Hello, Hestia Ember typing, how may I help you?

Ha-ha. Well, hello to all you cool people who decided to read my fan fiction! Things you must understand:

A) This isn't my first fan fiction, but this is the first one that I've actually tried organizing (which means the first one I seriously plan to finish). So, you can flame all you like, but keep that in mind while you're doing it.

B) This is a story about another flock of bird kids. I'm going to try to stay original. And I'm going to call them "Ze Clutch". Clutch, for all of those who don't know, is a synonym of flock. Clever, aren't I?

C) This doesn't stick straight and narrow to the books. For one, instead of there being only two bird kids that the Flock finds, there are four of them (*coughoriginalnesspointscough*).

That's all I can think of for now. Oh! Andromeda is the main character. I'll reveal the other members of the Clutch in the chapter. So, enjoy!

Hello. My name is Andromeda.

If you are reading this, it means two things (one or the other) has happened. Either Maximum Ride has saved the world, and mutant's stories are being told, or she has been killed. Which means that the world has fallen to The Institute, and the By-Half plan has been carried out. By the end of my story, you will know what to do, in either scenario.

In Max's first story, when they were at The Institute of Higher Living, the Flock found a girl about her own age, who was just like them. I was that girl.

My life was different from the Flocks in many ways. First of all, I'd never seen the world outside of The Institute until the Flock freed us. Also, I didn't have to deal with many Erasers. I mean, I saw them all the time, seeing as they were security for The Institute, but, I didn't actually have to fight them. However, like them, I had never been taught how to fly.

But this isn't what you need to know right now. You need to know what happened after.

We made it to the Green Mountain Range without being caught. We we very lucky. Once we made it to a "safe" spot, we began to create a shelter, for the sick and dying.

I was in charge. No one else was in fit enough. The babies with the organs on the outside of their bodies had died, and the cat with the human eyes and fingers was very sick. Her name was Jordan. On our trek, she revealed to us that she was telepathic. Actually, half of the mutants who had escaped had died on the journey. We had buried them all. And the of remainder of us, half were sickly or too weak to help. Roy, the other bird child they had noticed (though not the only one they had released) was one of them.

He straggled up to me, looking as if he had battled with Death. And very nearly lost. " 'Dromeda, are we gonna be okay?" The poor child whimpered. I felt his forehead, sighing. Sure enough, it was warm, even for a mutant bird kid.

"I don't know Roy. But you should go have a drink and rest. There's a stream over there." I pointed to the left of me. " When your done, go and find Celia. She'll make you a matt." He nodded, and went of in the direction which I had pointed to.

As soon as he was gone, I yawned. Loudly and sleepily.

"You should rest." Said a voice behind me. I spun around, wearily. It's probably one of us, but you never know… I thought. But it was just a boy. He had brown eyes that observed me curiously, and ash blonde hair that looked like it had been slept on. He was about my height, and he had wings. Like Roy, Celia, and I. They were grey, like the heaviest of storm clouds. And my reaction to discovering that they had released a bird kid I knew nought about? Blinking.

"Who are you?" Ah, ever to the point, young Dromeda. He grinned sheepishly.

"Oh, yeah. My name's Vine." Odd… I thought. But there were weirder names out there. Take mine, for example. Named after a Greek princess who was almost sacrificed by her parent's to an evil sea monster, but then rescued by a child of Zeus. Yep, that sounds about right, except for the part about being rescued. The boy didn't seem to notice my reaction to his name however. He just kept talking.

"We've never met of course. But it seems you're our leader. And a leader always needs a loyal friend, right?" He stretched out his hand. And I eyed it. The last thing I needed was an enemy spy becoming my right hand man. But the boy was right. I needed everyone I could get. So I took his hand.

That simple act changed all of our lives forever.

"Right. Well, I'm gonna go over to the shelter. Make sure that- well, the others are either getting treated, or helping in some way." And so we started to go our separate ways. And then I remembered something. Or rather, someone. Roy.

"Wait!" Vine turned around. He didn't say anything, but the look on his face said What on earth? I thought this girl was a strong, leader type of person?

"Sorry, it's just... there's this little guy, like -well, like us- and a little while ago, I told him to go and get some water, and to go to bed. But the thing is, he looked sick. So I was wondering if you would, you know..." I trailed off. I was feeling like an idiot, rambling on and on, but Vine's face had cleared up. As in, he didn't think I was a weirdo anymore, or something.

" To make sure he gets to the shelter? Of course. How do I know who he is?"

"Oh... well, he's got red hair, he's about five, comes up to my waist, and has black and white wings. Like, like, um... an Osprey, I think they're called. Thank you Vine."

And then I left.

***

As I made my way to the shelter, I passed a lot of mutants. Some were talking in low voices, glancing up at me as I passed. Others were going to the shelter, or away from it. Some of the ones who were going my way were carrying sick, dying, or sleeping mutants with them. All in all, the mood was grim. We all had candles with us, because it was too dangerous to have camp fires. We could be found by park rangers, or even worse, Erasers. Plus, I wasn't sure if there were enough well mutants to keep the fires from spreading into the brambles. So, yeah, it was just candles. Anyway, as soon as I arrived at the shelter, Celia grabbed me by the hand.

"There you are 'Dromeda! I've been looking all over for you!"

"It's nice to see you too, Celia. Have you seen Roy?"

"No... was I supposed to?" Oh, crap. Look's like I'll have to depend on Vine after all.

"Well, yeah. If you see another bird kid, about my age with him, that's Vine. I told him to make sure Roy got here."

"I know who Vine is, 'Dromeda." I gaped at her.

"And you just decided not to tell me there was another one of us when we were at the Institute?" She shuffled her little feet, then peered up at me guiltily. Being a pushover, I softened. After all, she was only eight.

"It never came up!"

"It's okay. Are there others like us that I should know about?"

"No."

"Good. How's healing been going for ya?" Instantly, her face brightened. This was something she felt easily about. After all, her mutant abilitys included being able to tell how healthy one is. And figuring out how to fix what's wrong with unhealthy ones.

"It's so cool! I feel right at home! I bet that sounds weird, but it's true." Suddenly, she grabbed my hand. Lovely. Now she's gonna tell me to go to bed. Bossed around by an eight year old. Never thought I'd see the day. You see, Celia needs hand to hand contact for her ability to work.

"You should sleep." She murmmered. "Your overworked." Then she opened her brown eyes. "There's a cott in the right-hand corner that's free. Use it." I grinned. Bossy Celia is back.

"Yes ma'am. I came over here to sleep, you know. A certian boy you forgot to talk about at the Institute told me rather the same." She just rolled her eyes and pointed to the cott in question.

"Sleep. Now." So I trudged over to the corner, curled up on the mutant made cott, and drifted into a suprisingly peaceful sleep.

So, what do you think? You've met all of the Clutch members, and know what most of them look like, except for Celia, who will be described in full in the next chapter. Remember, all points of veiw are welcome in reviews. So review... please???

Thank you for your time. Hestia Ember out.