Mark looked thoughtful for a moment before he held up nine fingers.
“He’s agreed to help us break people out,” I said.
“You know how we can do it?” Mykail asked, turning to Mark. Mark sighed and scratched at the side of his jaw in what seemed like a distracted motion. “Well, it’s better than nothing. Do you think it will work?”
Mark nodded and Mykail let out a short puff of breath, his eyes wide in surprise.
“Are you okay?” I asked.
“I’m just…” He looked at Mark again and then shook his head. “If…if there are other experiments in the Eight Group that could help…this…it could actually work…”
“You make it sound like you had no hope in accomplishing this at all,” I chuckled brokenly. He hesitated before laughing.
“Well, I had always hoped it would work…but…” He looked at Clark and me again. “How? Do you know how to get everyone out?”
“He says that there’s a stream in the Dome that people can swim out of…” Clark explained. “What do you think?”
“The Dome?” Mykail blinked. “The river? The current is really strong…” He looked thoughtful for a moment. “I don’t know. It wasn’t something I ever really thought of…but, maybe…”
Mark reached over and gently touched Clark’s elbow before tapping his wrist, causing all of us to remember the time.
“Right, tomorrow,” Clark nodded, looking at me expectantly.
“I’ll be on the first bus over,” I agreed.
“Sounds good.” He turned to Mykail. “Good night, Mykail.”
“Good night,” Mykail called back, though he seemed dazed as he lowered himself to sit on the stairs, staring at the floor with a small smile on his face. I walked to the door as Mark opened it and ushered Clark outside. Mark turned around suddenly, standing on the other side of the threshold and opening his mouth as if he was about to tell me something.
He closed his mouth and let out a small breath before nodding back into my house and then reaching up to his right eye, touching the inner corner with his index finger, as if wiping something out of his eye. Then he nodded to me once before putting his glasses back on, heading for the car.
Confused, I closed the door slowly, watching the latch slide into place as I locked it.
I walked back to Mykail, who had not moved.
“Hey, what does this mean?” I asked, repeating the action Mark had just done.
“Be careful,” he answered.
“Oh…” I said, wondering why Mark felt that was an important message to relay.
“He’s right,” Mykail nodded, cupping his hands over his nose and mouth and letting out a deep breath as I sat next to him on the stairs. “The more experiments like him that get involved in breaking people out, the more likely we are to be discovered.”
“But no one knows that he can understand English,” I pointed out. “He’s a hell of an actor.”
“No kidding,” Mykail nodded. “Even most of the experiments don’t know the Eight Group can understand English…well, beyond the commands they’re taught.” He was silent for a few moments before he turned to me. “What’s his name?”
“Mark.”
His eyes shot wide and he turned to me fully.
“Mark?” he hissed. “That’s Mark?”
“What? What is it?”
“Holy shit…” he breathed. “Mark is the best…he’s the best of the Eight Group. We called him their leader, but I never knew which one he was…”
“He’s the best?”
“He’s incredible,” Mykail nodded. “The rumor is that he’s the fastest and the strongest and has the best aim of any of the security experiments. He’s one hell of an ally.”
“How many people are part of the Eight Group?”
“I don’t know…maybe about twenty,” Mykail shrugged. He sighed and rubbed his forehead, shaking his head.
“What?” I asked, leaning on his shoulder.
“Nothing,” he assured. “I’m just a little jealous, that’s all. He can work with you during the day, plan this break out…I’m stuck here…”
“No, you’re not,” I contradicted. “Your tracers are out.”
“And where am I going to go with these?” he asked, glancing back at his wings. “I’m not even sure how I’m going to leave without being noticed.”
“We’ll figure it out…” I whispered, kissing him on the shoulder as he turned and kissed me on the forehead in turn. I leaned against him and heaved a sigh. I glanced at the dark night outside, wondering exactly what time it was.
“Hey, come with me,” I said quickly, grabbing his hand and pulling him to stand.
“Where are we going?” he asked, smiling, though there was still a hint of sadness in his voice.
“Outside,” I smiled, walking to the sliding glass doors in our large living room. He hesitated, his feet stumbling, but he did not protest. I could feel that he was apprehensive, but I wanted to make him feel better and I knew going outside would help.
The air was cold and I huddled into my jacket, turning around to see that Mykail did not even have a shirt.
“I’ll get you a coat or something,” I said quickly, turning back into the room when he smiled and caught my wrist.
“It won’t do any good,” he chuckled, nodding back to the wings. “Besides, I’m pretty strong against the cold.”
Hesitant and worried, I was about to insist that I get a blanket or something, but he walked outside, stepping onto the cold stone patio with his bare feet and moving toward the grass.
I followed, buttoning my coat to my neck and shoving my hands in my pockets once I closed the door behind us.
He walked further until he was on the grass, looking up at the stars in the sky. I watched him. He had a child-like look of wonderment. Something as simple as the night sky was enough to make him look that happy, and knowing I could give him the chance to go outside when it had been denied to him for so long made my chest bloom with warmth.
I walked up next to him and he put his arm around me, still keeping his eyes glued to the sky. His wing wrapped around me, and though it did not provide any reprieve from the cold, the gesture made me feel warm inside.
We were silent for an indeterminable amount of time, staring at the sky as if we had never seen the stars before. Just being there with him, staring at the sky and knowing how happy he was, made the moment precious. I forgot about the revolution, about Mark’s warning to be careful, about Dana and the Commission of the People, and simply stared into the abyss of the stars.
I felt the feathers of one of his wings brush my cheek and I flinched.
“Sorry,” he chuckled, moving his wing away fluidly.
I dropped my hand from around his waist, stepping away.
“Cold?” he smiled.
“No,” I lied through my chattering teeth.
“Yes, you are,” he laughed. “Come on, let’s go in and get some sleep.”
“No, not yet,” I shook my head, my curiosity winning me over. I retreated another step. “I want to see you fly.”
His eyes widened, surprised by the request. Then he shook his head.
“No.”
“Why not?”
“We’re in your backyard! What if the neighbors see?”
“Well, the house is blocking that direction and that direction,” I said, pointing to my house, “this massive-ass tree is blocking this direction and the neighbors over there have their own tree,” I told him. “I think you’re safe as long as you don’t go very high.”
Mykail looked around at the direction of the neighbors and shook his head again.
“It’s too risky,” he said, starting to relent.
“Come on, I know you want to,” I teased. “Just quickly and not very high.”
“It’s not like the movies, Lily,” he shook his head. “It takes a lot of power to get me off the ground and I can’t just hover a foot above the ground. I have to continuously flap my wings a
nd if I’m not far enough off the ground, I can’t stay airborne.”
“I want to see you fly,” I shrugged. “So do what you can to fly for just a few seconds without going above the house or the trees.”
He looked around once more and then took a deep breath, letting it out with an excited smile.
“Alright,” he agreed. “But you’re going to need to stand further back,” he instructed.
I backed up a few steps but he shook his head.
“Further.”
Concerned and sure he was exaggerating, I stepped back a little slower until he nodded.
“That’s good.”
I could not entirely make out his features from the moonlight and the small light that shone from the kitchen windows, but I did see the pristine white of his wings move as he spread them to their full span. I could not breathe.
He was a beautiful sight.
I knew that his wings were large, but I had never seen them at their full expanse and the sheer enormity took my breath away. They were beautiful and he looked even more angelic with the limited light.
Mykail brought his wings in and crouched before jumping up and spreading his wings, angling them. With one powerful stroke, his wings beat the air and he rose higher.
The blast of wind from his wings was far more powerful than I expected, and the sudden rush of cold air knocked my breath further out of me as I stared at the powerful and beautiful creature beginning to gain height. His wings moved with such power, and yet so fluidly, it was exhilarating to watch.
He pushed once with his wings and rose nearly to the top of the house before angling his wings and body to turn and glide to one side of the backyard, dipping down before beating the air again and turning, falling closer to the ground and once again raising with the powerful wings pushing him.
I was watching him play like a child, enjoying the simple feeling of rising and falling, relishing in the newfound ability to fly. He had told me how much he enjoyed flying, but the grace in his movements showed how much he truly loved it.
Slowly, he lowered to the ground, flapping his wings back and pushing air my direction as he slowed his descent and finally planted his feet on the ground.
When his feet were touching the grass, I ran forward and threw my arms around his neck. He wrapped his arms around my waist, holding me close, laughing.
“Thank you,” he smiled breathlessly. “Thank you so much.”
I felt the tears coming to my eyes as much as I tried to stop them and I hugged him tighter.
He pulled away from me faster than I was willing to let go and pressed his thumbs to my cheeks, pushing the happy tears away, moving his wings around me in a protective cocoon and kissing me so gently I forgot about the chilly night.
* *** *
I was tired when I first woke up, but when my brain kicked itself into gear and I remembered that Mark would tell us his plan for breaking people out of the Commission, I was less angry at the shrill alarm I had set the previous night.
Mykail, on the other hand, was still angry at the buzzing that rudely woke him.
He took the pillow and pulled it over his head, groaning irritably.
“Sorry,” I smiled around a yawn, kissing the back of his hand holding the pillow. He mumbled something from under the pillow and it made me smile, my heart filling with the same intense feelings of love I had the previous night.
I was completely in love with Mykail.
I dressed quickly in something simple and warm, mostly because I was lazy, and then darted back down the hall to see Mykail had not moved. Chuckling, I stepped forward and climbed onto the bed, kissing his hand again and pulling the pillow away, meeting no resistance.
“I’m heading out now,” I breathed. “I’ll be back later tonight and I’ll make us dinner, okay?”
He did not stir. I leaned forward and kissed his cheek before leaving him to rest, writing him a quick note on the refrigerator to be sure that he did not feel as though I had left without saying goodbye.
I had to run to catch the first bus, but the driver was kind enough to stop and let me on, even after he had started to pull away from the curb. I bounced anxiously in my seat as I watched the houses of the neighborhood pass. My thoughts were churning in my head, but I could not tell what I was thinking. I thought briefly about how happy Mykail was the previous night and how I wanted him to always have that elated smile. I also thought about how Mark might have a plan that could work. I also wondered about Dana and how we could keep everything from him, as well as how he would react if—when—we broke the people out of the Commission.
I got off at the appropriate stop and walked down the street to Clark’s house, making it there faster than usual due to my excitement.
I knocked on the door and it was soon opened by Clark, who had large dark bags under his eyes, even though he was smiling.
“Hey.”
“Hey,” I returned the greeting. “Did you not sleep at all?”
“No,” he shook his head with a laugh, closing the door after I stepped in. “Actually, Mark and I stayed up all night hacking into the Commission security system.”
“Really? Did you figure out how to shut it down?”
“I think we found a better way than my first plan,” he nodded. “Come on, I’m making coffee.”
I followed him into the kitchen, looking around for Mark.
“Where’s Mark?”
“He went to take a shower,” Clark shrugged. “He should be out in a little bit.” He walked to the coffee machine and poured the dark liquid into both cups. “So, here’s what we found,” he said as he poured. I leaned against the counter to listen. “There is a way to shut down the main system remotely. That will take out all the cameras, mic feeds…but it also requires taking out all the power in the Commission.”
“All the power? You mean like pulling the plug on everything?”
“Kind of,” he nodded. “The security system is kind of secondary to the power. Mark said that the security personnel is all drilled on what to do if the power and security goes out, so it’s obviously happened before.”
“…I’m sensing a ‘but’…” I chuckled.
“There is that secondary system, like a backup generator, and it will kick on automatically if the main system is down for longer than seven minutes. It will bring everything back online,” Clark explained. “There’s nothing we can do for that system without leaving traces.”
“We only have seven minutes?”
“Yes, but there’s another problem,” he continued. “If an experiment is reported to be loose in the Commission, there is a failsafe that locks down the ward that the experiment is reported loose in.”
“Well, as long as we just use an override code, the cells should just open, right?”
“In theory, yes,” Clark nodded. “Mark said that he would be willing to test an individual cell override code to see if the code we found works.”
“But there is one?”
“Yes, it’s for emergency evacuation.”
I took a deep breath and slowly let it out, leaning back against the counter with the warm cup of coffee that Clark offered me.
“Seven minutes, huh?” I murmured.
“Mark seems pretty confident that that will be enough time for us to get everyone out, as long as everyone knows beforehand,” Clark said.
“Can he tell everyone?”
“He said he could,” Clark shrugged, sipping at his coffee.
We stood in the kitchen, silent, drinking our coffee, thinking over what we were about to plan and how we could possible accomplish everything in only seven minutes.
Just as we were finishing our coffee, Mark walked into the kitchen.
“Ready?” Clark asked. Mark nodded once and I quickly gulped down the remainder of my coffee. Clark took the cups and I stepped up to Mark.
“Good morning.”
He bowed his head to me with a smile.
Clark quickly rinsed out the cups and put
them in the dishwasher before the three of us headed to the car. It felt a little awkward now to have Mark sitting in the front while the two of us sat in the back. I wanted to include him in our conversations. It seemed rude knowing he understood what we were talking about and not including him. But since he could not respond, it would have been impossible.
He did not drive us to the power plant or anywhere that we thought was close to the fort. He drove us to the zoo on the far side of town. Since it was a Sunday, the zoo was crowded with families bringing their children to see the animals.
When Mark got out of the car, Clark and I looked at one another, confused and then got out as well.
“Um, Mark, what are we doing here?”
Mark reached into the car again, grabbing the notepad near the passenger’s seat and pulling it out, resting it against the car as he scrawled a quick message.
“We’re covering our tracks. If we leave the car and my tracers here, it looks like I drove you two here for the day.”
“Leave your tracers?” I blinked at the piece of paper, surprised.
He tossed the notebook and pen on the driver’s seat before reaching to his right wrist and unclipping a metal band, setting it on top of the steering column. Then he slipped off his right shoe, pulling the inside sole up and pulling out a small plastic-covered tracer that he set under the driver’s side carpet. Clark and I watched, fascinated, as he slipped his shoe back on and grabbed the notepad and pen, standing straight and locking the car.
“You are meticulous,” I hissed. Mark smiled shyly and began to turn away from the car when Clark stopped him.
“Wait,” he said quickly. “What about our tracers?”
Mark turned back around and pressed the notebook back against the car to write.
“Sean is the only one who has access to your tracers. He won’t try and find you. Dana, though, has access to tracers for the security personnel. He can track me, and he will.”
“And what about the car?” Clark pressed. “We can’t just leave it here for seven or eight hours. Dana will notice if the car is here longer than normal.”
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