Venting

It turns out vents are narrower than in movies, but at least I gave the Erasers the slip. Unless of course they were planning something nasty for me but I'd deal with that when it came up. I crawled round yet another corner. My elbows were bruised black and blue and I'd already whacked my head half a dozen times. It turns out tigers were not meant for vents. I groaned as I saw a fan spinning lazily in front of me. That was it; I was getting out of there; besides backing up in a vent is almost impossible.

I looked around, there was a grill to my left but light was filtering through it. I'd just have to risk being caught then; I couldn't stand much longer in the vents anyway. I put my ear to the grill, footsteps, voices, not Eraser though, human, definitely human. I unscrewed the screws, only possible because no one ever thought to cover them from the inside, I'd gotten some quite nasty scratches from some of the others, but this time I was glad of it.

The grill came away and I quietly pulled it into the vent, I could hear the voice more clearly now, someone talking on a cell phone, I recognised the voice and not in a good way, as my hackles rose.

"I don't care how she got away," the voice, a man, snapped. "Just find her." Good, they didn't know where I was. There was a pause then he spoke again.

"Well then, get her out of there. Turn up the fans and blow her out, or something." Okay, maybe they had some idea of where I was.

"Well how was I supposed to know that only works in movies. I'm a geneticist not an air-conditioning repairman."

I dropped out of the vent and landed silently on the tiles, I took one look around the room and realised in horror it was the tank room, the place where they done this to us. I forced myself not to snarl, I wasn't going to give myself away, but if this was the tank room that meant that he was… I took a deep breath for the first time. The room stank of fear, so much fear, how long had they been to this to kids, months, years, decades? It didn't matter, the man who had done this to us was standing right in front of me, it would be so easy to kill him, claw, fang, fist, I could snap him like a twig.

But I had to save Sophie.

"Fine," he barked into his phone. "Just tell me when you get an update on the situation." He snapped the phone shut. "Idiots," he muttered. "Can't they catch one little girl."

I grabbed him, wrenching his arm behind him and sending the phone skittering across the floor, I pinned his other arm to his side and brought my claws to his throat.

"Can you?" I growled. I was so close I could practically taste him, his scent filled my nostrils, I could hear his breathing steady and calm and his heart thudding in his chest. It would be so easy to kill him, but I think he was in charge, he would know where Sophie was.

"Ah," he said slowly. "Kitty, I presume."

"Kit," I corrected menacingly, the Erasers had been calling me that for five days now, and I was sick of it. For a start, I'm a tiger not some kitty cat.

"Ah, you're very much like your sister aren't you?" he asked, his voice still perfectly calm, as if he were the one in control.

"Where is she?" I growled, if he'd laid one hand on her.

"She's dead," he told me simply, heart racing. I dug my claws a little way into his neck.

"No she's not," I said darkly, hearing his heart race. "You're lying. Where is she?"

"Very sharp aren't you my dear." I growled. I'll just assume he wasn't talking about the claws. "We don't know where she is. She's gone to ground; we don't have a lead or a trail." There was definitely a lie in there somewhere but I didn't know where. I'd just have to be wary.

"If you've hurt her…" I began, leaving the rest to his imagination. I would have made a cut throat gesture but that would have involved him dying, horribly. Maybe later.

"She was fine last time I saw her. But what about you? Chest pains, trouble breathing, shooting pain in your limbs?"

"Why the sudden interest in my health," I snarled. "You should really be interested in your health."

"Ah, threats," he said with a slight sigh. "Have we really come to that?" I twisted his arm further behind his back. "So we have. Can I assume from this the rewriting process was a success?"

"I am not just some experiment," I said growling.

"My dear," he said loftily. "You are the experiment. One of the first recoded, and I see you have been enjoying your gift."

"Enjoying," I said, my voice shaking. "Enjoying! I have been on the run for the last five days, you took me and Sophie away from our family, I have blood on my claws, I have been sleeping in a ditch and I have been discovering the joys of eating raw rabbit. Tell me which part I should be enjoying." I was snarling with rage at this point, my claws tightening around his throat and pulling his arm further behind his back. I was enjoying that at least.

"Maybe you should be enjoying experiencing something no other human has ever experienced," he suggested, as if this was obvious. My snarl deepened and I pulled harder on his arm, something snapped and suddenly it went limp, he hissed in pain but stayed standing; having claws pressed against your neck keeps you upright.

"Of course," he said raggedly, after a moments pause. "You're not really human any more, are you?"

"I'm still human," I said coldly. That was too far, he was the one that did this to me. Him! He was the monster not me.

"Really my dear. The blood running down my shirt; my almost certainly broken arm; the monster snarling at my back; all say otherwise."

"Are you trying to make me kill you?" I asked slowly, trying to keep my calm. It wasn't like I needed any help killing him anyway.

"No my dear. I'm just trying to keep you talking."

My eyes widened suddenly as I realised what he'd done. The door behind me banged open and the White Coat rammed his head into mine as I tried to slice his throat so I only caught a few layers of skin. I dropped him and whirled, the bastard had pressed a silent alarm. He crumpled to the ground behind me, but I was focused on the Eraser sanding in the door with a long barrelled rifle.

I bared my fangs at him; one of us would have to move first, the gun was pointed at the ground. Maybe I could reach him in time, if I moved first, well no time for second guessing. I charged at him, he was too close to bother going on all fours so I just ran. His eyes widened in shock; that's one thing, the Erasers never expect to be attacked, and he tried to bring the gun up in time. He failed and I crashed into him as he was still raising the gun and tore at his chest with my claws. The gun went off and something bit into my leg, I snarled but kept fighting, hitting open handed across the face.

He fell to the floor with a thud and I stood unsteadily above him facing a corridor full of Erasers, all with guns. I groaned internally, not a snowball's chance in hell. I charged at the closest, well I always planed to go down fighting, something roared and a dart embedded itself in my shoulder. I staggered but kept running, crashing into him rather than pouncing and knocked him to the floor through sheer momentum.

My head swam, I had such a headache. What was I doing again? There was an Eraser beneath me, I blinked and suddenly there were two swimming around each other. I batted at one of them but my claws caught air. The images reached up and abruptly something smashed into the side of my head. I collapsed and lay on the floor. I was sure there was something I was supposed to do, but I was so tired, I couldn't remember.

I closed my eyes, just a little nap, what harm could it do?