Vagabonds

Chapter Twenty-Seven: Missing and Found

Despite the sun rising over the distant points of the evergreens and the cheerful, familiar rumble of Old Betty beneath her, Eliza felt dark. Cold. Worried. And Aquila wasn't helping.

"Tero's been watching Fitzgerald Base for months now," he was saying through the back window as Joe drove them over the sloping hillsides of Western Massachusetts.

"He's obsessed with our origin story, of course," Moose piped up, looking significantly better after a full night of sleep and lots of fluids, though still wincing every time he moved his left arm.

Aquila rolled his eyes but continued.

"We think they're doing some kind of genetic experimentation there. Sort of like whatever created us."

"Genetic experimentation?" Eliza breathed, twisting around in her seat to meet Aquila's eyes. It was hard to believe that those bright blue orbs were created in a lab.

"Tero managed to hack in once and found a file for something called the Superman Virus." Aquila held her gaze, his expression saturated with meaning. "It's a project led by a man named Dr. Oleander."

"The mad scientist who created us, in case you were wondering," Moose said, poking Daisy in the side and making the spines on his brother's shoulder twitch with irritation.

"That's it, I've lost my mind," Joe muttered, shaking his head as he watched the road pass, lit orange by the dawn. "I've officially lost my mind."

But Eliza wasn't listening. She was thinking about that night on Fitzgerald base, about the man who threw soldiers around like they were dolls.

The Superman Virus.

Had they created him? Somehow mucked around with his genetics and made him so strong and fast?

And monstrous?

"We've been watching the men and women who work on base," Aquila said, folding his arms on the edge of the open truck window as they bounced over a pothole. "There are a lot of faces who have gone in and never come out again."

Eliza swallowed. "So Tori's brother..."

"Could be their next test subject."

Tori might be Eliza's least favorite person in the world, but she couldn't help the sympathy that surged through her. She thought about that violent man, face ugly with rage and hate and animalistic violence. For Tori to lose her brother like that, twisted beyond recognition for some army experiment... it was horrible. Beyond horrible. It was wrong.

Eliza suppressed a groan.

She'd never been able to turn away from wrong.

"So what do we do?"

Joe's face snapped to the side, eyes wide.

"What do you mean do? You want to help her?"

Eliza ignored him, looking instead at Aquila.

"You said you've been watching the base for months. What should we do?"

Aquila pursed his lips, glancing first at Moose on one side, then at Daisy. He seemed to be gathering his courage, formulating the right answer.

Of course, Moose didn't give him the chance.

"Oooh, we should break in! You've been wanting to for ages, Aquila, you said so just the other night. This could be our chance! We could use this girl's brother as a way to finally figure out what happened to us. We could find our parents!"