| The Zenager |

Clamp!

The cool metal wrapped around my wrist. Making me shudder involuntarily.

The stranger in front of me still had his visor on, looking down at me cooly. I snatched my wrist to my chest, adjusting the metal to my best capability.

"Do you know why I bought you?" His voice suddenly said to me, it felt like a slap to the face. I shook my head.

"Guess." He said, his tone still having no emotion whatsoever. I gulped.

"I don't know, why would I?" I said shakily.

After the auction, he had brought me to his ship, small, but high tech and I really am starting to question this man's identity. Was he part of the government? Part of the Rutheron army?

He sighed, sitting into the pilot chair in front of the ship.

"Do you know what the Zenager is?" I thought for a few moments trying to find the meaning. Part of the brain already knew about this subject or thing, but the most frustrating part was not being able to retrieve it in my brain. And as if it finally clicked in my brain, I knew the answer.

"Zenagon's rebellion corporation against the Ringtheron rule." Why was he referring to that organization? It did make sense.

"Bingo, imagine this organization, gets wind that a human boy is let into the Ringtheron Academy." I listened carefully, curiosity getting the better of me. "The Zenager was very surprised in this predicament since there hadn't been a human accepted into the Academy for years." the stranger stopped a moment before resuming his conversation with me.

"We listen, we listen to the rumors, soon enough one of our insides confirms the story, and additionally adds that the boy escaped the academy just today, mind you this was just a day or so that he told us about you. This spiked our interest."

"You're a part of the resistance," I stated.

His head tilted at my words.

"I honestly thought you would have gotten that by now, I referred to myself as a part of the organization many times. I'm starting to doubt if you are the mysterious human boy because of your lack of intelligence."

Heat crept up my neck at that, and I immediately scowled in response.

"Anyways," the stranger continued, "We got another update from our spy saying that a high ranked soldier, one of their best, hunted you down in the jungle but came back empty-handed, the spy listened in on the headmaster, and the high ranked soldier's conversation. He learned that the high ranked soldier was jumped by slave traders, they tied him up of course wanting to give him the same fate they were going to give you, the soldier escaped, you did not. After hearing this immediate news, one soldier was sent to one slave auction near the jungle, hoping to find the mysterious human boy. I was assigned and sent to the auction, you were there easy, done, and now we are here."

The man's helmet suddenly retracted into his suite, after his sentence, blond hair ruffled, his sharp-angled face serious, his green eyes practically boring into me, he spoke again.

"The one thing that confused the Zenager, was, who is this boy? And why is he so important to the Ringtheron rule, that they are sending soya all over the city looking for you? Why was this small frail boy making the government scramble to find him, disruption through the system?"

I wish I could answer him, but I couldn't, so I asked him to ask a question instead.

"What is this metal thing on my wrist?" He scoffed at me before answering.

"A tracker, it can only be unlocked and taken off by me, wouldn't want you to escape again, would we?"

I didn't answer and just stood there uncomfortably.

"Why does the Zenager want me?"

"Sit." He said, completely ignoring me and pointing at the seat next to him. "Taking off in a moment.

"No." I said defiantly, that seems to be my favorite word lately, "no".

"No?" He said his blond hair covering his green eyes slightly.

He shrugged after a moment, "fine." And with that, he put his seat belt in and went to the control panel.

I flew backward, hitting the wall behind me with a loud thump, while I groaned trying to catch the breath that was knocked out of me.

The resistance man just whistled and continued to zip into the sky at the highest speed I've ever experienced.

The force of it causes me to stick on the wall like paint.

As soon as the ship leveled out I fell to the ground in my fours gasping for air, my back aching from the impact, it had felt like my spine had broken into pieces and was yanked back together.

"I told you to sit down, but if you want to be smacked against the wall again soon that's fine with me, they said I only had to bring you back alive, so if you want to break your back sure." He said this while typing on his computer, while I was breathing heavily on my knees.

Getting up on my feet with a grain I stumbled into my seat.

"Good choice, now put on your seat belt, this time I would take my advice."

I mumbled a curse specifically aiming it at him before putting on my seat belt.

"Did you say something?" I then cursed myself on the inside for cursing at him in the first place.

"No," I replied suddenly, interested in the blue sky in front of me, avoiding his hard gaze.

"No, I definitely heard you say something. What did you say?"

"Nothing."

"I don't think so, want to share?" I shook my head, quickly.

"That's what I thought if you want to call me a useless piece of sh*t, say it to my face, although I wouldn't if I were you." He said in a deadly tone.

I processed his threat knowing it wouldn't be empty before fiddling with my seatbelt.

"Did you hear anything about my sister?" I said quietly my heart was slightly squeezed from the thought of my sister.

"We don't know, I didn't even know you had a sister, or you know parents." My heart ached again but more violently thinking about my parents' death.

"Did you have a family?" He asked.

"Yes," I replied shortly.

"What happened to them?" He said, his emerald green eyes finally looking at me.

I cleared my throat hoping it wouldn't shake as I talked. "They're dead, except my sister, who I don't know the whereabouts of." My voice cracked at the last words, the thought of Kayla swirled in my head.

"I'm sorry, what's your name?"

"Nate,"

"Magnus." He replied to me.

"Nate, who was that girl you were talking to in the alley?"

"Catarina," Magnus nodded, mumbling her name.

The rest of the time was silence, and I picked at my nails in boredom, my thoughts jumbled with images of Catarina. Her face, her eyes, her long wild red hair curly and out of place.

Just thinking about her made my mood lighten a little and my heavy heart lightened. I hope she wasn't bought by an old man or a cruel person, she deserved more than that.

"Stop tapping your foot on the floor, before I chop it off." I instantly stopped with a huff.

"Oh goodie, we're here." He said sarcastically, I looked out the building to see desert and mountains. He headed straight for the mountain in front of us.

I got uneasy in my chair. The mountain was getting closer and closer and he wasn't stopping.

"Magnus! Stop! Pull up! Pull up!" I yelled, he ignored me with a smirk on his face.

"Magnus! STOP!" I unbuckled my seat belt before jumping over him, pulling up on the controller.

He knocked me out of the way, making me fall on the floor with a thump.

It was too late, at this speed, we crash into the mountain, in 5...4...3..2...I rolled up into a ball ready for a fiery death..1!

The ship didn't explode, didn't even shake. I glanced up, Magnus was grinning at me.

"Are you trying to kill us?!" I yelled at him getting to my feet. I stumbled to the front of the ship to see a compound underneath us. What happened to the three mountains?

"It's an illusion, there are projectors all around the perimeter of our base, it makes it hidden, looks like a normal mountain when there really is a huge base, with our military, our central location." I nodded shakily as adrenaline making me nervous and jumpy.

I sat in my old chair, my leg shaking, my foot tapping on the floor.

"That's it I'm going to chop off our foot in 3..2." I stopped before one.

"Thank god."

I scowled at my legs.

The ship landed with a shake.

"Come on, I have to take you to the council." I gulped, as Maddox got out of his seat walking towards the exit of the ship.

"Hey, does everything go over your head, dolt? I said let's go" he said roughly grabbing my uniform pulling me to my feet and to exit.

People in uniforms like Magnus's bustled around us, as Magnus kept pulling me towards a large building.

Opening the big dots I was brought into the buildings.

People greeted Magnus as he walked by, he raised his hand in acknowledgment before still dragging me by my sleeve.

He took me through long hallways for a while before entering through another hallway with a sign at the entrance saying "Training Grounds".

I began to see people my age in tracksuits, most of them looked at us weirdly.

Suddenly Magnus took a sudden right, opening a door before bringing me into a dark room.

Magnus turned the lights on, and the room around me took me by surprise.

I was in a laundry room, clothes were on racks, and many washing machines surrounded me.

"Here," Magnus said, taking two pairs of tracksuits, putting it to my chest.

"This way", he mumbled before walking out of the room while I followed him as quickly as I could.

We walked in silence before he took me to another room.

The sign at the top of the door said "Showers".

The room led to two doors, one with a sign that said "Girls", and another said "boys".

Magnus naturally took me into the boys' shower room.

"Take a shower and get that filthy uniform off you, you stink."

I mumbled duh under my breath, Magnus looked at me hard,

"What did I say about mumbling?"

"Sorry," I said before putting my clothes on a bench, going to one of the showers, and drawing the curtain close after entering.

I stripped, taking off my Ringtheron trainee uniform, the fabric of it almost sticking to my skin.

I let the water drench me, the shower cold, unforgiving, not having an option of hot water. I washed up quickly, since the water was making me shiver, my teeth chattering. I tried to shift the metal cuff on my wrist, Turing shampoo on the metal cuff I hoped it would make it slippery and it would be easier to take off, but it did nothing but make my wrist hurt. I grimaced trying one more time to slip it off my wrist, it wouldn't budge.

I shut off the water with a scowl before opening the curtain a little.

"Can I have a towel?" Magnus looked up from his communication transmitter.

"Chilly?" He said with a smirk before handing me a towel.

I quickly wrapped the towel around my waist before pulling back the curtain, walking to the bench with my clothes in it. Magnus sat back down again, his attention on his communication transmitter.

"Dress fast, the council is waiting." I nodded before slipping on the suite. The suite stuck to my damp skin, I put on my old shoes, the smell of my socks making me hold my breath.

That is terrible, hopefully, I'll get new shoes and socks.

"Ready?" I looked up quickly to see Magnus above me, making flinch.

"Uh.Yeah.." I stood up before following him out the door.

Instead of taking me deeper into the Training Grounds, he took me back out of the Training Grounds and out of the big building towards a neighboring building I had already been into.

The door shut with a clang behind us. A group of people sat at a long table in front of us, all of them looking at us with curiosity, especially me.

"Magnus, you can sit here with the boy." One of the men said, gesturing towards the two empty seats at the table. I swallowed loudly as Magnus nodded respectfully before grabbing my arm and taking me to the table.

I sat down uncomfortably, scooting my chair in.

"What's your name boy?" The lead man said, his eyes scrutinizing me.

"Nate," I said after clearing my throat, rubbing my knuckle on my hand, nervously.

"Do you know why you're here boy?" What is with this man, calling me boy? I just told him my name? I think he has old-timers the way his brain is processing everything so slowly.

"Yes, it must be because of my personality. I think my charm really doe—"

"Shut up," Magnus said, kicking my leg.

"Owwww," I said sarcastically. "You know I don't feel very appreciat—-" the old man who asked me the ridiculous question nodded at Magnus.

I yelped in pain when suddenly, my whole body was shocked, I felt like I was just tasered.

I looked with bewilderment at Magnus who was fiddling with his electric band.

"I said shut up, don't make me do that again," Magnus said, his voice stern. I opened my mouth before shutting it again thinking better of getting tased again.

I looked at my metal cuff on my wrist, a green light was flickering on it. This godforsaken metal band!

This thing will be the death of me!

"Now, let me ask again, do you know why you're here?"

"Is it because your wife misses me? Because I already said I wouldn't do it again," I sneered.

The man nodded at Magnus again before I felt the pain of the electricity again this time worse, and longer. I gritted my teeth, my body shaking, it must have been at least five seconds before the tasering stopped. I gasped, slumped in my chair, my forehead sweaty suddenly, but I was grinning.

Worth it.

Magnus kicked my leg harder making me wince.

"Stop." He whispered to me.

"Well, since you can't answer a question, you are here for leverage."

I mumbled an insult, since Magnus only heard it he kicked me in the shin again, I grimaced, scowling at him.

"We will train you, and if we need you, we'll use you for leverage. You seem very important to the empire, you'll be our trump card." He folded his hands on the table, looking at me coldly.

"You will be a part of group 7, you will be trained. Every day you will wake up at 4:00 o'clock, do morning exercise, make breakfast, clean up, go to classes, have lunch, continue training, you'll then after that have dinner make that too, clean up, have an hour of socializing and then lights out, repeat."

"Wow," I said clapping my hands, "I am so proud of you, even though you have all-timers because of your age, you still succeeded in remembering that." I don't know what really has come over me, but I don't think I have anything to lose, so shock me again I dare you.

That is exactly what happened, I was gasping again from the last shock.

"I don't know why you're making this so hard for you, Nate." the old man said his eyebrows scrunched up, I was starting to think that I hate this place and the Ringtheron Academy with the same amount of passion of hate.

I wiped my forehead with my wrist but only succeeded in scraping it with my metal cuff. I muttered a profanity rubbing my forehead.

"Oh, and of course, we are all Lumpkontons here, you'll be changed into one, you won't survive just a human boy.

My heart stopped, I escaped from the academy so I wouldn't have to do this.

"No! This is the main reason I escaped the Academy, no way!" I said getting up from my chair.

"I believe it's not your choice." One of the men at the table said. Magnus tugged me back in my seat.

My brain was trying to process this all, but it just couldn't.

I got up from my chair, darting towards the door.

I fell with a thump by the door, Magnus on me.

Magnus's knee dug into my back while I struggled to get him off me.

"Sedate him," the old man's voice said.

"Let go of me you—" Magnus pushed my face to the ground making my words cut off before I felt penetration on the side of my neck, the drug took a moment to take effect before my vision started to get darker.

Magnus let go of me and flipped me over.

Magnus stood above me, I couldn't see his face well, my vision blurred.

"Magnus..please.." that was the final thing I said and remembered before falling into a black hole.