Of Birds and Wolves

Leara walked down the street, kicking an empty pop can. This street she walked down, which she had no clue which one it was, was very bare and empty. The sound of the pop can hitting the cement seemed to ring for an eternity.

Yeah, Leara was mad at Max for attacking her like that, but it was kind of Leara’s fault. She was the one who kept making googly-eyes at Fang.

She shook her head and squinted her eyes. “I have to stop blaming myself for these things…” She gave the can a hard kick and watched as it soared down the street. She ran after it and heard it hit the road, but then she couldn’t hear it roll around. She heard it fall into something wet. As she followed the sound, she saw that the can had fallen into a hole of some sort. The stink coming from the hole was horrible.

But, this hole could be her escape. She finally recognized it as a sewer and knew that if she went down into the sewer, no one would find her. Max could never bug her about Fang and then she wouldn’t have to worry about anyone else except herself. She liked water as well, so it was kind of homey; except for the stink.

With a deep breath, she climbed down the hole and landed in some dirty looking water. Off to the side was cement where she could see rats running along the wall. The tunnel was long enough for her to fly in, so she took off.

Leara didn’t care which turns she took and which way she went. If she could get herself lost down here; good. She wanted to be alone and where no one could find her. The lack of noise was inviting to her and she enjoyed the thought of never having to see anyone again.

But, something caught her attention. There was a door along one of the walls she flew past. She turned around and approached the door. When she tried to pull open the door, she found out that it was locked. With years of being in a cage, she had plenty of practice trying to open cages with plastic ties and her finger nails.

Leara recalled that in her hair were some pins, to keep her bangs back a little. She pulled the pin out and began to eye the key hole. She shoved the metal pin inside the hole and began to twist it in different directions. With her ear pressed against the door, she listened closely until she finally heard a “click”. She smiled and pulled the door open a little ways.

Behind the door was a stairwell that led to a place where there were different colored small lights, but it was still dark. No one seemed to be in the place, so Leara began to explore. There were tons of computers and technological things. She saw something familiar on a small table; a needle. It was on a wooden rack along with many others. She picked it up, noticing that the needle was covered. The bottle connected to it read “Uncia uncia”. She removed the cover and examined the needle closely.

A noise startled her she set down the needle on the rack, the uncovered needle facing the ceiling. She dove under the table until she didn’t hear anything. She peered out and decided it was safe to come out again. But, she noticed what had caused the noise; and it wasn’t a person.

A huge dark room was filled with cages. Leara shuddered as she looked at the experiments in the cages. Most were sleeping, but one looked right back at her; she was blonde and looked to be thirteen years old or so. Her small hands were wrapped tightly around the metal bars. She shook her cage, making it shake back and forth; she had created the noise.

Leara looked around and saw a glass door; but it was closed with a pin lock. She searched the wall, and there was a small door that was open; just small enough for her to crawl through. She was unsure what the door was for, but thanked God it was there without a lock.

Leara approached the girl's cage. The girl's eyes widened with pure joy as she began to fumble with the cage lock. Within a couple seconds, her door swung open and the girl stepped out. “You... How can I... Thank-you?”

Leara shrugged her shoulders and replied, “Well, I don't know. I'm just helping out a fellow hybrid. Are there more of you?”

The girl nodded fast. “Yeah; five more are here.”

Leara looked through the cages. “Alright. How's about you get your friends and skedaddle? There are some empty buildings on the ground above here. There's a sewer top near the ceiling of the tunnel not but twenty feet away from the door. I want to look around for a second and then I should get out of here. You should make sure you hurry up.”

The girl just nodded and ran off to another cage. Leara caught her attention and pointed at the small door. “Here's where you escape out of here.”

She climbed through and stretched a little as she stood back up. As she walked past the table again, a beeping noise startled her. She accidentally smacked her hand down on top of something sharp. She picked up what had stabbed her and saw that it was the needle she had been looking at earlier. Her whole arm started to prickle and she rubbed it.