MUTANT

Chelsea E. Caldwell - Delta

07/12/1997 Energy

Danger Level - Moderate

My picture on the laminated plastic stared back at me. In the picture I wasn't smiling, but who did in these pictures? They were giving us all new IDs. It resembled a school ID, like the one I used to carry in my wallet, but this one was more detailed, and described our mutant classifications and various other warnings or cautions. It also assigned us where we would be staying-well, that's what I assumed.

Thankfully, I was right. And thankfully yet again, our rooming situation didn't suck too bad. There were various rooms for the girls, and each room had between four and six beds. We were assigned a bunk and, as it went by alphabetical order, my best friend and I were only a few beds away. Briggs wasn't very far from Caldwell.

Because it had been getting late when we'd gotten here, or at least semi-dark, the woman in charge of leading us told us we could have time to rest and get settled in before dinner time-I think her name was Miss Castle? or Miss Castin? Something of that sort. She had coarse blonde hair that was starting to turn grey in places, but her facial features were as sharp as ever. Only the few greying hairs and the slight crinkle around her fierce eyes could give away her age. She looked mean, and I duly noted that I wouldn't want to annoy her. Our bunk room contained six beds. One bunk set on each wall except the one with the door. There was a small window on the outer wall, but the outside was barred off. The interior of the room was plain, and our bed sets were a soft blue, they were stiff to the touch, but that was probably because no one had slept in them yet. I hoped they weren't itchy.

"I miss my bed." One of the girls chimed in miserably as she sat down on her bunk, the springs of the mattress creaking slightly under her-albeit minimal-weight.

"I do too-and I miss Teddy Bear and Renji!" Mari whined from ontop of her bunk. Those were her two cats, a muscular grey crybaby and an orange fat cat with large eyes. They were her babies.

"But we have to stay here. It's required." I say.

"Why can't they just accept us? We're no harm to anyone. Why should we be denied of an education until we finish this stupid mutant training," Marilyn said the last words as if they left a bad taste in her mouth. "All I wanted to do was get my degree and become a veterinarian! I didn't ask for this!"

Something had sparked the beast inside of her cute little body. Maybe it was the stiff sheets and creaky beds. Maybe it was the glares we'd received when walking past the guards.

"But some of them are dangerous!" A girl from across the room chimed in, closing the door of the small bedside table with her leg.

"Not us! I know some of them are out there who hurt people, but regular people do just as many bad things!" Mari retorted.

"We're not the monsters here, they are!" Said the girl. She had dark skin and short curly hair, she was very skinny, almost more than I was. And that's saying something.

Things were getting a bit heated, even though the two mutants were on the same side of the argument. So I took my chance to step in. I put my hands up, as if surrendering, and tried to soften the mood a little. "We're only here to show that we're not the monsters, right? We act civil and we show they've got nothing to fear. Then we'll get out of here sooner than they expect, right?" I suggest, trying to be optimistic. Mari folded her arms and stared down at the floor. I moved across the room to sit next to her, and I put an arm around her shoulders. "We're in this together, aren't we? We can do this. It can't be that bad, right? This country has made enough stupid mistakes to make this bad." I told her. She leaned her head on my shoulder, and I pet her hair softly.

"You're right. I just hope they really learned from their past mistakes."

While some Church of Humanity members screamed for the eradication of all filthy, unholy mutants, some protesters believed Mutants were people, too, and they had rights. At least someone was smart enough to see the truth. Unfortunately, no one took those people seriously enough. Now, in the height of anti-mutant stigma, this supposed Mutant Training School seemed like prison.

A screech rang out over the intercom and signalled for dinner time. All mutants were to report to their dining areas in their buildings single file for dinner. That didn't sound so bad. In fact, the growling in my stomach was made worse by the aroma of whatever was freshly prepared as we entered the lunch room. We discovered it was soup. Tomato or chicken noodle. Hey, at least it couldn't be too bad. The meal came with bread and a water bottle. I didn't know what I was expecting but this at least seemed halfway decent. Although the blandness of the meal reminded me of a cross between military ration and prison food, I was hungry enough for it not to matter too much.

I sat down at a semi-empty table with Marilyn, staring down into my bowl of soup. It didn't look bad or smell bad, so it probably couldn't taste all that bad either. I lifted the plastic spoon full of oily broth to my mouth and slurped up the steaming food. It was hot, but tasted fine. As relief washed over me, I continued eating, nodding over to my friend that at least from what I could tell, it was safe and edible.

The dinner conversations seemed to turn more optimistic with food in our bellies. We wondered what they would have us do in the following morning-whether it would be a school-like class or some sort of physical fitness. Maybe they would make us demonstrate our abilities.

"They'll probably make us watch that cheesy PSA about Mutants that they showed on TV and in schools. The one with the ridiculously perfect family and their pyromaniac mutant son who set the houseplant on fire." I said as I uncapped my water bottle.

"I hated that one. You can help prevent mutant danger." She mimicked in a voice that oddly resembled Smokey the Bear.

I laughed and sipped on my water. It was amazing how halfway decent food could make one's mood skyrocket from miserable to hopeful in less than an hour. Maybe things wouldn't be so bad here. Maybe this was a good thing. Maybe.

Suddenly I began to feel very groggy on our way back to the bunk rooms. I must have yawned five times during our walk. I didn't know what it was, but tiredness had hit me like a wave. I noticed I wasn't the only one. Mari had yawned once or twice-but maybe that was just because I did. And I'd heard some girl behind me complain about being sleepy, but not wanting to sleep on the creaky beds. I personally didn't mind. My bed at home was creaky and old but it was comfortable and I even enjoyed it. However I would have preferred maybe a memory foam mattress cover or 300 thread count cotton sheets. I knew I wouldn't be so lucky though.

Lights off was announced to be in an hour and a half. Making our supposed bedtime at 8:30pm. Very early by teenage standards, but I was tired and figured tomorrow would be a busy day. None of us were sure what we would have to do-whether it would be actual schooling or physical fitness, most of us weren't looking forward to either.

About halfway through putting on my pajamas, one of the girls in my room screamed. I couldn't make out who exactly, but the shrill sound was enough to make one cringe. I turned, looking around, confused and annoyed. One of the other girls-her name was Alyssa, I think-was covering her chest with her arms and had her back turned, but she peered over her shoulder and did her best to point without revealing herself.

"There are cameras watching us!"

The other five girls in the room, including myself, changed moods suddenly. My eyes quickly found the small dark sphere in the corner of the far wall with a red dot on it.

"That's disgusting!"

"Those perverts!"

A collection of muttering and complaining erupted in the room.

Marilyn, dressed in a red camisole and a pair of sweatpants, moved to the center of the room facing the camera. "Do you think they'll mind if I black it out?"

"What do you mean?" Said the dark skinned girl from earlier today-her name was Candice.

Raising her hands high towards the camera, she focused on the red dot. At first, nothing happened, but as her hands started to roll into circles in the air, a transparent wave of shadows crawled up the walls. I heard a few gasps, and stood amazed and proud. The shadows blended together, getting darker and thicker, swirling over the camera. "I think that works...They just see darkness." Her lips twitched upward in a proud smile. Moving one hand down, she kept the other pointed towards the mass of dark. She relaxed her stance, but kept moving her fingers around, swirling the shadows into a whirlpool over the camera, the red light could hardly be seen.

"Damn, girl. How'd you do that?" Said Candice, quickly stripping her pants, jumping out of her skinny jeans and then pulling on a pair of small fuzzy pink shorts.

"I think I took the shadows from around the room," She said, unsure. She didn't know much about how she could do what she did, except for the fact that she was a mutant. Mutant science was always weird-even weirder than regular science.

"I don't care why, I'm just glad you know how." I said, smiling.

Soon the other females were changed-it only took a minute or two, and Mari wasn't sure how long she should keep up the shadow-shield. As the darkness started to falter and dissipate, there was a loud BANG from the door and then it suddenly opened, causing me to nearly jump right out of my skin. A few of the girls shrieked. One of the armed guards studied the room carefully, his hand hovering over his weapon of choice-some sort of gun. His face was stern, but it looked like he was expecting some sort of trouble. We stared back at him with wide eyes. The darkness had fled from the corner and scattered itself about the room even faster now due to the intruder, and Mari was spun around in fear, her hands up in a weak surrender.

"There were cameras." I said to him, the guard.

"How were we supposed to change?" Said Candice.

The guard let his hand rest on his weapon and narrowed his eyes. "Don't do that." He reached up and pressed a button on his earpiece before turning and exiting, speaking to someone on the other line. I could barely make out what was said: "It's all clear-muties just wanted privacy…."

When the door was closed I scowled at the door where he'd been before. Muties. The word on it's own didn't sound like much if you knew nothing of human-mutant relations, but it was becoming one of the more popular anti-mutant slurs. Just like freaks, it was something humans said to try to demean mutants.

"Muties," I said as if the word left a disgusting taste in my mouth. I scoffed and turned around, back towards the door and spat out: "Humans." in the same disgusted tone.

"How dare he," Someone muttered behind me.

"I didn't mean to get us in trouble," Mari said quietly, from next to me, with a guilty look on her face. I was thrust out of my spite and put my hands on her shoulders lightly, my scowl turning into a grin of pride.

"You did great! Screw them, we deserve privacy too! What are they gonna do, beat us or something?"

"Maybe. Did you see his gun?"

"I'll protect you, don't you worry. I vow I will not let any one of them hurt you."