The Renegade

Chapter 7: Acquaintances

*present time*
Jeff groans loudly, "Alright, I'm hungry. Let's get dinner."
I glance at my new weapon. What the hell was I doing? I look down at my bare feet. I only just then realized how soft the carpet was beneath my legs. My toes wrestle with the stringy carpeting as I examine my work. I could recall doing something like this. Years and years ago.

But wait. No, there's a loud screech. Someone's whining, and it came after what sounded like a painful beating with what I assumed was the back of a hand. And the hand turned into knuckles. Blow after blow after blow; disciplinary or not, this person didn't deserve this- or did they..?
Fate is a funny thing. They say that your life is up to you. But is it?
Of course it is. You make your own decisions. You chose where you life goes. And of course, your life - And therefore your fate- can be influenced by an outlying component. Like, for no specific example, a pair of knuckles. Which belonged to arms, which belonged to a chest, which belonged to a neck, which belonged to a head, which belonged to a pair of eyes. The kind of eyes that commanded a brigade. The kind of eyes that were ruthless. The kind of eyes that could send your sense of courage running for the hills. Those stubborn, cold, hard eyes were the only things I saw before the breath escaped my lungs and my world darkened.

A weight lands on my shoulder and I snap out of my trance, grasping for air that seemed to have escaped my lungs. Out of some kind of defense, I start swatting randomly. Two figures both grab my wrists and huff something in my ear. But their words are distant. Like someone yelling, reaching out to someone on the opposing end of a terrible storm.
"Ig-"
I was shaking. Seizing-maybe. Shaking-definitely. I hated that. I hated them. I hated what they did to me. I hated what they made me do. I couldn't ever forgive them. More importantly, I could never forgive myself.
"Ign-"
They won't ever like me. Not after what I've done. They won't forgive me. They won't accept me.
"IGNACIA!!" someone shouts.
I blink. Before me are concerned faces. Even the stubborn Jeff and the stern Mike looked concerned.
"W-w-what," my shaky voice manages to spurt out.
"Are. You. All. Right," Kylee says slowly. There was a lot of pressure on my wrists from Kylee and Nikki grasping them so hard.
It takes a moment to register, but once it does, my head bobs slowly.
They loosen their grip and I nearly fall backwards. They wearily catch me again. They help me to sit down as Kylee squats and Nikki sits with her legs crossed. "You need to sit for a moment.
"What's going on?" Nikki asked with concern in her voice.
"I... uh."
To my delight, the doors burst open.
There were two boys standing in the now open doors. Kylee and Schiffs almost fall over when they presented themselves in the doorway. The taller boy had dark black hair and dark brown eyes while the shorter boy had dirty blonde hair and green eyes and braces laced among his teeth.
"What the hell is going on here?" yelled the taller boy. He stood with his hands dangling at his side while the other boy stood with his arms crossed.
Kylee turns back to me, then back at the boys, then back to me.
"Ah... right."
The taller boy let's out a sigh. "I thought you we're killing her. And we can't let her die until we run a few more experiments."
I let out a gasp louder then I expected it to be. The boy chuckles and continues, "Don't get your panties in a bunch. I meant we are going to run some more diagnostics." He walks over to Schiffs and throws his arm around her while the shorter boy stands next to Kylee.
"I'm Christian," the smaller boy says. "And that over there is Roberto."
Christian is given the death stare from a certain someone and he says, "Or just Robby."
"Uh. Ig-"
"I know," Robby says, cutting me off. "Your Ignacia or Iggy Finis. You have a birthmark in your eye and you have pretty terrible vision."
I stare at him. "Uh. What."
"I'm one of the doctor assistants here. I had to run an eye diagnostic to test your vision. And I scanned your eyes and I saw a birthmark. One of the doctors told me to write down how you had the other birthmark. Just a precautionary measure."
Despite that, I look at him crooked. I'm not sure if I can trust this guy. But then again, I'm not sure they can trust me.
"As for me, I'm one of the paramedics," Christian adds.
"What about the other five?" Nikki thinks aloud.
"She'll meet them tonight at the latest," Robby says.
"Who," I ask.
"You'll see," Jeff says with a smirk.
"Thanks for the useful information," I say, rolling my eyes.
"Your welcome," he snaps chipperly.
"Anyway, we'll have to run some more tests on you sometime, princess."
The funny thing was, he didn't understand how ironic his statement was.
"Now, what were you guys doing?" Robby says, clicking his tongue.
"Food," Jeff moans.
"Oh I love food. I could go for some right now!" Robby sighs excitedly.
Everyone sighs heavily besides Schiffs who just chuckled.
"What?"

"Sit here," Nikki says, "Next to me. You should be meeting the other five soon."
As soon as she says that the doors fly open and three girls burst in and rush to sit at the table. The tallest one had longer dark hair and dark eyes. The one standing in the middle who was shorter than the taller girl was blonde with darker blue eyes and braces. The other had similar features to Maansi, but was considerably smaller.
"Took you guys long enough," Kylee mumbled.
"Sorry. Got caught up with some work. And some more work," the blonde one sighs. "You must be Iggy. I'm Madison Schmitt. But people here call me Schmitty."
The other girl stands up and runs around to my side of the table and rushes to my side to examine my face. Once she's done, she leans back and breathes, "Hannah."
"Nice... to... meet you?"
Hannah nods and returns to her seat.
The tall girl offers me a gentle smile, "Mia," she said. "Looking forward to working with you."
Once Mia finished her sentence, three girls roll in with trays of food and drinks which included steak, grilled cheese, mashed potatoes, old packages of Ramen noodles, pizza, barbecue chicken wings, corn, and peas just to name a few. The taller cook had the same features as Christian, while the shorter female had short brown hair that reached her shoulders. The shortest had medium blonde hair and green eyes. They stumble back into the kitchen, just to roll out another cart full of the delicious-looking food.
They stumble back in with a clap and sigh of relief. "Dinner. Is. Served."
Before they can even sit down, the crew starts tearing apart the food. Nikki takes a bunch of food and sets it on my plate. She slams such large portions on my plate, however, that I was afraid I wouldn't be able to eat, even after about a week of not eating actual food. She explains whenever she sits down that she was going to split it with me, and that it was just easier to lump it all on my plate. There's about a serving left of everything, and I assume the group left it especially for the apparent cook.
"Excuse my manners," the taller cook says, "My name is Hallie. Nice to meet you."
The shorter chef just glares at me. Or, at the very least, in my direction. "Jenna," she spit out, tongue curling harshly around the name.
The blonde adds, "And I'm Kenzie."
"Well?" Schiffs finally pipes up after a steady minute of silence.
I look around, "Well... what?"
"Well, what do you think?"
"Of what?"
"Of us? Of the Squadron? Squadron 1? 'Smog Squad'?"
That gets a chuckle out of me, "Smog Squad?"
No one else laughs. "Yeah?"
"Alright," I say looking down at my plate
"But us here... we're a family," Kylee adds. "The squadron."
I pick up my fork and squish a pea from underneath it.
"Must be nice," I murmur.
"What's that?" Maansi asks.
"Oh, uh. Nothing. I just said that you guys seems nice."
"Well you better think so. Your going to be stuck with us for a while," Shawna says quickly.
The group goes back to eating.
Kylee. Schiffs. Nikki. Riley. Jeff. Shawna. Maansi. Mike. Christian. Schmitty. Hannah. Robby. Mia. Jenna.
While it was quite a few names and quite a few faces to remember, I would make due. After all they have done for me so far, that's the least I can do.
Then, suddenly, a man bursts in. He was a tall, slender man with a lab coat and platinum hair slicked back. His face was shaped in such a way that you would think that glasses belonged on the bridge of his nose, in front of his leaf-green eyes, but didn't. Nikki stands up. The force of this action was so great that her chair scrapes the ground with a loud BANG. The room grasps onto a tense silence. Nothing could be heard but the faint tick of a clock. It was almost hypnotic. I snapped out of it when the man approaches and places a sturdy hand on my shoulder. As quickly as he came over, Nikki comes over and swats his hand away.
The man rolls his eyes and says, "Come with me."
"Iggy, if you go with this person, your dead."