spread my wings

chapter 16

"What the hell? I thought I was going to a meeting or something!" i scoffed as i was confronted with another cage.

"This is merely a holding pen for you until you are needed. Now stay." she barked, locking me up and marching away.

"Hmph. Bitch." i muttered.

She may thing that i was under control, but i could cause as much havoc at this 'board meeting' as i wanted.

I sat back on my heels, suddenly coming aware of the cages surrounding me. dozens of them, all filled with various sorts of experiments.

I glanced at the cage next to me, and saw a seemingly ordinary scruffy black dog. The label on thh side of his cage said "Total."

I smiled. "Hi there, Total." i whispered. "The bitchy lady got you locked up here too?"

"Yup." came the unexpected reply. I nearly fell backwards, before scrambling up to press my face against the bars. "You talk?" i exclaimed. "Yes, just don't tell the idiot scientists. Whats your name?" he said back.

"Uh, Syn. Short for Synthia, i think."

"You think?"

"Yeah, well, apparently i escaped before and have repressed memories or something, and 'Syn' is what the people who i was living with, who are apparently not my parents, called me. So." i told him.

"Bummer."

"Yup."

A loud clang made both of us jump,

Total was quiet for a moment, then he whispered "What was that?"

"I don't know."

"I doubt it was a scientist, but it sounded... kinda really big."

"Thank you Total, for that stunning display of intellect."

He raised is paws in a 'woah' gesture. "I'm just tryin to help."

"Shhh!"

I listened hard, then I hear someone say quietly "We're in the institute."

Institute? I wondered.

"Uhm, is that a good thing?" a child's voice said.

"Holy fuck." a deeper voice says. "No kidding." (the first voice.)

There's a minute of silence, then "Okay, guys, fan out, stay on guard, watch my back. I mean it! I'm going to try to hack in." The sound of computer keys clacking fills the space.

"This is pointless." The voice said again in an annoyed manner. "What's wrong, Max?" a new, young female voice asked.

Okay, first voice = Max. I mentally noted.

"Who am I kidding? There's no way for me to crack the password. We've come all this way for nothing. I'm such a loser! I can't stand it!" Max said

Then, "Nudge?" Max asked. "Hello? What are you doing?"

Then, the youngish girl, now named Nudge, (Nudge? I wondered), said "Um, try big x, little j, little n, big p, the number seven, big o, big h, little j, and the number four."

There was more clacking of keys.

By this time was rooting for them from the shadows, so I was overjoyed when I heard  a small noise of victory and the whirring of a computer booting up.

They were in.