Page 47 of Strays
“We just established you like all foods, Jay,” Shane replies.
“True,” Jay says back, dead serious.
For a moment, none of us speaks. Then Jo’s voice breaks the quiet. “How… how was it in the Stray Program? Bureau always brags about it in his books, but he never really says what methods he used to make packs.”
It’s not my favorite subject. I shift a little, my sleeping bag crackling under me.
“I don’t know the science behind it,” I tell her. “Had something to do with nyra’s synthetic pheromones. We had these devices on the walls of our pack house, pumping that shit into the air all the time. And then there were all the tests and tasks they made us do.”
Jay’s voice comes from where he’s stretched out across the foot of her bed. “They called it behavioral training,” he says. “They never really explained anything to us, but from what I overheard, the research team thought if they put us in extreme situations, we’d have no choice but to rely on each other, even if we weren’t blood.”
Jo’s voice has this edge of doubt and curiosity that makes me picture her eyebrows drawn tight together even though I can’t see her. “Extreme? Like what?”
“Each test was different,” I reply. “It’s difficult to explain.”
“Tell me one of them,” she says.
We fall silent for a moment. Definitely not a comfortable conversation for any of us. I’m racking my brain trying to choose an easy one to tell her whenShane’s voice comes from the other side of her bed.
“There’s the one from the day we knew we’d become a pack,” he says. His voice is a little clipped, restrained enough for me to know he’s as uncomfortable as I am.
“Oh, that sounds interesting,” Jo says. “How old were you when you became a pack?”
“It was three days after my thirteenth birthday. Jay was thirteen too, and Shane was twelve,” I tell her.
We go quiet again.
“So? How was it?” she presses.
I hear Jay sigh before he answers her. “We were stuck with Melissa Meyer, the post-grad who had to watch us that day. We had these devices strapped to our arms, with needles jammed into the backs of our elbows pulling blood data in real time. The test was simple: walk barefoot across broken glass. Once we reached the other side, they’d patch us up and let us go back to the pack house to eat and play video games.”
The bed creaks, and even in the dark I can see her silhouette shifting as she sits up. “Are you serious?”
“Well, yeah,” Jay says. “Why?”
Her voice is sharp now. “Are you telling me they tortured you in the Program?”
“Uh, no,” I say. “They didn’t torture us. The tests were hard, but that’s just how the Program worked. Everyone went through the same ones, it wasn’t just us.”
“Are you kidding me?” she snaps. “That only means they put all the kids in the Program through the same kind of abuse. I always knew Bureau was a bastard, but I never thought he’d be sadistic, hurting gregalis kids like that!”
“Maybe you’re right,” Jay says, his voice calm. I can feel the subtle shift in the air from the soothing pheromones he’s releasing. He’s so used to doing it when one of us gets agitated that he’s probably doing it for Jo out of habit, even though, as far as I know, it doesn’t work the same on nyras.
“But as hard as the tests were, they worked. That’s what matters most,” he goes on. “Anyway, I don’t remember how long we were there that day, but it was hours. Breakfast had been ages before, and I was hungry as hell again. But we’d already done the same test once; we knew how bad it hurt, so we stalled. Until Shane snapped.”
“I didn’t snap,” Shane argues, sounding a little offended. “I was bored.”
“Whatever,” Jay replies. “The important part is, Shane stood up and ran across the glass. But when he reached the other side, instead of going through the door to the medical bay to get his feet patched up and head home, he stopped and looked at us, and it just happened.”
“I still remember it,” I say, my voice dropping. “It was like getting struck bylightning. My whole body buzzed and I just ran without thinking. Only when I reached the other side did I realize Jay had followed too, and we’d crossed it together. And then Melissa was squeaking like a mouse, and in no time half the research team was fussing over us. Turns out, our pheromonal system had changed. Shane was able to trigger a call strong enough to make us follow, and we were able to perceive and respond to it. That was the first real sign we’d become a pack.”
Jo’s voice is a little shaky when she speaks again. “I’m so sorry. I had no idea it was like that in the Program. I always thought a research compound wasn’t the best place for kids, but I never imagined they’d put you through this kind of thing.”
“It’s okay,” I say, trying to reassure her. “Jay’s right. All that matters is that it worked. The tests in the Program were nothing compared to what would’ve happened to us if we’d stayed solitary.”
I hear her take a deep breath, her silhouette shifting again as she lies back down. “I know. But there had to be another way to do it without putting kids through that.”
I have no idea if she’s right or not, so I don’t say anything. It’s useless to argue about it anyway, what’s done is done.
