LifeWild
Chapter 9: Pilgrimage

“May I carry the bags, Haley?” Arthur asks after only a few moments.

“We can share the chore.” She replies, handing him the dufflebag. “I’d like to help, too.”

“I know,” he begins. “It’s just that I was made for this sort of thing. I am supposed to carry things and do heavy lifting.”

She has been waiting for what seems like forever to ask for more information about him and now seems like the perfect opportunity.

“Can you tell me about the place we are going, Arthur?” She asks with the goal of not only getting an answer to her question but of finding out more about him as well.

He thinks for a few moments.

“It’s called the Compound by everyone there. It is basically a fairly large building, much like a warehouse. It is very plain looking with windows towards the top of the walls and a set of double doors at the front entrance. There are also two sets of garage doors on the right side of the main doors. The building is surrounded on all sides for at least one hundred feet by open ground, no trees or anything, just dirt. Beyond is a tall chain link fence with barbed wire running along the top. Outside of the fence it is just forest and mountain. They would take me outside once or twice a week for various reasons. It is the only time I was allowed out there. I believe this place is really isolated. There was only one dirt road leading up there, and I couldn’t see or smell any signs of civilization besides the town several miles away.”

“I am pretty sure that is Gunnison,” she informs him.

“That name does sound familiar.” He agrees. “I believe I’ve heard the technicians say it on more than one occasion.” He continues. “We never left the Compound and most of the time we were kept below ground. The whole place is actually a lot bigger than it looks from the outside. There are several labs which we would be taken to for various reasons. They were constantly doing blood tests and hooking us up to monitors and performing stress tests on our bodies. There are rooms we would be taken into to perform certain tasks and practice the skills they were teaching us. There is the viewing room where we would be required to sit and watch educational videos every day. We learned to read and write and pretty much everything else we know from those videos. We were taught how to serve a master, and what our main purpose is for the masters we will receive. Each of us had a room designed for us to practice the skills we need for the activities we are supposed to be able to perform. I am a laborer. They created me to lift and carry heavy things and be able to use my strength for a wide variety of tasks, so they made me spend a lot of time in a room carrying and moving concrete blocks and sliding this huge slab of metal around the room. The times they had me outside were actually for training. I had to run ten miles at a time, I had to dig and fill holes, drag large slabs of concrete from place to place and I was even the one who removed all of the tree trunks from the yard.”

“When we weren’t training, we were locked in our rooms. They are really quite small. They are about ten feet long and probably six or seven feet wide. Each room has a cot with a small foam mattress, a small table by the bed, a sink and a toilet. We would be in there for twelve to fourteen hours a day. All of these rooms are in the same area of the Compound. They are underground, like most of the rooms in this place seem to be, and isolated from the rest of the facility. The only time we saw or heard the technicians was when they were coming to get one of us.”

Haley is beyond shocked by what she has been hearing. She can’t believe a place like this even exists. She feels so sorry Arthur was ever there at all. She is more eager than before to try to help the others like him. She has so many questions she’s not sure where to start.

“Arthur,” she begins, “you said you were all made to have certain traits and you were made to be a laborer and learn certain skills to be able to accomplish certain tasks, right?”

“That’s right,” he answers.

“And you are taught how to serve a master.” She is putting it all together in her head. “It sounds like you are being raised to be a slave for somebody. Did they ever tell you about who your master was going to be?”

He looks like he is considering her question and then decides something which saddens him a little.

“We were never referred to as being slaves, although since you brought it up, I can see where the connection can be made, and it sounds pretty close to the truth. Especially in my case, since I am trained to do hard labor for my master.

“The technicians constantly told us we were not like normal people. They said we would never be accepted as one of them. We were told what we were made to do is serve the greater good by being for these people what had never been possible before. We were created to be the perfect companions for them. We can be their friends and their protectors. We can help them with whatever they need and we can entertain them in different ways. Our purpose is to provide for the needs of our masters, but not need much from them in return.”

She is actually more appalled than she was before. She finds it hard to believe there is actually a place doing this, but then again, she wouldn’t have been able to believe babies could have been sold on the black market as an adoption scheme until it happened to her.

“Arthur, it sounds like you and the others are supposed to be pets for people! That’s so wrong! This can’t be legal. How do they have permission to do this?”

“I don’t know, Haley.” He answers in a sad and distant tone. “We were all raised like this is normal and the way life should be for us. It was not until a few years ago we began to realize life there wasn’t normal and there was something very wrong about the way we were being treated. The problem still remained. We were different. We would be freaks in the real world. We felt trapped and began to assume the life we were created for was our best option.”

She looks at him again. He is extremely tall with an unusually wide face and prominent nose and jaw. His short legs and great muscular features are certainly unusual. She does recall wondering if he was a monster when she first saw him, but now she has gotten to know him, and she doesn’t think he is so different people would second guess his humanity or call him a freak. She hopes she is not feeling this way because his personality is coloring the way she sees him.

“Do the others look like you also?” She asks. “I don’t think you would have too much trouble fitting in if you were in public. They might think you are really tall and super strong, but if I found you some better fitting clothing, they would probably not think anything more of it.” She smiles as she says this last part. “After all, it looks like you found your clothes in a lost and found box.”

Her smile reminds him how beautiful she is. He tells himself he needs to make her smile much more often.

“I am pretty sure these clothes are the latest in fashion. Soon everyone hiking through the mountains on a rescue mission will be wearing them.”

She lets out a chuckle and jumps up to grab his hat. She puts it on.

“Look, its catching on already.” She pretends to be modeling on the runway, showing off her hat and sweatshirt. She is startled by a loud rumbling. She turns around to see Arthur laughing for the first time since she has met him. She models a little longer to keep the moment going. She can’t quite explain it, but she finds herself wanting to make him smile as much as possible. She feels good when he is happy, like the troubles of her world melt away.

He notices it is becoming quite light out.

“I think we should probably stop for a while and eat.” He says as he sets down the dufflebag by a nice sized aspen tree. “You are still recovering and need to take time to heal. We should probably sleep as well. We’ve been up most of the night.”

She hadn’t been paying attention to how tired and hungry she really was until it was brought to her attention.

“Sounds good to me.” She says in a pleasing tone. “I’ll get the food.”

After sitting down next to the tree and unzipping the dufflebag; she pulls out two bananas, two bottles of water and a loaf of sourdough bread. As Arthur sits down beside her, she hands him a water bottle, a banana and the bread, after ripping off a small chunk of bread for herself. Their hunger shows in the fact they are silent while they eat their meal together. As she finishes her portion, her eyelids become too heavy for her to hold open any longer and she falls asleep. Her head leans over and rests upon Arthur’s shoulder. He is a little surprised at the fact this sends a pleasant chill through his body. He does his best to adjust slightly to make himself a little more comfortable but trying not to disturb her in the process. He then closes his eyes. He takes a deep breath, filling his nostrils with her smell and listening for the sounds of her deep breathing. As he falls asleep, he realizes a month ago, he never could have imagined life could ever feel this nice. He doesn’t ever want this moment to end.

It is mid afternoon when she awakens. The sun is flickering down on her through the aspen leaves as they sway in the gentle breeze. While she slept, Haley had slid down onto Arthur’s lap. She notices when he breathes, it sounds like ocean waves slowly coming into shore; it is very soothing. As she sits up and stretches her arms, she notices her water bottle is still sitting beside her and she takes a large drink. She does not recognize where she is. There are no roads or other signs of civilization nearby, so she figures they must have entered the Gunnison National Forest already. They must have walked farther than she had realized.

“How do you feel?” He breaks the silence of the moment.

“I feel pretty good. I slept really well. How about you?” She wonders if he was even tired or if he was just stopping for her.

“I haven’t slept that well in a long time.” The words rumbling nicely in her ears. “Maybe it’s all the fresh air I’ve been getting lately.” He is pretty sure it is because of her, but he is not sure what that means, so he doesn’t think he should mention it until he figures it out.

“It is nice out here,” she begins. “How far have we gone so far?”

“I’m guessing we walked about six miles last night. Judging by where the sun came up, I would say we went mostly south the whole time.” He knew they’d gone in a reasonably straight line, because he had observed there were two mountain peaks on the horizon line in the direction they needed to go when they left the resort and he’d kept them in front of him the entire time. When the sun came up to his left, he figured out they had been going south.

“That’s about what I figured, as well. We certainly got off to a good start.” She says, impressed. “I will look at the map and see what we should do next. Then we should probably eat a little more and get going.”

She pulls out the last three bananas so they can eat them before they go bad and a couple of apples. She also pulls out a can of sardines and begins to hand it to him. His face becomes a little uncertain and she would almost say a little scared, but he reaches out to take the sardines anyway.

“Oh, you don’t need to take them,” she laughs. “I just brought them along as a joke.” She laughs again. “Here, have a couple of bananas and an apple.” His face regains some of its color and his easy going demeanor returns.

“I don’t mind sardines,” he states, trying to sound convincing.

“I can tell,” she says through a big smile. “Your face had ‘I love sardines’ written all over it.”

She takes a bite out of one of the apples as she begins to unfold the map she brought. She finds the resort and traces her finger southward six miles. Her finger is fairly deep in the National Forest, just like she figured. She notes highway 135 is about four miles to the east and Gunnison is around fourteen miles due south. She traces her finger up from Gunnison about seven miles and uses the stem of the apple to poke two small holes in the map marking the approximate east-west range they would probably have to use to search for the Compound.

“It looks like we need to go another seven miles south and then we will have about a four mile stretch of area to search.” She indicates on the map the place where she poked the holes.

“It’s a lot smaller than a town, so it’s not as easy to locate from far away, but once we’re within two or three miles, near the area you marked, I should be able to smell the Compound.”

“That will definitely make it easier.” She agrees wholeheartedly. “That will probably save us several hours. Shall we go then? We can probably be pretty close by nightfall.”

“Yes, let’s get going.” He reaches out his hand and helps her up and grabs the dufflebag and slings it onto his shoulder.

She estimates they have been walking for a couple of hours now. She figures they have about one or two more hours before the sun sets. The moon is in its waning phase and will not provide the same amount of light it has been for the last several days. Her best guess is they should be close to their destination at dusk or soon after. If not, they will probably have to stop for the night.

They have been walking mostly in silence during this time. She has been thinking about the place they are heading, unsure of what they are going to do when they get there. The place is surrounded by a tall fence covered in barbed wire and if most of the building is underground, there are probably not very many ways to get inside. She hopes Arthur has a few ideas. She is pretty sure he can muscle his way pretty far into the Compound, but she is worried they might have ways to defend themselves he might not know about. She doesn’t want anyone to get hurt.

Wondering if the others will be able to help once they are inside, she remembers she had wanted to know more about them, but Arthur hadn’t told her anything yet.

She breaks the silence. “Arthur, what are the others like? The ones we are going to try to help?”

He smiles. He looks like he is looking forward to talking about them.

“Well, there are about twenty of us total. There are four more who are sixteen, like me, five who are twelve, five who are 8 and five more who are four years old.”

Arthur’s age surprises Haley a little, she assumed he was a bit older, but more startling is the revelation about the other groups.

“There are young kids there?” She cannot believe it.

“We are kept away from the different age groups.” Arthur continues. “I would see them occasionally when I was being moved from one place to another and would pass by a room they were in. I was never allowed to interact with them, though. I could only be around the ones my age, and even then we weren’t allowed to do too much together.”

“All twenty of us have been in the Compound since we were born. It is the only place we have ever known, except for me. Where I’ve been these last couple of weeks is the furthest I have ever been from there.”

“Can you tell me about all of them?” She asks, wanting to know more.

“I don’t know very much about the younger ones.” He seems disappointed he might be letting her down. “I do know all about the ones my age, though, and I can tell you more about why we are the way we are.”

“We are all created to fulfill the potential needs of a future master. We are basically human, but our genes have been combined with the genes of various animals to enhance certain characteristics. Each of us is designed to fit into one of the four categories. Some of us are built for sport, some of us for recreation, some for companionship and some, like me, for hard work and heavy lifting. The master I am designed to serve would be one who needs brute strength and stamina. I was told I would probably work on a farm or in construction or even as a bodyguard. My genes have been combined with the genes of a grizzly bear, so I will excel in these areas. Enhancing my build and muscle structure were the main goals, but I, and the others as well, have acquired other characteristics as a result of our creation. It seems I have anger issues whenever someone I am close to is hurting or in danger. I have been finding this out recently.”

Haley figures he is referring to the time she was telling him about Brent’s attack and feels a mix of emotions from Arthur’s words. She thinks it is nice he considers her someone he is close to, but she also remembers how scary it was when he was upset. She still hopes the situation never comes up again.

Arthur continues his story.

“As I was growing up, I was taught serving someone was the greatest honor and to have a master would mean I had fulfilled my destiny. I bought into this idea so deeply when I was younger, I would work as hard as I could each and every day hoping someday I would be good enough for someone to choose me. It’s how life works, at least I thought so at the time. I found out later we were just being manipulated so we would keep in line and increase our chances of becoming chosen.”

Haley is trying to absorb all of this the best she can. She finds so much of it beyond what she has ever known. It makes sense to her Arthur is part grizzly bear. She doesn’t know why she didn’t see it before, probably because it is not anything she could have ever imagined. She looks at him again and it is abundantly clear to her now. She also understands now how the unique conditions and isolated manner in which he was raised would make him so knowledgeable in some areas, but in others, clueless. She suddenly wishes she hadn’t asked about him and the others. Arthur as a friend was all she saw before, an incredible and unusual friend, but Arthur all the same. Now she sees a part bear, part human creation of some corrupt technicians. She hates how her mind has done this to her. He has been nothing but wonderful to her and she likes him very much. Telling herself the conditions he grew up in and the way he was treated at the time is what makes him what he is today, she thinks she just needs to get used to all of this new information and then everything will be fine again. She really does like him and can’t imagine this new information could really change things. She decides the best thing to do at this time is to refocus on what they are about to do.

“Are the others part grizzly like you?” Haley asks, thinking again about the rescue from the Compound. It would be much easier if they were, at least while they were leaving.

“No,” he says, “I am the only one my age, but I do know there is a twelve year old and an eight year old like me. I have seen them.”

“The others my age,” he continues to answer her question, “are each combined with a different animal, and from what I have seen, it looks like it is this way with the younger ones as well.”

“One of the others my age is Timothy. His genes have been combined with the genes of an otter. His body is long and flexible and the hair on his body is thick, wiry, water resistant and it all lays in the same direction. He is an excellent swimmer and can stay underwater for minutes at a time and he can out swim most fish. He was created to be used for either sport or for recreational purposes. For sport, he can race against others like him, or against just about anything else in the water.”

Haley clarifies, “Like dog or horse racing?”

“Yeah,” Arthur agrees. “Although I don’t know why anyone would race against him, though, he is amazingly fast in the water.”

“So, what does it mean he could be recreational?” She envisions playing games or fun activities.

“Actually, all of us were told we might be used for recreational purposes. I never thought it would be too bad at all. It sounds kind of fun. If the master we would serve wanted us for recreation, we would basically hang around with and be involved in whatever activities they were involved in and find ways to make it more fun or exciting. If our master was a runner, we could run with them. If he was into watching movies at home, we could watch with them and talk about it or make snacks during the movie, or whatever. The things our master would be into, we would be into as well.”

“What if you didn’t enjoy the things your master was into?” Haley doesn’t think it sounds fun, but it does sound better than doing hard labor or being forced to compete, so she understands why Arthur would not mind the choice as much.

“It wouldn’t matter if I liked it or not.” His look became darker as he spoke the words. “If we have a master, his needs are what would matter, not ours.”

Arthur is silent for a while. He does not like how he is so programmed to respond a certain way to certain situations. He should be able to make his own decisions and so should the others. Feeling himself becoming angry at the things they did to him, he takes several deep breaths and focuses on the day he was upset when Haley was in his arms. He has to be able to control his anger. He would never want to accidentally hurt her, but if he can’t remain calm and in control, he might. He thinks of her smile and breathes in her scent and he finds himself regaining his composure.

Haley notices Arthur has become serious and maybe even agitated. She hopes talking more about these others will cheer him up.

“What is Timothy like?”

His smile returns as he continues.

“He is funny and somewhat of a trickster. We never really had opportunities to do too much together, but whenever we were in the same room, he would try to make us laugh. He is always trying to pull pranks on the technicians, too. One time, the technicians were having him do his swim training and he pretended he hit the side of the pool and he sank to the bottom of the deep end and remained there motionless. Timothy told us three of the technicians dove in the water, clothes and all, and were trying to get down to him and he suddenly swam up to the surface, sprung out of the pool and waited for them to resurface. When they did come up, he asked them if they had lost something. We didn’t see him for a few weeks after that incident.”

Haley lets out a laugh.

“Timothy sounds like he’s fun to be around. I can’t wait to meet him. Who else am I going to get to know?”

“Well,” he pauses, trying to think of who to mention next. “Jasele is also made for sport, most likely racing. Her genes are combined with those of the cheetah. She is really tall and thin and much of her body is covered with freckles. She has darkened circles under her eyes, making her look like she is overtired, but they never go away. The palms of her hands and the soles of her feet have a really thick, leathery surface so she can run on all fours. She uses her fingers and toes for gripping and pushing off of the surface as she runs. She learned from the technicians her heart and lungs are enlarged for the ability to use large amounts of energy efficiently. She can reach speeds of ninety-five miles per hour, but only for short periods of time, because her heart causes her body temperature to increase rapidly when she is running and she has to stop and cool down often.”

Haley is fascinated by all of this. She hadn’t really thought any of them could be females.

“Is she more like you or Timothy?” Her voice projecting her eagerness to find out more.

“She is very nice, but really impulsive.” He states with a hint of sadness in his voice. “She tends to act first and not think things through. I am not much like her in that respect. She also gets lonely and seems happiest when we are all together. I always felt bad for her whenever we would have to go back to our rooms. She would get such a sad look on her face. More than once she would run ahead of the technicians and try to hide in one of our rooms so she wouldn’t have to go to hers. It always made things worse though, because they would then keep her isolated for longer periods of time. Sometimes we could hear her crying late at night.”

Haley feels like she might cry as well. She is not sure what kind of place would do this to anyone, but she is more determined than ever to succeed in getting everyone out of there.

“Is she the only female in your group?”

“Actually, the other two, Penelope and Laila, are also females.” He informs her. “Timothy and I are the only males.”

“Really?” She finds herself anxious to find out more. “Can you tell me about them?”

“Of course,” he answers. “Laila is the quiet one in our group. Her genes are combined with those of a vesper bat. She is fairly small, about five feet tall, but her upper body and arms are quite muscular. Her vision is not the best, but she doesn’t need glasses since she uses echolocation to accentuate her eyesight. I think this is why she sleeps most of the day and stays up nights. She can rely more on her ears than her eyes. Her ears are built for echolocation. They are a bit larger than everyone else’s and they are teardrop shaped. They are a very obvious feature, so she has grown her hair long and she tends to wear it over her ears whenever possible.”

“Can she fly?” Haley finds herself very interested in Laila.

“Yes and no,” Arthur begins. “Her frame is built for it and she is muscular enough, but she doesn’t have wings. I am not sure if the technicians couldn’t figure out how to get her wings or if they thought it would make her too non-functional when she wasn’t flying, but she is wingless and can’t fly on her own. They did create a harness for her, though; it is designed to work like wings. She just slips it on like a jacket. Her hands fit into special gloves which extend the reach of each wing and that is all she needs.”

“Wow,” Haley is impressed. “Did you ever see her fly?”

“Quite a few times.” Arthur recalls. “When I was working in the outer yard, sometimes I could see her up in the sky flying around. She wasn’t supposed to fly to far from the Compound, though. The technicians must have put something in the vest, because she would tell us if she started to lose sight of the building, she started feeling a shock which would get stronger and stronger until she came back into the yard. I have a bad feeling the shocks are going to cause her to crash sometime. Between that and her fragile nature, I worry for her a lot.” His throat rumbles lightly as he remembers the last time he saw her flying overhead.

“What do you mean by fragile?” Haley wonders.

“Her bones are very light and brittle.” He tells her. “It is one of the reasons she can fly. The trouble is when she is not flying, she has to be careful. She has had broken bones on at least a dozen occasions. Usually from a bad landing, or falling on the stairs or something, but I know of at least one time it wasn’t an accident. A few years ago, two of the technicians had forgotten to hook up the vest so it would keep her within a certain distance. She had gone out to practice flying around and went farther than usual. Laila told us later she didn’t even realize she had gone as far as she had, she was just enjoying the sun and the feel of the wind on her face. She said when she did realize how far she’d gone, she came right back because she thought she would get into trouble. It turns out she was right. The technicians started yelling at her and accusing her of running away. She tried to explain, but they weren’t listening. They probably were trying to cover the fact they had made a mistake. They grabbed her and slammed her into the ground. She broke both of her wrists and her leg. They reported it as a landing accident.”

Haley feels a little sick. She is having trouble dealing with the terrible way all of them are treated in this place. She stops and leans against a nearby aspen tree.

Arthur turns to stand beside her.

“Are you alright?” He says in a concerned voice.

“Yeah,” her reply is a little weak. “It just seems really awful what you all have been through, and the younger ones probably have to deal with the same things you do, too.”

“It is awful, and I am so glad I am not in there right now. I never want to be in that position again. It is exactly why I have to go back, though. I could never live with myself if I didn’t do everything I could to try to help the others get out of there. If it helps, though, the world of the compound was all I knew until a few years ago. I never knew life was any different, and I especially didn’t think I deserved any different life than the one I was made for. We are raised to believe this is what we are and what we do. If the younger ones are being raised the same way I was, then they probably do not even know how badly they are being treated, much less know they deserve more than they are being told. I still want to help each and every one of them, but in the meantime, I find solace in the fact they do not yet know the truth.”

“Thank you, it does make it a little easier to handle,” she nods, “I just got flashbacks of Brent hitting me back at my campsite while you were talking about Laila, and I could barely stand thinking about it. For me, it was the only time someone did something like that to me. All of you have to deal with it on a regular basis. The sooner we get everyone else out of there, the better.”

“Sounds good to me,” Arthur agrees. They begin to walk in silence. He hasn’t really figured out a plan yet. Still, he hopes they are successful.

“You haven’t told me about Penelope yet.” Her statement pulling Arthur from his thoughts.

“You’d like Penelope.” His face brightens as he speaks. “She is easy to get along with and has a calm, peaceful demeanor. Her genes were combined with gray wolf genes. She is taller than most of the technicians, but not quite as tall as I am, probably a little over six feet. Her hair is a mix of black and white, kind of like pepper and it is really thick. Her back and legs are really muscular and she can run faster than any of us, except for Jasele, of course. She has a narrow face, compared to mine, and piercing dark eyes, but her teeth are one of the more obvious features of her face. They are sharper than the average person’s and are really white.”

“I’ve always thought wolves were beautiful animals.” Haley adds, and then wonders if what she just said might hurt Arthur’s feelings. “Wolves and bears have always been my favorites. They have such noble looks. It’s like they are the wise elders of their domain.”

“I’d say that’s probably true of Penelope. She always takes things very well and is usually the one who keeps us all level headed. She often tells us we are a family, the five of us, and we have to look out for each other, and she’s right. I never had a mother or father, or any sisters or brothers. They are the closest thing I have ever had.”

“As families go Arthur, it sounds like they are pretty good siblings.” She says in a reassuring tone. “I don’t have any brothers or sisters, though, so you’ll have to share yours with me.”

“Another girl?” He teases. “Now Timothy and I will really be outnumbered.”

He’s not sure why, but he feels a tinge of sadness Haley is identifying herself in a sister category. He thinks this should make him happy, so he is confused it is not.

She smiles at him.

“Don’t worry, Arthur, you will always get my vote.” Her smile widens and she winks at him.

He suddenly figures out why he doesn’t want her to think of him as a brother. His face reddens to a point where he can feel the warmth emanating from his cheeks. He tries to change the focus of the moment by turning his head and smelling the air around them.

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