Midnight City

Chapter Twenty Four

Thanks to the lovely Bronte who made this poster for me <3 I meant to put it in the last one but clearly I didn't.
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Joseph pulled up outside the warehouse and we hopped out of the car. We hadn't had a chance to talk during the drive because he'd made phone call after phone call about organising my escape route.

'They seem eager to help,' I noted.

'Victoria's not exactly likeable. She's really tough and she's constantly firing people for the slightest mistakes. A lot of people turned down high paying jobs to work with her because she used to be an amazing scientist. She's discovered a lot of things about genetic structure and purposeful mutation. But now that all the fame and glory of discovering all those things has died down, she's become a bit bitter and twisted if you ask me. She docked Eduardo's pay last week, and he's out for revenge so he's happy to help,' Joseph explained.

'Why do you all stick around then?'

'Sometimes she'll do something, or say something that reminds us of the old Victoria, and it's an incentive to stay I guess.'

'I see, so you never actually told me why Victoria took us into the chambers in the first place,' I said, turning to look at Joseph.

He sighed deeply, 'I don't know really, I overheard something about her base being destroyed.'

'Her base?' I questioned.

'That's all I heard, well anyway, Martin, her PA reckons that she's still looking for her chance to prove to the government that she's ready to take on another batch.'

I stepped back completely confused. Victoria had a base? Another batch? Another batch of what? Were there more people like me? Like... us?

'Woah, okay, so there are more people like us?' I asked, shocked.

'Look, I don't know, I'm just repeating what I heard.' Joseph leaned back against the car and pulled out something from his pocket and stuck in his mouth. I recognised it as a cigarette. In science we did a whole topic on harmful substances that humans indulge in.

Joseph fumbled around a little more in his pocket and growled under his breath.

'Got a lighter?' He asked, the cigarette dangling as he spoke.

'A what?'

'You know, flint and gas and it makes fire.' He moved his hands in an arc as he said fire.

'Those will kill you.' I said, crossing my arms.

'I don't normally smoke, but my hands are shaking like crazy and this will calm me down, it has something to do with the...' And then he launched into a full scientific explanation of cigarettes. It was then that I remembered I was dealing with a nerd. I snorted at that. A nerd, I got that from the Breakfast Club.

I realised that I couldn't act like his mother, and he was doing me a massive favour, so what if he breathed in the same stuff that's in farts, if it got us to the middle quicker, I guess I had to let him.

'We're wasting time.' I noted, as he opened and shut consoles in the car.

'Are you sure you don't have a lighter?' He pleaded.

'I don't, but...' I focussed on the palm of my hand and a small orange flame formed on the surface.

I thought he might be scared, but he leaned down and examined the flame.

'That's amazing. It's like you're combusting, but you're not. Where is it coming from, your pores? I just, wow.'

'They never go into details.' I murmured, as he lit his cigarette.