Fiona tugged at her black turtleneck nervously before moving off the path of the sidewalk, glancing over her shoulder to be certain her friend was keeping up. "Come on," she whispered, an edge of excitement to her voice. Oh, this was going to be fun. A devious grin appeared on her face and she was off again, scurrying through the unkempt grass and stopping at a tall, forbidding fence. Falling silent, only crickets and the beating of her own heart penetrated her hearing. "I figure it's not electric," the girl said, her voice hushed but still thrilled. "You're so lucky your dad has a tool-box," Fiona muttered, although not without a detectable strain of humour. She produced from under her shirt a heavy pair of wire-cutters and gave the other girl a dramatic wink.
"Wait a sec," the older girl replied anxiously. "Be careful..." Angharad, similarly dressed in dark dungarees, her hair braided back and a longsleeved black shirt, kept her eyes darting around the deserted fence edge. Drying grass swished at their feet, and even though she was apprehensive, she was also smiling with the edge of excitement. It was risky, but they would be doing the right thing. They couldn't believe this Feral Labs had set up in THEIR town... the thought of the creatures, pathetically wired and shaved in their cages, made Angharad feel almost sick. But soon they would be free, and the two of them would achieve that goal.
The coast was clear; she nodded with a nervous grin to her friend.
"Just touch my shoulder or something if you see someone. Don't want to give away our position by talking," Fiona whispered, although she didn't think it had to be said. That clarified, she set the blades of the cutters around one of the chain links, and squeezed. Her face twisted slightly in frustration when the fence held up to her attack, and she repositioned herself to put her bodyweight into closing the tool's handles together. Fiona grunted, and then there was a loud snap. Victory! Still, she stopped to look around. When all seemed clear she resumed, eventually making a wide circle in the barrier and kicking it down with her heavy boots. "Bingo," she murmured.
They'd got this far, and not a peep from any security systems. "Nice one, Fee," Angharad whispered, her eyes filling with righteousness as she peered inside the fence. "The map says it's... " She resorted to pointing towards the buildings on the right and the second one in, in an effort to remain silent; the aforementioned map had been garnered by some council building plan records and some aerial photographs. She had been much better at discovering the where and why; she left it to Fiona to plan the how. Slipping inside the broken fence, she peered around for guard dogs or motion sensors perched on buildings, eyes straining in the darkness.
Far less wary than her partner in crime, Fiona crawled through and set her sights on the aforementioned building. There were rats and rabbits and possibly chimpanzees that needed their help- she couldn't be bothered to look for security. With her back hunched over slightly and her weight balanced on the balls of her feet in an attempt to be at least somewhat innocuous, the girl sprinted to the building and pressed up against the outer wall. She inspected the sides and arrived at a door, securely locked and devoid of any helpful windows. Looking to Angharad with a wide, devilish grin, she pointed up to a fire-escape ladder. Without waiting for the precautions that she knew her friend would insist they took, she steadied both hands against the doorframe, placed a foot on the doorknob, and jumped. Her hands scrabbled and miraculously latched onto a cold metal railing. Hoisting herself up onto the retracted ladder, she got to the platform and extended a hand to Annie with a smirk.
Letting out a strangled squeak at the bold movements, Angharad dashed over in that strange kind of run where you try to make as little sound a possible, almost flattening herself against the concrete wall before taking the proffered hand. She was pretty nervous at this kind of thing; but Fiona had stated point blank that she was going, and there was no way she'd let Fee go on her own. She'd debated leaving a note on her kitchen table, but decided there was no need; they'd be back by morning, and her family need never know of her reckless, for once, venture. But now... as she jump-scrambled up to the thin ladder with her friend's help, and tapped up the next few rungs ahead, she felt the thrill of adrenaline start coursing. Could they really make all this noise without being discovered?
Pausing to catch her breath and look around, the hair on Fiona's back stood on end. 'We should do this more often,' she enthused mentally, considering giving voice to the sentiment but deciding against it. She rose to her feet and tugged on the door that led to the fire escape, stepping inside with a scoff. Such terrible security! Unbeknownst to the two, a silent alarm was set off by the door's opening and they only had a few minutes before they were noticed. Fiona broke her vow of silence when she saw the cages on the walls, filled with an array of small, domesticated mammals. "Those sick bastards."
Stepping in behind Fiona, hand on the door, trying to close it quietly, an array of sounds and smells hit Angharad. She almost gagged as she saw the fur pressed against the bars, eyes glinting in the little light the fire escape was letting in.
"We have to hurry," she whispered, face echoing Fee's sentiment. A brief thought of how they would get the animals down the fire escape occurred to her, but the first priority was freedom.
"Is it locks or bolts?" she asked feverishly, stepped further in, fingers scrabbling at the nearest cage where a rabbit lay pressed in fear against the back, hindquarters shaved and wrinkled.
Anger boiled in her veins towards Feral Labs, and it only took her a quick inspection before she lifted a latch and slid a knob sideways. The cage came open, and its occupants huddled against the wall in fear of what that creak of hinges meant. "It's just a bolt. We should probably carry them out, Annie. They look too scared to go far on their own." She moved to the next cage, slender fingers working quickly to undo the latch. Occupied with her task and formulating a way to haul them all out beyond the laboratory's perimeters, Fiona was oblivious to the approaching footsteps that echoed down the dark empty hallway which the room was connected to.
Hypersensitive to every sound, fingers fumbling on the bolts, Angharad could not help scooping up immediately the next rabbit. It looked so similar to her own pet Benjy... "This shouldn't happen," She said in a broken whisper, tucking the small beast under one arm as she moved to the next cage.
And heard the footfalls - just too late. Angharad threw one arm up at the sudden beam of light that flooded the room as the door banged open, whirling behind her to see the fire escape door click suddenly, finally as a locking system went off somewhere.
"Fiona!"
"What?" she hissed, her back turned to the door as she tried to open a particularly stubborn cage. She turned, the light catching her right in the eyes. "Oh s**t." Fiona stated, pocketing a nearby white rat and looking around. "Grab what animals you can and run!" she shouted, not caring that the guards would hear. She scooped up a petrified rabbit and ran at the fire door, intending to push it open with her shoulder. The girl certainly hadn't planned on it being locked and dropped the test subject with a pained squeak as her thin frame met with solid metal. "Oh ******** oh ********! It's locked! Annie! What do we do??"
Angharad could only reply with a muffled little scream. She'd stopped to try and grab the chinchilla that she'd just undone the cage for, but it had bitten her in the attempt to grab, and it had cost her valuable seconds. Hampered by the creatures in her arms, the girl was spun around as her arm was grabbed by a heavyset man, silhouetted in the dazzling light.
"Get OFF!" She yelled, her voice high pitched as she attempted to wrench free, dropping the rabbit by accident. It scarpered through the legs of the incoming guards, causing them to stumble; she hoped the diversion would help Fiona in some way, but she was too busy fighting free.
"Run!"
"Hey-!" She shouted, rage suddenly clouding her judgement. "Get away from her, you assholes!" Running at them, Fiona did the first thing that came to mind and pulled the wire-cutters from her belt loop, swinging the metal end at one of the men. The guard was caught in the shoulder and let loose an angry cry. "Let go of Annie!" Fiona yelled, trying to hit the other man. Her impromptu weapon was intercepted and wrenched away from her, and all too quickly turned against her. Fiona would later recall thinking one thing as the heavy tool came swinging towards her head: 'Oh. Crap.'
Angharad could not help screaming again as Fiona stumbled, suddenly limp and lifeless, landing in an unceremonious heap on the floor. Was that blood in her hair?!? But she barely had anymore time to think as her other arm was wrestled behind her, and a strong hand clamped over her mouth and nose, the thick cloth smelling cloying and sickly sweet. Her vision blurred, her body was overwhelmed with dizziness; as she slumped into unconsciousness the last thing she could remember was seeing white rats scurrying along the floor, ironically free for a while, even as she and her best friend... were not.
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