Battle Song

I never could comprehend a world outside my own, I thought it was normal for figures in white coats to put you to sleep and run tests on you, i thought it was normal to never go outside,(what does it look like any way?) and to have your family 3 other teenagers just as clueless as you. for a long time, we, as in, 2 girls and 2 boys, to have perfect hair split down the sides and always have it perfectly level,was as normal as you could get. then one day, Jakel, the oldest boy, went into the kitchen and came out with spiky hair. we did something we never did before, we laughed. it was a strange sensation like dreaming, only better. he smiled and started to cut my hair too, now it was flippy and fun, and when I looked in the mirror I can't help but smile. Lily's hair is tied into something he called a pony tail, and for Cairo's, it was swooshed to the side. " where did you learn this" we asked him, but he just shrugged and said " i dreamed it," it made me wonder if the things i've been dreaming are true too. It made me wonder if there really is a outside world and it's in trouble, that the white coats really are testing poisons on us to see how other people would react, I really wonder if we could actually get out of here.


as it turns out, we could, Jakel was napping on the floor,(the white coats ran some more tests on him that morning) and Cairo and Lily were trying to stir something up in the kitchen. then a sudden rumble sent something crashing to the floor in the kitchen. the ground shook like I never knew it could. Jakel woke up with half his hair sticking strait up, I would have laughed had not i been so terrified. next came a even more frightening noise, the next moment, the roof dissappeared, and we were nailed with balls of white from abuove. I screamed at the top of my lungs as Jakel took me under the kitchen table,which soon gave way to the icy balls. Great booming sorounded us and the air did something strange, it moved, it tore at my clothes and whipped Jakel's hair around. the used-to-be-white walls were now stripped to the insides, I had never been so terrified. Looking up to find that the roof had been replaced by a angry gray void, all I could do was hold on to Jakel. the wind ripped around us, I thought for sure we were all going to die when, just as it had started, it stopped. I opened my eyes. an erie calm came and muffled any noise. paper fluttered around my feet as i stood, then slipped on the ice-balls. the void was gone, it had been replaced by a shaky, what was the word? sky magicaly came to me. only then did I notice that Jakel had disappeared. " Jakel!" i screamed, " over here," i turned and searched for the sound of the voice, "where?" a pile of icy balls fell away to revael a tattered but smiling head. " are you ok?" i asked racing up to him, slipping on ice as i went. he himself was having a bit of trouble moving the ice. and was covered in scraps and brusies when i got to him. " did you see them?" he asked looking around. "no." i said, pausing a moment then getting back to my digging out Jakel. The ice stung my bare hands and stuck to my arms but i didn't feel a thing from the left over adrenaline rush. "go look for them," "but i have-" " they may need you more, and i can dig myself out." he grinned besides the fear still hanging in the air. i made my lips a tight line and nodded, taking, well, slipping around the corner i ran to were the kitchen used to be. i gasped, the kitchen was there but the wall wasn't. beyond it were the tallest buildings i've ever seen. well, at the time it was the only buildings i've ever seen. i stared opened mouthed and drooling slightly as i gazed up to the enourmos buildings in ruins, something had come through here that wasn't sopposed to, why else would some one build things like this here if it was just going to be destroyed? a groan from the corner brought me back to my mission. in the corner Lily was digging feverishly at a pile of ice. "were's Cairo?" i asked dreading the answer, she wimpered but didn't say anything, that was enough for me to cross the room and dig at the pile too.

we were only digging a few moments when,
CCHCHOOOOOSH! we were showered in ice balls. the pile had exploded and Cairo was standing there shivering, we laughed then cried. Lily was hugging him like she would never let go. and the hole situation swelled with emotion. Jakel came around the corner and looked confused, "hey, you didn't give me that much attention," but i just smiled and shook my head, then turned serious, " see the buildings?" i asked standing, Lily turned and stared. "i see em," added Cairo. i looked at our bare feet and sighed, though we only had our witts and the clothes on our back, we had to go, we had to. shaky but determined, i set out for the outside world. "Kalio, you can't be serious?" Cairo asked, but i only paused and said," you know just as well as i do that we need to get out of here, we have a chance at new, test free lives, don't you want that?" i turned and looked at them. Lily looked scared, Cairo looked apprehensive, and Jakel had a faraway look on his face. then he walked to the edge of the building, were the now-dirty linonem floor met the outside."we have to go," he smiled. "i dreamed this you know," then the smile disappeared, " I've dreamed a lot of things," his face was hard set, Lily seemed on the verge of tears, Cairo was shaking his head,"you dream a lot." at that Jakel smiled, and stepped out into the unknown.

as we walked along the baren streets, paper twisted around and around in the air like they had a mind of their own, the air was cold, real cold, and it wasn't long before we were all shivering. through some of the windows we could see what life used to be like around here, new words were added to our vocabulary every time we turned around, it was a little intimadating, seeing all that we missed out. like, Mcdonald's, or Aeropostle. in the store that said Aeropostle it had clothes like ours only in color, and in different sizes. we wondered in to find something warmer to wear, basic instinct told us to put more clothing on. Jakel traded his basic shorts for long, rough, blue pants that were labeled,LEVI STRUASS. and some other details. Cairo went for the hoodies. and Lily found a fur lined jacket. i found hats with symbols on them with sweatshirts, we all took a little bit of each. Cairo made the best discovery of shoes in the store next door. Already feeling warmer and more comfortable, I of course got hungry. Not to worry, a long building called Walmart had every food imaginable. i dined on the tortia chips while Cairo found some bread and cheese. all of it more and more interesting than the last. It was as if it was too good to be true.


of course, it was.

"oi" came a ruff voice down the isle. "You there, wot do you think your doing?!" A man in blue streaked toward us. His face was the color of a fruit that Cairo had just eaten. We looked around, were we doing something wrong? "Thas righ', you!" he grabbed Jakel by the shirt and hauled him to his feet, spilling spicy doritoes everywhere." Get up! I'll see you delinquents to juvie!" The man in blue spat. " What did we do?" asked Lily in a quiet voice, scared, " You know very well wot you did, now up!" he gave Cairo a good kick. "Hey!" I jumped up, spilling the guacamole i had been eating onto the floor with a crash. "Leave us alone!" I yelled, "Or what?" the man sneered, his face now resembled a rasin with that expression. At this question I looked down. Or what, what would I do? "Ouch!" I yelped. A couple barbs stuck into my skin, but had a almost pleasant buzz to them, making my skin buzz as well. I looked up, the man had a small black box in his hand that had a couple wires sticking out of it, the wires were hooked up to the barbs. " That tickles," I giggled. The mans face twisted into one of horror, and started to back up slowly. "What are you people??" he threw the box down, making it shatter and the buzzing stopped. "You alright Kalio?" Jakel asked me, I frowned and said,"Ya," " I didn't mean to, hones'ly i didn't!" The man mumbled, backing up slowly, his face now ash color. It made me wonder if every body's face changed color like that in this world. How strange. He turned and ran out of there like we were going to come after him or something. "Are you sure you are all right?" "I'm fine Jakel," I mummed. I pulled up my shirt were the barbs had dug into my skin. Two tiny holes were starting to bleed around my waist, but it didn't really hurt. Not like the pain from the labs. Jakel came up and started inspecting me like the white coats. I told him this, expecting him to laugh but he just set his jaw. What did I do wrong? All of a sudden I wanted to pull my shirt down, hide my skin from him. I had never felt like that before, had being outside the lab made it? What made the man run away from me? What now? All of these questions rang in my head, demanding to be answered all at once, it made my ears throb. "I don't think any thing is wrong with you," "Wow, your a genious," I said sarcasticly. Relieved, I let my shirt down.
"Did we do any thing wrong?" Lily asked. "Not that I know of," said Cairo picking up a potato chips bag, "But I think we should get out of here just in case," He packed up the chip bags and frozen lunches we had dumped out. "We won't have food on the road," He added. " What will we cary it in then?" asked Jakel, kicking his dropped bag of chips. " I mean, we can't just haul it all, that would take too long." "I saw some bags a few isles down, with pockets," Lily added helpfully. "ya," I said,"We'll need blankets and extra clothes too," Jakel nodded. "Lily get the bags, Cairo, finish up here, Me and Kalio will go and find the extra clothes and stuff." and walked down the isle. I smiled, it was cool the way he took charge and stuff. The way he knew exactly what to do. I told this to Lily later when we were heading out, back into the cold streets. she just shrugged and said," It was pretty obvious what to do though, and that was the first and probably only time he'll do that." She dampened my spirits about how cool he was, but I wouldn't let it get to me.

Pretty soon we came to a forest that sorounded the road on both sides, the road leading up the mountain, into mist and the unknown. "What now?" asked Cairo, doing a 360 of the soroundings. "I say we follow the road," "I don't know, I got this feeling," no sooner he said that when we heard the buzzing off in the distance, it was getting close fast. Dang, I thought, trouble again, so soon? "What's that?" wimpered Lily. Shifting to one foot to another. Jakel was looking down one road, then the other. Trying to determine which way it was coming from. rrrrrrrookoooovvvvvvv, the sound increased in intensity and speed. My breath now came in short quick puffs. "Jakel," I started to back off the road. He was still walking back and forth, try to see the noise. Suddenly the mist swirled above us and a car came bareling down the mountian. Lily just lept out of the way as it missed her by inches. "Into the trees!" Jakel shouted, I needed no encouragement. eeeeeeeeeeeeech. The car skidded to a halt, men leaping out of it before it even completely stopped. pop!pop!chooo! the men pointed boxes at us simialer to the man in blue's. Only these didn't have wires on them and flew much quicker. Cairo was halfway up the hill with Lily, Jakel was waiting for me behind a tree when I stopped for a moment, only a moment. And one of the flying barbs hit me. It landed in my shoulder blade with a soft ppfft,and I stumbled and fell. On my knees, it hurt, this barb really, really hurt. It only lasted for a moment, and then I was left wondering what happened. Where was I? The sky was pretty, I looked around a little dazed then remembered we were running from something. "Get them idiots" echoed behind me, more barbs flew around me while I ran. The men cursed, threatened us, and ran out their souls, but couldn't catch up. They were left behind exhausted and far from their car when they stopped. We however, still ran, and ran, and ran, and ran, and ran until we crashed by a stream. Our sides were on fire a couple of 'rans' ago, so now Cairo and I barfed into the bushes. No matter how hard I breathed I couldn't suck in enough air, Vile clogging my windpipe didn't help here either. This was worse than that barb,I thought. Nobody talked for a while, sucking in air and taking advantage of the stream was our only priority at the moment. "I think we lost them," gurgled Jakel from the stream. "Ya," agreed a still breathless Lily. She was laying in the muk on the side of the streams, I myself pressed my face to the frozen earth. The frost felt good against our steamy faces and felt like a chunk of heaven on my skin. We were in the middle of the pine forest, trees sorrounding and towering over us. It was kind of pretty, the way the sunlight barley made it to the forest floor, which was frozen. I sat up and hugged my knees to my chest thinking about our situation. We were in the middle of nowhere, with no way to get food. Just this mourning I was fed and clean. Not with pine needles in my hair and dirt smeared on my face. On the other hand, we were free, I had learned more than I ever would have in that Place. After concidering all of the options, (granted there weren't many,) I decided that this was as good as it can get. Sighing happy, I glanced over at Jakel. He was wringing out his jacket, showing his bare shoulders. My head made a rrrrrrriiiiiiiiiiiinnnnn noise, almost like a car's. I looked away, why did I do that? Why am I so awkward all of a sudden? Tearing at the grass which had ice crystals covering it that froze my hands. Two seconds ago I was happy, now I'm confused and cold. Guess it's just like that sometimes. I huffed and stuck my hands in my pockets.

A few minutes went by, now that we were free, it was a little boring. Lily and Cairo suddenly stood stock still, a break from their splashing rampage. At first I was relieved, finally some peace and quiet. Then I saw the expressions on their faces. Lily's eyes seemed to have grown in the last few minutes. Staring mutely into the woods. What in the world? I did a 360. What was she- I froze. An enormus, wolf-thing stood as still as Lily, peering out from behind a pine. A girl in skin tight clothing joined it. The girl had the second iciest eyes I had ever seen.( the first being Jakel's.) Stark white hair, with a silver sheen when she turned her head a curtain way. Her skin was dark, but not in Lily's brown way, It was like a gray, an ash that had settled over her. She was like the moon, solemn, always watching and observing. Her eyes raked us, along with the wolf things. As if sizing up prey. She suddenly turned to me, "My name is Dive. This is Stark." ushering to the thing. "We have come to claim you," "What?" I shook my head. "What, Dive is, trying, to say,is" the Thing moved, a box taped to his head made Sounds like he was talking. Although it was a creepy computer voice, all creepy."We have come to take you to were you can be safe," He looked at me, "And warm." "How do we know you are telling the truth, and not with the people who tried to kill us?" Dive smiled. "Well, I guess you will have to trust us then won't you. " She stepped up to me. Jakel inched forward a little bit, getting a bit closer to us. Dive glanced at Jakel. "We've looked a long time for you, now I would hate to be let down." She flashed her grin at me, showing her white, shiny teeth. Which were a bit long, if you ask me. " If you don't come, you can be hunted by the same people who shot at you, who are right over that hill." She pointed into the trees. "But," Lily wimppered. "I know, it's a,lot, to, ask." Stark came to the waters edge. "But, you, really need, to, trust us," He gave pleading eyes at her. Now I could hear the people that Dive had reffered to. Their boots crunching leaves and sticks that had fallen. "All right." Jakel stated. " We don't have a lot of options right now, and we WILL decide to go with you the rest of the journey to, where ever." He had a hard stare on Dive, "But looks like we have to go at the moment." He looked back to were the men were making through the woods. They weren't visable yet, but they were close. Dive smiled. "Follow me,"

Dive jogged at a steady pace, hoping over tree trunks in a single bound. Then stopping every other minute to listen. Stark brought up in the rear, making sure Lily got over the trunks just fine. (she wasn't fat, but she wasn't exactly skinny either.) Though I was proud of her, she held her own. We kept this up for about an hour, at the end of which we where exhausted, it wasn't as bad as the run earlier that day. Although it felt darn close. I wondered If we would run like this every day. In which case I would be extremly fit at the end of the week. "How much farther?" Lily wheezed. Dive suddenly looked annoyed, and kept silent. She was fit, and hardly breathing at all. I was starting to take a dim view of her. "20 hours, 34, minutes, 60, seconds. " Stark's computer voice monologued. The dog sniffed and looked proud. "Not meaning to be rude," She looked Stark over. "But what are you?" "I agree," Cairo said, standing up. "You don't exactly look," He fought for a word."Natural," Stark's computer buzzed. "I, am like, you," Stark puased. "I am an expirement," This was the longest sentence the computer had buzzed without pausing. I guessed he was used to saying it. "I am, a part, of, the, werewolves division." Stark continued. "They took, wolves, and, added, human genes, and, human intelligence." Stark wagged his tail. "This is what a, human/wolf, looks, like." Then he stood up, towering at 8 feet. True, his arms were longer and coat thinner than the mangy dogs I saw at the city. "A cable, runs, down, my back, and returns, at the box, on, my , head. Translating, my movements."