I slept through the next day, as per usual. No dreams, for once.
I wandered around, occasionally taking a peep into a Dumpster to see if there was anything edible inside. I scored bigtime behind a fast-food restaraunt-- a few pre-packaged fruit salads, one day past the sell-by date, but still perfectly good. I feasted, and sat back, full and content.
Obviously, this state of affairs wasn't going to go on for long.
I heard some footsteps. I could recognize the smooth, fluid gait...
Here, kitty kitty kitty...
"Well, here goes nothing," I muttered, standing up.
She looked a bit surprised when I stepped out into the open.
"Bat girl," she said simply.
At least she hadn't called me Batty.
"It's Echo," I replied.
She just nodded. She was in human form, and to see the resemblance face-to-face was rather shocking.
"I am Viss," she stated.
"Viss?"
"It is short for Evisceration."
"Oookay... Viss works."
"Who are you?"
"I'm Echo. We've covered that."
"That is not what I meant, and you know it."
"Fine, fine. I honestly don't know anything-- why we look alike, why we both look kind of like Andrea... you know her too, right?"
Viss nodded, and motioned for me to continue.
"Yeah, then. So, you don't know anything either?"
"No."
"Dang. I had hoped... well, never mind. You aren't planning on eating me, are you?"
"No, I suppose not." The Slicer sighed. "I am hungry, though."
"I take it you don't go for fruit salad."
"You are quite correct."
"Hmm. Can't really help you food-wise, then."
"There are plenty of jackrabbits hopping about if you know where to look. They are reasonably good eating."
"Oh." Ick.
"I will find you again later, then." She turned to go, then looked back.
"You... have been having the headaches too, correct?"
"Yeah... why?"
"Perhaps we are here for a purpose."
"What do you mean?"
"Whatever these headache-visions are, they were caused by the whitecoats. Why bother if we are throwaways? Somehow, we are connected..."
I shrugged. "Or we're just experiments, the practice run for the real plan."
"Perhaps. I do not know. I will go hunting now. Farewell."
She shifted to her felinoid form, and ran off on all fours.
I felt a brief flash of what it was like to be a Slicer, the power in her muscles, the easy assurance that no prey could escape her...
And then it was gone. My head hurt a little, but not nearly as much as before.
I watched her run until she was out of sight.
I sat back in my hiding place behind the dumpster.
Maybe she's my sister or something.
Then who are our parents?
Is Andrea... our mother?
But she's a whitecoat. As nice as she was at times, she did take part in the tests they put me through...
Yet she helped me... helped us escape.
Why?
Is it some sort of
test?
Another brief flash. I felt the thrill of the hunt through Viss' eyes, the final scream of the rabbit when she sank her claws into it...
I broke away before she started eating.
Carnivores. Blech.
