Assassination of Memories
Chapter IIIV – Past Is Done and Gone
I don't own Maximum Ride or the Pretender characters
Current POV
Past POV
Shadows' POV
"What happened to both of you?" Was unsurprisingly the first sentence out of Jared's mouth when we entered the living room, even though Jared was mainly looking at me. Reading Jared's thoughts Neo left the room, probably to get the first-aid kit. Note the sarcasm. "What do you think happened?" Rose said stomping through the front door like she usually did when she's pissed. Her hair was a mess, tangled, frizzy, chopped off in some places and ever so slightly singeing. "He lost control and the whole school went to hell. The Devil's hair dresser did my hair, the Bogeyman was chasing after Tale and Bronze was being beat to a living pulp by a live skeleton. The damn demon can't keep the fears to himself, there's a reason why creatures like him don't belong here." Rose said sticking her nose in the air turning her back to Tranq.
"It's not my fault I'm like this! I wasn't born a Bhairavi, the Organization made me one." Tranq objected Neo coming back in the room. "Put the bed down Neo, we're supposed to be humans not super humans or undead." Ethan scolded from on the couch not too far away from us. In his hand Neo held the simple hospital bed that Jared 'borrowed' from the hospital down the road. However Jared couldn't pick the bed up with just one hand; Neo rolled his eyes with a disgusted face putting the bed down and pushing it hard in my direction. The bed's wheels barely stayed on with the speed Neo pushed it at, Tranq grabbed the front bar stopping the runaway bed before it hit me, the metal bar bent a little at impact.
"Watch it bat boy." Tranq glowered. Dead-ones just can't get along with Bhairavi, hell Dead-ones didn't get along with any other creature other than their own kind, it was quite annoying. "Shadows could you get on the bed for me please?" Jared asked motioning to the bed while Tranq pushed it away from himself gently. I'm good with standing I thought but got on the bed anyway taking off my jacket. I hadn't notice exactly how much blood I lost, though when a white shirt is stained dark, dark red you know you've got a problem. "Rose I need many bandages and some cloths, their upstairs in the main bathroom." Jared ordered. Rose, looking like she was going to be sick at the sight of blood, quickly left along with a disgusted looking Neo. "Ethan I could use a warm bowl of water." With that said Ethan left leaving Tranq, Jared and me behind.
An intimidating silence filled the room, the tension a taunt cord ready to snap. Jared moved the coffee table to make room for the bed, sitting down on one of the bar-stools he brought out before taking a look at the damage that had been done to me. I turned my head over to look at Tranq who was staring at the ground, his eyes saddened. I got ready for any apology that Tranq was going to spit out, backing him up if he was saying sorry to Jared as well. "I didn't mean to lose control, all the people got to me." Tranq confessed quietly. Jared glanced at him for a millisecond then called for Rose and Ethan to hurry up. Ethan got there first with the bucket of warm water, leaving once he saw the look in Jared's eyes going up the stairs; Rose came quickly in and out leaving enough bandages to fix a whole wounded army and enough cloths to bathe an elephant. Jared dipped one cloth in the water ringing it out so it wouldn't soak me. Much to my dismay Jared couldn't get to all my wounds with my shirt on so he cut open my shirt leaving me in my tank top that went down to the bottom of my ribs. Man I could some-what remembered the last time I was like this.
Third POV
Shadows looked even worse now, blood draining out of the wound in her left side a little ways above her hip, even the wound at her right shoulder look terrible. While Jared carefully cleaned it Shadows clenched her jaw closing her eyes to stop herself from looking weak. Tranq took the blame for Shadows being injured nevertheless admired how strong his friend was being able to stay quiet even while in pain. Once Jared could see what he was dealing with he realized that the bullet was still in Shadows side. How far down, he couldn't exactly tell but whoever shot her did an expert job as the bullet wound was a perfect circle. So an expert with arms shot her Jared thought calling for Neo to bring some 'tools'. Shadows breathed evenly and to everyone else she was as calm as could be, on the contrary that wasn't the case. The instant Jared said tools Shadows panicked inside feeling herself get hot. Something about the operation tools freaked her out; like she said to Tranq before, she wasn't completely fearless, she was technically a human being and human beings couldn't be absolutely perfect and fearless. "I'm not coming in there." The melodic voice of Neo floated down the stairs. "Tranq could you take the stuff from Neo please?" Jared asked applying pressure to Shadows' side wound with one of the not really necessary cloths. Memories of the last time Jared tended to Shadows this way were bubbling up in his mind although she had been worse.
Instead footsteps echoed down the stairs, Ethan come into the living room with a tray of operation tools. Tranq's eyes locked on the tools, he made himself smaller settling farther into the couch where Ethan had sat earlier. "There you go Jared." Ethan said putting the operation tools on the coffee table Jared had moved behind his chair. The young man looked at Tranq giving him a little smile, Tranq nodded his appreciation then Ethan left. "Okay just stay still Shadows." Jared said taking the tweezers off the tray, gently and slowly going into the wound to take the bullet out. Tranq stared down at the floor waiting for it to be over, his stomach churning. Shadows released a grunt as the bullet came out which Jared placed on the tray quickly grabbing a roll of bandages wrapping it around Shadows until the wound was entirely covered up. At least I was unconscious for this part last time Shadows thought sourly.
**Start of Flashback**
Shadows' POV
We had been riding for at least six hours now; the sun was just peaking over the mountains to our right. Tranq snoozed against my back his arms wrapped around my waist, quite snores coming out of his slack mouth. I pushed the hood of my cloak off my head letting the wind blow through my hair. The Organization was way behind us but not out of our lives yet, I saw that the Copies would after us when we stopped at the town that was coming up, the Organization placed them there for escaped subjects. I stopped the bike just outside of town cutting the engine. With our non-going motion Tranq woke up looking around staring up at me like we've never seen each other. With Tranq's memory surge he jumped off the bike looking wildly around, awe on his face.
"Am I dreaming, or are we really out of the Organization?" he breathed turning to me. I tilted my head to the sky that was a brilliant blue, not like the dark or grey sky I was use to, smelling the air. It was all different, for the first time in my life I took time to organize scents. It was different than the Organization; it didn't smell like anaesthetic or mixed animal smells. It was green; a heavy scent of humans blew from the town a ways down the road from us. Other animals were there also, cats and dogs mostly, with a few horses just a ways out from the town. The scent of Copies lingered as well marking their territory.
We were just on the border of it.
Tranq was taking deep breaths looking around at everything. "I use to live on the streets of a city when I was little, though I don't remember so many trees." Tranq said. "So what are we doing?" I kicked the bike in gear slowly starting off. "Whoa, wait a minute!" Tranq came right in front of the bike stopping it with his hand. He was strong, really strong. "Are you just going to leave me out here? We have to stick together... Shadows, that's what you said was your name, right?" Tranq said. "We should find some people who can help us, there has to be a town here somewhere."
"Copies are over the next town." I said in the blank voice of mine receiving a baffled look from Tranq. "Okay, so what are Copies? Clones?" I blinked not understanding what the boy just said. What are clones? I stopped the motorcycle again getting off bringing the kickstand down. "Are you going to answer my question?" Tranq inquired while I crouched down by the borderline, my fingers on the invisible line. Flaring my nostrils I figured the borderline went right across the road and into the forests on both sides, how ever far was hard to tell. The wind blew in a smell that told me we had a visitor, my ears picking it up before the truck was in sight. Sounded like a pickup truck with an oil leak by the intense gasoline smell that drove its way up the road. Right now I was busy with trying to find any nearby Copies but I did see the blue pickup truck way down the road far enough away it looked like a bug with a cloud of dust chasing after it. I put my hood up, covering half of my face as Tranq looked up to see the oncoming vehicle. "Ah Shadows, we've got company." Tranq informed.
The truck drove past, doing a U-turn coming back our direction when the driver noticed that we were a bewildered looking boy and cloaked teenager on the side of the road. "Hi there, what are a couple of kids like you doing out here? Have you lost something?" I glanced up to see an old man around his mid-sixties leaning over to the front passenger window from the driver's seat. His face was wrinkled; his dark blue eyes looked at us in suspicion. His white hair went to the chin of his heart shaped face; a scar ran down from the top of his right eye to his cheek bone. I wasn't surprised I didn't get a Flash from him; he was too old at any rate so none of his records would be in the FlashDrive. He was an averagely large man wearing a red plaid shirt and faded blue overalls. The man looked at Tranq the most who was wearing white pants and a matching white long sleeve shirt as well as no shoes. With our escape down the vent Tranq had turned his white clothes light gray with the dust that weaved itself into the fabric, making him look like a light rain cloud. "No we haven't lost anything, we're sorta lost ourselves." Tranq said. "Well I could give you a lift to town; just put the snazzy looking motorbike into the back." The man smiled. I motioned Tranq to help me even though I could have easily heaved the Vectrix into the bed of the pickup truck.
"Don't tell him your name or mine." I said expressionlessly while we lugged the bike into the back of the truck. "What name?" the boy asked. "Tranq." I told him while Tranq stared at me in confusion. We walked back to the truck and got in, Tranq in the middle with me next to the door. Tranq though, didn't look too happy with being confined even if both windows were open. "Oh, I'm sorry I forgot to introduce myself. My name is James, James Patterson." The man said. (A/N: no he's not JP! ) "I'm... Dune, and this is Amberlynn." Tranq said glancing over to me.
I didn't really care about the fake name, though I noticed his exact words. He didn't say friend, buddy or anything on those lines, if someone caught that it would raise their suspicion to the maximum. By just saying someone's name means you just met them, that you don't know the person just their name. Tranq needed to watch what he did while he was lying as well. He covered his mouth with his hand while giving Patterson our phony names; it was as if Tranq was covering up his lie. Tranq also fidgeted while he lied, like to move away from the fib he was telling. The only thing that Patterson seemed to catch was that little detail with Tranq's hand, I saw the doubt rise in his eyes.
Leaning towards the window was the only way for me to know what was coming up ahead; the smell of Copies was all over, being in their territory made me uneasy. If those dogs found me here they would be fight even more viciously than they usually did. Tranq glanced over in my direction every couple moments to see any distress on my face that meant we had a problem. My mask of deprived emotion stayed as it was, I kept entirely calm, inside and out. Aromas of bakery products and people flew past as we neared the town of about maybe two thousand people. The scenery changed slowly from the dirt road and tress to buildings popping up like daisies. The town seemed centered on the little stores and medium sized library, paved roads leading off to residential areas. Though unlike the cities I had been to the small town with no name had trees boarding the edges and in-between the few houses we could see from the café that Patterson dropped us off at.
"There's an inn just down the road there that you can go to for cheap and I'm sure that if you go to Toni's Store he'll give you some new clothes and stuff like that." Patterson told Tranq whilst I carefully rolled the Vectrix off the bed of the truck and to the ground. Tranq thanked the man shaking his hand and Patterson drove off, staring at us through the rear view mirror as he left. Taking the keys out of the Vectrix I parked the motorcycle next to the café, Tranq and I entered the small building.
Tranq's stomach rumbled at the smell of food, a waitress (the only waitress at that) sat us down by the kitchen door at one of the small round tables that occupied the café, I made it careful that I didn't focus on her's or anyone else's face. People ate at the bar just a couple feet away from us, a good number of the people glanced over at us in curiosity. "So what are you going to have?" Tranq asked looking away from his menu at me. I didn't take any notice to my tag along until he asked me if I was going to eat which I bluntly shook my head to. "Come on you should have something, or do we have any money at all?" Tranq asked depressingly looking over the menu. From the Organization, I had at least one hundred Canadian, two hundred fifty American with a mix in of approximately sixty-nine Euro just in case. "Well do we?" Tranq asked sounding just a bit irritated. I nodded. "Why won't you just answer my questions, it's not rocket science or anything like that." Tranq said getting snappier. I narrowed my eyes making Tranq recoil, possibly from my pupils becoming slits. The waitress came back getting our drinks and Tranq's order; I stuck with the water she brought both of us before Tranq's root beer, whatever the hell that was.
I held up the thing I picked out of the waitress' pocket staring at it curiously. Abella was engraved on the bottom making me wonder whether it was the waitress' name or the manufacture of this weird mini clip. "Where'd you get the nail clippers?" Tranq asked sipping his drink through a straw. Nail...clippers? Tranq pointed at the thing in my hand like I was an idiot, "It's a mini travel nail clipper, there might be a pull out nail file attacked to it." Indeed, underneath the part you press down to close the clippers was something that swung out, a part of the metal thing crosshatched with a small blunt point with one curved side at the end. "The hook-thing at the end is used to get dirt out from underneath you nails." Tranq told me. I've never seen anything like this; I flipped the nail file back into place slipping the nail clipper into the pocket of my pants for later use.
Tranq wolfed down his food and I paid, leaving the café while everyone stared us out. "Alright, where to now?" Tranq asked. We had to leave before the Copies caught our scent I turned to where the Vectrix was supposed to be, to find my valuable bike was gone. "Oh that's not good. Now how are we supposed to go anywhere?" Tranq said disappointed. Either we walk or we find my bike's hijackers. I bent down taking a quick sniff, Tranq watching me in wonder.
Two teenagers took it, males to be exact. Humans, one didn't smelled washed, the other smelled like gasoline both wearing clothes that should have been long ago cleaned. Standing up I put my nose to the wind, locked onto their recent scents and gave chase. I shot off with Tranq at my heels, in all likelihood he was wondering what I was doing. They had pushed the bike down the sidewalk, taking it down one of the residential streets. They're going to modify my bike or take parts off of it I thought miffed that these two jerks just ruined my first day of freedom by stealing my bike. The scent went to a two story house that had the front garage door open, two teenage boys both around seventeen around my Vectrix, tools scattered around the garage floor. Tranq and I were in fact thirty feet away from the house; Tranq noticed what was going on coming up beside me. "Shadows we should just ask for the bike back. We don't have to do it violently just let me talk to them.
I came up to the house, slowing down to a walk coming up the driveway silently going right up to the teens that had their backs facing me. "Isn't this thing awesome, it's supposed to be over a thousand dollars." One of the said to his friend. He was African American with neck length dark brown hair, wearing ripped jeans and an Indy Speedway racing jacket. His other friend had white skin with sandy blond hair wearing brown shorts and a dark short sleeved shirt. "Excuse me that is my bike." I said coldly making the two teens jump up turning towards me. The African American had hazel eyes that stared at me with a caught look, the other kid's dark sapphire blue eyes widened to meet the owner of the Vectrix. Once again I made sure not to focus on their faces. Neither of them could see the upper half of my face, the one wearing the race jacket became amused. "Oh look this bike belongs to Voldemort's little sister. What are you going to do, hit me with the Killing Curse?" he sneered elbowing his friend. "I wouldn't do that if I were you." Tranq told them just to have them laugh.
"Someone looks like he just came out of the psycho ward, I believe you're little Harry Potter fangirl is going there next." The other boy mocked making them both go for another round of hysteric laughter. My handed rested on Zephyr, ready to put some sense into these morons even though I had no idea what they were talking about in the terms of Voldmort or Harry Potter fangirl. Tranq gave me a 'don't do it' look that I ignored. I hurdled myself at the second boy knocking him over, pointing the gun at his head. His eyes widened in surprise either from my eyes or Zephyr, his skin going a whiter shade. "Hand over the bike." I said unemotionally. I swerved the gun up to the first boy who put his hands up, the smell of urine making me disgusted. Cowardly human. "You're crazy bitch." He breathed earning him a bullet that grazed his cheek. He winced, his dark hand flying up to his face, his own blood coming off onto his hand. Tranq quickly moved up going beside the bike, I moved slowly keeping my gun on the first boy maintaining tabs on the second that laid on the ground. I got onto the Vectrix, Tranq on behind me, putting the key in and driving off out of the garage and down the road.
"Great, now we're going to have to police all over us. We could have just asked for it back." Tranq said over the wind. I glanced back at him, my eyes telling him I wasn't really impressed. "The police are going to be after us in half an hour." Tranq muttered to himself. The bike screeched to a halt, slamming Tranq against my back. "Ow, what was that for?" He groaned looking over my shoulder. I started the bike quickly, doing a sharp U-turn with the bike shrieking that made my ears ring, leaving a black skid mark of the tires looping around. We shot off in the direction of the two teens flying past the house, a black panel van turning the corner behind us. With the wind blowing in my face I couldn't smell our pursuers but I was pretty sure it was the Copies. Tranq made that deduction also.
"Their gaining on us!" Tranq yelled over the wind that whipped his hair around his face. I checked my right side mirror. The black van zoomed after us the male supermodel in the driver seat glaring at my back. "So Copies are Erasers, we're done for." Tranq whimpered. "It isn't over until the fat lady sings." I said callously turned my body pulling Zephyr's trigger five times. Five bullet holes appeared in the glass all in a straight line killing the Copy in the front passenger seat and taking a large chunk off the driver's cheek. I heard his growl even from where I was as he floored his pedal gaining enough to bump the Vectrix. Already we were outside of the little town with a second, familiar pursuer.
Patterson's pickup truck came up behind the van, his passenger, a young man around maybe his mid-twenties with dark hair and dark eyes filled with furry leaned out of the window producing a shot gun, opened fire on the Copies' van. He possibly wounded or killed many of the Copies in the van; the Copy hit the brakes, Patterson's pickup slammed into the van at thirty miles an hour. Looking away I heard the crunch of metal against metal, screeching while Patterson's truck pushed the van forward and the air-bags deploying faintly during the deafening noise. I couldn't tell whether or not the two in the truck survived, all I knew was the van was in satisfactory condition that it gave chase again.
"We have to go back Shadows!" Tranq said. "Please, we have to help them!" "We go back, we get caught. Their assistance would have been in vain." I told him unsympathetically. Tranq became quiet behind me, holding on tightly as we rocketed through the mountain roads.
Patterson's aid provided useful putting distance between us and the van which stayed about forty feet away while it tailed after us. After a few hours the van grew larger quickly, catching up to us from our loss of fuel. "Shadows, their back." Tranq said in a panicked tone, the van now twenty feet away. Another Copy had situated himself in the passenger seat, leaning out of the window like Patterson's passenger before.
I swerved, copying what I had seen many rabbits do that was used for my target practice in the Organization. By zigzagging most predators couldn't catch the rabbits, seems like a Copy could shoot a moving rabbit as I crisscrossed across the road missing his bullets. The dog tried predicting where I was going like my zigzag was a pattern just for him to find out I would stop going one direction before getting to the side of the road or immediately after I changed directions. So my confusing movement had many varieties of distances I would go before I changed direction, I even added in slowing and speeding up to give the stupid dog an even greater challenge. The Organization, sadly, made smarter Copies.
The damned dog blew out my back tire.
"You zigged when you should have zagged!" Tranq cried out as the bike slipped out from underneath us. I hit the ground on a roll stopping on my stomach and shot the two tires closest to me, causing the van to veer right and tip onto its side rolling down into a ditch on the side of the road. I pushed myself off the ground in time before the van caught me on the roll down; Tranq on the other hand got trapped underneath the van when it stopped. I, for one, didn't really cared what happened to the slightly annoying subject, though I did see that he was going to be fine. The back of the van burst open with sixteen Copies jumping out, all ready to fight me.
Until about five of them were swallowed by a tree's shadow.
Tranq materialized out of my shadow getting into a fighting stance. "I really thought I was a goner there for a second. So any fluff balls want to play a game of Tag?" Tranq asked the remaining eleven Copies lunged at us. I had no idea what Tag was however decided not to question it, charging for the closest Copy.
Tranq's POV
When I was four years old, four years ago I lived on the streets and knew that girls' fighting was catty. Shadows made that description more literally than the metaphor meant. Quick, lightning fast attacks with hisses thrown in, it looked like a cat had gotten into a fight with a dog while Shadows attacked the Eraser because he made her drop her gun. I was starting to panic, Patterson and his friend could have easily died trying to help us and we were going to be captured any way. My shadows were 'eating' up the Erasers faster than you could say 'SIT' yet more kept popping up. One Eraser stood back from the fight his face smug whilst hordes of Erasers after Erasers came pouring out of the van like water. They should have run out of Erasers a long time ago unless...
"Shadows get the one standing in the back!" I yelled an Eraser tackling me from the side. I punched him in the face, driving the bones of his nose into his brain killing him. Rolling out from beneath him I jumped for one going for Shadows from behind kicking him at the base of his hip. The Eraser fell to his knees where I could clap my hands over his ears with a sceam that sounded like nails on a chalk board and a loud CRACK of breaking bone.
Alright as long as they don't morph we'll be fine I thought the Eraser shrieking in pain at my feet. As if the Erasers read my mind they morphed, turning from male super models to their first morph stage. Looking like they took major overdoses of steroids these Erasers were large and bulging with muscles, their features sharp with a mouth full of canines, talons replacing nails, dark coarse fur growing on the backs of their hands and slightly past there.
I dove to the ground missing an Eraser who tried to bring his clasped hands down on my head; I brought my leg up kicking him hard in the gut blood spurting out of his mouth. Another kick to the round tables brought him down, most likely denying him to be able to go number one for the rest of his life, he was in so much pain he couldn't even scream. I swatted other Erasers like they were flies, though they kept coming. I was knocked into the air slamming against a tree knocking my breath out, dangling from my arms thirteen feet above the ground. Thinking they dealt with me the other Erasers went to challenge Shadows who was bringing down Eraser after Eraser after Eraser not showing any signs of exhaustion or surrender. Using my upper body strength I effortlessly climbed up to a branch poising myself ready for flight and fight.
Lifting off the branch I streaked towards the crowd of Erasers efficiently knocking four in the head snapping their necks. Hovering above the mass of Erasers I shouted down insults consequentially distracting them. Shadows stabbed one in the back with something I couldn't see, I bombed down taking hold of an Eraser's neck with my legs and flipped over crashing him into the Earth.
Shadows jumped gaining more air than an average human bringing her arm down in a slicing motion, blood spurting out of a vertical wound in the Eraser's throat before he collapsed. I finally saw it was the nail clipper Shadows had in the café, the slightly blunt point granted practical when force was applied behind it. The Eraser in the back fell, a good number of the Erasers disappearing along with him. Shadows stood with her gun pointed at the spot the Eraser had been, a deadly look on her face.
I followed Shadows as we gratefully sprinted away from the Erasers into the forest. I jumped from obstacle to obstacle to keep up with Shadows until I realized that flying would be easier to keep up with her. With one jump I left my launching leg up bringing my other after another jump staying airborne without anything holding me up. Shadows glanced over to my silently, her unnatural electric blue eyes staring at me. Her cloak flapped behind her, the hood had come off while we were fighting. I knew that the Erasers would be back again, Shadows knew that too. We would have to find some place to rest, hoping that she wouldn't leave me like she tried to before when I heard a whizzing sound. What the heck – I thought before a tranquilizer dart landed point blank on my arm.
I crashed to the ground, an Eraser jumped at me while I was open. Shadows caught the Eraser with a bullet mid-air picking me up onto my feet and running off. Slightly dazed I pulled the dart out following after her knowing that I should have blacked out by now. What was going on? We ran until our legs were on fire stopping when we knew we weren't being followed. I slumped against a pine tree, my breaths ragged and hoarse, I was sure I could taste blood in my throat somehow. Shadows breathing was slightly uneven though she hid she was tired by breathing from her nose. My palms were sweaty, my mind bushed and confused like the rest of my body.
"Why didn't I black out from the tranquilizer?" I asked breathless sliding down the bark sitting on the ground. My feet ached with all the rocks, pine needles and splinters that stuck into the soft flesh, Shadows didn't give me an answer like always while I brushed my feet off, picking some of the longer pine needles out of my left foot.
"That's why I named you Tranq." She said uncaringly, vacantly gazing at me. "Ya well you named me that before this happened might I point out. How did you know that it wouldn't affect me?" I asked glancing at her. Shadows didn't answer, predictable. I sighed standing up after I had finished tending to my sore feet. "We should find somewhere to rest." I said looking around. Shadows jumped for a low tree branch near her climbing up into the tree. My feet lifted off the ground while I followed Shadows up the tree watching as she found a branch and settled down almost twenty feet off the ground. "We're going to sleep in trees?" I came into closer holding onto two branches. With her hood covering her eyes Shadows gave a sharp nod, wiping off the bloody nail file on her cloak. I floated up to the large branch above her placing myself in a comfortable position.
Though the nap didn't come, and not because of the threat of Erasers attacking at any moment but just knowing that I was Outside, the place beyond the walls and fences of the dreaded Organization. A companion I made in the Organization thought all there was to the world was the Organization which is hard to believe. I told him about the city I lived in before the Organization had captured me, dawning on him that there was an Outside, another life other than a cage or surgical table. I remember him very well the day about two months ago when he escaped with his younger brother, how determined he was to leave for the third time and stay that way. Shawn, I missed him and his timid brother Bryden, two twin brothers that stayed strong throughout their life of misery escaping to the Outside not once but twice. I envied them.
Sun light filtered down through leaves and pines, patterns of light falling on my skin. I wasn't use to the sun, my light olive skin had become paler from years spent indoors, and the sun even seemed brighter here than it did at the Organization when I was put out in the yards to fight Erasers and other subjects by myself. The sky appeared even bluer and for the first time in four years I saw white fluffy clouds in the sky where the trees didn't hide the skies away. I glanced down to see Shadows staring at the sky as well, her face emotionless yet her eyes exposed the wonder she had for the big blue yonder. I didn't really understand it; Shadows escaped the Organization that gave her better clothes and a motorcycle, why was she way better off than I was? Also her name, Panther Shadows, I felt like I heard that somewhere.
"Hey Shadows have you ever been on the Outside?" I asked causing her look up at me. Shadows gave another sharp nod taking her eyes off me to look at the sky. "The world was much darker than this." She said callously. "Sounds like you got Out during the night. How long were you Out for?" I questioned. As expected Shadows didn't answer, it ticked me off a bit; in spite of that I was –at a snail's pace– getting use to it.
Shadows silently stood up swiftly on her branch, grabbed mine and pushed off to sit up with me. "Wha—" she clapped a hand over my mouth narrowing her eyes at me, wordlessly telling me to be shut my mouth. I glanced down to the ground, the tree would hide us from anyone walking past but an Eraser looking for us would be able to pick out my nearly white clothing like a neon signing pointing to where we were. If it wasErasers... well then we were doomed. I was overly surprised to see a wolf, a regular and very large red-ish brown wolf, walking just below us. I relaxed unlike Shadows tension. If possible she was glaring down at the wolf a snarl almost on her face. The wolf sniffed around seemed to smell something following it to the base of our tree. Great so now it smelt me. It sniffed up the trunk supporting itself on its hind legs and front paws on the trunk; it looked up snarled and proceed to bark at us. The barking was doubtlessly because my scent; it always made animals hate me to their core. That's what I thought before Shadows hurled herself at the wolf.
The wolf jumped out of the way snarling at the crouched Shadows just a few feet away. She snarled back baring her teeth. They circled each other, eyes locked. The wolf launched itself in the air aiming for Shadows; she jumped back slightly before going in for the attacked tackling the wolf full force driving it onto it's back. Pinned down, the wolf bit down on her just below her left shoulder to get her off which worked for a moment before Shadows got free leaping towards the wolf again. For a less than a second there were only two wolves, the over large one and a smaller white one then it was Shadows and the wolf again both dealing out attacks that wounded the other. After efficiently snapping the wolf's back leg Shadows ended the fight. The wolf jumped away from her, limply running away snarling at her as it left, disappearing into the forest.
Shadows stood up panting softly leaning against another tree. I glided down to her, touching down right beside her asking if she was okay. Nodding Shadows took off her cloak revealing she wasn't in truth okay accidentally. The first bite the wolf did was bleeding heavily which Shadows tended to by ripping a piece of her cloak off wrapping it around the wound using her teeth the help her tie it off. The other bites weren't as bad, the claw marks on her right ankle were going to leave scars with the bite on her arm; sitting down she ripped another piece of cloak to bandage up her ankle. "What was that about? Why did you attack it?" I asked staring down at her in concern. She gave a hard tug tying down her ankle bandage. "Species feud." Shadows answered in her usual tone checking herself over to see if any more fixing needed to be done.
"Species feud?" I repeated utterly confused. Shadows explained it to me straightforward and bluntly, making me finally understand. "No wonder I don't affect you." I muttered. "I'm a Bhairavi hybrid you see, a demon of fear. So what species was that then?" Shadows didn't answer, neither with words nor body language. Maybe she didn't know even thought that didn't seem possible.
"Do we at least have a plan, ah... a heading?" I asked getting a smirk for Shadows.
###########
I cringed yet again as the car groaned in protest to Shadows driving, its screech making my ears ring. I was in a car with the Organization's greatest and deadliest assassin (I finally figured that out) and that same person couldn't drive a small, slightly beaten Volkswagen, could my life get any more dangerous? Even with her calm face frustration radiated off of Shadows in violent rolls, her knuckles white from grabbing the wheel too hard out of annoyance. "Why don't you let me—" I flinched mid-sentence as Shadows glared at me her pupils becoming slits like an angry cat. "Never mind." I said instead opening my door and jumping out. The wind howled outside the car from its speed; I flew alongside it getting a look from Shadows that lasted a second before her face became calm again. "Sorry, the car's starting to bug me." I apologized Shadows' gaze turning back to the road. Outside the car's moans and screeches was less though still deafening anyhow. It was probably around noon or just after it, despite my fall outfit I was still chilly holding my arms while I flew beside the small black Volkswagen. We had no destination or no plan unless getting as far away from the Erasers as possible was the idea. I stared at Shadows through the open window wondering why the infamous assassin would run away from the Organization. Asking her however was out of the question unless I wanted a bullet in the head.
"Hey Shadows, where exactly are we?" I asked coming closer to the window. She seemed to ponder this then shrugged. Great, we had no idea where we were, I was tagging along with Panther Shadows and we had Erasers on our tail.
My life just kept getting worse.
Shadows' POV
I had a photographic-memory map of the world in my head except I had no idea where the Organization was so I didn't know our exact location, though I believed we were somewhere near Oregon. Bonus: It was the second week of March roughly three months after the Great Escape that CL Dare Son Air wrote about. Approximately twenty subjects in total escaped because of only seven or six subjects, most of them avian-human hybrids.
Avian-humans (AH), Artemis and all the Copies hated them, and for good reason. The AH hybrids were perfect and successful unlike the rest of us; once the Organization got a hold of one all of its attention turns to that one subject. Even Father of all people would turn his back to me if a Whitecoat thought they caught a AH hybrid. He loved those perfect freaks more than the failer Panther Shadows and I hated it. So naturally I hated the avian-humans too. They were the only subjects that Father didn't keep a secret from me since he talked about them just as much or even more than he talks about me. Tranq could even fly like them though he had no wings; he was more of a success than I was.
Most of the Copies boasted that they had beaten the shit out of a AH once, had they ever describe what the AH looked like? Not at all so for those who actually hadn't seen one had one description for the freaks. Perfect complexion, perfectly skinny, curved body for females, big and muscular for the males; picture perfect smiles, flawless and beautiful hair and eyes. And most of all, unflawed lives. They were graceful, powerful, beautiful and perfectly healthy, no locking joints, vision problems or allergies, not like some of the older Copies.
There was a loud snap underneath my right hand, the solid object grasped in it feeling dis-joined. I had snapped the steering wheel with my hand without triggering the airbag. I pulled the Volkswagen to the shoulder getting out walking casually to Tranq who touched down by the passenger side. While coming around the trunk of the car I noticed the back left tire had popped looking like a tattered rag skewed over the metal rim. I took a deep breath giving the rim a firm kick which popped open the trunk making Tranq jump as the trunk swung up. "How the heck did you do that?" He said getting over his scare. I didn't pay attention peering into the truck. There was a large red jack, a black long and narrow case, a large backpack with a nylon sheath that had a handle sticking out of it tied to one side, a pair of boots and an outfit that had leaves, sticks, twigs and other forest things on it making it a ideal set of clothes to camouflage in. "What's the case?" Tranq asked over my shoulder. I moved the bag off of the case flipping open the clamps, lifting open the lid. "Oh."
Inside was a hunting rifle, one that I hadn't seen before, with three containers full of bullets. I closed the case while Tranq opened the backpack taking the stuff up. The sheath, had a machete for backpacking that was slightly sharper than it needed to be that I attached to the belt we found in the backpack. Inside the backpack was quite a bit of imperishable foods, some rope, two harnesses, a self repelling device, fire starter, camp knife, something Tranq said was a Swiss Army knife, a map, a compass and keys. Tranq took the clothes and got changed behind a tree, rolling the pant legs and sleeves up, having to use the belt to hold the overlarge pants up. The combat boots were quite small which was good for Tranq, the machete not too long for him. Being the paranoid kid he was Tranq suggested we put the harnesses on just in case. I got rid of my cloak putting on my long coat instead, the harness invisible underneath my second layer of clothes except my pants that looked tight against my body. Opening the case again I put the rifle so the strap rested against my right shoulder and my back, Tranq slipped the backpack over his small shoulders looking through the car for anything we could use.
"Shadows you left something." He said pulling out the messenger bag I had left in there after getting my clothes out. Having a bad feeling of putting CL's books in the backpack I just took the messenger bag from Tranq slinging it over my left shoulder feeling slightly heavier with all my stuff. After packing the three containers of bullets away we set off through the forest to find some place to safely stop and find our bearings. "So from this map," Tranq said looking at the map as we trekked, "We should be somewhere in the Oregon mountain area. Oregon... I think the city I use to be in is just a couple miles from here." He muttered to himself. Two hours later Tranq spotted a cave about seventeen feet up a rock face, hidden by heavy foliage. Armed with a machete Tranq flew up to check it out as I free climbed up the rock wall. The place could hold fifty Copies with a crevice that could let out smoke on the roof above, I couldn't see it until we got close enough so it was pretty well hidden and it gave us shelter from wind and rain at the back.
I nodded, silently telling Tranq we were good. I sat against the rock while Tranq went to get firewood loading the rifle taking out the small brief case Artemis had left at my door. Opening it up I found something... strange to say the least. There was a screen on the lid, then a mini keyboard that had pause, play, stop, eject and so on, to the right hand corner was a little mouse ball with a tiny disk slot jutting out from underneath it. On the left was a plastic lid that arched over, small disks going the length of the case. One disk was taped in the corner of the screen, 'WATCH THIS' written on the tape in permanent black bold, capital letters. Carefully I took the tape off, sliding the disk into the slot pressing the 'on' button. The thing hummed, vibrating ever so slightly on my lap. The screen glowed to life in soft black and white picture, Artemis' face filling most of the screen her maniac smile plastered on her face.
"Hey Shadows just wanted to make sure you didn't completely forget about me. I have a couple of things I want to show you." Artemis said her smile growing.
"I don't give a damn of what it takes just find her!" The Director roared, the several Whitecoats in his office scrambling out. With a frustrated growled the Director spun himself to the screens that had fourteen hours ago blackened out when Shadows escaped, the one in her room showed it empty. How could she leave me? The Director thought sadly coming closer to the screens. Artemis had been in better moods now that the Director was depressed, smiling her head off and leaving people alone. Shadows had fought against the Erasers he sent to bring her home though the buffoons of Erasers were half to blame for not calmly asking her to come. When we finally figure out how to create the Era-droids those Erasers will be eliminated. Those bastards can't work peacefully unlike Era-droids where you can program them to do whatever you want the Director though a smile creeping across his face.
"Come in." He said before the knock, the door sliding open. "Sir there's something I would like you to see. We've come up with a new kind of technology." The woman behind the Director said. The Director spun around slowly raising his eyebrows.
"What kind of technology?"
"Nano, one billionth of a meter in size, when we put a couple thousand in a cat and we were able to grow a arm on it by giving the nano-machines a command." The women reported. "Yes, do let me see this." The Director said. He followed after the woman with two of the more reliable Erasers at his sides. They went down the hall into the elevator going down to the 19th floor, the doors opening with a ding revealing many excited Whitecoats chatting in the hall. The woman took lead again, the Director now beside her until they turned the corner when someone called out to them.
"Excuse me, sir." A calm voice said.
"Ah now someone who might give me some answers." The Director said stopping. Long black hair pulled into a pony tail swished behind the Erasers the dark eyes staring at the Director. "Yes Air?"
"Please call me by my real name sir." The boy said, "I wanted to know if I could go after Shadows." The Director shook his head an irritated flashing on the boy's face for a second. "I'm sorry but you're going to have to stay here and put up with Artemis, but I know how you feel. Now can you answer me this one question, why would Shadows run away in the first place?" the Director asked.
"I can't answer that, it's not very characteristic of her to do that I know sir. Why Shadows would run away, and release subjects as well is a complete mystery. The only thing I can think of is that something set her off."
The Director sighed motioning for the scientist beside him to lead the way again. It wasn't until when they got to the door further down the hallway when the Director remembered his manners. "Good day Ari." He said entering the nano-technology room.
A/N: This part was really supposed to be during Prologue Part II: Riots at Hell's Gates but I didn't want to make the chapter too long. Chapter V will continue from the past; I'm sorry that it's confusing and if you know a reader-friendly format then tell me please! Sorry it took so long!
Akiko
Microsoft page count for chapter: 14