Hiiii! I feel so happy! I've gotten to chapter twenty (which I think is downright amazing), finally get to write about Mouse, and I got an A- on my Narnia paper! I don't have to do the second one if did well on the midterm. Hotdog and hooray! Anyway, while this chapter is short (mainly compared to the others) it has a very important star. I hope you like her.

After Armageddon

Chapter Twenty: The Monster School

Mouse

My very worst fear is that I will forget what the sun feels like on my skin.

My earliest memories are filled with dimly lit cells and the smell of antiseptic. I remember catching a glimpse of the brilliant outside world once when I was small, with the sun shining down brightly on the green of the grass while a flame chested Robin sang boldly and the soft wind blew the perfume of the many, vibrantly colored flowers off to far places that I had only heard stories about. That is my most treasured memory.

As well as my most bitterest.

That was the day they took my brother away. I saw that mythical outside world only because the physicians that studied us were transferring him to a different School. I remember I was crying and we were both screaming. He promised he'd come get me.

So I waited.

And waited.

And I'm still waiting.

I don't doubt he'll come for me. But I still worry about him. There are a thousand and one reasons why it's taken him almost ten years to come and get me. He's trapped in one School or another; unable to escape the doctor's sadistic tests like me. Or he's lost somewhere in the world I dream about, not sure where the doctor's have hidden me.

Or he's dead.

I try not to think about that one. He will come for me. He will. He promised.

A clamorous clang startled me out of my doze, taking all beautiful dreams of grass and robins away instantly. Metal bars hindered my view, but unfortunately I could still see the blurred shapes of more occupied cages in front of me and to each side. The gloom in the room wasn't caused by the single light bulb, which swung erratically from side to side like it always did when someone slammed the door to hard, but by the poor, pitiful, children, including me, who were trapped in the Director's School. Some had given up all hopes of freedom. Some still foolishly think they could get away. Most were in pain. All of us still longed, no matter how stupid we thought the longing was, for the freedom of the outside world.

Thick footsteps echoed up the hall from the door to the accompaniment of squeaking cart wheels. I pressed my face closer to the bars of my cage, trying to see who they were bringing back. I fervently hoped it wasn't an empty cage on that squeaky cart. That meant that they were going to take someone away.

But no, a large ball of brown and black fur about the size of your average house cat huddled in the cage. I heaved a sigh of relief. Ricky was back.

The assistant pushing the annoying cart stopped and heaved Ricky's cage into the empty space in front of me. It settled with a sharp clang. Without a backward glance at any of us, the assistant took his cart and left.

After the last echoes of the large metal door slammed shut again, Ricky lifted his rounded triangular head and blinked lazily at his new surroundings. He yawned, showing off his large, white teeth and stretched his padded front paws out as far as he could in the confined space. Then with a soft ripping sound, almost like cloth beginning to tear, Ricky traded his feline skin for his human one.

"How's it going Mouse?" He asked me in a rumbling voice that still sounded entirely cat-like, even though he now looked like the sixteen year old boy he actually was. I always had thought it strange that out of all of us here in this horrible place, Ricky was the only one who knew his age for true.

"Kitty!"

Ricky's small, furry, brown cat ears, which he kept whether he was in his cat skin or his human skin along with the spotted tail that grew from the base of his spine, rotated toward the high pitched voice.

I knew the voice too. Lola, probably the youngest experiment in our room, was always happy to see her 'kitty'. Actually she was always happy, which surprised me given she had grown up here like the rest of us.

I turned awkwardly in my confinement and gave Lola what smile I could manage. She looked at me with that big smile and wide eyes of hers and pointed through the bars of her cage. "Looky Mouse, Kitty!" She told me.

"Yep, Kitty's back." I said.

Lola's twin brother, Liam, sat against the back of the cage he shared with his exuberant sister. Her complete opposite in almost every way, Liam was looking at Ricky with his usual unblinking gaze.

"Do you feel any better Liam?" I worried over him.

Slowly his gaze shifted over to me, big brown eyes staring. Then just as slowly he blinked and nodded.

"That's good." I answered him. I hadn't expected him to say anything; Liam never speaks. Ever since they moved him and Lola in here with the rest of us two years ago I have never heard him utter a single syllable.

"Did Kitty play any games?" Lola asked with her face pressed up against her bars. She still didn't quite yet realize that the tests we were put through weren't games for fun.

Ricky's smile was somewhat grim I thought, but Lola at least was too small to notice. "Yeah, they put me in the races." He told her. "I had to run really, really fast." He told her.

"Did you win?" She asked him curiously.

Ricky smiled at her. "Yep," He said as he put his hands behind his head and leaned back against the back of his cage. "I was first to finish and I won a nap."

Lola stuck her tongue out. She hated naps.

Ricky yawned, looking more like a cat then a boy. "And I think I'll take my prize now. Goodnight guys." He told us. Then there was the sound like cloth ripping again and a Bornean Clouded Leopard sat in the spot Ricky had stood in. He turned three times before curling into a tight ball. He draped his furry tail over his small nose and then closed his eyes, giving the complete appearance of sleep good enough that I had no idea if he was faking so we would stop talking to him.

I sighed. Ricky really was a cat through and through. Aloof, strange, sometimes too preoccupied with dangling strings to notice any danger. He liked to be alone too, even though there wasn't anywhere we could have privacy.

Lola turned to her brother seeing that Kitty had grown whiskers again and wouldn't be talking to us for awhile. I leaned back against the back of my crate, suddenly feeing very tired. There isn't much to do around here (for us anyway) so the day was filled with alternating periods of absolute terror and downright boredom. This was one of those days that just oozed boredom. Lately the doctors who were usually in charge of me were all busy with something else. I don't know what.

But whatever they were doing it meant that I had to sit here for hours and hours and hours.

Really I shouldn't complain. Every day they forget about me is one more day I don't have to feel sick. But the quiet in here gnaws at you're mind after awhile. Occasionally it's broken with cries of fear and whimpers. You never get used to the endless stretch of silence with its muted cries and pleas for mercy.

I don't know how long it was before the door opened again. I'm not very good at telling time even when I can see a clock, but I don't think we were sitting there for too long. Ricky's tail was beginning to twitch, meaning he was awake, and Lola and Liam had there hands out in front of them. I think Lola was trying to teach her brother a game she had made up to pass the time.

We all looked up when he heard the squeaky wheels. Ricky's fur rose on end and Liam squeezed himself toward the back of his cage. Unlike his sister, Liam hated and feared this place as much as anyone else in here. I think they put him through different tests them Lola, but for what I don't know.

All of us waited, wondering where the cart was going to stop. I heard small sighs of relief as the cart passed by. They were glad it wasn't their turn.

It turned out to be mine.

The squeaks stopped and the side of the metal cart filled half my view.

I held tight to the sides of my cage, ready for the jarring bash as the intern slammed my cage down onto the cart. I hit my head on the top of the cage, but I was glad that I didn't chip my teeth on the front bars again. That had hurt.

Soon enough my head stopped aching, but as the intern wheeled me out the door I realized that one of those terror filled periods was starting. I guess whatever my doctors were working on was complete. It was my turn again.

*******

I'm not sure how much later it was when I woke up in my cage again although I'm leaning towards a few days then just a few hours. The last concrete thing I remembered was being strapped to a long metal table, a single bright over head light shining fiercely in my eyes. Black silhouettes of men in surgical masks leaned over me, one holding an oxygen mask that breathed out a sleepy smelling gas, the other holding a wicked looking little scalpel. There were a few blurry images in between then and now, but they feel more like dreams. They look really blurry and the only thing I remember for sure about them is that I was scared.

But then again that is not too very different from usual.

I tried to sit up, but it was slow going. My head throbbed like it was going to split open and the room spun madly. My stomach flopped over sickly and I pushed down the nauseas feeling that crept up on me. I leaned wearily against the back of my cage and closed my eyes to sit out this horrid feeling.

When I was able to open my eyes again, I saw two very surprised and unrecognized faces staring at me.

"Oh my gosh," The girl whispered to the boy. "She looks just like him." The boy just nodded.

I peered at them, holding my head to keep it together. The interns must have put me in the wrong room. It wasn't the first time. I mean, one room full of caged mutant children is roughly the same as another. But usually people wouldn't stare at my like this. I was just another skinny little girl, although my hair, which is white, usually does attract a very little attention, but not the staring kind. But these two, a girl with yellow brown hair and blue eyes and a boy with dark, dark hair and eyes, stared at me, unashamedly, like they were sure I was someone else but couldn't quite tell.

"Can I help you?" I asked irritated. My voice was rough and hoarse so some of the affect was lost because I sounded too much like a frog.

They didn't answer, but they didn't look away either. I noticed the girl was beginning to cry.

Then the boy shook his head clear. "Sorry, you're, uh, you're Rebecca right?" He asked sounded not just unsure but unnerved as well.

Now it was my turn to stare. How in the world did he know that name? I've been Mouse for almost as long as I can remember. Even the doctors that are decent enough to call me something other them Subject S call me Mouse, even though I'm sure that my given name is listed somewhere on those charts they always carry around. The only one who ever called me by my name was my brother, but as I've already said, they took him away a long, long time ago.

My tired heart sped up. Did these two know Aaron? Was he finally coming to get me?

I swallowed, also wondering if this was some new kind of test the Director was giving out. Warily, I asked them. "Who are you?"

The boy leaned forward in his cage, looking excited like he had finally found what he had been looking for a long time. Who knows, maybe he had.

"My name's Charlie and this is Lie-"

The slamming open of a door cut him off. All three of us looked up sharply.

A very irritated looking intern came swooping down the aisle between the cages, another man in a janitor's dark blue jumpsuit walked more slowly behind him, pushing a cart.

"I work with idiots." The intern mumbled paying no real attention to any of us as he forcefully grabbed my cage and almost threw me on the top of the cart. "This is the third time they've goofed in the past two weeks. And who gets blamed for their mistakes? Me. That's who. Me. Who has to answer to the Director when she finds out what they did? Me. If they do something like this again I'll hang 'em by their thumbs the nitwits. Well come on let's go." This last bit he said to the man pushing the cart I suddenly found myself on. With an almost languid gate, he followed the grumbling intern.

The intern hadn't put me right side up when he slammed me onto the cart, so I was sitting kind of upside down and sideways as I was wheeled away. From my new, awkward, position I got a final glimpse of the two strangers, Charlie and Lie-something. They were staring at me worriedly, like they were afraid they weren't going to see me again.

But then Charlie got a determined look in his dark eyes. I've come to know that look much better now; it means come Hell or high water he will do what he's put his mind too. But back then I wasn't so good at interpreting his expressions and all I really understood were the words he mouthed at me.

"Don't worry." He silently said. "We'll find you."

And then the door slammed shut between us.

At least we meet Rebecca. I hope you enjoyed chapter twenty and look forward to the next chapter. Now review please. See you later!