Chapter 12 - Waking Up Is Hard To Do

Fight or Flight Part 2 - Near & Far Chapter 12: Waking Up Is Hard To Do Max POV My eyes snapped open. White. An extremely bright white light. I closed my eyes again almost instantly, the light making them hurt. I opened them again, slowly his time, letting my pupils adjust, which didn’t take long for someone who was half-bird, half-human. What was this light? Was I dead? My head suddenly felt like it was going to explode. I didn’t get headaches very often but when I did, they were bad. And I mean bad. Like having your head torn open and having someone bang a sledgehammer on the inside of your skull bad. The pain was too intense. The light started to fade and I slipped back into unconsciousness, away from the light, and into the darkness. Nudge POV I jerked awake and sat up instantly. I had been having a dream. Something about the sea and a fight in the air. Some sort of flash too. The more I though about it the less I remembered and pretty soon, I had forgotten it completely. I looked around, which was pretty pointless. Even with the eyes of a half-bird, half-human, I couldn’t see much. It was almost pitch black. I could make out the fain outline of bars next to me and more around the room. The smell as well! It was horrible! I had a strong suspicion of where I was and feared the worse. All of a sudden there was a noise. Someone groaning. I went still and held my breath. I could hear them, their breathing getting heavier. How had I not heard their breathing before? I heard them shuffle, and pinpointed where they were in the room. I could still not see them though. Then the person called out. “Nudge? Is that you?” I breathed again. Angel. “Yes it’s me. Are you OK? How did you know it was me?” I asked hurriedly. “I sensed you,” She said tiredly. “And I’m fine. Where are we?” “I not sure.’ I lied. “Can you sense the others?” I asked quickly before she could figure out I was lying. She paused for a second, and then said “No. But it doesn’t mean they aren’t close.” We were silent for a long time after that. I wanted to ask a thousand questions, but held my tongue, like Max would have done. Instead I tried to think of a plan, but I came up short. With only the two of us, it would be almost impossible; there would be no chance of escape. Then, as if God himself had been listening, that all changed. Max POV My eyes snapped open, again. Only I didn’t close them straight away this time. The light was dimmer. I could see now that it was a normal light, just quite bright. I tried to get up but my arms and legs wouldn’t move. I looked down at them and saw they wee in large metal brackets, holding them in place. I sighed and looked round the room. It was exactly like a hospital ward. White, clean, the strong smell of antiseptic in the air, which I hated, and beds at regular intervals all around the room, with a door on left of the room. Except these beds had no cushions or covers. They were flat and shiny. Metal beds, all with brackets just like mine I couldn’t see my bed properly, because it hurt to move my neck, but I presumed it was same from the hard cold feel of it on my back. I decided it was best to get out of here as soon as possible. I had a strong feeling I knew where I was, and wanted nothing more than to find the flock and get out. I started to pull my arms up, hoping to break out of the brackets. I had broken out of tougher things than this. I should be able to make short work of this. As a half-bird, I was stronger than most human adults. Although I only weighed around 100 pounds, I had hidden muscles. I should have been able to break out, but couldn’t. After struggling for around 10 minutes I was completely worn out and extremely tired. It had drained me a lot. More than it should have done. As I lay there, wondering why I could not break out, I slowly but surely drifted off to sleep.

Nudge POV There was a noise, it sounded like it was coming form outside the room, someone struggling. There was the sound of a door opening and then a flick of a switch. A dim light flickered on. It took a couple of seconds for my eyes to adjust and when they did I saw a whitecoat. He was pulling a boy along behind him and walked into the room, opened the cage and threw the boy in. He locked the cage behind him, walked out the room and closed the door behind him. The boy was small, around 8 years old, had matted brown hair and could mimic almost any voice with ease. It was Gazzy. He was slumped down in the corner of the cage his head resting against one of he bars, his fringe covering his eyes. I hadn’t noticed a fringe before on him. I looked at my hair and saw it was at least an inch longer. How long had we been down here?! “Gazzy!” I called out to him. “Gazzy can you hear me?” He just lay there, breathing regularly. “Do you think he’s OK?” Angel asked worriedly. I looked over at her and saw that her hair had grown noticeably too. It had also turned very scraggly and the natural wisps had gone. “He looks fine but there is no telling until he wakes up” I replied confidently. With Max, Fang, Iggy, and Will too I suppose, not present it was up to me to take charge, to be the leader and take care of this part of the flock. I had to act confident, strong like I always knew what to do, even when I didn’t. I had to act like Max. “That’s if he wakes up.” Angel replied quietly. Max POV There was a sharp pain in my neck. I opened my eyes to see a man standing over me. He was middle aged, bald, with white hair around the back of his head. He had a white goatee and wore a white scientist’s coat. To anyone else, they would have thought him just another whitecoat, but to the flock, and me he was Jeb Batchelder. The man who had taken care of me and the flock for 4 years of our life, before betraying us. He was standing over me, injecting me with something, into my neck. Before I could try to move away he had removed the needle and taken a step back. “What are you doing here?” I asked him weakly. “Well, Max,” He replied in his soft, reassuring voice. “I have just injected you with a serum which weakens your muscles, so you can’t escape, and now I am standing here talking to you.” He smiled. I didn’t. “Why would you do that?” I slurred. It already seemed to be taking effect. “Well otherwise you could easily breakout of these.” He laughed, pointing to the brackets. “It might have a side effect too.” “Well what’s that?” I asked confused. “It will make you a bit slow to realize things.” He chuckled. I thought about this, wondering what he meant. Then I realized. “Oh, right, that makes sense.” I said flatly. Just because I was doped up, didn’t mean that it would make me like Jeb, even if he tried to make me. “Why did you bring me back here?” I asked. “We’ve broken out before, we can do it again.” “Ah yes, but you don’t even know where you are.” He smiled. “Well it’s kind of obvious. Metal beds, hospital wards and psychotic scientists. It’s obviously the school.” I sneered. “Ah that’s where you’re wrong! We are in a place called Facility B!” He laughed. I paused. “Where’s that?” I asked, even though I already knew. “Ah, I can’t tell you that now can I!” He smiled. “No I suppose not.” I mused. Suddenly there was a bang outside the room, some shouting and heard someone screaming in anger. We looked towards the door as a whitecoat ran in through the door, just as an alarm went off. “Jeb! We need help!” He shouted. “He’s got ou-“ but he was cut off as another whitecoat came flying through the doors, unconscious landing on top of him, knocking him out. There were more sounds of scuffles outside, a few more bangs then silence.

“Wait here!” Jeb said to me before he ran through the doors. Like I could do anything else. I could hear the muffled sounds of talking, and a bang. The talking continued. I could make out any of it. After what seemed like a long drug induced age, which it was, a familiar figure walked through the door. Ari POV I walked down a dark dingy corridor. The walls were damp, and the wallpaper had turned a dirty brown. It wasn’t nice, but it was the only way to get there. I came up to a large metal door, which looked completely out of place. There was a keypad next to it and I typed in the code. The door slid open, revealing the size of it. 5 feet thick, steel plated. It was designed to keep things in, and out. I stepped through and it slid closed behind me, making a large clunking sound as it did. The room I entered was grey concrete everywhere, with some industrial pipes going along the ceiling. There was a large window to the left of the room, with another metal door next to it. On the other side of the window was a room with the same grey, industrial feel to it. The walls had large cracks and dents in, as if they had been hit with a sledgehammer repeatedly. Inside were a basic metal bed, and a toilet. On the bed was a sleeping boy, around 15 years old, scraggly, unkempt brown hair, wearing dirty, torn clothes. I stepped up to the window and watched. He was tossing and turning in his sleep, muttering his sisters’ name over and over again. I decided to get on with what I’d been sent here to do. “Will! Wake up!” I shouted. He jerked awake and sat up and looked at me. Then he said, “When are you going to do it?” “When am I going to do what?” I asked back. “Kill me!” he shouted angrily. “You’ve kept me here, for over a month, asking me questions, I don’t know the answers to!” He paused, his eyes glowing. “Yet you’re feeding me, keeping me alive. And for what?! You made me this way; you should already have known everything! I don’t even think my sister is alive anymore-“ “Oh she’s alive Will! I can get someone to bring her here right now if you want?” I queried. Will laughed maniacally, and then smiled. “Go on then!” He shouted. “Humour me!” and then he laughed again and lay back down on his bed and started to whistle. I took the walkie out my pocket and ordered a whitecoat to bring her here. I waited about 5 minutes, whilst Will just lay there whistling to himself. Then I heard the door behind me open and I walked over to it. A small girl, with strawberry blonde hair walked through, with a scientist escorting her. The door closed and I led the girl to the window. “Will!” I called. He looked up and saw Emily. He went wide-eyed then ran over to the window. “Emily! Are you OK? Have they hurt you? Are you OK?” He asked frantically. “Can we go home soon Will? I don’t like it here.” She moaned through the glass. “Yes, yes, I‘ll take you home soon OK? I’m going to get you home!” He cried putting his hands up against the window, as if he could reach through. I smiled, and then shouted “Right, that’s enough! Take her away!” I said to the scientist. “No no no no! Please! Don’t take her! PLEASE!” Will screamed, but they had already left. Will walked over to the wall and shouted out as loud as he could, slamming his fists into the wall, leaving large cracks in the concrete. “Now Will, if you ever want to see your sister again, you are going to have to do something for us.” I said calmly as he slumped down against the wall and broke down in tears. “What do you want me to do?” He cried. I smiled darkly and began to tell him.