I weaved through the trees beside the path, silently scanning for any human figure. Suddenly, I heard the quiet crunch of gravel under footsteps. It sounded like it was pretty far away, but I scrambled up a tree just to be safe. Probably better to have the extra time anyway, climbing took longer than normal because of my extra garments. The one around my neck gave me extra trouble, it kept wrapping around twigs and yanking my head down. Later than I would have liked I made it up to a decent hight and clambered out onto a branch over the path. I crouched motionless for a few moments, then I caught sight of the girl I was looking for and almost fell onto the rocks below.
She was tall and thick, with a nose that turned up at the end and thick lips shifting in absent thought. Framing her face was curly dark hair that fell onto exposed shoulders, her top cutting off mid-stomach and held up by simple straps. Its dark blue suited her, with swirls of greens and yellows making a nice contrast. Her pants only went down to mid-calf, and the shoes treading on the path were bright red. Topping it all off was a string of yellow flowers wrapped around her head. She was unlike anyone I had ever seen before.
I shook my head to regain my bearings, then silently shot off over the path through the branches. Once I was safely out of sight, I dropped down and landed on the gravel with a small crunch, then straightened up and made my way toward the girl. When she saw me she jerked back and clenched her fists, but they quickly blurred into cartwheels as she careened backwards. After staggering a ways, she regained her balance and sighed.
"Geez, Miss Buzzcut, what the heck are you doing?" she snapped, propping her hands on her hips. Her eyes shifted in suspicion, subtle to the point where she was trying to hide it. Acting brave, a common tactic. Her feet shifted, grinding the gravel, resisting the urge to take a step back. "Forgive me if I'm a little suspicious of some mystery girl walking around in the forest barefoot." I internally winced as I felt the rocks beneath my thick soles. How did no one catch that? Now I looked even more suspicious.
"Er..." I stammered, and resisted the urge to smack myself. Yeah, I internally scolded, she'll definitely believe anything starting with 'er...', totally not lie alert number one. But despite that, I couldn't help myself. I had gotten lost in this girl's eyes. They were the most beautiful brown, dark fading to light fading back to dark. Her thick lashes twitched as she blinked and knotted her eyebrows in suspicion. I jerked to break myself out of my thoughts and gave her my most serious I'm-a-genetically-engineered-supersoldier look.
"Look," I said, my face expressionless. "There's some construction going on ahead, and-"
"Yeah, right," she cut me off with a teasing grin. "If that were true there would just be a sign. Maybe an actual construction worker. Not just some barefooted mystery girl with a scarf and sweater." So the thing around my neck is called a 'scarf,' I noted. Weird.
"No," I protested, my brain running a mile a minute. "I'm a... an intern." I had heard the word once or twice around the Institute, it sounded official enough to work. She snorted.
"Alright, then," she said, shoving past me. "I'll just speak to whoever's in charge to double-check." I raised my fists and prepared to take her out by force before I was interrupted by a stern voice.
"No, Asset 1," said Agent Davids as I lowered my arms slowly. "Remember, they have cameras. They can't know you have any combat skill whatsoever. Beat her to the base and get as many Assets out as you can."
"Alright," I said, straightening from my crouch and dashing off through the trees. I ran past another person walking down the path from the direction of the base, probably backup. So they already knew of my failure. I froze just before I broke the trees and slowed my pace to fit our cover story of never having run before. I made my way to the back door and opened it forcefully. As it hit the wall with a crash, every soldier pointed their gun at me for just a moment. A moment my team seized.
They all rose to their feet and broke for the front door, too fast for the soldiers to register what happened and fire. I stripped off my top, now in just my jumpsuit and scarf. My wings stretched in glorious freedom as I leapt into the air, soaring under the vaulted ceilings over the shocked soldiers. I folded my wings and dove, threading myself through the front doorway and swiveling midair to glide into a soft landing. I heard a soft cry and looked up to see the same girl from before, pale and covering her mouth with a shaky hand. Well, the secret was out. I ripped off my scarf for good measure, rubbing my sweaty, gilled neck.
"What the..." she whispered, before Rose's Jamie dashes up behind her.
"Wait!" he cried. "This is condemned-" he paused and his eyes darkened as he saw us. "I should have guessed." Suddenly, a strong hand gripped my shoulder and whipped me around.
"WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?!" General Weirdname screamed in my face. I didn't even flinch, though I could see in her eyes she expected me to. "I GIVE YOU ONE SIMPLE ORDER AND YOU CAN'T EVEN DO THAT!" I blinked my eyes in fake regret.
"I'm sorry," I murmured, looking down. "I did my best." Adding desperation to my voice, I add, "Please don't hurt my friends." She scowled at me, warning that I would be punished later.
"Jamie!" she shouted. "Since this useless girl obviously learned nothing, what was the stated purpose you received?"
"She's here for a school project," he said, glancing at the girl who now looked like she might faint. "Said they need to take a photo and write about a special place to them, but she doesn't get out enough. Apparently her room and bookstores don't count, so she came out here to look for someplace she could lie about and say she'd visited since childhood." He held up and twitched his first two fingers, looking like some sort of sarcastic gesture. "'Plus, it'll be an adventure,' in her words."
"Take her inside," she instructed with a wave of her hand. Conveniently, the girl fell unconscious just after she had finished speaking. Non-winged Jamie tried to lift her, but his scrawny arms would never win against her heavy body. He motioned for some guards as Miss Muscle turned to us. "Feather Freaks, you all come too." We rustled our feathers, preparing to escape, before a familiar voice butted in.
"Don't," snapped Agent Davids, all of us regretfully folding in our wings at his words. "Remember your mission." The speaker clicked off as we all slowly make our way inside behind the General, the mystery girl being carried in behind us.
YOU ARE READING
The Indestructibles
Fiksi Ilmiah*NOTE: This story contains a homosexual relationship* ~~~ "We were made to be untouchable. Now we're dying. And I'm going to find out why." Melody and 24 others were made in a lab to be supersoldiers. Fighting or fleeing, they were built to be perfe...
