Ari is six years old.

He is taller, but only just. He has grown two inches in the last few months. This is good, he thinks. The whitecoat with the crayons taught him the measurements, once. Just as Jeb once taught him the time. Even though he still cannot write.

He walks down a corridor. It is white. It stings Ari`s eyes. Why do the whitecoats not have different colours? Ari thinks it is stupid. The homes in picture books and magazines are bright and colourful, with happy smiling families. But he thinks the labs are less like homes and more like labs.

Homes are full of friends and family. Ari does not have much family left, but he has a friend. Ari smiles as he turns left at the spot beneath the sign he cannot read. He reaches the door and heads in. This is the part of his journey that is hard. He fixes his eyes on the cage at the end and takes a deep breath.

He walks in and the screams start.

Rows of cages stretch across the room. Inside unwashed bodies clamour, mismatched with animals, some with claws and fangs, some with scales, some with limbs where there should not be limbs. They scream for his help.

"Help us!" Ari takes a deep breath and walks, one foot in front of the other, pretending he cannot hear the desperate voices.

"Please!" "Get us out!" "They're hurting us!"

Ari stares at his shoes and pretends that is all he can see.

"Help!" "I want my mummy!" Ari knows the last one belongs to a child. A small child, but still, he pretends he cannot hear. He cannot help them, there is nothing he can do. Still, Ari catches a glimpse of a figure, curled up into a ball and staring blankly, making no movement. This is what scares Ari the most. The ones who have given up.

He knows they will end up being fed to Erasers, the huge wolf-demons that scare him. But they will not even try to run, and in some ways, that is the worst thing about the labs, is that they take out hope.

Ari reaches the cage, feeling as though he has walked miles. "Hiya Max." Ari says. Max does not answer at first. Eventually the shouts stop. "Help us, Ari." She asks him this sometimes. Ari is ashamed, but he cannot help. The whitecoats will kill him, or worse, put him in a dog crate. "Max, I-I can't. They'll kill me..." Ari licks his lips nervously, unable to finish. "Figures." Max grumbles.

Ari blinks quickly to keep from crying. Why is she being so mean? He has told her he can't help… She notices his sadness and her look softens. "Sorry, Ari. Look… look what they did to Iggy."

Ari looks, and he knows he will always see this image. Iggy, the blonde bird kid who always smiles at Ari when he comes in has a mess of bloody bandages around his face. Ari thinks he can see bone. Ari`s stomach churns and his eyes stretch wide with horror. Ari does not know if he is dead. "Is he…" Ari does not want to finish. Asking that question would like be admitting it happened, admitting this is not a nightmare he can wake up from.

"No." Max says quietly. "But I don't know how much longer we can do this. I'm just a kid, Ari. Kids aren't meant to live in freaking… dog… crates!" With each of the last three words she violently kicks at the cage. Ari jumps backwards. He does not know how to help Max but he wants to. She is his only friend here.

"I'm sorry Max." Ari says, but he says it so quietly he does not know if she hears.

Ari leaves.

Ari is a day away from his seventh birthday and he is listening to something he shouldn't be.

Ari is scared. His dad is gone and Max is gone and he doesn't know if they are coming back. They have been gone for a long time. Weeks, maybe. There are no colanders around for him to check. He needs to be tough, though, he knows he needs to be as tough as Max and maybe they will come back for him.

So he listens at the door. It started with technical junk –splicing DNA, new hybrid, whatever. Boring science stuff- but Ari hears them mention Dad.

"…So Batchelder is in place, I presume?" The first man sounded like a James Bond villain. Ari imagines him with a suit, stroking a cat. Maybe his dad was like James Bond, saving Max and Iggy and-

"Of course, sir." The other voice was shaky. "How has his report gone on the avian hybrids?" The first voice says, and it sounds impassive. "They seem to be developing normally, sir."

"How so?"

"Well the, uh, wings-"

"Ah, Wings. Thank you for pointing that detail out. So glad to know my investments have benefitted you with this knowledge. Birds have wings. Bravo." The first voice intones sarcastically, and Ari is glad he is not the man who is talking to him.

The second man falls silent, and the first continues, dominating their conversation. "And our other plan? The Eraser?" Ari shudders. The Erasers scare him more and more. Whispering as he walks past, sharpening claws…

"We- we do, ah, have a test subject, sir. A spot has recently opened up." The second man says. Ari hears the squeak of a chair as the men go to stand. Ari turns to leave.

But an Eraser rises from the shadows, no, it looks like it is part of the shadows; a walking nightmare out to snatch Ari. "Tsk, tsk." The Eraser shakes its head in mock sadness.

"You shouldn't have been listing to that." The Eraser says, but it comes out partly like a growl. Ari shakes with fear as the door opens behind him.

"Sir, this is the subject." The voice of the second whitecoat says to Ari as casually as ticking another item off a list.

Ari can only stand in horror as he realizes what this means.