Giselle led me out of the building, her arms stiffly locked at her sides and her eyes on the path ahead of her. She didn't have to look back to make sure I was following after her: she knew I would be.

We walked in complete silence, her just staring ahead as she walked, and me running my fingers against the stinging claw wounds left in my waist and hips.

After a while of walking through the forest (we had left the village minutes ago), Giselle suddenly came to a halt in the middle of the forest. This made me come to a halt as well only inches away from her, so I took a step back and looked at everything but her while running my dinners over the indents in my hips.

"Why'd you bring me out here?" I asked, tracing the small hole made by the sharp claws of that cougar. "Haven't I gotten yelled at enough today?"

"In my opinion, I think you haven't gotten yelled at nearly as much as I think you deserve," she replied, her voice not bothering to hide the contempt. Only minutes ago, she was defending me to the Council and now she sounded like she hated. "Look at me."

Her demanding tone was so irritating, but I figured if I wanted to stay here and if I wanted to stay on Silo's good side, I would have to obey even Giselle. With great difficulty, I pushed my pride to the back of my head and lifted my brown eyes to the slim woman in front of me. She stared at me, saying nothing, so while I waited for her to speak, I took in her attire. She was dressed in leather pants that hugged her waist and her hips, black boots that were exactly like mine, a black tank top, and her arms were decorated in tattoos. Her brown-black hair was pulled up in a tight ponytail and her sculpted face was flawless, but her eyes bore into me like flames destroying a forest.

"I don't like you very much," she stated, as though it were not obvious already. "But I think you know that."

I shrugged, fiddling with the end of my jacket. "I got a feeling."

Giselle walked closer to me, forcing me to take a step back. Her face never changed, and another step was taken towards me. When she got close enough, she squinted down at me with her eyes. Her breath spilled down my face and I turned my head away in discomfort, trying to keep my fear and unease from showing.

"I don't like you," she said again, not demanding for me to look at her this time, "but I have a strong urge to protect you."

I peeked open an eye and looked at her, unconvinced. Before I could stop myself, I said, "Bullshit."

She actually smiled. Amusement rippled through her features and she stepped away from me, shaking her head. "It smells like that, doesn't it?" she hummed, reaching up and adjusting her ponytail. "But I assure you, the feeling is true. Don't get me wrong, I hate to feel it. But I can't control it, and Rina refuses to ignore it."

"Rina?"

Giselle lifted her right hand and tapped her temple with her index finger. "My animal," she explained.

"Oh." I was curious, I wanted to know what animal she shifted into. But the worry of getting my head bitten off for asking held me back. "Tell Rina I said — er, tell her I said thanks?" Did that just seriously come out as a question?

Giselle tilted her head at me, eyes studying me with colored interest. "You're a strange one, McKenzie. You defy submission, outright speak against the Council, and now you're being kind to the one who kidnapped you. You're very strange indeed."

I crossed my arms and huffed. "Well I didn't know who you were at first, to my defense, and had no idea there were others like me much less an entire group of them! As for the Council, I'm sure most of them are nice," I offered, looking back to where we came from. "Gerard for example. He was really nice to me, so I don't have any reason to need to contradict him. Those other two, though — Damien and Audrey? — they were acting like self-righteous assholes. I don't respect anyone who doesn't deserve it."

"I suppose I'm not one of those people?"

I glanced at her and shrugged again. "Not at first, but what you did for me earned my respect for you. I may sound like a bitchy, selfish, teenager, but I have my opinions about respect. It should be earned, not forced on someone with power and demands."

"Damien was right about one thing. You are a very clever girl," Giselle said after thinking for a few moments after I spoke. "Very clever indeed."

"And you? How do you feel about me?"

"I don't like you."

I gave her a blank stare. "We've covered that already."

She blew hair through her nostrils and kicked at some dirt with her shoes, seeming to grow a tiny bit frustrated with me. "I ... Hold a sense of respect for you. You traveled all the way to Wyoming from your home, with people after you, and you stand up for yourself. You're very outspoken, which works both for and against you. You have respectable traits, I just don't like how you use them at some points. If they wanted to, the Council could have ordered on your Exile, but Gerard is not only the highest member, one of the first to create this group with Silo and I, he's also on your side. Only Damien and Audrey would dare go against his thoughts, but Gerard welcomes everyone's opinions. The other members were much to confused and conflicted to get involved, so they allowed Gerard to speak for them this once."

"Sounds familiar..." I murmured under my breath, hoping that she wouldn't hear me. But she did, and she turned on her heel, backing me up against a tree. Her hand wrapped around my chin and forced me to look up at her. Her grip was tight, in no way intimate, but instead it was full of threat and warning.

"Listen very closely to what I'm about to tell you, McKenzie," Giselle said in a low, dark tone. I wanted to look away, but her hand had my entire head in a tight grip so it couldn't move. "You want to stay here? Be fed, protected, among your brethren? If so, you need to shut the fuck up about the Council being like the government. We have basic similarities, but we are nothing like them. We protect our people fairly and justly, and we certainly don't have a corrupted system. We are small, conservative, and very, very dangerous when united. They are Silo's advisors, yes, but they don't have as much power as you think. They can advise Silo on what to do, but let me promise you right now that they do not control him. They can order execution and exile, and grant access, but what you saw today was mere smoke and mirrors. They provide wisdom, they stand by Silo's leadership, but most of the power is in his hands, not theirs."

"It didn't seem like it," I responded weakly, swallowing a lump in my throat as I tried to struggle from her grasp.

"He enforces the rules, he makes the rules, but the Council gives their voice on the rules before he passes them. This is not a system of dictatorship, or a power of a group of people that control the leader. This is a real system, where power is split, voiced, given fair questioning from anyone who asks, and where the people are never denied their opinions. Every person is taken into consideration here."

"What about the people who have heavy disagreements? How is nobody murdered for their race? Religion? Sexuality?" I whispered, my eyes struggling to stay locked with hers.

"Because we try to get things understood. You have your opinion on LGBT rights, if you don't like them, that's completely fine. But attacking a group member for that is exactly like attacking someone who is apart of your family. Everyone that comes here are people who have nobody but us anymore because the damn government wants us for their bloody wars."

I took in a breath and closed my eyes, nodding, my head bending down. It was a relief when Giselle's grip had loosened enough to where I could move my head again.  "Do fights break out?"

"Of course. But we always try to get to the bottom of it and work it out," she said, releasing my chin all together. I lifted my hand and rubbed it, where a dull throb was already making itself known. "What's your religion?"

I glanced up at her, thoroughly shocked by the question. My lips parted, ready to answer as I looked at her, but she just stared at me. "How blunt," I muttered, and when she said nothing I told her, "I'm Catholic."

"Sexuality?"

"Straight." I think.

"Race?"

"What is this? Some sort of survey?" I snapped, starting to feel annoyed and uncomfortable at the questions. "I didn't know you were forced to answer."

"I'm not forcing you to tell me anything, McKenzie," the woman told me with a nonchalant cock of her head. "You're not required to answer them, I'm just not scared to ask."

"I'm not sure of my race," I admitted, shrugging sheepishly. "I know how pathetic that sounds, but I honestly don't. My parents come from heavily mixed backgrounds, so I have a lot of everything in me."

"Hm."

"Is this all why you brought me out here?" I asked her curiously. "To tell me all of that and then interrogate me?"

"I didn't interrogate you, but, yes. Since I probably made the most idiotic decision in my entire life by volunteering to help Silo apprentice you, I needed to get you scoped out. I needed you to understand a few things before we start any sort of training together and the questions were simply because I wanted to know."

I nodded and looked up, tilting my sore neck upwards. I watched soft mid-morning sunlight twinkle through the large tree branches and its leaves. There was no longer a breeze, just the sounds of wildlife surrounding the forest.

"One more question," she said. I looked back at her, my neck throbbing from so much movement. "How're you feeling?"

Tired. Confused. Angry. Sad. Scared. Unsure. Nervous. Joyful. Sick. I wanted to say all of those things, but my damned pride prevented it. Instead I smiled as best I could at her and said, "Fine."

-:-

"What do you mean she's off radar?" The woman barked at her Head of Elites.

The male coward back, his blonde hair sticking to his increasingly sweaty face as he stuttered, "That's just it, m-ma'am. We lost her scent, her trail, everything! It's like she jumped off the face of the Earth."

"The earth is round you imbecile!" The woman barked, her fingers digging into the dried bloody and ripped shirt that she had given the Elites to use for her scent trail. "Nobody falls off the damn earth, for Christ's sake!"

The paler he got, the angrier she felt by looking at him. She had given him such a simple task, and she even gave him and his Elites some of her scent to increase the chances. Never before today had the Elites failed finding anyone ... Except for the resistance ...

Something in her head stared to cook. She looked down at the piece of cloth and looked back up, her eyes passing the quivering man and instead staring at her own reflection in the window across her office room.

"God damn it!" She roared, throwing the shirt down and storming around the desk to the man. He cowered back but she gripped his collar and jerked him towards her. "You listen well, because from now on your life will depend on finding this girl."

He nodded and stared up at her with a loud gulp. She smirked, knowing she had his undivided attention. It's such a nice perk of being the boss. I get to scare people into doubt what I want by threatening their life. She loved her job, more so than any human.

"You will not only be looking for this girl," she whispered down at him, her free fingers lightly running along his chin. He shuddered under the touch of her long red fingernails, sending pleasure through her veins like no other. "You will also be looking for that group of escapees and resisting experiments. You will focus solely on digging out their location, and when you find it, you are to bring back as many as possible." He nodded rapidly and she felt she was losing his attention so she dug her fingernails into his neck and jerked his collar closer. "However, I want you to be the one to capture McKenzie. You are to bring her straight to me, no exceptions. Am I understood?"

He nodded again, licking his dry lips. "Y-yes."

"Yes what?" She hissed lowly, eyes flashing as her nails dug a bit deeper into the skin. She was sure she would break skin if she went any deeper, and she was hoping that she had an excuse to draw blood.

"Yes, ma'am."

Disappointed, but satisfied, she released him and waved him off. He stumbled back and grabbed his throat, looking down submissively at the ground. "Good boy," she cooed, walking back around to her desk. "Now go."

He stumbled out of her office and left her alone with her thoughts. She leaned forward and rubbed her temples, drinking in deep breaths.

McKenzie Shane, you'd better sleep with your eyes open, she thought as she stared down at her dark grey desk. 

-:-

Gasp. Another update? O. M. G.

I felt bad for the late updates so I wrote another chapter for you guys.

Note: I know this chapter has a lot of political discussions and speaks of opinions many may my agree with. They are written to go with the story, I am not mentioning my own beliefs, but I am not close-minded. I am very open to religion, race, sexuality, etc.

However, if I hear any insults, slurs, etc. against any of these I will block you. It's okay to have an opinion, it's not okay to attack anybody for what they believe. Be careful what you say, and be sure to avoid insults.