Phoenix

As my tears dried, the cages were rolled into the truck. This was just one of the many traveling Shows. Each one was a different hell for Mutants.

I was packed into the side of the truck, next to Daniel and across from Leslie. I could feel blood trickle down my back, and I knew that the back of my shirt would be red with my blood by now. I reached around and felt my back. The lower half of my back felt like raw meat, ripped and bleeding. The spot between my wings was the same way. I winced and my fingertip touched the raw skin on my back.

“You shouldn’t touch it,” a voice said next to me. My head snapped up to see who had spoken. My eyes fell upon a teenager in a Guard uniform. I saw the buttons on his collar. Three. So this must be the Third Guard.

I looked at him. He had messy black hair tucked under the grey Guard uniform hat, and piercing grey eyes. “Why would you bother talking to a Mutant?” I asked him.

He shrugged. “Because it’s my job to heal the Mutants,” he said, looking down at some bandages in his hands.

I laughed dryly. “Of course. They make you heal us every day so we can be tortured again the next night. The kindness of the Government never fails to amaze me,” I said sarcastically.

The Third Guard sighed. “Turn around,” he said, unwrapping a roll of gauze.

I turned around, knowing that even if it wasn’t for the right reasons, I needed to be healed. My back faced the Third Guard and he reached through the bars of my cage and lifted up the back of my shirt. He exhaled.

“The Ringmaster really hates you,” he said, looking at my back. I felt him put a sort of salve on my back, and I hissed as it stung. “Sorry,” he said, taking the gauze and starting to wrap it around my back. It wrapped around the wrap I already had on my chest, and I felt like I couldn’t breathe. But that was what I needed in order for my back to stop bleeding.

“Let me know if that starts bleeding through,” he said, pulling my shirt back down. I turned around and nodded to him.

“Thank you,” I whispered as he walked away. He probably couldn’t hear me, but I felt the need to say it. The Third Guard was new. I had…well, bitten the finger off the last one, and the Government had recalled him. This was the new Third Guard for this Show.

I sighed, thinking about how this Guard was different as the Ringmaster walked up to me.

“You little bitch,” he sneered in my face, getting close to my cage.

“Bastard,” I spat back.

“I hope you learned a lesson,” he said. He smiled evilly, no doubt remembering the way the whip had split my skin.

I moved to the side of the cage quickly, my hand reaching out. My fingers closed around the Ringmaster’s neck. He gasped and I chuckled as his face began to turn blue. His fingers tried to pry mine away from his neck, but I was stronger than him. I leaned close to his face, where he was sputtering and gasping for breath.

“Scream if you want it to stop,” I said, mocking his own words.

He looked me in the eye and started trying to scream. I laughed at his weakness and threw him, releasing my grip on his neck.

He started breathing again and started to rub his neck. I laughed as I saw the white imprint of my fingers on his neck. “You little bitch,” he said, standing up. “I’m going to make you pay!” he yelled, storming off.

I felt every Mutant’s eyes on him as he left, then their eyes fell on me.

“Phoenix, you know you can’t get away with stuff like that forever,” Leslie said, looking at me with sad eyes.

I looked at her. “He can’t kill me. And what doesn’t kill me just makes me stronger,” I said, a grin on my face. Eventually I’d be strong enough to break free.

“Nix, he will kill you one day,” Jamie, a boy with donkey ears said next to me.

I shook my head. “I’ll be able to kill him before that happens. He’s not strong enough to kill me,” I insisted.

“Dammit, Nix, you’re not indestructible!” Lance, a boy with a tail said from the corner opposite me.

I looked at him and narrowed my eyes. “I know I’m not, but there’s no way in hell I’m ever going to let the Government kill me,” I said. Then we heard footsteps coming closer and we stopped talking. Talking was not what the Guards allowed.

“The bitch doesn’t get food tonight,” the Ringmaster said as the Guards walked around with the food for the Mutants. It was barely more than dog food, but it was food. My stomach rumbled at the thought of not being able to eat until tomorrow morning, but I sucked it up. I was stronger than that.

“Oh yeah, take away my food, that’ll show me,” I said sarcastically as the Ringmaster walked past my cage.

He narrowed his eyes at me. “One day, the law will be revoked and I will be able to kill you. And when I do…oh, you’ll suffer,” he said, chuckling evilly.

I had been slouched against the back of my cage, but I decided to mess with the Ringmaster. I jumped to the front of the cage, and laughed when he flinched backwards.

“You’ll pay,” he said before spinning on his heels and leaving. The Guards distributed the rest of the food and water, then left the truck.

I should explain how the Show travels. The stage is foldable, and folds into the side of the truck. The cages go into the truck, and then there’s a storage part beneath the truck, where the food and water is kept. The Guards and the Ringmaster have a better life, on a bus that follows the truck. The automated driver drives both the truck and the bus. That’s how the show travels across the country. That’s how everyone gets to see the torture of Mutants.

I slumped against the back of the cage, wincing as the gauze rubbed against the raw skin on my back. I heard the truck lurch into motion, so I closed my eyes and quickly fell asleep.

***

Sometime in the middle of the night, I awoke. My eyes saw only darkness, but there was someone outside my cage. I could hear them breathing. “Phoenix?” I heard a familiar voice ask.

I stretched up and walked to the front of my cage and spoke quietly. “What do you want?” I asked the Third Guard.

“To give you this,” he said, reaching into the cage. He put a piece of bread in my hand, then set a water bottle at the bottom of my cage.

He started walking away. I pressed my lips to the bread, breathing in its buttery scent. Just as his footsteps started to fade, I asked, “Why are you doing this?”

I heard his footsteps stop. “Because it’s not right,” I heard him say faintly before he walked away.

I bit into the bread, enjoying its taste. I licked my lips. Rarely did we ever get food other than the bland Government Issue food, so this was a delicacy. I took a drink of the water. I sighed as the water soothed my aching throat.

Why would the Third Guard do something nice like this? All my life, I’ve been beaten and bruised by Guards. They were people, yes, and they had faces, but I didn’t see them. All I saw was cruelty and hate. Never the…compassion the Third Guard showed in bringing me food. Why would he do this?

He said that it was because it wasn’t right. What wasn’t right? Was it the Show or the way the Ringmaster hated me? Was it the way the Mutants were treated or how the Ringmaster wanted to starve me? Any of them weren’t right, but I don’t know what he meant.

I finished the bread and finished the water. I felt much better now, with food in my stomach. I closed my eyes and fell back to sleep quickly.