Chapter 1

I was sitting on a stool, a needle stuck in my arm. A scientist dressed in a white lab coat, like they all wore, was drawing blood. He had a grey, boring face and brown hair that was cut short. He was focusing completely on the syringe in my skin, and he didn't notice my wince when he pulled it out slowly. It was almost like he was trying to cause me as much pain as possible. The whitecoat emptied the syringe into a vial and set it on the counter.

Then he grasped me by the elbow and steered me out of the lab, into the hall. It was super-clean and sparkly white. It held the recognizable smell of antiseptic that made my skin crawl as he practically dragged me along.

I was sooooo tired. All day, I had been forced to run on a treadmill as he monitored my pulse and breathing. If I slowed down, he would zap me with a metal stick carrying an electrical charge. I had burn marks all over my legs.

The scientist unlocked the door of the storage hall and opened my cage. I obediantly crawled inside. He latched it and left, switching off the lights.

I leaned back against the cold metal, massaging my aching legs. I could hear the soft breathing of the sleeping experiments coming from all around me. I ran my grimy fingers through my long hair. There was a constant air conditioning blast in the storage hall that hardened the sweat on my face, making my skin crusty and rough. I tried to cover my freezing calves with the hospital frock I wore, but the material was so stiff and uncomfortable, it hardly did anything to warm me up.

I curled up and tried to relax, breathing deeply. Minutes passed slowly and the footsteps of the whitecoats in the hall grew less and less frequent, until there were none left to be heard. They had all left the laboratory for the night, to go home to their comfortable, warm homes. I clenched my fists bitterly. It must be sometime near midnight, I deciding, yawning. I closed my eyes, and just as I was slipping off into a painful doze, I heard something. I straightened up so quickly, I knocked the top of my head against the bars. No one should be here. At night, both the Erasers and the whitecoats weren't permitted in the lab.

There is a second room beside the storage hall, separated by a glass wall that is covered by a heavy curtain. It is the most restricted area of the Institute, and only specially authorized personnel are allowed in. But then . . . why were there shadows moving on the other side? What was going on?

For a few minutes, I sat in my cage, frozen, trying and failing to make out the muffled voices coming from the other side.

Then suddenly, the curtain was pulled aside and I leapt back, once again hitting the metal bars painfully. I winced, then looked back. Dark figures were looking into the room. They paused for a moment. A second later, the hidden door slid open and I suppressed a yelp of suprise. The intruders stepped quickly and quietly inside and I could see them better. Clutching the bars of my crate, I counted them. There were six of them and they were . . . kids?

The first was a girl. She looked a bit older than me and she had dirty-blonde hair. Her determined brown eyes were wide with shock and disgust. She was holding a bunch of folded papers in her hand and she stowed them in her jacket pocket as she stared around at all the cages.

The second person was a boy. He was taller than the girl; with long black hair, dressed in dark clothes. His face grew dark with anger at what he saw.

The third and fourth was a pale boy with strawberry blonde hair and a shorter black girl with frizzy curls. The boy seemed to be staring ahead at nothing and I couldn't imagine why. But when the girl took his hand and started to lead him around and muttering to him, I realized he must be blind.

The last two were younger children, a boy and a girl, who both had golden-colored hair and big blue eyes.

They all spread throughout the room, looking into the cages mutely. What were they doing here? Who were they? And most of all, why did all their faces bear an expression of sad understanding as they explored the room.

The dark boy stopped and looked at the lion-girl next to me.

"This is pathetic." He whispered.

The eldest girl turned to him and swallowed hard when she saw what he was staring at.

The little blonde girl was kneeling in front of the little black dog's cage.

"Hi doggie." She said. "Hi little doggie. You look like Toto. From the Wizard Of Oz?"

I had no idea what she was talking about, so I watched as the eldest girl went over to the black girl and looked into the crate she was standing stiffly beside. It was the cage that held the little one who had been given wings just two weeks ago. It hurt me to look at it, and it had the same effect on her. The dark-haired boy walked over. He sighed and shook his head sadly.

"You know, you can't save them all." He said quietly.

"I'm supposed to save the whole world, remember?" She whispered back defiantly. "Well, I'm gonna start with these guys."

I gaped at her, although she had no idea I was watching. What was this girl talking about? What did she know?

"Start popping latches." She ordered, opening the cage and lifting out the small winged boy. My heart swelled. They were freeing us.

"Get ready to run," she said quietly to no one in particular, "we're getting you out of here."

Her eyes swept around the room and fell on me. She handed the baby to the black girl and walked purposefully toward my cage. She quickly unlatched the door and I made myself speak.

"Who are you? Why are you doing this?" I whispered hoarsely.

She stared at me with furious determination glinting in her brown eyes.

"Kids don't belong in cages." Then she turned and said in a loud voice,

"Okay everybody. Let's blow this joint!"