D.N.A. Human Test Subjects V

Chapter V

Okay, so mental note to self: Never, ever let Rose cook…ever!

The rabbit meat, which was full of nutrients, was now burnt to a crisp. Never having to eat actual food, Rose wasn’t sure how to cook meat. So, we all ate blackened rabbit meat while Rose happily drank the blood.

“Uh…Thanks Rose…” Dolan said once our friend gave him his piece of the animal flesh. “But maybe we should let one of us cook next time.”

She didn’t look crushed, but her eyes were filled with hurt.

“Oh, all right…” she sighed, defeated. “So, who knows how to cook?”

All of us exchanged a glance, then looked back to Rose. “Does making toast count?” Kara asked in the silence. We all laughed.

After we were done eating, we altogether lay down and stared up at the now disappearing blue sky. A blanket of dark heavens covered our vision, and tiny, little dots poked through the sheet to create stars. The fire glowed, casting ghastly shadows in the forest. Even though it was frightening, it was also kinda amazing watching the shadows dance in the volume of light.

I was lying next to Kara, who was trying so hard not to fall fast asleep. Two feet away, Rose was counting stars with her hands clasped on her stomach. Roxy, who was closest to the fire, was curled up, well, like a cat. Logan was squinting his eyes, trying to get a picture of his surroundings, near Roxy. Rafe was lying on the opposite side of the fire, his fingers locked behind his head. And finally, Dolan was leaning against a huge tree trunk, far away from our small flame pit. I was happy that he fixed up his arm, bandaging it up quite nicely instead of keeping it open to infection.

Rafe was trying to tell us what constellations could be seen in the beautiful night sky. He pointed out the Big Dipper, Orion, and the Little Dipper, explaining ancient Greek myths about each one.

“How do you know about these things, Rafe?” Kara asked him, her bright eyes filling with wonder as she gazed upwards. “It’s amazing!” I was glad I wasn’t the only one liking him.

“I wasn’t captured when I was young…actually, it’s only been six months since I was out in the real world,” he told her. “I learned a lot of this stuff in school.”

“How old are you?” Rose questioned.

“I’m seventeen. What about you guys?”

We answered half-heartedly. Most of us didn’t remember our actual ages, so we all just estimated. Dolan and I said sixteen, Rose replied with almost sixteen, Kara said nine, Logan mentioned something about almost seventeen, and Roxy wasn’t sure and didn’t guess.

“So you’re the oldest…” Logan hissed under his breath, his forked tongue jutting out from his mouth, which, if I may add, was completely disgusting.

“I guess,” Rafe said.

It was quiet for a while again.

Standing up, Rafe declared, “I think we should have a leader.”

“Who says you get to make the choices?” Roxy snapped, causing Dolan to smile.

“I’m not making choices. I’m merely suggesting that we should have a leader of our group.”

“Again, you’re not in our group,” Dolan told him firmly.

“Well, whoever is leader should decide that,” Rafe said.

I sat up on my elbows, watching them. Dolan looked completely different in comparison to Rafe. In the light of the fire, Rafe had lighter hair, lighter eyes, and a softer body frame. In the darkness, far away from the fire, Dolan had darker hair, darker eyes, and a firm, protective body shape. They reminded me of Yin and Yang, and they were as different as black and white.

“I think we should have a leader…But everyone has to follow that person– no exceptions. Let’s make a pact right here. Everyone shall follow the leader’s orders, even if they sound incredibly stupid,” I told them all. I stuck out my hand, and each person put his or hers on top of mine. After, everyone glanced at me, then turned away. “So…anyone wanna volunteer?”

“I think Eryn should be leader,” Rafe announced. This made my eyes widen. Why me? What can I do? A stab of emotion got to my heart, but I quickly turned it away. I was good at that kind of stuff from the time I’ve spent locked up.

“I already told you, you’re not in our group. Until someone decides if you are, you shouldn’t be allowed to vote,” Dolan said determinedly.

“That’s not fair, but I’ll go with it…” Rafe backed up, his hands outstretched in front of him in a “back off” defensive pose.

Kara, the quietest of all of us besides Dolan, spoke up and said, “Well, I vote for Eryn, too. Just because she’s nice and strong.” Her eyes were getting heavy, but I was glad she could hang in there. She was such a strong kid.

“I vote for myself, ‘cause I’m the smartest and the prettiest,” Roxy announced loudly. I glared at her slightly, but turned my head. “Anyone dare go against me?”

“Me! I vote for myself, as well!” Logan stood up proudly. “I’m the strongest. I deserve to be the leader.” I heard Dolan suppress a chuckle as he looked out into the darkness of the forest.

I stared at Rose and Dolan for a while; wondering if they would vote for themselves or not…and I still had to vote, as well.

“Well, considering the fact that I can’t even cook to help out the group, I won’t vote for myself,” Rose said, her face blushing deeply with embarrassment. “So I vote for…Eryn.”

Dolan looked at me now. Beating him to voting, I said, “I vote for Dolan.” He tilted his head slightly, but didn’t say a word. He looked more self-conscious than anything.

“And I vote for Eryn,” Dolan muttered. “She’s my best friend, and I think she’d be a good leader– hell, a great one.”

“So it’s settled. Eryn’s the leader,” Rafe acknowledged.

“Wait, wait, wait, wait! What’s so special about me?” I asked them.

“Nothing, that’s why I voted for myself,” Roxy scoffed.

“Same here,” Logan remarked.

Maybe it’s because you took control earlier when you told everyone to shut up, the bird in my brain said.

That might be it, the human mumbled.

“Never mind…I’ll be stupid leader,” I murmured. I didn’t like the thought of being in control, because that would mean that I was supposed to take care of everyone and everything. People would need food, good health, sleep, shelter…ugh! Too much to think about!

While I was lost in my own thoughts, everyone stayed quiet. After about fifteen minutes to myself, I looked up to see them all stare at me. “What?”

“You need to decide if Rafe is going to stay,” Kara reminded me.

“Right…Well, I think we should vote again. It worked last time.”

“I vote no,” Dolan said first. Rafe didn’t glare, sneer, or mock my wolf friend after his decision. Instead he kept his eyes on the rest of us.

“I like him. Yes,” Roxy said, lust filling her eyes as her tail swished back and forth…How much do you want to bet that nasty thoughts were probably filling her head?

“Oh, I want him to stay, Eryn! I want him to teach me about stars!” Kara exclaimed as she curled into a tiny ball.

Logan voted, “Ha, Dolan doesn’t like him, so yeah. I want him to stay.” Dolan glowered at the snake-hybrid, but didn’t say anything. Then he turned his death stare to Rose and I. We swapped quick glimpses before we turned to him again.

“Dolan…I think we should at least give him a chance…” Rose carefully said, choosing her words precisely. Rafe stared at her, waiting. “So, I vote yes for him to stay.”

His eyes found mine. They were strong and fierce, like a hurricane. The eye of the storm had already passed, and now came the hard part: the destruction of the towns and cities.

I opened my mouth to speak, but Rafe interrupted, “I’m staying, no matter what Eryn chooses. Sorry, Dolan. Maybe I’ll grow on you.”

“Yeah, like cancer,” Dolan gnarled under his breath.

Rafe didn’t seem to pay any attention. Instead, he cocked his head to the side, his eyes lost in thought. I stood up; leaving Kara’s now sleeping body on the soft ground. “What’s up?”

“Shh…” he replied. Rose sat up and looked around, her right hand around her ear. Roxy, who didn’t seem to care, closed her eyes tightly. The snake-hybrid who was still flicking his tongue, blinked a few times. “Don’t you guys hear that?” Now Dolan and I listened intently, trying to detect whatever noise it is.

I have to admit, I first thought he was crazy. I mean, there were no real noises…except the two voices in my head arguing over what it was. But soon, I heard it, too. Soft buzzing…from the forest.

“What is it?” Logan asked, his voice quiet.

“Dunno, but whatever it is, it sounds almost mechanical,” Rafe faintly said.

I hoped it was some kind of buzzing animal. Maybe some unknown raccoon or something that happened to sound like a running computer. I chuckled to myself, knowing how stupid that sounded.

Suddenly, red dots flickered from the duskiness of the woods. Rafe pushed his way in front of me, staring, as the dots became a pair of eyes. More of them appeared; maybe fifteen pairs of them in all. Flames seemed to spark in them as they came closer and closer.

I bent down and gently shook Kara and Roxy awake. Neither one complained, but both glared at me, obviously annoyed. Once they noticed the eyes, however, they became fully alert.

Now is the time to be a leader, the bird said. The human agreed.

“Hey! C’mon out! We know you’re there!” I yelled into the forest. No reply came back to me. “Get out here!” Instead of words, bodies came flying out from the darkness. I only had a moment to ask myself, “What?” before I was so rudely tackled to the ground. “Get off!” The thing had my shoulders pinned to the ground, but I knew what to do in a situation like this.

So my two powerful legs pushed up on the abdomen area of this…thing, which sent it flying off. I jumped to my feet to get a better look at what we were dealing with.

Now circling us, I realized what these things were. Robots. All fifteen of them had long, shiny arms and legs. The knees on the legs were bent backwards, like that of a canine. Their arms had deadly, macabre claws protruding from the elbows and the fingertips.

Their faces were messed up; mixtures of different creatures could be seen. One looked like a cross between a cow and an anteater! Their eyes all were the same scarlet color, and they all glowed in the darkness of the night.

“We have come to take you back. Come now and your deaths shall be quick and painless,” the robots all droned at the same time, their monotonous voices sending shivers down my spine.

“Aww, how sweet! You’ll make sure we die painlessly!” Roxy snarled.

“Eryn, what do we do?!” Kara asked me, her little body tense with fear. I glanced down at her, seeing her eyes switch from each robot. “I don’t want to go back! I don’t want to die!”

“Well, one thing to do, really,” I said.

“What’s that?” Rose quietly asked.

“Fight!” I shouted. Running up to a robot, I gave him a roundhouse kick that would’ve knocked any human’s head all the way around. Taking the hint, Rafe and Dolan each jumped on a robot of their own. Rafe took his by the wrist, flew up around five hundred feet, then dropped it to the ground, where it shattered to pieces. Dolan quickly grew his wolf teeth and sank them into a bunch of wires on the back of the robot’s neck. Ripping apart the wires, my friend moved to another one.

Something that I didn’t know about Roxy was that she had retractable claws. She extended them and swiftly ripped a robot into ribbons. Another thing that I didn’t know was that she had great acrobatic skills. She did two backwards handsprings and landed, feet first, on a robot’s head. The small noggin rolled near the fire, where the light in its eyes went out.

During the fighting, Kara was screaming. Not that she was defenseless or anything, but because a robot had used one of its menacing claws on her. Her right arm, from the shoulder to the wrist, was now covered in ravishing yet devious blood.

Rose, seeing this new blood, went completely pale. She couldn’t stand to smell, see, or touch blood without drinking it. Having self-control, she grabbed onto Kara’s left arm and pulled her close, protecting her from a shower of punches from a robotic fist with her own back.

Logan was the only one of us not sure what to do. He stood and vacantly blinked, watching the fighting. Before I could yell at him to fight, a robot slammed its fist into my stomach, pushing all the wind from my large lungs in seconds. When I tried to get more air, another robot side-kicked me into a massive tree.

“Eryn! You okay?” Dolan yelled.

“Fine! Dizzy, but fine!” I shouted back. Standing, I popped my shoulder back into place and ran after another robot. “Take this!” I proclaimed as I grabbed a robot by its wrist and flung it to the ground. I smiled as a satisfying crunch! echoed in my ears. Its silver parts smashed to bits on the ground, and as I looked down, I saw sparks fly from where its head would’ve been.

A shriek was sounded from around the fire. I glanced over to see Kara screaming again as a robot picked up Rose and tossed her into a tree. Like, literally, into a tree; hanging from the branches.

Now that Rose was out of the picture, the robot turned its red eyes to the human-cat hybrid. “Help!” Kara screeched. I ran at the two, my wings now extended to their full length. With my broken wing, I lifted myself into the air, spun around, and kicked the robot out of the way.

It was probably the coolest thing I’ve ever done. Or, so I thought. Now my wing hurt so much more than it had earlier. My left wing sprang back in pain, and now only my right wing was extended.

“Kara, are you alright?” I asked her through the loud noises of metal crunching.

“I’m fine, but what about Rose?”

Rose. I grabbed Kara’s hand and ran to the tree where Rose was. I delicately lifted Kara into the tree with my vampire friend. “Rose, you okay?”

“I’ve been better…” she scowled.

“Kara, you stay up here with Rose. Don’t leave this tree!” I commanded, surprised by how strong my voice sounded. I sprinted with all my strength to get back to Dolan.

He was perfectly fine on his own, might I add. Four or five of the terminated robots lay around him on the ground. He had speed, I give him that. Unlike Dolan, Rafe’s main attack was fairly slow. He had to grab a robot, fly upwards to a high enough altitude, and drop them. Only three lay in a pile five feet away.

“How you guys doing?” I shouted at them.

“Excellent!” Roxy yelled back.

“Fine!” Rafe said from somewhere above me. A robot fell from the sky, making me flinch. Four were now in the heap.

“I’m good, for now!” Dolan bellowed, his mouth full with a robot’s neck wires.

“Logan!” I called to him.

“I…I don’t know!” His voice came from another tree, where he had taken shelter. I’d deal with him later. Right now, I had to deal with two robots that were charging straight at me. “Eryn, I don’t–”

“Not now, Logan!” I shouted to him as I ducked under a robot’s arm when it flew over my head. “C’mon, you bucket of bolts!” It swung another punch at me, and again I ducked. What happened next was so cool, I was almost in shock when it happened.

When the punch went over my body, it hit the other robot in the face, squishing its mixed beagle and hawk mouth. The claws of the punching robot stuck in the head of the other one, which was extremely funny to watch.

“Self destruct in ten seconds,” the second one spoke monotonously. “Nine. Eight.”

“Everyone haul butt! Now!” I screamed. A couple faces glanced over, quickly figured out what was happening, and bolted into the forest. Rose took Kara, swung her up onto her back, and hopped from tree to tree until I couldn’t see her anymore. Roxy took off on her own, running the same way Rose had.

Logan was still in his tree, blinking. I wasn’t sure if he understood what was happening, so I said, “Rafe, get Logan!” Rafe swooped down, snatched up Logan, and flew high over the trees.

“Five. Four.”

Dolan and I were all that remained.

“Run, Dolan!” I screeched at him.

“Not without you,” he calmly said as he slung me onto his own back. Within seconds, the trees were going past me faster than my eyes could process. “Hold on!”

“Two. One. Zero.”

Boom.

That was it? That little, itty-bitty “boom”?

Apparently, I didn’t know much about explosives. That was only the little boom that initiated the bigger boom. So, truthfully, we had two booms.

BOOM!

That’s more like it.

Fire rushed past me, searing the tips of my wings and some of my hair. Dolan didn’t confess the pain, but I could tell, both by the sight and smell of burning flesh, that his right hand was scorched.

He plunged to the ground, tossing me under him as yet another explosion – three booms – surged past us. He kept his hands planted on the ground on either side of my shoulders, tilting his neck so that his head would not be burned. I forced my eyes to shut, blocking out all of the chaos around me.

All I wanted was for the group to be safe.