White Wings

Part 5

Yay, I'm almost done typing it all, I think... XD This part is longer than other because I couldn't break it up any sooner or else it woudn't make sense.... Oh well, enjoy and please comment! =D

Part 5

            The next day things changed like never before. Even after being locked up in this place as long as we have, we had never really saw anybody. We knew there were people in here because of the experiments they did on us, but the only person we ever saw was Alfonso, the guy who brought us food three times a day. Even the food seemed to be some kind of experiment, it was always changing and sometimes it had effects on us, but that’s where we really didn’t have  choice because it was either that or starvation. The food was also the only thing we had to look forward to because it was the only thing in our lives that was different and not predictable. But this morning things changed in a way that I could never have anticipated. It was the first time we met her. She walked in with confidence and certainty. She had a small figured and had dull golden hair tied in a bun in the in back of her head, and her eyes were also a bright brown color. She was followed by two other men, we knew one to be Alfonso, but not the other. They were all wearing long white coats.

            “Hello.” She said with confidence. None of us said anything, but she didn’t seem to have been expecting an answer because she went on almost immediately. “My name is Shaira. I’m here because you are all reached a good development where we can test you more thoroughly. You will no longer spend all day in here. You’ll wake up every day, eat the balanced diet you are being maintained at and when Mr. Welsh comes in you’ll let yourself to quietly and cooperatively be led away.” The guy we knew, Alfonso, stepped forward as she mentioned to him as Mr. Welsh. She paused as if looking for a reaction, but then when we didn’t say anything yet again she continued. “Mr. Welsh will give you orders and ask questions, you will do as he says and later you will be led away for physical testing and DNA testing. You will be returned here each day when we are done.” She had said everything somewhat slowly and with an intimidating, overconfident voice. “Any questions?”

            I think that the last part was what made me snap. The way she talked to us, as if we were animals without the capability to understand anything, let along ask questions.

            “How long are you going to keep treating us this way?! I want to see my brother and sister!” The way her expression seemed to change a little bit at hearing me speak she wasn’t expecting any kind of response. She lost her composure for second. This had just all been a formality. I had just figured that I didn’t have anything to lose, so why hold back? She quickly composed herself and looked straight at me, her eyes boring into mine.

            “All three of you are specimens of our creation, we have all the right to do anything we please to you. You get no requests.” Her voice seemed hard and final, but I didn’t care.

            “We are as human as you are, we feel the same way and think the same way. Why are you doing this to us?” My temper had gone up and I was almost shouting while gripping the iron bars in between me and her with much force. She looked at me with a triumphant smile.

            “Au contraire, you are very much wrong. None of you are human, even primates are more genetically similar to humans than you. I suppose I could tell you why since you seem capable of understanding.” She said looking straight into my eyes again. “Your mother thought she could get away with you and your brother. We found her, naturally. You see,” she said slowly “you were all created through volunteer women. We were testing genetics many years ago, trying to diffuse human and avian DNA wasn’t as easy as we’d thought. We were in hopes of creating some kind of super human…” She paused for a second before going on. “The first one to volunteer was Linda Johason. It was supposed to change her, but there were not changes we could observe. We had been so certain of that formula, everything had been created so precisely. She decided to leave soon afterwards, but we decided to try again. We had to be completely sure. The second volunteer was Renee Williams.” She paused to see if I reacted in any way at the mention of my mother. I didn’t, she went on. “Renee was a poor girl from the streets who really didn’t have anything to lose. We tested on her, but then again there was no change. We continued running tests on her for a while, things seemed pretty normal. But that was when she got pregnant. When getting an ultrasound she noticed the baby was deformed. She came to us directly and that’s when everything made sense. The human and avian DNA had fused together, but since our human bone structure was already set, major changes wouldn't happen, but the new DNA could pass on to the offspring. Later we found out her body did have some modifications in the lungs and a few other places, but mostly she stayed normal. By then we started to search for Linda, but it seems she had figured out about it by herself and had disappeared. Renee stayed in program for a while and we tested a third volunteer, since we figured out how it worked she quickly got pregnant so we could test her." She paused again while I let all the information sink in.

            "We sent more and more people after Linda, but we couldn't find her. Renee got pregnant a second time, but by then she wasn't as cooperative as she used to be. She didn't have much choice in the matter though, she signed a contract and if she left she had to leave the specimen with us. She ran away as you can probably guess by now."She looked very serious then and almost angry. "But Renee hadn't approved of what we were planning to do, before running away she set fire in the laboratory and all the information was lost. She then went into hiding pregnant a third time with already a newborn and a six year old." I sensed she was at the end of her story because she walked a little bit towards me with a look of impatience. "Your mother caused us quite a bit of grief, we lost everything and couldn't replicate the results of our first formula. But now that we have all the specimens here we can finally set to work." Shaira gave me a final look and then walked out. The other followed her leaving us here with our thoughts.

            I was stunned into silence you might say. I sat on my bed and decided to take everything slowly. After a while I realized I hadn't heard anything from Sophyella and Dana yet. I got up and went to check Dana first. She didn't look at me, she was in deep thought.

            "Linda, she was my mother." She said breaking the silence that Shaira had left. "She dies when I was young, we were always moving and I never really knew what was going on. My dad got all kinds of doctors to come in, but no one knew what was wrong with her, let along how to cure her. Nothing worked. I guess now I know why. Before she died she told me I was different, she said bad people were after me and I shouldn't let them catch me. I also had a brother, his name was Chris and he was only two years old. He got sick alongside my mom and died a little after her. My dad couldn't deal with anything anymore and couldn't help me after mom died. I left him for his own safety." I had never heard Dana talk after her family, I hadn't known anything at all. There were tears sliding down her face and she looked really small. I wanted to hug her and comfort her and silently cursed the iron bars separating us.

            "My mother, Renee never told me anything at all. I never knew I wasn't normal, I knew I was different, but I didn't think it was bad in any way. My brother John probably knew about everything since he was six when my mother finally decided to go. I didn't know that he had gone through all of this before." I told Dana softly, my brother's actions surveying the area the night before and trying to stop me from being found had finally made sense. I remember sometimes feeling like he and Mother had been hiding something, and in a way they had.

            I walked to the other side of the cell and looked at Sophyella. Her face was hard, I had just realized that Shaira had never mentioned the name of the third woman. Sophyella had also been here all her life, the truth was hard to ignore. Total abandonment. She didn't say anything at all and her expression and reaction somewhat scared me. She looked more determined than she ever had before.