Disclaimer: I don't own Maximum Ride
I'm a failure.
To them, at least. It's not my fault-- they're the ones who did the meddling with my DNA structure.
But perhaps I should back up a bit. My name is Echo, I'm thirteen years old, and I'm 2 percent bat.
Before you start getting visions of vampires, that 2 percent is fruit bat, thank you very much. I don't suck blood.
As for why I'm a failure, the bat DNA didn't quite do all they had hoped.
Sure, I've got the giant ears, as well as bat wings... but the wings are useless. I can't fly. My bones are one hundred percent human, too heavy to allow me to lift off.
So, in their eyes, I'm a failure. I'm allowed to survive only so that the sick scientists who created me can continue to perform experiments, to study me.
See, I'm the only bat-human hybrid to survive infancy. All the others died soon after being born.
So they keep me around, to study what they're doing wrong, to see how they can make improvements on the inferior model.
I've spent most of my life in a cage. Sometimes I think I might've gone crazy if it weren't for Andrea.
Andrea was one of the whitecoats, but she was nicer than most. We looked a lot alike-- both of us had hazel eyes and straight brown hair, although hers was longer, reaching down to her back while mine was cropped at my chin. She was the one who brought me dinner in the evenings (fruit, in case you were wondering). Sometimes, when none of the other whitecoats was near, she'd talk to me. She would tell me stories about the outside, where there was grass and trees and clouds and skies. I dreamed of being able to see it one day.
And as it turned out, I got to.
---
It was night, and the lights were all turned out. I couldn't sleep, so I just sat there, staring into the darkness and giving out an occasional call, listening to the echo coming back to my ears. I made sure to listen for Erasers before doing it-- being wolf-hybrids, they really, really don't like high-pitched noises and can hear even when the noises I make higher pitched than regular humans can detect. Making Erasers angry is generally a bad idea. They can be quite vindictive.
I heard footsteps-- not an Eraser. The purposeful stride was more like that of a whitecoat's, in fact, it sounded just like...
"Andrea?"
"Echo." She reached down and undid the latch. "Hurry. There's not much time."
"Huh? What's wrong?"
"They've given up on Project Chiro. You're to be terminated tomorrow."
Terminated. Part of me had known that eventually I would cease to be useful... but I'd tried not to think about it. Now, I couldn't ignore it.
"Terminated?"
"Yes. Let's go."
I got up and followed her. I knew that this could get her into major trouble, could get her terminated herself. I said nothing.
We navigated quickly through the corridors. I didn't know the way, but she did, so I followed her.
Finally, she opened a final door and we stepped out into the night.
"Go now. There's not much time," she said.
"Why are you doing this?" I whispered.
She shook her head. "Go. Be free." She gently pushed me. "Run."
I looked at her one last time, then nodded. "Thank you." And I ran.
As I got farther away from her, I thought I heard her say, "Farewell, my daughter."
But that might have been my imagination.