Black and white spots danced in my vision and I grit my teeth, the pain not ceasing even the tiniest bit. The whitecoat with hair blacker than death itself walked towards me and kneeled down beside me. I could barely make out Demon and Wolf snarling at the man and Fox letting out a hissing noise. I was in too much pain to even open my mouth.
"G-get away!" Demon growled out. "I'll kill you if you touch her!"
The whitecoat laughed and placed a hand on my head, making me flinch away, shutters racking throughout my body. "I don't think that you're in a position to say things like that 578," he said, looking amused by the boy's overprotection of me. "You see, 344 is very special, more special than all of you." His hand trailed down to my bare shoulder, making me whimper as he traced over the simple black tattoo that was there. A constant reminder of what I was. That wretched number will always be apart of me. Permanently stuck on my body.
His hand trailed back up and he grabbed my chin. "344 will become my most successful experiment. A little time and growth will be needed of course," he mused. I wasn't even sure if he was talking to anyone other than himself anymore.
I felt anger start to pool inside of me. This man was the one who turned us into this. He was the reason why we were like this, why we were so desperate for escape. He is the one that crushed our futures and crushed our dreams. So why wasn't I doing anything? The pain was now a dull thought in the back of my mind. All I could feel now was red hot rage. Fox was looking at me sympathetically until a soft gasp left her lips. She was looking at my one good eye, why? I wasn't sure.
I felt something long, thin and flexible start sprouting out of my face, but I didn't pay much mind to it. My jaw unhinged and I snapped it shut quickly at the whitecoat's hand.
He yanked his hand away, just barely missing my sharp canine teeth. His eyebrows furrowed, seeming shocked and puzzled as to why I wasn't writhing in pain. "What the hell is wrong with that collar?" he questioned. "Put it up to shock level six."
The electric shock increased, making it harder to ignore, but I managed. I dragged my body over towards Fox where my dirtied hospital gown laid. I slipped it back on before pulling myself up to my knees, still quivering with rage. I pulled myself up the rest of the way, my knees almost buckling from underneath me.
The whitecoat took another step back and his hands started shaking a bit. "Why the hell is it not going down! Put it on level seven!" he yelled and the electric shock increased once again. I hissed in pain, but I wasn't going to go down.
I reached up and gripped onto the black hunk of metal around my neck and with my last ounce of strength, I squeezed down on it, my fist shaking. My arm hurt, heck, my whole body hurt, but if I could just-
A snap along with a rush of relief snapped me out of my thoughts. The shock was no longer there. I let go of the collar, only to have it fall to the ground below me. I could feel eight pairs of eyes on me, all wide with shock, but I just stood there, staring at the whitecoat. If looks could kill, this guy would be dead a million times over.
"How?" the male whispered, "344 has exceeded my expectations."
While he was in his shocked state, I made my way over to Fox, who was whimpering in fear, her golden eyes boring into my own. "W-What happened to you? How did you do that?" she whispered and I shrugged in response. Reaching out towards her neck, I grabbed the collar and did the same thing I did to mine.
The whitecoat shook his head rapidly before stepping towards me. "You bunch aren't going anywhere. This has proven to be the most successful experiment yet," he exclaimed before pulling something out of his pocket.
Panic took over my being and I extracted my claws, getting ready for a fight.
"That's enough!" Wolf barked and stared at the whitecoat, her crystal blue eyes were wide and glimmering. The whitecoat froze and the small, pen like object dropped from his hands. We all looked at her, but she didn't dare look away from the whitecoat.
"I'll explain later. Cat, break the rest of the collars, now!" she ordered and I nodded quickly before scampering over to Demon, snapping his collar as well, soon making my way over to Wolf, whose eyes were now watering severely. "Hurry up. I can't hold him for much longer."
I gulped and nodded before snapping her collar as well, accidentally scratching her neck with one of my claws. Her eye twitched, but she didn't seem to have much of a reaction. She stood up before grabbing my wrist and running into the cave, dragging me along behind her.
I could hear Demon yell something to Fox before they too started running, the whitecoat's distant screaming could be heard behind us, but we didn't dare turn around and look back at him.
"You sure this is the right way to go Cat? Has that witch you've been seeing in your dreams said anything else?" Fox asked.
Stumbling over my words, I was able to spit out, "She said that we had to find a cave and go inside! She hasn't said anything else!"
There have been people here before you. All which have sadly passed away except one, but they have created a tunnel in here for you to escape through. The voice in my head said to me and I grit my teeth. A secret passageway or something?
We skidded to a stop to come face to face with a cave wall. "Damn it," Demon muttered, "That voice of yours seems to want us to die."
I mumbled something incoherently before looking around the cave. "It said that there is some secret way to get through here." I said while banging on the stone wall, my ears perked up, as did Wolf's and Fox's. "It's hollow."
"If it's hollow, I can shadow travel to the other side and find a way out." Demon said and Wolf nodded.
"Go do that. Try to find a way for us to get through!" Wolf commanded and Demon nodded. Shutting his eyes, he concentrated and I could see him slowly sinking in the shadow beneath him. The shadow soon swallowed him whole and I could hear footsteps on the other side of the wall.
"Yo Wolf, there's a keypad type thing over here. It has both letters and numbers. What should I type in?"
Wolf groaned. "Ummmm, try typing all of our experiment numbers, in order, mine is 296."
Fox went next. "Mine is 327."
"I'm pretty sure that whitecoat said it enough, but mine is 344." I said while crossing my arms. "Hurry up please! They could show up any minute!"
Faint beeping could be heard along with a stream of quiet curses. "It didn't work! And I only have two more tries!"
Well that made the situation a whole lot less stressful.
"Wait what?! Two more tries until what!? Is this thing going to blow up on us!?" Fox panicked and I started hyperventilating. If that thing blew up we would be crushed under all of that rock. If that didn't kill us, we would be sent back to the lab! Who knows what they'll do to us once we get back! They would punish us in hellish ways that I don't even want to know about!
Wolf seemed a bit frustrated and panicked as well. She ran a hand through her tangled white hair and chewed on her bottom lip. "Oh lord, um... try 'save us' and the number that was on that whitecoat's jacket!"
There was more beeping and a groan. "It didn't work Wolf!"
Fox's ears suddenly perked up and she looked towards the entrance. "U-um guys, someone's coming!"
That of course did nothing to help everyone's skyrocketing anxiety.
Try Lupus 428. My voice said urgently. Thank the lord that it didn't give me another riddle or something.
"Demon! Type in Lupus 428! Now!" I yelled over to him. Wolf gave me a look, but decided against opening her mouth.
We could all here the tapping against the keyboard and my fists clenched and unclenched. This would be the code that either saved our lives or brought us to our doom. The voice has been pretty helpful so far, but I still felt somewhat skeptical.
"Holy cow it worked!" Demon cheered and I let out a sigh of relief.
Fox looked around and saw a small opening appear. "Over there!" she exclaimed before crawling through it, her skinny body allowing her to slip through easily.
I followed after her with Wolf right at my heels. Once wolf slipped through, the opening sealed itself shut and we were left in the dark. Lucky for all of us, we had night vision, so our eyes were glowing in the dark.
"What now?" I whispered and just as I said that, another opening appeared, one that led outside. We all looked at each other before getting in a line. Wolf was in front followed by me and Fox and Demon was taking up the rear. One by one we slowly slipped through the opening and were met with a beautiful sight.
The air was sweet and fresh and the sky was a beautiful shade of blue. There were rolling hills for miles. I let out a loud laugh and a large, genuine smile appeared on my lips as I started running down the hill that we were on, with the others yelling and chasing after me. I didn't stop though, I was too happy to stop or care.
We were free. I was free. We were out of the hell that turned us into what we are. We could live in peace now. (Oh little did I know that this was just the beginning to the insane journey ahead of me.)