Chapter twelve

It had been weeks since the call but it had never left my mind. There were still fires, shootings and now disappearances; anybody even suspected of being a mutant seemed to disappear over night. The chores had kept me distracted most of the time, the threat that you could slip and end up as a lizard chop tends to keep your mind from straying too often, I’d stopped wearing my jumper since it kept trying to catch on machinery. I’d still had to blame my shaky hands on my fall after I’d called my sister though, I didn’t feel like sharing this information with the others right now. The jobs were helping my with training as well, my slip up when rescuing Buzz was bad and if Mist hadn’t gotten me out of it we’d be dead. I would grip onto vertical surfaces to undo bolts near the ceiling and I tried to grab tools with my tongue when I needed one fast. Me and Trapper were taking apart some of the more dangerous equipment though there was still a lot to do; Mist and Stitch were on cleanup detail. Buzz and Ebony were trying to help as well; Buzz looked at what Trapper and I were doing and immediately began to scrub the floors one handed, Ebony mean while was just licking the stains happily. Even though nearly everyone else was using their mutations to help their chores along, it was quite disturbing to see Stitch’s disembodied arms at either side of the complex with mops trying to scrub blood off the floor, I never saw Trapper using anything that could be considered a mutation. He was smart yes, almost scarily smart but he didn’t show any other signs of a change. I got this feeling though, this prickling feeling that I had felt when talking on the phone with whoever had answered instead of my sister. He wasn’t how he seemed.

Right now we were all gathered in the same room I’d woken up in after my accident, it was time to take off Buzz’s bandages. Even Mist and Bud were there; though I’m sure Mist was only there to see the scar tissue and didn’t care about Buzz. Stitch was unwinding the wrap slowly, taking care not to agitate anything. I couldn’t help but wince as I saw Buzz’s bare skin; it looked as if someone had coated it in plastic and then heated it up. There were large veins of flesh running around his arm, criss-crossing and joined by small white lines; his skin was slightly pink in areas as well.
“I’ve seen worse” Mist mumbled to herself, Trapper glared at her.
“Most of this stuff has healed on so it can’t be removed without leaving worse scars but some should return to normal now they’re free” Stitch told Buzz, patting him lightly as he examined his own scarred arm.
“Not like it’ll make me stick out any more will it?” Buzz said, a small nervous laugh escaping his lips even as he tried to keep a straight face. He grunted as he moved his fingers on his injured hand, using the other one to move his stiff hand. I noticed the small wince cross his face; I hope he still had use of all his fingers.

“Well I’d love to stand and stare at your arm all day but I’ve got chores to do” Mist said finally, turning towards the door. Trapper stood there, rocking back on forth on his heels undecidedly before sighing in resignation and following Mist out the door. After that we all left; it didn’t matter that Mist was tougher, started this or was even possibly older, Trapper was the leader here. I looked back into the room as we left and I almost missed a step; Bud was standing right beside Buzz gently holding his scarred arm in her wooden hands. Bud had shown little to no interest in the world around her, let alone any guy.
“What’s up?” Stitch asked, I snapped back and smiled nervously.
“Nothing, nothing” I said airily, trying to hide the fact that Bud and Buzz were... well I didn’t know what they were doing and that worried me. I got a few funny looks but everyone seemed to decide that they didn’t need to pry into why I was being odd. We went outside and split up into our own jobs; Trapper disappeared into the sheds to work on the Chevy and Mist and Stitch going back into the slaughterhouse to clean. I walked in after them; going past them as they grabbed mops and some heavy duty cleaner out of the room they kept the so called “weapons”.

I was half way up the large mincing machine’s side, screw driver in tongue, when I heard the noise. There was a deep roar from outside, the sudden noise made me drop the tool with a clatter. I had to think about it for a second before I realised what it was.
“Looks like Trapper’s got the Chevy up and running” I called out to the others across the slaughterhouse, my voice echoing in the large cavern of a room. It was loud though and soon the noise filled the room like the smell of rotten flesh. It shouldn’t be that loud, it was only one engine after all. Unless he did some massive recalibration it should never sound like this. I felt another prickle, this one was huge though. It wasn’t precognition, it was common pessimism; a knowledge that everything was going to go wrong. I began to get harder to ignore as I heard another hum, a different one, one that I’d heard a lot recently.

My eyes snapped up to one of the high windows as I heard a yell of terror and the sound of breaking glass. Buzz barrelled out of the sky, something green and brown in his arms that could only be Bud.
“What’s wrong?” Mist said before Buzz had even landed, her hand flashing to her hip to grab at something that wasn’t there; she cursed and just adapted a pose that would let her run if she needed it.
“There are guys out there” Buzz panted, letting Bud go “We looked out the window and there was a load piling out of black vans. I grabbed Bud and took off out the window to warn you guys before they had a chance to react.” Bud seemed unharmed but looked slightly shaken; her vines were writhing around like mad as she moved quickly away from the door.
“Idiot, how do you know they’re dangerous?” Mist hissed.
“THEY’VE GOT GUNS!” Buzz yelled before the door slammed open. I could tell everyone’s blood froze as if an arctic blast had gone through the room; a moment of stillness, then all hell broke loose.

I took off upwards across the wall, looking back only a second later when I heard a rally of gun fire. Buzz was darting among the rafters to dodge any possible shots going his way, Mist had disappeared into thin air again and Stitch had dove out of sight. Only Bud was where she had been before, standing completely still right in line of a group of black clad, gun wielding people in the doorway. She reached up slowly and gripped at something on her neck. She tugged at it and something came away in her hand, she stared at it for a second as if it fascinated her, then she collapsed slowly onto the floor with a loud thud.
“BUD!” Buzz screamed from the rafters.
“NO!” I yelled after him as he dove towards Bud’s prone body. There was a barking laugh from the black clad group and another round of bangs rang out. Buzz looked like he was slammed sideways; he flapped his wings a few times and then collapsed on top of Bud.

I was breathing hard, two taken down in so little time. I heard a muffled yell and the barrels turned upwards towards me. I scuttled away across the wall; I heard another bang and flinched. My grip left the wall. I fell like a stone off the wall. The shots slammed into the wall above me and I stuck my hands against the wall as hard as I could. My feet scrabbled against the wall as the ground rushed up to meet me again. I didn’t want to hit the floor again; I’d just recovered from last time! I let out a yell of terror and hit my feet as hard as I could against the wall. I slowed just before I hit the floor, pushing away from the wall and running out of the way before they got the chance to fire at me again. I heard a scream of pain and looked around to see Trapper standing over one of the black dressed assailants. I’d never seen him like this, not only acting different but LOOKING different. His legs were bare, the material ripped off just below the waist for decency. It looked like he was metal from the hip down, a mess of wires and steel making up his legs. He was holding what looked like one of the stunners but it was hooked up to a leg.

Even the gunners looked shocked for a moment before Trapper’s arm shot out and another scream came from an attacker. He whipped his hat off and spun it in his hand, as it faced the gun barrels a bright light burst out as if it had a searchlight hidden in the hat. Several of his attackers raised their arms to cover their eyes and their shots missed by feet, one was lucky though and I saw Trapper’s head jerk back. He blinked for a moment, the light flickered and he fell as well. I heard another scream of anger as I ran further away from the gunmen and Stitch ran past me with a massive sledgehammer in her hands, she must have gotten it from the stores. She looked like a crazed warrior from the medieval ages and I was glad she was on my side. She swung the hammer meters away from the assailants and her thread tore; her arms and the hammer were sent flying towards the attackers. There was a thud, a crack and then another bang and a heavy thud. She got one before she went down. I got to where I wanted to be, the armoury. I yanked at the door and it almost came off its hinges. I reached in and picked up one of the larger knives.

When I’d rushed out wielding the knife as best as I could since I’d never used one before. I was going to get shot before I even got there I knew it, I couldn’t move faster than a bullet. I closed my eyes and yelled out as I passed Buzz and Bud, expecting any moment to be sent sprawling across the floor with hot lead burning through me. I was puzzled then as I found myself still running, I opened my eyes at another scream and found Mist holding the bullet-less gun against a man’s foot. There were five left and I was getting closer. I slashed forward recklessly, the knife stuck in a gun. It fired once and the shot smacked into Mist’s side before she knew what was happening. She collapsed to the floor but before she even got half way I felt something heavy slam into my bare chest. I coughed and fell backwards, clutching my chest. I didn’t want to look what was under there but I couldn’t control my hands. They peeled back from my chest to expose... nothing. The bullet had not pierced my exoskeleton. I tried to get up but another round caught me, throwing me off balance and onto the floor. One stood right in front of me now, the gun pointed at my face as I was pulled up onto my knees. I stared up at the deathly dark attacker in front of me, staring deep into where I guessed their eyes were. My hands were shaking as I put them behind my head in the usual submission and execution pose. I noticed that the gun was shaking as well, the barrel weaving around in front of me as my attacker began to tremble in fear. I looked up at them again, they’d shot my friends why pause with me? I didn’t have much time to think it over though because at that moment a butt of a gun connected with the back of my head and I fell unconscious again.

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Unlucky for some, let's see what Ebony and Ivory chapter thirteen holds.