Chap. 3

When Ryan woke up, he was back in the little cell he had been in earlier. Even though he wasn’t totally awake, he twisted as much as he could. Feeling a stab of pain, Ryan fought it. This was more important than pain. On his back, attached to his spine, right beside his shoulder blades, were glistening red wings. The feathers seemed to be at least a foot long, with four rows of overlapping feathers draping down over the arch.

Ryan couldn’t figure out why he was taking this so well. Somewhere in his mind, he knew people weren’t supposed to have wings. He knew that having wings made him an outcast. But, somewhere, in the back of his mind, he heard a voice, repeating the same thing, “No matter what life throws at you, you take it like a man, and keep going, son.” Even though Ryan didn’t know who it was who had said that, it made him feel better.

Okay, I’ll keep going. My first step is to accept the wings, and learn how to use them.

Ryan had known, though he didn’t know how, he was guessing it was from a school he must have went to before he ended up here, before he had apparently broken his arm, that all things in the body were controlled by the brain using nerve impulses.

If the wings are attached to my body, and they can be moved, then that means that I should be able to move them, like I move my arm…Ryan though to himself. Sitting up on his bed, Ryan focused all of his thoughts on his wings, no matter how hard it was to except they were actually attached and a part of him.

Ryan thought about the wings unfurling, which was his one goal for the day, getting his wings to unfurl. He started breathing slower, in…out…in…out. Gradually, after at least ten minutes of this, his wings unfurled, but not fully, the room wasn’t big enough for them. The place where the wings were attached ached a little bit as they folded out, but not as much as Ryan would have thought. From what he could tell, Ryan estimated that the new, feathery appendages were at least eighteen feet wide.

The effort of unfolding his wings had severely tired Ryan out. The boy was drenched in sweat, and was panting heavily. Just as he wished he had something to drink, and eat, for that matter, a knock sounded on the door.

Without even thinking, Ryan called out, “Am I supposed to tell you it’s unlocked, because I sincerely doubt you’d put me in a minimum security cell.”

The door opened, and the same gargantuan man who Ryan had seen before came in, holding a tray.

“The doctors say you have to eat. I wouldn’t give you food until you were trained, like a dog, but they say not feeding you is cruel.” He said in his gravely tone.

“Really? Buy these people a freakin’ dictionary. I’m pretty sure that if you look it up, ‘Turning a seventeen year old kid into a mutant bird freak’ is closer to the definition of ‘cruel’ than starving me does. But, thanks for the food.” For some reason, the remark brought a smile to the behemoth’s face.

“I’m Omega Double Oh, they call me Bob. Dr. Phull created me. I’m the reason he’s just the recruiter now, not a doctor.” He sat the tray down on the desk.

“Which one was Dr. Phull?”

“Dr. Edward Phull? The one with black hair? The one that told you to look on your back.”

Ryan shook his head.

“I wish I had wings…” The giant muttered, seeming to have decided to change the topic. He took another look at Ryan before walking out of the door.

Keeping his wings outstretched, Ryan stood up shakily, off balanced by the wings, and walked over to the desk. The food didn’t look like much, but Ryan didn’t think it was drugged. It was a simple turkey sandwich, with a juice box. Ryan tore into it with gusto. It was the tastiest thing he could remember having ever eaten.

Later, while he was lying on the bed, his wings folded onto his back, Ryan said out loud, in the darkness of the cell, “Well, at least I have one friend here. Even if he is a giant.”

The next morning Ryan was awakened, again, by Bob, but this time it was a lot less painful. Bob just nudged him softly until the boy woke up.

“Hey…Bob. What’s going on?” Ryan asked, rubbing the sleep from his eyes.

“Dr. Baker has scheduled a morning of tests for you. They told me you are supposed to eat this on the way.” Bob said, handing Ryan an apple.

“Which one was Dr. Baker?”

“He’s the darker one.”

“Okay, the one with at least a little sanity.” Ryan said, jumping to his feet. His body wasn’t hurting like it was before. Bob lead him the same way he had gone the day before, and again ended up at the gym-like room.

“Your first test is with Dr. Baker.” Bob said, pushing him through the doors. The room wasn’t as brightly lit as it had been before.

“Hello, again, Mr. Ryan. Your first lesson of the day will be a test of your genius!” The booming voice echoed across the room, “Or, more precisely, your common sense.” The doctor walked over to him.

“Sit at the table over there.” He motioned to a table at one side of the room, “This test will make sure none of your psyche was injured by the operation. We already know about your memory loss, it wasn’t intentional, but was a stroke of luck. Now, let us begin.” For the next three hours, Ryan believed he was in the biggest waste of time, ever. All the Doctor did was ask a bunch of mind teasers, and Ryan was sure he had gotten at least a couple wrong. Next, the doctor left, and was replaced by one of the women.

“Hi! I’m Dr. Sara! I’m here to make sure you are getting an education. We are going to teach you the basics; aerodynamics, birds, nature, biology and advanced physics.”

“How long do you expect me to spend here?” Ryan asked quizzically.

“Oh, not long. The rest of your life.” Dr. Sara said calmly.

“The rest of my life? And that isn’t supposed to be long?”

“No. Actually, we expect you to die within the month.”

“What?” Ryan was starting to get scared. These people were smart enough to give him wings, so they could be pretty good on estimating how long it would be until he died.

“Yes, after a month, you should be dead. We are hoping, of course.”

“Hoping? You want me to die? Why?”

“Because none of the experiments were expected to live. You are the…outré experiment. We want you to die, so that we can dissect you, and see why you lived.”

“Why don’t you just kill me?”

“Because, that would be cruel.” Dr. Sara said curtly.

“You people have odd meanings of the word cruel…” Ryan muttered, then turned to the stack of books the doctor had placed on the table. The table came up to the middle of Ryan’s abdomen, and the books stacked on top of it reached to Ryan’s neck. Dr. Sara picked up the top one, and placed it in front of Ryan.

“We’ll start with advanced physics.”

By the time his lesson on advanced physics ended, Ryan figured he could give Einstein, the person he had read about, a run for his money. Dr. Sara hadn’t told him what was coming next when she had left, but when Bob walked in holding boxing gloves, he had a pretty good idea.

“Bob, please tell me I’m not fighting you…”Ryan said, dreading the idea of getting punched by a person who looked like a teenage elephant.

“Nope. You get to learn the way I did, from Dr. Edward.” Bob said in a gravely tone, that was a bit more grim than usual. Just then Ryan noticed the doctor standing behind his creation.

“You probably don’t remember me from before the meeting where you figured out your…predicament. But, I am the one who brought you here.”

“Never would have guessed. Which scientist was the one who said, ‘Why couldn’t you choose someone with a higher IQ’?”

“Oh, that would have been Dr. Evans. He will meet you after I am done with my session. Now, we are going to start with the basics of self defense, which is pretty much just hitting.” Bob walked over and handed Ryan some boxing gloves, Dr. Phull already had his on, “As soon as your wing muscles are strong enough, we are going to work on aerial fighting. A good soldier must know how to fight anywhere.”

“Soldier?”

“Yes, that’s what this research is for. There are many countries that are sponsoring our research, so that when we are done, they can have flying super soldiers. Now prepare yourself!” The doctor ran forward, his right fist going forward. Seeing the man running towards him, Ryan froze, not knowing what to do, so he did the only logical thing, he ducked. By luck, ducking was the right thing to do. His head dove into the doctor’s stomach, and the air left the man’s body with a satisfying, “Umph!”

Dr. Edward stumbled away, clutching his stomach, “Very…Good!” he managed to get out through deep breaths, “That is exactly what you’ll need on the battle field! Now, again!” Edward ran at him again. Ryan ducked again, but this time his opponent was ready. The doctor swung both arms around, and landed a punch on both of Ryan’s ears at one time.

“The key to beating your enemy is to always do the unexpected, and improbable! Now, again!” Edward ran at him again. Ryan smiled and side stepped while smacking Edward on the back. This is the best part of my day…Ryan thought to himself, as he hit Edward again.

A few hours later, as Ryan lay panting on the ground, Edward looked at his watch.

“Well, it looks like your fun day of learning is over.”

“Really? That was it?”

“You slept until noon, so yeah. Tomorrow will be just like today, only harder. So, be ready.” Bob walked him down a series of halls, but this time Ryan noticed that the giant was leading him in a different direction.

“Bob, where are we going?” He asked, confused.

“You got a new room. It’s closer to the testing area, and has a bathroom.” Bob answered, his gravely tone losing the grimness it had developed outside of the gymnasium.

“Why?”

“There was only one way to the test area from where you were at. You could have easily memorized the route after a few days, and we don’t want that. At least, that is what the doctors said. And I do as they tell me.” Ryan’s eyes widened. He wished he had thought of memorizing the way, just in case he got a chance to escape.

After a few minutes of silence while walking down the halls of blank metal siding, and blank, knob-less metal doors, Bob led him to one door that did have a knob. Bob took out a key and slid it into the knob. Ryan was amazed at how the man could hold such a small key in such huge, sausage-like fingers. When he turned the handle and opened the door, Bob’s hand completely covered it.

“Here’s your new room.” Ryan walked in, and he heard the door close, and heard the key slide in.

The new room was a great improvement over the old one. Instead of being dark, this room, though it still didn’t have a very big window, was lit by three large overhead lights. Close to the wall was a bed that looked a lot more comfortable than the one Ryan had gotten used to. It had a wooden frame, and a mattress covered in a sheet, with a comforter on top of that, though there was a lack of pillows. Close to the head of the bed was a wardrobe, but it looked exactly like the one that had been in the old room. There was even a desk, with a swivel chair, on wheels. Placed on top of the table were the books that Dr. Sara had said they would study from until Ryan had died. Paper and pencils accompanied these. On the wall opposite the bed was a door, which Ryan guessed would lead him to the bathroom. Walking over to it, he realized he was right.

The bathroom was simple, but it fit Ryan perfectly. It had a toilet, a sink, and one of those showers you can only stand in. He smiled, and walked over to the shower.

I really needed this. He thought to himself.

After he got cleaned up and had found clean clothes in the wardrobe, Ryan found the best part of his new room. It was big! Big enough to fully stretch his wings. Unfolding his wings to the full length, neither wing tip touched the walls. The pain in his shoulder blades hurt less than it did when he first stretched them, and it didn’t take as long as it had before. As they were outstretched, Ryan got a chance to get a good look at them.

Ryan was pretty sure now that the wings were each nine feet long, giving him an eighteen foot wingspan, and the feathers were a foot long. They were a pure, white color, but up close Ryan could see little black spots hidden in the feathers.

Knock! Knock! Knock! The noise sounded at the door.

“I am comink in!” The voice called. Before Ryan could pull in his wings, the door opened, and the doctor with the accent walked in, “Ah, good to see that you are gettink acquainted vith your vings, Alpha Triple Oh.”

“You do realize I have a name, don’t you?”

“Yes, and your name is Alpha Triple Oh. Now, I am here to take some measurements. Hold still.”

The door had been behind Ryan while he was standing with his wings out, but he spun around, knocking the man to the floor with his wings. Bending down, and folding his wings in at the same time, he stared into the eyes of the scientist.

“You know, I don’t take orders from people who don’t know my name, so let’s try this again. Ryan say it.” The little man smiled, and reached into his pocket, but before he could press a button on the remote, Ryan grabbed the remote and threw it across the room, where it smashed against the wall.

“Now, SAY IT!” Ryan yelled.

“Omega Double Oh, get in here and restrain ze patient.” Bob came in through the open doors, and grabbed Ryan’s arms, hauling Ryan to his feet, and then slamming him onto the bed.

“Good job. Now zhen, Alpha Triple Oh,” He smiled wickedly, “since you have broken ze controls, ve must take a new approach to making sure you do not run.” The doctor pulled out a pair of scissors.

“And that approach is cutting my hair?” Ryan asked sarcastically, trying to struggle away from Bob’s iron grip.

“Ve are goink to cut your flight feathers.” He said, “Bob, flip him over and hold him on ze ground.” Bob slammed Ryan to the ground, while the scientist pulled on Ryan’s wings until they were slightly unfolded.

“Bob, you don’t have to do this, just let go and get the scientist!” Ryan yelled.

“I’m sorry, but I can’t. They are what keep me alive.” Though Ryan didn’t feel pain as the doctor cut the feathers, but by the time he was done, Ryan was shivering.

“Now, ve have to schedule a surgery to remove the control chip.” The doctor pulled out a pocket organizer, and started typing things in, “Two veeks from now, is the earliest we can have it done. See you then, Alpha Triple Oh. Omega Double Oh, you can let him up a few minutes after I leave.” Ryan couldn’t see the door, due to Bob’s weight grinding him into the floor of his new room, but he could tell the doctor had left by the sound of the door closing.

A few minutes later Bob stood up, and offered his hand for Ryan to get up.

“Bob, what was that about? Why didn’t you hold him down like I asked? I don’t think you like being cooped up in here, where these guys order you around like a slave! If you would have taken him on, we could be free!”

“I can’t. They are the only things keeping me alive. The amount of steroids that Dr. Phull used to make me, are enough to kill me. The only way I am still living right now is because Ragnarök keep giving me a drug that counteracts the steroids, keeping me like this. If I leave, the steroids would kill me.”

“I feel for you, and I can promise, if we get out of here, I’ll figure out a way to help you.”

“Really? Thanks!” Bob held his hand out for Ryan to shake. Ryan took his hand, but it was an almost instant regret. The guy’s grip was like a vice, squeezing the bones of Ryan’s hand together. He pulled away as soon as Bob loosened his grip.

“So, same time tomorrow?”

“Yeah.” After Bob had left, Ryan lied down on the bed, thinking about a lot of things. The things he was thinking about were obvious. How am I supposed to get out of here? Who am I? But, the thing that these thoughts kept leading back to was the face of the girl that had flashed in his eyes the day before.

Chelle. Ryan thought to himself as he was falling asleep where are you?

As Ryan awoke from the deep sleep he had been in, he vaguely thought of the dream that was still lingering on the edge of his mind. Though he couldn’t remember it, Ryan knew it was one of the best he had had, which wasn‘t saying much, as he couldn‘t remember any others. The more Ryan tried to force the dream back, the more it disappeared, until it was completely gone.

Rubbing the sleep from his eyes, Ryan looked around the room, trying to figure out what had awoken him. The room was silent, and empty except for the things that had been there the day before. Spying the open bathroom door, Ryan realized that Nature was sending him a call. He jumped up and hurried across the room.

When he arrived, Ryan figured out that the room was bigger than it looked.

Duh! He thought to himself, It has to be at least eighteen feet, from the bed to the bathroom. Ryan smiled at that thought. Although it was the only place he could remember, the only place he could call a home, Ryan couldn’t make himself call anything in the room his. It felt so alien and uncomfortable, compared to…

Compared to what? Ryan thought to himself again. This is the only home I have, until I can get out…But how do I do that? They could keep me in here, if they felt like it, and I couldn’t get out. Especially with Bob on their side… Ryan climbed back into the bed, and fell asleep again.

Across the compound…

“Good job, Bob! How much longer will it take?” Dr. Edward asked his creation.

“It is only a matter of time. He already thinks he can trust me.” Bob answered in his gravely tone.

“Excellent. Tomorrow, you will warn him about the chip surgery having been moved up, to that day. Try to make it sound like we didn’t want him to know. You can go now.” Edward moved his hand.

“You’ve forgotten. I need the antidote.”

“Oh, yes. You are starting to be more work than you are worth. These are hard to make.” Edward said, handing the huge man a tiny pill. Bob looked at the pill, than threw it up into his mouth.

“I think my body might be growing a resistance to these.”

“Yes, it is, and at an alarming rate.”

“What happens after I am completely immune?” Bob asked, his eyes narrowing.

“Than you have no more help. You will probably die after that.”

Bob grunted angrily and walked out the door, slamming it behind him. The force turned the door into flying metal shrapnel, which left a cut on Edward’s face.

“It’s going to happen faster than you think it will. We ran out of your pills weeks ago…” Edward muttered to himself, grabbing a bandage.

“Ryan! Wake up!” Bob said his voice urgent.

“Wha…?” Ryan asked, practically still asleep.

“You need to get up! Your surgery has been moved up!” Bob’s gravely voice, which was starting to sound like nails on a chalkboard to Ryan, was raised in urgency.

“What surgery? The thing for the chip? So?”

“They wanted to catch you asleep, so they could skip on the anesthetic!” Bob yelled, pulling Ryan to his feet, “They didn’t want me to tell you, but I thought this would be better. If you woke up during the surgery…”

“Okay. So…when are they coming?”

“In a few minutes. They won’t be happy about this…”

“I don’t think these guys are even programmed for emotions…” Just then Dr. Evans burst through the door, assisted by two people who looked like body builders, though they looked nowhere near as strong as Bob was. One of the people had bright orange hair, and the other was bald.

“Ah, Alpha Triple Oh, glad to see you awake…” Dr. Evans said, casting an aggravated glance in Bob’s direction, “Since you are here, Omega Double Oh, you can assist these two in carrying him to the operating room.” The two people with the doctor walked over and grabbed Ryan’s arms. Bob walked over and picked up both of his legs.

Ryan didn’t struggle on the ride, he just went with the flow. The two people clinging to his arms seemed to walk along more smoothly than Bob did. Poor Bob…I wonder if they did anything other than the steroids… Ryan thought to himself. After a few minutes the small caravan came to more swinging double doors.

Inside, the room was completely bare of furniture except for a table, a tray, and a large container on the ground beside the table. Ryan guessed that the container was for the anesthetic. There were three people inside the room. One, the only one not wearing a surgical outfit, was Dr. Baker. The other two, Ryan could only guess at.

“Hello, again, Ryan.” Dr. Baker said, “I have been told that Dr. Evans has clipped some very important feathers, and don’t be worried, he has been punished. But, as of now, we have to get the chip out of you, just in case it malfunctions. Now, can you get on the table?” Ryan tugged his arms away from the people holding them. Bob had already put down his legs. Hopping onto the table, Ryan unfolded his wings.

“Where is it? Which wing?”

“Why would we put something that important in something that isn’t even supposed to be on your body?” One of the people in surgical wear asked. Ryan guessed by the voice that it was a woman, maybe even Dr. Sara.

“Okay, I’m going to guess…” Dr. Baker went on to describe different parts of the procedures to the surgeons. Ryan didn’t hear him; because he was still focusing on the one word the doctor has said that worried him, guess.

Ryan was just about to ask what Dr. Baker meant by ‘guess’, when a mask was put over his mouth, and the other surgeon that had not spoken said, “Alright, calm down, and count down from one hundred. Calm down, I said! We’re beginning in five minutes, whether you’re asleep or not.”

That scared Ryan even more than the guessing, but he was out in a couple of seconds anyway.

Outside of Ryan’s mind, the doctors were cutting Ryan’s chest open, to get at his sternum. Inside his mind, though, Ryan was having a dream:

He was surrounded by blackness, except for one bright dot in front of him. Ryan thought he might be dead, but somehow he knew that was impossible. The light didn’t seem to stay in a normal circle, but seemed to be an ever-changing figure. Staring at the light, Ryan noticed a small, black dot in the center, which was constantly getting bigger. The more he stared at it, the more the black dot took on a more defined shape. It started to look more like a human silhouette than a black dot.

The light shining on the back of the figure made it almost impossible to see any features. The only thing he could see was that the person was about a foot shorter than Ryan. Even so, he knew it was a girl.

“Chelle?” Ryan’s voice echoed around the blackness of his dream.

The figure turned toward the light, and Ryan saw her face. It was Chelle, but she was looking sad and forlorn.

“What’s wrong?” His voice echoed again. She turned towards him. Her mouth opened like she was trying to speak, but nothing came out. Ryan reached out to touch her arm and try to comfort her, but just as he was about to make contact, the blackness disbanded, and he was lying on his back, staring up at a ceiling light.

“So, Ryan. How has the surgery made you feel?” Ryan looked over and saw Dr. Baker standing over by the door.

“What happened?”

“We took out the chip. It was attached to your sternum, so you might feel a tightness or soreness around your chest, which is to be expected. Now, about your lessons. You won’t be able to do any of the physical workouts Dr. Phull was doing with you, but everything else will be possible. You will get a few days grace period, but when you return to your learning, Dr. Sara expects that you know everything she told you to study. Now, good day.” The doctor turned and left the room. The doors banged behind him.

Ryan sat up and rubbed his eyes. The room looked brighter than usual, but that might have been the unnatural sleep. He looked down at his bare chest; his shirt was draped over the chair of the desk, and he was able to see a barely visible pink scar.

“They may be psycho maniacs, but they know what they’re doing when it comes to surgery…” He muttered to himself. Ryan stood up, and shook himself, trying to disperse the tiredness that had settled into his mind. He walked over and picked up his shirt. The extra weight of the governor in the pocket somehow soothed Ryan. He put on his shirt, and pulled the governor out of his pocket.

“Did Chelle give this to me?” He asked himself, rubbing the governor with a single finger. Somehow he knew that that was what had happened, though he didn’t have the slightest idea when or why.

Knock! Knock! Knock!

“Can I come in?” Bob called through the door.

“Wow. Someone here actually knows what privacy is…” Ryan didn’t answer the question, but still the door opened and Bob walked in with a tray of food.

“You couldn’t eat before the surgery, but you can eat all you want after.” Bob sat the tray down.

“If they just want me to die, then why do they feed me? And if you say because not feeding me is cruel…”

“They want to keep you alive long enough to study how you work. They’ve pushed back your death day, because now they have to wait for your flight feathers to grow.”

“How long will that take?”

“They’re not sure. It could take days, weeks, months maybe even years.”

“Trust me, Bob, I’m not going to be here for months, probably not even weeks. I’m going to get us out of here as soon as I can.”

Bob started backing towards the door, “It can’t be us.”

“Why not?”

“Dr. Phull told me this morning that I took the last of the pills. I’m dieing soon.” Bob walked out of the room, locking the door behind him.

Ryan looked over at the food. He hadn’t realized how hungry he was until he saw the turkey sandwich.

As he was eating, Ryan got an idea on how to get out, but there was only one question he had to ask himself, how long do the feathers have to be for me to fly?

Next Chapter: Chapter 4