Zane's eyes fluttered open. He peered up at the ceiling, no, not at the ceiling, he realized quickly. It was far too close to him for that. He was staring at the roof of a dog crate that he was enclosed in.
As quickly as he could, Zane forced himself to sit up and check his surroundings. Yes, he was in a dog crate, a cramped plastic cage. He could sense many different thoughts around him, most of them a ways away. The smell of disinfectants infiltrated his nose, and Zane winced. Between the cage, the numerous minds surrounding him, and the disinfectant smell, it was clear what had happened.
Zane had been taken to the School.
The urge to simply sit there and start crying was overwhelming, but Zane wouldn't let it get the best of him. He had to be brave. What if his family was here too? What if they'd all been captured? He had to know. The more he knew about his situation, the better off he would be, Zane rationalized.
Peering out between the wires that made up the door of the crate, Zane looked around. He didn't see any of the others, and he didn't sense their minds. Either they were somewhere in a far-off part of the School, or they hadn't been captured. Zane really hoped it was the latter since he couldn't see any of them.
No, he didn't see any of the others, but Zane did see two kids in a cage much like his own. As he locked eyes with them, their thoughts washed over him.
- New boy new boy new new wings and strange new boy -
"Greetings," Zane whispered to them.
The two kids didn't say anything, but their thoughts pushed at Zane's mind.
- Sounds sounds new sounds and new wings and new new boy -
Zane looked more closely at the two kids, both boys as far as he could tell. One of them had a nose and mouth that jutted out from his face, kind of like a dog's snout, and he had bits and tufts of fur in patches all over his skinny body. The other just looked in pain. His hands were crowded with too many fingers, and his feet with too many toes. His head was set squarely in his shoulders without any evidence of a neck, and he hadn't a hair on him, not even eyebrows. Raised scars covered his body. Zane's heart ached at the thought of these two kids, just about his age, alone in the School.
Well. Not alone, worse than alone. They'd had the whitecoats for company.
Speaking of the whitecoats, over the sensation of the two kids' thoughts, Zane could feel two minds coming close to the room he was in. He concentrated, trying to sense what those two minds were thinking, but the kids in the room with him were thinking too loudly.
- Strange new boy strange wings new new new -
The sound of a door opening hit Zane's ears, and he watched as the two kids cringed back from the door to their cage. Their terrified thoughts whirled around and around in Zane's mind, making it hard to think for himself.
- Bad bad mean bad mean bad hurts hurts bad -
Footsteps made their way across the room, and two pairs of legs surrounded by the edges of white lab coats appeared in front of Zane's crate door. The whitecoat on the left leaned down, staring into Zane's crate with a fascination that verged on hunger.
"Oh man, I can't believe it," he breathed. "They actually got it back! Do you know how long I've waited to experiment on this one? The Director's reports on this group of recombinants is just thrilling, and this one in particular is something else entirely. I almost can't believe it!"
"I'm not sure I do believe it," the other whitecoat noted, her voice filled with uncertainty. She leaned down too, peering at Zane, who pressed himself almost unconsciously against the back of the crate. The whitecoat continued dubiously, "You're saying this little boy is Subject Avian-Binary?"
"The one and only," the first whitecoat crowed, leaning forward and unlatching the crate door. "Let's get going, we've got to take it to lab six."
Zane huddled against the back of his cage, but the whitecoat simply reached in and began dragging him out.
As he was picked up and carried out of the room, Zane felt the relief of the two other kids wash over them. They were almost happy it was he who was being taken out, he who was being carried away, he who was going to be experimented on right now. They were happy it wasn't them.
To be honest, Zane couldn't really blame them for being relieved and a little happy. He was being brought to a surely horrible fate, and they weren't. No, he couldn't blame them in the slightest.