The Hybrids

The Hybrids (Cover by @NikolausGraphic) 

Sirens roared and lights flashed red as the boy ran from his cell, and many guards ran panicking towards the escapee, the sirens screaming Security breach over and over again.

“Do not let it escape!” The boy heard one of the guards cry as he sprinted down the corridor. He should’ve kept his eye on my better, he thought as he turned around a corridor. I must get away, I must get away...

Several more guards joined the first, some swearing as they staggered after him, already out of breath after a few hundred yards. The first however, was prepared.

“It’s still wearing its collar: Shock it.” He said as he tried to catch him up. The boy, however, was faster. The dull white corridors dragged on, corner after corner. His eyes whizzed around, looking for an exit, a window maybe?

The boy then remembered the collar: It would put him through excruciating pain until he fell to the ground. It had been used on him many times before, and he hated how vulnerable it made him, even though he was built with immense strength, the makers made sure of that.

The makers were his creators, he has known no other existence than to be shocked everyday and to be changed every day; his original appearance had long since disappeared. So had his memories; He couldn’t remember his family, he had no idea what the word meant anymore.

Then he saw it, a door unlike the door to the other cells. This had a strange code that only the makers could unlock. He had seen it work a few times, that was how he was taken out of his cell each morning.

He skidded to a stop in front of the metal door, and waited for the smart maker to catch up to him. He held the shocker in his hand, the blue lines of electricity crackling menacingly. He smiled, and ran to the boy, shocker aloft with a voltage strong enough to knock him out.

But the boy was quick, and when the maker was only a foot away, he grabbed his arm and slammed his hand against the lock, the shocker hitting the guard and the current running through him into the much shorter boy. The boy hissed through his sharp teeth at the pain, and he struggled to keep himself up and conscious when the door slid open, revealing a long flight of stairs in a room with walls of glass. The boy looked up, and saw the outside world for the first time that he could remember.

But he didn’t waste his time gazing at the world before him; he had to escape before they caught him and probably kill him for making such a fuss. He climbed down the stairs and once he reached the ground floor, he hurled himself through the glass and he finally touched the soft earth and grass for the first time.

He felt his blood run down his face, but no pain yet. The pain came later. The maker’s cries still rang in his ears, and he lifted himself up off the ground and ran, but to where he was unsure. The air was so clean out here, he thought. And the moon was so big. He’d never seen anything like it. The frost-tipped grass crunched under his feet as he ran further north. He was faster than the others, swift.

The creators were still behind him; they’d now entered their vehicles and were catching up to him. He gasped and pushed himself further, determined never to return to that evil place. He looked for a tree to hide in, a cave, something. His heart his pumping against his ribcage, threatening to burst through.

He heard the sound of water running, and he saw a river running a few feet away from the road he’d managed to find himself on, and he ran towards it, away from the road and back into the fields and grass. He saw his reflection in the water and grimaced as he ran; his appearance was even worse than last time, he thought.

Then he saw a house: It was an old-fashioned house made from stone and there were flowers growing up the sides and just behind it, a forest grew for hundreds of acres, as far as he could see.

He glanced behind him and realised that he’d never get to the trees in time, so he jumped over the high wall of the garden and scanned his surroundings: There was plenty of grass here, but there was more pretty flowers and bushes. His eyes then reached a small outbuilding, he sniffed the air around him, and smelt that there was someone in the house, but the outbuilding was deserted.

With only seconds before the headlights of one of the vehicles swept the garden from behind the wall, he ran into the outbuilding.

It was small, but not as small as his cell had been, and there was what looked like a sofa along one wall, and he crept over to it and began to listen to the creator’s conversation fifty yards away:

“He’s gone into the forest sir.” He must be talking to the master creator, he thought. He was only known to them as ‘sir’ and the boy had never seen him before, but he knew he was in charge of everything that happened to him and the others back at their headquarters. He listened closer, and realised that the driver must have been communicating with the master creator via the things named ‘walkie-talkies’.

“So close to civilisation?! You must find it, and fast. If news gets out about them before they can be controlled, we may have an epidemic on our hands. We don’t even know if it’s contagious...”

The master creator seemed worried, he thought.

“There’s no need to worry sir, we have him in our sights. We’ll report back when we find him.”

“I know you will, and be quick; they are stronger and faster when under the cover of night.”

The master creator hung up, and soon the sounds of the cars and voices faded away completely. Then the pain of his injuries finally made themselves known as the boy fell unconscious.

 First story, first chapter: What do you think so far?