Chap.7

As Ryan ran from the dark portal, he snapped his wings out, though they slowed him down by catching the strong breeze that was rustling the leaves of the trees. Before he reached the trees, though, Ryan jumped in the air as high as he could, and brought his wings down in a mighty flap. He didn’t go very far, just straight down.

“Can’t take off by jumping.” Ryan said to himself, and started walking. He wouldn’t go very fast, he had to keep alert for what ever it had been that had taken him down during his first escape. It didn’t take very long to find, and Ryan was surprised he hadn’t seen it the first time. There was a thick cord, at least the thickness of a chopstick, and both ends were attached to a gray box that was hidden by ferns. Ryan jumped over it, though he could have easily stepped over the ankle high wire. After he was a few feet past it, Ryan started climbing a tree. It was a hard going, since the most of the trees in sight were oaks, with no branches low enough for Ryan to reach from the ground, so he had to scale the high trunks of the trees with almost no hand or foot holds.

After many failed attempts, Ryan sat on the ground panting. He knew that it was only a matter of time before the scientists and other henchmen came looking for him on the grounds of the facility. Ryan looked around, and immediately found the answer. It came in the form of a pine tree. The branches were low enough for Ryan to grab on his tiptoes, and from the ground it looked like it grew even higher than the oaks around it. Ryan pulled himself up, with a groan of protest from his shoulder blades.

Climbing from branch to branch, slowly advancing above the forest floor, Ryan’s view slowly gave him the lay of the land. For the most part, Ryan had been wrong on his expectations. He wasn’t on a continent. He was on a small island. Where he was, it looked almost perfectly round, so Ryan guessed that somehow it had been man made. Ryan craned his neck, and stared at the building he had just escaped from, memorizing everything about it. There wasn’t much, but Ryan guessed that was because most of the facility was below ground. There was a large hill, and a small, square building sat on top of that. Ryan could barely make out the tunnel that he had escaped from. It was hidden in a little grove of rocks at the base of the hill.

He didn’t stop long for the view, though. Ryan kept climbing upward, until he was at the pinnacle of the tree. From the view, Ryan could see for at least a forth of a mile from the island. From what he guessed, there wasn’t any land for at least a forth of a mile. Or a mile, if Ryan was right.

“There he is!” A voice called. Ryan looked down to see a group of people running from the compound towards the forest. Some were carrying guns, though Ryan thought they were to far away to shoot.

Not for long if I keep standing around like this. He took a deep breath, and jumped from his perch on top of the tree. Before he flapped, Ryan’s wings had caught the night air. Looking to his right and left, Ryan realized that the wings made him look like a bright white, feathery target, just hanging in the sky. This thought made him start flapping, harder than he ever had, even in the battle zone he hadn’t tried this hard to fly.

Below, on the ground, shots were fired. Ryan had been wrong about them being to far away. Even high in the air, the bullets were zooming to the left and right of him. It’s harder to hit a moving target… That was something Dr. Phull had told him back when he was teaching Ryan to fight. Ryan turned and started to flap, flying away from the scene, heading in a random direction. Ryan guessed that from the ground it looked like his movements were crazy and random. By the time that the battle zone was fading behind him, Ryan was getting tired out, and he was starting to wish he had been born a bird, not made into a half man, half bird freak.

A few minutes later Ryan found a good reason that he was loosing energy, besides the fact that he had never flown before. During his flight, someone got in a well-aimed shot, and had gotten Ryan in the left shin. For a little while after he had gotten away from the group of assailants, Ryan’s flying motions had gotten smoother. He had thought he was getting better, but soon his motions were slowing, and he started to sink lower, getting ever closer to the water below.

Soon Ryan could barely keep his head up, let alone flap the feathery appendages that were relatively new, so he dropped into the sea. Ryan wasn’t high enough in the air to cause any damage to his body when he hit the water, but that didn’t stop pain. The small furrow the bullet had made in his ankle burned as the salt water flowed into it. The water had the same affect on the blisters he had received trying to hack his way through the chain that had held him to the bed, and the wound he had received from the first battle was sending bolt after bolt of fiery pain through his body. Other than that, he was fine.

At least I’m… Ryan didn’t finish his thought, because he passed out. From pain or blood loss, that didn’t matter. Not being able to control your body when you’re floating in the ocean, that’s a problem. Ryan had fallen into the ocean, but he was lucky. He had hollow bones filled with air, acting as floating devices, and wings on either side of him, balancing his body. Ryan was even luckier that the water he found himself in was calm, not rough and wavy, like the water could be during a storm.

For many hours Ryan would come back into consciousness every few minutes, but the wakefulness would be short lived. Only a few moments after he awoke, Ryan would pass out. As the night grew longer, and the sun started to rise, Ryan started to stir less and less. As the sun reached its zenith in the sky, Ryan was hardly moving, and his wings were folded onto his back, not by his own actions, but by reflexes in his wings.

Inside the wound and pain induced stupor, Ryan was walking the corridors of his mind. He was seeing flashes of memory, not things from Ragnarök, but little snippets of before. There were rows and rows of identical house. They were houses with white sidings, green roofs, and attached garages. There was Chelle, standing in the doorway of one. In the one beside her, was a boy. Ryan couldn’t see the boys face, but even without it, he could tell that the boy was himself, back before he had wings. Ryan, the boy at the house, walked over to the house next door. As he did, Ryan, the viewer, saw more details flooding in. There was a black, car-like thing in front of Chelle’s house.

Chelle got in, and drove away. The other Ryan walked over to the garage, and took something out, and walked back to the house. In a few minutes Chelle drove back, and got out. The boy jumped in, and took off. The vision became fuzzy. When it became clear again, Ryan was watching himself do something to the engine. A memory floated in front of him, covering the view. It was from his eyes. Ryan saw his arm over to one side, bent awkwardly, with shards of white buried in the red. Than the vision cleared and Ryan saw himself climbing back into the vehicle. Ryan ran over to himself, and tried to get him to stop.

“No! Don’t do it! Undo what ever it was you did!” Ryan shouted. The boy stopped for a few seconds, his eyes wide, and oddly glazed over, but then he climbed back into the machine, and roared off. He knew that was the incident Dr. Phull had talked about, where he had broken his arm. He also knew that was where his desire for speed had come from. The vision blurred again, and before his mind could show him something else, Ryan was looking up at a grim face.

It had bright green eyes, gray eyebrows, and a face set in a grim stare. Ryan bolt straight up, ready for a fight.

“`Old on, little buddy. It’s just you `n Ol` Jake here.” The man said, in an old, crackling voice.

“Where is here?” Ryan asked, eyeing his surrounding. He was on a white sand beach, with some old guy standing over him. The man was dressed in baggy shorts, and a shirt colored with a palm tree design.

“Yer on the south beach o` Florida. Where’d ya think ya were?” The man’s voice made it a little hard for Ryan to follow what he was saying, especially when he had just risen from being unconscious for so long.

“Florida? Aren’t there supposed to be more people?” Ryan interrogated, wondering if he should bring out his wings and try to fly out of there.

“Ya. What’s with all o` the questions? Yer the one who should be answerin` some questions.”

“Like what?” Ryan was starting to wonder how much this old man might know.

“I might be n` old feller, but I know that kids these days don’t just wash up on shore. An` than there’s the other thing… I think you know what I’m talkin` about.” The old man nodded towards Ryan’s back, “That’s where all o` the people went. There were the ones who thought you were jus` some freak, then there were the God fearin` ones, who thought you were bringin` a sign o` the Opocalypse…” During his speech the man had gotten close enough to Ryan for Ryan to smell the old man’s breath. It smelled like whiskey.

“Of course the only one who stayed was a drunk…” Ryan muttered.

“I heard that! Now, the cops er` on the way, I’m the only one ta stay, cause I didn’t want you ta go an` fly away…” The man had started to sway where he was standing.

“If I wanted to, what’s to stop me?” Ryan stepped back, and snapped out his wings. They were still soaked.

“Birds can’t fly when their wings er` wet…” SLAM! The man hit the ground. Ryan hadn’t touched him; Old Jake had collapsed from his excessive drinking. Ryan was about to run, when he noticed he had no shirt. If he tried running through Florida with his wings showing, he wouldn’t get very far.

“Sorry…Jake, was it?” He said, as he bent down and unbuttoned the man’s shirt. It was just baggy enough to cover the folded form of Ryan’s wings, but not baggy enough to drape past his upper thighs. With a quick thought, Ryan bent down, and felt in the man’s pockets for a wallet. He knew it was wrong, but he needed money. Taking it out, Ryan opened it, and saw at least six hundred dollars. He grabbed a twenty, and left the wallet with the man. In the distance Ryan could see a small town, so he headed for it.

While he was walking, Ryan made a list of his priorities in his head; First, I’ve got to get something to eat. I also have to figure out where I’m going to stay. After that I need to figure out a way to find Chelle’s house. Getting there will be easy enough, as long as I can dry my wings out… He soon walked into the town. It wasn’t very big, at least not as big as Ryan thought it could be.

Most of the buildings were white, or silver. There were two large apartment buildings, a gas station, and a lot of other stores. It looked like it had been set up for tourists, not for actual residents. There was a sign off to one side that said, ‘Welcome to Oceanside City!’ Underneath the brightly colored message, there was some spray paint that read, ‘Bad Wolf’. For some reason it made Ryan chuckle. There weren’t many people out walking the streets, but those who were there smiled and waved kindly at Ryan, even though he shrunk away from anyone who passed him. He wasn’t really going anywhere, but somehow he ended up at the gas station.

It was old, with windows covered in dust, and an old canopy covering the door. The gas pumps looked new though. They were shiny with digital read outs. Ryan was wondering if he should go in, when he saw a sign that offered all food for a dollar. He ran in. The inside looked about as old as the outside. There were old, rusty racks of food, which, Ryan hoped, were new, and the counter had an old time register, which dinged every time the drawer opened, and it didn’t even have a digital read out.

Ryan grabbed a few candy bars and some sandwiches. When he walked over to the counter, “Howdy, sir. You must be pretty hungry! There’s got to be at least…fifteen dollars worth of stuff here!” The man said. He had sun-darkened skin, and was wearing a hat that had a brim that ran all the way around the hat. His shirt was purple and red tie-dye.

“Yeah, I guess…” Ryan answered as the man punched some numbers into the register.

“Yup, fifteen exactly.” The man waited while Ryan handed him the twenty, “Alrighty, five dollars in change, have a nice day. Hey, keep a look out for my brother, Jake, if you want to hear some interesting stories. He has a shirt just like that. You’ll find him down at the beach.”

“Okay, you have a nice day too…” Ryan said, feeling awkward. He wondered if the man would have been so friendly if he knew Ryan had robbed his brother. When he was about to leave, Ryan came up with a thought, “Hey, do you happen to have a phone book?”

“Yeah. Are you looking for someone?”

“I don’t know their last name.”

“Well, a phone book won’t give you much help without a last name. If you’re really desperate, you might try the Internet.” The man said, trying to suppress a chuckle.

“Where would I find a computer?”

“Library, on the edge of town. You might want to hurry, it closes in about…half an hour.” He said, pointing out the window and down the street. Ryan thanked the man, and took off running. Ryan didn’t know how long it would take, but he would search addresses of all fifty states for people named Chelle. From the dream he had had while he was floating in the ocean, the Atlantic Ocean, if I floated to Florida… he knew he had to look for someone his age, who lived in a rural community.

By the time Ryan got to the library ten minutes had passed. He ran through the door, and was hit with a blast of cold air. The library had four air conditioners running, making it a veritable icebox. The icebox attribute worked in a lot of ways, the first and foremost; the building was a perfect cube. It was only one story, and wasn’t very wide, but it was a cube. Secondly, and Ryan couldn’t figure out why, in the entryway there was a guy selling ice cream. Ryan passed him without a second glance, though. What he needed wasn’t ice cream, what he needed was a computer.

“Hello! How can I help you?” A voice called from behind a desk. Ryan looked over and saw a girl, about his age with shoulder length red hair. Her skin was paler than Ryan thought it should be, especially in Florida.

“I’m just looking for a computer. Can I use one?”

“Sure. They are just around the corner, over there.” The girl said curtly, pointing.

“Thank you.” Ryan rushed off, not running, but going at a fast walk. He rounded a corner, and saw the computers, right next to a shelf full of encyclopedias, that were at least five years outdated. The computers weren’t much better. There were only three, and the towers were huge. Ryan didn’t care. Just as long as they could actually get on the Internet, he was fine with them.

The screen was black, but as Ryan moved the mouse, they came to life. The background on the screen was plane blue, and there were only two icons on the screen. One was for a writing program, that from what Ryan could tell, was even older than the computers. The other was an outdated Internet symbol. He clicked on the Internet, and waited while it loaded. He glanced at a clock on the wall, beneath which was a schedule of when the library closed. The girl at the desk saw his glance.

“Don’t worry, if you’re busy, you can stay as long as you want.” She said sweetly. He nodded, and turned back to the computer. The page had actually come up. The computer was actually running faster than he had thought it would. Ryan opened up a search engine, and started looking for an online phone book. As soon as it came up, he started putting in everything he knew. Location? United States of America. Area type? Rural. Name? Ryan figured that Chelle would probably be short for Michelle, which is what he typed in. The results were mystifying. There were over a thousand Michelles in the US. On a whim, Ryan took out the Hawaii and Alaska results. It didn’t help much.

“If you need help, you could always try putting in another person’s name, who lives close by the person your looking for, than go through both results.” The girl said, reading over Ryan’s shoulder, “I’m sorry for invading. I was just coming over to tell you that I was going to leave for a few minutes to get something to eat from the gas station. Bye.” She said, than walked out the door.

Ryan turned back to the computer. It was a good idea. He printed off the information he had gotten. Ryan kept everything the same, except he changed Chelle to Ryan. The results were the same. Over a thousand people with his name. He printed off the names, and sat down at one of the tables. He looked at the situation. There were two piles. Each had at least ten pages, full of names.

“Like I haven’t been through enough…” Ryan muttered. He started going through the pages. He started with states. Thankfully the names were arranged by states, and alphabetically. He got through Alabama and than Arizona. It only took him ten minutes. The letters were starting to blur on the page.

“Looks like you’ve hit a small snag.” Ryan looked up to see the librarian smiling at him. He smiled back, but the smile quickly turned into a grimace as a shock of pain came from his ankle, “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing…” Ryan said, bending down to feel the spot. His hand came up drenched in blood.

“That is definitely not nothing. Now, come on. I need to get you to my house!” Ryan tried to protest, but the girl ran into the office, and grabbed a first aid kit. She took out some bandages and wrapped them around his ankle.

“Can’t…” Ryan tried to mutter, but he was starting to get dizzy.

“You mean you won’t, but that’s an answer I’m not going to take right now.” She helped Ryan to his feet. Ryan winced as he took a step on his leg, “Don’t worry, I live just across the road.” She put his arm around her shoulders and helped him walk. It was a slow going, and the pair almost got hit by a car when they were about halfway there. The girl had met that challenge, though, and had retaliated with a well-placed hand gesture.

The house was a lot better looking than the library. It was two stories, with a rap around porch. It had gothic windows. It was white with a black shingle roof, “Won’t your parents mind walking in and finding a stranger?” Ryan asked as he leaned against a wall and the girl unlocked the door.

“Not really. They won’t be home for another…” The girl counted on her fingers, “two weeks.” She punctuated the last word by opening the door. The house inside was dark, and staring at the black doorway, Ryan had a vague memory of the door that the creations of the scientists had come through. The girl noticed Ryan’s temporary freeze.

“What’s going on, are you going into shock?” She asked worriedly.

“No…just unsettling memories…” Ryan asked, limping into the house. In the dimness, he could make out shadowed figures. The door seemed to open into a small hallway. A few feet forward, and off to either side were doorways.

“Just keep going straight, and then take a left.” The girl ordered, as she locked the door behind her, and flicked on the lights in the hallway. Ryan staggered down the hallway. With the lights on Ryan saw that the walls were painted with a tan color. There were picture frames up at regular intervals. Each was the same size, and the same length from each other, and the same length from the ceiling. As he fell through the left door and fell onto a couch, Ryan heard a low growl come from across the room.

Even though he was dead tired, and bleeding from his ankle, Ryan was back on his feet in seconds, scanning the room for whatever made the noise. Thoughts of werewolves were flying through his mind.

“What? Do you have something against dogs?” The girl asked, walking into the room.

“Just more disturbing memories.”

“Don’t worry, after he meets you, he’ll be fine. Here Duke, here boy!” She called. A few seconds later a medium sized dog came barreling out of another doorway. From what Ryan could tell, it was a crossbreed. It was pure black, with large pointed ears.

“Duke?” Ryan asked weakly, falling back onto the couch.

“Yeah. His full name is Sir Charles the Duke of Dog shire. But Duke is shorter. Now, let me see that leg.” She lifted his leg off of the couch, and rolled his pant leg up. Ryan let out a pained hiss.

“What did you do? It looks like you’ve been shot!” Ryan smiled. It was immediately wiped from his face as the girl than added, “Oh my God! You’re bleeding from the stomach, too! What are you, a mobster?” She asked, horrified.

“Wasn’t my fault. I don’t entirely think you’d believe me…” Blackness started to creep up from the edges of his vision, “I can’t go to a hospital, trust me, that would be worse than dying for me. So, do you think you can help?”

“I-I guess. Just hold on.” She went out the door, leaving Ryan alone with Duke. The dog walked over to Ryan, and started to smell him. The dog started barking right away, and Ryan somehow knew it had nothing to do with the blood, or with him being a stranger. Before the dog could get any farther, the girl walked back into the room, clutching a first aid kit, “Don’t worry, my mom’s a nurse. Just hold still.” She pushed the dog out of the way, than started working on his leg. First she dabbed at it with a piece of cotton, than laid on some gauze. She ended by wrapping the whole foot in bandages.

“Okay, for that one on your stomach, you’ll need to take off your shirt.” Before Ryan knew what was happening, the girl had taken his shirt, and was lifting it up over his head.

As it lifted off, and the girl had a full view of Ryan upper body, including his back, all Ryan could say was, “Do not be afraid, for I bring you tidings of great joy…”

“What the…?” She swallowed, “What is this? You have wings? How is that even possible?”

“Would you believe I’m an angel?” Ryan tried to smile. The girl had backed against the wall, “Listen, and don’t yell. I don’t want everybody to know. Just try to ignore them and help me, or tell me what to do!” Ryan said, sitting up, covering the wound with his hand.

“Ignore it? You have wings! That’s like ignoring a tornado!” The girl looked like she was about to faint.

“Listen. You really need to calm down. As soon as you finish, I can leave. All I need is to be patched up.” Ryan knew he was sounding like a vigilante or something, but it was true. His wings felt dry enough to fly, but he didn’t think he could with two injuries.

The girl looked like she was starting to calm down, “Okay…First, since it’s a stomach wound, we have to start by stopping the bleeding.” She handed Ryan another cotton clump, “Just keep pressing that into it.” She followed that with some deep breaths, though Ryan didn’t know if he was supposed to copy her, or if she was doing it to calm herself.

“Just think about it this way.” Ryan said, “You may think it’s weird that I have wings, but try imagining it from my point of view. I have to live with the wings.” She nodded.

“Okay. It looks like it’s stopped. Now, we have to put some of this on it.” She walked forward, and started squeezing some stuff out of a tube and rubbing it over the five cuts, “Now we have to put this on…” She grabbed some of the linen bandages, and wrapped them around his abdomen, “Don’t squirm! Okay. You’re done.”

“Thank you. I probably won’t see you again.” Ryan started walking towards the door.

“No, wait! You don’t have to go. It was just… startling seeing the wings.” Ryan turned back, “So, can you fly?”

“On my good days, I guess.” Ryan answered, thinking of his last attempt.

“Okay…I think this is one of those things you can only understand if you start at the beginning.”

Ryan took a deep breath, “Okay. I can’t remember anything from before waking up in a room that looked more or less like a prison cell…” It took Ryan over an hour, with the girl asking questions along the way, to relate his story. It felt odd to him, putting all of the details together.

“Everything I’ve been taught, tells me that nothing you just told me could possibly be true, but yet, I can tell…I just don’t know how, but I can tell that it is all the honest to goodness truth…” There was nothing but silence for a few seconds, “I’m so sorry. I’m Marisa.” She smiled and held out her hand.

“I’m Ryan.” He answered, shaking her hand.

“I can see why the door and Duke freaked you out…” Just then the phone rang, making them both jump. Marisa answered it, her face growing taunt as she listened.

“What? What’s going on?” Ryan asked.

Marisa hung up the phone, and sat in silence for a few seconds, than answered, “My parents are on their way home, they just entered the edge of town!”

Next Chapter: Chapter 8