There was a soft hum emanating from the refrigerator, filling every silence filled gap, accompanied by the trill of rhythmic breathing and darting eyes. The five sat against the white painted cabinets, twiddling their thumbs and searching for some kind of answer to their question. The humming continued to grow louder, as if the fridge was threatening to fly away, giving them and their scheming away to the scientists and their monsters.
"So... we can never eat again?" Chandler finally squeaked, startling the rest of the group. Raven pulled her brother closer to her, causing Chandler to look at her instead of the fridge that sat directly in front of him. Raven made no sound, but tried to give Chandler a reassuring smile as she wrapped her arms around him, keeping him near, a protective mother's embrace.
"That would be too suspicious." Jason sighed, crossing his arms and leaning his head back against the cabinet handle. "This is why I have never brought it up before..." He remarked in an agitated and gruff tone. He knew Raven felt negatively toward him, and keeping this secret put another notch in the wanting-to-kill-Jason bucket of feelings she carried around with her. But by now, he realized, as he noted Raven's maternal tendencies, that it was not so much himself that Raven disliked, but the danger constantly surrounded her little brother that put her in a constant nasty mood.
Jason glanced over at Emma, who sat to his left. She was someone he wanted to protect. Yet, even in the midst of this serious conversation, Jason felt Emma's mind fixated on Logan. She was supposed to be the damsel in distress, and yet she is so determined to be the one playing the hero when it comes to the military robot that is her boyfriend.
With the beginning of a headache, Jason reached his arm to his right, punching Travis right in his shoulder. "Ow." Travis said, now looking at Jason instead of his tapping sock-feet. "That was a little rough."
"You said you had ideas."
"Ah..." Travis, now fully aware of what was going on, felt his face grow warm. Even though he had a nearly spotless track record for winning everyone over, and carrying the kind of charisma that would shock the president into a standing ovation, he had changed. In this place, he constantly dreamed and relived the ways he hurt others, sending him into a desperate spiral of self-hate and self-doubt. Something about being number one just was not fun for him anymore, and, as the old song says, one truly is the loneliest number.
"Travis..." Jason snapped his finger in front of Travis' face. "We need something... anything."
Everyone turned their attention to Travis, eyes trained and hopeful. "It's okay, just breathe for a moment." Emma soothed, reaching past Jason to lay a comforting hand on Travis's arm, a reassuring smile playing at her lips. Travis' mind grew gentler, and Emma withdrew her hand. She did not know she had this affect on others, but everyone else could see she was the kind of girl everyone fell in love with, if at least for a moment.
Travis stood up, brushing down his arms as if dust had collected upon his grey, long-sleeved shirt. "Well, what we first need to do is find a way to switch our food around with their new super-humans', that way they will be the ones who eat the tranquilizers, not us." In a professorial kind of way, Travis pulled open the fridge, and was met with a series of vegetables, fruits, and meats.
"It's not like we can just switch some labels around..." Jason remarked, feeling superior by his knowledge of the refrigerator, even though no one really took note of it.
"That's okay, I have a back-up plan." He said, nosing around in the fridge until there was a short click and Travis turned around, holding a tray full of tubes that held beige colored slime. "We eject this stuff into all of the meat, and at meals we simply won't eat meat."
"Still suspicious." Jason retorted, growing annoyed in his growing exhaustion.
"No, it's not." Emma chimed in. "From now on, we will be on the Daniel diet." To this, no one spoke, and instead gave Emma a strange look. "You know, Daniel from the Bible? Didn't eat meat? Beat everyone who did?" Still no response. "My mother is very religious." She confessed, no longer interested in defending herself.
After a moment of awkward silence, Travis took a deep breath and exclaimed, "Exactly!" Travis looked at the others, his head bobbing up and down ever so slightly. "We are all very religious, aren't we?"
The other three looked amongst each other and slowly nodded their heads, accepting this plan as their last hope.
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