DRIFT
It was an average
Friday afternoon; high school students had flooded out of school and
headed for the local mall, River Cross to hang out. It has never been
scientifically proven as to why... teens are attracted to the mall on
Fridays ….that's just the way it is.
Secret eyes were
watching a young girl yakking with her friends on an escalator. The
eyes belonged to a young man slightly older than her sporting a black
hoody, a pair of grey jeans and a pair of shades. The girl had long
shining blonde hair with pink streaks and wore classic teenage girl
attire, overly tight jeans and clingy shirt that says 'Cutie' on it.
The young man casually made his way to the escalator and then
quickened his pace to follow the group of chattering girls on the
second floor. The group had entered a girl's clothing store, which
was the epitome of everything feminine. But that didn't stop the
young man, for he was on a mission in which there was no room for
error. He felt a little unsure of himself walking through the racks
of mini skirts, short shorts, boot cut jeans, and so on. The young
man smoothly moved through the racks and pretended to be looking for
something and hoped that no one thought he was a pervert. He quickly
picked up the first thing that didn't look too scandals, a blue
t-shirt with a kitty cat on its front. The young man pretended to
stare it with great interest, while watching the blonde out of the
corner of his eye.
"Sir, Can I help?" a store assistant
asked. It was creepy how they were able to sneak up on you. This was
not good, he had to focus on the blonde girl and this little spring
chicken was in his way. Fortunately for him, his target was heading
his way.
He smiled slightly and turned to the assistant "I
don't think you can. You see my girlfriend's birthday is coming
up and I am trying to get her something special."
"Awww…that's
so sweet," the assistant cooed "I wished my boyfriend would do
that for me."
"Well perhaps he doesn't deserve you…I must
say you appear quite charming."
"Oh thank you."
The
young man chuckled "So um…got any suggestions?" he asked. While
the assistant thought the young man's maze shifted back to the
blonde. She was very close this was his opportunity...
He picked up the kitty
cat shirt and asked the assistant "What do you think?"
She
eyed it expertly and pursed her lips. "I think you are on the right
track." The young man turned to the blonde near by and asked "What
do you think?' he asked.
The blonde giggled "You're asking
my opinion?"
"Well of course you are a human-I mean a girl
aren't you."
The blonde frowned suddenly but managed to put
on a quick smile. " I think she'll adore it…please excuse me,"
she said pushing passed the young man and the assistant. The young
man turned to the assistant "Thanks for your help I think I have
some ideas now." The girl nodded and moved on. He instantly put the
t-shirt back and left the store. He spotted the blonde moving at a
brisk pace.
"That guy…could he be…one of them?" She
thought herself. The blonde shook the thought, it gave her chills.
She tossed a quick glance over her shoulder and saw no sign of the
young man in black. The girl began to relax when someone grabbed her
arm.
"Don't make this harder than it needs to be," the
young man whispered in her ear. "Now walk." Terror flooded the
girl's mind and she obeyed and they made their way to the
escalator.
"How did you find me?"
"I have my
methods…keep walking…please don't make a scene."
"Oh
I'll make a scene alright," the girl muttered dangerously. She
grabbed the young man's wrist and it began to sizzle. He cried out
and recoiled. Once freed from his grip she bolted for the exit. "Oh
no you don't," the young man muttered running after her. Suddenly
the girl's hands turned into two fiery fists and she hurled fire
balls back at her pursuer. People began to scream as fire balls set
fire to everything they touched. "She's making a scene…I'll
need back up." He pulled a cell phone out of his pocket and hit
speed dial.
"Hello?" A lethargic voice answered.
"Raf,
she's running out to the parking lot stop her! Stop her NOW!"
"What do you mean by "stop"."
"You know stop her
…what else is there to it?"
"Well there is "stop her"
in terms of killing her, "stop her", as in stun and—."
"You
know which one I am talking about…So get moving!"
"Roger."
He shoved the cell phone into his pocket and bolted through the doors
into the parking lot. His eyes scanned the parking lot.
"Where
is she?" he thought. Suddenly he saw a small explosion sending a
couple of cars into the air. "There she blows," he muttered. The
young man found the blonde hurling fire at another assailant who had
retreated behind some cars. The young man hurled himself at her and
they both tumbled onto the ground. She screamed angrily and tried to
burn him like she had done in the mall, but couldn't get a firm
grip.
The young man punched her several times "That is for my
wrist, wench."
"Your wrist is not the only thing I am going
to torch!" the girl snarled slugging him in the jaw. The two
continued to fight and wrestle each other on the ground.
"Get
out of the way!" a voice shouted. The young man immediately jumped
away from the girl as a small car hit her, sending her flying across
the parking lot. He ran with unnatural speed and was able to catch
her before she hit the ground. A black Volkswagen GTI rolled slowly
toward him then stopped and the driver stuck his head out. He looked
just as old as the young man except he had dark thick hair littered
with jet black feathers. The young man looked up at the dark haired
driver.
"This is your way of "stopping her"? He asked
raising an eyebrow.
The driver yawned, "What did you expect me
to do she was throwing freakin' fireballs at me."
"I guess
that is cause to use our car as a weapon."
"Is she alive?"
The young man checked for a pulse, "Yep…you hit her just right."
He said with a smiled. The driver smiled sheepishly back at him….
I placed the darling
blonde pyromaniac in the trunk of the car. It was a tight fit and she
would most likely have a back ache…but hey that isn't really my
problem. If you asked me she deserved it for giving me a hard time.
My name is Purple Cat or PC for short…I'm experiment tracker. The
stupid driver is my associate / partner, Rafmire or Raf for short. We
both had our differences and disagreements but there was one thing
that we had in common, we were scum of the earth...and we were good
at it. It had been three long years since I was forced into
involuntary servitude. I still hate it, but on a milder level and I
still hate my employer too. But that doesn't matter right now. What
Raf and I had to worry about was getting this girl back "home"
without bringing a parade of cops along with us.
I checked the
girl's bonds before I slammed the trunk closed and proceeded to the
passenger side of the car, checking for security all the while. Raf
sat in the driver's seat reading a magazine with his feet up on the
steering wheel. He wore black just like me only he didn't wear
shades like I did. The reason for the shades is simply this. If
someone comes up to you with blood red cat eyes would talk to them?
Or hold up a cross and sprinkle them with holy water. Need I say
more? Raf put his magazine down and took his black converse off the
wheel.
"You ready to go?" He asked. I reached for the glove
compartment and pulled out a bottle of water. Next I rolled down the
window and poured the water on my scorched wrist.
"Yeah, We'll
go." I finally said.
"Did she burn you really bad?"
"No…I'll be fine."
"Gotcha." Suddenly my cell
phone rang making us both jump. We looked at each other. "You goin'
to answer it?" Raf asked.
"No, Are you?"
"No."
"Well someone has to answer it."
"Okay, well why don't
you, Raf, because it was your idea."
"No way,"
"Fine
we will flip for it." Suddenly the phone stopped ringing. We both
sighed and then it started ringing again and we both jumped a second
time. Raf pulled a quarter out of his pocket.
"You call it,"
he said. I nodded, Raf flipped it.
"Heads!" I said.
Raf
held up the quarter "Tails." I muttered a curse word or two and
picked up the phone. "Hello?"
"Hello, Seth."
"Hi."
"Did you capture, Blaze?"
"Yeah, we've got her."
"That's excellent…excellent…head home."
"Right,"
I said flatly and then hung up.
"So what did he say?"
"We're
heading home."
Raf nodded "Right," he said flatly. He put
the keys in the ignition and we were off…..
"Are we there yet?"
I asked my feet propped up on the dashboard.
"You know the
answer to that PC there is no point in me repeating it," Raf
replied casually clinking his claws on the steering wheel. Raf didn't
have normal hands, the tops of them were covered in coal colored
feathers and the skin in that area was grey. His fingernails were
replaced with thick black talons. He could do basic things with his
hands quite well but he had trouble handling a fork. I stared out of
the tainted windows and watched the trees one by one go by. It had
taken us three days to track Blaze, she wasn't our toughest case,
but I have to commend her for putting up a fight.
"How long do
you think she'll stay out?" Raf asked.
I looked back at the
trunk, "I don't know. It'll all depend on how hard you hit
her."
He sighed "I hate this."
"Join the club," I
said.
Raf chuckled "Perhaps we should start a club…we could
make nifty t-shirts, mugs, key chains,…Oh and my personal favorite
felt-tip pens." I smiled but said nothing. We drove for another two
hours when we heard some unwanted movement coming from the trunk. Raf
immediately pulled over.
"What do we do? If she lights up,
we're in trouble."
" I know," I said unbuckling my seat
belt and jumping into the backseats. My feet stuck up in the air as I
searched under the seats, which were flooded with take out boxes,
foam cups and those cute little plastic toys that you get with kids
meals…we can never get enough of those.
"Raf, where are the
tranquilizers?"
"I—tell you…once you-get-your-foot-out
-of- MY-FACE!"
"Oh sorry…So where are they?"
"Check
under the cups."
"Which one?" "The Starbucks one! Hurry
up PC, I smell something burning!" This wasn't good. We always
kept a box of tranquilizers to calm down the targets. But there was
none to be found, until I spotted a little white box. I grabbed it
and sure enough there was a lone syringe sitting inside.
"Got
one!" I said. Raf and I stumbled out of the car and hurried to the
trunk. I could hear Blaze's muffled screams…it was a good thing I
taped her mouth shut.
"Alright when I open this hold her still,
got it."
"Gotcha." I nodded and popped the trunk. Some
smoke trailed out and then we saw Blaze thrashing around inside. Raf
reached in and tried to hold her down, but she was fighting him.
Frustrated with her, he dug his claws into the upper part of her
arms, Blaze shrieked in pain, tears running down her cheeks.
"Don't
make this harder than it needs to be," he said in a very soothing
voice. Blaze stopped thrashing and sat still. "Listen to me. We are
going to tranquilize you…so you won't give us any trouble."
Blaze started to wiggle a bit. Raf dug his claws even deeper and
crimson ribbons of blood trailed down her arms. " Hush now. The
stuff we are giving you will put you out for only a while. Its not
the stuff that the School uses so you won't have to worry about
pain or being completely disoriented." Raf explained in the same
calm voice, never changing his tone once. While he talked to her I
slipped the needle into her lower arm. "The next town is about an
hour or two from here. If you're good, We'll feed you.
Understand?" She nodded and then fell back unconscious. Raf wrapped
Blaze's gash wounds and then I slammed the trunk closed. I sighed
and leaned against the car staring up at the fading light in the sky,
then looked over at Raf who was cleaning the blood off his claws.
"That was quick…usually we can't keep them IN the trunk." He
commented.
I smiled grimly, " Let's go…"
What Rafmire said to
Blaze was true. The next town was only about an hour or two away.
This town was called Littleton, a was a small cheerful looking place
out in the middle of nowhere...which is ideal for people like us. We
stopped at a diner and gorged on the entire menu. I kept looking
outside at our car, just in case Blaze woke up and decided to get
bold.
"Do you ever wonder...," Raf said absent mindedly
eating French fries.
"Wonder what?" I asked sipping
taking a sip from my milkshake.
He nodded towards the car, "What
they think of us?"
I snorted, "I stopped thinking like
that a long time ago, Raf...They are entitled to their opinions but
the fact remains we are what we are."
Raf smiled, "Where
did you get that crap? Out of Reader's Digest?"
"Nope
I made that up just now...but no one else needs to know that." I
grinned. Raf chuckled and continued eating.
I looked back out the
window at the car and then pushed the check towards Raf,"Why
don't you take care of this buddy. I'm going to get Blaze some food."
"How about you pay and I go wait out by the car," he
replied holding up one of his clawed hands.
"Alright you do
that." Rafmire got up and left the diner and I paid for out
small feast and bought some food for Blaze and headed out. The night
was its typical shade of red through my eyes. When Jeb discovered
that I suffered from night blindness he and his league of merry
Whitecoats decided to fix it. Although it didn't turn out quite how
they hoped. I can see better than I had before...so I guess it was a
perk. I tossed the food in the car and we drove several miles out of
town, so we wouldn't rouse any suspicion….
She glared at us
angrily, but didn't scream.
"Hey we got you some food. Are you
hungry?" I asked offering her the food. I slight glimpse of
hunger leap across her fine features, but then she concealed it with
a defiant scowl.
"Come on you've been in here for almost 5
hours."
"I don't want anything from you two...you
disgust me," she replied sticking up her chin." I didn't
like her attitude it was bad enough that she was PYRO. On the list of
things I hate PYROS are near the top along with teleopaths. They like
to burn crap! Mainly people they don't like. Anyway enough ranting.
"Oh, did you hear that Raf, we disgust her." I said.
Raf
shook his head "That's to bad...oh well, I guess you must be
really eager to starve for days on end and get feed through a tube."
Blaze's hunger showed again.
"Last time...little pyro, take
it or leave it," I said waving the bag in front of her.
Blaze
sighed, " Fine, but how am I supposed to eat when my hands are
tied?"
"We'll feed you," I smiled.
"Raf,
if you will be so kind as to sit this young lady up." Raf sat
her up with little effort and I ripped off pieces of the burger I got
for her and fed them to her, which didn't take long. After she was
finished eating Raf laid her back down.
"Why are you doing
this?" she asked with a knot in her throat.
"That's
simple, because we were ordered to do it," I said calmly.
"So
you do anything THEY say?"
"It more complicated than that."
"What are they going t-" I placed another strip of tape
over her mouth.
"I don't know," I said coldly and then
slammed the trunk door down. I heard her muffled screams start again
and sighed. Blaze's screams were like invisible blades cutting into
my conscious. I plugged my ears and got back into the car. Raf was
already waiting inside, his claws clicking on the steering wheel.
"How much farther?" I asked, neglecting to notice my voice
shaking.
"We will be there in a couple more hours," he
replied.
"Well let's move it."…..
We made it 'home'
around three o' clock in the morning and for once I was relieved
because, Blaze hadn't stopped screaming since we left Littleton.
Lab 7 was our home still but it got a major upgrade. It was bigger,
had more security and a lot more. Jeb would sometimes visit and check
on our progress. But we usually got our assignments from Dr. Risa,
the new head of Lab 7. Dr. Rancor as it turned out died in an
unfortunate accident while on vacation…Hey, even an evil sadistic
scientist needed a little R&R….
However Dr. Risa was no
Mother Teresa. She ruled Lab 7 with an iron fist and wouldn't
hesitate to punish us if we weren't obedient.
We parked our car
in the parking deck under the compound; there we were greeted by a
squad of Jawz. Hulking black furred Erasers that didn't have a
human form. They had huge mouths, hence their name, with even larger
oversized teeth that could bite through anything even steel. The Jawz
were also accompanied by two Land Sharks, a fiendish combination of
tiger and shark DNA.
"Give us the target," the one of the
Jawz said spraying flecks of saliva. Do to the size of their teeth
,Jawz couldn't close their mouth all the way so they were
constantly drooling. I opened the trunk and Blaze started screaming
again and started kicking with more fire than she had before. The
lead Jawz reached down and yanked her out. Suddenly Blazes hands
ignited and she punched the Eraser in the stomach, but it didn't
hurt or burn his flesh.
"Nice try girly…but I don't feel
pain." Blaze continued to fight anyway even though it was useless.
She ripped the tape from her lips.
"Traitors!" she shouted at
us. We flinched a little at her accusation. Soon Whitecoats came in
and tranquilized her. We watched as they carried her away. This part
is always the hardest for me even though I had done this for a while
it still bothered me.
"PC, Rafmire," a voice called. A
Whitecoat named, Dr. McKinney approached us. He was one of the new
employees in his mid twenties with intelligent looking little
glasses. "What is it?" I asked.
"Dr. Risa wants to
see you two," he said. "Follow me." We followed the scrawny
doctor down a clean white hallway. We passed many rooms some with
mutants inside them, others were filled with doctors performing
outlandish procedures and then there were the training rooms for
Erasers and Collectors. That is what they called us, Collectors…I
don't really like the term it doesn't sound very cool…like
Eraser.
Dr. Risa's office was well lit and spotless place with
a few plants and a fish tank filled with guppies gave the room have a
more dignified look. However the place still gave me the shivers. Dr.
Risa sat at her desk signing papers with her gnarled old fingers
wrapped around a pen and her snow white hair was tied back in bun.
"I brought PC and Rafmire ma'm," Dr. McKinney announced.
Risa looked up at him with two sharp sapphire eyes which had been
left untouched by time.
"I see that. Be on your way, McKinney,"
she said coldly. He nodded and left the room closing the door behind
him. Dr. Risa sighed heavily and placed her pen down and looked up at
us with what appeared to be a friendly smile. "How are you doing,
boys?"
"Fine," we said in unison.
" Hmph. I am glad
to hear it. Now, let's get down to business. Your next assignment
is to capture and apprehended this experiment," Risa said plopping
two brown envelopes on her desk. We both took one. "He's avoided
us for a very long time…Everything you need to know is in that
folder. He is one of our tougher cases, but I am sure you boys can
handle him."
" How dangerous is he?" Raf asked.
"He's
killed over 15 collectors and many more Erasers. Most of them died
being crushed by large projectiles. The other unfortunate few…I'd
rather not talk about it."
"Charming," Raf remarked
smoothly. "You have 24 hours to recuperate and then I expect you to
be on your way. You are dismissed." She said and then immediately
picked up her pen and continued her work…..
