Labyrinth of White - The Moon Trilogy - Book #1

Chapter eleven:

"Have you found him yet?"

"No. We haven't. We've been brainstorming and we have come up with several possibilities, but with the tracker offline, we can't know for sure."

"I don't care if you know for sure or not. Just bring him back."

"Yes, sir. We've decided to check the house that the target was in before the other locations because that was his last known position."

"Yes, that sounds reasonable. Also, if it's possible, I would like to capture 89443's target as well."

"Which agents should I send out?"

"To make absolutely certain that we won't let him get away, you had better send agent 77432 and her team."

"Yes, sir."

The sun was warm on Alex's shoulders as he walked through the pine trees. He was almost halfway home. He had been gone for about an hour. It had seemed like a lot shorter.

Suddenly, his ears started ringing. It had happened before, so Alex thought little of it. After several minutes, the ringing still persisted. He was starting to get a headache and he wished the annoying noise would stop. His headache intensified and he clutched his head in pain.

The ringing got twice as loud. He cried out.

He tied to start walking again but his efforts only made the earsplitting noise turn a pitch higher. The ringing stopped just as suddenly as it had started. Alex sighed in relief. The only thing about it was that the headache was still there. Alex stood still, leaned against a tree, and willed the headache to dissipate.

After a brief period of silence, there was a slight cracking noise. It was faint, but it reminded Alex of the sound of wood being snapped. Something was digging into his shoulders, which he just guessed had to be the tree he was leaning against.

He felt dizzy and the light swam before his eyes. The thing poking his shoulders was getting almost unbearable, and Alex leaned forward to clear his shoulders of the tree. Oddly enough, the poking sensation didn't leave.

He reached back and felt his back to see if there was something there that might be causing the pain. Sure enough, he felt something sticking out of his back, and his throat tightened because something had to be wrong with him if he only felt mild pain after something so big being jammed into him. This was bad.

He tugged but nothing happened. The pain, which was also sort of an itch, flared up for a brief second. Good, that meant his ability to gauge pain wasn't totally out the door. He tugged harder, thinking the branch or whatever it was might come out, but the harder he tugged, the more intense the shooting pain in his back became. He let go with a gasp.

But he had felt the same pain in both shoulders when he had been leaning against the tree. Shouldn't that mean there were two branches? That was even worse and Alex started feeling sick at the thought. He slowly reached his hand back again to feel the other side of his back.

There was another, and it was exactly the same as the first. Same width, same everything. Those couldn't be branches. There was no way that two identical branches had been sticking out with such perfect symmetry from the very tree he'd chosen to lean against. There was just no way.

His head was going foggy and he was feeling dizzier with every moment that passed. He could barely see the path in front of his face. He sank down to his knees and pulled in a few heaving breaths in an attempt to rid himself of the feeling.

After several seconds passed, the pain stopped and was replaced by a dull, throbbing ache. He let out a long shaky breath and reached his hand back to try once again to pull the not-branches out. Whatever it was that was in his back had grown longer. It got wider the farther back he reached. It was soft.

He was very curious but on the other side of the coin, he was terrified of what he might see, so he couldn't bring himself to look back. He stood up, taking another deep breath He found himself standing easily, completely fine. The dizziness and the pain were gone.

The only thing that was wrong with him now was the mystery of whatever had started growing on him. Was it some new type of parasite?

His back seemed to be getting increasingly heavier. He didn't really realize at first, but after a moment, he almost felt like he was being pulled backward. Whatever it was that was back there was still growing. He slowly turned his head, his heart pounding.

But no matter what he could have ever come up with, the very last thing he expected to happen was this. He couldn't believe his eyes. Coming out of his back were two, long, wings! His vision blurred and he lurched sideways, once again feeling suddenly faint. His head hit the ground and his eyes fluttered closed.

It was dark out, they had sat in silence ever since Rachel's previous statement. Clarity tried to think of them being able to defeat a whole team of people similar to Alex. It had been hard enough knocking him out. She couldn't imagine being able to do with it even a couple of people. Even with Rachel's strength. She shuddered, trying to push the thought of it out of her mind.

Rachel was sitting on the floor, her eyes closed and her mouth moving slightly. It almost looked like she was memorizing a song or something. Clarity wondered what she was thinking about.

After a second, she looked over at her bed, and the still form lying on it. Alex hadn't stirred since he first went unconscious. She was starting to get a little worried about him.

Clarity decided that having something to do might take her mind off of everything, and clear away some of the worry. So she got up and found some old blankets in a closet at the head of the stairs. She laid them out on the side of the bed opposite the sleeping bag, close to where Rachel was sitting.

"What's that for?" Rachel asked, a look of confusion on her pale face.

"This is my bed. We can't move Alex and we can't both fit in that sleeping bag." Clarity replied.

"Oh." Was all that Rachel said.

"Just so you know, earlier my mom said that she didn't feel up to making dinner for all of us, so we're going to have to make our own dinner." Clarity said, straitening the blankets.

"That's fine. I'm not really hungry anyway." Rachel said absentmindedly.

"If you say so." Said Clarity doubtfully. "Well, I for one, am hungry. I'm gonna go and eat something. See you later."

Rachel didn't say anything. Clarity walked over and opened the door. Once she was in the kitchen, she grabbed one of the nasty ready-made-meals and cooked it. She was rather hungry so it was a little easier to ignore the chemical taste but she still almost gagged. After finishing the nasty stuff, she went into the bathroom and brushed her teeth.

She was about to go back upstairs but she got an idea. She walked back into the kitchen and grabbed a knife. After this, she went upstairs.

Rachel seemed very puzzled by the knife. "Why did you bring that with you?" she asked uncertainly.

"Just in case the organization sends more of its goons, I'll have something to defend myself with." Clarity said, brandishing the knife. She set the newly-acquired weapon on her desk. She wasn't any good at fighting, but she was pretty sure that she could seriously disable someone if she was desperate.

She turned off the lights, walked over to her makeshift bed, and slipped under the top layer of blankets. She heard Rachel get up and walk over to the sleeping bag. She got in and settled down. Not long after this, she drifted off into an exhausted, dreamless sleep.