Cleaning up is supposed to be the first thing they do. Except Camellia has other ideas and is determined to follow through with them. Her feet move cautiously through one of the first floor halls, checking every door. Only a couple of them remain tightly shut. Her eyes dare not to glance inside any of the doors she’s opened. Refusing for the time being to look at the carnage. Each step takes her farther and farther from the main hall. A single door at the end of the hall pulls her attention. Her feet gravitate towards the room, slender fingers brushing through dust as they push it open. A place far too familiar lay before her. Completely untouched from the last time she’d seen it. Well, except, for the fact that it looks searched.

They truly would have killed me if they’d found me.

Her chest constricts at the thought. Remembering how terrified she’d been. How her father had simply left her and never returned for her. Worst of all, waking to find nothing but death. Curtis did his best to keep her from falling apart that day and every one after it. The woman who’d taken them in made sure their identities remained safe. Looking at this place now she wonders if that woman knew how pitiful they were. How desolate and empty life had suddenly become.

A skeletal stuffed bunny decorates the bed. It stands out amongst the multitude of colorful bunnies on a nearby shelf.

“Where did you get such a thing?”

“Raven gave it to me.

Lithe legs stop in the center of the room, facing the open closet. Here is a sight she doesn’t recall. An open doorway displayed between clothes. A set of stairs are barely visible in the darkness screaming at her. Closer inspection reveals it was destroyed from the inside. Possibly, part of why she never saw it is because it opened inwards, according to the destroyed hinges. She turns slowly, fully scanning the room now. Seeking any telltale sign that whoever or whatever, wasn’t still lurking in her childhood room. Nothing looks suspicious, but considering how long it’s been, she can’t be sure. Without panicking she exits the room and heads back to the main hall. Many of the bodies have been piled off to the side. What’s left of them anyway. She saddens at the sight. Something will have to be done about them soon. Instead, she goes to assist when the main doors swing open. More members of Ember Aurora clamber in. They’ve injuries like she’s never seen before. Uniforms in tatters and missing chunks. Some of them are hoisting others. Blood the only decoration consistent among all of them.

“My word, what did you all get into?”

Jameson’s reaction is not the response she had expected.

"Base is compromised. Something in the lab tried to take us all with it after it fought Raven.”

“How the lab is sealed off?!”

“Knowing my father there had to be more than one way out...”

Her eyes widen, turning back to the hall she’d just left. It’s occurring to her now that there’s a possibility a project survived.

“Camellia?”

“Curtis, my room…”

Confusion and then understanding as he realizes that she must have found something while looking around. Neither gives it a thought as they bolt down the hall towards the space, hoping that nothing decided to come up from below. As they march in they find destruction. Whatever it is, wants to keep them out and had thought better about coming up and attacking them.

“It’s taken care of for now.”

“Still, I’m worried. We didn’t even hear this happen. It can come back and who knows how many openings are in this damn place. I only knew of the one, plus the desert base that leads into it.”

“We’ll look for it then, but right now, we need to create a secure space for ourselves and everyone else, to do what you want to do. That includes making the main entrance safe.”

Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.

“Right…”

Curtis nods, tugs her from the room and closes the door. This isn’t where she needs to be. The house itself already has too many memories. And with this sudden development, she’ll never leave the space. Her paranoia will kick in first heightening her fears about the area beneath their feet. Following closely behind her, he catches sight of someone he’d thought he’d never see again. And had hoped would stay that way. She sees it too, instinctively going over to see what the damage is.

His own pain startles him awake. Searing in his arm as the injury tries to mend itself with the help of whatever medicine they’d put in his system. Someone clearly forgot that regular medicine has an extremely different effect on his body than a regular human being. Great fucking job. With no regard for whoever had been patient enough to bandage up him up he tears the gauze from his body.

“Is that supposed to happen?”

“Normal medicine speeds the process up, but what it does to the rest of my body is a living nightmare.”

When he looks up from his ruined shoulder his eyes twist with puzzlement. She’s not familiar to him, as far his brain goes at the moment. Her calmness around him is strange since everyone else has quite frankly screamed ‘monster’ and left him be. Even more so she’s smiling at him. For the longest, he just watches her trying to process who she may be and what she wants from him, and then his brain registers who she is.

“Camellia?”

“Surprised you remember.”

“And you’re wearing shoes. That’s unusual.”

“I’m not still a kid. So much as you’re still reckless.”

“Something-”

“-in the lab. I heard. There’s only one project I can think of, but she was cased up that day.”

“What about when you left?”

“Didn’t look, all things considered.”

“Damn…”

“Sorry.”

“It’s whatever. I’ll go look in a bit. I’m sure she’s down there.”

“You can’t be serious. You lost a lot of blood already.”

“It’s nothing I’m not used to. Blood loss isn’t a problem for me.”

“Raven.”

“Fine, I’ll stay put. Where’s Von Teile?”

“Nuuh, you tow aren’t getting into it. No way.”

She sits beside him, a stuffed doll in her hand catching his eye.

“Where was that?”

“My old room on the bed. Why?”

He shrugs, the motion upsetting nerves. This woman before him is nothing like the little girl he used to get irritated with. And it’s not just the point of her wearing shoes. It’s the way she carries herself. The determination swimming in her eyes. Her overall energy about the place and their current situation. Although he’d much rather not be involved at all.

“What made you come back here?”

“Huh?”

“Why come back? There’s nothing here.”

“Answers. My dad vanished that night. I nearly died. So many others did die and they have families who I know would want answers.”

“Families they donated to whatever your dad was doing. All I know about it is that it was for war.”

“You’re wrong.”

“Says you. I was the one they injected with chemicals and ran tests on. My own parents helped make me a genetically modified monster. A product of someones efforts to turn me into an invincible soldier. Project Black Bird. That’s the name I went by until you showed up.”

“I didn’t know.”

“How could you. Hyle kept it from you. You’re probably the only good thing that came out of me being here. Unlike everyone else you’ve never seen me as Project Black Bird, but as Raven. A person. Not a soldier or a fighter. Just whatever you’re intending to do, keep me out of it. I refuse to go back down there.”

“Fair enough.”