Prologue

My name is September. I am 15, turning 16 in five days. I live at camp with the others. July is 16, he is the leader of this camp. I’m the co-leader, since I’m the second oldest. January is 14. She may be small, but she knows how to fight and survive. February doesn’t talk much. He’s the quiet one. But smart, for a 10 year old. March is taller for a 12 year old. She’s the hunter. April is the cleaner, taking care of our clothes and such, washing them in the camp’s lake. she’s 15. May skins the game and cleans the weapons. She’s 11. June is the builder. Pretty smart for an 8 year old. He’ll be cute once he’s grown. August is 9. He keeps track of the days and the number of people in the camp. October is 15. She helps June build the tents. November is 13. He helps August. December is 8. She keeps the camp clean with April. Everyone has a role here.
Our camp is somewhat large. We have our own forest with plenty of game. Squirrels, moose, elk, deer, fish in the lake, ducks, and rabbits. There’s other birds here and lizards, but we don’t pay much attention to the. We have three guard wolves. Life is rough. None of us have parents. We look out for each other, each of us having responsibilities. There’s plenty of danger in the woods. When March goes hunting, either July, me, April, or October goes with her. The camp gets reset every 16 years, putting in two new 8 years olds whether or not a 16 year old has left the gates yet. You’re not permitted to leave the gates until you turn 16. For some reason, the gates won’t open for July. They usually open the day you turn 16. July is turning 17 next month. February thinks that the Outsiders are changing the camp actions. Outsiders are the people that keep us imprisoned in here.
They tattoo us with a brand on the inside of our left wrist when they fly us in on a helicopter. I’m September 1, so my brand is 1. I’m the first September in the last 16 years. July is the 19th July in the last 16 years. People keep leaving the gates. Usually at 13-14 years. And no one ever returns once you’ve left the gates. nothing comes in, and nothing goes out. Gates don’t open until they’re resetting or one turns 16. I knew April 7 when she was 13, and I was 9. She wanted to prove the Outsiders wrong, and she got tired of waiting. So she left when October 5 left at 16, and she went with him. Neither of them ever returned. No one knows what’s out there besides the Outsiders. No one has memories from before they were 8. Not in the camp anyway. Right now, we have January 6, February 4, March 12, April 10, May 17, June 8, August 9, October 14, November 3, and December 2. Legend is, if you are the first of your names, in the 16 years of resetting, you’re what they call...the Special. I’m the Special.

Chapter 1

“Cami!”, he calls. “Cami where are you?!”, he yells.
She sits in her treehouse so he doesn’t find her. She’s crying quietly with her head on her knees, her arms hugging them.  He comes into the treehouse and sits in front of the little girl.
“Cambria, look at me. You need to look at me”, he says, putting his hand on her knee. 
She does as she’s told.
“You’re 8 years old now, you’re a big girl, I need you to cooperate with me”
“How do you know my name? Who are you?”, she asks softly.
“You’re Cambria Harper Davis”
She stands. “How do you know my name?! Who are you? Where are my parents?! Where is my sister?!”, she raises her sweet little voice. “Where is Tessa?”, her voice softens.
“Your parents are dead, I will take you to see your sister Tessa, but she won’t remember you”
“What did you do to her?”
“We’re just running some tests-”
“You killed my parents!”, she screams.

I wake up screaming, tears running down my face, not realizing where I am.
“Shh, September, it’s okay, I’m here. It’s was just a dream, I have you”, July is holding me tightly in his arms.
“She always looks exactly like me, that little girl”, I whisper into his chest.
“You had that dream again?”, he asks quietly.
I nod. He rubs my back in slow circles. I try to slow my breathing, listening to his heartbeat.
“Just breath”, he whispers into my hair.
My breathing finally slows and I look up at him. He wipes my tears and I look into his eyes. He has hazel colored eyes with dark brown hair. He has light tan skin and a lot of muscle. He always pulls me into his lap in the middle of my nightmares.
“Thank you”, I whisper.
“Not so fast, describe what it was like”, he whispers.
“I do that every night”
“And you notice something new every time”
I sigh. “She had short sandy blonde hair-stopping at her shoulders, green eyes, light tan skin, I wouldn’t say pale-but close to that. Short, light pink lips, freckles, small hands and other limbs. He called her Cambria Harper Davis. Cami for short. A nickname I guess. The man was tall and kinda skinny. Black hair, dark brown eyes, skin tone similar to her’s. Dark pink lips compared to her’s. The walls of the tree house were yellow, window frame red, and there was a big circular
blue rug”
He nods. “Very good. We’ll look for him when we get through the gates. She sounds like you. That’s the first time you’ve gotten her name. Anything else?”
“She has a sister named Tessa”
He nods. I look around our treehouse. It’s quiet up here. Everyone else is asleep near the fire, below the treehouse.
“You okay?”, he asks, rubbing my shoulder lightly.
I nod.
“You sure?”
I hesitate. “No…”, I let my voice trail off.
He sighs. “Lay down. Try to go back to sleep, I’m right here, I won’t leave you”
I nod then do as he says and lay on my side, facing him. We don’t have beds or blankets. Just furs on the cold wooden floor. July’s sitting beside me, rubbing my back. I eventually begin to drift back off to sleep.

The next morning I woke up. I find July two feet away from me, fast asleep. I sit up and scoot a little closer to him. I slowly rub his back.
“July, it’s morning”, I say softly.
He flutters his eyes open and looks up at me. Then he sits up and helps me up.
“Let’s go wake the others, we have a lot of work to do today”, he says.
I nod. We climb down the rope ladder and go from tent to tent and wake everyone up.