Escape (an AU)

'This is an AU (in case you couldn't tell). Originally posted at https://www.wattpad.com/story/92388495-escape-completed. Uh...I hope you like it? Originally written for English class. (It was supposed to be a short story....)'

Description:  The research facility was the one that did it.

Of course. Who else? They took dozens of innocent kids and tore apart their DNA, injected animal DNA, and placed it back together again. They were experiments. All of them. And he was Subject R027. Just another experiment. Only, he was different. Because they underestimated the hybrids. STORY:

The sound of crunching hit my ears just a moment before Xavier plunked himself down in the chair next to me.

"Hey, Vesper," he greeted me, crunching on a chicken bone. "Having fun?"

"Tons, as always," I answered sarcastically. "You got any extras of those bones?"

In reply, Xavier tossed me a beef bone. Perfect. Even better than the chicken. I started to work on it. "Got any news for me?" I asked him, gnawing on the bone.

Xavier shrugged. "Things should be exciting tonight."

I almost choked on the bone, but I managed to calm myself down just in time. Xavier might have not meant what I was hoping to hear by what he'd said. I poked him with my tail, not wanting to release even one hand off my beef bone. "For who, the scientists or us?"

"Both." Xavier's blue eyes gleamed excitedly, and his bushy tail swished back and forth just a little, gray fur flying.

I chewed on the bone some more, glancing around without moving my head. The rest of the hybrids were talking to each other. We were mostly kept apart, except at mealtimes. I caught a glimpse of who I was looking for: a girl with jaguar spots. She was sitting at a table with various other cat hybrids, and she was the youngest one there. "Seraphina said it's go time?"

"Yeah," Xavier confirmed. "And the others have no idea."

Knowing the chatter of the others would hide my words, I said very quietly, "Xavier." One of his ears twitched toward me. The other one remained faced toward the others. "Yeah?"

"I don't think I can do it," I admitted.

"You'll do fine," Xavier reassured me, but it was pretty obvious he was preoccupied. He ruffled my hair. "I mean, you are my brother, after all." "Yeah, but I don't think I can do it," I repeated, irritated that he was missing my point.

"What? Why not?"

"Can't you do it?"

"I would, but...you're the rat here," Xavier pointed out.

Yes, I was. Literally. The scientists had mixed my DNA with rat DNA. How, I don't know. I ain't the scientist here. "You're part wolf," I shot back.

"Yeah, but see, Vesper," Xavier spoke slowly, as if I was a kindergartner. "Rats can chew through things wolves can't. There's a difference. A huge difference. If you were chewing on this chicken bone I'm chewing on right now, it would have snapped a hundred years ago."

That was true. I took the beef bone out of my mouth and put the opposite end in, working on it. Fact: a rat's teeth grows continuously all of its life. It has to gnaw on things to wear down its teeth. If it doesn't, its bottom row of teeth will grow through its skull and into its brain, which would, obviously, kill it.

"I still don't know if I can do it," I mumbled.

"No one else can do it, so you're doing it," Xavier reminded me. "I mean, seriously, man, you wanna get out of here or not?"

"Yeah, but if we fail..." "We aren't gonna fail. Unless you keep imagining it." He knocked on my forehead. "So start thinking positive!" "I'm positive we'll fail."

"Take some of the energy you use being annoying and snarky, and put it into thinking optimistically," Xavier told me.

"I can't," I insisted.

"Yes you can," Xavier insisted back.

The loudspeaker crackled.

"Dinner is now over. Please return to your dorms." Xavier looked out the small window in the cafeteria, checking the sky. "Look, I'll have to start the plan soon. Just..think of what will happen if you don't do it, will you? You can do it, Vesper. Seraphina picked you for a reason." And with that, Xavier headed out of the cafeteria and down the hallway, just a red head among the sea of hybrids.

I ground my teeth in frustration. I don't think Xavier knows what the word "doubt" means.

I still had one thing to clear up. I looked around. Seraphina was walking next to a group of loud hybrids. Normally I would be walking with them, but not tonight. Actually, normally Xavier would be walking with them too, but tonight was not a normal night.

I walked up behind her and poked her with my tail.

Seraphina turned around, her pupils dilating in irritation, and then she relaxed. Her pupils shrank back to cat slits. "Oh, it's you," Seraphina said.

I motioned with my tail to the side of the hall.

Seraphina glanced at the others she was walking with. They hadn't noticed me yet, or that Seraphina was no longer walking with them.

"What is it?" Seraphina asked me.

"Is tonight really the night?" I whispered.

"Yes. Tonight is a good night for the escape, and I don't want to wait anymore. We don't know when we'll get another chance." Seraphina's voice was steady, but I detected a trace of uncertainty in her voice. This wasn't unusual, though-Seraphina was almost always uncertain. And I was almost always certain-at least that was what the others thought.

"Okay, so, see you later," I told her casually. "Have fun." I turned and walked back to my dorm.

***********

I lay awake, thinking, when I heard yelling, followed by animal sounds and various loud crashing and violent noises.

I pushed my blankets off and put my ear against the vent, straining to hear something helpful-maybe words of conversation, maybe fighting-anything that would clue me in on what was going on.

I heard something like a yelp, and then whimpering. Then silence.

Xavier?

Then I heard a growl, and then a thudding sound.

"How-!" A government official, a woman judging from the sound of it.

A whimper, but not an animal whimper, more like a cowering human. "I-I grabbed the wrong ones," a small, timid voice whispered.

"You idiot!" the woman shouted. She started saying something to her radio, but then she suddenly stopped. I heard something slam.

I heard my brother speak. "Sorry," Xavier apologized, "but I have to do this." I heard another thump.

I heard quiet scratching at my door (which, yes, I keep locked), and I sat up, rubbing my eyes.

"I'm trying to sleep!" I yelled. No, I wasn't. But in case it happened to be a government official, they didn't need to know that. "Who is it?"

In answer, I heard more scratching at my door, then the tapping of nails. I listened to the pattern. Three short taps, then three long ones, followed by three short ones. Over and over.

S.O.S. S.O.S. S.O.S. Morse code.

I jumped up, scurried to the door, pushed the handle down, and yanked the door open.

Seraphina stood there. Her cat eyes were almost completely dilated, since it was dark, and they danced wildly with excitement. She looked eager and alert (since cats are somewhat nocturnal, she's often up at night), and just because she was Seraphina, she also looked nervous and concerned.

"Let's go!" I declared, trying to push down my uncertainty.

Seraphina's excitement seemed to fade a little. "Right, let's go," she echoed faintly. "You know what you need to do?" "Yeah, I think so."

"So be quiet and follow me."

"Being quiet" is not something I'm good at. For starters, I like to talk. I like to talk a lot and I also like to talk very loudly. I have a lot to say, and I like to express it. Plus, I'm kind of a noisy walker. I tend to scurry more than walk-lots of small, fast steps, and in a sort of scrambled way, but always against the wall so I can feel my way. (I blame the rat genes. For both walking like a squirrel and wanting to feel my way.) Seraphina, on the other hand, could probably shut up for months and when she walks, she makes about as much noise as a shadow. (Because she does not have an urge to scurry instead of walk, unlike me. She takes long, silent strides.)

But if I didn't shut up and be quiet-try to be quiet, that is-then the whole plan was going to fail.

So I tried to be quiet, but I could tell from the way Seraphina's ears twitched that it wasn't nearly quiet enough. She didn't say anything, though.

After a while, Seraphina said, "We're almost there." "Good," I replied.

She stopped and turned toward me, eyes glowing slightly in the near darkness. "Look, Vesper, I have to tell you something."

I hadn't expected this. What was she going to tell me, exactly?

"What?" I asked warily.

Seraphina took a deep breath. "I'm not going." I blinked. Her words took a moment to sink in, and the weight of them made me stagger a little.

"What?!"

"I'm not going," she repeated.

"Are you scared?" I blurted out.

Seraphina drew in a breath. "Yes. Yes I am. I don't know if it will work, and even if it does, I don't know if I can do it, Vesper. I don't think I'm the right person for the job."

"But you're a genius." "Maybe so," Seraphina agreed. "But...I'm not brave, Vesper. I'm a-what's that term you use? Scaredy-cat. Yes, I'm a scaredy-cat-literally. I might be smart. I might be able to come up with a plan, but my plan...it requires...certain character traits. It...it requires bravery. And I...I can't...be...brave." Her words had started to come out as slightly choked, and I automatically tried to read her face. Most of it was in shadow, but those glowing golden eyes were visible, and they were watery. Her breathing was starting to get all short and shaky. "I...I'm too....too....too scared...." Seraphina really was having trouble getting her words out. Most of them came out as strangled sobs. And what was I doing? I was just standing there frozen, feeling like a rat in a maze: too many paths, and too much uncertainty and possible pain down every path I saw. Seraphina pushed on with what she wanted to say though. "I...don't...know...if...it...will...work. And-and if....if...it....doesn't...." The sobs took over, and she started to cry softly.

"Deep breaths," I advised her, trying to help though probably being unhelpful.

Seraphina drew in a shuddering breath, then blew it out. She repeated this a few times, and then she whispered, "Instructions. Forward. Turn left. Forward. Turn right. Fifth door on the left. Do not think it's a normal door, and do not trigger any alarms." "Got it." I started forward a bit, and then paused and looked back at her. "Uh, if this works...you have a nice life." Seraphina stared at the floor. "Good luck."

I started forward, keeping her voice in my head. ''Forward. Turn left. Forward. Turn right. Fifth door on the left. Do not think it's a normal door, and do not trigger any alarms.''

I didn't look back and kept a sharp alert for alarms. None I saw, smelled, or heard so far. I came to the intersection. ''Turn left. ''I turned. There was another hallway to my right. I was about to ignore the hallway and go straight ahead, but I paused, twitching my ears.

Yes. I wasn't imagining anything-it was there. Nearly imperceptible, but it was there. A faint buzz.

I strained my eyes in the dim light. And I could just make it out-again, nearly imperceptible, but it was there. Crisscrossing, glowing lines.

Lasers.

Maybe not really, but...Seraphina's voice echoed in my head.

Do not trigger any alarms.

She wouldn't have said that unless she had thought there were alarms. And Seraphina was a person who did her research thoroughly-she knew the way to the control center, and if she thought there were alarms, you could bet there were alarms.

I hesitated. Did I really want to go through with this? If I got caught, there would be serious consequences, but if I went back to my dorm now, no one would ever know.

I heard voices. Adult voices, not the voices of the hybrids. Not too close, but if I kept waiting, they would be plenty close enough.

I heard Xavier's voice in my mind. Just...think of what will happen if you don't.

If I did, there was a chance we might escape. Maybe not a good chance, but still a chance. And if we failed...how could anything they did to us be any worse than what they were already doing? Better than not trying, and stay eternally in the facility, forever a lab rat, wondering what would have happened if I had just taken that chance.

I took a deep breath and scooted into the hallway. Under. Over. Sideways. Limbo. Jump. Scoot over there, and I was past the lasers.

''Am I really doing this? ''My feet were moving independently from my mind.

Fifth door on the left, Seraphina reminded me. Don't think it's a normal door.

My feet were on autopilot. Carrying me past the first door on the left.

The second door.

The third door.

The fourth door.

The fifth door.

I turned the handle and walked in silently.

Surprisingly, it was empty.

Don't think, I told myself. Just do.

The time to act is now.

I crouched by the wires and my head moved closer to them. It didn't take too long. There were a lot of wires, but my teeth were designed to bite through things much stronger than wires. I opened my mouth and chomped various times.

And the power went out.

Electricity, it turns out, does not taste very good. My taste buds were fried. Literally.

I ran out of the control center and down the hall. Without light, humans are blind. They don't know how to depend on their other senses. Without electricity, the scientists were completely helpless, so dependent upon their precious technology and not even realizing it. Since I had disabled the control center, most of the main power was off, but it wouldn't be long before the backup system kicked in. We had to hurry.

"Xavier!" I hissed, hoping his wolf ears would pick it up before any scientists heard me.

"I'm coming," Xavier responded. I strained to listen more, and I heard pounding footfalls from the hallway to my right, followed by a thwack!

Xavier raced into the hallway I was in. I smelled blood on him, which was a little worrisome. "Let's go!" he urged me. Xavier kicked the glass out of a window. It shattered, making vaguely musical noises like wind chimes. "Out. Now!" Before I had time to start worrying about how a fall from this high up would probably kill me, Xavier picked me up and hurled me out the window.

I couldn't even scream. The breath was ripped from my body, and I was falling, falling...

''Oomph! ''I made hard impact with the ground, and the breath was knocked out of my body, because falling wasn't enough. For a moment, I thought I saw Seraphina in one of the windows, but I blinked and she was gone.

Xavier came soon after me. He had somehow shimmied his way down the building a bit, with temporary acts of falling.

"Let's go!" he repeated. He picked me up and ran into the darkness of the night. Black folding over black folding over black, and no moon. And just moving throughout it. Fast.

Finally, we stopped. He put me down. Then Xavier raised his face toward the sky and let out a howl that raised the hairs on the back of my neck. Then it hit me.

We were free.