Super Soldiers

I wake up in a cold, white, sterile room and I freak out. A scream jumps out of my throat and I clap my hands over my mouth to shut myself up. Where am I? A kindly red headed lady wearing one of those strange white dresses and a four cornered hat peeks in and smiles.
“It’s okay, dear, you should rest and heal.” She smiles again and closes the door. My heart races at the sound of a bolt sliding home. Locked. I slide off the now cold, narrow, white bed, just barely big enough for my body and press my ear to the door.
“What’s wrong?” A muffled voice floats to my ear.
“She’s awake.” The nurse, that’s what she was, whispered. I strain to hear the rest of the conversation.
“No, it’s much too soon! This isn’t supposed to happen!” A man says nervously.
“What do we do?” I knock hesitantly.
“Yes, dear?” The nurse asks through the door.
“May I go to the bathroom?” All is silent outside my door.

“Yes.” She says hesitantly and I hear the lock click. I remember something about the bathroom. I’m not sure what, but I know it’s important. The woman leads me to a tiny room with a small commode and a white sink decorated only with a single bar of white soap and a roll of brown paper towels. The door creaks shut and another lock clicks in place. There’s something strange about this place if they have to lock me into the bathroom. I feel more like a prisoner than a patient. A damp cold breeze kisses my face. My eyes drift up to see the small window above the toilet is slightly ajar. My way out... to what? I step gingerly up on the toilet seat and shove open the window. It looks just about big enough for me to climb out. My body half slithers, half falls down the gray concrete wall to a heap on the bare ground. No grass?

“Hey!” A young man in a black uniform yells at me angrily and runs at me with a gun clenched in his hands. I roll to my feet and take off running, adrenaline pumps into my blood. “Stop or I’ll shoot!” He pulls out a walkie-talkie and barks something into the device. I swing around the corner of another concrete building, narrowly missing a volley of bullets that slam into the building in front of me. Something compels me to go into this building, though it looks exactly like the other buildings in this strange place. Where am I? I make a run for the building and dive inside, slamming and locking the door. Pain shoots through my left arm. The door trembles but holds against another spray of bullets. I roll my eyes wildly around the room and spy a shocking array of weapons. I reach the nearest one, a rifle or something, but it is empty. I scream in frustration. Someone rattles the door.
“Damn, it’s locked!” What is happening? Why do they want to keep me here? Due to my crippling lack of knowledge about guns, I grab the next best thing, not really, a knife and clench it between my teeth.

“Number thirteen! Surrender now and you will not be harmed. We are surrounding the building!” A deep voice booms through a megaphone. My eyes zero in on the door across the room. The key to my escape. I don’t know how I know that. So far my assumptions have been right. I fly at the door, clawing at the door knob, but it’s locked. Someone on the other side fumbles with the lock. The door jumps open to a wide eyed blonde boy in uniform.
“Run!” He yells at me and points. My feet pound against the hard dirt in the direction of his finger, straight towards two fuzzy figures. The ground seems to disappear behind them. Why don’t I remember anything? Obviously a plan was put together for my escape. Escape from what? My brain flinches away from the confusing thoughts.

“Thirteen? We heard the commotion! You should’ve waited. Two more days and no one would’ve known.” A wind weathered, tanned man also in uniform says quickly. Another dark skinned man gestures at the cliff behind them.
“It’s ready. Go! We’ll hold them for you!” I nod and fly out into empty air. Unwittingly I count for five second and twist around, shooting my hands out to grab a lower ledge. The sudden stop jerks at my arms. My body feels like its don’t his before but my brain is about to explode with shock.
“Three more down and its safe to-” Five shots ring in the air, cutting off the man’s instructions. A tear trickles down my cheek for these men who gave their lives for mine. I don’t even remember who they are. I drop down three ledges and ignore the pain in my arms as I finally touch the ground again. My legs quickly propel me out of weapon’s range. A direction pops up in my brain. Keep the sun at my left. I adjust my course to the rising sun and take off running across the empty planes in front of me.

My pace lags to a slow jog but I see a city on the horizon. I have no idea how far I’ve come, so I look back to see my progress and see a cloud of smoke. I am being followed. Adrenaline and fear shoot through my tired legs, urging them on to the safe haven of the city. Fields and tractors begin to dot the world around me. The farms slowly give way to a quiet suburb but I keep running. Sleek black cars with tinted windows gain on me. I dodge across someone’s yard and race between houses where cars can’t go. Doors slam behind me and men grunt to keep up with my feverish pace. My adrenaline is starting to wear off and I don’t have any more to boost me. Preoccupied, I don’t even notice the quick transition from suburb to city.

//\\//

“She’s coming.” A boy, pretty much fitting the bill of tall, dark and handsome, but still filling out, gets up from the base of a tall ash tree and begins to pace.
“What? Who’s coming?” A tiny fragile Asian girl about six or seven looks up from weaving the flowers she had gathered into a crown.
“One of us.” Is all he says. Another girl, much older than the first, with strawberry blonde hair stares at him from laying upside down on the red slide.

“Is that why you brought us here?” A small boy about three years older than the youngest of the group looks up from his tattered and worn book and adjusts his wire framed glasses.
“No, I just thought we should get out for awhile. Miyuki was missing the sun. I didn’t get a message or anything.” The first boy, the oldest, frowns and stops pacing. “She’s moving our way and fast!” He growls. “The scree are following her too!” The kids around him quickly move to his side. “No, act natural. We’re going to throw them off.”

//\\//

My legs start to stumble and building, Blue Springs Elementary and Middle School, jumps up in my view. I barrel through the front doors and ignore the screams of people who see a crazy girl with a knife. The crowds of kids at their lockers part for me and cluster into groups, chattering wildly and clogging up the hallways behind me. I turn left and race down a long hallway panting. The door at the end opens to a playground, occupied by a group of kids. I fall, catching myself, and scramble up again but my legs feel like lead now. The scariest part is: I don’t have any more energy. They’re going to catch me when I’m down. The last thing I want, though I don’t know why. All I remember is that place and my followers are evil. Plain and simple.

Tears are streaming down my face and my lungs are screaming for air when I run straight into someone’s arms. Their jacket settles on my shoulders and they pull the hood up. I struggle to get away. Long sun bronzed fingers pull the knife from my teeth. I open my mouth to scream but those fingers cover it.
“Listen. We’re here to help. Just do what I tell you and you’ll be okay.” His beautiful voice whispers in my ear. I stare up at his face so close to mine and nod. He sits down against an old ash tree growing near the chain link fence and pulls me into his lap. “They’re coming soon. Don’t say a word, just act like this is natural.” Hard to do when you’re sitting in an absolutely gorgeous guy’s lap and you have no idea if he is friend or foe. My heart still beats wildly and I struggle to quiet my breathing. I could be making a mistake. This could be a trap. Oh, what do I do? A little girl with long silky black hair to her tiny waist and a crown of flowers dances over to me and touches my face, wiping my tears away.
“It’s okay. We’ll protect you.” She beams at me with her tiny exotic features and dances away. I feel a sort of calm flow from her finger tips and my body relaxes in his embrace.
“Here they come.” His voice flutters in my ear and I briefly wonder how he knows. Four dark figures flash into the playgrounds and stop abruptly near us, sniffing and swinging their heads around in confusion. A man wheezes to catch up with them.
“Have you seen a girl run through here, she’s an illegal alien and an escaped convict.” He says breathlessly, running his fingers through his limp brown hair.
“The crazy one with the knife in her mouth?” The boy, I guess the leader of these kids, asks innocently. Yeah, like any other girl ran through.
“Yeah.”
“She went that way.” He points in the direction I would’ve gone I f he hadn’t stopped me.
“Go.” The thickset man commands the four things and I say things because they definitely aren’t human. The dark cloaks they wear barely conceal their strange twisted bodies and the hoods attempt to conceal sallow skin and red eyes. They run bent low in the direction the man had pointed and vault over the chain link fence. “Do I know you?” He stares straight at me and the boy I am sitting on.
“Nah, you must not be from around here. I pretty much know everyone in this city. That is Clarisse and her two adopted siblings Sui and Tom. I’m James and this is my girlfriend December. She’s mute.” Introductions all around. December? Mute? The man stares at as for a little bit longer and jogs after those creatures, lifting his fat ass over the fence and falling down the other side, his glass flashing in the sun. I let out a slow shaky breath when he is gone.

“December?” The strawberry blondie snorts. I laugh with her.
“Hey! I was thinking under pressure. December’s a good name, Scream.”
“Pretty rare too.” The little boy with glasses comments.
“I think it’s a pretty.” The little Asian girl says. I feel him shift under me, moving his arms to cradle me and then lift himself onto his feet. I start to protest.
“Shut up! You just ran about a hundred miles. You’ll kill yourself if you keep going.” He cuts me off. A hundred miles?! That’s crazy! I look up to see the sun edging towards the horizon. Had I really been running all day? “Let’s go before they come back.” My savior lopes into a graceful run. The others follow his lead. Where are we going? What’s going on? Who are these people and why did they save me? My exhausted brain jumbles my thoughts together in a thick mush. I quickly fall asleep to the beat of his heart and the sway of his moving body.