___________Undisclosed Location, Mirage home base_______
“Hey, look at you all dressed up! You guys ready to meet everyone else?”
The boy recoiled from the loud man that knelt in front of him. He was not old like the people in the white place, but he didn’t know him either. The girl from the other cage squeezed his hand and he felt braver. As long as they’re still alive, everything’s going to be okay.
“Stop hollerin’ at their faces, Darren. You’ll just scare them.”
The frowny, kind man who got his friend outside the cage frowned at the loud man. He turned to his fried and she gave him a red-mouthed smile. The new people let them sleep then gave them a bath and then fed them. Now the two of them were dressed in clothes that looked like the scary-eyed dolls in the playroom where the doctors took them when they’ve been good. The girls liked those dolls for some reason, but he fully believed that the ugly little things would wake up and walk around after sundown.
When he turned away from his friend, a young-looking woman with bright green-colored hair was kneeling in front of him, smiling. Her hair was distracting. The boy wondered if he ever used that color in the edu-pads they allow him to use in the playroom. There were pictures of animals and things he could color using a stylus wand. It was a happy color, even if it looked like she dipped her head in a vat of acid. He liked it. The woman’s mouth opened to ask him a question. He decided he would answer her.
“I’m Charles but the people in the white place called me Charlie.”
He turned to ask his friend and she gave a little bob of her head in agreement.
“My friend is Maria.”
“S-C-H-M-I-D-T… Maria Schmidt.”
The tinkling voice of the little girl who finally spoke for the first time since their rescue brought prickles that raced across their skins.
“Hi Charlie… Hi Maria,” the mint-woman greeted them, levelling her face to their height. “I’m Cam. We’re your new friends.”
The two looked at each other and Charlie nodded at Maria. They could trust Cam. Sidling closer to the woman, they listened to the small crowd that gathered around them as their rescuers introduced themselves.
Cam was actually Camellia Matthews. The loud man’s name was Darren Hall, but everyone called him Boomer. When Charlie asked why, he laughingly replied that he liked to make things go boom! Charlie nodded seriously. At least he had a reason why he boomed the white place. Charlie didn’t like that place and neither did Maria. But he remembered his momma telling him that he shouldn’t destroy things without reason because that was wasteful.
The other noisy man who looked thinner than Boomer was the guy who calls himself Rolf, like a wrong name for the old Earth beast, wolf. Cam clarified that his real name was Rudolph Mallory. Rolf frowned at Cam, but the woman replied that it was her revenge since he revealed her whole name to the new kids.
The quiet and kind man in the corner just stood watching them and Maria told him that it was rude not to share his name when a person introduced themselves. The tall man smiled at them, nodding before responding. He told them that his name is Egbert John Smith and the pink and white-blonde-haired girl with him was his cousin Sissy Mae Smith-Lowe. The two children asked why she has two last names and they told her that it was because she was married. The two sprite people introduced themselves. Charlie thought that it was okay that he was small because they didn’t seem to hate small people. Everyone else said that the two were their youngest members before. They were called Pup and Kit(ten)… Pup’s name was really Michael Andrews and Kit was Sheila Mills. They were boyfriend and girlfriend. When they asked the two what that meant, Pup tried to explain as best as he could.
Charlie nodded in understanding. He smiled at Maria and turned to everyone.
“Maria is my girlfriend.”
He was serious about protecting his best-est best friend in the world and he didn’t appreciate when his new “friends” laughed at his declaration. He told them so but they only laughed harder. He smiled and later joined in when he heard Maria’s tinkling laughter blend in with the others. He can’t not smile when he hears her pretty laugh. She rarely ever did, after all. Now, he truly knew that Maria would like staying with these people.
There were a few others who approached and introduced themselves after, but the two children attached themselves to Cam. Every day, they followed her around as she checked up with everyone and tended to her tasks. When she had to go out and leave the compound, they searched for EJ, who seemed to always either be in his room where he read “books” from his holopad or in the kitchen everyone’s food. His food was nothing like the meagre meals the children in the white place were given, if anyone bothered to remember.
It was a few days later, while he and Maria were with Cam that a loud explosion rattled the old building. Charlie didn’t think too much of it until everyone else began hurrying around. He remembered how all the kids have been left in their cages alone and hungry for a long time after the people who kept them hurried around just like this.
“Cam, Cam, don’t leave us,” he pleaded with the lady he now thought of as an elder sister. Beside him, Maria clutched their clothes. One of her hands was tight around his jumper strap and the other was fisted in Cam’s jacket vest.
Cam’s eyes softened from the glare she was giving the ceiling and placed a warm hand on each of their shoulders.
“Of course not, you’ll come with us. If we have to, I can get you to my own house. My mom would like you two.”
Just then Rolf ran into the room panting as he struggled to carry the most important pieces of his equipment.
“They’re swarming in. They’re wearing civilian clothes, but their weapons were all Department-grade. We’re being raided.”
“How did they find us here?”
Cam asked, but the younger man hadn’t been able to respond as Boomer entered that moment, his face a mask of fury. He looked so mad that Charlie instinctually pulled Maria behind him as he sidled closer to Cam.
“They traced us here. There were implants on the kids. They tracked them like a pair of kept animals!”
EJ entered with a laser knife in his hand. Charlie knew it was the medical grade one, used for surgeries, because the people in the white place had threatened to use one on him if he didn’t cooperate with their experiments.
“I’m sorry! Please don’t hurt us.”
Charlie grabbed the whimpering Maria and backtracked, glaring at the people around them. He disliked having to use his abilities, but he would if it would save her best friend any more pain.
Boomer seemed to come to himself and lowered his body to their level, his face worried and apologetic.
“I’m sorry, little one. I was just mad that they did that to you. It was against human rights to be tagged like that.”
“Human rights?”
The large man was about to answer when Cam spoke as she leaned out a window, swinging her modified artillery and fired in rapid succession.
“Explain later, EJ, get the tags off them. We go now.”
EJ looked contrite as he smiled sadly at them.
“This will be fast.”
He poked Charlie with the laser knife, but before the pain could register, he was done. He held out his palm and a grain-sized transparent object was given to Boomer. He wouldn’t have known he was cut if the thing wasn’t wet with the red fluid that always came out when he’s hurt. Maria came next and he squeezed her hand when she whimpered in fear. He smiled when she turned to him, glad that when she glanced back at her arm, the thing was out of her.
“Let’s go.”
Everyone moved fast then. Charlie gripped Maria’s hand hard as he pulled her along. He was practically being dragged as Cam ran along the twisting corridors and down many flights of stairs. Every so often, a group of armed men would appear and she would take them down quickly with her guns. Maria asked him if she was killing them. Cam seemed to have heard because she told them that their weapons were modified to just knock them out unconscious long enough for them to escape.
Screams sounded and Charlie thought they shouldn’t have bothered. He remembered the other kids being hurt too. These people would kill even if his new friends wouldn’t kill them back. His hair rose around him in his anger. He reined it back in when Maria whispered his name. He had promised he would protect Maria and their new friends. Even if they end up thinking he’s a freak.
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