Encoded Note 94 has escaped. Went northeast to forest. Please alert those who need to know. Apologize for allowing escape. Conscience had a surprise revolt.
Normally Lilika, like all other sane people, dreaded the morning shift. It meant you had to give up a precious thirty minutes of sleep and head to the kitchens to make breakfast. Today, however, she was thrilled that she had gotten the early shift. If she hadn't, she might not've found this slip of paper covered in markings like chicken scratch, might not've given it the Squad leader of 5A, might not've lingered by the door to hear a few phrases leak out. She hadn't heard much, but what she had heard had tacked a grin on her face. Kayta had escaped! The details of the night she'd been freed had stuck in her mind: one of which was the number engraved in the plaque above her friend's cage, 94.
Thinking of that night was able to dim her smile somewhat with a few nigglings of guilt, though she herself hadn't exactly done anything. Still, it had been hard not to feel guilty when she was here, enjoying herself and her newfound freedom while Kayta was still trapped behind metal bars and cold walls. But now Kayta, too, was free and surely she could be found and brought to Lilika's new home. Soon it might be Kayta's home, too.
Lilika, realizing she had lingered too long, raced towards the kitchens. Bursting through the double doors, she began a string of excuses. "I'm sorry I'm late, there was this note, and then I had to go all the way down to the A wing..."
The cook, a plump woman with short gray curls, cut her off. "Lilika, don't worry. You're only a few minutes late and we're just making oatmeal." Lilika held back a relieved sigh: the cook was known for ruling the kitchen with an iron fist and Lilika counted herself extremely lucky to have been late on one of her good days. She quickly went over to help the other few yawning girls on the morning cooking shift. "Why are you smiling?" one of them asked—another of the League escapees. "It's too early for that."
"Oh, nothing," Lilika said, trying to dim her smile for the girl's sake. "Just feeling good today." Since she wasn't actually supposed to know what the note said, she couldn't say that it was the reason for her happiness. She ducked her head to hide her smile which was widening again and headed to the large cafeteria to set out plates.
In the distance she could hear the sounds of some early risers and she sighed contentedly as she walked along the table distributing her plates. After years of the League, this cluster of buildings was like paradise. When she had been dragged out of the League, they'd taken her here where they gave her a bunk in a room full of other girls and a warm meal. They gave her a choice, she could stay and help them, maybe even one day be in a squad who rescued people like they had, or go her separate way. She'd stayed.
Lilika loved it there. She helped with the cooking and the cleaning and eagerly helped any and all of the people here. This was what she had dreamed about: when she left the League, as she'd always known she would someday, she'd find a place where she could help people—experiments, rather. Of course, her dreams always included Kayta being there too, helping her help people, always ready with a pessimistic comment that was usually very possible and most often correct. Still, this place was wonderful.
But Lilika still found one flaw in it, one she was determined to fix. When she got on a squad and went on rescue missions, she wasn't going to leave anyone behind. No matter what.
She set down the last plate and then turned her blue eyed gaze toward the window and wondered when Kayta would arrive.
At that moment, Kayta was just waking up. She yawned and ran a hand through scraggly, tangled brown locks. Blinking her gold-green eyes, she peered out through the leaves. The sun was bright and shining. She'd missed the sunrise. "Oh, well, maybe tomorrow. At least I can see the sun. And I can remember the moon." She smiled. Her margay blood had kicked in (margays were nocturnal), keeping her up late. She had been mesmerized and awed by the millions of sparkling gems clustered in the giant expanse of sky. Pure beauty. And then the diamond sliver of moon. She smiled again.
Her reverie was broken by the sound of leaves crackling under softly stepping feet. Her ears twitched forward to catch the sound at the same moment she instinctively headed up a tree trunk and into the safe branches above. Kayta peered down through the leaves and was surprised to see a group rather close to her. Her senses should've surely warned her before now, but these men—and women, too, she saw—were walking expertly over the leaves. She was lucky to have heard them at all.
They walked right under her and she was surprised to see that they were not League men, for they were freaks like her, with beasts in them. One—a floppy-eared-dog-boy—heard or smelled her, she wasn't sure which. His head darted up. "She's up there." So they were looking for her. But why? Surely no experiments would try to bring her back to the League.
Kayta tried to scamper further up into the tree. "Hey, it's alright," dog-boy said. "We're gonna take care of you. We won't hurt you." Kayta felt the urge to growl, to scare away these enemies, but suppressed it. She would not act like a beast.
One of the others in the group laughed. "You're probably frightening her. Margays are felines, you know, and you are a canine. Here, let me." He stepped out of the group and looked up. Kayta nearly fell out of her branch with surprise. The brown eyes now looking up at her were they same deep brown ones she had spotted the fateful night of what seemed like eons ago. Despite the fact he'd dragged Lilika off, and left her alone, she still felt a slight, slight, slight bit of trust for him. After all, he had been sorry and it didn't seem like any of the others had been. What also surprised her was that he was the only person in the group who did not have a beast in him.
"Like he said, we're not going to hurt you. We promise. Just come down. We won't force you to come with us, either. Just come down and we'll talk." He paused. "Some of the other people in your lab room are where we are going."
"Is...is Lilika there? 2 ewe...?"
"Her? Yeah. She's staying with us. I think she's the one who found the note saying that you'd got out. Would you come down now please Kayta?"
Kayta bit her lip. "Tell me your name first, since you know mine."
"Benjamin Rayton. Ben."
She slid down the base of the tree to lean against the trunk nervously, ready to leap back up at any minute. Ben smiled at her. "If you come with us you don't have to stay. You can leave anytime you want. Just follow us, alright?" Kayta paused hesitantly, then nodded. The group started off, her walking nervously between them.
Finally they reached the cluster of building which looked a bit friendlier than the pristine cold ones that made of the League. A familiar curly head poked out of a doorway and then Kayta found herself hugged fiercely by a grinning Lilika. "Kate! Finally!" Lilika sent a reproving glance at the group. "What took you so long? I feel like I've been waiting for hours."
Dog-boy chuckled. "Well she's hard to find, this Kayta. And she's even harder to convince when you look like this."
Lilika hugged her again, then released her and began dragging the slightly shell-shocked Kayta toward the door. "Kate, you look like you haven't eaten in days." Lilika giggled. "I guess all that helping in the kitchen has caught up with me."
Kayta was able to find her voice and ask "What is this place, Lika?"
Lilika smiled. "Come inside and I'll explain over a warm bowl of oatmeal." Kayta's stomach grumbled at the thought.