Lost Change

Chapter 7

I walked out of the storage room, leaving the recorder on the floor. I felt sick. Disgusted. I felt angry at myself even knowing I had eaten the food that had belonged to these people. I couldn't even begin to imagine going back to that room now, not knowing what had been done to me in it. Done to who knows how many others. I didn't care how cold it got, or how attractive the heat lamp there became - I was never going to set foot in that surgical room again.

I walked slowly towards the 'holding room', as the voice on the recording had called it, and passed through the doorway. I glanced at the cages all around me. At the cold eggshells hiding the bodies of deceased dragonets.

There was more humanity in those dead eggs than I had seen anywhere else in the building.

I walked to the far door, feeling myself growing increasingly numb inside as I passed through it. More rows of cages, all with eggs resting uselessly beneath failed heat lamps. I spotted another half-open door and continued onwards, wondering how many cages - how many 'subjects' - were waiting for me to find.

I glanced through the next door, expecting to find more rows of lifeless eggs, but the cages in that room all looked empty. That was new. One of the cages had smashed open on the floor, like the one I had escaped from, but all the ones I could make out were empty.

Had... were there others like me? Had others survived, and hatched before whatever disaster had occurred? Had they managed to escape too, and were they in the building somewhere? Did somebody have answers? Did somebody know who I was, or how I got here?

Did this mean I wasn't alone?

That last thought especially filled me with a sudden hope. This place was scary, and I was beginning to become very lonely. I couldn't remember how I had dealt with isolation as a human, but as a dragonet, it was scary. I had the nature of a social animal now, like a bird or a dog. Being all alone these past few days had begun wearing on me. Some friendly company would be a very welcome change.

I hurried through the next door... and paused, sitting up in surprise.

The side of the room was simply gone.

The remaining walls ended suddenly in jagged breaks, with wires and even a pipe simply sheared away. There was nothing but open sky beyond, suggesting I was on one of the upper floors of whatever building I was in. Faltering sunlight filtered through the opening, suggesting the day was drawing to a close, and I could hear birds chirping somewhere in the distance.

I walked to the edge of the floor and sat up, curling my tail around me as I stared at the outside world.

It might be hard to find food out there. Here, there was enough canned food to last me for a while - months, maybe even years if there were other storage rooms in the building that I hadn't found yet.

Finding a source of warmth would be even harder, and my new body definitely needed that. I had no way of knowing how far I would have to go to find power - and if it was in the hands of people, people like the ones here, I had no idea if I would be able to use it. Here, I would at least have some protection against winter... though the trees outside seemed to be rather tropical. I wasn't sure how bad winter would actually be wherever here was.

Not to mention other problems and needs I didn't know about yet. This place had been set up to meet those needs. Out there, I had no idea where I would be able to find what I needed. I had no way of even being sure if I could.

But if there were others like me, if I wasn't alone, then... they were somewhere out there. No flying creature would have stayed in this building, not when the wall had been torn off like this.

Not with the people that had been here.

I lifted my head and looked towards the sunlight. The sun was setting on the far side of the building, but I could still make out its reds and oranges coloring the sky. It felt good to see... there was a faint stirring somewhere inside at the sight of the setting sun.

I spread my silvery wings and flew over the edge, leaving the building behind me as I glided off into the world beyond.