A/N: This has been sitting on my flash drive for ages so I decided to edit and post it. I'm assuming that if you are reading Maximum Ride Fan Fiction that you have at least read The Angel Experiment, but to completely grasp the plot of this particular story you have to have read at least the first two books. I hope you enjoy! Also keep in mind that Fang does not have his own "flock" so to speak in this; but he does in ANGEL. Since I started this story before it was released, that was not taken into regard. As of this chapter, as well as the first few chapters, he is on his own and not with any members of the original Flock. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own Maximum Ride, James Patterson does. The plot however, as well as the characters Abby Goldwick and Rex, are of my own imagination. No spinoffs of this Fic, please.

Chapter One

I wake up on the cold metal floor of my dog crate. The place I go when I'm not forced to endure the horrible experiments. The painful injections, the brutal extensive exercise, the electrical shocks, the third degree burns… this is just the beginning of the ruthless testing I'm forced to go through. The white coats are the ones who do this. They call themselves "scientists" but all they really do is kill innocent people and animals. All they really do is kidnap children from loving parents and good homes, force them into cages, and turn them into freaks. At least that's what happened to me.

Let me slow down a bit in case you're lost. My name is Abby Goldwick. I was twelve years old when I was captured. I was just the same as any other girl in middle school, I had a good group of friends, a crush on the quarterback of the football team, I was an only child to a younger married couple we lived in a small house in New Mexico. I had a chocolate lab named Hershey and went to soccer practice twice a week. I wasn't particularly smart, pretty, or athletic, but I was comfortable with my life. I was average in almost everything I did. But then that all changed.

I still remember the night my parents told me about my "disease," when they told me I would be in the hospital for a while getting treatment. That's when they caught me. The "doctor" who had diagnosed me had a team waiting for me. They kidnapped me that night. I don't know what my parents think happened to me, but I'm sure by now everyone assumes I'm dead. I only wish that were the case.

I woke up in a dog crate, sweaty and exhausted. I was frozen. I couldn't move, couldn't breathe. My mind was swimming in endless circles of unanswered questions. The stinging, burning sensation of pain was engulfing my entire body. My shoulder blades felt like they'd been pricked with a million needles. Where was I? Why was I here? Why did they take me? All I wanted was to get out. To run. To get as far away from this horrible place as fast as I possibly could.

I tried to sit up in the confined space of the cage. I had to keep my head ducked down in order to do this, but I was able to despite how my head was spinning from the movement. That's when I noticed the wings. Huge bird wings tightly folded against my back. That's when I knew I was having a nightmare.

Except I wasn't.

I was dressed in a flimsy white nightgown like the ones they give to people who have to stay overnight in hospitals. The jeans and T-shirt I had worn to the doctor were nowhere in sight. I reached out to feel a few of my feathers. As I reached back to feel the new folded up limbs growing out of my back, they felt as soft and light as real bird feathers. Impossible. They were a few shades darker than my dirty blonde hair and were folded tightly against my back. I was afraid trying to move them would bring on a whole new wave of pain, so I kept still.

I looked around the room that surrounded my crate. It was longer than it was wide, almost like a hallway. The walls were the same stark white as the floor and ceiling. Dog crates like mine lined the longer walls and double doors were on each of the shorter walls. The room had the strong sterile smell of Lysol, it burned my nose. Inside the row of cages across from me were some of the most horrible creatures I'd ever seen. All of them were part human, or at least I think they were. Some were partially covered in slimy green scales, others had stripes like zebras. A few even had huge eyes as big as baseballs. There were other human hybrids as well but they were far too dreadful for me to even mention. Most disturbingly of all was that all the creatures looked like they had been children before they were turned into hideous beasts. I hoped I wasn't as dramatically changed as they were.

I looked down at the metal floor of my dog kennel, my face slightly distorted and blurry in the reflective aluminum. Thankfully, I saw the same familiar silver-green eyes staring back, the same sandy hair falling all the way to the center of my back. The same golden brown freckles sprinkled over the bridge of my nose. Same old Abby. But somehow I looked different; I was thinner, much thinner. I wasn't particularly chubby before but now I was practically skin and bones. I felt more alert; I had sharper eyesight and much better hearing. My skin was drained of all color, except my freckles that stayed on my nose even in the dead of winter. My stomach growled loudly, I could probably eat a horse. How long had I been passed out? When had I last eaten? The stiffness in my muscles suggests it had been much more than a single day.

"Hey there," I heard someone say in a hushed whisper-interrupting my thoughts. I saw a boy in the cage next to mine looking at me; it must have been he who had spoken. "Hi," I murmured. "What's your name?"

"Feline/human experiment 097."

"Oh...well I'm Abby. Do you know where we are?"

"I heard white coats talking about this place. They called it Itex. Don't let them know you know or they'll punish you."

As if on cue, a man in a white lab coat came up to me and scanned a card on a metal plate above my cage. A green light flashed above me and the door became loose but he didn't open it further, neither did I. He looked at me, looked at my wings, and then he checked something on his chart. "Avian/Human experiment 37, you're needed in lab 18. Follow me."

A/N: This is my first Fan Fiction uploaded so I hope you liked it! Please let me know you're reading! I would absolutely LOVE reviews and constructive criticism is greatly appreciated. Expect updates every couple of weeks, maybe sooner. I also realize that Fang was not in this chapter, but I guarantee he is in the next one, which I will go ahead and post now.