Chapter 1- Change in Destiny

Upon waking I couldn't believe that I would be turning sixteen soon. I got up and went to do my normal routine, showering and getting breakfast before going to my prep school. I get downstairs and it seemed strangely quiet, so I head to the kitchen to get breakfast expecting that my parents are going to be there. When I walk into the kitchen they are nowhere to be seen. A note is on the refrigerator.

It reads 'Emergency at work, had to leave early.' Both of my parents are doctors and this happens often. I put the note on the counter and head back to the fridge to get some breakfast. I stop and look at my reflection in the steel. I am an average height, with blond wavy hair and chocolate brown eyes with fair skin.

I smile and get some breakfast. Then I leave for my one mile walk to my prep school. We live in a basic city that isn't huge but isn't small. For me to get to my school I have to walk through our neighborhood to the main road then up through a part of the city filled with street side shops. The walk is usually quiet.

I get to a side road that leads to the main road. I look at my watch and find out that I am fifteen minutes early. I laugh at myself and look around. Not many shops are open and very few cars are on the roads.

Suddenly I hear a car screeching down an alley near the store I am a standing next to. I turn and see a large white van pull quickly out of the alley and stop in the middle of the side road. The door facing me slides open and three masked people jump out. They start to slowly approach me and one of them has a nightstick.

"Easy now. Come quietly and you wont be hurt." the man with the nightstick says. I start to back up away from them. My back is almost to the wall of a shop when the other two masked people jump forward and grab each of my arms. I struggle to free myself as the masked people try to drag me away.

"Let me go!" I scream. I kick, pull, and thrash against the hands holding me against my will. The man with the nightstick steps forward, swinging the stick into my abdomen, knocking the breath out of me. I go limp trying to get the oxygen back into my lungs. I cough and gasp, my teeth clenching in pain.

"Don't struggle. It's pointless." the man with the nightstick says. I don't fight them but I do fight to catch my breath. Still gasping I surrender any chances of getting away. The trio starts to drag me to the van.

My breath is slowly coming back to me. We are almost to the van and I hear a whooshing sound then a grunting sound come from the man with the nightstick. I look up to see a girl my age standing there. She is tall, slender, and her hair is a dirty blond. The masked man with the nightstick is on the ground beneath her feet and she is staring at the people holding me.

"NOW!" she yells. More people literally drop out of the sky and attack the two other masked people. There are three older boys, a younger girl and two little kids one a boy and the youngest a girl. The people holding me release their grip to defend themselves and I back away from the fight till me back touches the wall of a shop. Within a few minutes both of my captures are unconscious and the leader girl turns to me.

A super huge jeep rounds the corner and stops next to the white van. A man gets out and rounds the jeep before coming up to me. He stops approaching me and puts his hands up as to show me he means no harm.

"It's alright Sarah. My name is Jeb, I am a scientist. Are you hurt?" he asks.

I struggle to catch my breath after getting it knocked out of me. I nod no.

"She is just frightened." the younger of the two older boys says. I decide to speak up, no matter how much it hurts my lungs.

"You wouldn't talk either if you had the wind knocked out of you." I manage to say with what little breath I was able to take in. I start to gasp and cough for air as my lungs work to get oxygen.

"Sarah, I know you are in shock by what has happened but you need to come with us. You are not safe here" Jeb says.

"What do you mean? Where are my parents? What just happened? How do you know my name?" I ask, my voice shaky after catching my breath.

"As a scientist, I was part of a governmental assigned team testing genetic experiments. I am afraid to tell you that you are part of one of those experiments, and these people were trying to take you to a facility for testing. We came to get you so that they wouldn't be allowed to capture you." Jeb explains.

"No... that's not possible." I say. I check my coat pockets. "Where is my phone, I have to call my mom at the hospital."

"Your parents are not at any hospital." I look up to the leader girl. She walks over to the two bodies of the people that had been holding and dragging me. She grabs their ski masks and pulls them off. The faces beneath were those of my parents.

"Mom? Dad? But how? Why?" I say as the shock and truth of what is happening sinks in.

"Sarah, we have to leave. There will be more coming, the only way you will be safe is if you come with us." Jeb says. I consider everything that has happened and look over to the faces of who I thought of as parents.

"Okay, I'll come with you."

"Wait. Explain that again please." I say. We are all crammed into the jeep. Four of us are in the back seat and Max, as I have learned the leader's name, was in the passenger seat. The three youngest, Nudge, Gazzy, and Angel as I have learned, were behind us in the rear of the jeep. The three oldest boys were seated next to me, with me crammed in the middle. I remembered that their names were Fang, Iggy, and Dylan. As we hit a bump in the dirt road my head hit the roof of the jeep.

"You are part of the same kind of experiment as all of the others here, with one exception. Sarah, you were created with the genetics of about 2% avian or bird. What that means is that you are meant to have certain attributes of a bird, one being wings." Jeb explains, pausing as he works the jeep over a large log.

"Wings? Is that how you all literally dropped out of the sky?" I ask.

"Yeah, we flew in once we realized that you weren't fighting anymore. We didn't want to let them take it too far." Max explains.

"Thank you, really." I say.

The jeep is rolling along on the path and after what seems like an hour of silence in the crammed car, the jeep finally rolls to a stop.

"Finally!" Dylan says opening the door and getting out quickly. The rest of the flock followed after him and last of all of them, me.

When I stepped out of the jeep we were in the back of a large yard of sorts. There wasn't much grass and lots of trees blocked the view of the house that sat on the land.

"Oh we're home!" Nudge exclaimed.

The house looked huge. It had two stories. The first story looked like a giant concrete block above ground. Then at the start of the second floor, a large deck sits and goes around almost the entire house. I assumed that something had to be in that first floor. I had stopped walking and just stared at the huge building.

"This is our home." Jeb says. He continues to walk to the house and I follow after him.

I suddenly realize that the only way into the house is through the back sliding glass door on the second floor.

"Um, how do we get up there?" I ask.

No one answers me. Instead, Max jumps and lets out her huge wings. They catch the air and their flapping sends her upward and to the deck. The rest of the flock follows her lead. Lastly, she rolls down a rope ladder for Jeb and I.

We climb and soon reach the top. We head inside and the flock sets themselves down almost everywhere.

"I'll cook." the boy named Iggy says.

"Thanks I'm starved!" the dark boy named Fang says.

Soon after, we are all seated at a table with a large lasagna in front of us. We all dig in and I get a strange feeling that I don't yet belong with everyone here. I try to avoid most eye contact and focus on the food in front of me.

"Sarah, I need to talk to you about something." Jeb says.

"Sure. What is it?" I ask.

"Well, see the thing is that since you were from a different section of the same experiment, well it means that you are nothing like the rest of the flock here." he says.

"What do you mean?" I ask.

"You were created completely differently. The entire flock here were created with their avian DNA already active and working. The section of the experiment that you were in was testing if the genes could be just simply activated in a later time." he explains.

"So you are saying that I have the same avian DNA but that it just isn't working yet. Like it isn't actively working? Is that even possible?" I wonder.

"Yes. You were their first and only success at it. You have what they called replacement genes. These genes were made to function until your true genes were activated and allowed to take over." he says.

"What does this mean to me now?" I ask.

"That is the problem. You see, the replacement genes were never meant to last forever." he explains.

"When do they stop working?" I ask.

"The night of your sixteenth birthday." he states.

"What will happen?" I ask. It is the news I really don't want to hear but I know that the truth must come out.

Jeb pauses before answering. "If they fail and your true genes aren't activated, you entire body will shut down."

I let the full amount of shock flow through me and I process what I just heard. I understood exactly what he was trying to say. He was explaining that if or when my replacement genes fail, and my true genes are not active, I will die.