"I just saw my best friend, who was like a brother, and Josephine who was like my mother die along with four other people right before my eyes." I say quietly, Flynn turns bright red.
Dezzie was still staring,
"What?" I snap. He points to my face, I feel around and realise I have a huge black and yellow bruise along my cheek bone, my eye turned purple and my glasses smashed.
We drive for what seemed like hours.
"Look, we're on our own now. We don't know if anyone else survived or where they are. Our one shot out of here is if we get away from the guards, so when we stop, we give it our all, yes?" I say. The others look up and nod, even Flynn.
As the others eventually fall asleep, I stay wide awake, scared of the dreams I'd have. Alec stares at me.
"What was the hospital like?" he says quietly. Taken aback, I sit in silence for a few minutes.
"Horrible. We were tested, prodded, tortured. The scientists were the worst, their only goal was to find out why we were different, by any means necessary. I always talked back to them, so they'd leave the others alone. It worked for the most part, except the one time I couldn't, they had taken skin from my neck, face, back, almost everywhere. Without anaesthetic. They left the wounds open so they could see if my body reaction was different. That one day was the day Dezzie got paralyzed. They thought being LGBTQ would affect our abilities. But I've blocked out a lot of it." I say, then stop realizing I said too much. I blink out of my daze,
"Sorry." I say.
We pull to a stop and Alec and I quickly wake the others. The doors burst open and ten, maybe even twenty guards swarm towards us.
They grab us out of the cage, carrying Dezzie by his feet and arms. As we planned, we all fight back. Alec being the tallest and most muscley hits a few guards but is easily overtaken by more. We continue to struggle as we're dragged into the lab.
I freeze as I enter, unwanted memories flood my mind. It's an effort to breath.
Other than the guards, there's only five of us, and five cages as if they've been waiting for us. The room is surrounded by machines, tools and various medications and equipment. I gulp as I'm forced into the cage, it's the size of a large dog crate. Two cages surround each side, Alec in one, Flynn in the other, opposite is Dezzie and Casper. They all look pale and scared, no one other than Dezzie and I had been here before.
"Well, well, well. We've found you at last, good to see you, number 1301." Says a familiar voice, cold as ice. I gulp. The brute of a man, the head scientist, stalks towards my cage smugly. He kneels down, his disgusting face inches from mine.
"My, my. You have grown," he snarls.
"Yes, that's what happens. It's called time, and biology, surely as a scientist you should know that." I snap, I see Dezzie give me a warning look. Victor, the head scientist, growls and goes to smack me, I move back and laugh.
He stands up and walks over to the next cage, kicking mine as he goes.
I look beside me, Alec stares at me open mouthed. I see Victor write our numbers on the clipboard on our cages. On mine he writes; 1301. On Casper's he writes; 40,500. On Dezzie's; 1302. Flynn's; 40,5o1. Alec's; 40,502.
Victor laughs again, sending cold shivers up my spine.
"Alright, let's start with…" he spins round the room, pretending to point randomly. He lands on me.
"Scarface!" he laughs, his old nickname for me.
I'm dragged out by my hair; I grit my teeth as I'm pulled to my feet. Two burly guards pull me over to him.
"Now, tell me. Where have the others gone?" he whispers, making my insides flip.
"Dunno." I say blankly, staring right into Victor's black, soulless eyes.
"Very well, we have other methods of getting to the truth. But first, I need to see if you're still… if you still have them." He says, nodding to the guards.
"Have what?" I snarl.
"You really think I'm going to tell you?" He says, looking down his pointy nose.
"Well, your going to kill us eventually, after you get whatever it is you want from us. May as well." I answer, trying to feed into his ego, his biggest weakness.
"I see you never lost that cheek of yours. Very well, we need to see if you still have your powers." He states.
My what?
"Powers?" I say, wrinkling my nose.
He cackles.
"Didn't they tell you? Why do you think we took a special interest in you? Stupid girl… yes, your powers, the ones we gave you. We need more samples to see what exactly they are, to see if we can recreate them. You are very much a disappointment, too disobedient."
I stand there, stunned.
"You've finally done it, finally gone mad." I spit, not looking away from his bottomless eyes. He raises one eyebrow.
"And I thought you were clever. Obviously, that's not your power… We implanted wings into your skeleton, we failed at 1302's but…" he trails off. My mind whirls, could this be true? No, I would know if there were wings in my back…
"Your lying." I say, trying to convince myself more than anyone.
"Really? Let's put it to the test, shall we?" he smirks and my body fills with cold ice.
The others are dragged out of their cages to watch the 'show'. They lead us up some stairs and onto the roof. Oh boy.
They drag me over to the ledge; I kick and drag my heels but it's no use. They force me onto the ledge, cold wind whistles through my pink hair, making my teeth chatter and goosebumps appear.
"No!" I hear Alec scream, I turn to see him, but I feel my self being pushed.
I gasp and I plummet towards the cold pavement below. I squeeze my eyes shut, waiting for the impact. I wait some more. I still wait. I feel air pushing me upwards. I open my eyes; this must be what death is, an endless cycle of falling. But no, my heart is still beating, I'm still alive. I look in confusion to the side, two wings appear from my back. One black, one white.
But it doesn't make sense? How can I fly? I have no more time to think, I take the chance and speed off, only to be stopped by an electric force buzzing through me. An electric shock, I turn and see Victor and his goonies cackling and I'm forced back, the further I try to go the more painful it is.
I land in a heap, my wings still spread. I gape at them in awe. I have wings. This can't be right. It's impossible. The others gape at me too.
"What the-" says Dezzie. I feel my feathers, soft and light. I almost like them, but then I remember who gave them to me and it turns back to hate.
We're dragged back to our cages, my wings roughly shoved in. I'm never gonna get used to saying that.
The others stare at me, mouths open. I try putting them back, wherever they came from. I can't, I don't know how. I try moving them, only to find excruciating pain. I turn and see two long slits in my jumper, where my wings must've burst through.
"Does it- hurt?" asks Flynn, breaking the silence.
"It didn't when the first came out, but I think it was adrenaline. But they hurt now, a lot." I whisper, my back aches.
He nods. Silence.
"I studied medicine, the human anatomy, maybe I can help?" offers Flynn.
"What- so you can call me weak again?" I scoff. He looks down, red faced.
"I didn't mean what I said. I was just… scared. But I can help, I think." He says. It'll do, for now. I nod.
"Well, I think your wings are inside your body, that's what it looked like anyways, like they tore through your skin. So, make try moving them first?" he explains. Painfully, I move them both. Then one at a time.
"Ok, good. Try tucking them in." he suggests. I tuck them with ease.
"Great! Now try pulling them in, inside your back?" he says, slightly confused I try. Surprisingly, and with so much pain I have to stuff my sleeve in my mouth to stop myself screaming, I manage it. Tears fall slowly but I wipe them quickly. I shift so I'm sat cross legged. I smile gratefully at him but feel hot blood drip down my back. I turn my neck and I can just about see two long, raw, deep cuts surrounded by old and fresh blood.
"Ouch." Dezzie says, looking worryingly pale.
"Yeah." Is all I can say. I wait for the others to fall asleep, which doesn't take long. Finally, I let myself cry. I sob and cover my mouth to not make a sound. I lean against the metal bars and rock as I cry. I think about Josephine and Noah. The two most important people, gone. I take a shuddering breath. They're gone, they're never coming back…
I hear a squeak and immediately wipe my eyes and sit up. I see Victor and his goonies race towards us.
"Wake up!" I shout, the other's spring to life. They back up to the furthest place in their cells.
Victor laughs.
"I see you've figured out how to control your wings, very good." He hisses. He crouches in front of my cell; I push up my broken glasses and stare at him. Lines of old age crease him, the endless pit of evil in his eyes stares back at me.
"Your reward." He grins. I snarl at him. He stands up. He nods to his goonies who split into pairs and grab us from our cages. We fight against them, but we're easily dragged into another room, identical except this one has a largeish cage, just one. They throw the five of us in it and slam the door. The cage is barely enough room. On the floor lay five pairs of hospital scrubs, a bandage and stuff to clean my wounds, as well as some mouldy bread.
I reach for the bandage, but realise I still had my jumper on. Thankfully, I remembered to wear a tank top underneath. Painfully, I lift my jumper over my head, pieces of fabric stick to my cuts, I pull hard to tear it. My eyes watering. Finally, I throw the ruined jumper out the cage. I lift up some tissue and antiseptic and attempt to clean it- it doesn't end well. I sigh and start trying again.
"Oh, give it here," snaps Dezzie, sounding and looking like his old self.
After helping Dezzie move, which was a challenge in itself since he was tall and surprisingly heavy.