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CHAPTER TWO
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"Fox? FOX! Is that you?" Caliko crawled towards him.
"Caliko?" Fox grabbed Caliko in his arms and held her against him.
Caliko could feel the sharp bones and loose skin of starvation against her cheek as she buried it against Fox's bare chest. "You're alive!" She pulled away from him. "Lynx?"
"I don't know I haven't seen him in weeks."
"Where are we?"
Fox held Caliko tightly to him again, unwilling to let go of the only link to his former life. "Did you live here before the virus? Around here?"
Caliko shook her head 'no'. "I was here visiting an aunt of vacation when the virus really hit."
"Okay, I think we are in the mountains, about twenty or thirty years before the virus, a couple of rich men, had three castles deconstructed in Europe and brought here and reconstructed so they and their buddies could play King Arthur or something. I think we are in one of the castles, in the dungeon. I don't know though, I haven't been outside in ages and when I am it is always dark and I am blindfolded. From what I have seen though, I would guess it is one of those castles. I have been alone in that cell forever, they took Ly--" Fox stopped his talking and lessened his grip of Caliko. "How did you get here?" Realization of what Caliko being here could mean hit Fox and he let go of Caliko entirely. "The Camp? Dove? Happiness!"
"They are fine, as far as I know. I wasn't anywhere near the Camp when I -- when I...I don't think I was home anyway. I just woke up here."
"So did we, me and Lynx and Dog, remember our camp being attacked and then we woke up here. They took Dog a few days after we arrived and we never saw him again. Lynx... Lynx was taken a few weeks ago."
"What do they do to you?" Caliko asked, trying to find a comfortable position for her leg.
"They keep us down here for ever, and sometimes they feed us. A few times they took us out and chained us together and made us load heavy barrels onto a wagon. But it was always after dark and we always had bags over our heads that made it difficult to see."
"And the ones they take, they never come back?"
Fox tried to steady his breath, afraid of Caliko's reaction; he took a breath and answered, "No."
Caliko felt the tears stream down her face yet again. She pushed away Fox and pulled herself to the corner of the cell. She whimpered as she sat herself down, accidentally hitting her sore ankle against a rock on the dirt floor.
"Are you hurt?" Fox stood up and crossed over to her. He knelt down and felt around in the dark for Caliko.
"No, my ankle just hurts a little. Leave me be, please."
Fox returned to his side of the cell and sat down, leaning against the cool rock wall and staring into the darkness.
Caliko lay down and let the full effect of her weariness wash over her, soon she was asleep.
