I eventually found a road, and started walking alongside it, figuring that it must lead somewhere.

In another inexplicable bit of luck, a big truck pulling a load of crates had broken down ahead a ways. The driver was just heading down to the nearest call box when I got there. I guess he hadn't heard of cell phones... or maybe his was broken or something. At any rate, it gave me the chance to scramble onboard and hide myself amongst the crates until he got back.

And then the next stroke of luck-- the crates were full of oranges!

Now, being part fruit bat, I am rather fond of fruits of all shapes and sizes. I didn't often get fresh fruit while at the School-- usually those sickly sweet syrupy canned peaches or somesuch. Andrea would occasionally slip me some real fruit. Andrea. Andrea who might be my...

Augh! Stop it! It doesn't matter! Besides, why would I want a whitecoat for a mother? If she really is, she's heartless for giving her child up to be an experiment.

But maybe she didn't have a choice...

But then again, maybe she was calling me 'daughter' in a more general sense. She's taken care of me all my life, so maybe she was just feeling maternal or something.

I shook my head in annoyance. Right now, I had to worry about food.

I opened a crate, slipped out three oranges, and carefully replaced the lid.

I tore off the skin using my fangs. Yes, fangs. Most bats have them.

After finishing the first three oranges off, I grabbed another four and took a quick peek to see if the driver was headed back.

He was. I concealed myself as best as I could.

He got back into the cab of the truck to wait for assistance.

I'm not sure how long it was until the tow truck came along. It seemed like a good while, but since the School doesn't give out wristwatches, there was no way to be sure exactly.

I snuck another two oranges before we started moving.

After another indeterminate amount of time, we entered a town. As soon as we stopped, I jumped ship (or truck, rather) and started running like heck.

I seemed to be doing that a lot these days.

I hid behind a dumpster.

It's very boring, just hiding out. Eventually I took a nap...

I had the weirdest dream last night. I dreamed that Andrea had helped me escape, except that I wasn't me-- I was some sort of bat recombinant, and I looked younger (although I look rather older then I am, truth be told).

That would really suck-- not being able to look human. I can make myself look as human as I want to, or like a lion-woman thingy.

But I've still lived most of my life in a cage. I'm apparently the second version of the Slicer Project.

I'm not as aggressive as the Erasers, so I guess that's a strike against me, in the whitecoats' eyes at least.

At least I smell better.

It's around lunch break. Most of the whitecoats are probably hanging out in the cafeteria or something. No one's fed me yet. I'm hungry.

I hear footsteps. Food, maybe?

It's Andrea. She's the only whitecoat who was ever kind to me. She tells me things about the outside world. I've always wished to be able to see it. But she doesn't have food with her-- she just has another white coat in her hand, in addition to the one she's wearing.

"You're to be terminated," Andrea whispers urgently, unlatching my cage. "Come on."

I stand up. She hands me a white coat. "Keep your head down."

I understand. She's going to sneak me out right under the other whitecoats' noses.

I'm only eight years old, but I look like I'm twenty, courtesy of the lion genes. I'm not sure how long I'm going to live-- my predecessors both died at the age of ten, but not of natural causes (but can any cause be called natural when you're a mutant recombinant?)

We hurried through the halls and out the door.

Andrea's blue Ford is parked near the front of the parking lot. We got in, and she started driving down the road.

"I can only take you so far before I'll be missed. You'll have to wing it from there," she says. She then instructed me on how to drive a car, in case I ever needed it.

Finally, after about a half-hour's driving, she braked. "This is your stop. Good luck."

I got out.

I thought I heard her murmur, "Farewell, daughter." But that might have just been me.

When I woke up, it was night.

Time to get moving.