Vultures

Twelve

"I think she's waking up."

I heard the words, but my sluggish thoughts couldn't understand them.

"Go find Wade."

Just a little longer. I wanted to sleep in... my kingdom for just five more minutes. The summer sun was so hot and the air so humid. No doubt my headache was from being dehydrated already. It would only get worse in the blazing heat while I tended to chickens.

The world outside felt distant while I contemplated the pros and cons of moving. Who really wanted to deal with chickens anyway? They smelled awful and they could be pretty mean. Taking care of them only became more irritating whenever I was reminded that I couldn't just eat one. The good stuff went to the Core, we got processed scraps.

"Hey, you alive over there?"

Alive? What kind of question was that?

I tried to reply but barely a groan came out. My mouth was parched! I finally opened my eyes, promptly shutting them again as my vision was greeted with nothing but blurry shapes and shadows. My mind worked slow, like I had a few screws loose and every gear was rusted and seized.

Wait, I wasn't at home.

The realization hit me like a jolt of lightning. I tried to sit up but an unexpected pain assaulted my senses and caused me to cry out. It hurt to even breathe! It felt like someone had decided my rib cage made a good piñata. Must have been a fun party for everyone but me.

"Please! Calm down, you're safe!"

That voice, it wasn't anyone I recognized. Every cog and gear that was once frozen seemed to break loose, now moving at a break-neck speed. My attention didn't rest on anything for more than a split second.

I was in a fairly plain room, on a bed. Not my bed. Not my room. There were tubes of plastic, attached to a bag, feeding some kind of drip to a needle in my arm. My stomach dropped and my heart thundered. Every alarm in my head blared.

The Core.

My body protested every movement but I forced myself to sit up, panicked and scared. What had they done to me? What sort of experiment had I become while I was out? I couldn't get a grip on myself. I was going to hyperventilate and pass out again at this rate.

Before I knew what I was even really doing I tried to pull the needle from my arm. I needed to get up, I couldn't stay here. I needed to get out while I was still in one piece! The movement created a racket, a clanging of metal against metal. A cold steel cuff around my wrist linked to another, locked around the bed rail.

If I hadn't been panicked before, I certainly was now. I was trapped!

"Don't move so much, you're going to hurt yourself!" The voice exclaimed.

A light touch on my arm startled me. Until then, I hadn't paid much attention to anyone else in the room. I'd barely realized the voice wasn't just in my head. I flinched and the pain in my temple intensified sharply from the dull throb it had been when I woke up.

The room shook, a chair crumpled against the wall.

"Woah! Take it easy!!"

The owner of the voice, a tall blond man, had been next to my bed. He'd moved immediately once the strange vibration began. It was a good thing, the now twisted chair had been right behind him. Did he know that would happen?

"Feathermore!" The man shouted, holding his hands up defensively.

I froze, the wailing sirens and warnings in my head fell silent. "What?"