A/N: I'm on a roll. I can't believe I haven't gone brain-dead yet, since it happens often. Anyway, chapter three! Whoot! Oh, and here's Python with the disclaimer. (Also, Tally will be introduced in this chapter.)
Python: Flame-Taw doesn't own any Maximum Ride characters or ideas, only her own.
Me: Short, sweet, and to the point. Moving on!
Like I should have been, I moved towards where the kids were being held. There was no one guarding, as I had thought, but what did tell me that it was there room was a sign on the door that said "Exp. 104230-104235". I looked through the small window. I saw the twins in their cages - there were two empty ones. Then there was another girl who didn't seem to be any different than me. She actually looked surprisingly similar. I ignored her, though - she wasn't who I was here to help. She was asleep anyway and probably wouldn't know the difference.
Slowly, so I didn't startle the two kids, I opened the door. Both of them looked up, looking at me venomously as I entered and closed the door behind me softly. "What do you want?" the girl hissed angrily.
"If you don't want out, I'll just leave," I said, turning to go, but her brother whisper-yelled, "Wait!" I turned back towards them. The girl - a sign on front of her cage said her name was Taw, beneath her serial number - glared at him. She obviously didn't want the help of a Thrasher. "Hey, it's true. I felt sorry for what I did to you guys - you ought to feel loved, since it's not often I bend down to acts of passion. I wanted to help you out, while everyone else is eating dinner." Taw looked at me suspiciously. "It's true," I argued, then to prove it, I opened up Taw's cage with one of my keys that I kept in my pocket, then unlocked her brother's. Luckily, the other experiment didn't waken - it would be hard to explain myself again.
"Why?" the boy - Python? - said curiously, crawling out, slowly followed by his sister. She still seemed not to trust me.
"Because," I said vaguely. "Get going, guys," I said before opening the door. And finding myself face-to-face with one of the other lead Erasers. "Oh, uh, hi, Harley," I said, trying to sound confident. He gave me the same suspicious look as Taw.
"What are you doing with these two, Noah?" he demanded. I glanced at them, hoping my expression said, "Play along."
"My father said to bring them in for testing. I hope you don't mind," I said, glancing at them again, this time sharply. Python flinched back. Man, he was good. "Tell Eric, just in case he asks," I added, moving around Harley, grabbing each of their forearms and steering them away. Taw gave him a worse glare than she gave me. Cool. When we were out of sight of him, I let go. "Now, I need you guys to get out of here. Trust me. I'll create a distraction so that you can get out safely." Python readily accepted, but Taw was more reluctant.
"Prove, any other way, that we can trust you," she snarled. I crossed my arms.
"Because I'm breaking every rule in the freaking book here, I am disobeying a whitecoat, not to mention my own dad, and I was supposed to separate you two forever to see how you escape. That enough?" I demanded. Taw seemed to reconsider, then reluctantly nodded.
"I guess," she muttered. "But wait. How will we know if you've started the distraction or not?" I gave my evil smile - Python shivered.
"Have you ever heard one of the alarms go off here?" I asked. She nodded. "Something along those lines."
Fifteen minutes later, the twins were hidden in an empty hospital room, the halls were empty, other than me, and a plan was running through my head:
1.) Set off alarm.
2.) Mislead Thrashers and Erasers so that kids can escape.
3.) Follow kids, because otherwise I'd be kicked out anyway or killed.
4.) Hit myself repeatedly on the head for being soft and stupid.
5.) Try to stay out of trouble for at least two days after escape.
And all of it was easier said than done.
Hopefully this would be the easiest of all of them, setting off the alarm. Either that, or this is where the trouble would start. Once I was sure that there was no one in the halls still, I went towards the control room. It was just a small room with monitors, that showed cameras in every other room and about every other hallway. Hopefully they didn't see me that one time. Before I was halfway there, though, the alarm started blaring and red lights flashed from the walls, actually coloring them. Nice touch.
All would have been fine if I didn't hear someone over the intercom say, "Two experiment escape. Aided by a Thrasher." Shit! And, there was kind of a no-brainer as to who that Thrasher was. See, there were about a hundred or more Erasers but only fifteen of us, so it's really easy to single us out. I growled to myself and turned on my heel before running like the hounds of hell were on my tail. Actually, in a sense they were, but I'll skip the lame dog jokes for now. Too busy running for my free life, which I'm pretty sure is over now. Darn. And all because of one teeny little act of compasion.
I made a beeline for the door, where I hoped the other two had gotten out of already. I didn't want to be caught, all for nothing, you know? I could hear Erasers behind me, down a few hallways, but gaining fast. "Shit," I swore under my breath, charging out of the door. The trees looked so far away, and the growling and snarling was getting closer and closer to me. The Erasers ran out of the lab when I was three-fourths of the way to the stupid trees. I gulped.
Running through the trees, I became a clutz and tripped over something - probably a freaking rock, knowing me, or even my own feet. Either way, the Erasers had almost closed the distance and I had just fallen flat on my face. Not a very heroic run-away attempt, now is it? Only seconds before they had caught up to me, as I was scrambling to my feet, back to them naturally to run, I heard a thunk. Then two more. "It's just ice, idiots! Break it!" I heard Eric yell. I chanced to turn around, expecting it to be a trick. I wouldn't be overly surprised if it was. What it really was did surprise me, though.
As Eric said, it was a wall of ice separating me from my persuers. But that was only half of it. Projecting this ice wall was a little girl, about eight or nine. She had, like, armadillo armour on her arms, hands, feet, and probably her back, too. Her eyes were a spooky red. Made me think of a rat. "Why are you standing there gawking? You're trying to get away, right? Go," she said as if I were the younger one instead of the other way around. I nodded and ran. I wasn't going to wait for her - my compassionate feelings were at an end from now on, hopefully.
I ran for a good fifteen, twenty minutes until there was a stitch in my side and my breath was coming in short gasps. I sat down, looking back at the lab longingly. Okay, I had deserved all that, sure, since I had broken the rules. But now I was starting to regret it. Starting to. See, my brother and father, the only family I had, lived there, and the only people I considered friends were there too. I've also never been on my own. Sure, I was fifteen, and yeah, I wasn't supposed to be scared, but I was. I didn't know where to go or anything - didn't have any money for food or drink, either. "This is a 10 on the stupidity scale," I muttered, sitting down and putting my head in my hands.
"What is?" I looked up sharply at the armadillo girl who had saved me. She was standing over me, looking curious. I realized that she didn't know who, or what, I was. She showed no fear or worry, and that was something new to me. Even my team and sometimes Eric and Dad were scared of me - it was weird, not being treated that way.
"Nothing," I muttered, looking down again with my arms cross on top of my knees. The girl sat down next to me.
"Who are you and why were you running from the Erasers and the bear things? My name's Tally." She said this all like I was a complete moron and I rolled my eyes. "Sorry, it just doesn't seem like you talk that much and stuff, and I remember some of the other experiments are actually kind of...dumb," she apologized.
"It's okay. I'm N - Flame." I changed to my nickname quickly - my real name would be easier for an Eraser to identify me with if I kept using it. "I, uh, ran away." It was kind of the truth - Tally nodded.
"I ran away too, but a year ago before those bear things really showed up. There was one when I ran away, and he was really mean," she said. Oddly enough, I started to feel better, just because she was scared of me. Or at least, the kid she remembers. Now I felt a small sense of normality. "I came back to help a couple of my friends run away, too. They're twins." My ears perked up. This kid new Taw and Python? Weird.
"Tally?" I heard an amazed voice and jumped up. I easily recognized the tone as Taw. She probably wasn't very happy with me still and I would rather not be around right now. Even though I had been planning to follow them, I hadn't been planning on being chased away and almost leading the Erasers to them. Next second, before I had chance to haul butt out of there, Taw and Python came out of the trees. Taw glared angrily at me. "What are you doing here?" she snarled. I shrugged.
"Running. Trying not to get caught by the Erasers and other Thrashers... Getting away since I'm an outlaw. You can say it any way you want," I answered. Tally also stood and looked up at me curiously. She also had a hint of suspicion in her red eyes.
"What are Thrashers, Flame?" she asked. I didn't want to answer, and she turned to the other two. "What are you talking about, Taw?" she asked. Taw kept glaring at me and Python kind of moved behind his sister for protection.
"Uh, Flame here is one of the Thrashers, or werebears. The leader of them actually. Remember that rude bear kid?" she said. I cleared my throat uncomfortably - Tally nodded enthusiastically. "That's him." Tally suddenly looked terrified. Now that was the appropriate emotion. If only she would keep it. She suddenly went curious again.
"So why were you running?" she asked me. "If you work for them, why were they chasing you?"
"Broke some big rules," I said vaguely, looking at the twins. "And why the hell are you so cranky at me? I managed to get you out of there, didn't I?" I demanded, then muttered under my breath, "But I'd rather take that all back." Python and Taw both had a similar glare now. Tally looked like she was balancing between amazement and anger.
"That's why we don't trust you still. Why don't you just leave us well alone?" Python demanded. He seemed to have gotten braver the last few seconds. I sighed and nodded.
"I guess that's fair enough," I said, bummed. They were probably the only way I could survive in the mountains. "If I'm going to be on my own, I might as well head back to the lab." What I was actually trying to do was give them a guilt trip. I would make sure they could never do the same for me. Tally grabbed my arm as I moved to walk back the way I'd come.
"Don't go, Flame," she said. "You can stay with us, because you're not mean anymore, it looks like. Please?" I gave myself a satisfied smirk, which Taw saw and she rolled her eyes. I nodded.
"Okay," I promised Tally. She grinned.
"Cool! Now we can be a group, and you could be the leader," she said. Wow, that was easy.
A/N: Okay, so all of you know, N - uh, Flame will be on the good side for a little while. (A little while being one or two chapters). Please review. Thanks for all the previous reviews, too, guys!