Night Rider

Chapter Four

Ten’s Point of View

I felt the small vortexes of drag build up behind the joints of my wings. I cut sharply through the air, attempting to regain some altitude that gravity had stolen from me.

I forced my wings in, allowing them to cocoon my body. They protected me from the biting sting of the wind. I let myself fall down, I plummeted toward the lower regions of the tower.

Falling, was the only thing that felt better than flying. The adrenaline rush was addicting, it was the only time when I could stop thinking. I could let my instincts take over.

It was the dreams that plagued my sleep, ever since they took my wings.

I was flying through the clouds, something I had only dreamed about when I was younger. The sky was a navy blue, it wasn't daytime, but it wasn't night either. It was that in between period of them. The clouds reflected flaming crimson, delicate oranges and pale yellows, they all danced together to create a mosaic of fire.

The wind whistled over my wings, singing songs of joy. The air tasted pure and untainted. There didn't even seem to be the ever present force of gravity. All in all, it was paradise.

There was a festering ich between my shoulder blades. It grew, I reached over my shoulder to paw at it briefly. My fingers tore through flesh, blood poured over my hands and back. A burning flame unfurled in the centre of my back. I turned over, my hands ran over my wings. I was numbly aware of dark blue feathers falling through the sky.

The colour red built up on the edges of my vision. I felt myself fall through the air. I couldn't breath, I ran my hands over my back, all there was was sticky blood and pain. Pain that drove its way into your very bones. Pain that was caused by the removal of my wings.

I plummeted down, gaining speed. The air stung my eyes, stealing tears as they sprung to my eyes. The ground grew steadily, I braced myself for the impact.

I heard a massive crack. Pain shot through my body, it was white hot and messy. I felt blood run over me and bones poking out of my mangled flesh. Then I ‘died’.

When my wings regrew, the nightmare didn't stop. It progressed, the morbid fantasy planted itself into my waking self. I fell so I could reassure myself that I could fly.

As I fell I was aware of two things. The first were the markings on the wall that helped me to track the distance that I had fallen. The second, was the eyes of the scientists tracking my progress. I assume they were somewhat interested about whether or not I would die on impact.

After I had fallen about half way down the tall building. I flipped over, so that I faced the floor. I waited for my target altitude, ready to snap my wings open at a moment's notice.

Seven hundred fifty metres, five hundred metres, two hundred fifty metres, two hundred metres. I felt some preprogramed instinct tell me that I couldn't survive any lower at this speed. I snapped my wings open. I held them steady, a solid, steady barrier against the immovable force of the wind.

I pushed myself upwards, reaching towards the top of the tallest structure in the the centre of the compound. The entire compound aesthetically revolved around the tower. Smaller buildings surrounded this one. They got smaller as a counterclockwise circle was created. If was quite pretty if you thought about it one a basic level.

These smaller buildings were the laboratories and the barracks and multiple other facilities that I didn't know the names of. All incased in a single impenetrable bubble under crashing seas.

I laughed, or really, it was more of a sharp bark. Anyway, this environment would favour us, if we weren't outnumbered thirty to one. I mean, we were physically stronger than natural born humans. Even though the only ones left were the ones in the compound. Anyway, we could survive almost any extremes.

Yeah, I thought about fighting my way out. The numbers don't check out, I wasn't so far gone that I had zero regard for my own life. I still had some desire to survive.

“Subject Ten, your time has expired. Report to the escort immediately,” a callous, bored voice called out.

The feathers on my wings served to convert the slight tremors of sound waves into a single cohesive stream of information. This ability enhanced my sense of hearing. Another reason why my head was spinning when I lost my wings, it was so quiet.

For a single heartbeat, I entertained the thought of surrendering silently. The idea of listening, and compling completely to their unending list of demands, and so many tests.

I felt that if I did listen to them, I would die. Maybe not literally at first, but slowly, spiritually and mentally I would fail. I refused to let that happen, if I were to die here, then I would go out fighting.

I brought my wings up and I pushed them down, repeatedly. I worked my way up to my original altitude. I kept my upward ascent, in a few moments I was at the top of the tower.

I reached the point where two secondary support beams intersected. I reached my hands out, grasping the beam firmly with two hands. I pulled myself onto the beams, carefully. I laid down along the beam, relaxed and defiant.

“Subject Ten, your time has expired. Comply immediately,” the voice was sharp, and icy.

I stretched out, I actually didn't know how they would get me down from here. Whatever, I had a feeling that I would find out soon enough.

I heard it before I felt it. The feathers on my wings perceived a ‘buzz’ of some sort. It sparked some instinct that told me to move quickly.

I listened to it, I rolled to my left. I allowed myself to plummet for about a dozen metres. I caught myself in the air. The object that was causing the buzzing whizzed past where I was.

It was a striped dart, I assumed it was some sort of tranquilliser. It couldn't be very strong, the fall from that height would kill me. I didn't think that the scientists wanted that, at least not yet.

I heard another buzzing, I rolled again. I fought to regain the altitude I lost again. I had to keep moving, I had to. The faster that I moved, the less time they would have to target me.

I rolled again, tucking my wings in to make myself a smaller target. The hardest thing would be to avoid falling into a predictable rhythm. A predictable rhythm would remove all advantages that staying mobile gave me.

I tucked in my wings, if I used the speed that rapid downward ascension gave me, and glided back up. Maybe I would be able to sustain this mayhem of movement.

I heard an increase of sound. Some instinct warned me that if I moved to avoid one, I would step into another’s path.

I chose to move to one side and drop, I hoped to fool them into thinking that I was hit. Hopefully giving me enough time to take shelter behind one of the larger support beams.

I snapped out my wings once again, holding them against the unbending force of air. I pulled them together, almost so that the wing tips touched. I pushed them down, each downstroke propelled me at least two metres upwards.

I managed to get behind the primary support beam, it was the largest. It was like the backbone of the building. It was easily more than twice my width, wings in of course.

“Halt!” A strong, unyielding voice ordered.

I was terrified, I felt my heart rise to new speeds in my chest. These people terrified me all my life, now I was offering resistance. Why do they stop firing? This position only provided a temporary respite.

I felt a disturbance in the air around me, it felt familiar. In a way that I couldn't understand. It felt almost like my wing beats.

Who do you all think it is??