Chapter 23

I had been on my bed resting for ten minutes before my next class started when a knock came at the door. I wondered who the heck that would be. Laura was out being experimented on and I felt a twinge of anger at the though of what they might be doing to her. I slowly got up off the bed, dragged myself to the door and opened it to look into Deans hazel brown eyes.

"Nathan, was it?" Dean asked as I peered around the door at him, "When did you learn to fly like that?"

I moved aside and gestured him into my room then closed the door behind him. I pointed to a chair to indicate he was allowed to sit and sat down on my bed.

"To be honest," I replied, "I had only been able to lift myself off the ground and hover. But I had studied the movement of bird feathers and their wings during flight. I slowly memorized it until it became second nature to me. I had the knowledge, but lacked the time or experience to put it to use. So I used your class as an excuse to try out a few things. That race was the excellent chance to."

"Don't worry," Dean said smiling, "It's happened before. I did the same thing with my instructor when I learnt. Even though I was born with wings and had the natural instinct for it, even we natural winged people have to learn to fly. Although in my case at the time I couldn't handle such a flight and almost fell to my death until the instructor rescued me. Anyway what I'm saying is that would you mind helping me teach the class to fly? It also helps impress the top guns."

"I'll think about it Dean," I replied, "But shoving people off cliffs is not a good way to make friends. You're just lucky I knew how to fly, otherwise I would have ended up paste on the ground."

"I would have stopped your fall," Dean replied, "I almost did until you pulled out of the dive. By the way, your throw is accurate, that snowball stung like heck. Ever considered joining the Avian Paintball squad? They could do with someone like you to teach them"

"Paintballing?" I asked, "Man I loved to play that back in my old life. Packs a punch, stings like heck, but it's worth it for the fun. You play?"

"Yeah," Dean said, "I'm the most decent shot they have on the team. You'd at least rival me in that. How about a one on one trial match to see if you've got what it takes?"

"I'll accept," I replied, "I think I'm beginning to like you already Dean. Say, this doesn't go up against the Eraser team does it?"

"Once or twice a term at school," Dean replied, "And I think we will be great friends."

I smiled and shook the hand Dean extended to shake on the deal of joining for the team. As Dean went to leave he whispered in my ear.

"I know you want to escape," He said, "You want to help Laura escape. I'm a telepath, but your secret is safe with me. I help kids escape. We've been running the underground escape tunnels for years here, since I was eleven or twelve. I can help you out."

I smiled, let my mental defenses down and searched the images of the past for the possibilities of trusting Dean. Nothing showed up bad, so I nodded.

"I'll let you know when I have something sorted out," I replied, "Until then, I'm learning all I can to survive. You know the Erasers have a weakness. Clap you hands over their ears during a fight, it bursts the ear drums."

Dean smiled and walked out the door, acknowledging my tip with a small inclination of his head. I followed him out of my room, locking it after me and walked off down the corridor to the training room as the set up the room for the Paintball practice. This was going to be fun. But my thoughts turned to the scientists and how they had managed to make it look fun for those staying, but there was another reason why they trained us in ways like this. That reason I still had to figure out.

Chapter 24

Andrew Corway sat behind his desk staring at the two people sitting opposite him. One was his wife Lea. Although she had been technically widowed upon his staged death, they had re-married in secret when she found out he was still alive. The other person was the head scientist who was leading the research into the development of the girl, Laura's, new personality and emotions.

"Lea," Andrew said, "Tell me how Nathan is doing. Is he well? Coping with everything? What about Jake? He seems to be fitting in well with the rest of the pack."

"Nathan is excelling in his classes," Lea replied, "He seems to study well, is passing with good grades in the normal classes he attends. He had his first flying lesson today and, well Even Dean was amazed buy the skill Nathan has gathered in only a few days and has requested that Nathan help train the rest of the class. Dean has talked him into trying out for the Avian Paintball team. They are training now. We like to keep them entertain. I doubt they realize why we give them activities like that. Jake is indeed fitting well with the rest of his pack. His reckless behavior is a bit of a problem. He expresses violent outbursts of anger occasionally, but otherwise seems to have forgotten Nathan entirely."

"Good," Andrew Replied, "And Professor, are the studies of Laura revealing anything about how she was able to break the conditioning? Any signs on how she was able to feel emotion again?"

"The neural pathways we suppressed to stop her feeling," The doctor explained, seemed to have re-awoken. They are functioning like a normal persons mind would work. She is able to feel emotion again, although her mind is still learning to cope with a few of the un-encountered emotions. She seems to not understand happiness nor relief, but she has shown signs of possible attachment to another person. This I can't explain, but shall try and figure it out."

"Good," Andrew replied satisfied with their reports, "You may continue your studies of the specimens. I will be looking forward to your next update."

Lea and the scientists left and Andre turned his attention to the screen to watch Nathan play paintball with others like him. Andrew had taught Nathan that game when Nathan was younger, but after getting tied up in his work, they drifted apart. Nathan seemed to have put all of that behind him and seemed to get on with his life. Andrew turned his thoughts from Nathan and onto Laura. She was a copy of the experiment who called herself Keira. She had the same personality as Keira, same appearance. So what changed? What made her different to Keira? Was it the fight his bosses had ordered was necessary? Or was it something that happened afterwards? And the attachment to someone else was interesting thing to ponder. He knew there was only one person Laura had enough time to grow close to and that was Nathan? My two different pet projects, He thought, who would have guessed that they would meet each other, let alone grow close? Andrew pondered this as he watched his son spray paintballs along one of his enemies in the training room. Perhaps he could use each of them for his own ends, manipulate the connection they had. Then the Director would take notice of him. But only then…