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McBrid moved to the door, motioning for Charlie to be quiet. As soon as the footsteps of Scottsmoor and his Guards disappeared, he opened the door and looked into the hallway. It was empty. He shut the door, locked it and hurried to his desk.
“What happened? Are you okay?” asked Charlie.
He grabbed a piece of paper and wrote his father’s address on it. “If something happens to me, I want you and your brother to go here.” He held out the paper.
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing. I mean, maybe nothing. I don’t know.” He turned on the computer and started modifying his files.
“McBrid?” Charlie’s brown eyes were worried. “Maybe, we should go now.”
It wasn’t a bad idea but...”No. I can’t ask my father and uncle and the two of you to live the rest of your lives on the run.”
“We were strays for years. It ain’t that bad.”
“This will be different. Conguise will hunt us. He’ll never give up.” The professor would lose everything, including his own life, if news of Level Five ever reached the populace.
“I-I think leaving is safest.”
Glassick tugged on Charlie’s shirt.
“We have to take him too.”
McBrid’s jaw locked. That was just perfect, escaping with a Brush-Man. “Charlie...”
“We can’t leave him.”
Glassick chirped and raced down Charlie’s body to the cuff of his pants. He pulled out an egg sack and chirped some more.
“Put those in a container.” He didn’t need this right now. He was already in deep trouble. If anyone found those eggs nothing would save him.
Glassick jumped up and down, chirping louder and louder.
“I don’t think he wants us to do that,” said Charlie.
“Do you think I care what he wants?” His words came out like a snap. “He didn’t think for one minute about what I wanted. Did you?” He glared at the little Brush-Man. “I’ll tell you what I didn’t want. I didn’t want you to risk all our lives with your little egg collecting endeavor.”
Glassick chirped louder.
“They’re his kind. He was trying to save them,” said Charlie.
“They’re not like him. Don’t you understand?” He bent to look the Brush-Man straight in the eyes. “Those...those things you risked all of us to save will kill you. They’ll tear you apart and eat you.”
Glassick shook his head, chirping wildly.
“They aren’t going to be like you.” He straightened and pointed to the enclosure filled with Brush-Men. “When they hatch, they’ll be like them. Them!” That little shit had put them all in danger to save something that wouldn’t think twice about killing each and every one of them.
Glassick raced up Charlie’s body and slapped his cheek, pointing to the cabinet where McBrid housed his experiments.
“What? You want me to take you over there?”
Glassick nodded, raising his right hand.
Charlie shrugged and carried the Brush-Man across the room. Glassick chirped louder and the Guard gently deposited him on the cabinet.
Glassick ran to the formula McBrid had been working on, pointing to it and then the eggs.
“He wants you to use that to make them like him.” Charlie almost jumped for joy.
“I can’t.”
Glassick chirped non-stop.
“Why not? I know you’ve been working on the poison, trying to make it less bad.”
“Yes, but you don’t understand.”
Charlie looked at Glassick and then back at McBrid. “It seems simple enough. You dump that on the eggs and the ones who hatch will be like him.” He pointed to his little friend.
“Eventually. Maybe. But the first few drafts of these serums don’t work well. They take refinement.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means that most or maybe all of the eggs will die.” Or they might be cursed like Glassick with their insides growing too large for their skin.
Glassick’s chirp died on a soft whistle.
“Are you sure? You said you thought it might work,” said Charlie.
“I’ve never created any serum that was perfect the first time.”
“But this one might be?”
“Unlikely.”
“But you’re not positive.”
“No. I have no idea how it will actually work. It may not kill them. It may kill them all. It may not even alter them. They could still be like the others.” He nodded at the cage.
Glassick took a deep breath, touched the vial of poison and nodded.
“He’s willing to take that chance.”
“Well, I’m not.” Now, came the hard part. “Glassick, you may want to sit.”
The Brush-Man looked from one to the other.
“This isn’t easy.”
“What’s wrong?” Charlie’s face had turned ashen.
“You know that I’ve also been comparing Glassick’s DNA to the DNA from the others.”
“Yeah.” The Guard lowered his hand and Glassick crawled onto his palm. “You were going to find a way to fix him. Make him better.”
“I was.” He took a deep breath. “I tried but...”
“Don’t say it.”
“I’m sorry. His organs are continuing to grow but his skin and body isn’t.”
“You have to do something.”
“There’s nothing I can do except give him something to ease the pain when it gets to be too much.” He bent again. “I’m sorry, Glassick. I truly am and that’s why I can’t do this to more of you.” He looked at the Brush-Men in the cage. “Or even them.”
“There has to be something you can do.” Charlie’s voice cracked. “The big ones, the original ones, they grew normal. You said Glassick had a lot of their DNA.”
“And he does. I think that’s how he understands us, but their DNA and his are similar but not the same. The poison altered him.”
“Then alter him again.”
“I’m sorry. It isn’t possible.” He bent so he could get a better view of the little Brush-Man. “The hatchlings won’t be like you.”
Glassick stared down at Charlie’s pant leg, tears in his bright blue eyes.
“What are we going to do with them?” Charlie’s gaze went to the cage. “We can’t go in there. Not yet.”
“I know.” That poison was extremely toxic. “I guess we’ll put them inside the enclosure after the poison wanes. It’s the best chance they have. We can’t drop them in with the larger ones. If they survive the fall, the Brush-Men will eat them.”
“Where are we going to put them until then? If they hatch...” Charlie stared at his pant leg as if they were already swarming over him.
“There’s a metal container in the closet. It’s about three inches long and half as tall.”
“It has a lid, right?” Charlie headed across the room.
“And a lock. The key is in it. Bring it out here and we’ll fill it with dirt.”
Glassick looked up at him.
“If we want them to survive, they need to be buried.”
Glassick frowned, staring at the vial of poison.
“I’ll keep working on it.” As long as he wasn’t fed to a monster.
Charlie returned with the metal box and an almost empty bag of soil from when Scottsmoor’s Guards had replanted. He dumped it into the container and placed Glassick inside.
McBrid wanted to laugh at Charlie’s face as he bent, pulling out egg sack after egg sack and setting them next to the Brush-Man.
“Dang Glassick, how many did you dig up?”
Glassick chirped as he ran around positioning the egg sacks.
“I’m going to go get Louis to help you.” McBrid headed for the door. “After you’re done, I want you, your brother and Glassick to go to the Aranea lab. Wait there. If I’m not back before night, turn Fersia loose and leave.”
“Turn her loose?” Charlie’s eyes were wide.
“She’ll help you get out of the lab.” She’d never make it but the two Guards might if she were loose. “Once you’re free, go to my father’s house. Warn him and my uncle. Tell them that I’m gone and that all of you need to hide.”
“McBrid, let’s go now.”
“No. I can’t have Conguise finding out about Fersia or Glassick. I need to modify my files.” Deleting them would raise a red flag, but hopefully, if he edited them no one would notice until it was too late to get the original data from backup. They didn’t keep any files more than a few weeks. The information could get everyone who worked there executed.