Project Starfall (Completed)

Chapter 15

When Pierce woke again it was day. She was sitting in the passenger's seat and Grey was driving. "Feeling better?" he asked.

"Much." Pierce nodded. She looked at her shoulder and was relieved to find that the swelling had gone down. "How long have I been asleep?"

"Nearly twelve hours," Grey answered. "In another two we'll have made it to Tampa."

"What about our supplies?"

"We just passed our old van a half hour ago. We moved all of our food and weapons into this one."

"Good." Pierce smiled weakly.

"What were those things?" Madigan asked from the row behind. Pierce looked back at the tiger hybrid in time to see her shudder.

"The result of some horrible new experiment by Project Starfall." Pierce shrugged. "If being crossed with animal DNA changes a person's mind, I can only imagine what being crossed with bug DNA would do."

"Those poor creatures," Elliot murmured.

The van fell into a solemn silence. "Can we stop for lunch?" Knox finally asked. "I'm starving."

"Just eat the food we have," Pierce replied.

"But I already did!" Knox whined.

"It's true." Madigan frowned. "He ate everything."

"Stopping for a bit sounds nice," Elliot added.

"Fine," Pierce agreed in exasperation. "Grey, pull over at the next restaurant you see."

Ten minutes later they had found a burger place and watched with a mixture of disgust and amazement as Knox ate five hamburgers in a row. Pierce picked at some fries, but didn't eat much. She was too on edge. "I saw another hybrid," she said after several minutes of silence. "She was part bird like me."

"Did you kill her?" Madigan asked, then took a bite of her burger.

"No," Pierce answered. "It wasn't her choice to become one of Starfall's experiments.... And she was just a kid."

"What they're doing is terrible," Elliot whispered. "If only we could save them. But we can barely save ourselves."

Pierce slammed a fist on the table, causing the hybrids and nearby customers to jump. "You don't have to worry," she promised. "As soon as all of you are safe, I'm coming back for the hybrids being held captive. And I won't give up until I free them all."

Knox clapped. "Lovely speech captain. I'm going to get another burger for the road."

When they arrived in Tampa Grey made several calls at a phone booth while the rest of the hybrids waited in the van. "He agreed to meet with us at his Casino," Grey announced after almost an hour. "It's called The Sands."

"This day just got a lot better." Knox grinned. "I'm a master at Blackjack."

"When do we meet him?" Pierce asked.

"Tonight," Grey said. "So we're going to need to get cleaned up."

"Wow." Knox gaped. "I just noticed Pierce is kind of hot."

"Please shut up." Pierce's face flushed.

After getting invited to the casino Grey had withdrawn more money from the bank and they had bought nicer clothes. Then they had rented a motel room so they could shower and get dressed. Grey changed into a black suit and Knox had on a maroon one.