Shifters

Chapter 38

LUKE

"Wake up, Luke, for goodness' sake," an annoyed voice said, as someone poked me not-so-gently in the side.

I groaned and buried my face in my pillow.

"Okay, then, no breakfast for you," the voice—which I recognized as Thea's—said. "Be ready in fifteen minutes or we'll leave without you."

"No breakfast?" I looked up at her with pleading eyes. "How could you be so cruel?"

Thea shook her head, letting out an exasperated breath. "Honestly, Luke, I should've just left you in the Facility," she said irritably.

I stood up. "You don't mean that," I said, patting her on the shoulder. "You'd miss me too much."

"Go get your breakfast," she said, pushing me out of the makeshift tent. "And try not to annoy Ren too much."

Breakfast was weird campfire-cooked toast. It was pretty good, if you ignored the burned parts.

"We really need to go through this stuff," Thea announced, coming out of the tent with the Facility's backpacks and satchels in her hands. "We've just been lugging these around with no idea of what's in them."

"Good idea," I said, shoving one last piece of toast into my mouth.

Thea dropped the bags onto the ground and we all gathered around.

"Huh," Will said, picking up one of the satchels. "They even put our names on them."

"How considerate," I said, dragging my backpack and satchel towards me.

"Oh, cool, shifting suits," Thea said, pulling two suits out of her backpack.

"What are those?" Ren questioned, the tiniest flicker of curiosity in her eyes.

"They're made of some special material so that when we shift back to ourselves, it's still there," Will explained. "Normal clothes don't stay."

Ren raised an eyebrow. "Oh."

"First aid kit," Thea continued, setting the box of supplies on the ground. "And matches. Rope. Water bottle. Flashlight and batteries." She sighed, digging through her satchel. "Just the typical survival gear."

"Same," I said, pushing the contents of my bags around.

"What is all this?" Thea said in confusion, pulling out a mess of wires and electronic weirdness.

"Garbage," I said in a clipped voice. "I have a superior knowledge of electronics, and I say that is absolute trash."

"Shut up, Luke. You can't even tell the difference between an insulator and a conductor," Will said.

"Yes I can! And I'm tech!"

"I really don't know why—"

"Both of you, shut up!" Thea said, exasperated. "Our jobs decided by the Facility may or may not be accurate. But we're done with the Facility now, so let's not argue about it."

Both Will and I shut up.

"Your role was well assigned," Ren observed, smiling dryly at Thea, whose face flushed.

"Okay, but what is this?" Will asked, taking one of Thea's mysterious electronic devices.

"A transmitter," Ren said. "I can't tell what some of them are..." She unlatched a small box and opened it, peering inside. "Oh, this is an explosive—"

"Whoa, what?" Thea interrupted, horrified. "We've been carrying bombs?"

"That's pretty cool," I said with new interest.