The first time Logan awoke, he was burning. A quick glance down to his body from his seated position told him that the fire was in his veins rather than bubbling at his skin. Sweating and uncomfortable, Logan found himself slipping back into unconsciousness.
The next time Logan awoke, he remained awake. He was in an unfamiliar place, one with light filtering through the leaves above him, shading him from the brutal sun. After several minutes of reflection and deep breathing, Logan found the courage to look down at his body. He was, thankfully, still clothed, though the clothing was not his.
Logan swallowed and closed his eyes, trying to remember how he came to be in his place. He wished he hadn’t when the memories came rushing back. He reached up tentatively and brushed his fingers against dough-like skin puckering around his eye socket. Now that he acknowledged the burn, it began to itch. Logan gently rubbed his fingers against the scar, tracing over the lumpy, rubbery skin. The scar felt warm under his gentle fingers.
Eventually, Logan forced his hand back to his side despite the incessant itch, afraid to reopen the new wound, and stared up through the branches above him. His mind began to wander, openly playing out scenarios of his new life in a Circle.
Something brushed against his hand. Skin on skin contact.
Logan leapt from his cot and quickly found himself on the ground. He attempted to use his arms to scoot himself back, but his body had other ideas and as soon as his hands found purchase, the strength in his arms failed him and he kissed the dirt again. His eye tingled again as he sprung his lids open to take in his surroundings again.
Kneeling on the other side of the dirt mound he called a cot was a dark-haired woman, her dark eyes looking at him curiously as he attempted to flee. She wore the same rags Logan had been put in.
“Skittish lil thang, aren’tcha?” She chuckled to herself and stood. Logan watched her muscles ripple as she moved forwards towards him and knelt down again a few feet away. “Don’ worry, newbie. You’ll be safe here with us.”
“And who are you?”
The woman smirked, revealing semi-rotted teeth.
“Name’s Denise. Healer of this Circle.”
“And what Circle would that be?”
“Ain’t got time to name ourselves, bud. We’re just one of many Circles nearby.”
Logan nodded slowly as he took in this information. He wondered what kind of identity he’d be able to maintain when his new community didn’t care about providing one for him. Denise seemed to notice his sudden quietness and grunted as she stood up.
“Come on, bud, we’re gonna get you meetin’ somma your new family.” Denise extended her hand down to him. Logan spared a glance at her eyes before taking the hand and rising to his feet. She smiled lightly and walked past him and he turned to follow.
Under a bunching of trees across the county road was a small group of people seemingly relishing the respite the shade provided from the sun. The majority of these people were sleeping in the shade, resting their backs against the cool bark of the trees with rags over their eyes for some extra darkness. If not for the movement of their chests, Logan would’ve thought there was a pile of corpses under the trees. Only two other people seemed to notice his existence.
The first was a buff, tall man whose eye scar seemed nonexistent except when the light hit his skin just right and reflected the puckered rubbery skin. He glared harshly at Logan to the point that Logan couldn’t hold his gaze for more than a few milliseconds at a time.
The other was a boy around his age who took an unimpressed dress-down of Logan’s appearance before returning his attention to the knife he was incessantly sharpening and cleaning. Logan swallowed. There was something attractive about the boy in a most disturbing way when he played with the knife in his hands. When the boy looked up at him again and those cold eyes met with Logan’s, Logan gulped and pointedly looked away.
“Bud, meet Gordan and Ian. Boys, our new buddy.”
Denise then decided it would be a good idea to shove Logan forward and towards the two very intimidating men. Logan instinctively took a step back and looked away from the men, finding a rock by the road very interesting. He heard a snort, probably from Ian, and deliberately kept his gaze on the ground. Logan heard someone approaching him and saw large dark boots stop in front of him.
“Got nuthin’ to say, bud?” Gordan said. When Logan refused to meet his gaze, Gordan shoved his shoulder. “Look at me, punk, when I’m talkin’ to you.”
“Oh shove off, you great big buffoon.” Ian bounded up from where he’d sat and pushed Gordan away from Logan’s personal space. He only got a short respite, however. As soon as Gordan was out of Logan’s face, Ian was in it.
“So I’m guessing ‘bud’ isn’t your name, is it?” Ian asked. Logan spared a glance up and was enraptured by the bright eyes peering back at him, once cold and unfriendly. He gave a short nod. “You gonna give me your name or am I gonna have to give you one?”
“Logan.”
“Logan.” Ian purred. “Welcome to the team. I suggest you get back to your area and sleep for a bit. We travel at night and with you being a newbie, you’ll probably end up taking up the rear. If you get hungry, let one of us know. We have protein bars and jerky to keep our energy up.”
“Oh, uh, thank you.” Logan stuttered out.
“Don’t worry about it. Just one rule: don’t get in our way.” Ian’s once bright eyes returned to their default coldness, freezing Logan to his spot. “You’re either a shepherd or the sheep out here. Don’t let me catch you being a sheep or I’ll slaughter you.”
Logan paused, swallowed, and nodded. That seemed to be enough for Ian, who nodded and walked back to his spot under the trees, pulling his knife out of its sheath and toying with it again. Gordan, who had been watching the exchange silently from the sidelines the entire time shot another glare at Logan, who was starting to get irritated from the silent brooding man. Gordan seemed to notice and spoke.
“Pull your own weight and we won’t have a problem. Fall behind, and you get left behind.”
He then turned to his spot under the trees and leaned back against a trunk, his eyes slipping closed as Ian looked on.
Logan startled when Denise placed a firm hand on his shoulder and used it to lead him across the road and under the tree again. Logan sat on the dirt mound, silently staring across the road at the rest of his new group. Denise turned away from him to walk to the rest of the group.
“You don’t hate me too, do you?” Logan barely registered his own words as they were whispered out. Denise hesitated, her back facing Logan.
“Just try to keep up and we won’t have a problem.”
Logan’s heart stuttered and moved to lie down. He curled into a ball and turned to face away from the road. He couldn’t sleep until the sun had set, which was the exact moment a hand fell onto his shoulder and his new life had begun.
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