3 3] Shift

The boys wandered the hallways as Dozer went on with his crazy yesterday, Phoenix only half listening to him as his eyes scanned each door on the left. Some doors were wide open and music muffled out of it while, while others were shut and blackness underneath them. It was going on one, but he knew a few slept into the afternoon since it was like their Saturday. His eyes bounced for a second when he noticed Dozer was looking straight at him, acknowledging him by raising a brow.

Dozer brushed it off, repeating the question. "I asked if you know about this weekend?"

Phoenix went back to scanning the doors. "What's so special?"

"I heard a new kid is in the building." Dozer nodded, "I guess they're doing different protocols with this one."

"Oh, yeah?" Phoenix found Dolly's door, narrowing his eye a little. Her door was cracked. Dolly's been gone for eight months now. His pace quickened, Dozer noticing and trailing off when he watched him move toward Dolly's door.

He noticed the door himself now, "That's weird."

"Exactly." Phoenix agreed, stopping in front of it and peeked in. The light was on, he heard sniffling when he leaned in a little bit. He nudged the door open with his foot, stiffing a little bit when he spotted Dolly sitting on the edge of her bed. She double took at Phoenix, her frowning deepened. She quickly looked away and wiped her eyes. Phoenix exhaled through his nose and stepped in, Dozer walking into the doorway and stopped when he heard a sniffle.

"I'll go get a table ready for us." He slapped the doorway and nodded, Phoenix simply nodded to it which sent him on his way.

Phoenix shut the door behind him, listening to the quietness of the room for a second. "Sudden appearances are never good in this place." He murmured, walking over.

Dolly sniffled and flicked her blonde hair back over her shoulder, staring at the poster on her wall. She sucked a breath in and held it, managing to pull on a fake smile. "I...had them..." her smile twitched at the corners, looking to him. "They left this morning."

Phoenix came over and sat on the bed. He joined his hands and leaned over on his knees, staring at his slippers. Dolly's real identity was Harley Torvrse, 23, from Alaska. Phoenix knew she was nothing special, she was seen just a "breeding cow", a live incubator. She had been here for three years, and has shown little profit to the Project. Regarding her gentle personality, she was a wreck on the inside. Phoenix glanced over at her through his hair, watching her wipe her nose and pinched her hand underneath her thigh. "You gonna be okay?"

"I have to be." She managed a swallow and locked eyes with Phoenix.

Deep down, her heart fluttered. She's heard the other girls talked about Phoenix before. Besides his gloomy-almost dead personality, he was mysteriously attractive. His hair was naturally black but thanks to the experiments, it's genetically mutated his hair to a snow white along his eyes now being calm gold. He has a single, small right nose ring and small snake bites. Covering his throat was a abstract, splatter-looking tattoo of a Barn Owl spreading its wings. Dolly noticed when he was irritated, he would nip one of his snake bites and glare when spacing out. "It's not

gonna get any easier if I wallow around." She whispered.

Phoenix lazily glanced to the door then, not disagreeing. "But at the same time." He commented. He held his breath and grabbed her hand and gave it a squeeze. "If you need anything, you know where I am." He got up, Dolly fighting her smile to show when he let go and groaned. "Now if you excuse me, I gotta beat Dozer's ass in pool."

~~~~~~~~~~~0~~~~~~~~~~~

"She's a breeder, what you expect?"

"Some sympathy." Phoenix hit the cue ball hard, Dozer watching the game dwindling. He stood up and cursed when he didn't pocket any, grabbing the top if his stick and rose a brow at Dozer. "Repeatedly get pregnant and have black market babies to never see again?" He aggressively slapped his pool stick into his other hand, "They don't deserve that kind of shit."

Dozer smiled frail at the table and whispered it. "Do any of us?"

Phoenix didn't, rather couldn't snap back with anything. He rested his chin on the pool stick and watched Dozer eye the balls then the cue ball. Every now and then, Dozer spat off logic that it gave Phoenix some hope for the guy.

"Well, some of us." A new voice suddenly came up behind Phoenix, grunting when he got slapped hard in the head. He buckled forward and instinctively slapped his hand on the pool table edge. A deep thundering growl rumbled his from chest, curling his fingers and turned around. He gripped the air, sneering when he felt a toasty throat in his grasp. Like a chameleon, Derek morphed back into existence. Phoenix tipped his chin down and narrowing his eyes, the calmness in them were now glow with hatred as Derek's amused green eyes gleamed.

He weakly chuckled, slapping Phoenix's wrist. "Easy, Big boy. Don't wanna go in the box again, do you?"

The thought of the place made Phoenix's fury grow, growling and jerked his closer. "I don't know, keep tempting me."

"Hey, guys. Come on, now. " Dozer nervously laughed, coming around.

"Fuck off, slug." Derek snorted, wincing when Phoenix squeezed harder.

Phoenix heard the little groan from Dozer, parting his feet. "I think you owe him an apology."

"For telling the truth?" He rolled his eyes.

"I could say the same." Phoenix rose a blunt brow, shoving him back. Phoenix's 'shove' turned into a throw, sending Derek flying into the sofa that slid a few feet before he tumbled over it. Phoenix exhaled through his flared nostrils, flicking his eyes to his hand. It was covered in white and icy black trimmed scales. He flexed his hand as he watched the black talons retract back into finger nails and the scales soften back to skin with an tingling sensation. Dour, Dozer too watched Phoenix's hand transform back. Phoenix crackled his knuckles and glared at the sofa when he heard a deep groan, watching a hand grip the sofa. Derek stood up and stumbled a little, running his hand through his brown wavy locks. He flapped his long jacket then touched his neck, seeing blood on his fingers.

He nodded and ran his tongue over his teeth. "I'll remember that."

"Good to know your memory works." Phoenix nodded. "Sneak up on me again and I'll throw you through a wall."

Derek chuckled, shaking his head and scoffed. He spoke under his breath in Spanish and headed for the door. The moment he was gone, Phoenix turned back to the pool table and leaned against it. Dozer moved over to the sofa, fixing it. "You didn't have to do that."

Phoenix bit his lip, leaning up and picking up his stick. "It needed to be done." Listening to his footsteps, his instincts kicked in. He swiveled his pool stick through his finger and swung around, he threw his free arm up and rested the pool on it. On the end, Dozer's chin was forced to tilt up. Staring at each in stiff silence, Phoenix's golden eyes darkened. "You have an exceptional talent, Dozer. It's not your fault it faulty...We all are."

Dozer's Adams apple bobbed, nervous. "Then why are you here?"

His damn logic. Phoenix kept the mental dagger pain hidden, jabbing deeper into his throat. "...We all have our faults."

"Hello, boys." They both snapped to the doorway, seeing Nurse Joy. She had her arms crossed a stern, mother-like brow raised.

Phoenix groaned while Dozer said what they were both thinking. "...Fuck."

Dolly sniffled while closed her dresser, hearing voices outside. What sparked her curiosity was it sounded like more than usual and it sounded like Nurse Joy was on the floor. She walked over to her door and cracked it, gasping just as the commotion passed by. Phoenix was flopped over a guy's shoulder like a sack of potatoes, another guy leading Dozer in cuffs. She stepped onto the hallway when heard yelling suddenly down the hallway. Past them, seeing a couple guys pulling Derek out from his room. He managed to kick one in the chest, sending them into the wall. Panting heavily, he turned to Nurse Joy and glared. His legs started to morph and go invisible when suddenly his body buckled back and started convulsing. Dolly covered her mouth when as she heard the taser crackle from here, hearing a few others in the hallway panic a little. The taser stopped and Derek's eyes rolled to the back of his head, collapsing to the ground. A guard unclipped and dropped the taser threads on the ground, few guards behind him came down the hallway towards Derek.

"Put him in the box." Nurse Joy murmured, "I'm sure he was missing being in there." She turned around, a few going back into the room automatically. Her warm smile sent chills down Dolly's spine, gripping the doorknob and debated herself to retreat. "Thanks for Derek's and Phoenix's incident today, we will be on a 24 hour lock down."

Dolly heard a couple of them groan or curse out-loud, some even slamming their doors. Dolly hiccuped a breath when a bulky guard was standing in front of her, "Back it up, sweetheart." He waved his gloved hand. Dolly frowned and stepped back into her room.

"I didn't get to eat yet today." She whispered.

"We'll figure it out." He nodded, shutting the door. A few beeps sounded then a loud humming came, Dolly already knowing it was the lockdown door. She rubbed her arms and turned back to her bed, getting sick memories. She thought if Phoenix's warm words but it quickly got thrown out when a deep rumble from above the door, she noticed the pictures on her walls began to shake. The lights flicked a little and the ground now had tremors, growing confused. "The building...?" She glanced back to her bedroom door, "Is it shifting again?"