"C'mon, guys!" I turned around to face the others. "You know we have to find a place to sleep before the sun comes up!"
"I don't want to!" said Jeff, a blue scaly guy with a tail who was obviously some sort of Lizard- Human experiment.
"Yeah, but you don't have a choice," I replied calmly. "Unless you want the humans to find you and put you in a freak show or have experiments done on you. Maybe they'd bring you back to the institute."
This pretty much shut him up. We all knew that we had to keep going, and this guy was only seven. He'd had it worst while we were on the run because he didn't blend in with the humans like the rest of us could.
We were in a park, somewhere in Maine, looking for shelter. The rain was coming down pretty had now. Then, we saw it. There was a large dumpster being dumped into a late-night garbage truck.
"C'mon," I said, and hurried the group across the street. I quickly boosted Jeff into the dumpster. I followed, helping the others in after me.
Inside was dry and roomy, and that was enough for us. I took a small battery powered lantern out of my backpack and turned it on. We felt better already. Jeff snuggled up next to me, and I wrapped my wing around him for warmth. I took a quick headcount.
Rose, Kevin, Drain-O, and Toothpick were all accounted for. Rose came over to me. Seeing Jeff fast asleep, she said, "Jade, I'll take the first watch. Just in case any people come."
I nodded and watched her walk away, tail softly flicking back and forth. She had a fox's tail, with pointed teeth, and could run very fast.
Kevin could jump very high and had very long legs and a very long tongue. He could also swim very well, and fast. We guessed he was part frog.
Drain-O had a big mouth. I don't mean that he talked a lot, which he did, but I mean that he has a big mouth. He could eat an entire steak in one bite!
Toothpick was probably the strangest of us all. First of all, her hair was green. That's not all, though. She is part plant, not part animal. She's really cool, but she cannot hear. She can read lips pretty well, though.
I'm about ten. Toothpick's about nine, Kevin's eight, and Rose is also ten.
We're just one big mutant freak homeless family. And we're looking for an avian-human family of the same kind.
