Half- Ruined (Book 2 in the Morph Trilogy)

Chapter Twenty-Five

Zac:

Burning buildings, ash showering down upon me. I roll to my back and look up at the grey sky in wonder. I watch morphs run around the city, jumping over bodies. I'm about to stand up when I see a crowd standing in front of me. A large group of morphs with a silver leader stand proudly in the street. The silver leader glares down at me.

"K-Kiera?" I stamer. The proud cheetah's blank eyes flash towards her pack, signaling. She heads toward me gracefully stepping over humans. She looks so beautiful the sun reflecting off her fur. Her dark spots stand out against her golden fur. The only thing that ruins the image is the gleaming silver claws. She stops in front of me.

"Kiera don't do this." I whisper. I look into her lifeless eyes pleading for something human to show. "Please." I feel water on my shirt and I relize I'm crying. I struggle to feet willing myself to stand. Before I can reach full height a silver claw digs into my chest followed my three others. I fall to the ground again this time with Kiera on top. The other paw slams into my chest and I can't breathe . My eyes blink shut and finally close. I'm left in darkness for a while untill a flash of light appers. My eyes snap open and I sit upright. I look around the cage and see Kiera sleeping peacefully. Dream, it was just a dream.

I get up careful not to wake her but she gets up anyway. 

"I'm going for a walk." I tell her.  She nods then slowly gets up.

"I'll come with you."

Emma

I wake with a start, bolting upright, sweat dripping down my face. I let out a groan of pain and look down at the several white bangades covering my chest. My ring finger has a little blue splint on it. I look down at the sheets all tangled at the foot of the bed. Lifting my head slowly trying not to move my injured body I look at my surronding.  Rows of beds are scatterd around the room and a hallway of doors is to the right. I push off my bed slowly groaning a little. My feet reach the icy floor and I bite back a yelp. I walk barefoot in the hospital gown down the hallway of doors.

I raise myself to stand on my tip toes and peer into the little window. A boy is sitting in the room with a girl. The girl is slepping and the boy is sitting up staring at her. I turn to go and run back to the room of beds then slowly tip toe out of that room and walk down another hall. In the hall are doors, doors that lead to rooms with bunk beds and bathrooms. I turn a corner and find myself looking at a row of cells. It looked like a prison with cells lining the hall, but instead of criminals, children were in the cells sleeping. I run down the hall wondering how far it could go. It goes on for what seemed like forever, four white walls and a glass wall is all I see untill I reach another door.

There are way to many doors in this place.  This door is locked and a keypad is on the wall to the right. I peer into the window and see more cages, but these cages are stacked on the wall. These cages look like animal crates where as the others were just walls and glass. I turn to go just as a siren goes off. I jump back and run into one of the cages. The boy in there growls but then realizes something.

"Kid you better run, they'll be here in less than 10 seconds." I take his advice and sprint through the halls. I come to a fork and look both ways, men in black shirts and camo pants fill both sides. A door stands in front of me as if it's a clue. I grab the handle and run outside. I look around the closed arena. It looks like a training arena with agilty equipment and punching bags and a man standing in the center.

"I feel like you people have a homing device attached to you and this is where it leads you." He says. The  same man with the cold green eyes and military cut black hair.He kind of looks like me. I back away as he steps closer.

"Or maybe you are all attracted to sunshine."When I don't say anything he goes on  "Yup that's probaly it." The other animals and humans stop in their tracks. Their eyes wonder over to the little girl getting backed into a fence by several men. The man waves a hand.

"Boys show her to her cage." The men rush on holding their weapons to the side. I put my hands up and close my eyes, cowering in fear.

"Please don't hurt me, please don't hurt me." I whisper to anyone willing to listen. Which is no one at the moment. After a minute goes by with no sound I figure somethings up. I open one of my eyes and see men sprawled on the ground crying out in pain. No just any men the men that were just charging me. They lay sprawled across the ground all except the man. He stares wide eyed at his men, and then back at me but it only lasts for a second before than full on smile is back.

"Just like her father." He mumbles. I look at him confussed, for many reasons mostly because this guy never knew my father.   I put my hands down and the man comes closer. He pulls out a pair of gloves bigger than his hands. He grabs me by the hand and pulls me towards him. Before I can do anything, two dazed looking guards are holding out my hands to the man. He grabs my hands and shoves the large gloves onto my small, fragile hands. They look baggy at first, but soon start shrinking to fit my hands. The men release my hands and they drop to my sides. I finger with the gloves trying to get them off as the man "guides" me back to a cage. The gloves feel as if somone hot glued them on along with the sensation of something being sucked out of my body and into the gloves. I double over in pain but the guards just carry on pulling me through the halls.  The guards drop me in front two pairs of shoes.

"What are you two doing here."

"Well we are in charge." A male voice says. I don't dare look up, fearing the worst.

"Fine take her to her cell morph." He growls. They drop me to my knees and I look down at the floor. He walks away mumbling about something. One of the shoes bends down and I  look up to see the face of a girl.

"Hey there I'm Kiera." She says in a soft voice.  Her eyes were a light purple, which kind of freaked me out.  Was she an alien?  "Here come with me." She put out a hand and I stare at it. I lift up my shaky hand and drop it into her palm. We stand up together and I finally get a look at the other set of shoes. A boy around the same age as Kiera looks down at me shaking his head. Was he dissapointed in me?

"This is just perfect."  He mumbles. Kiera hears him and gives him a warning look.  He puts his hands up in a mocking surrender, laughing. Kiera brushes past the boy and punches him in the arm playfully. I wince a little and stop in my tracks. Kiera looks back at me worried.

"Hey it's okay, he's fine." She says and the boy grins. I follow her willingly hoping the whole time she doesn't punch me too. She leads me to one of the cells I saw before. She presses a button and the glass wall starts to slide to the left.  She walks me in and places me on the bed.

"You going to be okay here by yourself?"  I nod, not really wanting to be alone but not wanting a stranger to stay with me.  She nods and then after closing the door walks away with the boy.

Kiera

I run to my new room disturbed. I can hear Zac following so I slam the door shut in his face. Zac knocks and when I don't awnser comes in anyway. I grab a pillow from my bed and chuck it at him. He ducks and it flies past him landing the the hall. He chuckles.

"Go away." I yell at him.

"What happend you were fine when we left the medic and then-" He stops short realizing what we've just done.

"Zac we just put a nine year old in a cell." I say. Zac looks down at his hands before sitting next to me on the bed. I lay my head on his shoulder and a tearfalls from my eyes.

"Should have worn a raincoat." Zac mumbles. I'm to torn to punch him.

"I'm going to go check on Emma." I tell him. When I get to Emma's cell I see her asleep on her bed.  I motion for a guard to unlock her cell and he does without question.  She looks so peaceful asleep.  I decided to spend the night with her and soon fall asleep.