Experiment

Chapter 10: Finally

"Oh, Laura . . ." Trudy trailed off, disbelieving.

Laura beamed with happiness. "I found . . . my power." Love and power was coursing through her, filling her and gushing out of her. She felt alive, like she could run a thousand miles and not be tired. She even laughed out loud, rejoicing in her freedom.

Trudy snapped back to her senses. "Laura, we have to go back for Benjamin, we can't just leave him there!"

Laura looked solemnly out at the desert sands. "Yes, we must." she turned around to face the fence.

Oh, no! Guards around the metal fence stared at the two hybrids that appeared out of nowhere, baffled, but soon got over their shock and began running towards them, ensuing a chase.

"No!"

"Come back, you stupid hybrids!"

"Stop!"

"You idiot! We should have put a tracker on them!"

"It wasn't my fault!"

The guards shouted and cursed at Trudy and Laura as they desperately tried to get away, dodging the tranquilizer darts whizzing past them.

Laura struggled to keep up with Trudy, even though she was flying as fast as she could. Then something awful happened.

"Auughh!" Laura panicked as a searing pain shot through her wing and caused her to fall. One of the darts had ripped her wing.

Thankfully, Trudy noticed and picked her up, awkwardly trying to run with her hunched back, shouts still coming from behind.

The pain was too much for Laura, and she was starting pass out. Before everything went black, she thought faintly of how if they ever did find the Unchained, how were they ever going to get their true forms back?

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Laura opened her eyes. The glaring sun made her squint and she blinked.

Where am I? She thought. Suddenly a rush of memories came back from the previous day, and she remembered. She winced as she felt a terrible pain in her right wing. She looked back. The top part was torn, so much so that she knew she couldn't fly anymore.

All the breath rushed out of her. "Oh, no . . ."

"You're awake," Trudy said softly. She was looking down at Laura sympathetically.

"W-what happened? Did we get away?" Laura said shakily, glancing around.

"Yes, we did." She smiled faintly.

Laura looked at her friend and saw that she was battered and bruised, which was not surprising, considering she had run so long.

She looked around and saw they were still in the desert, but there were a few scrawny trees here and there.

"They chased me for a while, but I led them through some cliffs and narrow spaces and eventually they gave up." she shook her head. "It was hard, though. They got me in my arm, but I pulled it out in time." she held it up, floppy and unmoving. "But I'm okay. It's you I'm worried about."

Trudy had found a small campsite and had stopped there last night. There was a little burned-out pile of ashes and a plastic bag full of food. The person must have taken the tent with them. Luckily, the person hadn't come back yet.

"Come on, we'd better get moving." Trudy said gently.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

A middle - aged woman named Sue was just coming back after a hike in the Arizona mountains. She had wanted her husband to come with her also, but he had flatly refused to spend four days hiking in the "hot, hellish Arizona sandstorms" as he put it. Sue was starting to think staying home might have been a good idea too.

She had gone on the trip because she had wanted a "different" sort of vacation and also because she knew absolutely nothing about Arizona or how awful the weather was there. And oh! The bugs! Snakes, scorpions, and many different kinds of bugs lived there. She was definitely wishing she had stayed home.

The previous night she had slept in the mountains because she had miscalculated how far she was going and how much time it would take her to get back, but she didn't get a wink of sleep, running over in her head all the horror stories of people camping out in the wilderness and never coming back.

So ever since the sun came up she had been hiking back to her campsite. Little did she know she was about to be in for a big surprise.

She was almost at her campsite. She wiped sweat from her forehead and put her hand above her eyes. What was that creature close to her camp? She was about to find out.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

"Uhh, Trudy? We have a problem."

"You see someone?" Trudy frowned. "It might be the camper who's staying here. Let's go, quick."

Trudy picked up Laura and got ready to run. But Sue was still going, and was coming faster, and she caught up before they could make a break for it. She looked at Trudy, wide-eyed, but then flipped her hiking stick sideways, and pointed it at her. Trudy didn't know what to do so she started timidly,

"We don't mean any harm . . ."

The woman was now goggle-eyed and said in a hoarse voice,

"Who, or what, are you?"

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

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