Orphans on the Run

By M.R. Elgin

Four orphaned teens are linked by their ability to shape shift. These genetically-altered teenagers unite to protect infants born in prison.
Although they are doomed to caring for infants produced in the prison system by illegal experimentation, they ban together to stop a deranged geneticist from baby trafficking. What obstacles do they have to overcome to protect these infants from researchers’ clutches?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Haven Raines
• Release date: Feb 8, 2017

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1    Angel    IRISS

"Hurry, get the room swept and ready. He’ll be here any minute." Alice threw a set of sheets at Iriss then climbed the basement stairway. I watched her slow ascent. In the last few years, Alice’s long black hair had corroded into a dingy grey and her hips had widened. She limped and used the railing to pull herself upward. Alice’s hand hovered over the light switch. I waited and held my breath. My neck threatened to choke off my air. No click. No absence of light. Alice chuckled as she slammed the door.

I stared at the sheets in my hand for a moment. Finally, my mind kicked on. He was coming home. Why? He’d been gone for years. I shook my head to clear my thoughts. Did I want him back? What had he done to be sent back? Usually when one of us kids was adopted, that was it. They never called. They never wrote. They never returned. We never saw them again. But now Lieren, my brother, was coming back.

I rushed to the lone cell at the back of the cellar. Light from the sunny day outside shone through the window. At least it wasn’t cold and damp like some of the other cells. Cobwebs filled the corners and around the ceiling. After throwing the sheets on the bare mattress, I swiped the broom around the room, removed the cobwebs, and swept the dusty floor into a pile by the door. I quickly dusted the scratched dresser and headboard. After tucking the sheets, I found a thin blanket in one of the drawers and spread it on the bed. There. Done.

An ominous click triggered me to stare at the cell door. Someone had switched off the hall light. I stared at the darkness. Closing my eyes, I took in a deep breath then slid my hand along the wall. I found the stairs. Would the door be locked as it had been so many times when I was a young child? I shook off the tension that tried to close off my windpipe. I am sixteen now, an almost grown woman, no need to be afraid. A locked door wouldn’t stop me now.

Hand on the knob, I sucked in a deep breath. It clicked and opened without effort. Sunlight, beautiful sunlight. For an instant, Nick, one of the us kids that had never been adopted, shot me a sly smile. Nick, you brat. I chased him until he disappeared around a corner, giggling. I love Nick, but sometimes his little tricks were annoying. His brown hair butted out in peaks probably because he had an aversion to bathing. Already fourteen, his voice hadn’t changed like all the other boys and he was small for his age, but Alice said he would take a growth spurt soon. How he could ever gain any weight was beyond my comprehension. The food we got wasn’t nearly enough. Many nights we all went to bed hungry.

I dismissed Nick from my thoughts when the front doorbell chimed. Alice limped across the room and opened the door to a gush of wind that forced her to her knees. I grabbed the door jamb to keep from being blown over. My bones are hollow from a freak of birth. I’m really light.

Lieren stood tall, legs apart, with the sun shining around him, a suitcase by his feet. As he stooped to pick it up, he swerved slowly side to side reminding me of a serpent. He stared at me, a line creased his pupils. He blinked and it disappeared.

Lieren pulled Alice up. Are you okay? The weather turned brisk as I came up the walk.

Alice dusted her apron. I’ll live. Your room is ready. Iriss will take you down.

Alice’s reaction didn’t surprise me. Alice never had been overly motherly. I nodded. Hi, Lier.

Hi, Iriss. Glad to see me back? When they were away from Alice’s eyes, I reached up and hugged his neck, but he thrust me away. Don’t.

His reaction shocked me. He’d been a hugger as a small child. He was teenager now. Maybe that explained his response.

I wasn’t sure how I felt about his return. What would he do to help out at the orphanage? We got new babies weekly. Some were immediately adopted, some lingered a few days or even weeks. They had to be fed and diapered and bathed. Nick was no help. He kept coming up with inventions that made no sense and usually caused more problems than they were worth. Like the time he took the vacuum apart and made it into a robot vacuum that skittered across the floor sucking in dust in one end and spraying it out the other. He’d spent a week in a locked room for that trick.

I wasn’t one to hurt someone’s feeling on purpose so I smiled at Lieren. Didn’t expect to see you again.

Nope. He followed me down the hall. The place hasn’t changed much.

No, just older and creakier floorboards. I opened the basement door. Alice, had me fix up your old room.

Good.

I stopped and peered at him. Lier, what happened?

He didn’t look at me nor did he answer. In his room, he tossed his case on the bed and sat.

Standing by the door, I hesitated then asked, Lier, what happened?

Later.

I needed to know. Had something bad happened to him? Lier?

His voice took on a haunting quality. He boomed, Later. The words echoed throughout the cellar. He swiped a lone tear from his eye.

I cringed. Something bad had happened to Lieren. When he was a little kid, he’d always confided in me. He was sixteen now. I’d give him time. He’d come around.

2    Angel    IRISS

At breakfast the next morning, I waited in anticipation wondering what Adam, the oldest of us orphans that never got adopted, would say when he saw Lieren was back. I nibbled on my pancakes and watched Lier take a seat.

Adam’s eyes became watchful like the panther that was inside him. I knew that he roamed the property sometimes at night, but I’d never seen his eyes constrict nor heard the deep growl that erupted in his throat. Panthers didn’t especially like serpents. But serpents usually didn’t back off.

Why did I mention panthers and serpents? Because Adam could turn into a panther and run like the wind when he had to. When he was scared or when he needed to help someone like his friends or like me. I’d also seen Lier slither around corners when he was a young child, about four or five I think. He’d got his gift much before the rest of us kids. They didn’t know I knew. But then I was special too.

Adam found out he could change when he was about fourteen, when his voice changed and pimples popped out on his face. Now he was nineteen and gorgeous if you liked windblown light sandy hair, large hands and an all-knowing sneer that was a permanent fixture on his face. And all the girls in the neighborhood did. His only soft feature was his lips. His smile melted any heart.

Back to me. My birthday was three days ago and I’m finally sixteen. Alice says it’s time now to give up my tomboy clothes and habits. She may be right, but I’m not sure. I like my ponytail flying in the wind. And dresses? I don’t think so. A girl needs some modesty. When I’m soaring above the trees, do I really want some hormone-crazed boy looking up my dress or for that matter seeing my skinny bird legs? I don’t think so. No, I’m going to stick with my jeans and shirts with slits in the back for my wings to spread.

When I was a little kid, I’d pretend to fly. I jumped from one crib to another and visited the other kids. I never fell to the floor, I just swooped over. One day as I hopped from crib to crib, Alice caught me. She put bars on the top of my crib and I was stuck.

For some reason, I knew that flying was in me, but I didn’t really know what I’d become. My wings spread to six feet when I was ten years old. Now I have a wind-span of thirteen feet and could fly as high and as long as I wanted. I am a lightweight. Sixteen years old, eighty pounds, mostly wings, and no boobs. No boy will ever look my way. But what do I care? I can fly and the other girls can’t. Someone someday might like me better.

Anyway, Adam and Lier were eyeing each other, growling and hissing, when Alice emerged from the cellar door and gave them her squint-eye no-nonsense stare. The growling and hissing ended and both boys dutifully picked up their forks and speared their pancakes. Lier dripped syrup on the table. With one scowl from Alice, he wiped it up and licked it from his finger. I saw his tongue split as it snapped back into his mouth.

Adam didn’t beat around the bush. Why’d you come back? Thought you found a family?

Lier set down his glass of milk. None of your business. I’m back. That’s that.

I wasn’t surprised the Lier didn’t given Adam the details. They’d been enemies since elementary school when Adam scared off all of Lier’s girlfriends. Lier was older now. But so was Adam. They’d be fighting before the day was over, I was sure of it. And I’d be there watching, waiting to see who won. They better not let Alice catch them.

Alice took that moment to slap a list on the table. Here. Chores for today. You boys need to get busy. Iriss, the babies need changing and bottles. Get a move on.

Lier shoved in his chair, grabbed the list, took a quick look and said, "I’ll do the garbage and mow. Adam, you do the dishes and laundry. Adam nodded. He didn’t smile, but I knew he hated mowing. So far they were getting along.

I moseyed on down to the nursery where a stench of human waste stung my nostrils. Boy, these kids could poop. I started on the first kid. A two-day old boy. Not much poop, thank you, Jesus. I dumped the poop in one bucket and heard it plop. His dirty diaper went in a pail of bleach water. Alice believed in cloth diapers. No paper ones for her so that meant I was stuck with soggy diapers. Saved on money, but not on kid labor.

When he was clean, I stuck a bottle in his mouth and moved on. Five dirty butts later, all the kids were clean, dry, and chowing down. I knew where they came from—the prison across town. They all arrived with crusty dried blood and I had to wash it off. They hadn’t even been cleaned properly. Their clothes reeked of musty stale cigarette smoke. Poor babes.

I was one of these prison babies a long time ago. So were Adam and Lier. I don’t know my mother or why she got stuck in prison. I don’t know if she is even alive and I don’t care. I swiped a tear from my cheek and surveyed the kids. Suck it up, Iriss. You’re not a sissy.

Baby number one had sucked down two ounces and needed burped. I got busy. Unfortunately, eating always caused the kids to poop again. After another round of diaper changing, I tucked them all in and left to see what Adam and Lier were up to.

Adam had finished the dishes and started the first load of laundry. I piled the load of stinky diapers at his feet and took off quick before he had time to swing at me. You rotten, B.

I chuckled. Adam had called me a bitch once. Only one. Alice had stuck him in the basement room for a week. He was real careful what he said after that. I knew he really liked me though. I was his little sister.

I checked to see where Alice was. She was where I expected her to be—In her room, smoking with a glass of the brown stuff in her hand. Her eyes were half closed. She would be taking her morning nap soon. Time for me to fly.

Lier had piled all the garbage by the curb. The trash haulers were in the midst of scooping the bags into their truck. As soon as the motor of the garbage truck completed grinding our garbage to a pulp, the purr of the mower broadcasted from the side yard. Lier was hard at work.

I slipped out the back door, ran into the trees beyond our back yard, slipped off my t-shirt, and pulled the slip-knot that secured my wings. They slumped downward. I tensed my back muscles and my wings jerked. I closed my eyes as they spread wider and wider. I imagined this was what all the kids at school who messed with drugs talked about. The rush. The feeling of ecstasy. My muscles tingled as they stretched.

I lifted my feet and the next thing I knew I soared straight up with my eyes on the fluffy clouds above. I’d never actually gone as high as the clouds, but someday I might. The mower buzz had stopped so I perched in a tall tree and looked to see that Lier was up to. He was sitting in the shade, arms around his knees with his head bowed. His body shook. I’d never seen Lier cry, but he was crying now.

3    Snake    LIEREN

I could feel eyes watching me. Alice? She doesn’t like me. Didn’t want me back. I didn’t blame her. I wasn’t the best orphan boy of the lot. I had caused her a lot of trouble when I was a little kid, and she had gone to a lot of trouble to place me with the Sanderson family. I should have known there was a catch.

I pulled a rag from my hip pocket and wiped my face as if I was swiping sweat off my brow. Actually clearing tears off my face was my real objective. If Alice was the watcher, then I wouldn’t let her know how awful I feel.

The mower revved on the third pull, I finished the rest of the lawn, stored the mower, and closed the shed door. Nick appeared out of nowhere. Lier?

Yeah.

Let’s go to the 7-11 for a soda.

Nick, no money, man.

Nick emptied his pockets. A wad of one’s clutched in his fist.

Really? Where’d you get that wad of cash?

Odd jobs. The neighbor bought one of my inventions.

Which one?

The go-cart that blows leaves. Come on. Before Alice wakes up.

Alice? Asleep? I thought she was spying on me.

Alice takes a morning nap after her whiskey. Probably Iriss spying. She’s up in that tree. He pointed to the right. I saw a flutter of leaves but no Iriss. Iriss was cute kid but for some reason she had turned shy. She was his sister for cripes sake. Why did she have to act like a girl? I need a friend, not a whiney teenage girl. I wanted to tell her what had happened to me at the Sanderson’s, but it would have to wait. I just can’t tell anyone right now. Maybe in a month or two. Maybe a year. Maybe never.

I focused on Nick who clicked his fingers. All right man, let’s go.

Braniac Nick could be very annoying. He wanted what he wanted when he wanted it and he didn’t care what anyone else wanted. His parents must have been on drugs when he was conceived. Hyperactive was his middle name. Nicholas Hyperactive …… None of us had last names. Mine is Sanderson now. Someday I’d get