Phoenix

Chapter 5

Tony's POV
We are at a motel right now. We've only been here a few hours, and we'll be leaving soon. This is what we've been doing the last couple weeks. We drive for hours, find a motel, check in under false names, and slip out with out paying. We have no choice, due to the fact that we have no money. I really don't want to do this because I know that if we get caught we'll be in even bigger trouble. I feel like I'm digging my own grave. But I have to. If I didn't the government will have no one in there way. Right now we're trying to get to the capitol. What we will do there, I don't know. Right now I'm more worried about how we are out of money, out of food, and almost out of gas.
The motel we are staying at has free computers with unlimited access to all guests. Clint and I went down there to try to find out anything that could be helpful in the capitol, if we ever got there. Clint somehow hacked into some government files, and what we found was interesting, and also disturbing. We saw all sorts of bioweapons being developed. If you can think of it, they had built it or were in the process of building it. There were files on genetic engineering. There were things as innocent as making rabbits glow in the dark, to horrible things like trying to mutate humans. The human mutants led us to another discovery. There were secret government prisons throughout the world. The people in these prisons were people like Clint and I. People who called into question the government and were now being punished. The prisons were labor camps, and the people who lived there were often sent to a nearby lab to be experimented on. "Great. If we get caught we'll be mutated beyond recognition and then killed." Clint muttered. I felt horrible. I had dragged him into this. If he dies it will be my fault. I want to apoligize, but don't know what to say.
Clint has come up with the idea of going undercover. We create new names for ourselves. My name is Bucky and his is Bruce. We're supposed to be brothers. Our parents disappeared when we were young and we've been moving from place to place since. We've decided to go to an orphanage because if we don't we will starve. This is pretty much the only part of the story with any truth in it. We get checked into the orphanage. It seems nice but I can't remember it's name. Soon we're put into a foster family. It's pretty nice, although boring. We've started attending school again. We ignore everyone, everyone ignores us. It's perfect. After a few months though, our new dad lost his job. The family decides that they can't support us and their own children, and send us back. When we get back to the orphanage, we start talking to the kids there. While I do feel absolutely horrid about dragging more people into this, we need as many people as possible. Most of the kids join us, and those who don't say that they won't tell. They just don't want to get in trouble.
Yesterday we went on a trip to the library. While there, Clint and I hacked the computers again. We found a long list of all the "threats" the government had disposed of. These threats, of course, are just ordinary people who happened to ask the wrong question. We print the list off to take back with us. At the orphanage, we talk with the other kids there. Most of them find their parents on the list. It makes me angry. These people didn't do anything illegal, and yet they were given the death penalty. Clint pulls out another packet. "Guess what I found." He says, not sounding particularly excited about his discovery. He hands me the packet. The front page is titled "Pangea's School For Exceptional Girls." I guess that's the proper name for the spy school. We open it up, and find it is mostly pictures and bios on all the girls who attended. They have odd names I notice. One that catches my eye is Phoenix. Her bio states that she is a skilled archer and spy. She is still waiting to acquire her first target. The back pages of the packet explain some of the girls training. It sounds like these are the kind of people who you don't want to mess with, because you won't come out alive. It doesn't say anything about how targets are acquired though. I wish I knew how they decided that, because one of those girls would probably be after me soon.
I am soon moved to another foster family. As I walk up, a dog runs at me. "Pepper come back!" I here someone yell. A girl runs around the corner of the house and grabs the dog. "Sorry about that. She's a little too friendly sometimes. Are you the new kids?" She spoke extremely quickly. "yes" I responded simply. I didn't think I'd be able to get much more in. I heard the sound of a door opening. I looked up and there was a girl standing in the doorway. She had the brightest red hair I've ever seen in my life, and a familiar face. Phoenix.