Chapter 9: Old Friends, New Faces

Alexis reunites with a friend but also meets some who may become friends later.

Alexis and Jasper left the dining hall with their group. Many of the others returned to their rooms after eating, but Jasper led his friend down a different corridor than the one they’d come from. Few others from their group joined them, but some from different wings made their way down the wide hallway, towards the doors at the end.

“I barely know my way around this place, but they don’t like it when you get curious and snoop around in other places. At least that’s what some guys from our wing said. That’s why a lot of our people won’t go outside, because if you step out of line�"even a bit�"you’re thrown in solitary. If they even think you’re tryin’ to get out�"even lookin’ for a bit too long outside the fence�"you’re in trouble,” Jasper said, scoffing. “Just don’t hang around the edges too much, and you’re probably fine.”

Alexis frowned but nodded. His wings felt sore from the binding, and he did catch some looks from a few nonhumans, curious about his restraints or pitying him for them. He wanted to ask Jasper how long they’d keep them on him, but when he opened his mouth to speak, they’d gotten to the open doorway and stepped outside. 

The courtyard filled with the nonhumans who dared to risk unjust punishment. Spirits lifted in the partial sunshine, and many spoke loudly or relaxed on the available benches. Most overtly avoided staring at the guards who stood next to the doorway and on top of the turrets on the tall, barbwire-topped wall of fencing surrounding them. The groups from the cafeteria mixed and melded together into well-knit groups. Some smiled and laughed as if they’d known each other before the facility, while others moved from one group to another, possibly trying to make new friends or allies. Alexis found the slight warmth in the air uncomfortable, but most others appeared unaffected. At least he knew the NHSF couldn’t suppress his biology completely.

Jasper settled with a couple of nonhumans who had been in their wing, but Alexis stood off to the side, processing his surroundings. From one corner, he heard a familiar voice shouting his name, and he turned to face the source.

“Alexis! What the hell are you doing here?” Aisling said, pushing past a few nonhumans to get to him, flanked by a couple of nonhumans she must have known. She gave Jasper a dirty glance when he, too, turned to see what the commotion was, but he immediately looked away, face downcast. 

“I didn’t mean to come here, but it just kind of happened,” Alexis said, not meeting her eyes and rubbing his arm as he brought it closer to his body.

Aisling pursed her lips, tears welling in the corners of her eyes. She stepped towards him and wrapped her arms around him as best she could.

“You�"you idiot… why are you here? Why didn’t you just run?” She said, shaking.

“I couldn’t leave you two. I don’t know what happened… I’m sorry,” Alexis shut his eyes tightly and shook his head. 

“Dumbass,” Aisling said, relating her hold on him and stepping away, wiping her eyes. “Don’t apologize for that. It’s not your fault we’re here.”

Alexis shook his head, looking from Aisling to Jasper, who had stiffened.

“It’s not Jasper’s either,” Alexis said. “They knew about us already and met me at my apartment. If you guys had made it there… well, we might be in the same situation.”

Aisling scoffed, but Jasper relaxed a fraction, no longer paying attention to the others around him.

“Who is your friend?” asked a taller, darker-skinned woman who stood behind Aisling, her voice heavily accented.

“Oh, sorry, Alexis. These ladies,” Aisling said, waving an arm behind her, towards the tall woman, and a much shorter and stockier woman with a slight mohawk, “are some acquaintances I’ve made here. They’ve been here much longer than you’d think.”

“It’s only been a few months at this facility,” remarked the shorter woman, hands on her hips and a frown on her face as she looked up at them. “They transferred me from the North facility, which isn’t made to handle human-like nonhumans. Not that I always fit in that category.”

“So you have another form?” asked Alexis, curious. 

“Well, duh,” she said, snorting and narrowing her almond-shaped eyes as she focused on his wings. “Looks like you’ve already got your first strike.”

“Don’t be rude, Mahk,” said the latinx woman as she put a hand on the shorter one’s shoulder. She then looked to Alexis and smiled with both warmth and pity. “I was transferred here from the southern facility because that one holds those of us who are not so different from humans. I, too, have another form. They do not handle the sorting so well…”

“Not that we even need to be sorted,” interrupted Aisling, closing her hands into fists. “The humans are too afraid of what we could do, not of what we will do. I think now, though, that we will do a lot more than we would have before. No one likes to be treated like animals. We will only take so much abuse.”

Another nonhuman�"a short, plump, blue-skinned woman�"left Jasper’s group and struck up a whispered conversation about escaping. Mahk joined in, but the latinx woman stood off to the side and kept look-out. Jasper stiffened again and turned to Alexis, stepping close to him and standing on his toes to speak into his ear while Aisling spoke to the blue woman.

“You need to be careful around her,” he said. “Ever since we were caught, she’s been talking about revolting. That’ll get us all in big trouble if the guards catch even a whiff of that.”

Alexis watched Aisling as she waved her arms about while speaking a little too loudly about her ideas to a growing group. He nodded and stepped away from them with Jasper.

“We do need to get out, though.”

“Yeah,” agreed Jasper as he walked with Alexis towards the doors back inside. “We’re gonna get out; we just gotta be smart about it. If we take it like Aisling… s**t’s bound to go down.”

The two reentered the facility, and Alexis glanced back around his shoulder and wing to see facility agents closing in to investigate.