The Renegade
Chapter 12
Truence sat on his cot waiting, lightly tracing his wrists with the small claws on his wings. He tried to control his breathing and relax himself but it was impossible. Right now he was either going to leave this place forever and be able to spend the rest of his life with Aven or prevent himself from ever seeing her again. His scientist, Dan, should be inspecting his quarters through the tiny camera and microphone in the corner of the room very soon. That's when his plan would take action. Truence waited for the sound of the camera's electronic gears swiveling it around so it saw the entire room. When the sound met his ears his leapt up and faced the camera.
"Dan! Dan!" He yelled at the camera, "You studied me and Aven for a long time and you know we always get what we want." He paused and raised his wings as far as they could reach in the small room. "I want to get out of here, now. And you are going to let me go." He lifted his wrist up to the sharp claws on his wing and dug them deep into his skin. "Your going to let me go or you won't have your precious little experiment for very long." Truence tore his claws down and out of his wrist and let the blood gush out. He looked at the camera again and smiled, revealing his abnormally long, pointed canines. He brought his wrist to his mouth and sucked up some of the blood.
"Better hurry up, Dan, your experiment is dying." Truence mocked him, still smiling, this time blood seeping through his teeth. He punched the lens until it cracked and then spit on it, the blood covering the lens. Within seconds, Truence could hear the sounds of erasers, scientists, medics, and Dan pounding down the hallway to his room. He cut a small slice out of his other wrist and winced as he wiped it across the small window in the door to his room.
They can be blind for a little while too. Truence thought and flicked out the lights. He took his cot and broke off on of the metal legs, jamming it between the crack of his door and the wall opposite of it; for once feeling grateful for his small room. He saw a dark shadow appear behind the blood on the window. He heard muffled whispering as more shadows appeared.
"47… Truence, we're coming in to stabilize you and help you." Dan's voice cracked. And the handle on the outside of the door wiggled, once, again, and again; each time Dan twisted the doorknob more violently. "Two erasers," He called over his shoulder, "Break down the door." Truence felt a small spike of fear dig through him as he practically felt the erasers form into their stronger, more vicious form. They pushed and pulled and scratched at the door for a long time until they both were foaming at the mouth and dreaming of sinking their teeth into Truence's flesh.
"The door was made to keep me in here, do you really think they'll be able to get in?" Truence mocked, positioning himself in the highest corner across from the door. He dug his claws into the metal wall and propped himself up between the wall and ceiling. He used on of his clawed wings to hang himself from the ceiling as the other once pounded and scratched holes in the wall. He fought the pain as he dug into the metal until he hit a bunch of wires and insulation in the wall. He slashed as many wires as he could and felt his vision clear as some of the hallway lights flickered out. He ignored the panicked shouts and noise that came from hallway outside his door as he worked to tear up the wall.
"Just get the door open! Now!" Dan shouted to the rest of the erasers and soon they were all clambering to get through each other to the door. Truence hung himself directly over the door. He stabbed two holes in the metal in the ceiling and clung to them, the torn metal cutting into his hands. Finally, Truence kicked the metal pole away from the door and it flung open, one eraser still on top of it. The rest backed off at the command of the scientists. Before the one in the room could escape, Truence let out a deafening screech that hurt even his ears, and grabbed the eraser with his wings. He passed the creature from his wings to one of his hands, his remaining hand feeling the metal bend from the weight of him and the eraser.
He ended the eraser's life with a quick slash to the neck, the blood dripping down onto his hand where Truence held it. After he was dead Truence slashed at him brutally letting pieces of flesh and blood fall down in the doorway. Once he was done, Truence didn't know whether to be proud or feel disgusted. He let the hardly identifiable body fall to the ground below him and listened as some of the scientists gasped in horror.
"What are you waiting for? Go in and get him, but don't hurt him." Dan ordered his voice shaking slightly. Truence readied himself as he watched the shadows of three erasers enter the room. They started to examine the gaping hole in the wall across the door.
"Sir, he's escaped through the wall." One of the erasers said, pulling back some of the metal and wires. Gathering all his remaining energy, Truence darted out of the door, still clinging to the ceiling. The scientists screamed as he grabbed one of them and started to fly down one of the halls with him. The erasers started after him and were gaining ground until he stopped the panicked scientist from thrashing by slamming him against and then dragging him against one of the walls in the hallway. Truence struggled to fly as the erasers caught up to him. As one jumped up to him he threw the unconscious scientist at him and the erasers, so caught up in the hunt, started to tear at him. As the other erasers saw the first one attack a body the rest of them started and before they knew it a feeding frenzy had begun. Truence flew silently down the halls and corridors in the lab until he felt a cool breeze from the ceiling. He circled around it until he found the exact location.
The vents. He thought and smiled. He wiped his forehead with his wrist and quickly regretted it. The sweat dripped down into his sliced wrists and stung badly. He rested for a short while in the small vent and examined his wrists. They still bled over his arms and he realized how much blood he had lost. He had been relying off adrenaline this whole time and now that it had worn off he felt very weak and nauseous. He felt the small vent spin around him and held his head to keep conscious.
No…wake up…stay focused…Truence begged himself. He shook his head and forced himself to move on down the metal halls. He moved as quietly as possible at first but after twenty minutes he was working on moving at all. He tried to steady his erratic breathing and concentrated only on that. Soon he smelled and felt the sweet relief of cool night air. Truence missed the smell and feel of flying in the black bliss of the night. The familiar scent gave him hope and he crept down the vents as fast as he could. He almost desperately punched out the screen vent out, freeing himself from the tiny metal halls. He flung himself out of the new hole in the wall and opened his wings as wide as he could.
He accidentally let himself fall in the pure pleasure of flight. As soon as he realized this he pumped his wings heavily, getting as high in the air as possible. Within seconds he was shivering in the cool air. He struggled in flight for an hour; going as fast as his underused wings could carry him. He tried to avoid the cold and pain in his wrists that now pulsed through his whole body. He thought of how his plan had worked almost perfectly, the 'almost' being him losing too much blood and being as weak as he was now. Showing mercy to himself, he let himself fall into a tall tree in a forest he barely recognized. He did know that he had been flown over it in a helicopter when Dan and the scientists at the lab had taken him.
He slumped down on the highest branch that would support his weight. He had slept in trees before when Aven and him had gone out to get more supplies from trailers and tents. They occasionally went on overnight trips for special stuff like their radio, which they learned practically everything from. For a few minutes he argued within himself over whether he should keep flying so he could get to Aven sooner but eventually decided that he should rest so he can live long enough to get back to the cave. He had no idea what the bird kids were going to do, if they were even still there.
He quietly shook the thoughts from his head and dug his claws into the branch. If he did fall, his wings would hopefully stop him, or at least slow the fall. He shut his eyes and only could see the picture of Aven in the bird boy's arms, covered in blood. Now the tables had been turned, or were at least even. He was in a tree half bleed to death. Not good. Finally, his exhaustion took over and he was knocked into a coma-like sleep. He was haunted by terrible dreams of him being swallowed by tornadoes of blood and gore. He wasn't too worried about that though, more of what would happen to Aven after his death. She still didn't know where he went, what happened to him. He squinted away dream after dream until he finally found a peaceful sleep as the sun rose behind him.
Author's Note: Yup, gore, gore, and more gore. Actually, it's not that bad but sorry if it got to some of you. Let me know what you think!