Chapter eleven

Ebony pressed herself against me as Buzz began to wind down slowly, the first shock over now. Trapper grabbed my arm and tugged lightly so it didn’t hurt.
“Come on, you’ll want to see this” he said, nodding towards a small metal room that was near us. As we walked more tension grew, I didn’t like this place before I’d even stepped in and now I had the urge never to come back in again. At least the smell was more bearable, even if it had been as strong as it was in the sheds Buzz was blowing the air around so much I could hardly smell a thing.

Trapper opened the door and I let out a breath of relief that I didn’t know I was holding. It seemed simple enough, cupboards and lockers lined the walls beyond. We all piled in, it was cramped with three grown men inside.
“We call this our weapon shed” Trapper said grimly. He reached out and seized a cupboard handle, pulling it open with a rough jerk as the metal fought to stay still. When I saw what was inside I wished the door had stayed jammed shut. Hammers, knives and heavy spiked objects that I’d thought they’d banned stood on pegs; picks and pliers dangled menacingly. Objects I’d never seen before hung there, shrouded in mystery and dust. Long metal rods with rubbers handles and leads that plugged into power sockets and something that looked like a gun with no place for the bullets; they dared me to touch them, to see what pain they caused.
“This” Trapper sighed, picking up the strange no bullet gun “Is how they kill pigs.” He placed the barrel against the thick metal door and gently squeezed the trigger. A bolt shot out half an inch and punched a hole in the door like it was nothing. I gulped, imagining what that did to a pig’s skull; then imagining what it could do to mine.
“Who could do that to a pig?” Buzz whimpered as Trapper pulled the gun out of the door and cocked it back with a grunt.
“Don’t think of it” Trapper sighed as he hung the disturbing bolt gun back in its place. The moment he said it my mind began to race faster, showing me even worse images than I thought my brain could make. I could tell from the grimaces on Trapper and Buzz’s faces that they were thinking along the same lines as me.

Buzz picked up one of the long metal rods by the rubbed handle and held it gingerly “I’ve got to ask, what does this do?”
Trapper grimaced again “It’s a stunner; you plug the lead into the wall and the course runs through the metal rod. Touch anything with that and they’ll get shocked to next Tuesday.” Buzz almost dropped the rod but managed to aim the tip into its holder.
“This is basically what we’ve got if anyone does attack, as you can tell we’re not exactly defenceless.” Trapper exited the room quickly, me and Buzz almost leaving in a run after him.
“So we’ve got to fix up this place?” I asked slightly nervously, looking up at the hooks again.
“Yeah, if you can’t stand the smell of the stains you can help me take some machinery to pieces. You two still need a while to rest up though, I’m surprised you can even walk at all Ivory and Buzz you’ll need to rest your arm before you can move it at all” Trapper said firmly.
Buzz snorted and his wings hummed loudly “I’ve got one other good hand; I can use that at least.” I felt nervous about this, working on disturbing machines designed to mangle and maim bodies to a point that they were unrecognisable. One slip up and I could be minced. I heard an indignant meow from my hands and Ebony jumped from my grip, only just then did I realise my hands were shaking lightly.
Trapper sighed lightly and patted my arm, careful not to get skewered on my bare spikes “Too much for today huh? Come on, you guys should go back and pick yourself out some rooms.” He almost dragged me and Buzz out of the room, not giving us any choice in the matter. It’s not liked we wanted to hang around there any longer anyway.

Buzz shrugged at me as we were dragged behind Trapper, then I noticed his face follow something of interest behind me. I turned just in time to see that Bud was standing in the middle of the courtyard again, still smelling strongly of aftershave. My gaze flashed back to Buzz but he was looking hard at Trapper’s top hat as if he hadn’t been looking at Bud at all. I frowned to myself as Trapper dragged us inside, what was up with those two? Did Bud even know that Buzz stared at her?
“Here’s your stuff Ivory” Trapper said, thrusting my bag of things into my face “The food’s all in the fridge down stairs don’t worry.” I took the bag and grinned at him, then at Buzz. I nodded towards the doors upstairs and we both moved towards it. I knew Buzz didn’t have anything to collect; all his things must have been burnt in the fire.
Once we were on the upper level I looked around at the rooms “Which one do you want to take?” I asked. Buzz shrugged and moved over towards the other’s rooms, I noticed that he chose a room nearest to Bud; I could tell because there was a fog of aftershave at the door even Buzz could make out. I wouldn’t notice anything like that if I hadn’t caught him staring at Bud before but now I was looking out for anything between them. I sniffed around and found a room a little way away from Bud’s or Stitch’s rooms, it had a window which faced away from the slaughterhouse as well. Glad to find myself a room that was easily ventilated I emptied my bag onto the small plain bed. I stared at the meagre possessions piled on the surgery white blankets; everything I had to my name right now was in this room apart from my jumper that was still on the stairs.

I sat on the bed for a short while, letting my aching exoskeleton rest while I thought hard. I couldn’t see any reason to go now; I was part of the team. People who had been mutated like us were being hunted down on the streets. I sat there, staring at nothing for a few seconds. Then I let out a gasp of terror and scrabbled around on the bed. I grabbed my cell phone from underneath a can of deodorant and turned it on.

I flicked through the names in a panic, wishing the electronic device would react faster. Finally I found what I wanted, I clicked on the accept button over and over. I pressed the phone against my ear as it started to ring. I was shaking slightly as I heard the single tone over and over again, my nerves one edge. A click on the other end woke me up with a jolt.
“Sis?” I asked at once. There was no answer for a long time; then a voice at the other end spoke.
“Who is this?” a clearly masculine voice said. My blood froze in my veins, my sister didn’t have a boyfriend and no one lived around her because she was in the country.
“Who is THIS!?” I said loudly. There was another silence before I felt a prickling all over, something was wrong. I cancelled the call at once and slammed the phone down onto the bed. I was breathing hard, staring at the cell in horror. Where was my sister?

Disclaimer: Lavalamp studios and me own this, dont steal. What sort of person are you to steal? EVIL EVIL PERSON!
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Ebony and Ivory chapter tweleve done, it's a long one.