Chapter 1

I woke up in the middle of the night to an earsplitting bell. That could only mean one thing.

Someone had escaped.

I looked out the grates of my dog kennel to get a better idea of what was happening. Lights were on, sirens were blaring, and Erasers were being set loose.

Yeah, Erasers. Bloodthirsty half-man half-wolf mutants. They had recently gotten an upgrade, too. They were given wings.

How were they given wings, you ask? By the horrible scientists working at the school. We call them 'Whitecoats'.

I don't know why. It was likely the fact that more winged "experiments" have been escaping lately. The Erasers needed an edge. I also overheard the Whitecoats saying something about a "brain shield". I'd find out more about that later.

I heard footsteps coming down the hall. I hunkered back into the back of my crate and prayed they weren't coming for me. I glanced out in time to see two Whitecoats and an Eraser running down the hall. They looked scared.

Let me tell you a little something: when an Eraser is scared, you should be, too. I looked at the girl in the dog crate next to mine.

"Why are they scared?" I questioned.

The girl looked at me fearfully. She had been my friend for some time now, but still her appearance frightened me. She was the first attempt at a female Eraser. Guess what? The attempt failed.

"The Administrator is coming." She said darkly. She is one of the few successful attempts to create a mind reader. It comes in very handy sometimes.

"Why?" I gasped.

"He isn't happy with how many experiments are escaping. He hopes his presence will help tighten security around here." She said as she started to cry. "Now there's even less hope of escaping."

I looked at her, wanting to help, but I couldn't think of anything good to say about our situation. So I cried with her. My name is Krissy. And I am in Hell.

Chapter 2

I looked over at Jenna in the crate next to mine. She is about 5'3", 12 years old, but because of how little they feed us here, she weighs no more than 70 pounds.

I weigh a little more than she does, and I'm 4 inches taller. I have 11 foot long wings on my back. They make me look somewhat angelic with their perfect white color.

I also have specially enhanced legs. With the constant testing the Whitecoats have put me through, I've learned what my basic abilities are. I can jump 30 feet in the air, I can run nearly 40 miles per hour in a sprint, and I can kick hard enough to throw an Eraser across the room.

I live in this hell-hole called The School with hundreds of other "experiments" that the Whitecoats have bred under the funding and supervision of the sadistic "Administrator".

Not much is known about The Administrator. What we do know is that he is normally over in New York at The School's joint operations headquarters: The Institute. But now he was coming here to California.

I have to get out of here I thought to myself.

"I'll help you." I heard Jenna say, reading my thoughts. "I'm not going to live much longer anyway. I can provide a distraction, so you can escape."

"NO." I said suddenly. "I won't endanger you more."

"I'm doing it, whether you like it or not. If you escape, they will question me to see if I had anything to do with it. If I help you I will allow you to escape, and I will get killed quickly, instead of getting tortured for nothing."

"Fine, you want to help? See if you can find a way to open my crate." I told her a little more harshly than I had intended.

See, with all my genetic enhancement, the Whitecoats thought I might try to kick the lock off my door. So they designed an extra-strong titanium alloy that would adapt to any punishment I could dish out, but they thought it would be a waste of money to do the same to Jenna's.

Being part Eraser has some good in it I realized as Jenna used her Eraser strength to pop her door off its hinges. After she got out and stretched, Jenna calmly walked over, got the keys, and let me out.

Unfortunately, a Whitecoat just happened to be walking down the hall at that very moment...

Chapter 3

As the Whitecoat rounded the corner I jumped at him with all my might. Just before my head would have hit him, I grabbed a bar sticking out of the wall, swung around and planted a hard kick with both feet to his chest.

Jumping off him I yelled back at Jenna. "If your gonna give me a distraction, now would be the time!"

"Right! I'm on it!" Jenna called back. She turned the other way and ran for the Erasers lair. Right then I knew. I knew I would never see her again.

No time for that now I thought sadly. Anger and sadness have a time and place, and this ain't it!

Just then a Whitecoat and an Eraser turned out of a doorway ahead. Fortunately, they were walking away from me. I slowly unfurled my wings and streamlined them along my back to cut down on noise.

Then slowly, ever so quietly, I tiptoed over to a desk and picked up a pen. Then I crept up behind the Eraser and rammed it into his neck, killing him instantly.

"That's for Jenna!" I spat at him as I ran. Unfortunately, the Whitecoat got away and sounded...

BREEEEEEEEEEYOOOOOOOOWW!!!!!!

...the alarm

"Attention! Attention! All Erasers on full alert!" I heard the speakers around The School boom. "Experiment escaping! Experiment escaping! This is NOT a drill! Experiment 942 escaping!"

I ran. I ran and ran until it felt like my lungs had snapped off. I kept running until, finally, I saw a door to the outside. I pressed down the handle. All of a sudden a loud clanging rang out through all of The School. I looked down and saw, "Fire Exit: Alarm Will Sound".

Naturally I thought to myself. "Could this get any worse?" I asked no one as the fire sprinklers came on.

"I guess so." Said a voice from behind me. My heart sank. I knew who the voice had come from. I could recognize the smooth elegance of an Eraser voice anywhere.

Slowly, I turned to face my aggressor, and found that is was aggressors. 5 Erasers stood in front of me, and no doubt they had more on the way.

At least these ones don't have wings. I thought.

Just then the lead Eraser, the one who had spoken, jumped for me, but slipped on the now very wet floor.

"Ha! Seems you've lost your footing. Let's see if I do any better." I scoffed as I jumped at an Eraser and hit him in the chest. At the moment of impact I reversed momentum, opened my wings and burst through the fire door.

I flew about 50 feet before looking back. They had flying Erasers, but they weren't chasing me. Then I saw why. The Erasers were waiting for the Whitecoats to give them guns.

Oh, crap. I thought as I pushed for altitude. One thing I had learned at The School is that altitude equals speed. I looked back again and realized that the Erasers had given up, at least temporarily.

I flew for some time with the wind in my face until I realized:

I was free.

Chapter 4

As I flew far from the School, I realized that I hadn't eaten in two days. I looked down and saw a town a couple miles away. (Thank you raptor vision) I looked harder and could barely make out a gas station. A gas station meant food. I realized at this point that I needed to have money to get food. The goons at the School weren't all too keen on giving me an allowance.

I thought about stealing, but that should be a last resort. I decided after much thought that I would find a way to pay later. I did have to eat, and my survival came before some guy missing a couple of hot dogs.

I landed behind the building and had to catch myself on a metal dumpster. Once I steadied myself I realized that my hair was standing on end. I looked at my fire red hair as it stood out from my head. I looked like a campfire. I took my hand off the dumpster and saw my hair fall limp.

What the... I wondered. I reached over to touch a metal door handle. All of a sudden - ZAP! There was a big blue flash of light from my hand to the door handle. Going the whole 2 feet from my hand to the door handle. My hand came away smoking. It was so frustrating! What did the School do to me?? First wings, now lightning?

Wait a second. I thought. I looked over at a bucket on the ground. I aimed my finger at it, and a small bolt of lightning flew from my finger to the bucket, sending it flying. I had just found my way to get food.

I made my way to the front door of the gas station and, controlling my energy carefully, I opened the door. I walked in, trying to look inconspicuous. I took a basket and filled it to the brim with several types of soda, some bags of chips, some donuts, sandwich meats, bread, and a patch kit for my tattered, torn clothes.

Then, avoiding eye contact with the lone clerk, I walked to the power grid on the wall. I stuck out my hand and felt the energy flowing out of me. The power in the station turned out as I short circuited the building. The lights went off and the clerk started yelling profanities.

Perfect I thought. The cameras are out and the clerk is distracted. The perfect time to make my escape. I bolted between racks of food and around end caps, one of which had boxes of crackers, so I grabbed two of them. Finally, the door was in sight. I ran for it, so ready to taste freedom, when the lights came back on.

The clerk had reset the breaker. I was out of range of the cameras, but as the clerk turned away from the breaker box, he saw me heading for the door.

"Hey you! Stop! You have to pay for those!" He yelled at me as I burst through the door. I got outside and opened my wings, flapping as hard as I could. I turned back to see the clerk, who looked about 25, standing at the window. He had a phone in his hand (probably the police) and an expression on his face that was either amazement or fear.

I could hear it now: Hello, police? My gas station convenience store was just robbed by an angel..... No this isn't a prank call...... No I'm not on medication...... No I'm.....

I laughed at the thought as I flew. A few miles later I saw a lake with a decent sized cave near the top. Down below I saw a sign that said "Lake Mead". I looked at the cave and decided to sleep there for the night, but just before I landed I saw tons of REALLY BIG BIRDS. They had nests in the side of the rock wall so big I could lay stretched out in them.

Fearfully, I tossed one of the bigger birds a slice of sandwich meat. He smelled it, then gobbled it up quickly. After that the rest of the birds stopped eye-balling me as if I were lunch. That's good I thought. One less thing to worry about tonight while I sleep. With that thought I opened a root beer and one of the cracker packages and ate some, growing groggier by the second.

Maybe tomorrow I'll have a chance to check out that lake. I thought as I put the crackers away and finished my root beer. I walked into the cave and laid down on some piles of sand. I just hoped the Erasers didn't find me while I slept. I took one last look around the cave, then slowly drifted off to sleep.

Chapter 5

I woke the next morning to the smell of blood and the sound of tearing flesh. The hawks had gotten breakfast. I looked at them tearing in to their mice and moles and such. One of them looked at me, and began to hobble over to me, as if offering me food.

"No thanks." I said to the hawk, and amazingly, he walked away as if he understood me. I reached over and grabbed a donut for my breakfast. It was one of those ones with chocolate on top and crème in the middle. God it was good. Back at the school all they gave us were table scraps from the Whitecoats meals. There wasn't very much, and it wasn't very good, but it was food.

As I continued eating my donut, I stepped out into the cool morning air. It was beautiful. I looked out and saw the sun rising, making the lake glisten like a huge diamond. I stepped off the cliff edge and fell downwards at an incredible speed. I opened my wings and shot toward the lake. It looked so blue and clean. I looked at myself and saw the exact opposite.

My clothes were stained with blood, they were torn in more places than I could easily count, and I was so dirty it looked as though I had never taken a hot shower in my whole life. Come to think of it, I had never taken a hot shower in my whole life.

I flew down towards the lake, away from the visitors center, and landed on the rocky shore. I walked in to the lake, expecting it to be frigid, but it was actually quite warm. I found a shallow spot and took off my clothes. I sat there washing them for 30 minutes or so trying to get the stains out. Finally, they were done and I was free to bathe myself. I'll spare you the intricate details of that.

Once I was done, I flew toward the visitors center. From the sky I could clearly see how many people were there. There was an older woman, maybe 60 or 70 years old. There was a man with a big, bushy, unkempt mustache that was slightly lighter than the dirty blonde of his hair. There was also a man with his dog. The man was about 6'1'', had brown hair, and looked like he had a gym membership. The dog was a large male German Shepard.

I flew over to the parking lot and landed behind some cars. My wings wouldn't be noticed, they were far enough into my shirt that they couldn't be seen. What I was really worried about was that someone would notice that I was still wet. I also hoped that no one would notice that I hadn't come in a car. Or on foot. I walked towards the doors of the center. They were glass doors with gold painted outlines in weird fashions.

I opened the door and stepped inside. It was wonderful! It smelled of real food, and was obviously air conditioned. They had t-shirts for sale as well. If I was lucky, I could snag one on my way out and ditch the rag I was wearing.

"Oh, good! You're just in time!" I heard a female voice to my left say. "Would you like to join the tour?"

"Uh, sure. I guess so." I said as I fell in step behind the other 3 people.

"Hello all, and welcome to the scenic Lake Mead. My name is Debbie, I'll be your tour guide today." She proceeded as she walked us along the planned tour route, showing us models and pictures. "Lake Mead, named for Dr. Elwood Mead, sits right on the Arizona/Nevada border.

"When the rushing waters of the Colorado river collided with the solid concrete of the Hoover Dam, the puddle that was created formed Lake Mead. Due to the harsh, rocky terrain and the extreme summer heats, this area of Arizona was largely unvisited. With the completion of the..."

I began droning her out as I snuck toward the snack bar. I took a t-shirt that didn't have a huge "Lake Mead" logo on it, held it up to see if it would fit, then shoved it under my current shirt. I began to walk towards the door when, out of nowhere, someone jumped in font of me.

Oh, no. I thought. The clerk probably saw me take the shirt. I looked at the person in front of me, then down at something growling at my feet. It was dog dude. The dogs ears were back and he was growling quite loudly at me.

"Well, well. What do we have here? You led us on quite a chase, but now its time to come back to The School." I knew who it was. I'd be an idiot not to. "Do you want to go quietly, or do I have to take you back in pieces?"

I was going to fight, but I saw that 3 cars had just pulled up. Each one had 4 Erasers in it. I had no chance of winning, and a very slim chance of surviving.

"Fine." I said quietly, tears welling up in my eyes. "I'll go with you."

"Good. Come with me, and don't try to escape. Bruce here is hungry." he said, motioning to the dog.

I nodded slowly, tears streaming down my cheeks. We walked out to his car, with Bruce guarding me the whole way. The lead Eraser opened the back door and shoved me in. Another Eraser was sitting in the seat on the left. I began to sit on the right, until I found out that the right one was Bruce's chair.

I scooted to the middle and sat there quietly as the lead Eraser started the car. He had some awful country music playing on the radio. We arrived at The School several hours later. I was cramped and sore, but I slowly got out of the car and was escorted inside. After 15 minutes of walking I was at a cage much like my old one.

The Erasers shoved me in and locked the door. I looked around the room. It was dark in there, but I could still make out some faces. They looked sad. I didn't blame them. I pulled my new shirt out from my old one and wrapped it into a ball. I stuck it in the corner of my cell, laid down and tried to go to sleep.

Chapter 6

The smell of disinfectant greeted me in the morning. Someone was poking me in the ribs. They did it hard and continuously until I finally lifted my head to see who it was.

"Get up." said the poker. "Your needed in conference room 3."

I blinked a few times to shake off the morning grogginess. It was a Whitecoat. He had to be new. An older one wouldn't have poked me to get me up. They would've shaken my cage, and if I didn't get up immediately they would zap me with a cattle prod.

I reluctantly climbed from my cage and found that two Erasers were waiting to escort me. I walked with them to the conference room. Once there, another two Erasers sat me down in a chair and fastened restraints around my wrists. I looked up and saw a familiar face across the table in front of me. A Whitecoat that everyone knew.

Jeb. Everyone had heard of Jeb. And if they hadn't, they would find out quickly. Jeb wasn't mean or nasty or anything, but he was the father of the most well-known and dangerous Eraser ever conceived.

Everyone in The School had heard horror stories of what Ari had done to his victims. I still have nightmares about them. I just hoped I never met Ari face-to-face.

"Krissy, are you comfortable?" I heard Jeb ask from across the table. "Can I get you anything? Food? Water, maybe? How about I spare your friends life?" He said with a sudden cold fury. I had no idea what he was talking about. I had no friends.

Suddenly my chair turned, and I realized it was driven mechanically. I was wheeled over to a window placed in the wall. It didn't lead to the outside world, but rather to a room. The floor I was on was about 9 feet above the floor in the other room. There were instruments of torture laying on a table in the room. I figured they were trying to scare me.

I figured wrong.

I was still looking at the torture devices, trying to figure out what they did, when I saw a door open behind the glass. Two Whitecoats wheeled in a gurney. Just like in a hospital, it had someone lying on it covered with a sheet.

The gurney came to a stop next to the table, and the Whitecoats pulled the sheet back. I gasped in shock when I saw who was under the blanket. It was Jenna! She was alive!.....and about to be tortured! The worst part was that I was powerless to help.

"NO! NO! You can't do this! She didn't do anything!" I screamed as I lashed out, trying to break my restraints.

"We saw the video tapes. She opened your gate for you. She also killed 9 of the Erasers working in hallway 12." Jeb said angrily

"She what???" I gasped. I couldn't believe that Jenna would do anything like that.

Jeb turned his chair around, and then turned mine to face the same way as his. He pressed a button on the table and a panel opened on the wall in front of us. It was playing a security video.

I watched in horror as Jenna turned fully into an Eraser. Because of that, she wouldn't be noticed as she snuck into the security station. She did horrible things to the Erasers there.

She picked up a card table and rammed one leg through an Erasers heart. She picked up a CD and slit an Erasers throat. She ripped the spine out of one Eraser and used it as a club to beat back the others with it. She did other things so gruesome I don't ever want to think of them again.

I sat there and watched to the end. I felt like I was going to barf. My chair was turned back to face Jenna, and we looked at each other, long to help each other escape. But we both knew it was impossible.

"Mr. Batchelder?" I heard someone say over an intercom. "The new Brain Shields are ready for testing."

"Send someone else. I'm busy" Jeb replied.

"Brain Shield? What's that?" I asked.

"You stay out of it." came the reply. "It's none of your business."

"This coming from a slug who alters human DNA? I'd say anything you do is my business. I mean, anything I do is apparently your business." I said with a smugness that I so rightfully deserved.

Jeb glared at me and it looked like a vein in his head might explode. "You'll regret stepping out of line like that." He promised. Then, turning his attention to the Whitecoats in the torture room, he nodded his head.

"NO! NO! STOP!" I screamed at the top of my lungs.

"It's no use. That glass is two inches thick. She'll never hear you." Jeb said like the smug jerk he is.

"Let. Her. Go." I said with sudden fury. Jeb stared at me blankly. "LET HER GO YOU JACKASS!" I screamed at him.

"Such a naughty little girl. You don't know when to keep your mouth shut." He said calmly. "We'll see if that lasts the torture session."

"You son of a b-" I paused for a moment. I looked at my restraints to find that they were metal.

Hello, opportunity.

I summoned all of my strength, until I was quivering with adrenaline. ZAP! The restraints went flying when I gave them I burst of electricity. I jumped from my chair to see Jeb sitting with his mouth wide open, staring at me.

Of coarse! He still didn't know about my new power! If he had, he wouldn't have used metal restraints.

"I'll deal with you later." I said with a cold ruthlessness as I opened the door and ran down the hall.

I'm coming Jenna.