Sun danced on Asia's skin as rivers of sweat rolled down her body; her body that was warring with her mind. It wanted to stop but her mind berated it to keep going. She'd been running since the man died in her lap. The man that told her to do something she would never in her life think of doing, to kill him. She took a person's life, something she was told to never do. She could hear her mother's voice as she weaved through the trees, Don't take a life if you can't give life. If one thing was certain, Asia knew she could give life but that wasn't the thing that caused uneasiness in her soul. It was that she didn't care.

The further she traveled away from the burnt cabin the lesser she cried. Now, her eyes were no longer flooded banks but a depleted desert. It was her survival that mattered most and taking the man's life was just a means to ensure she kept living. Water, food, shelter; those three things permeated her mind. Things she never really thought too much about. If she was thirsty, she bought water from the bookstore. If she was hungry, she went to OKR and ordered the spicy fried chicken meal with a side of fried okra; and if she was tired she just went back to her apartment.

Asia's body had taken its full of listening to her mind and it stopped with no warning. She clung to the rotund tree gasping for air. She watched Shaka continue galloping ahead. She curved her mouth and emitted a high pitch whistle prompting Shaka to turn in his tracks and trot back to her.

"Is that a wolf?" A deep voice came from above.

Asia's head shot up connecting with radiant blue eyes buried between the leaves, "Why are you up there?"

He pointed to her wounded leg, "I know you didn't get that playing hopscotch."

"Those men attacked you, too?" She looked down at her limb, the blood beginning to clot, no longer sipping into the cloth. She faced him again, "Did they call you a number and insisted you kill."

He unwrapped his legs from around the branch, leaves cascaded to the ground, "8519" He took hold of the branch and lowered his long body down. "But my friends call me Keller." He held out his hand. "The ones that I still have."

Asia shook his paddle-like hand feeling the film of dirt that lined it. "I don't know where my friends are, either."

"Oh, I know where my friends are." Keller stopped shaking Asia's hand but still held it. "Some are dead and the ones they didn't kill they took."

Asia pulled her hand out of his grasp, "Took." Asia glanced at Shaka as he sat by her side eyeing the man in front of his owner. "Why? Who would take them?"

"The who I'm not too sure about." Keller flicked a lingering leaf out his hair. "I saw a couple of guys with Ares embroidered on their pockets."

"Ares Multinational."

"Yeah." He nodded combing his hands through his disheveled locks making sure all the foliage was out.

"The governmental defense contractor?" Asia had to clarify because he had to be mistaken. There was no way the same company that sold arms to the US government were hunting coeds in the Texas wilderness.

"Yes." His deep voice was stern and unshaken.

Asia dug her nails into the abrasive tree bark, "Are you sure?"

"Well, when the man...I think his name was Rodgers, which was also embroidered on his shirt, tried to dose me I read Ares on his shirt pocket."

"This doesn't make sense." Asia held her heavy head with her other hand. "My world is spinning."

"I know it's a lot to take in."

"No. I mean literally, my world is spinning." She clamped her other hand on the tree as her knees began to buckle. "I think I lost too much blood."

"You need food and some rest." Keller knelt down next to her and unwrapped the soiled fabric on her wound. The jagged incision with drying blood tingled as airbrushed against it. "This needs to be cleaned before infection sets in." He retied the makeshift bandage. "There's an old store in town. I can get the things you need." He rose to his full height. "But you can't come with me."

Asia kept her eyes closed as she leaned her spinning head against the tree. "Why are you helping me?" She whispered, the pain in her limb intensifying.

"Because..." Keller held his waist. "You're the first person I met that hasn't tried to kill or capture me. So, I know you're one of my kind."

Asia's eyes slowly opened, "You're kind?"

"An OXRO." He clearly articulated.

Asia pushed away from the tree trying to steady herself, "What's that?"

"Its an acronym." Keller immediately placed her arm around his neck before she fell over. "Meaning Omega, Xi, Omicron, and Rho."

"Greek letters." Asia's first instinct was to pull away from Keller as her arm came in contact with his sunburned warm flesh but she decided against it since she needed his strength for stability. "That means what?"

"I'll tell you what I know." Keller's other hand gripped her waist as he drunk in the fire burning in her eyes. "But I need to get you to the cave so I can go get the things you need before sunset." His eyes flicked to her punctured thigh then back up. "Do you trust me?"

Asia eyes scrolled down his body studying the healing scars that scattered across his skin then matched her eyes back to his, "No." He grinned at her bluntness. "But he'll rip your throat out if I tell him to." Asia nodded to Shaka and the animal stepped a little closer to her peering up at Keller. "And to answer your question, yes, he's a wolf."

"Well, on that note...we should go." Keller looked up at the sky, which was emitting an orangey hue. "Our eyes do this funny thing at night."

"Funny thing?" She breathed deeply as the dull pain in her thigh vibrated through her.

Keller began walking, pulling her along with him. "Yeah."

"Like what?" She held firmly on his hand draped around her waist.

He whispered, "They glow."

Asia glared into his eyes as if she could see them shining while the sun still burned in the sky.

Keller swallowed before saying, "If you keep staring at me like that...I'm going to think you want something other than help."

She peeled her eyes off his and placed them on the unpaved tree littered path ahead.

Should Asia trust Keller?