Ch1: Doctor, what's my mission?
"Do you remember anything about that day, the day the experiments escaped?" He asked, his dark eyes boring into mine.
"You've asked me this before, and I'll tell you again. I don't remember anything about that day except waking up with a welt on my head. Yep, that one that you gave me," I lied. The day was too personal to tell and, besides, I did remember it clearly.
It had begun like any other, with me running laps inside of the gym with the other experiments. I remember running with five other experiments, now I ran with one.
If my memories hadn't betrayed me yet, the other experiments were wonderful characters. One had long dark hair that fell at his shoulders; another had a lanky, slim build with pale green eyes. Two of them, had glowing blond hair and bright blue eyes; and another had long, curly brown hair that ran well past her shoulders. I had never forgotten them.
We had been exercising as they normally had us do, when out of the corner of my eye, a dark figure slipped out of the room but before I could turn around and go get him, my arm was yanked and in front of me stood a tall man in a white lab coat that I now knew as the man sitting across from me, Dr. Huey.
He grabbed my arm and led me to a machine that was set in a small room that had glass walls on opposing sides, The whole time he led me, I kept glancing through the glass at the people who were slowly disappearing from the gym and how I was stuck in an examination room. I wanted to go after them.
Dr. Huey began poking, prodding at me. He checked my heart rate, body mass and things like that, but before he could finish, an alarm went off and the room began flashing red. I remember the sirens hurting my ears, how they throbbed the day after. "CODE RED: EXPERIMENTS ESCAPING! CODE RED: EXPERIMENTS ESCAPING!"
That is when I realized that this wasn't normal, and that I was an experiment. One that, apparently, wasn't supposed to escape.
Just thinking about it made my head hurt. I rubbed my temples and he took the time to ask me another question. "Just asking. I needed to know if you had any prior knowledge to what we are asking of you, because, Max, you're special to this operation and if you know anything, it would be greatly appreciated if you told me anything."
And when the lights started flashing red, the booming steps of security guards pounded by the door, followed by Dr. Huey's frantic shouting. "Find them immediately! Leave no place empty, no door unlocked! Please, just find them!"
And I, being scared and only ten years old, was horrified. I opened the door to see an empty track before me. The alarm had stopped blaring by now, but the gymnasium was deserted and pale blue light crept through the windows near the ceiling. A hand clamped itself down on my mouth and I screamed from surprise, although no one could hear me.
The hand wouldn't budge, so I bit down on it, hard. My attacker let go, "What'd you bite me for?"
"Well, if you're going to sneak up on people…" I explained innocently.
"Whatever. Just come with me; we need to hurry." He assured me, taking my hand and leading me out of the gym, but I snatched my hand away from his. I didn't understand.
"Why? Where are we going?"
"Away from here. We just can't stay here," he said. Every few seconds he glanced around as if someone were coming. I hoped someone would. He was scaring me.
"Why not? You've never said anything about this before." I stared ahead, his face still uncertain, but even so he pushed on.
"Okay, then I guess this is the right time to explain, huh?" He chuckled, but my expression remained solemn.
"I'd only think so."
"The reason you're here is because of those children you used to play with. Their names were Iggy, Fang, Gazzy and Angel," he explained.
I started to remember even more, the descriptions finally matching the faces and names. My expression remained the same. "Yes... so?"
"When we make experiments, their brains fully develop earlier than normal humans, therefore they were smarter. When their brains fully developed, they suddenly decided that they didn't want to be here... and left. We haven't seen them since."
"And what does that have to do with me, Dr. Huey?" I said, puzzled, more of my memories coming back to me.
He smiled chillingly. "It has everything to do with you, Miss Ride and please, call me Don."
"If you really want me to..."
"But why? We've always lived here." I tried to reason with him, but I think he was beyond reasoning. I think he had planned the attack on my home. "Fang, did you do this?"
Fang nodded, his lips pursing into a thin line. He looked away from me, and somehow I couldn't meet his eyes either. "We all did. These people, they mistreat us and we can't do anything about it, but only now we can," he says, a glimmer about his eyes. "And I want you to join us."
My mouth dropped; I had never expected him to do something so devious. He wanted me to join him, to run away? "What about everyone else?"
"They're all outside waiting for us; it's now or never, Max. Only if you run... with us," he said, his dark eyes shining into mine.
"But where will we go?" I asked, some part of me still wanting to stay here, away from the big bad world. But most of all, I wanted to be safe.
"I'm not exactly sure on the details, but I was thinking someplace North. Anyplace is better than here," he said, taking my hand. The footsteps around us grew louder and my heart felt like it was about to burst. His fast-paced talking didn't help me much. "Can we please go? The guards are bound to get here any minute and catch us. I can answer all your questions later, but now I need you to come with me. I've been planning this for so long that it cannot fail and if it makes you feel better; I've got some humans on the outside that are willing to help us. Please, don't be stub-"
His sentence was stopped short when three guards came around the corner yelling, "Stop right there!"
Fang turned around, alarmed. As soon as he saw the guards he wrapped his arms around my waist and took a running start. The air tore around me and strands of hair, both mine and his, hit me in the face like dry whips. He stopped at the windowsill, his jet black wings unraveled behind him, and turned to face me. "Jump. We can get to the rest of the flock by morning."
The flock? By morning? "But I've never flown before; I'll just fall on my face."
"It's like an instinct. Once you start going, it'll come natural to you. Please Max, it'll be... amazing."
He shook my hand, catching me off guard. "Excellent. Your things have been packed and you will be sent out tomorrow."
My heart faltered. "Why so fast? I don't think I'm ready, Don."
"Don't worry. It's like and instinct. Once you start going, it'll come natural to you," he cooed, words slowly seeping into my mind. He sounded like... Fang.
"Will it be... amazing?"
"Odd choice of words, but yes. I think it'll be wonderful," he smiled.
"Can I trust them?" I asked. Were they good people?
"No," he said simply. "They are not to be trusted."
"Why not?"
"Because they are evil, rogue experiments who could not appreciate all that we have given them. After all, they did leave you all alone," he coaxed. Like icing on the cake.
They did leave me alone, I remembered. They never did come back...
I unfurled the wings that I have barely used, letting them flutter for a second then flapping them wildly. I rose an inch off of the ground and I freaked out. I stopped flapping and started falling, but caught myself by gripping the ledge of the windowsill. I screamed for Fang. He bent down to me, trying to help me up. "Fang!"
"Please stop screaming," he whispered, for the guards hadn't seen us fly away, because it was so dark in this lock down. But now, they could hear my screaming loud and clear, readily leading them towards us. I never did know why I had screamed so much, but now I realize that before that day, I had never been in any type of life-threatening danger. The only danger I had ever faced was wrestling Iggy when he tried to steal my desserts(I remember him having a thing for sweets) so now I was all alone in this feeling. I stopped screaming.
But I was too late. The guards yanked me from the ledge. Fang called for me, "Max no!"
"Fang, help me!" I screamed, but the guards pulled me further and further back. No matter how much I kicked and screamed, they held onto me and stripped me of my freedom.
Out of the corner of my eye, I could see the other guard swatting at him, but to this Fang looked at me. I could see the outline of his face, the hurt and raw rage that he was suppressing. I wouldn't accept defeat. I continued to thrash in their arms, harder and harder because now I understood what Fang meant. I was not free. I was an experiment, a oppressed experiment and I needed to fly free with people like myself.
The guards didn't like how much I was moving and only held me tightened, finally constricting my movement, placing a blow to my head. So I could only watch as Fang slipped out of the window, as the black blur took off into the night, whispering to myself, "They'll come back for me."
Only they never did.
The next day, I was given the new clothes and possessions that I was promised, before being boarded on a plane with another experiment, Dylan. We sat down in seats near the window next to Dr. Huey, who happened to be escorting us there. I was quiet, wondering how different it would be living without the and I sat down in the seats next to Don, who happened to be escorting us there. I was quiet, wondering how different it would be living without the scientists.
"You'll be just fine," Dylan whispered to me, playing with a strand of my hair absentmindedly. I only wished I could believe him. "Just fine."
A flight attendant walked down the aisle a few hours later. "Please buckle your seatbelts. We'll be arriving in Phoenix shortly."
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