Chapter 6: Onyx's POV
Not a hundred feet in front of me is a huge pack of what appears to be robotic Erasers. At least a hundred of them. I realize that their inner mechanics is what was causing the screeching sound, the noise that has been driving me crazy for the past half an hour. They have crudely manufactured wings, hard and metallic, that produce a similar noise to the one I heard before. The Eraser-bots are battling six twirling figures in the sky, with thick and feathered wings on their backs—
I nearly fall out of the sky. The bird kids! I think, absolutely shocked. How can they be here?! How can they be out of the School? How can they still be alive? Why did they come here! I shake myself out of my daze. You don't have time for this! I scold myself. But I can't keep from lingering, can't help myself from watching. Can't help seeing if they will be able to escape. I recognize only two of the bird kids. I only saw them once, back when I was still at the lab, aged six. Roughly two months before I would escape. But they were definitely the same kids. The memory brought itself up with such force I wasn't able to resist. Everything turns white for a split second, and then the images form themselves in my brain.
My eyes open as I hear three sets of footsteps walking down the hall. Perking up my ears, I crouch further back into my cage at the same time, hoping that by some small miracle that They won't find me if I make myself small enough. I cringe away as they approach, squeezing one eye completely shut and squinting out of the other. But it is only one Whitecoat that walks by, guiding two experiments. The experiments look a little younger than I am; one is a girl, the other a boy. The girl has shoulder length, wavy blond hair and soft, light brown eyes that contrast her pale complexion. She seems to be a healthier weight than the boy, and is about half an inch shorter. The boy has dark hair and tan skin, like me. I realize that we have many similarities, we're both thin, extremely bony, and tall, and he seems to cast his eyes constantly downward also. But his eyes are a dark, rich brown, whereas mine are the color of sea foam. More interesting than his eerie similarity to me, is the pair of black, feathery wings that twitch nervously against his ragged-clothed back. The girl squeezes his hand slightly, in what may be either a comforting gesture or a nervous spasm. Her wings also flutter a bit; hers are a creamy tan and dotted with numerous shades of brown. They suddenly freeze, turning their heads in my direction when I scuttle back farther into the cage. I don't want anything to do with other experiments, I think. They're not to be trusted. No one is.
I instinctively pull my tiny, leathery wings around me, which is difficult, seeing as they were seven feet total and in my cage I didn't have enough room to even sit upright, as the Whitecoat tells them, "That's just BIR5E27. A failed experiment, along with the others of its kind. Don't be afraid, it can't talk. Nor can it hurt you; the bat experiments are all kept under very close surveillance." I want to jump out of the cage and throttle the Whitecoat. I want to scream, "I am NOT an it!" as the bird children and the scientist walk away, the bird kids glancing back occasionally and giving me pitying glances. As their footsteps fade away, Gala, my one truest companion, murmurs my name softly. I turn my head, and stick my spindly, webbed hands through the bars of the crates through to him, wiggling my fingers in a circular motion. In my silent language, this means 'I'm fine.'
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Sorry for the weird ending, but it'll be better explained later. I just suck at ending chapters.