I'm soooo sorry! I have so much going on this weekend. Like basketball practice, homework, house cleaning ect... Don't worry though; I'll make it up to you guys. Although I still need to find a routine for myself. _
Chapter 4
One and a half years later
Max pov
I quickly swipe the card in the slot, and wait as the door slowly opens. It makes a soft swishing noise as it slides open. Both of us run inside, before I close the door behind me. Making sure that there's no one inside besides us, I look around. This is the last room that's left, and from its looks, it's an office. Cabinets line up the wall on the left corner of the room, a desk with a computer right next to it. Some blueprints, graphs, and crude drawings hang on the opposite wall. In the center is a glass table, with a stack of papers scattered all over it. Behind the table, two huge windows show us the outside world, the sky so dark you can see all the twinkling stars individually.
I turn around, to be met with gray eyes. Unspoken words pass between us two; we don't have much time left.
Quickly, I stride over to the cabinets, while Ari walks towards the glass table. Getting to work, I open the cabinets, and inside are files lined up from A-Z. Wow, these people just made my life easier. Skimming through the files, I grab the ones that have interesting labels, and move on to the next cabinet. This one too is neatly organized. I skim through it, and am about to close it when a certain label catches my attention. I take it out and I'm about to open it when I hear the swish of the door, signaling that someone just opened it and is coming. Both Ari and I whirl around, getting ready to fight if necessary, when we finally notice who it is.
"Chill guys. I just came to tell you two to hurry up! We just have two minutes left! "He informs us. His British accent hardly noticeable. He helps us gather the papers we were just holding moments ago and we stuff them in our packs.
I open the window and stop, signaling for Ari to go first. He puts his backpack on and silently morphs, since he can't fly without morphing first. Then he hurls himself out the window and starts flapping, struggling just a little to lift himself up. After all, he doesn't have the same bone structure as I do.
I turn towards my friend. He grabs on to the edge of the window and turns to look at me. His hazel and green eyes meeting my brown ones.
"Don't worry, we'll meet up at your house just like we planned" He tells me.
I nod and wait until he throws himself out the window. I stand still and stare for a while, as he falls five stories down, and then lands quietly and gracefully on the ground. He turns around and looks at me waving and telling me he's fine, before he takes off running into the cover of thousands of trees. Then, he is no longer visible to my raptor vision.
I suddenly remember we have a limited time left. So I throw myself out and snap my wings out. Taking off in the night air, and trying to catch up to Ari, who's a little bit ahead of me.
Knowing that we may have seconds left and that Ari won't be able to go much faster, I go at full speed and finally reach Ari. I grab him and push myself even more to go faster. Just In time too, because suddenly, right behind me where we just came from, I hear a loud BOOM! And I turn around to see a building that is blazing in fire. The brightness of the fire contrasting to the dark night, and disrupting the peace and quiet. After we hear sirens going off in the distance, I turn around, still carrying Ari, and head towards home. Only one thought going through my mind.
I hope Sam was far away from the explosion already and that he doesn't have trouble on his way there.
O0o0o0
I can see the roof of our house from here, so I slowly allow myself to descend. I tilt my wings enough for us to head towards the backyard. Landing quietly on my feet and setting Ari down with me. He quickly jumps off my arms and morphs back into a little kid. All his features returning to a normal little eight-year old boy. His brown fur just going back to his light brown hair, his wings retracting back into his skin. Until there is no canine features on him. The only thing that stands out now is the long scar he has cutting though his left eyebrow and ending where his left cheekbone starts. The one he got when we finally escaped The School. Each time I see it, it brings me pain that I couldn't stop them and anger because of what they did to us. He's my responsibility and I'm his older sister, I should always be there to protect him. When I first met him I made a promise to myself that I would always be there for him, no matter what.
As if he knows what I'm thinking, he comes to me and embraces me in a big hug. God I love him, he's so cute and the only one who knows what I've been through. Well, almost the only one. I release him when he suddenly whispers in my ear.
"He's here."
Sure enough, about three minutes later, I hear someone breathing from a small distance from us. I turn around just in time to see Sam emerge from the trees. He's a little out of breath, which is surprising since he doesn't get tired so easily.
Making sure that no one has woken up from the house; both Ari and I fly up to my balcony, while Sam just jumps. Once inside my room we look at each other and break into huge grins. Within seconds we are all laughing and celebrating our successful mission.
Now let me just explain a little. Our 'family' decided we were moving to California because dad has decided it was time for us to start a new life. And yes, we call Mr. and Mrs. Whitley our parents. So before we left, since the three of us had found another Itex building nearby, we decided to finish it off and set all the other experiments free. So Sam "borrowed" one of his dad's bombs from work. Ari and I knocked some guys out before we broke in and set the timer for the bomb. Now that was pretty dumb considering it gave us a limited amount of time. Of course, like with any other mission, we tried to get as many information as we could from each building we visited. So for the past year since we met, we have trailed nine of the bad guys and taken them out. Sam turned out to be an awesome guy and my best friend. And now the three of us are inseparable, except now Ari and I are moving. You might be wondering, why is Sam involving himself with the School? Well, the answer is simple, he's one of us. I'm pretty sure the fact that he jumped off a building without breaking any bones and jumping on to the balcony was a dead giveaway. He's a feline, or more like a white tiger. He used to have some sort of heart disease (long QT), so his dad, in a desperate attempt to save his life sent him to a genetics lab. Crazy, I know, but the good thing is that the new DNA he has, saved his life. The bad news, now the whitecoats are after him too. He knows what being tested on feels like; he escaped The School from Britain and moved in here to cold, freezing Seattle with his father. With no mother that is, because she died when he was just twelve. This is another way we both understand each other.
After our laughter died out and we started gasping for air, the three of us throw ourselves onto my bed. Smiling at each other with the stupidest grins ever.
"That was probably the most destruction we've ever made to any building!"Sam whispers to us. In case the adults wake up to check what all the noise is about.
I silently nod my head before getting up.
"We can finish celebrating this later, now let's just report on everything that we have gathered." I say.
Sam quickly goes toward where he dropped his backpack and unzips it. Ari and I follow his actions and then we all sit on my floor criss-cross style. Sam goes first and he pulls out a folder containing pictures of other experiments. A few pictures show some sort of reptile kids, some that seem to be inside tanks and there's one where a girl is inside a cage. I shudder at the memory of being inside a small, compressed cage. And let me tell you, it's not pretty at all.
"This is sick" Sam breathes out as he turns the picture over. On the back of each picture are some notes. Such as: has difficulty seeing. Can stay underwater for ten minutes. And also, a complete failure must be terminated.
We all shudder at the last one. This last experiment was killed and if we had come sooner, she might have been saved.
Ari shows us his information but it's not really that useful to us. Just contains notes on how the brain system works.
I can tell Ari feels sad about this, so I reach out and ruffle his hair a little. He looks at me and smiles, his adorable dimple on full display.
Now it's my turn. I take out the folder and place it between us. Both boys suck in a breath as they read the label.
Human Avian-Hybrids
I open the folder and look at the first page laying there. The paper looks like a letter to someone and says something like this: Experiment 1566, 2043, 7889, 7887, 6545, and 1598 still not found. Five of the experiments are thought to be somewhere near California, the last one is yet to be verified. Three boys and three girls. Experiment 6545 escaped two years ago. Two of these already have their wings the others don't. Experiment 1598 escaped with a lupine-hybrid. Ages: three are near sixteen, two are nearly fourteen, and one is eight. All and each one must be found and returned alive.
The folder contains more information, but I don't finish reading it. There are more people like me and they don't know this except one. But also two other things go through my mind.
We're moving to California. Which is where the others are thought to be. And maybe Ari and I can look for them. But there's a problem.
If they know where they are located they will capture them. So we are going to have to work fast if we want to get to them first.
I look at Sam, and he seems to be thinking the same thing.
"Our new mission will be to find these people" Sam tells us. We nod our heads. Then Ari speaks up, "but how are we going to do this if you aren't going to be with us?"
An idea comes to me. "We can Skype, or call each other or meet once every two weeks" I propose.
Sam nods, "That could work. We just need to keep each other informed when we stumble onto something. So are we in this?"
The three of us smile at each other and nod our heads.
Our new mission: find the other human avians before the Whitecoats.
Ha! I bet you guys didn't see Sam to come out like this! Again, I'm soooo sorry! I'll try updating once a week, until I get settled. Please tell me what you think! :D
