Finding Faith Chapter 1

Chapter 1: Faith’s Escape

 

Alarms went off, echoing off the halls in a nearly deafening wail as guards scurried to get their equipment.

“What’s the problem?” One guard asked with an obvious hint of worry in his voice.

“It’s one of the subjects,” another yelled in reply. “She’s escaped!”

“Oh God, don’t tell me it’s her again?” The first one nodded solemnly.

“Calm down, wimps,” A third soldier, a major, growled. “You should be used to this.”

“I’ll never get used to this job.”

“Just shut up and follow me!” The major shouted as they grabbed their guns.

After being joined by a fourth, the soldiers rushed down the symmetrical neon lit grey corridors towards the holding block of the research centre. Passing by were other soldiers running quickly in other directions, going to secure the exits, as well as scientists moving somewhere safe. This wasn’t the first time this had happened.

Turning right the soldiers reached the holding block, entering the corridor heading towards the cells, and received an exploding wall as a welcome. It wasn’t a flashy Hollywood explosion. No, just like as if the bricks were forced outwards. One of the soldiers was caught up in the commotion, ending up under a pile of rubble.

“Astley,” One of the soldiers yelled in concern, rushing to aid his co-worker.

In the dust left from the wreckage, the remaining three soldiers saw a silhouette coming into view. It was a young girl, dressed in a now dirty, white one piece dress that went halfway down to her knees. Her sandy brown hair hung just past her shoulders and her eyes were a unique shade of blue.

And then there were her wings.

It was her, alright. Faith was trying to break out, again.

Faith

It felt good smashing something that belonged to this corrupted place. Since my eyesight was slightly better than normal, I could see through the dust and spotted a soldier buried underneath the wall I just moved with my fist. A very small part of me felt sorry that he was caught up in that, but at the moment it was being drowned out by hatred. He deserved it for working in such a horrible place, they all did.

I looked up to see three more soldiers. “Shit,” was the word that came to mind.

Adrenaline kicked in as one of them took aim at me, giving me enough steam to backhand the rifle out his hands. The soldier looked on as I slammed him into the wall with my wing before pulling it back and planting a right foot in his gut.

I heard the other two readying their guns and taking aim. They fired, but my human shield – A.K.A the first guard – took the shots for me. Meanwhile, I borrowed my guard’s pistol, hitting one guard in leg and the other in the shoulder with live ammo.

“Way to go Faith,” A familiar voice rang out. I looked back through the new hole in my cell to see my best friends, my only friends, looking back with a mix of shock and joy. Echo was beaming, being supportive as ever while Sarah was nervously hiding behind Echos’ leg.

“You two stay here,” I instructed. “I’m not letting anyone else get hurt again.”

“Faith, I don’t care-” I didn’t hear the rest of Echo’s argument as I ran down the hall at full speed.

Borrowed pistol still in hand, I kept running through the halls, turning every second corner, soaring up a staircase the second I found it and shooting a security camera every now and then. I needed a new plan. I needed somewhere to hide. Spying a door, I was inside in seconds.

I let out a huge sigh, closing my eyes and hearing my heart jackhammer away.

A strange scent wafted my way, a sickly familiar scent.

I opened my eyes and almost screamed. In-front of me was heaps of workbenches cluttered with glass tubes, jugs and steel tools.

I was in one of the labs.

Fear was replaced by rage, as I stepped forward and blasted the glass to bits with what was left of my ammo. I kicked a corner out of the workbenches, grabbed a stool and hurled it into another, and ripped every document or research note I could find.

A large crash brought me out of my rage-induced rampage, and I looked back to see a lone guard blocking my way out, rifle aimed squarely at my head.

 “Don’t move!” He barked at me, with a hint of what I thought was fear. Was this guy, the one out of the two of us with a loaded gun, afraid of me? Then again, I did just push my way through a wall like it was paper and trash this lab in seconds.

He made his way forward, navigating his way around the debris of my fit. If I didn’t do something, I was going to get caught, and I promised myself it wasn’t going to end like that again.

In the blink of an eye, I closed the distance between us and slammed my palm into his gut, sending him flying back into the corridor wall. He fired a few shots by accident as his grip on the gun failed and he collapsed against the wall.

And to make sure he didn’t try anything, I grabbed his gun and put a tranquiliser dart in his arm. That would put him out for a few hours. I’d felt the effects of these darts enough times to know how they work.

Now that I was back in control, I dropped the gun – it could be traceable – and headed back into the lab. Hoping I wouldn’t regret this, I started planting firm, powerful kicks to one of the walls. Within a minute I finally cracked through, and I could’ve cried at what I saw.

I was staring at the bush-covered hillside of outside that place.

Without a second thought I began running away, wings aching as I stretched them out. The wings resembled those of a dove, the feathers shining like snow.

“Thanks for the gifts.” I muttered under my breath half sarcastically, while also being half truthful. With a few flaps of my wings I was off the ground, at least two metres in the air and flying away from the only place I could remember. Some of the guards that finally caught up and tried firing at me as I climbed higher, but I was moving too high too fast.

My God, flying felt so... It was the best feeling in the world. I would’ve stayed there forever if I could’ve. And then there was the view. The hills around me sloped down until they flattened out and extended on for ages, the furthest distance being lit up by bright lights. The sun was setting fast, casting the horizon in a beautiful array of colours.

It was a very beautiful sight, but a whiz went past my ear and I dived into the trees. I thought that was a bit too easy. I hid in the tallest yet scrubbiest part of a nearby tree that I could find, and looked down to see five soldiers rush into view, searching for me on the ground thinking that I got hit when I went down.

I pulled my wings in tight as close as I could and froze, not moving an inch and praying that they didn’t notice me. Every time their gaze drew close I stopped breathing, remaining absolutely still. When they finally concluded that I wasn’t there, they moved away. One stayed, however, and finally found me. Before he could yell a word I jumped him, kicking him down face first. He was unconscious the moment he hit the ground.

As soon as I was sure that he was down and they were gone, I started running in the opposite direction to the soldiers, weaving in between and hiding behind trees as I did so. I was running so fast that even if they had seen me, they wouldn’t be able to catch me. Not that they needed to physically grab hold of me to stop me. I wasn’t going to risk being spotted while flying again.

I wasn’t sure what direction I was headed, but I remembered seeing all those lights in this direction when I was flying. After a while though, I had to stop and take a breather. It felt as though I had run for hours, though that could’ve been the case. While resting against a tree, I slid to the ground and looked up at the sky while my lungs tried working normally again.

The sky was so dark now, darker than anything I’d seen, but had a variety of coloured stars dotting the entire night’s sky. There were also large dark grey patches where you couldn’t see any stars at all, which I realised were clouds. The moon was also out – a crescent moon – acting like a night-time sun and illuminating the ground and trees in a faint light blue glow.

It was a good thing I was going to the lights on the horizon at night. After all, if any people that were there saw me during daytime, they’d point at me like I was someone on display for their entertainment.

I became self-conscious and saddened by that fact – remembering what I was – and took the tip of my right wing in my hand, rubbing one particular feather in-between my thumb and index finger. That’s exactly what I was; a freak.

I stood there as I felt a tear begin to roll down my cheek, but I didn’t stop it this time. There was no one here to hit me if I shed a tear, no one to punish me for showing “weakness”. I let it run down the bottom of my jaw and fall to the valley floor. It was time to forget about that place forever.

I began walking in the direction I was going before, towards the lights, and wondered what it would be like. Not that I would be accepted there, but still... I just hoped my life hadn’t taken a turn for the worse.