Okay, so I randomly came up with this idea today and I just had to post it. I'm really excited, but I hope I'm not getting in over my head with starting two stories really close to each other right before school starts. Oh well, I'm doing it anyway.

Disclaimer: So I obviously don't own Maximum Ride and any other stuff I happen to mention in future chapters.

Please R&R!!

Anna's POV

Hey. My name is Anna and I'm fourteen, or so. I don't have a last name. Technically, I don't even have a first name either. I chose the name Anna; I just like it. I like how it's short. How it's a palindrome. How it's normal.

Why am I talking to you? Or rather, writing this and hoping that someone, anyone, will read it. Well, a while back I had to write my life story for English class at the school I attend. All of the facts in mine were false. I wrote believable things, normal things. I said that my mom is a school therapist in New York City. I said my dad is a pilot. That's why I miss school a couple times a year; to see him. They got divorced when I was two. My birthday is January 17th. I was born blind because of a genetic disorder. That sort of stuff. But as I said before, none of it was true. That's what I'm doing now. Telling whoever reads this what is true.

What is true: I don't know who my parents are. My father is dead, or so I've been told. My mother was told that I had died shortly after I was born. Obviously that is untrue. When I'm taken out of school a few times a year it's so the Devil's Spawn scumbags that call themselves scientists can run more tests and keep track of my abilities. I have absolutely no clue when my birthday is but I'm pretty sure that I'm fourteen and for some reason I have always felt like a winter baby. I wasn't born blind. That was the result of an experiment gone wrong when I was younger.

Oh. Did I mention the wings?

Maybe I should just start from the beginning. Well, after my mom was told that I was dead, I was taken by a lab run by evil scientists known as the Institute. And then I was...Wait. That's not the beginning. Maybe I should start by talking about what I am. Yeah, that'll work.

Okay, take three. I'm mostly human. Key word: mostly. I'm actually only 98% human. The other two percent? Bird, avian, flying non-mammal with feathers and wings. Basically that means that I have wings. Big, white-ish with flecks of tan and brown (or so I've been told), feathery, thirteen foot wide wings. Wings that I can fly with. There's other stuff too. My bones are super strong yet light and I heal super fast. I'm five eight, but I weigh barely over one hundred pounds. And I can easily beat a grown, fully trained man. And I'm blind. I guess that's saying something.

Okay, now that I've explained what I am, I can get on with my story. So, as I mentioned, I was taken by the Institute. I still shudder as I think of that place. They put me in a dog crate. A dog crate! For twelve years, my life was a solid barrage of tests and procedures and the occasional surgery. When I was three they, the "scientists", wanted to try to give me better night vision even though mine was already better than the average person's. Let's just say it failed epically. So, I'm blind. Let's hear it for the scientists! Not.

Okay, so let me tell you a little something about the Institute. They do a lot of genetic stuff. Like gene splicing. Like, say, implanting a girl with bird DNA. Here's another something about the Institute. Their experiments rarely work. But I did. Suvival of the fittest and all that. Or luck. Take your pick

I guess after a while the Institute got sick of having me around. Maybe they figured out all there was to know. All I know is that an amazing thing happened.

They let me go.

Well, not really. But they let me go to boarding school. A real school. A school for people who were blind like me. I still had to go back to the Institute when school was out, and occasionally during school for tests and new procedures they wanted to try out. (Can anybody say "Home sweet crate!"?) But just was feeling as normal as I believe I ever will be, everything changed.

The Institute pulled me out of school with no warning. School, the one place I had belonged, the one place I had felt safe, the one place where I had friends, and the one place where I could be normal for a change. They told me that they had a new round of testing and procedures, and a lot of them. Apparently too many for me to stay in school. There was more security. There were more Erasers (Creepy human wolf thingies. They were the only other experiment that had worked. And they were heartless.) That sulked about, ready to taste blood. The only comfort I had was in Rina. Rina is like me, she has wings, and she's alive and well. All the other experiments died or were killed, and many of them couldn't even talk, at least not in civilized English.

And then, a few months ago (maybe more, maybe less. I'm not good with time.), something even stranger happened. I can still remember it as if it was only yesterday.

I was just sitting in my crate, cramped and bored. The scientists were away or something. None of us had any procedures that day; a rare occurrence. All of a sudden I could hear people talking in the next room over; and they certainly didn't sound like the adults that worked there manning the large computer database. I guessed that there were probably five or six of them. All of a sudden one of them gasped. I guessed (correctly) that he had seen all of us.

All of a sudden they were in the room and I could hear them going around and unlocking crates. I shrunk back. I couldn't see who they were. Why should I have trusted them? When I heard my crate get unlatched I whispered "Thank you" in as loud a voice as I could muster. I slowly climbed out of my crate and waited to feel Rina holding my hand. Rina may only be nine-ish, but she is definitely the leader. The leader of what, you ask. Actually, I don't know. The Mutant Freaks Brigade? Whatever you want to call us, she was in charge.

I heard an older female voice (I guessed she was in charge of this jail break.) say to get out. Rina managed to corral everyone else and began rushing them up the staircase while guiding me. I felt like such a burden, but what could I do? We got outside and I stayed with everyone else while Rina went to talk to them, whoever they were.

She came back and said that we were leaving. I asked about our jail breakers. They were like us, she said. With wings and everything. She said that they wanted us to stay with them but she had refused. For some reason the Erasers wanted them and were hunting them down and not all of us could fly. I agreed reluctantly, but I was sad to not be able to meet them.

And that's how we got free. I don't really remember much of the week we spent on the run, but I do remember the pain. That night, as we were making camp on Long Island, Erasers attacked us. What could Rina and I do? We were the only ones that had a long term chance of surviving, and we were the only ones that could fly. Erasers got all the others. They brought them back to that horrid Institute. We flew away. We flew and flew until I thought that I would fall out of the sky. For a few weeks we went like this. We flew all day and kept watch at night, always ready to run, to get away. We decided that we weren't at risk of attack after a few days. Each day we would fly in the morning and find ways to make money in the afternoon. After a while we had earned enough money to stay in motels a few nights a week.

Rina became obsessed with TV. She had never seen it before. I had listened to TV before at school. It's not as big a deal when you can only hear it, but I guess it's still pretty cool. One night we were at a motel that only got four channels so we were watching the eleven o'clock news. All of a sudden a story about kids with wings helping a group called CSM came on.

"Anna. Look!" Rina cried.

"What?" I said, confused. "Blind. Remember?"

"Oh sorry. The kids that set us free are on TV. They're, like, famous!"

"Okay, be quiet," I said. "I need to listen."

For a few minutes the room was silent as I listened to the program. These kids (there were six of them) had destroyed Itex, the company in charge of the Institute. And now they were supporting the CSM, the Coalition to Stop the Madness, and environmental group of some sort. They had done air shows and had recently rescued one of the group's mothers from an evil business man.

"They found their parents?" I asked, stunned. "We have to call Jeb. I want to meet these kids." Jeb was the one sorta nice scientist. He had convinced the others to let me go to school, and he had given me his cell phone number saying to call him if I needed anything. I assumed the offer still stood. It took a little persuading, but Rina finally gave in.

I called Jeb. He seemed pleased that we were alive and were making it on our own. He said he would arrange for a flight, but I said we would rather fly ourselves. Reluctantly (though I'm not sure why), he gave us their address.

And that is why now; I am standing on a doorstep with Rina preparing to meet people that are actually like us.

Again, thanks for reading. It's late and I don't really have much else to say other than please R&R!!