Numerology, Part 3

Nothing incredibly interesting happened for my first year in the order. I spent every day wearing one of my three pristine white shirts and one of my three pairs of black pants, with perfectly shined black shoes and matching black socks. I was 307 to everyone, but David still called me Ken whenever nobody else was listening. If anything is worth noting, it's that I had found religion for the first time in my life.

Every day, all of the members of the Order met in a Choir, meditating on a theorem one day, contemplating a paradox another. I wasn't able to process the theorems or work out the enigmas like the others could (David actually solved a paradox while I was there), but I had never before had such a profound sense of peace. "Numbers, mathematics, number theory," I remember one of them said, "they are the language of our universe. They will lead us to the very beginnings of this universe and to the very depths of our existence." The meditation was always led by the head of the Order, 1. 1 wore the same white shirt and black pants as everyone else, but he had a white shawl draped over his shoulders. I spoke to him once, and he said it was only white to hide the chalk dust. He seemed to be good friends with David. In fact, he seemed to be good friends with nearly everyone. Nearly.

The only member of the Order who made an effort to ignore me was the one with the blue shawl. He was called 4, and he was the only one who ever seemed angry or vindictive while I was there. He was apparently very influential in the community, though. A number of the members seemed to follow him wherever he went, listening to whatever he said. After a year of being there, I noticed that they started wearing the same blue shawls he did. That's when the Simplification began.

I was going into Choir one morning with David when I was stopped by one of the blue shawls. It was 196, which surprised me. 196 and I had become good friends through David. I thought that was why he finally let me through when David told 196 that I was coming with him. In Choir, I saw a few members were missing. 19, 47, and 53's chairs in the hall were empty. David was clearly bothered by 19's absence and he barely paid attention to 1. 1, in fact, was anxious throughout his entire lesson that day. There was something awry at the monastery.

For the next few weeks, it only grew worse. A few more members went missing, namely 29, 61, and 109. The blue shawls were largely absent from the daily life of the Order, not attending Choir or eating at the refectory. 4 took permanent residence in his cabin, and the blue shawls spent most of their waking hours there, as far as I knew. After Choir one day, 1 confronted 4 in his cabin, and the rest of us could hear the argument as we huddled silently in the refectory. The next day, 2 and 3, 1's closest friends, were gone. 1 stood in the middle of the clearing in front of the refectory, and he cried out when he saw 4 walking back to his cabin.
"So this is what you bring upon us? Is this what has been revealed to you?"
"You've brought this upon yourself, old man," 4 shouted back as he returned to his cabin.

1 came to David and me. I had never seen a man in so much despair. He just clasped his hand on David's shoulder and then walked away. He was found dead the next morning.

4, by rule of succession, became the head of the Order. We knew he was responsible for 1's death, but there was nothing we could do. The blue shawls watched everything we did, and they enlisted a number of other members as little more than lackeys. One day, 83 was beat in the middle of the clearing where we had last seen 1, and it would be the last time we saw him as well. The pi symbol in the refectory was replaced with a golden spiral, and the walls were lined with slogans that drew fearful whispers at lunch whenever a blue shawl or lackey wasn't listening. "DIVIDE AND CONQUER." "THE PERFECT SHALL BE EXALTED, THE PRIME SHALL BE PUNISHED." "BLESSED ARE THE CHOSEN FEW." I was eating less, but not by choice. I was actually receiving less food than some of the others. David, meanwhile, could feast all he wanted, but he usually rejected the extra food they offered to him.

Another day came when two more members were dragged down the same wooden trail where I had my conversion experience. They were never seen again. That night, I woke up to sounds of shouting, and I saw fire outside my window. The blue shawls were rounding more people up. Just as I turned away from the window, David was on top of me. He smothered me with a cloth dabbed with chloroform.

I woke up in the back seat of David's car with my hands bound and my mouth duct-taped. I could barely make out the symmetrical greenery on the rock walls as he drove us out of the monastery. He glanced in his rear-view mirror and saw I was awake.
"I'm sorry what happened back there," he said.
"What the hell did happen back there?" I wanted to ask that, but the duct tape was still tight on my face.
"It's the only way I could get you out alive."
He didn't need to say anything more. I fell asleep again.