Shifters

Chapter 34

THEA

"That's a cool name," Luke said.

We all stared at him for a moment.

"What?" he said defensively. "It's cool."

"Thanks," the girl—Ren—said shortly.
Silence.

"So," Will said awkwardly.

More silence.

"What happened while I was gone?" Will asked me and Luke.

"They told us you were dead," I said. "The day after the, um, accident, Ivy, James, and the cat-girl..." I paused, my brow furrowed. "I...never knew her name. Edmont just called her 'Subject 33,'" I said slowly, then shook my head and kept going. "Ms. Merriweather showed up in the cafeteria, and then Ivy didn't obey her orders, and then the security people took me and Luke out. I think they hurt Ivy. Then we all went to the meeting room. They told us we're Mission Total Government ShutDown." I suddenly stopped, and looked up at Ren.

"Ren," I began hesitantly, "you still didn't really answer my other question. Who are you?"

Ren blinked. It was then that I realized she'd been polishing a knife with the fabric of her shirt.

"My parents are dead," she said, holding up the gleaming knife to inspect it. "I'm Fallen. I'm against the government, if that's what you're asking," she added dryly. "The government killed my parents, in a way. Starved." She stated the fact simply, as if saying what she'd had for dinner the night before. I shared a glance with Luke.

"So," she said, "you're on some secret mission to shut down the government? Ok. Cool." She went back to her knife-polishing.

"Well, the thing is, the three of us, we're all...special," I said slowly, searching for a word to describe us shifters.

"That's offensive," Ren said, but she didn't look up.

"That's not what I mean," I said hastily. "I mean...wait. You didn't seem surprised when Will mentioned he turned into a gryphon."

Ren looked up at that. "This world," she said, "is messed up. I know that. I know you know that. At this point, nothing's gonna surprise me. If you're some group of magical, shape-shifting superheroes and deliverers of justice, then that's fine. That's good, I guess."

Luke started clapping, and then stopped when no one else joined in. "No clapping? That's fine. Sorry. That was just, you know, a nice speech."

I stared at him. "Okay, Luke. Just...okay." I took a deep breath and continued my story, deciding Ren was safe.

"So. Edmont and the scientists are against the government. They want to bring it down. Each of us—me, Luke, Will, Ivy, James, and the cat-girl—has a special purpose. I'm the leader, James was intelligence, the cat-girl was stealth—she could turn invisible at will, apparently—Luke is tech, Ivy was power, and Will's the medic. That's when they told us you were alive, Will. They told us if we didn't obey, they'd kill you. Again. Then they turned me into a dragon, and then they sent me to this room, where I found Luke, Ivy, James, and the cat-girl unconscious. Then I passed out, and when we woke we all were tied to our chairs and had the devices. Ms. Merriweather showed up and sort of mind-controlled Luke. She shut off all his senses except for hearing."

"What?" Will said, incredulous. "They can do that?"

I shrugged. "Apparently. Then Ms. Merriweather was going to take us to the cafeteria, but when she opened the door, the walls starting cracking open. I grabbed Luke and started running. The ceiling fell on her. I think she's dead."

I swallowed. I by no means missed her, I had hated her, but I didn't like the idea of anyone dying.

"We ran. Ivy and James and the cat-girl were still in the room. We found Lynn—she was the one who helped me with my shifting, the one who gave me pills. She's not evil. She told us the Facility was under attack. She gave us the backpacks"—I gestured toward the pile of bags in the corner—"and told us to leave. I think she's dead, too. The Facility caught on fire. Then we ran into Ren."

"I can't help noticing," Ren said, "that you said Lynn wasn't evil. Does that mean you think the other scientists are evil?"

"They didn't care about us," Will said. "They cared about the mission, not the people. They didn't care if we died. We weren't the first shifters."

Ren nodded, but she didn't look surprised or disgusted, as I would've expected her to look after learning all this. Rather, it looked more like we'd only proven something she'd expected. I frowned. There was something she wasn't telling us. I had no doubt she was against the government, but how did she feel about the Facility, if she already knew about it before this?

"What's our next step?" Luke asked.

"I have a feeling these brain-devices include trackers," Will said. "When they want us, they can find us."

"They want us to not get captured," I said. "We should hide out somewhere until they get us."

"You want to go back, then?" Ren asked.

"We don't have another choice," I said defensively.

"Do you want to go back?" she repeated.

I looked at Will and Luke. "I think I speak for all of us," I said, "when I say that place was awful."

"Alright," Ren concluded.

A/N: commenter dedications: @ArianaSilver @LaZaria2017 @RuthieTejada