The Seraphim Project

Chapter Four

I was having a very pleasant dream, one where we were most certainly not on the run and homeless, sleeping in the trees of some forest in the middle of nowhere. Then someone called my name.

I sat straight upright, squinting through the black night to see who had called my name. For a moment, I thought I had only imagined it. Then it came again, so suddenly that I almost toppled off the branch I was crouched on.

I looked just beneath me on the same tree to where Hawk crouched, sitting perfectly still. Glancing around, I found that everyone else was still asleep in their own trees, so I slipped down to a branch closer to him so we wouldn’t wake them.

“What’s up?” I asked him. He held up a hand for silence, listening intently. I strained my own hearing, but I didn’t hear anything out of the ordinary.

“Something’s coming. A lot of somethings.” He twisted his head in another direction, and I could finally see his face better. He looked terrified, his eyes wide and his skin pale. “They’re everywhere. All around us, closing in.”

“Who is, Hawk? What’s coming?” I felt like I was talking to a spooked animal. I wanted to move closer and touch him, calm him, but I was afraid I’d set him off. His hands were shaking, he was so scared.

“I think… I think it’s the Labs.”

I didn’t question him. “Everybody split, now!” I yelled. Without hesitation, they dove off their branches, but it was too late. They were here. The Labs had found us again.

Several angels dove from the sky and collided with Falcon. Clumsy with his bulky, oversized wings, he fell from the sky, crashing through branches and out of view.

Russ shifted, his body flowing smoothly from human to wolf form. The remains of his clothes hung in tatters around his new form, and he growled at the werewolves that were surrounding him and Beast. She crouched in a way that clearly showed how she’d gotten her name. At a glance, she seemed almost like a wolf too.

The vampires had found Sunny. He bared his teeth at them, hissing, but they hissed back. Their fangs were a lot longer than Sunny’s, and sharper. Their fingered ended in claws, and they circled closer, blocking him in.

Hawk still crouched next to me, his whole body shaking in fear. He knew better than any of the rest of us how many kids surrounded us. And they were just kids. Glancing over them, I saw that the eldest were maybe ten, but most were younger than that.

But then, that was to be expected. Generations One through Three were exterminated when were proven antique and outdated. In Generation Four, they started experimenting with the human brain, trying to make a monster that would only follow orders. As a result, Generation Four was practically brain dead, and Generation Five wasn’t much better. Both were exterminated around the same time we were supposed to be. None of them were saved because they were barely living to begin with. Since then, more Generations have probably been exterminated.

The misfits attacked, throwing themselves into the masses around them. We didn’t stand a chance. They were going to either kill us or take us back to the Labs, and neither option was particularly pleasant. There were too many of them for us to escape, even from the sky. There were angels circling as if waiting for us to try it.

“Kite!” My head jerked to the side. Hawk was hovering a few feet from the branch I still crouched on, his face turned in my direction. I saw, as if in slow motion, two angels dive from above straight towards him.

“No! Hawk, get down!” I was too late. The angels had already reached him, one gripping each of his wings. I expected them to hurl him towards the ground, but instead, they started back upwards, jerking him along by his wings. I winced; he hadn’t yet fully recovered from the demon pulling on them the day before.

Screaming, he twisted around and managed to break free. He fell towards the ground, his wings tucked tight against his body, but the angels went after him. All of them. He landed near Falcon, and they stood back to back, fighting off the swarm of angels.

I faced the clear sky. I could get away. I could escape. But that would leave the rest of the misfits to fight for their lives, and I couldn’t help but think that they wanted us alive, which might be worse than death. But I could avoid it. I could get away.

But what then? I wouldn’t have anyone. Would that really be any better? Living out the rest of my life with the knowledge that I’d abandoned the misfits to whatever the Labs had in mind for them?

Hawk and Falcon were barely holding their own against the angels. Russ and Beast were downing werewolves at a rapid speed. Even Sunny, surrounded and alone, wasn’t doing as poorly as I’d expected. I looked closer. No one was going for the kill shots, on either side, but the misfits were fighting dirtier, using street fighting techniques we’d learned from watching television. And who said you never learned anything watching T.V.?

Resigning myself, I dropped from my branch, bending my knees to lessen the impact with the ground. I straightened up and headed towards Sunny, who was having the hardest time holding off his attackers. Fending off teeth and claws, I forced my way through the crowd surrounding him until I could put my back against his and fight.

I used every move I’d ever learned. I slammed heads together, kicked their legs out from under them, brought my hands down on their heads. Every time I knocked one out, another would take its place. It seemed they would never stop coming.

And then, suddenly, they did. All at once, they disappeared into the woods, carrying their unconscious brethren with them. Bewildered, I spun around. Only my battered misfits remained.

“Hawk, do you hear anything?” I asked, straining my own hearing. As far as I could tell, they were gone, but then, I hadn’t heard them coming until they were right on us. Hawk didn’t answer. “Hawk?”

I spun towards Falcon. He stood alone, battered and bloody, but all in one piece. “Where is he?” I demanded.

He shifted uneasily, wincing. “Kite—”

“Where is he?” I stepped closer, fear turning my voice hard. He cowered away, his eyes on the ground. There was a reason why I was the leader instead of one of the older ones. Sometimes, when I was overly emotional, my voice got a commanding tone, and they couldn’t refuse me.

“There were so many of them. We got separated, and next thing I knew, they were all gone.” He fell back another step, and faded from my attention.

My eyes scanned the rest of the group. Falcon, Beast, Russ, and Sunny. Only four. No Hawk.

No Hawk.

Fear turned to rage in an instant. They’d taken him, I knew it. In a second, I was high in the air, my eyes scanning for any sign of them. They’d had a head start, though, and were unbelievably fast. I didn’t even know which direction they’d gone in. But I couldn’t just give up, not yet.

I started to circle, moving almost faster than a normal person could see, scanning the ground and the sky for any sign of him. Nothing. There was nothing. Fear overcame the anger, clouding my judgment as tears clouded my vision.

Finally, screaming in frustration, I took off going straight in a random direction. I knew the likelihood of picking the direction that would lead me to him was practically nonexistent, but I couldn’t stop myself. I had to try. I couldn’t just let him go.

Finally, after what felt like hours in the air, I found that my wings could barely hold me up anymore. Exhausted, I started losing altitude until I finally gave up and landed. The forest had thinned miles ago, and the place I landed had only a few trees for shelter. I didn’t land in them. Instead, I lay down in an open place between them and fell asleep.