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I KNOW HE’LL co wouldn’t let me die here
I’d been in the cage for days I couldn’t re I was disoriented from all the tests and the needles and the acrid disinfectant s up in a lab, as an experiain, disoriented but still capable of a blinding rage
Fang hadn’t come for me I would have to save myself this time
“You! Get back!” The lab assistant’s wooden billy club s crate I was being held in every tih the front With each strike, the door’s hinges sustainedto plan
Steeling h the bars of the crate and pressedwas key: if I didn’t pull back fast enough, the gorilla-like lab tech could easily crush ers or break my nose
“I said, get back!” he repeated Ses, I kicked the door with every ounce of strength I had left
“Hey!” The lab tech’s startled yell was cut short as I shot out of the crate, a rush of seriously ticked-off mutant freak, and launched a roundhouse kick to his head I spun again, leaping onto a table to assess my adversary
Already a piercing klaxon was splitting the air Shouts and pounding footsteps from the hallway added to the chaos
I grabbed on to a pipe on a low section of the ceiling, swung forward, and slammed my feet into a white-lab-coated chest The bully sank to his knees, unable to draw breath This was the perfect time for me to run to the end of the table, jus
That’s where the “mutant freak” part comes in
As hands reached for h in the wall, then veered off path when a familiar dark shadow suddenly loomed
Fang!
He was on the roof outside, watching through theMy right-wing man! I knew he’d come He had my back, like a thousand times before He would always have my back, and I would always have his With relief, I readied lass
The roo, suckers, I thought, as I aih quite a fes in my fifteen-year life, and I kneould hurt, but I also knew pain didn’tmattered
Whalass, but it didn’t break I bounced off it and dropped hard, like a brick Tiun and felt a dart pinch round
Abovewatched, expressionless
In disbelief, I realized that he wasn’t here to help h theto saveconsciousness
Fang didn’t have my back Not this time
I felt like I was I falling again Instinct
My fingers latched on to a sasped for air, my eyes popped open, and I realized I was near the top of a tall pine tree—not in a dog crate, not back at the School The late-ht It had been a nightmare Or, rather, a daymare