Code Black [The Experiments Book 1]

Chapter 1: Summer

Chapter 1: Summer

Inner thoughts kept her going. Only a matter of time before an explosion numbed her ear drums and the sound of silence filled the air. Shrapnel propels and scatters like rockets and splinters of wood pierce through everything in its path, even an innocent bystander. Her back lies against the bottom of the tipped bus, head swimming from the lack of sound. Her brain searching for gravitational forces that kept her there, hoping she would not lose balance. Bullets fly towards them from the other side, clinking against the metal and splintering trees. As her hearing returns, she makes a quick decision. The only choice left was to jump over the bus and sacrifice everything to create a distraction so the rest of the team could attack at full power. No one would suspect it. She was the only one who could jump that high. Slowly getting up, she looked over to another soldier. Nodding to him, she jumped over the bus and pointing the gun at an entire fleet of enemies.

"Karissa," a voice called as her vision blurred and refocused on the speaker. The battle faded into smoky darkness until her eyes came into focus on a clock, its second's hand ticking vigorously to the eleven. She pulled her eyes away, focusing on the figure next to her.

"Karissa, only a minute left until the stampede," Rachel whispered, twirling her ruddy hair anxiously over her mouth. She boiled with excitement, and nearly blew out her lungs into a horrifying shriek. Hopefully Karissa had enough time to go back to the battle for a little while.

"Ten," Rachel whimpered, thumping her feet hard against the ground. Ten seconds to come up with ten thoughts. 1. I hope my summer is as great as the battle that I just seemed to lose. 2. Maybe I can take drivers education and my license. 3. Megan Fox needs a life.

"Five," Carmen said from behind me. She needed to speed her brain up before shutting it down for the summer. 4. I need a job. "Four." 5. I need to learn how to scuba dive. "Three." 6. Don't need to think for the rest of the summer. 7. Yes! "Two." 8. I need more time. 9. I hope I can get more flying in now that it is summer.

"Bwooop!" The bell erupted in one deafening scream, and chairs creaked and slammed against the floor as people ran to the doors. 10. School's out. Her ears rung with the shrilling noise, creeping all the way down her spine as she cringed. She wrote the last sentence on her final exam, and sighed in relief. Fingers burned from writing for an hour and a half, but it was bearable enough. It was the end of the school year after all.

As soon as the doors opened and the courtyard welcomed her, the smell of sticky garbage and spoiled milk wafted through her nose. She charged out the double doors behind a giant crowd and into the courtyard to meet friends by the gate. She ran, gagging at the smell unable to stand it any longer. Excited to be out of school for three months, her heart pumped at a thousand miles an hour. Then, looking up at the clear blue sky, she absorbed the warmth of the sun and cool rush of the wind. Pigeons flew every which way, enjoying the heat and singing their way through the day.

She still didn't have any idea what to do over the summer. She never planned anything and nothing ever happened at the beginning of the summer. She always sat at home, drawing or listening to music if she wasn't out with her friends or her parents. It was hard to go out with friends. They were always busy, and the weather was not favorable. Her physical condition stopped her from wearing bathing suits, but she only worried about it if the time came. It wasn't too hard to hide, but there would be odd rivets in her back that gave it away.

I am not a normal human; I am a mutant, a freak, or even a supernatural. I was created like everyone else, born the same way, raised the same way, but had genes similar to an eagle.

Before her birth, her mother was attacked by a golden eagle. It dived down at her, catching a talon in her arm. It sunk deeper and deeper as the eagle tried to rip it out. He kept tugging, lengthening the cut until it unlatched and the eagle flew off, befuddled. Her arm became one big flap of tissue that kept bleeding, but nobody noticed eagle blood seeped into it, or the bacteria that grew on it. It flowed from her bloodstream, and into her baby. They assumed the eagle was rabid because of the bacterial infection. Somehow, the baby's body absorbed that bacteria, fought of the cell and stole its DNA and the DNA the bacteria stole from the eagle. She was born with wings on my back, hollow bones, and bird organs needed to survive as a supernatural. She was immune to every strain of that bacteria, and could never catch that kind of infection.