Chapter 3: Alex, 2038

I stared at Kai, who was now sitting on one of the couches, we all were. One of the other mutants said something like, “I’ll go get his twin”. I realized they were saying KAI’S TWIN, and that somehow made me stare harder. I was pretty sure my eyes were bulging out of my head. Kai was confused too and he looked up at me, I was still staring back at him when a new mutant strode into the room. She had fur all over, just like Kai’s scales. She was dressed in a blue t-shirt and sweatpants. She had an air of command around her. she looked at Kai, Kai looked at her.

“I have a TWIN!” The girl said, “I can’t believe it,” she said looking thoughtful for a minute “BUT, that must mean that m-our mom chose to hide YOU, BUT, SHE GAVE ME UP! How long were you living a normal life?” She asked. “Well… I lived with mom for four years-” “FOUR YEARS, YOU GOT TO LIVE A NORMALISH LIFE FOR FOUR YEARS. I WAS HERE FOR BASICALLY MY WHOLE LIFE,” she yelled. I decided not to tell her about my life. “What’s her mutaion,” She asked, “or… is she a human,” she looked at me with a dissgusted expression, another reason not to tell her I had been a human before.

I grinned at her, showing my unusual teeth. She smiled back at me. “what’s your name?” I asked. The others looked at me like it was the wrong thing to say. She looked at the cameras, her expression turning into a scowl. “Depends on who you're asking, the scientists call me subject one. They call me Hazel.” she waved her hand to the other mutants who were nervously glancing around because of her anger, which dissipated as quickly as it came. “What are your names,” she asked, her anger fading as she spoke. “Alex,” I said. “Kai,” said Kai, “it’s weird that even though we’re twins, we have to introduce ourselves.” “yeah… so” hazel said, “do you want a tour of this place” she gestured at the room around us. I nodded at her. “sure,” Kai said.

She led us through the doorway to the left. we walked down the hallway, there were doors on both sides. “Those doors lead to our rooms,” she said when I asked what was there. I noticed there were so many rooms, way more than the mutants that already lived here could fill. After we passed lots of rooms with name tags she led us into a room on our right.

It was a bedroom, that was obvious because of the bed, but it was unusual. There was a treehouse-like structure in the corner, like a platform on stilts, on top of it was a nest made of pillows. “They made different rooms in case we were like our animals we got our animal parts from. Some of us are, some aren’t.”Hazel said calmly.

I hoped she would stay calm, it was obvious, even though we just met, she changed emotions quickly.

She led us into another room, it was painted light blue, there was another door closing off a corner of the room. Hazel led us to it and opened the door, there was a tall bathtub that you needed a ladder to get into. “This is in case they find someone who’s half sea creature. Just basically imagine anything a mutant would need in a room, like an open space, not to the outside of course, but just for running around, or a place to climb, and we've got it.” Hazel looked around the room, “I’ve explored every inch of this place,” she said “I mean what are you supposed to do when your alone and trapped with no way out,” her smile slowly turned to a scowl.

“Kai,” she turned towards him, “Did you know our mother?” “Yes,” Kai said “What was she like?” Hazel asked. “She was brave and caring, she made sure I wouldn’t be found by sending me too her friends houses which were nearby. Eventualy the scientists decided to check on her because they wanted to see if giving birth to us would change her, then they started checking the other houses, our mom told me to run away to the forest. I think she aggreed to test on her DNA, and that’s why mutants exist.” Kai explained. “WHY DOES SHE GET TO LIVE A NORMAL LIFE WHEN SHE AGGREED TO TEST, AND US THE LOCKED UP ONES DIDN’T GET A SAY! WHY DID SHE GIVE ME TO THE SCIENTISTS AND YOU, you got four years of normal… I DIDN’T KNOW HOW TO TALK WHEN I WAS FOUR, I WAS TAUGHT BY THE THIRD MUTANT!” She yelled suddenly.

I decided I wanted to go back to the others and maybe get a tour from someone who didn’t have a sibling to yell at, that reminded me of Emma, even though she was annoying I still wanted her to be safe.

I smelled something good so I followed the smell, I eventually found a kitchen. The human from before was there, she was making soup. I walked closer to look at what was in it. The girl jumped, looking startled. “Oh, sorry” I said, feeling bad. “It’s okay” she said. She started stirring a pot with a caroty smell.

I didn’t know if I should ask if she was a human or a mutant, but the others seemed to hate humans so if she was a human she’d probably be much more shy than she already was, plus infection must have gotten to her because she lived with all the other mutants. “What is your mutation,” I asked. She stoped stirring and showed me four little slits on her neck, I was very confused. “They’re gills” The girl said quietly. “Oh,” I said. She continued stirring the pot.

“what’s your name?” I asked. “Almost none of us were given a name, so they decided to call me Lilly. Luch will be ready soon.”

I walked away, worrying about Emma again. Where did the scientists take her, did they let her go, was she safe, and most of all, did she forgive me for not telling her about Kai. Before all of this happened, writing the note had felt like my stomach was riding a rollarcoaster that was all loops, or one million elephants had decided to run around on it. When she came looking for me I thought she would hate me forever, and I still thought she might because of the way she called me a monster after she found out about mutants. I winced thinking about that. When I stopped thinking about that I realized I was lost, I looked around and It was just a sea of doors. I stepped into one and realized it was a bedroom. They really must have been planning for a lot of mutants, I realized. The eight people here weren’t the only ones, I remembered Ava saying there was one uncaptured mutant, since it spreads there might be more.

I followed the hallway until it widened into a stone cave. It got significantly colder the closer I got to it. I walked into the cold, dark cave, and realized it wasn’t entirely dark. Tiny blue lights were clustered on manmade stalactites and stalagmites.

“Who are you” a voice said from behind me. I shrieked. “Oh sorry” the voice said apolegetically, “I am not used to new arrivals coming here before they know I’m here. At least I’m guessing you didn’t know about me, did you?” They were talking so fast, I couldn’t tell if they were excited or if that was how they always talked. “I didn’t kn-” “okay, that’s what I thought. What’s your name. Mine’s Ava,” She said. “Wait… what, were you named after someone,” I asked. “Yes, I was named after Ruby’s mom. Why?” She said suspiciously. “One of the guards was named Ava, maybe her mom still works here. My name is Alex.” I explained.

My sight was starting to adjust, I looked at Ava. My vision wasn’t quite right because I saw two big dark shapes behind her, they were moving. My vision actually was good I realized. The things behind her were bat wings. She noticed me looking at them and said proudly, “I know what you’re wondering and yes I can FLY!” She launched herself into the air, beating her wings quickly. “I am the most changed mutant here, I have echolocation and wings. What is your mutation?” She asked. “I have fangs,” I said, “ how long have you been here?” “As long as I can remember” Ava said, “nine years.” She shrugged as she landed, “I don’t know what I’m missing, so I don’t feel that bad about it. I was the fourth mutant to arrive here. Ruby was the third mutant and she got the best treatment. After she was found she was taught how to speak and read, she taught most of us even though she is younger.”

With my eyes adjusted to the dim light of the artificial cave, I looked around. In one corner I noticed two stacks of books next to a cluster of blue LEDs, and then I noticed a surveillance camera, but it was blocked by a piece of paper. Ava followed my gaze to it and made a shush motion with her mouth, then she led me over to the book stacks and I realized there was some paper and pencils too. One paper had writing on it, I read what it said.

The surveillance camera is blocked because one day when the fifth mutant (Thomas) came he put it up there because he heard the guards talking about how they would switch camera duty at the time he blocked the camera, the new camera watchers don’t know, they think it’s always pitch black in here, but they can still hear us, so never talk about this, or write about it near a camera.

I nodded, then Ava led me over to a gap at the bottom of the cave, through it I saw the tiniest glimpse of sunlight. Ava started humming. Next to the hole was a paper that said.

This is the hole, we started digging it in 2035. Eventually we will escape.

I picked up a pencil from nearby and wrote.

What do you dig with?

Still humming, Ava took the pencil and wrote,

Pieces of wood from the workshop, our hands, carving tools from the workshop.

“Did you know there’s a workshop?” Ava asked, clearly to not attract attention from the guards. “No” I said, “can you show me where it is, I keep getting lost. Well I’ve only gotten lost once, but I have a feeling it will happen again.” “Yeah” Ava said, “but lunch is very soon I think. Lets go to the dinning room.” She took off down the hallway back to the kitchen. We passed Lilly who was putting the soup in bowls.

I heard talking, coming from the dining room.  “I can’t believe how much those guys know about the world,” “Hey Kai, what are the woods like,” “where’s Alex,” “I’m so excited to meet Alex and you.” 

When they saw me their talking faded “Alex, where were you?” Kai asked. “I got lost, and found Ava.” I explained. “Oh.”

Kai was sitting in between Hazel and the boy with a wolf tail. “Well!” Hazel announced suddenly “we should introduce ourselves. We can start with Thomas and go clockwise.”

I sat down next to Ava and an empty chair that Lilly sat in after she finished passing out the bowls of soup.

“So… I’m Thomas and I like carving wood.”

Next was the girl with cat eyes, “I’m Ruby, and I like playing games.” I could see out of the corner of my eye that Ava rolled her eyes.

“I’m Lilly, and I like cooking.” Lilly said quietly. “Lets save you and Kai for last,” Hazel said.

“I’m Ava and I like flying,” Ava said enthusiastically, spreading her wings and accidentelly wacking me in the face with one. “Oop, sorry,” she said. This time Ruby rolled her eyes at Ava.

“I am Jhon, and I like… reading,” said the mutant with goat horns. He had dark brown hair and didn’t really look at the other mutants. “I was the newest, untill you got here.”

“I am Hazel, I am, I mean I used to think I was the oldest, and I’m the leader.”

I waited for Kai to go next, he realized he was going next “my name is Kai and I lived in the woods before,”

“I’m Alex and I was infected four months ago” I said. “What do you mean infected?” Hazel asked. “You know, like, I became a mutant,” I said. “You- you mean you weren’t born a mutant.” “Yes am- am I the first infected.” I asked. “Yes, you are the first human to come in here.” She looked at me with a betrayed look on her face. Ava had the same displayed on her face. Ruby just looked suprised. The others didn’t look at me at all.

“Wait Kai, how did you know you could’ve infected me if I am apparently the first mutant to be infected. What aren’t you telling me.”