Max POV
"Where are you taking those experiments?" the white coat asks. We have names!
"E-4" Jeb coolly answers. The white coat gives him a skeptical stare. "Corbin authorized the transaction."
He looks at us, then back to Jeb. Us, Jeb. He seems to believe Jeb's phony alibi, and walks past us, giving us one last side long glance. Jeb starts to push us down the hall towards a door marked exit. I feel the cart speed up as we get closer to the door. He stops the cart only inches from the door. He goes to open it with a card. He scans the card under a red light and the door beeps and a pressurized lock releases with a hiss of air.
That was too easy. Wasn't it? Apparently not, because no white coats come running at us, no erasers sprint towards us to tear us apart, and no laser beams shoot out from the ceiling to chop us in half.
Jeb pushes us out the door, and cool, fresh air hits my whole body. Oh, that feels so good. I've only been outside a small number of times, but this, this feels like I'm breathing the air for the first time. It feels like freedom. Well, if I weren't in this cage, then! Then, it would feel like freedom!
The door shuts behind us, locking automatically. No alarms are set off.
I see a black suburban in the parking lot, well, I see many. The whole parking lot is full of big black cars. Shouldn't they be white? Well, far be it for me to try to get inside those loony's heads. Jeb heads to a black car on the far side of the lot and opens the back cargo door.
"Okay, we are almost in the clear. I'll let Max out, then she and I will unlatch the rest of the cages," Jeb says, moving to unlock my cage. I jump out, stretch out my legs and arms and give them a good shake, and unlatch Angel's cage. Jeb unlocks Iggy's and helps him into the back seat. I carry Angel to the opposite side and put her in a car seat that is oh so conveniently placed in the middle. After strapping her in, I move to the last locked cage, Fang's. Jeb has already let Nudge and Gazzy out. It took me that long just to figure out how to strap that darn car seat in. I open Fang's cage and he jumps out, shaking out his arms and legs and adding a neck twist for good measure.
Fang and I run to the car and sit on either side of Angel. Ig, Gaz, and Nudge are all seat belted in the far back, leaving Jeb to sit in the front alone. After figuring out the fairly simple mechanics of a seatbelt, we inform Jeb that we are ready to go. He flips the car around and heads out onto a dark road.
Like I said, that was too easy. It had to be too easy. I try to forget that as Jeb speeds down a lonely road. We seem to be the only mutants on the run with a traitor scientist at this hour. Maybe there will be more in the morning…somehow I doubt that.
6 Hours later
Aww, I dozed off. It's five thirty in the morning, I realize, looking at the digital clock on the dashboard.
I look out the window to see trees whizzing by at a deathly speed. The only light outside comes from the car's headlights. The trees are big and huge and green! They're really big! Like, three stories high!! We didn't have any trees like this in the desert. Sure, there were a few cacti trees scattered here and there, but no trees with bark on them! I put my elbow up on the arm rest to lay my cheek on. I hit a button and the window slides down. Nifty.
Icey cold air hits my face, and the smell! It smells so strange! Really really good strange! Like, well, I don't know, it smells fresh. I take a huge breath as my teeth start to chatter. Closing the window, I look to Angel, she is still sound asleep. I look over her blonde little head and see Fang. He's leaning against the door, arms crossed, smirking at me, but stops when he notices me looking at him. I grin at him anyway, and look back to check on the other three. They're all asleep too. No surprise, I'm usually awake before them.
I look over to Jeb, who, by the way, is driving at 80mph. Is that fast? I mean, I know it's fast, but is it fast for a car to be driving at? He looks over his shoulder at me and grins.
"You're awake," he states, bringing his attention back to the road. "Are you hungry? There's a town up ahead, it'll probably have a nice little sit-down restaurant."
"Yeah, I'm starving," I say, hearing my stomach growl viciously. My eyes stray to Fang, and his eyes say 'me too'. But he wouldn't admit that out loud.
"It'll be getting light here in awhile. Then you can see the beautiful mountainside we are traveling over," Jeb says, gesturing to the trees outside, shrouded in black.
I see a sign on the road that says, "Hungry? Take next right and head on up to Big Joe's Burger Hut!" in big red letters with a picture of a hamburger in the background.
"Ah, yes, here it is," Jeb says, eyeing the huge sign. "I hope it's open…" I do too, I'm famished. It's so nice to just be resting for a bit. But we can't have a calm moment ever, can we? No, we cannot, so this is how it went down.
"Me too! I've never been to a real restaurant before!" Nudge squeals groggily from the back seat. She rubs her eyes, accidentally elbowing Iggy in the jaw. This sends the whole car into chaos. Iggy yells out, as his jaw pops to the side, Gazzy wakes up instantly from the yell and hits his head on the window, causing him to cry out in pain. This wakes up Angel, who, confused at her current surroundings, begins to cry in fear and confusion. Jeb swerves the car to the side, as a rabbit jumps out in front of us, and that sends Fang's forehead into contact with Angel's plastic car seat with a loud thunk. Iggy starts yelling at Nudge, who tries over and over to apologize, only to make Gazzy more irritable. He joins in the yelling, but directs it at Nudge and Iggy. Fang sits with his eyebrows scrunched together 'cause he's too cool to show pain, and I try to calm Angel down. Jeb rights the car, and asks them nicely to please stop yelling.
No, we cannot have a peaceful ride. The yelling trio eventually stop arguing, resulting in Iggy staring arms crossed out the window. Nudge and Gazzy make up, not really having a reason to argue anyway, and I succeed in calming Angel down.
We arrive at the burger place, only to find it didn't open for another half an hour.
All right then.
"Kids, we aren't even very close to our destination. We aren't even in the same state yet. We still have a day or so ahead of us. I know this is your first time out in a public place, so have fun. But remember, we are on the run. The School has been using the Erasers as guards, so they may send some after us. When we get to the house, I will show you how to defend yourselves against them, and anyone else for that matter. I'll even teach you to fly," he taunts, winking at us.
All of our eyes grow as big as suburban wheels. We never dreamed of actually getting to fly! Well dream, yes, but I didn't think it would ever happen. Back at the School, if we tried to fly, they would stick us in an isolation chamber for three days. I never took that chance.
Twenty five more minutes.
"Where's the house at?" Gazzy asks, climbing into the middle seat to sit on my lap.
"A state called Colorado. On a mountain with trees and flowers and strawberry patches," Jeb describes.
Iggy, being particularly fond of strawberries, perks up, taking him out of his glum and gloom mood.
"Wow! I love strawberries!" Nudge says, smiling brightly.
"You love all food," Gazzy says, grinning at her.
"You'd probably eat an eraser and like it if you got hungry enough!" Fang sneers.
I look to Fang astonished, he doesn't usually joke about erasers like that. Well, he doesn't actually joke at all, really. He jerks his head up and looks around, angrily. Like he's confused or something.
"Fang," I say sternly. Erasers are a touchy subject with us. They did terrible things back at the school.
"I didn't say that," he protests. My mouth drops open.
"I just heard you!" I say, shocked that he was denying it. I mean, we'd all heard him. Everyone was staring at him. Gazzy had a weird smile on his face. What's up with him?
"Yeah, I heard you too," Angel says, backing me up. She's so cute when she tries to be tough.
"I swear, I didn't say that," he says, a note of urgent anger in his calm tone. I can't believe he's saying he didn't say it. It wasn't that bad, what he said, it just makes me angrier that he is denying it. Just then, Gazzy bursts out laughing. Now, all attention is on him.
"You should see all your faces!" he gasps, striving for air. He clutches his stomach with both hands and rolls around on my lap laughing.
"You said that?" Jeb asks, looking intrigued. "Amazing. You sounded just like him." Jeb hasn't really heard Fang talk, well, not when I'm around. I wondered how he could be so sure.
Gazzy giggles himself to pieces and then pulls himself together. He's still grinning, as Fang gives him poison dipped glares. I shake my head at him. It did sound just like Fang.
"Where'd you learn to do that?" I ask Gazzy. He shrugs his shoulders.
"I just can, I did it to the white coats all the time," he leans up to my ear and whispers, "It even got me out of a few experiments when I pretended to be a white coat!" I lean back to look at him, totally proud of him. He's beaming. I lean in to whisper to him.
"That's awesome, just try not to do that to Fang again, okay?" I ask him, and he nods.
"Hey, looks like they're open a little early," Jeb says, taking the keys out of the car. He opens his door and we all do the same. "Most restaurants require shoes and such, so I will walk in first, then you all come in and quickly make your way to a booth. I don't want us to get kicked out before we get any grub!"
"Okay," we reply. The ground is cold under my bare feet. I look down. My feet are filthy. I need to take a bath or shower, soon. The other's feet are about in the same condition. Angel walks up to me and takes my hand in hers. Together we walk to the front doors. The other four in close tote.
Jeb walks in and goes up to the counter to order our food. I guess that's fine since I have no idea what I want. We choose a booth at the far end of the room and squish in. The cracked fake leather seat squeaks under our butts. I sit by Angel and Iggy, across from Fang.
I look to Jeb. The guy behind the counter gives him a bored stare. I see Jeb talking, but I don't know what he's saying.
"Max," Nudge says. "Isn't this so cool! I can't wait 'til we get to the house! Will I get my own room? Or can I share with Angel? That would be so fun. Can I Max?" She pauses to take a breath.
"Um, yeah, I guess you can share with Angel, but we will have to just see when we get there. 'Kay?" I reply, smiling to myself. She's so happy. I really hope this turns out okay. I don't want a heartbreak for my friends. Or for me.
Jeb comes back with a piece of paper in his hand.
"This is a receipt," he says sitting next to Iggy and showing me the paper. Big black letters say ORDER 1.
"What's order one?" I ask.
"When our food is ready, they will call our number, then we go and pick up the food at the counter," he says, placing the paper on the table top.
"What did we get?" I ask.
"Oh, asparagus and collard greens," he says with a sly smile.
"Oh," I say, scrunching up my nose.
"I was just kidding!" he says, smiling broadly at me. "They don't serve that here."
"Oh," I say, a little happier.
"I got each of us a burger with fries, oh!" he says, jumping up from the table and walking over to the counter.
He comes back with seven plastic glasses.
"I completely forgot our drinks!" he says, shaking his head. He hands one to each of us and tells us to follow him over to a machine on the wall.
"Put ice in your cup, then pick a soda. Don't have too much, it'll make you sick." he warns, putting ice in his own cup, then pressing the Orange Soda tab. Orange liquid shoots out of a hole and into his cup. Cool!
"Whoa! Me next!" screams Nudge.
"Whoa, whoa, calm down Nudge," Iggy says. "What kind of soda is there?"
Gazzy comes up beside him and lists them all. Ig picks Pepsi and everyone else picks orange soda. The guy at the counter calls our number and we go get our food.
Whimpers of delight can be heard all around as we eat. Food had never tasted so good! It only takes a few minutes to devour the food, but we spend the next half hour talking and laughing. Jeb goes and gets some chocolate milkshakes for the ride.
He says we should get back on the road, so we all pile into the suburban again. It's daylight now, 6:56 am.
I've never seen them so happy. I can't wait 'til we get to the house either. It's gonna be great. Like one big family.
I couldn't ask for anything better.