Chapter 2
Muse's POV
After a long, long time our house was done, finally. The lowest underground level was for floodwater to go into, above that was the girls' rooms, and the highest underground level was the boys' rooms. On level with the ground was our kitchen and we had one level above there that was for looking out at the surrounding area. The best part was that the roof was disguised to look like another tree growing in this small clearing. It had taken a week, but it was worth it.
"Alright guys, you can't put this off any longer. We are going to town today, so you need names. We all know why your current ones won't work." They started nodding sadly. "If our parents think that we are still alive, then they'll start looking for us. We don't know if those Idiots will start hunting them down. Well the sane ones any way," I added the last part as an after thought because all of the scientists in the building had lost their sanity the day we broke free. Fun right? Actually, it kind of was.
"I'll be candy," Abi told us somberly, "I love the stuff so much that it might as well be my name." Candy had gotten us all smiling and joking again.
"Josh should change his name to Edward," Amber teased, "Since he won't drink blood and all. Even though he should."
"Amber he's not a vampire," I reminded her. "He's just fused with vampire bat D.N.A. It's not his fault, nor is his ability all that strange."
"What's his ability?" Candy looked very confused. Oh yeah, we hadn't told her yet. You wanna tell her? I heard Josh's mental voice in my head. I shook my head and started, even though I didn't really want to tell anyone.
"When we were in the lab, they kept trying to see if Josh would drink different mutants blood. But he wouldn't. That was all they were trying to feed him. I used to give him half of my bread. A few weeks later I discovered exactly what I could absorb from people. First I absorbed the muscles, fat, and bone strength of them. I realized that they lost while I gained. I tried it in reverse, giving you guys' things while I lost. I started taking mental aspects too. One night I gave Josh a little of my blood, because he was getting sick. That established a mental connection between us. We both got better, because we could share images, and find comfort in our minds. We found that Josh absorbed abilities through drinking a creature's blood."
"So that's what happened." Candy's eyes widened and she gave Josh a sympathetic look, then realizing he couldn't see it.
"I'll be Jake, short for Jacob," Josh-or should I say "Jake"- informed us.
"You wanna be a werewolf instead?" I teased him. "The thing is, none of us will change our names to Bella." He laughed and the rest of us joined in, and Amber interjected.
"Well, I know I won't but if Lynn-I mean Muse- hadn't already changed her name she could have." We laughed again.
"That's okay this Jacob would rather have a Muse instead." He stated and I winked at him. Thanks! I sent him.
"Well if Abi gets to have her name be Candy and Josh gets to be Jake then I claim the name Kat. Short for Katniss."
"Speaking of book characters, who wants to see if we can fly to the library?" Three pairs of eyes widened at me, and Amber-make that Kat- started jumping up and down squealing. "Come on we need to learn better flying skills." We walk out of the kitchen and one, by one jump into the sky.
Most of us fumbled a little bit, and Kat almost fell out of the sky. Since she's a butterfly and not a bird I couldn't teach her to fly like the rest of us. She got the hang of it, although she was looking a little pale. We'll have to figure out some way to sustain her body. I told Jake and he nodded.
Yeah, she hasn't been eating much lately, and she seems really weak.
That's because she is. I told him, feeling a little bad for her. She was in an enclosed space smaller than everyone else's cages and she was encased in something where she couldn't see anything around her. They had cut off all of her food supply and she was already claustrophobic before we had been captured.
"Okay, we get one hour to look around." I told them once we were inside. We all signed up new library cards for this town; it's only about a half hour's flight from our new home. We each had a salvaged backpack that some kids were going to throw away since school was out for summer. Kat and Candy were going to look at some novels, while Jake and I were going to look at Audio books.
Jake and I had moved over to the novels and looked at some to take with us when I spotted one I knew very well: Maximum Ride: The Angel Experiment. I picked it up and remembered days that seemed a lifetime ago. In my parents' house, reading these very books. The scientists had talked about how those filthy two-percents kept interfering and setting them back. Could they be real? I was pondering this when a familiar voice behind me softly said "Boo," and gently poked my back.
(Chapter written by Sunflower, edited by Scarlett)
