“Take a moment to collect yourself, and fly us over when you’re ready. Stay low,” Alex said gently. I lingered in the hug a bit longer. I was still trying to block out the disgusting feeling of ripping flesh. It was something I never wanted to feel again, but I was beginning to accept that I’d likely have to if we wanted to survive.
I took a deep breath and released Alex from the tight hug. I saw the blood from my wings soaking his arms as he stood in front of me. I stood and quickly flapped my wings, forcing as much of the blood to fly off as I could.
“Aren’t you afraid after.. That?” I whispered, ashamed. I took a peek behind me, and quickly turned back around after seeing a head, devoid of its body. I felt nauseous again. I truly was a monster.
“Why would I be?” he answered without hesitation, “They were going to kill us, you had no choice. I’ll never be afraid of you for protecting me.”
Alex approached one of the bodies with slight hesitation, sidestepping a head as he carefully walked towards the body. He knelt down and removed a holster from the man’s belt. He slid off the holster, with the pistol still inside, and attached it to his own belt. He then grabbed a walkie-talkie from the man’s vest, and slid that onto his belt too. He located a bag near the bodies and rifled through it. He produced several pieces of official looking paper, and a few boxes of ammo for the gun he’d taken. He shoved the new finds into his backpack, and then went back for a water bottle in the men's gear bag. He downed the water needily, and then discarded it on the ground. The fog he’d produced to conceal me had clearly dehydrated him, and the extra water was a lucky find.
“Okay,” he sighed, “That should help. We can look at the papers later, it might give us some clues as to what’s really going on. Also, if we run into more trouble let me handle it if I can,” he said while patting the holster.
“Did you hear what they called us?” I asked blankly.
“Oddities,” he nodded with a scowl.
“It’s like they were hunting us for sport,” I replied angrily.
Alex put a hand on my shoulder and squeezed lightly. “we’re gonna get out of this,” he reassured me.
I nodded and turned my attention to the wall. The walkie-talkie had been silent, and all the noise we made hadn’t drawn anyone else to our position. If the whole border was being guarded it was unlikely there was anyone else nearby. The teams of three were likely all they could manage per area. It had to be a massive amount of people to cover the whole perimeter, even with such sparse coverage it seemed like overkill. I had underestimated just how quickly they’d move, and how desperately they wanted to keep us all inside. Unfortunately for them we had no plans to stick around.
It was time to leave the scene of the crime, and get out of this fucked up quarantine zone. I flapped my wings and propelled myself into the air. I straightened my legs and turned my head to Alex, giving him the okay to grab on. He reached for my ankles and got a good grip on both. I lifted us up a foot to make sure he was firmly attached, and then flew us over the wall. I went just high enough to make sure he cleared the barbed wire, and came back down a few yards past the wall.
Alex let go once we neared the ground, and landed on his feet, his hand placed firmly on the gun as he listened for any sign that we’d been noticed. I landed near him and tucked my wings away. He handed my backpack back to me now that I could wear it again. I quickly put it on to disguise the scars. The whole time he kept one hand on the gun, and he faced the wall, scanning the area we’d come from. After a few tense moments it seemed like no one had noticed and we both breathed a sigh of relief and continued the walk north.
We stopped once we reached a comfortable distance away from the wall and Alex brought out the map. It was time to turn east towards the town, and we’d be there in a few more miles. Alex pointed out a camping ground on our way to town and we decided to take a detour to rinse off any blood in the park’s bathrooms. We put the map away and continued towards the campground.
We walked in silence for a while. I thought about what I’d done, and how the men tried to kill us without hesitation. How many had been killed already? I thought about what they called us. Oddities. It seemed like a cruel name, but I suppose it was fitting. I’d called the situation at the mall odd when it first happened, and I didn’t even know the extent of it. If they had a name for us maybe they knew more about why we were Oddities. Why was this happening at all and what caused it? I also couldn’t get over the fact that according to the news it was only happening here. What made our city different? I pondered the endless cycle of questions without answers in silence until we reached the campgrounds.
Alex sent me to scope out the bathrooms while he waited in the thicker treeline. Surprisingly I had less blood on me than he did. All that remained on me was on my back where I’d hidden my wings, and the backpack was doing a good job of covering it. I checked both bathrooms carefully and then turned towards the treeline to give Alex the all clear signal. Alex bent over to pick up a fallen branch, and then hurried to my side.
“Come in with me, we need to get the blood off your back and wings before we get into town,” Alex ordered while holding open the door to the women’s restroom.
I followed him in and he slipped the branch through the handle, effectively barricading the door. Alex went to the sink and meticulously scrubbed all traces of blood off his arms. He had an uneasy look on his face as he desperately scrubbed at the dried blood. I could tell he was trying to keep it together for my sake, but his force and desperation made it clear that the blood on him was close to making him panic. I stood behind him, waiting in silence.
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Once he was clean he turned to me with a sigh of relief. “Do you know if the wings are still bloody after being put away?” he asked.
I shook my head no. I hadn’t considered it. I placed the backpack on the ground and unfolded my wings, turning to let Alex look at my back. “Are they?” I questioned.
“No, I think it all came off on your back when you put them up. Handy I guess,” he shrugged. I put the wings back up as Alex ran a wad of paper towels under water. He carefully wiped the blood off my back, tugging at the tears in my shirt to get it all. “Your shirt is too bloody in the back, grab a new one and ditch this one in the trash,” he said calmly.
Alex turned around while I fumbled to change. My cheeks turned a dark shade of red as I realized my issue. “Alex uh, can you get the rest of the blood off me before I put a new shirt on?” I squeaked out the question as I turned away from him, covering what I could of my front.
“Uh sure ya no problem,” he replied sheepishly. Alex took his time carefully wiping the remaining blood off my bare back and then I heard him walk back towards the door. “I’m turned around let me know once you’re dressed,” he mumbled.
I quickly dressed and we got the backpacks back on and left the bathroom. My cheeks took awhile to return to their natural color. We found a water fountain at the edge of the trail and filled our water bottles back up. Alex took his time and drank his bottle once, before filling it again. We finally got back on the trail towards town, putting as much distance as we could between us and the wall. Alex had ditched the walkie-talkie in the bathroom, figuring it would be useless now that we were out of range, and might have a tracking device.
We discussed our next steps while we walked. There was a long term parking lot near a small airport at the edge of town. We’d check there for a dirty car that had been parked for awhile, and take that. It just needed to make it 50 miles down the highway without being discovered. Then we’d stop at a grocery store and get some food that didn’t need to be prepared. A case of water, a few boxes of dry cereal, stuff like that. We’d keep it cheap so we didn’t burn through our cash too quickly. We also had to consider that anything we bought we’d have to carry on the next leg of the hike, but some food was a must.
We soon reached the parking lot Alex had remembered from his last visit to the town. Thankfully his parents were avid nature lovers, and they’d been to this town multiple times for the camping grounds we’d come from. He knew the area well. Without phones all we could do was rely on what information the paper map provided, and our memories.
We scoped out the deserted parking lot and found a car that had clearly been through a few cycles of dirty rain. I alerted Alex to the car and he nodded in agreement. It was old, and likely didn’t have any advanced security features. It wasn’t uncommon for people to leave their cars in lots like these for weeks at a time while they flew off for some vacation. Alex already knew how to hotwire a car thanks to a seminar he took in preparation for the police academy. It covered the matter in depth so future officers would know what to look out for. The information was definitely not supposed to be used to actually commit the crime.
After a few attempts fumbling around with the wires he managed to coax the car into starting. We drove to the grocery store and Alex tasked me with staying in the running car while he ran inside to get food and water. I scanned the parking lot while he was gone. I was on high alert. Before long Alex came back out with a case of water and a few bags of food in tow. He quickly threw everything into the backseat and we made our getaway.
Once we reached the highway I felt like I was finally free. We were leaving the quarantine zone far behind us. It was going to take an hour on this road before we reached the town where we planned to ditch the car. I had the map folded out on my lap, and I’d dug out the papers Alex had found from the gear bag belonging to the men I’d killed.
I carefully read through the papers to try and gain some insight. They were orders and information about the job the men had been tasked with. “Guard the border of the quarantine zone. Blood test and turn away negative civilians. In the event of an Oddity or a suspected Oddity shoot on sight if capture seems unsafe in any capacity. Warning: Oddities come with a wide range of abilities and body modifications and can be extremely dangerous. Document any abilities to the best of your knowledge so they can be added to the research bank at Alpha Lab 001.” Next to the mention of the lab was an address for soldiers to report to with any ability sightings. I squinted at the map to confirm my suspicions and sure enough the road was in the separate quarantine zone.
“It’s a lab,” I nearly shouted, startling Alex.
“What?” he questioned, turning his attention from the road long enough to glance at what I was doing.
“The separate quarantine zone south of where we're going to stay. It’s called Alpha Lab 001. They research Oddities. Soldiers were ordered to go there to report any ability sightings after their shifts.”
“Well then, looks like we have a solid lead to figure out what the fuck happened to us. If anyone knows it’s them,” Alex replied with a scowl.
I nodded, excited by the thought of finally figuring out why we were like this. I scanned through the rest of the documents for the remainder of the drive but they were mostly just detailing the shifts and exact details of the soldier's duties at the wall. I folded the papers back up and deposited them back into the backpack, disappointed that they didn’t have more information.
A while later I pointed out the exit for the correct town, and guided us towards the edge of town closest to the lake. We found a forgotten parking lot near the edge of town and ditched the car. We figured it would be risky to take it any closer to the lake, so we left it in an area that looked like it had been forgotten about entirely. Roots grew through the pavement, and the only business in sight had long been shut down by the looks of it. It was the kind of area you’d expect to find an abandoned vehicle, and we hoped it wouldn’t call attention to the lake if it was left this far away.
From this point we were back on foot. It was nearing evening, and we had to hike around 8 more miles. We’d likely have to hike the last bit of the way in the dark with the groceries slowing us down. We confirmed the direction and path we needed to take and set off for the lake. It was still early spring, and it had been cold and rainy. It was unlikely that any cabins were in use this early in the year, but I was still full of nerves wondering if we’d have anywhere to stay tonight.