The Brigade

Home again, home again

We got some odd looks in the hallway. Some people smothered laughs. It never ceases to amaze me at how easily Ty can know where everything is. I asked him about it once when we were kids. First he got mad, but then he told me that it was a combination of echolocation, and memorizing routes. Apparently when he was little he walked through the halls at night to commit routes to memory. We hopped up a flight of stairs and passed Dr. Miller’s office. He waved as we walked by. He was the man who made us like we are today. He says were special and we are. There is nobody like us. When we reached the infirmary the nurse immediately put James Bond in a bed. Vanessa kind of felt bad.

“I had no idea I could kick someone that hard,” She said.

“He’ll be okay,” I assured her.

“What time is it Ty?” asked Bruce.

“5:00 on the dot,” Ty answered. Ty’s super duper glasses have a bunch of cool features. If you’ve ever seen any of the Iron Man movies, Ty’s glasses are like Tony Stark’s Iron Man helmet.

Bruce’s shoulders slumped, “Ah shoot!” he mumbled “two hours until dinner.” Alice grinned. Bruce is usually hungry.

“Well,” I said “we can entertain ourselves for a while, right?” Bruce nodded glumly. “We’ve been training all day.” I pointed out.

“Let’s play some poker,” Ty suggested. Everyone cheered. Gambling was one of our favorite pastimes, partially because none of our skills applied to betting. Once again we walked through the hallways. I must say, the base was pretty bleak. The floor was a thin carpet, the walls were all white. The workers here were sworn to secrecy to not give any information about this facility. We strode through the halls to our rooms.

“I don’t know about you guys,” Alice said “but I need a shower.”

“Me too,” Vanessa chimed in.

“Uh,” Bruce groaned “I don’t understand girls” I smiled, and Ty patted him on the back. In the end we all took showers. I must say mine felt spectacular. I shared a room with Ty and Bruce. I say room, but it is more like a miniature house. We all have our own separate bedroom, and bathroom. There is a central area with beanbag chairs, an Xbox, and a mini fridge. Life’s pretty good, except for the fact that we are mutant creations that have never met another kid in our lives and, we have to live in a top secret laboratory somewhere in a desert that is presumably in some part of the United States. They don’t tell us a whole lot. What I do know is that it has its ups and downs. I also know that at some point, when we are all trained to our maximum potential both physically, and mentally we will be used as an elite fighting force sent on covert missions. Yep, we’re just your average mutant hybrids that are supposed to go and generally thoroughly embarrass some top secret base. I put on an AC/DC shirt and some khaki shorts. I tensed suddenly. My ear twitched. I heard footsteps. I grinned, and tiptoed toward my door. The footsteps were barely audible against the soft carpet in the hall. I clutched the door handle, and the footsteps stopped in front of my door. I paused for a second, and swung the door open suddenly. I was expecting to see a surprised Ty or Bruce, but what I ended up seeing was stars. Bruce instinctively punched at the wildly swinging door that I opened. He hit me square in the eye. I can take a lot of punches from Ty. Vanessa, and Alice, but getting hit by 90 pound Bruce is like getting tackled by 250 pound Ray Lewis. Not fun. When the room finally stopped spinning I focused on Bruce’s innocent, shocked looking face.

“Danny?” He said.

“Huh?” I answered sounding real intelligent.

“Uh, are you okay?”

“Yeah,” I said struggling to get on my feet. Bruce pulled me up and steadied me. Just then Ty chose to walk in. He recoiled as he laid eyes on my face.