Chapter five
After the rest had gone to bed, I reach and feel my newly bandaged back. I still don't want to sleep.
"Get some sleep." Says Dezzie, making me jump out of my skin.
"In a bit." I lie.
"Bullshit. I'll keep watch." He says and sits up. I sigh heavily and lie down on the cold floor, eventually I let sleepiness take over.
I wake up hours later, sunlight filling the lab. I hadn't woken up to sunlight since I was four. If I were anywhere else it would've been nice. I blink and rub my eyes sleepily, I dreamt of Josephine and Noah the whole night.
Everyone else was awake.
"Oh, sorry." I say guiltily.
Victor and his cronies burst through the doors, smiling. Not a good sign.
"Now, let's get started." He says, rubbing his pig like hands together.
"Wait- I get why I'm here, but what about them?" I say, thinking on my feet.
He grins.
"1302. You're here because you were a failed experiment. Not only that, but we did also succeed on one thing, another power." He says giddily. Dezzie looks pale.
"What power?" he asks.
"Super hearing!" he squeals. My heart stops. Another power?
"And you." He looks at the rest,
"You're here because we need new samples to try out!"
I gulp.
"Let's take 40,502." He says looking at the guards. He reaches into our cell, I do the first thing I think of.
I bite him.
"ARGH!" he yells and stumbles back, clutching his bloody hand.
"Very well, take the girl." He says, eerily calm. I'm led away without protesting, through halls and up and down stairs. I start making a mental map of the place, not that I need to. I know it better than anywhere. Finally, we reach an operation -like table and I'm strapped down. I mutter directions as I go along, hoping he'd figure it out.
Meanwhile…
"Dez, just try." Says Casper, looking at him hopefully. Dezzie sighs and squeezes his eyes shut.
"Nothing." He says, defeated. The others groan.
"Have you been able to do it before?" asks Flynn. Dezzie thinks.
"Maybe- I thought I was imagining stuff, but I remember being able to hear Mercury, talking to another boy about a tattoo. I thought I was crazy, until she walked in my room with two new tattoos." He says, suddenly lighting up.
"Yes! What were you thinking about before-" Flynn says,
"Mercury!" he shouts. He closes his eyes and thinks only of Mercury. After a minute or so, he sits bolt upright.
"I know where she is, she's been muttering directions. She knew I'd figure it out! We have to get out of here!" he whispers.
The others nod excitedly.
They spot only two guards. Alec calls them over. Like robots they stop in front of the cage. Flynn shuffles forwards so he's by their feet.
Alec jumps up and starts distracting them by begging for some food, the stupid idiots begin to laugh. Flynn wraps his arms around the first guard's ankles, Casper does the same to the second guard, they both yell and take out their guns, but Alec knocks them out their hands and smashes them against the cage, making them unconscious. Casper grabs the keys and unlocks the door, the three of them run out.
"Hey guys!" shouts Dezzie, still on the floor. They turn back, grabbing a hospital wheelchair.
Meanwhile…
Come on, please use your power, I think as Victor starts prepping needles and sharpening knifes and scalpels.
"Now, show me your wings." he orders, I roll my eyes, he really thinks I'll do as he says?
"Don't know how." I lie, he sighs.
"Yes, you do. Now change or I'll shoot one of your friends, we don't need them all." He says lazily. I realize he wouldn't hesitate.
"I can't if I'm strapped down." I say slowly.
"Fine." He huffs and unstraps the top few ones. Carefully, I take off the bandages, to find new scars, not cuts. I stare at them in confusion.
"Fascinating." He gawps, I roll my eyes. Painfully, I push out my wings, making new cuts in my back. I grit my teeth as I unfurl my huge wings, they must reach about 5 feet long. He smiles proudly and his goonies force me back down. Oh shit.
He takes out a long needle and bag filled with some sort of green liquid. Double shit. I mutter under my breath, hoping Dezzie figured it out.
"Dezzie, come on. I'm in an operating room, the door said 320." I whisper, over and over again. Victor approaches me. Come on Dezzie.
He pulls the needle up-
"Stop!" I hear a voice behind him yell, I sigh with relief. But he sticks the needle into my wing. I groan. Uh oh.
I see the four boys run over; I see someone punch Victor- a good punch as well. Then the world begins to move, slant sideways and darken, at last my eyes flutter closed and I'm no longer conscious.
I wake up sometime later, I feel myself moving but I'm not walking. I look up to see Casper's blood ridden face. We're outside, outside the hospital. We made it.
"Go down that turn," I say. My speech slurred. Casper looks down in surprise and follows my direction.
"Go to the fifth house." I say, not being able to move my body. They go without speaking.
"Knock 8 times." I instruct, and they do. We use this house in case there's any severely injured when we rescue the kids.
A tall, old guy opens the door, he ushers us in before speaking to us. We're taken to the kitchen.
"Mer! What happened?" asks Doug.
"Got kidnapped- escaped. The usual." I joke, he chuckles and sweeps the kitchen table, making everything fly off with a crash.
Casper puts me on the table and five pairs of peering eyes loom over me.
"What up." I say in the awkward silence.
"Um Mercury? You have… wings." says Doug, eyes wide.
"Oh yeah." I say, too tired to explain. I fall asleep in seconds.
I wake up in the cold kitchen and rub my head. I look down to see the boys sat against the wall or against the table legs, fast asleep.
I groan slightly and manage to sit up, at least I can move again. I look down at my wings, I'm still never gonna get used to that, and see a cannula sticking out of it with a tube connected to a bag, the bag was filling with the green liquid. I look at my hand and saw another cannula, pumping fluids in me.
I look down at my grubby tank top and dirty ripped jeans, and man I smell. I really need a shower. I see Doug stroll in, looking sleepy, he jumps in surprise when he sees me, then smiles.
"It's a good thing you came when you did, a few more minutes and you'd be dead." He said cheerfully.
"Thanks, for everything, we'll get out your hair now-" I say apologetically and start to get up.
"No, no. Have a shower, eat and I have spare clothes as always, and I can help you find the others." He says knowingly. I smile.
"Oh, by the way, where's Noah? You guys are inseparable." He chuckles. I feel the life drain from me.
"He's… dead." I say, he looks shocked and sad at the same time.
"I'm so-" he starts,
"Not your fault." I finish and start taking the cannulas out. I jump in the shower, feeling the grime and dirt fall off me. I scrub my hair and under my fingernails. I change quickly into Doug's old shirt, which hangs off me but I roll the sleeves up several times and tie the two ends together in the middle, I grab some jeans he keeps for when we need them and use a belt to stop them falling down. I stare at my hair. I hate that Victor has seen it; I hate that the guards have grabbed it. I don't know why but it bothers me. Without thinking, I grab a pair of scissors and cut it. I gape at the chunk of pink hair in my hand, I shrug and start cutting the rest. It ends up looking pretty good, if I do say so myself, it hangs just above my shoulders, I flip my hair over and dry it.
I walk down the narrow stairs and into the kitchen and see all four boys eating a cooked breakfast. No one notices me, so I walk behind them and say quietly.
"Bathroom's free."
"MERCURY!" yells Flynn and wraps his arms around me, I stand like a statue, not expecting the reaction.
"Flynn, can't breathe." I gasp. He releases me. I sit in between Dezzie and Casper.
"I'm gonna shower." Announces Alec and walks off. Doug places some breakfast in front of me and I gobble it down in the blink of an eye. No one mentions the hair, so I don't either.
"Jesus, you hungry?" Dezzie says, raising both eyebrows at me.
"You would too if you nearly died," I quip. No one laughs.
"It's a joke." I say, they all sigh in relief. A few minutes Alec emerges, with dripping hair.
The next few boys go, lastly Dezzie.
"Erm, how can I get up the stairs?" he says quietly.
"Oh! Erm, I guess someone will have to carry you," Doug says awkwardly, Dezzie stares at me in a way I know he wants to talk to me.
"I'll take him." I say and leap up, the other boys stare at me as if I've gone mad.