Us Mutants Prefer the Term "Special"

x8x

We had reunited with the others and realized that it did lead out into a stream. We hiked for just an hour more and found a cave, slightly concaved into the ground. Jane had determined which technology produced what and we had found the sleeping gear.

We slept in pairs, positioned in a circle under a canopy of trees, a few feet apart. Our sleeping bags were laid out, but while some of us were laying down, some of us were sitting up.

I looked across the circle as a bag was empty and its owner was pacing around the small bundle of embers in the center.

"We should be safe with him out here and all," Cariba said, making her blankets. Zaine was in charge and the twins' duplicates were on watch.

"That's not what I'm worrying about," I whispered. I was really caring less about the safety factor.

"Good," Cariba nodded. "Because there are about a hundred other things to worry about out here."

"Right..."

I looked around and saw Wilbur sitting against the base of a tree stump, examining an arrowhead. He rested his head against the trunk and sighed heavily. My eyes shifted to Isaac and Jane, who were camped out by each other in a trio of sleeping bags including Wilbur's due to our odd number. They looked like a cute couple, but while Jane was so interested in Isaac, I was sure that Wilbur was interested in her.

On the other side of the young ones, Indica and Skype set up a whole mesh canopy to keep the bugs off of them. They were quietly whispering to each other while laying down. The twins were by them and while Andres snored loudly, Anthony sat up with his arms wrapped around his knees. At least one of them had to be awake at a time, by my understanding.

My eyes shifted toward the fire, where Cheshire was making formations with the flames. Suddenly, a line of red wrapped around him and faded into his ears as someone whistled to him. He looked over his shoulder and over to Zaine. They were clearly not on speaking terms because he scoffed and returned to amusing himself with the fire. With Cheshire being a lost cause, Zaine returned from the trees, crossed the camp, and approached Wilbur. He looked down to him and moments later, he was standing with the bow in his hand and the quiver of arrows on his back.

"Where are you going?" I asked as they walked back across the circle.

"Out," Wilbur vocalized. Wow. Was this what it felt like when a parent's kid talked back to them? Because after two years of seclusion with him...I didn't like it.

"He'll be fine..." Cariba insisted, now with her hands folded beneath her head as her eyes were closed.

"Cutie," I was being called by Cheshire. He was standing up and walking over to me now. "Wanna take a walk?"

"It's, what, like eleven?" I responded.

"Glad you can tell the time, but..." he said. I rolled my eyes. He extended his hands towards me. "Come on; let's talk."

I thought about the possibility of seeing what Wilbur and Zaine were up to.

"Don't worry, I won't drag you by lover boy..." he said, reaching down to pull me up, which he did easily.

"I wasn't worrying about that," I lied, starting to walk off.

"Sure, cutie," he smiled.

=XXX=

We hiked for about ten minutes through the forest and I was surprisingly not freaked out about a lot of the strange noises. We made it to a rift, which resulted in a ten foot cliff down to the next part of land, cushioned by trees and bushes. Even from here, I could see over the rest of the island until a huge hill blocked my line of sight. Safe to say that I strained to even see the horizon, and that in consideration would leave a small chance of even getting off of this island.

"So what do you think about all of this?" Cheshire suddenly asked. I turned back to him.

"What do you mean, exactly?"

He smiled lightly before grabbing a hanging vine with each hand and seeming to sit back onto nothing but air, but as soon as his knees made a ninety degree angle, the vines turned into chains and there was a plastic seat. He swung his feet with the swing.

"All of this," he answered. "All of...us."

"I don't know," I shrugged. "I definitely have a first thought about everyone, but that's only after and considering the situation..."

I think he got the point.

"So what about you and Union?" he suddenly asked.

He, in no way, understood my point.

"What about us?" I asked, guilty.

"Please," he scoffed. "The kid hasn't wanted to talk to me since I got here, so there's no way in hell that he's doing so only because he wants to talk about you and how I should stay away from you."

"And yet you're here talking to me alone?"

He stood up and gave me a suggestive look.

"Unless...you don't want to be talking anymore..." he winked. He even got close to my face when my body language proved that I wasn't interested. I planned to stand my ground, but then I started seeing flashbacks of close moments with Tyler. I looked away from him, holding my breath, and then faced the view once more. "What's your story?"

"Excuse me?" I asked, turning to him. He was standing up now.

"You're a beautiful girl who stays on an island with special people and technology, yet stay with your deaf brother for two years not taking advantage of it," he described. "How'd you get here and why the hell didn't I meet you sooner?"

"I—we didn't want any part in it," I said. "We didn't need to be sent here."

"I agree," he said. "There's no reason why we should be sent to a place to harness our powers, only to be sworn into living a façade of normality...they just...don't understand that even if there's one slip up, most people look past it but oh no, apparently we're 'specialized' and under watchful eyes."

I didn't even "slip up". I was just put in a situation that triggered my powers that I didn't even know that I had.

"So what'd you do?" I asked him. What was his slip up?

"I've done many things," he smiled.

"You know what I mean," I said. "Who was Cheshire before the Academy?"

"Nobody," he shrugged. I lifted my chin. "Cheshire didn't exist."

"Fine. If you want to be like that, I can just merrily ask Zaine for your file," I bluffed.

"Please, cutie," he scoffed, pathetically. "The kid has it memorized."

"Well whose fault is that?"

"Mine," he hissed. "I mean, it's not so bad."

"Someone has your file memorized," I reminded. It's pretty bad.

"Yeah, but I'm the person that alters files, so no one really knows," he winked. I started to smile at the fact that no one could really know about Cheshire, but then his smile dropped. "Eh, that's enough for tonight."

"What's enough?"

"Just...talking," he said. "If you haven't noticed, I'm not well liked here...so..."

I shrugged and then he flipped his sensitive side off and then threw an arm over my shoulder to walk me back to camp. Minutes later, when I was settling down in my sleeping bag, Cheshire sort of waved at me from the distance and then I playfully rolled my eyes and he laid down.

I stayed awake until I saw Wilbur return safely, which was two hours later. Goddamn, what could they possibly have been doing?