Thicker Than Blood

Chapter 3: A day in the life...

It was rather dark out. We, Mitchell and I, were hiding behind a dumpster, waiting for the specimen to pass us so we could inject them and get them to the lab. It was completely dark, and Mitchell and I looked ridiculous in our ski masks. Mitchell had bought his three years ago because he went skiing with his family every year and needed a new one. I bought mine about a year ago. I was supposed to go with my sister's family last year, but she had to cancel, her baby got sick, my little niece. But talk about being blessed, it would have seemed off if we just recently purchased ski masks and then a kid from the university campus went missing. But since they were old and everyone knew we went skiing with our families periodically, so we were fine. In fact, everyone that worked at the school had a ski mask, you couldn't get away from having one living in the area that we did.

"Do you think that they will come this way? We've been waiting an awfully long time." Mitchell looked at me as if I had two heads that just sprung from my shoulders. It was beginning to rain, and I wasn't about to get soaked to the bone for this stupid project.

"They'll come. They always come this way. Now, be quiet, we don't want them to hear us." Mitchell mumbled under his breath while he rocked back and forth on his heels. Just as we both were about to give up, the specimen we scouted out had finally walked around the corner across the street, headed our way. He waved his hand at me to be quiet and still. I readied the syringe while placing my back against the wall trying hard not to breathe loudly.

Once the kid started to walk past the alley we stood in, Mitchell pounced on him as if he had studied ballet, and I watched as the kid struggled with the chloroform being pressed into his mouth and nose, while being held from behind. His eyes began to flutter, yet still huge with fear. Mitchell made sure to wear a medical mask underneath his ski mask so the fumes wouldn't bother him as much, but it shouldn't have been much of a dose. Just enough to keep them from screaming while I injected them with the sedative. I plunged the syringe into the front of his neck, imagined how the liquid flowed into his body, covered it, and placed it into my pants pocket. I helped Mitchell grab the specimen to keep them from falling over and my body began to protest the weight. I could feel him slipping from my grasp and I saw that Mitchell was beginning to fuss at me about dropping the specimen. The specimen was too heavy for me so, we managed to drag him without incident though the alley to Mitchell's car. I couldn't tell if they were asleep or dead.

We were just about to open the trunk and put in the new specimen. First, I heard it, then Mitchell heard it. The sound grew louder as if it was getting closer. Panic began to set in.

The alarm went off.

Morning had come too soon. The alarm was screeching at me to wake up. I tried to pry my eyes open, but my eyes felt like rocks had formed on them, keeping them closed, and drool had pooled beside my mouth. I hit snooze, or at least tried, my arm was sore. I got the damn alarm to turn off though. I tossed back the covers to reveal a lovely amount of mud caked on the sheets; fortunately, I lived alone and had no one to explain that too. But apparently, I was too tired to get out of the dirty clothes from last night.

I sat up and felt for my temples, a headache was brewing. My muscles ached from running around the campus; It was then that I decided I really needed to get out more. Last night was terrifying, and yet exhilarating at the same time, but I don't want to do that again - ever. I liked the normal routine. Well, what was left of it, but today was going to be normal. I had high hopes for not having to drive across town to check on anything to do with our little project. Nor was I going to worry about our special benefactor either. Today was all about the students and for the first time, I wasn't nervous. I let out a slight sigh, turned to pet my cat on the ledge above my bed, then stripped to get into the shower. I had to make a mental note to remember to change the sheets later.