Waiting for Amber Skyy

Chapter 6

I had to admit, I was terrified of what was going to become of me. There were kids in these cages that didn't even look like kids. It was horrible, yet somehow they were still alive. I wrapped my arms around my legs tightly, sniffing back incoming tears. Now I know I'm not the only one of this whole bunch of mutated kids. That made my spirits rise just a bit more, knowing I wasn't the only one, but knowing that there were other kids helpless just like me brought it down again. I rubbed my eyes to keep from crying. I'm not weak, I can get through this.

I nearly jumped out of my skin when a hand gripped a bar from my cage. I hit my head on the top of the cage and cursed silently. Damn, that's starting to happen more now. The hand seemed to have a death grip on the bar, like it was going to break it, but it seemed so frail that itself would break. Gulping, I followed the arm connected to the hand into the cage next to me. I was thoroughly surprised. There was a boy who had magnificent wings behind him. His hair was dark, and his eyes were bigger than his stomach. He opened his mouth to speak, but all that came was a gasp of thirst. It was sickening, to see a young boy to be deprived of anything. He seemed no older than ten years old.

I moved my fingers slowly to touch his, and when we made contact, his hand shot back into his cage like I electrocuted him. Bringing my hand back to my body, I looked at the boy curled up in his cage. His wings were large, mottled, and I betted that if he spread them out, they would be at least ten feet long. His eyes looked at his hand, then at me, than back at the bottom of his cage, then back at me, then back at his stomach which growled loudly.

"Hungry?" I managed to ask, yet my throat rattled. When was the last time I actually spoke? He froze at my statement, and I sent a reassuring glance that I wasn't saying anything rude about him. Yet, after a while, he nodded in response. Okay good, he knows English at least.

"What's your name?" I asked again, wanting to at least make some small talk. I kept my voice low though, so just he and I could chat without the workers knowing. He hesitated on his answer, then responded, "I don't know."

Well that was sad, "Do you remember anything before coming here?" Maybe he ended up here just like me.

He shook his head in reply, "No." His voice was soft but also raspy from lack of water. "Just... this." He must be referring to this place.

"How long have you been here?" I adjusted myself to a better position. The more information I get, the easier it will be to get out of here.

"Four months," he ran his hand over one of his feathers. Dear god. Am I going to be here that long? I gulped and asked:

"Do you have a family?"

"No."

"Where are you from?"

"Here."

His statement took me slightly off guard. He said he was from here, this place, and it made no sense. "What do you mean, here?"

"I was created here," he said with sadness in his voice. He ran a hand up his arm, revealing the scars from experimentation and whatnot. That was horrible, being created... but is that even possible? "They... made me."

"M-" I paused. "..made?"

"They made me," he choked on his words. Jesus Christ that is horrible. He wasn't born like normal people, he was created, like out of a test tube, with no recollection of living a normal life. He was bred to be experimented on.

I placed a hand over my mouth to keep myself from letting my jaw drop in awe, "I'm... I'm so sorry..." I knew my statement really had no effect on what is happening now, so I just resorted back to hugging my knees. My eyes couldn't help but glance at his wings and his large, dark eyes caught mine. I wonder... "Can you... can you really fly?" I stuttered out with nervousness in my voice.

He shot me a look that was a mix of pain, sadness, and embarrassment. He tugged his knees closer to his body and slowly nodded, "Y-... Yes..." With his answer, I reached back to feel the feathers slowly growing from my shoulder blades. They were growing, and I wondered if I'll have the same wings as him. He gave me a good look over and put a hand to his mouth, "Oh..."

Looking back at his expression, I glanced down at myself. Growing wings, freakish ears and a tail, scale-looking-and-feeling-tattoos... "Yeah... I'm a freak," I choked on the last word.

He shook his head, but his shake slowly subsided to a soft nod. Tears welled up in my eyes and I balled up my hands into fists. I was a freak. I was part of those men's experiments. I was an experiment... and they didn't care if I had a normal life before all of this. "It's okay to cry," he said softly to me. I glanced up from staring at my knees to see him leaning towards my cage. The bars made indents on his tan skin.

I shook my head in reply and rested my chin on my knee, "Crying is never okay. It makes you weak."

He shook his head in a serious manner, "Crying is okay. It doesn't show that you're weak, it shows you've been strong for too long." I stared into his dark brown eyes while taking in what he said. He was right. I've been using my strength up all this time, I haven't let it go. With that, I let the waterfall come. I sobbed, tears running down my face as I leaned against the bars of my cage. My body shook as I cried, letting all my strength run out of me. I was scared, terrified of what was to come. I cried for at least ten minutes. After the rain stopped, I sniffed while he just sat there in silence. Finally he asked, "Better?" he asked in a sweet voice. I shakily nodded and he gently smiled at me.

I turned my face to look at him, "Thank you."

"No problem," he adjusted himself and folded his wings behind his back. He gave me one last look over as he laid on the floor of the cage, "Do you have a name?"

I copied his position and shrugged, "I did... but I can't remember it."

He gave a face like he was thinking hard, "Do you know your number?"

"Number? Like... experiment number?" Where was he going with this?

"Yeah."

I thought a bit, remembering what the Director said, "4... 4MB3R... that's all I remember them saying."

He ran his finger against the bottom of his cage, writing letters or something. "It looks like... Amber..." Amber... that was a great name. His fingers moved swiftly on the ground of his cage, like he knew how to spell despite his lack of education. It was amazing. "My number is 1LI0N-01..." he whispered as he traced his fingers. I copied him, seeing the numbers look like...

"Ilion?" I asked out loud. Trying to depict names from our numbers was just odd.

He shrugged and curled into a ball, "The number doesn't make sense." I faintly saw tears in his eyes from the dim light above us. I thought a bit more as I looked at the traced numbers, knowing it was impossible to find a name through them.

"Why don't you make up your own name?" I asked. He gave me a questionable look, like he never considered that option. He looked back down at the imaginary numbers and responded with:

"Leon... I like that name," he said quietly. I heard a door open and the squeal of tires rolling across the tile floor. Somebody was here, and we had to keep quiet. A cage with some... thing... was rolled past us and I acted like I was sleeping. Whatever- I mean whoever that was didn't look normal.

"Well Leon," I breathed so only he could hear. He turned his head to look at me, copying my stance to pretend as well. "You should get rest." He softly smiled at me and closed his eyes.

"You too Amber," he replied. I smiled a bit, closing my eyes and slowly drifting to sleep.