SPLICED

CHAPTER NINE

December 2nd, 2018

Several weeks have passed since our escape and near subsequent procurement by the United States military. A lot has changed in so short a period of time. Our training has proven beneficial not only to the military, but also to ourselves. We are learning, and growing every day, and have begun to discovers factors in our spliced coding that we had never imagined possible under Eden's control.

My top speed has increased to nearly eighty-eight miles per hour, and I am able to sprint, unhindered for nearly a mile. I can see in the darkness and have attuned my senses to the slightest sounds and smells. I still don't sleep, but I wonder now if it is more due to my dreams than the restlessness in my feline DNA.

The others are settling in as well, and their progress is equal to my own. We aren't an unstoppable force of reckoning, but we are stronger than we ever would have been, prior to leaving Eden Labs.

In time I know we will only continue to grow, but I wonder what will happen in the event of this. We are not soldiers, as General Donner promised... but that doesn't mean we cannot become soldiers.

Sitting in the common room later, my thoughts revolve around the last few days at The Zoo, as we've taken to calling our new home. I hear the doors open, but it doesn't register that I am not alone until I hear Gideon's voice.

"You home, Charlie ?" He asks, and I look up with a small smile, "Sort of checked out there, for a minute."

"I'm here. Just thinking..." Straightening in my seat I look at him. Over the past few weeks he has been improving more than most of us. He looks stronger, fiercer, and there is a definite power behind those dark green eyes that he did not possess before. Since that night in the woods he hasn't tried to kiss me again, but I find myself thinking about it more now, than I did before. It is only memories of Alex, which still haunt me daily,which keep me grounded.

"Thinking about what?"

"Are you happy here, Gid?" I ask, and he chuckles, picking up my legs, which are splayed out on the couch so he can sit beside me.

"Happy? That's kind of a funny way to put it..."

"Yeah, I guess so. I just mean... are you glad we stayed?"

Leaning back against the couch, he cups his hands behind his head, "I'm not sorry about it. I dunno if I'd say I'm glad, but... well, it beats running."

"I guess it just hit me, sitting here...how weird all of this is. It still doesn't feel real. Any of it. Eden, this place. It's like we're living these lives, but they're just... they're not real."

"Yeah. I know what you mean. I keep waiting to wake up, like it's all some kind of crazy dream. But it's just... it's not happening. But I guess we know why. It is real, Charlotte. All of it. We just have to learn to accept it."

"Does it feel to you like we're just... learning to accept a whole lot more than we rightly should have to?"

Laughing softly, Gideon nods, "Definitely feels that way. You wanna take a walk? I need some air..."

"Sure." I slide my legs from his lap and rise to my feet and he is right behind me. We head in the direction of the training yard. I still feel pressure in my chest going down the stairs, but Gideon sticks close and when we reach the door which will let us outside I can breathe easily again.

The weather has turned colder and a light snow rests on the hardened earth of the running track. Stepping outside, I inhale, and my lungs feel the burn of icy air. I find myself smiling, nearly frozen to my toes, but freer than I have been in years. Stepping up by my side, Gideon smiles faintly, breathing in deep.