-Chapter Eleven-
AN: Happy President's Day Americans! Happy Monday everybody else!
I was running through the forest in a hospital gown and a colorful tee-shirt, with a winged mutant infant in my arms and one sneaker on my foot.
It was a rather odd situation, which says a lot coming from me.
My reflexes surprised even me as I ducked and dove in between trees, managing to protect both Angel and myself. She'd actually fallen asleep to the rhythm of my feet padding softly against the pine needles underneath us. I'd gone off in a different direction from the others, trusting their instincts and abilities. Plus, we had different methods of transportation. I could only hope that they got out okay—I would find out later tonight.
Just for shits and giggles, I ran at a tree and tilted my body. It was exhilarating: I began running up the tree, my body perpendicular to the ground. I stuck my foot into the crook created by a branch and the trunk and sprung off, clinging to Angel and doing a back flip.
Her eyes were wide open when we landed gracefully on the ground, but she didn't shed a tear. Instead, she just stared up at me like I was the second coming. I paused, glancing around the quiet woods. All I could hear were soft animal noises—an owl hooting, crickets, a couple frogs croaking, etc.
I pulled out the broach and twisted it. I still didn't know what happened with the communication last time, but I was hoping that it would work now. Depending on it.
"I need help," I whispered into the broach. "This is important. Don't leave me hanging on this one. I just escaped the lab with six mutant children. They've operated on all of us. We're rendezvousing at Lake Mead, and I will check in again next time we move, which will be soon. Please come; I don't know how long I can take care of these kids with Itex chasing us. They have scary tactics for chasing people, like these human-wolf crossbreeds with guns. Seven lives are at stake, excluding however many are still at the lab. There's some scary stuff going on here, and we have proof. We are proof. Itex is experimenting with genetics, and they're experimenting on children. Come now."
Just as I finished my little speech, Angel had started to cry again. She was probably hungry—so was I. I didn't know the first thing about babies, especially babies that had wings. I held her tightly and continued on through the woods.
—
By some miracle of chance, we arrived at the general area of Lake Mead at the same time Max and the others landed. The kids were hyped up on adrenaline, this having been their first flight.
"You're going to love it!" Gazzy gushed to his little sister, who most likely didn't understand a word. We were sitting inside a small cave by the water, lit slightly by the moonlight. For fear of easy detection, we opted out of a fire tonight. It was cool inside of the damp cave, but we were all huddled together and our body warmth was keeping us warm. The kids wrapped their wings around themselves, and I had my tail. We all had each other.
"It's better than dessert," Iggy agreed.
"I don't know," Nudge said. "Dessert's pretty awesome. I've only had it once in my life, when they gave us that chocolate cake? I think they wanted to see how we would digest chocolate but I don't really care, that was one experiment I didn't hate. But yeah, flying is great too. We can do it all the time, right? You won't tie up our wings when we go outside, right Alex?"
"Right," I assured her. "We're going to get really far away from here, and I'm going to try to get some help from my friends, and then you guys can fly as much as you want."
"I want to fly all the time," the Gasman cried. "I want to be a permanent bird. And I want to, like, poop on the whitecoat people's heads. Wouldn't that be so much fun?" He fell over with laughter, and Iggy quickly joined in.
"This one's for my eyesight!" He shouted, making fart-noises with his mouth. I rolled my eyes, but I loved that the kids were, well, kids. It was comforting to discover that growing up in a lab didn't make them a bunch of emotionless drones. They were still just little kids that were capable of laughing and crying and finding humor in fart-jokes.
"Hey Alex?" Max whispered. I turned, and could just barely make her out in the moonlight.
"Yeah?"
"Do you think we should take turns watching out for the Erasers while everybody sleeps? They're probably still looking for us."
"That's a good idea," I told her. "Go to sleep; I'll take first watch."
—
I woke up pleasantly, which was more than I'd hoped for. I think I got a good four hours of sleep before my eyes drifted open. Sun was streaming across the lake and Iggy, Gazzy and Nudge were soaring through the air not too far from our inlet. They laughed as they skimmed the top of the water, brushing their wings against it and occasionally submerging.
Next to me, Angel sat complacently, twiddling her thumbs, and Max was asleep. Fang sat at the mouth of the cave, watching the other three. Max had taken watch after me, and Fang after her. He was still technically on watch.
I got up, scooped up Angel, and went to sit next to Fang.
"How are you holding up?" I asked him.
"Okay," he replied. He was hardly ten-years-old, and though Max looked about fifteen, Fang surely looked his age. His shoulders were scrawny, his face small and sunken, and his hair was long and unkempt. His eyes, though, told a different story. They'd seen a lot, enough to make him seem ancient.
"You can take a rest if you need to," I offered, but he shook his head.
"I don't need a lot of sleep. I'm not even tired."
I nodded, knowing that Fang was too stubborn to argue with.
"What's the plan?" He asked.
"We need to eat," I answered. "So I was thinking you guys could wait here, and I'll try to scavenge up some food. If I can find a couple spare coins lying around I'll call my friends at MI6. Then I'll come back and we can eat, and then take it from there."
"You can go now. I'll have them come in, and we can hide out until you get back. Max will be up any minute now."
"Do you want me to take Angel?"
"No, I think we can take care of her for a little while."
I nodded again, trusting Fang to look after the others. He was small and young, yes, but I knew he was also smart and fierce. He would be able to keep his friends safe. If we didn't get some food in us soon, though, we'd all be goners.
I stood up, getting a head rush but pushing through it and sprinting around the lake. I ran for several miles, my legs shaky from hunger and sore from the night before. I kept going, though, out of sheer will-power.
Finally, I came to a small town. I could see a gas station, but knew that if I walked in as is it would definitely stir up some suspicion. I was going to need clothes. I hung back around the edges of the forest and circled the town. Then, I spotted it: a clothing drive. There were several big trucks parked outside of a grocery store, and a bunch of cars were unloading garbage bags full of clothes. One car in particular, a large SUV, was parked with its open trunk facing me. The person whom I presumed to be the driver was a young woman who was busy flirting with one of the helpers, and a couple of white garbage bags sat readily in her trunk, which was only a couple of yards from me.
Like a bolt of lightning, I zipped over to the truck, grabbed the bag, and zipped back to the safety of the forest. Nobody noticed a thing. I slunk further back into the forest and wrangled the bag open. Luckily, there were several items inside that were my size: a couple t-shirts, a pair of jeans, and even some sandals. I pulled on one of the t-shirts, the jeans, and the sandals before tying the bag up again. My tail fit nicely into the loose pant-leg of my jeans, and luckily the clothes were very average looking. I strolled back out into the parking lot inconspicuously. As I passed the truck, I plopped the bag back into the trunk and kept walking.
A glance behind me showed that nobody was paying any attention to me whatsoever.
I got to the gas station with my stomach feeling as though it weighed a ton. This is where the real work began. I wondered if maybe there was a burnt pizza in the dumpster. I put my hands into my pockets as I considered my options…
And then I realized that there was something inside. I clasped the item and pulled it out, and just like that, I was staring at a fifty-dollar bill.
Somebody was looking out for me. I had a flash of Charlie's face and wondered if I was having a supernatural experience, but quickly shook my head and blamed it on luck.
I walked into the gas station with confidence and bought a couple bags of trail-mix, beef-jerky, chips, protein bars—anything that I could find and that wouldn't cost me the whole fifty dollars. I even got a couple jars of that gross mashed up baby food for Angel—just in case she didn't eat normal food yet. My bill came to $30.25, and as the coins fell into my hands, I spotted a pay-phone.
I put the two quarters in and prepared to dial the number for MI6. I knew it by heart, and I knew that it would be vital to establish a two-way connection with them. But then, a face popped into my mind. It was a face I would never forget, and the face was saying something. It was telling me a number—a number, too, that I would never forget. Before I had a chance to change my mind, my fingers were pounding on the digits.
A familiar voice answered on the second ring. "Hello?"
"Sabina," I breathed into the receiver. "It's Alex. Don't freak out. I need your help."
