SOAR - More Like Us

CHAPTER 13

                                                        AARON

I FELL AGAINST THE back of the wall, not being able to process any of this right now. This being, kissing Snow and not mentioning anything, John lying to me, Patrick wanting to run away, and being hunted down. It was all just too much. I shook it off and rose to my feet.
"Snow," she turned her head to my left, away from Patrick, "what's going on?" Her expression fell, "Or- scratch that, what happened while you were gone?" I stuttered a little. We hadn't talked yet.
"Well, I think I have a good amount of information per se." She made hand motions and shrugged, "So first things first. There are more flying people." She clenched her fists in front of her and waited for my reaction. I took a deep breath and exhaled, telling her to go on, "OK, and they had helped me, well sort of helped me," she mumbled, "find where you guys were. so I flew to a library where I then called them and when I did, they told me to fly to Vegas, so I did. And when I went to Vegas we flew all the way over here, so I broke in and found Patrick, who told me they took you and John." I cocked my head and stared at her, "I already know. That wasn't Patrick, but instead was a hologram of him and so was the room which is where I was trapped. And it turns out, I'd been trapped ever since the library!" She took a deep breath from raising her voice and settled down, "So then, this guy named Derek, came from behind me and threw me in here." I paced back and forth thinking. I remembered. That girl with wings! The girl in the background, the picture of the girl with wings that weren't Snow. I became awed and barely jumped off the ground.
"Snow!" I beckoned her off the ground, "Snow, listen. Was that person with wings named Max?" She nodded, "She's here!" She slowly put her hands down, shaking her head.
"I know. But this whole place is a maze and you have no idea what's a hologram or not. It's useless." I was speechless. I had never seen any one of the pack be depressed. But all of them? I grunted aloud and punched the wall as hard as I could, and then ended up screaming as loud as I could.
"Aaron, please-" she reached for my shoulder.
"Get away from me!" She looked scared. Patrick came up to hug me. Which was funny because he was already three-quarters my size. I hadn't known it was Patrick and out of rage I punched him in the gut and shoved him to the ground.
"Aaron, stop!"
"You, just shut up!" There was silence for a couple of minutes, which gave Patrick the time to get back on his feet. I realized then she was staring intently at my fists, which were now bloodied red. I knew that if I were to become unwillingly aggressive I wouldn't be able to take care of my own family. I looked at Snow and put my hands down as I gave one final exasperated grunt and kicked the wall violently.
Rattle!
Snow and I, both immediately looked down to see an indented vent from the kick it had received. I broke the hologram. I chuckled once more.
"Man, these mood swings are too much," I laughed. Snow instead turned away from me and ran her hands through her hair.
"Now I understand why Patrick wants to leave." She put her hand on her hip, "I can't believe that I was the one that failed. Not you!" She gave me a death-defying stare and continued, "We're gonna help you get out of here, but then Patrick, John, and I are leaving you." Okay, now it's my turn.
"Look, don't make yourself the center. Don't act like you're the heroine and that you're gonna save the world and our pack. The only reason why I'm mad is beca-"
"You think I want to be the hero? That I want to put you out of the picture. Well sure as hell! That I do!"
"Let me fucking speak for once! You don't even care for me! I do my best to keep you all alive, and all you can do to thank me is to look for the perfect time to gang up on me and overthrow me-"
"Hold on-"
"No. Do you want to know the reason I was mad? Because I care about you guys. I was mad and aggressive because I couldn't stand seeing you all so depressed and so-"
"Boo-hoo! Stick your nose into someone else's ass! We don't owe you our happiness! We don't-" The rest I turned out. There were a lot of unnecessary things that were said in that last part. I ignored what she was saying and began kicking the vent cover. "Listen to me, you jerk!" I kept going. The screws loosened and one fell out. I turned over to John and Patrick who were huddled together. I tugged the vent cover and it gave way instantly. Another thing that happened instantly.
Urrgh! Urrgh! Urrgh!
The sirens rang and bounced off the concrete walls and onto the other ones and back. The hologram walls fell and revealed brick walls. The echoing stopped and now it was just the blaring of the sirens.
"Come on, let's go!" I shouted. Patrick slowly got up and plodded his way toward me. Snow and John? Not so much. Snow crossed her arms, still blabbering her mouth like a motorboat. "Snow, just shut up and come on! The guards are gonna be here soon and we have no room to fly!" John came to his sense and began to crawl over to me. I heard him shuffle around the room before he came to my side. You know, being blind actually gives me a better measure of distance, so I could tell when he walked over to Snow. I pushed myself through the ventilation systems waiting for the others to follow behind. Guards began flooding out the door, not even being able to leave an opening for a fly. I backed out of the vents feeling Patrick behind me. I wanted him to get out and then I came out with him. The guards stood there, real guns raised, and pointed at my pack. I raised my hands and hung my head low. I angled my eyesight on the pack and gave them a nod. They nodded back and I began the transformation. My mouth folded to the back of my neck and my skin turned rough with fur. I grew a muzzle and my ears shifted and perked on the top of my furry head. I growled through my snout and barked.
"Erasers?" One guard asked, "but they're supposed to be-"
"Extinct." Another said and grew a smile on his face. I looked around and everyone else began smiling too. "You are so valuable right now." I leaned forward getting ready to pounce as they took fire.

I took bullet after bullet, sucking it in like inhaling, as the pack repeated. I saw Pat launch after one guard as he fell, mauling him with his giant snout and claws. Blood smeared across the wall and Pat, now being able to see his insides. Everyone stood and watched. When he finished, he didn't take the time to appreciate his little audience. By the time he ripped off a guard's arm, blood sputtered across the entire room and snapped everyone back to focus. The guards began to scatter around the corridors and called for backup.                        

"Aaron!?" John called out, "They brought a rocket launcher indoors!" ahh shit.                                       The high-pitched whistle was loud in the tiled hallway. I quickly turned around but reacted too late. I ducked and transformed back to normal, sliding across the floor. but it had to hit someone. "Snow!" She was hit and the walls around her shattered revealing more brick walls. I grabbed Pat's arm and dove back into the room and headed toward the vent.                                         "Wait! What about Snow and John?" I shook my head, pushing him into the vent. The gunfire and screaming. ringing through my ears. We went down the tunnel and I noticed there were guards entering the vents. Luckily, we were long gone. 

The screaming still rang through my ears.