Chapter 3:
When we felt mom was not coming back, we were in consolable. We cried and carried on for days, eventually refusing to eat. DeDe tried everything she could think of to get us to eat, calm down, and stop crying, but nothing worked.
Sir, we have a problem. Another one? Yes Sir, the kits won't eat now that red is gone. We need to get her back, for the kit's sake. Is that really necessary? I believe so, we could force feed them, but I don't think that will work very well. All right, play up to her motherly instincts, and see if she will come back. Thank you, Sir. (from the archives of the institute).
After about a 5 days mom came back. But at this point we were to weak to celebrate. Mom scolded us, and made us eat so we would get better.
I noticed she was carrying around two fox plushie's. She would never put them down, just carry, and stroke them constantly. The only time anyone saw her put them down was when she went for a bath. The guards in the building would ask her to show the dolls when she left us. After awhile they stopped asking, because she would just shove them in their faces to prove they were just dolls.
So, life continued as before, white coats would come in poke and prod us all, then take blood and leave. Sometimes they would take us down the hall to a place with the word "LAB" on it. Different types of experiments were conducted in this room. Some hurt, some didn't, but we could all feel distress of the others when things hurt. We also learned to talk with words around them. But by ourselves we had no need of words. How to explain, we had our own form of nonverbal communication. We just spoke in our minds with pictures, and emotions. I'm sure they noticed this, but if asked we would deny it. We just seemed to know what the other one needed, and acted accordingly. There was no fighting, as no one wanted to feel the pain that this caused. Emotions speak louder than words, and hurt a lot more. And we learned, all that they taught us. We soaked up knowledge like sponges, but didn't show this as we felt their animosity towards us. Yes, we could feel the mood of other people, some were happy moods, some were down moods, and some were so dark that at times it just scared us.
By the time of our first birthday, we had also paired up. Susan and I hung out together, Terry and Cindy hung together, Davis and Suzie hung together, and Rick and Ava hung together. But we all still played with each other. We all still slept in one big pile, but our individual pairings (or mates if you will. More on this later) slept next to us. May 25 was our birthday according to DeDe. She gave us all a small piece of carrot cake, I think she came to regret that day, as we had never had sugar before. We were bouncing of the walls for about four hours, and when we crashed, it was hard, DeDe just picked us up where we fell and put us into a big pile in the middle of the bed. What do you call a hybrid hopped up on sugar? Super Hi Brid active. I told you, my story remember?
For another Three months things went along without a hitch, we kept hiding what we could, and showing some progress when we couldn't. Everything changed the night of the big storm and blackout.
Mother was with us when the power flickered, and went out. She knew all the door locks were controlled by electricity, so none of the doors were locked at this moment. I don't know if this was what she was waiting for, but she took the opportunity. She took one of the dolls and put it into the middle of us, and pulled me out. I wanted to cry but she shushed me. She then ran from the room with me, down the hall past the guards and out the door into the storm. I have never been more scared than that night in the storm. I was cold, wet, and when thunder happened, I jumped. I buried my face in mom's chest, and kept my eyes closed, but still saw the flashes of light. Mom held me tight, and I clung as tightly to her as I could. She ran through the forest? going where, I knew not. Eventually she found a log to crawl under, to wait out the storm.
Where's that damn back up generator? Power surge blew the relays, should have them reset in about 30 sec. Generator should come on line at that point. Check on all the test subjects now.
Stan, go check on the hybrids. Roger, checking now.
All test subjects appear to be in a pile in the middle of the bed. DeDe is with them. What the… Sir, we have a problem, one of the hybrids is missing, a doll appears to be in his place.
Which one? J Sir, subject J appears to be missing. Red, appears to be gone too. Find them, damn it, I don't care what it takes just find them. (from the archives of the institute).