Gahhhh! There are really no words to describe how negligent I've been in updating lately. *sigh* I blame end of the year madness. (Passed my tests with flying colors. Senior year, here I come!) Anyways, here's a couple of chapters for you all to enjoy. ^_^
14 – Next Phase
"You're in a good mood today," Vera noted when I came to drop off her food packets.
"Plans are falling into place," I declared, as I greedily eyed the counter drawers and cabinets across the room. I pulled on the handle of one of the drawers, and was thrilled to find it unlocked. It was full of what looked like little kits of medical picks. "You don't think they'll notice if I take some stuff, do you?" I asked Vera.
"I doubt it; they never use any of the junk in here. I think they keep most of what they need in the examination rooms." She eyed the pointy tools I was holding. "Any particular reason you need them?"
"I'm gonna whip these out and poke the guards into submission," I replied, keeping a straight face as I spoke.
Vera stared at me as if I was wearing my pants on my head. "You are joking."
"Yes, Vera, I'm joking." I cracked a smile and laughed, "Give my puny human brain some credit, please!"
She rolled her eyes. "Just checking." There was silence for a couple minutes, as I continued to rummage through the supply cabinets, and then, "So, what's it like having the infamous Maximum Ride for a sister?"
This time I was the one stopping to look at Vera in surprise, caught off guard by her question. "It's pretty good, most the time," I told her, "I mean, she's rough and bossy and sometimes forgets to brush her hair, but underneath the tough girl act she's a really nice person. I wish I could be more like her." I blushed slightly, feeling silly for saying that last part.
Vera scoffed at me. "Why on earth would you want to be like Max?"
I stopped rummaging and looked over at Vera. "Because she's one of the strongest, most heroic people I know. She's brave, and smart, and compassionate, and she doesn't let anything hurt her. She's..."
"...everything you're not?" Vera raised her eyebrows at me. I frowned slightly, and then sighed. Denying it was pointless. "Well trust me," she told me, "being Max is overrated. You have no idea how easy your life is compared to hers—compared to mine! The last thing on earth I'd want to do is be like Maximum Ride." Then she was the one sighing, "And yet that seems to be my lot in life."
I nodded slowly. "It must be weird being...you know."
"A clone?" Vera scowled. "Do you know how frustrating it is? From day one of my existence I was in a competition with Max. I spent my entire life trying to be a better, more efficient version of her, studying her every move and perfecting it until I was ten times better at it than she was. And you know what? In the end she still beat me." She wrapped her fingers around the bars of her cage, clutching them angrily. "She didn't even have the decency to put me out of my misery. I've spent every day since then thinking about our fight, trying to figure out what she had that I didn't." Then Vera looked me square in the eye. "That's what it's like being a clone: you spend your entire life stuck somewhere between hating your original and wishing you could be them."
"I'm sorry," I murmured quietly.
"Sorry is pointless," Vera glowered, "All I want now is to get out of here and live my life undisturbed."
"Yeah, well, with any luck, that will happen soon." I'd looked through all the supplies in the drawers, and I was pleased with what I had gathered: two sets of those little pointy tools, a new package of pens, a handful of rubber bands, and a pair of awesome-looking surgical scissors. "Aren't surgical scissors really sharp?" I asked.
"I've seen them cut through a penny before."
I separated the blades and looked at them closely, marvelling at how something could be that strong. "Then maybe these will be enough to get through the fence." The cabinets were all locked, but I considered this supply run to be successful. "There is one more thing I need from you, though..."
"Right, here's the food wrappers." Vera handed them to me through the bars.
"Besides that," I explained, taking the wrappers, "I need one of your feathers for something."
Vera stared at me incredulously. "What would you need that for?"
I smiled mysteriously. "I'm going on a bit of a diplomatic visit today, and I'll need a little persuasion power."
I had spotted him out just that morning, while I was doing my regular-sweep up of the hallway. He was busy with his own sweeping, not even fifty feet away, glancing in my direction every once in a while, but other than that completely unaware that I was watching him. He was around my age, I guessed, if not a little older; he was the oldest guy I'd seen on clean-up duty by far, the others looking around twelve or thirteen. In the absence of enough healthy girls to contribute, I guess they had tried to fill in with younger, weaker guys, but I suppose they had run low too. Sure, the guy in the hall across from mine wasn't especially tall or strong, but he looked fairly healthy, and he didn't seem like the type of prisoner you'd want running around unless you were out of options. After all, heaven forbid the doctors go without sparkling clean examination rooms or hire new janitorial staff. (I still don't want to know what happened to the first guys.)
Today was the day, I had decided, that I would establish a male contact and get this ball rolling. My plan was to wait until one of the guards escorted another kid away to the barracks, then I'd just have to wait for the remaining guard to turn his back so I could dart across to the other hall.
I dawdled longer than I should when I cleaned the hallway floor, casting sideways glances across to make sure my guy was still there. How long did it take the other kids to clean, anyways? It seemed like I had been waiting forever for someone to finish. But finally someone went up to the guard and said they were done tidying up, and the two of them returned to the barrack together. Here we go. Now was my best chance to act.
I swept nonchalantly at my hall's entrance, waiting for the other guard to pass me by so I could sneak across. I saw my guy step into one of the examining rooms, probably to do some cleaning in there. Good, we can talk in there without being overheard. A moment later guard strode past at a stiff but relaxed pace, and I tried my best not to look impatient. Come on... I urged silently, waiting until he was about twenty feet down the corridor from me. Okay, do it now! Before I could chicken out of my plan I darted across the corridor into the other hallway, my bare feet almost silent on the smooth concrete.
I knew that in a couple of seconds the guard would turn around and start walking back this way, so I had to get out of sight fast. Turning to the room that my guy had stepped into, I eased open the door and then slipped inside. I breathed a quiet sigh of relief as I quietly closed it behind me.
"Who are you?" I looked up and saw that my would-be ally was standing there and staring at me. He wore rubber gloves and held a sponge and a spray bottle in his hands, an indication that I had interrupted his cleanup.
"I'm here to talk to you," I said evenly.
He shifted uncomfortably. "If they find us talking here—"
"They won't."
The guy sighed, anxious and exasperated. "What do you want?"
"My name is Ella," I introduced myself, then told him upfront, "and how do you feel about attempting a hostile takeover of this medical facility?"
