AN: Okay, I was too excited and I couldn't wait until officially Friday-it's twenty to midnight. Thanks to those that care enough about my story to send my reviews and PM's of encouragement to continue. I write this for you.

I don't own The Host.

Ch 44

A large man with two others came through the gate with large shot guns just like Jeb carries with him sometimes. We were ordered to "step out of the vehicle," with the guns pointed at me.

"Hey that really isn't necessary!" Uncle Jamie yelled.

"We will tell you what is necessary, James," the man answered.

We came out of Uncle Jamie's car and I was shaking. I was so scared they were going to shoot me I barely allowed myself to breathe. One of the guards lowered his weapon and approached me. He took out some metal linked object and attached it to my hand. He squeezed it around my right wrist so tight I let out a yelp. Drops of water fell from my face. I really didn't want to cry, but I didn't understand why Uncle Jamie would bring me here to be a prisoner. What did I do wrong?

Uncle Jamie began to protest again. "You're hurting him! He's eight. What do you think he plans on doing? I doubt he'll be able to disarm let along use a weapon even if he was just a soul. Peace-loving beings, remember?"

The guard looked at me. I caught a little softening in his stare. He placed the other side of the metal object around his own wrist linking him to me.

"There now he can't run away and tell the other souls about us."

The other guard began feeling around my arms and legs while the large guy told Uncle Jamie to explain.

"His mother is a soul, yes, but his father is a rebel like us and a really tough and dangerous fellow. This boy's mother was placed into my sister."

"So he really is your nephew," the guard attached to me stated.

"No," Uncle Jamie corrected. "She taught us how to separate the souls from a host's body."

"What?" the large leader questioned.

"See she did it to give me my sister back. Now I'm not saying all souls are like Wanda, that's what we called her, she was definitely an exception, but not every soul will want to hurt us either. They tend to take on the host's memories and sometimes loyalties. The community I was a part of placed Wanda in another host. We didn't want to lose her."

"Wait. You guys took her out only to take another human host. Traitor!"

The guns pointed at Uncle Jamie now.

"No!" I screamed. I heard a gunshot, but I had no idea where it came from or what it hit. All I know is it gave enough of a distraction to allow Uncle Jamie a head start. He ran. Fast! One guard took off after him while another two got into a jeep and drove off. The guard attached to me pulled me into the building with the leader.

[AN: Do you like it so far? I hope you do.]

When I got inside, I was taken roughly through a large room with many smaller rooms with hanging beds in rows along the walls. I was taken to the end. There was a door labeled infirmary. I was shoved inside and placed on the bed. The metal object was removed and another man came inside.

"Hey Dr. Wilks, you have a patient."

"Who's this?" he quested.

"It's one of those aliens in a child. We need you to examine it," the leader requested. "See if you could find a way of removing it. James said there was a way. We need to find it." The leader and the guard stepped out of the room closing the door behind them. I started to shake again and my human eyes betrayed my age. I cried like a baby.

"Calm down, child. I'm not going to hurt you."

I still sobbed away. He stepped out of the room, but came back with some type of toy. It looked like a doll.

"This is my daughters. She's about your age. I'll show you what I'll do on the doll so you'll know I won't hurt you." I quieted down and watched him look at the eyes, ears, nose and throat of the doll with various odd looking tools. Some looked similar to Doc's instruments. He checked the doll's body under the clothes and he explained that he was checking for injuries.

"Can I examine you now?"

I swallowed. "Do you really have a daughter?" He nodded. "Could she be in the room?"

He looked shocked at the odd request. It had been in my experience in the caves that adults don't like to do harm in front of children. I was always asked to leave the room when someone came in seriously hurt and so were many of the others.

He turned and called outside the door, "Caroline!" A little girl entered the room after a minute. She had brown straight hair that was tied back into a ponytail. She seemed my height and she had dark brown eyes.

"Yes, Daddy?"

"I want you to sit here while I give this little boy a checkup. He is a little frightened of doctors and I think he needs to borrow some of your bravery."

"Okay." She picked up the doll from the table and sat in the far corner on a chair. Her clothes were slightly small on her, but it was not so noticeable.

The doctor first started with my eyes. The reflecting light caught the girl's attention at first, but the rest of me was unremarkable. I know this because I overheard the doctor say so to the leader.

"Besides the reflecting eyes there is nothing to announce he is a soul. His body is unremarkable, completely ordinary, except he is also unmarked."

"What does that mean?" the leader asked.

"I mean he has no scars whatsoever. No neck wounds for a Soul to get in, which means no way a Soul to get out. But also no wounds on his knees or arms, children play and get hurt. If he ever got hurt, he was patched up so well it was as if it never happened. If he isn't an alien he definitely lived with one. Only soul medicines could do that type of healing," the doctor explained.

I sat in my room by the infirmary with a door made of rods. And I was locked in. I had no idea what was going to happen to me, if Uncle Jamie was okay, and if I was going to see my family again.

"Do you want to play?" The girl Caroline, was holding a box with red and black squares on it. "It's called checkers. It is a really fun game." I nodded my head.

She opened the box and pulled out this stiff flat red and black squared thing. She slid half of it under the door and handed me the black hard circles.

"The point of the game is to eliminate all your opponent's checker pieces by jumping over them and landing on the other side."

She showed me where to place my pieces and how they move. After a few minutes of playing, I lost a few games already, I began getting the hang of it.

"Why do your eyes do that thing when my dad flashed a light on them?" she asked unexpectedly.

I just shrugged.

"Are you like those things that want to hurt us?"

I shook my head. "I just want to go home," I whispered.

"Where's home?" she whispered back.

"I wish I knew. I was brought here for safety reasons, but I don't think my uncle thought it through. Humans can't be trusted."

She stood up abruptly. "What do you mean 'humans'? Aren't you a human?"

AN: How has the story been? Please review. I want to know if you all like it.