A taste of freedom

Chapter 47

   I glanced down at the pen in my hand and continued running. I was fatigued at this point but the faster I do this the faster I can get back to Ace. I've been running for almost 12 hours now and it's complete mental torture. The fact that I know I've betrayed Ace's trust is weighing down on me. I shake the thoughts from my head and keep going. Well that was until I ran into someone. Figuratively speaking, that is. It was actually two people, a girl and a boy. The girl had on tight clothes and a pink strip in her hair. She also carried a baseball bat in one hand. The boy, had what looked like an X marking in his hair and carried a gun. It wasn't a very big gun but it was larger than mine.

I looked at them for good while until they noticed me. They seemed oddly familiar. When the girl saw me she yelled at the boy. "Cislo! Shoot it!" The boy snapped his head at me and pulled his gun up to look through the sights. He moved to pull the trigger but was stopped as I clenched my hand into a fist. The girl yelled in frustration and ran at me with her bat. Only as she raised her arms and her shirt was lifted, that I could see the tattoo on the side of her hip. Lambda. Now I know where I've seen them and why they looked familiar. I let her swing her bat at me and caught it with my left hand. I glared at her and broke the bat in my hand. "Just stop. I only want to talk."

I continued to glare at her and she stayed frozen in fear. "What kind of demon are you?!" She mumbled as she fell to the ground in defeat. I rolled my eyes and dropped the broken bat. "Look, I just wanna talk to you ok? I'm from the same place as you." I un-clenched my hand and dodged the bullet that was unintentionally fired at me by the boy, whose name I now know as Cislo. I grabbed the gun from him and broke it over my knee. It was a hard break but easy enough with the strength of a full grown wild demon coursing through my veins. I turned back to the girl who still sat in fear and rolled the end of my coat up. And my shirt came with it. It showed my lambda tattoo that had a large scar on the side of it from when Yuugo shot me.

She looked at my tattoo with a bit of curiosity but backed up a bit when I crouched down next to her. "Look, I'm a friend so I don't want to hurt you. I'm looking for the person who goes by the code name William Minerva. You know him I assume? He was also at Lambda." She blinked for a second and opened her mouth to say something but Cislo cut her off. "Barbra! Don't tell this bitch anything!" I was a bit irritated at Cislo right now. I felt my eyelid twitch and turned to face him. "Look I said I don't want to hurt you but if I don't get what I want... I just might have to take a few limbs-" "No! No, h-he's our boss ok? He got us outta that hell hole. I'll take you to meet him so just please let us live!" I glanced back at the girl. Judging by the way she looks she doesn't look like she would give in that easily.

I brush the thought from my mind and stand up, offer her my hand. "Take me. Now." She stood up on her own looking paler than a full moon. "Look, I won't hurt either of you as long as you take me to him. It's simple." Barbra relaxed just a tad but Cislo still had his guard up when we started walking. "So about how far are we from your hideout?" She stopped for a minute before walking with her eyes straight ahead. "How did you know we had a hideout?" She muttered. "I used to be a good friend of your boss' but we got separated awhile back. So it's only natural I would know he's not dumb enough to not have a hideout. Hell, he's probably smarter than me at this point." Barbra stiffened at this remark and spoke again. "Three hours." I nodded and we walked in silence the whole way there.

   When we got to the hideout, I was pleasantly surprised by the structure. It seemed to be like a whole civilization in a large tree. Typical of Norman to go big or go home. I followed Barbra and Cislo into the hideout and was greeted by the stares of many people. Mostly children too. They led me upstairs and told me to wait at the door while they talked to Norman. "You can go in now." Barbra uttered as I walked past her and into Norman's office. He was standing, arms crossed and leaning on his desk. He let out a breathy chuckle "took you long enough." I roll my eyes and observe him closely. He was much taller than myself now, and had a lot more hair sitting atop his head. He smiles at me and opens his arms for a hug so I give him one. It was genuinely nice but I get the feeling that something is wrong.

   "So, what brings you here? And all by yourself too?" I laugh and plop down on one of his comfy couches. "Well, the others went out on a little adventure and left me alone at the bunker so I decided to take a trip of my own." Lazily waved my hand at him and he sighed. "That sounds like something you'd do." I eyed him as he sat down on the arm chair in front of me. "This is a nice place is it not?" Norman shifted in his seat as he talked. "Ok, what is it that you're hiding?" He sucked in a large breath of air. "Still as sharp as ever I see." I cross my arms. "Well then, what is it?" He leans his arm onto the arm of the chair. "Peter Ratri knows you're alive and is looking for you." My eyes widened slightly. I'd expected something bad but this is not what I would've thought of. "Do you know how?"

   He nodded and I narrowed my eyes at him. "How?" He straightened himself up slightly, "apparently, one of the workers at Lambda returned to the wreckage of Lambda and identified you. They also seemed to notice that you were in fact, not a failed experiment on their part and are now seeking you out to finish their experiments and reach their final goals with you." That was a lot to take in. They must've been there when I met Mujika and Sonju. I gulped slightly and thought of the things I would have to endure if they got their hands on me. "Do- do you know what the original goal for me was?" I grimaced as I recalled rat man's words to me the first time we met. He shook his head no. "I-I found your file before destroying Lambda but I Uhh, I never opened it."  He walked over to his desk and pulled out a cream colored folder and brought it over to me. I took it into my hands and examined the scorch marks on the sides of some of it. I took a deep breath and opened the folder.

Word count: 1289