the cardboard and pen. Why hadn't she noticed those before..? At least Riku was feeling better. She had to cross out what she wrote a few times, and finally managed to make a legible word.

YOU

Riku walks outside and thinks how this could have happened. A memory of when he was in the holding facility came into his mind. The scientist were experimenting with him. He remembers the people saying something like dreams will awaking. He doesn't remember the rest cause the knocked him out to do the tests. He decides to start working on a device to help Lindy speak. He walks inside tells Lindy that he going into a room to work on something walks in the room closes the door behind and pulls out equipment he stole from the prison and starts working.

((I'M SO SORRY FOR THE LATE REPLY! D; Please forgive me!))

Lindy sat there, shaking. She didn't understand completely, only that he was leaving her alone after what had just happened. She started pulling the drapes she had been using for Riku when he was out, and huddled up against the wall next to the door he'd gone through.