Break In

I crouched in the bushes waiting, watching. The lab squatted on the top of a low hill, somehow managing to seem more sinister than Dracula's castle. Most of the windows were dark but I didn't move. I was cold, wet, hungry, and it had been five days since I escaped this nightmare of a place, but I wasn't even going to try and go home until I'd got Sophie out.

Hours crawled past; I didn't move, just waited for it to get dark enough for me to risk breaking in. There were cameras mounted strategically on all the walls, hopefully they didn't have an infrared setting but even so there was a blind spot running right up to the building every two minutes. So I sat, and waited, and watched.

And ran.

I sprinted out of the bushes; I had about ten seconds to cover two hundred yards. I could do it, I could outrun anything on all fours. The cameras were all pointed in the other direction, I just had to run and I'd be safe.

I past the mid point with about four seconds to go, I should have stretched before I'd started, my legs were half asleep. I ran faster, the building was coming up fast but I couldn't slow down, no time. Three seconds, I was going to make it. I had to make it. Two, the wall was rushing towards me but I could see the cameras swinging back around, couldn't stop. One second.

I dug my claws into the turf to stop myself, skidded, spun round once and hit the wall hard. I pressed myself against the side of the building, looking out towards the forest, gasping for breath. No alarms wailed; no Erasers came out to investigate; the cameras whirred as they continued their slow sweep. I relaxed, taking a deep breath; that had been too close. My back yelled at me for crashing it against a wall as the adrenaline filtered its way out of my system. That was so going to hurt in the morning but I couldn't worry about that just then.

I peeled myself from the wall and inched my way along the side of the building, ducking under the windows. After a little while, I finally found a darkened window and suddenly realised I didn't have a clue how I was going to get in. I ran a claw down the window and barely made a scratch, the frame was plastic so maybe I could rip that off, but then again it wasn't double glazed. I growled slightly, this was going to hurt a lot as well, and balled my fist. I checked where the catch was, pulled back my arm and put my hand through the window.

There was the tinkle of broken glass but nothing else, no alarms, no investigating voices; maybe a silent alarm had been set off though, so I had to move quickly. I opened the window wide and stuck my head in, inhaling deeply and looking around for a camera. There was one; nestling in the shadows above a bookshelf but thankfully it was pointed towards the door.

I slipped into the room, wincing as I realised I'd gashed my hand when I'd broken the window, yet another thing I would have to worry about later. I recognised the room as an office almost immediately, computer, desk, bookshelf, not large but home to… I took a deep draught of the scents in the room, a middle aged woman with two kids, who'd hopefully gone home for the night. But first things first, I climbed up the bookcase and sliced the wire coming out the back of the camera with a claw.

Someone would have noticed that, but hopefully they wouldn't send anyone to fix it for a while. There was light spilling out from under the door and I pressed an ear against it. I couldn't hear anything so I cracked open the door and winced as the light seared my eyes; there are some things I like about having night vision and some things I definitely don't.

I was right, the corridor was deserted and just as bad as I remembered it, bare white walls with constant reek of antiseptic. Fiery pits of damnation have nothing on this. I took a step out and froze; there was a familiar scent in the air. I closed my eyes to concentrate better. There; faint, weak, crisscrossed with other scents but there; two, three days ago tops. I would recognise it anywhere, a mix of dirty feathers, Sophie's own personal scent, and fear, lots of fear.

I growled; she must have been terrified for her scent to stick around for that long; I was going to make them pay for what they did to us. The trail ran both ways down the corridor but it had been far to long to be able to tell which way she had gone, so I picked a direction at random, right, and followed it.

After a few minutes I heard the tread of shoes on tiles and then an angry muttering coming straight at me.

"Fix the camera they say," a voice grumbled, echoing down the corridor. "Sure, pick on the new guy. Heavens forbid I could actually get any work around here."

I looked around frantically, picked the nearest door, and pressed my ear against it, listening for half a second and when I couldn't hear anything flinging it open and rushing inside just in time. I leant against the door and breathed a deep sigh of relief as I heard the footsteps pass and then fade into the distance. I looked around the room, some kind of flashy lab, very sleek, very expensive looking; I could probably cost them millions if I smashed this place. I shouldn't though, seeing as I was on a stealth mission.

It was at that point, I spotted the camera looking right at me. I swore, there was no chance in hell they would just mistake me for a lab worker, what with the fur, fangs and tail. I bolted, ripping open the door and dropping onto all fours to run faster. If I could stay away from the cameras they wouldn't know where to send the Erasers and I could still rescue Sophie.

I tore down the corridor; I just had to find one person in a building full of Erasers and then sneak out without being killed. It was still simple; I just had to keep telling myself that. On cue two Erasers rounded the turn at the end of the corridor and looked at me in surprise for about half a second and then charged, one reaching for a radio. I picked him and accelerated, digging my claws into the tiles and launched myself at the Eraser. I caught him in the chest with one paw and with the other caught him right in middle of his forehead and bore him to the ground.

His head hit the tiles with a crack and his partner yelled in surprise. I didn't stop - new plan: find Soph and run for it. I came to a T junction, took a guess as to which way Sophie's scent went and got lucky. I had to find her; I just had to find her. Suddenly the trail stopped and I skidded to a halt, my claws skittering on the tiles and backed up to where I'd lost her. The trail lead through a door, the door to the cage room if I remembered correctly. I swallowed hard; I never wanted to see that place again but Sophie could be right behind that door.

I slipped into the room, the lights were off but that hardly mattered. The cages were empty, just sitting there waiting for their next occupant. They looked even smaller from the outside; had I really spent two weeks in one of those? I snarled, Sophie wasn't here, I wasn't sure if that was a good thing or not, maybe she had escaped on her own? I smashed my fist against one of the cages in frustration, futile but satisfying. She was probably at the other end of the trail and between us there were a whole facility of Erasers.

I sat down in the middle of the room to think, there were cameras in the room but hopefully they couldn't see in the dark, there must have been a reason they kept the lights on twenty-four seven beyond simple cruelty. I didn't have long, they would look in here sooner or later, it was just common sense that I would come back here. I wondered how heavy those cages were. Quite heavy as I found out when I piled them up in front of the door, though that did mean I had to find another way out.

I found another door at the other end of the room but it just lead into a small storeroom but it was what in the storeroom that was important.

"Finally," I said, with deep relief. "Clothes." I could finally get out of the filthy gown they'd put me in, I'd been wearing my favourite T-shirt when they took us as well, maybe that was here. I dug through the vast piles of clothes scattered around the room. Just how many kids had they done this to and how long had they been doing it for? It was staggering. I found my old clothes at the bottom of a huge pile, my not so lucky anymore black T-shirt and jeans and pulled them on gratefully. I found my school backpack in a heap of others and emptied it onto the floor; it wasn't like I'd ever need my school stuff again anyway.

The main door banged against the cages as someone tried to open it. Time to get out of here. I grabbed Sophie's old clothes and some stuff that looked like it might fit me and cast my eyes around the room. There was a grill near the ceiling that I could probably squeeze through and that was probably my best option. I began unscrewing it carefully with a claw, in the other room I heard the cages shift as someone tried to force the door open. I couldn't hurry though.

The third screw dropped to the floor and I moved on to the last one as the cages toppled in the other room, any second now. The screw fell away as the lights flickered on and I ripped the vent off the wall. I pushed my rucksack through the hole and slipped through after it before resting the cover back on the hole. Hopefully they wouldn't look too closely. Then I dragged myself way away from the grill, it would hardly have been a great escape if my tail had given me away.

"She's not in here!" I heard a gravely voice bellow. Perfect, now I just had to find Sophie and get the hell out of there.