We Were Strangers in the Dark – Chapter 5
By MyNameIsCAL
"Are we going to be able to come back here?" I questioned Fang. "Or are we going to have to find a new place to stay?"
Fang swallowed the last of his cereal. "I don't know. I guess it depends. Last time I knew they were following me. So I only stopped here once. I usually found roofs or took the subway around. Never really slept I guess. That's how they got me. My exhaustion got the best of me."
I folded up the newspaper and stuck it in our makeshift garbage can. "I was just wondering."
He shrugged. "I know places we can hide. But they won't make the best shelters in the cold. When I got out, it was almost summer."
Things were going well, if you could describe out situation like that. I guess for the circumstances, I was lucky. Extremely lucky to be alive, even. Conversation with Fang made me feel like I had known him my entire life.
Of course there were still things between us unsaid. I knew that there was still something he was holding back, and there were times when we'd talk about things in our past where he would steer the conversation to my end, or change the topic entirely. But we still had our light conversations, about nothing, where I'd laugh and he tried not to smile, but you could see it in his eyes that he desperately wanted to let go for a little bit and forget about our troubles, but he wasn't going to. He felt, well I don't know, maybe he didn't want to lose focus. And since he hadn't grown up as a teenager out here in the real world, I often found myself explaining things to him. I thought it frustrated him, but he wasn't going to give himself away like that.
We were heading back to the facility the next morning, stopping in the town we had before and resting before we would try to break in. Fang had everything planned. I felt like he had been planning this for some time, that he had been thinking of doing this all along, but he knew he was missing something, and maybe that something was another person to help him.
Fang secured our place with locks and tape. If anyone broke in, we would know when we came back, and we would have to find another place to stay. Getting out may be the easy part, he told me. It was the staying out that would be the hardest.
We flew in silence. But I realized that even after all the pain I had been through, there was some beauty in flying. As night fell, Fang's wings glinted purple in the moonlight, and I found myself smiling at them, looking away quickly when he glanced at me. It made me wonder what he thought about me, but at least I knew he trusted me now, and it felt really good to know that I finally had someone to trust again, after all those years of being tricked by those evil scientists.
When we reached the town, after almost a full day of flying, we took refuge in the same old abandoned house. The sun was just coming up.
"I brought some cereal." Fang pulled out two ziplocks. "They sorta got crushed."
I shrugged, taking a seat on the couch, starting to eat the crumbs anyway. It was better than not eating anything. He took a seat next to me, but unlike the last time we were here, he was only inches from me now.
"Uhm, Max?" He sounded unsure of himself.
"Yeah?"
"If one of us has to stay there, it's going to be me. Whoever we can get, take them here. And if you can, just start heading back to the city already. Get as far as you can, and don't come back for me."
"We're not going to get separated." I looked him in the eye. "And I'm not going to just leave you there."
He looked defeated. "Alright."
And then he stood, closing the curtains, making himself busy as I ate my cereal.
We slept for a little bit, waking just as the sun went down. It was eerily cloudy tonight, the moon barely visible, unlike last night, and I tried not to take it as a bad omen. I told myself I wouldn't believe in superstition like that.
The tree line stopped on the edge of the barbed wire fences that outlined the property of where we had spent so many years being tortured. The place seemed dead, with few dark windows, but inside, I knew there were lives being taken, people being tortured. There was a lone set of security gates, and the guard looked like he was asleep.
"Our way in is through that window over there." Fang pointed. "That side of the building is where they never take us. That's where they keep all of their so called failed experiments."
We sat in the trees for a long time, watching the sleeping security guard. I was surprised they didn't have handlers patrolling the outside, but then again, this place was probably just supposed to be some warehouse or whatever, something the public didn't care about.
"Are you ready?" Fang asked, the moon peeking through the clouds now.
I nodded and he took off, me following. We reached the window and he took out a screwdriver, unlatching it so we could get in undetected. The inside office was dark, the only light from a laptop screen.
"If we come out this way, we're taking that," Fang murmured.
The next obstacle was the door. Well, opening it and hoping there was no one on the other side. Fang pressed his ear too it and shook his head. "Nothing but air ventilation. I'm going to open it."
I held my breath, but it lead to one of those white hallways, that hospital smell filling our noses. I cringed and Fang frowned, but he led the way down the hall after closing the door behind us.
The door at the end of the hallway read Restricted. Fang took a long time to pick the lock, but he finally got it open, and we entered a dark room. There were people in here.
"Don't hurt us!" I heard someone whimper.
"We promise to do what you want," another added.
Fang turned on the light, revealing cages.
"We're here to get you out," Fang said quietly.
They all looked incredulous, except for one small girl. She had to be at least half our age. "Take Iggy first. He needs to get out of here more than we do. The cage, right in front of you."
Fang began to fumble with the lock. I peered into the cage. He looked cramped in there, and terrified. But he was our age, or maybe older.
"He can't see," the little girl informed us. "Hurry up, they're coming."
Fang finally got the lock undone. Iggy untangled himself and Fang helped him out by the arm.
"Get my brother next!" The little girl pointed at the cage between hers and Iggy's. Let Iggy pick the lock."
Either Fang knew something that I didn't, or he was going with his gut feeling to listen to this girl. Iggy undid the lock of the girl's brother. He had to be eight or nine maybe. Just as he clamored out, the door on the opposite side of the room burst open, handlers charging in.
"I'm going to find a way back," Fang said quickly to the little girl. "You and the others, you tell them to hold on. I'll be back as soon as I can, as soon as I can find a safe place."
And the girl nodded quickly.
"Angel, I'm not leaving you and Nudge!" The boy said to his sister as we started to run towards the door we had come in.
"You have to, Gazzy!" Angel shook her head. "It's the only way. I promise we'll be okay."
I was leading the way out, back to the room where we had broken in from. Iggy seemed to be keeping up, despite being blind, and I almost thought that I had misheard Angel. Gazzy was now close behind, but when I looked back again, one of the handlers had caught Fang.
"Go, Max!" Fang punched one of the handlers in the face. "You have to go!"
There was another door, opposite to the end of the door that had read Restricted in this white hallway. It burst open, wolves running towards us. I ducked into the room, grabbing the laptop, and directed the other two to the window. Iggy took off clumsily, and Gazzy seemed to be having trouble.
"Keep going! I'll catch up!" I shouted.
When I turned, the wolves were now outside the room. I waited to the last second, hoping Fang would come through, but he didn't. The wolves were surrounding me now, but I noticed there something different about them, I couldn't quite place my finger on it. One of them caught my attention, staring me right in the eye, and then I took off out the window.
It was like it had just let me go.