Chapter 1
I could feel the cold air rushing past my face. My dark red hair was streaming back behind me. I looked down and I saw the world had been miniaturized. Buildings, houses, cars, little dots that were people. So this is what its like to be flying I thought. Yes, I was flying. No, I wasn't in a plane or helicopter or anything like that. I was flying with my wings.
I was brought back to reality by the beep of a car horn. Instead of being up in the air, I was on the ground. Walking. But the one thing that is true about my daydreams is the wings. Cue magical chimes.
Yes, the wings. You would assume that I was straight out of a fairytale or something. Although it's more like straight out of the crazy house… Most people, who don't particularly enjoy my being, call me a "genetic freak". I would prefer "avian/human hybrid", but to each their own. For those lucky few who don't know what that means, there is about 3% percent bird DNA grafted into me. Pretty sick, right?
Wrong.
I wasn't born with wings. Instead, bird DNA was grafted into me when I was a baby, by evil scientists who take demonic pleasure in ruining children's lives for the "sake of science". But that's not the normal way to do it. Usually the DNA is put in through the mother when she is pregnant. But the scientists, or Whitecoats, as they are more commonly referred to, saw that the DNA wasn't working right, (or so they thought) and transferred me back into the loving arms of my parents. My parents, Eve and Charlie Evans, were very grateful to have their baby back even though it was two years later.
But the year they gave me back I started developing the things I was supposed to: vision like a hawk, an enormous appetite, very strong muscles, and of course, wings.
I think my parents were a bit freaked out by the wings. I mean, who wouldn't be? But luckily for me, they didn't go all apeshit crazy on me. They cared for and accepted me like any good parents should.
By the age of ten I had an eleven foot wingspan, I was four feet and eight inches, and only weighed around seventy five pounds. I tried my best to be normal at school and with other kids, but it proved rather difficult for a competitive child, who was faster, better, and stronger than all of the other children. Plus holding your wings in tight for like, 7 hours gets pretty old pretty fast.
The good life didn't last long, however. Somehow the Whitecoats found out about me and figured it was time to take matters into their own hands. I was placed back into captivity, as if I was some sort of animal. I soon learned that instead of being brought back to the School, like I had thought; I was brought to New York. More specifically, to a little old place called the Institute.
I was there for about 3 years or so until I was rescued by Maximum Ride and her flock. They were their own little merry band of mutants, kicking butt and taking names. And they were all bird kids like me. I finally felt like I belonged somewhere.
I stayed with her flock for a while. They taught me basic survival skills, how to defend myself and some flying lessons. Even though we were on the run, eating out of dumpsters every other day, it was great. But I knew I needed to get back to my parents. I've been missing from their lives for too long. So I traveled back to my home, not only to find my parents, but also a baby sister. It was a long and tearful reunion, and now I was living the "normal" life.
Well as normal as you can get when you have 15 foot wings grafted to your back.
So here I was, Charlotte Elizabeth Evans, walking to my house. Although, now I'm no longer alone. A man, who could've easily passed as a male model, wearing a business suit, was following me. If you just glanced at him you'd think he is just some handsome businessman, but I know better. He's a human/lupine hybrid, or a wolf man, and trust me, he is no picnic.
The two most successful DNA recombinant life forms are Human/Avian and Human/Lupine. These wolf men are basically the School's own private army. They are trained to hunt and kill their prey. And right now I'm pretty sure I'm the prey.
One of his regular strides was equal to two of mine, and he was walking fast. Soon he was only a couple paces behind me. I broke into a run with him trotting after me. I knew I wasn't going to make it home in time, and sure enough he placed his beefy hand on my shoulder. The moment I felt his hand my blood ran cold. I was jerked to a stop and whipped around to face the Eraser. He grinned evilly and whispered in a voice that was as smooth as honey; "Hi there little girl."
Shit shit shit shit shit shit shit shit shit shit
"Are we going to have to this the easy way, or the fun way?" he said darkly, his face morphing into a wolfish snout and fur sprouting everywhere.
My response was a snap kick to the jaw. A kick, mind you, that could've broken a normal humans jaw. Sadly it did not have that particular effect on my opponent. He just grimaced, rubbed his jaw and said "Alrighty then." And launched himself at me.
Chapter 2
Backpack I thought. I quickly grabbed it from the ground. I spun around and then let go of the strap. It connected with my target and I heard a satisfying "Oomf!"
Thank god for textbooks I thought as I hurled myself upward and unfurled my wings, wincing slightly as I stretched them out. Gradually I rose higher. I looked down at the Eraser who was clutching his stomach.
"You can run little pig, but you can't hide!" he shouted at me.
"Eat shit, Dog Breath!" I called over my shoulder as I flew away.
The thing about flying, is that it's a really great way to clear you mind. Also it takes a lot less time than walking.
I got home with time to spare. I just hoped my mom wasn't home yet. She would have a field day if she saw me all beat up; she has a lot more important things to worry about than a couple scratches. I opened the front door slowly, bracing myself for the worst. Maybe she won't be home. Please don't be home. Please, please-
"Where have you been, young lady?"
I opened the door all the way and saw her standing in the doorway, her arms crossed over her chest, eyebrows raised. But the moment she took in my appearance, her face softened and went into protective/worried mom mode.
"Oh my god, Charlotte! What happened? Who did this to you?"
"Mom, calm down. Its ok, I just met an Eraser on the way home from school. No biggie." I said trying to downplay it, which did not work at all.
"'No biggie'? This is definitely a big deal! We need to get you cleaned up, make sure you're alright. No broken bones or anything?"
"Mom, seriously I'm fine. Stop worrying."
"Really? Go take a look at yourself. People are going to think you have abusive parents or something."
I sighed and walked into the bathroom. I looked into the mirror and gasped. My mom was right, my lip was split and bleeding freely, there were deep scratches from the Eraser raking his claws along my face and arms. My hair was a mess, and my shirt had longs rips in it. Man, this was my favorite shirt…
"See what I mean?" my mom said as she walked into the bathroom carrying a first aid kit in one hand and my baby sister in the other.I gave a slight smile, and took my sister in my lap while my mom helped patch me up.
Soon we heard the front door open, the stereotypical "Honey, I'm home!" that announced the arrival of my father. My mom called to him, and he arrived in the bathroom doorway holding up my backpack. He shot a questioning look at me, and my mom said "Charlotte tried making some new friends today."
"Mom!" I cried indignantly. She laughed, and filled my dad in on my exquisite friend-making abilities/how Erasers tend to react when you kick them in the face.
Later, over a dinner of burgers and fries, my dad asked, still concerned,
"Charlotte, are you sure you're okay?"
"Yes." I said for the umpteenth time, "Nurse Evans over here made sure of that." I nodded my head at my mom. My dad smiled, and continued
"Just the same, your mom and I have agreed that Grandma Beatrice should start giving you a ride home from now on. We don't want any more of these accidents."
"Awwh dad!" I moaned. "Why can't I ride the bus or something? Anything, other than Grandma Beatrice!"
See, Grandma Beatrice is not your average grandmother. She is your average cat lady. Her house reeks of mold, cat litter, and moldy cat litter. And without fail, every time I go over to her house all she talks about is her cats. Mr. Fluffy this, Mr. Fluffy that.
What I don't understand was how could Grandma Beatrice's driving could be safer than walking home. She is 90, can barely walk, just happens to be going blind, and yet she still has her license. I swear, she drives like some 16 year old girl, who just got her license, and has a cataract.
I could sense there was no use in arguing. I guess I would just have to get used to feeling on the edge of death every time she make a left-hand turn.
Chapter 3
BEEP!
BEEP!
BEEP!
I was startled awake by the sound of my alarm clock. I sat up and rubbed my eyes. I glanced at my clock and instantly jumped up and started rushing around, trying to get ready so I could make it to school at a reasonable time.
I arrived to my first period class, not only to find I was about fifteen minutes late, but that we also happened to be having a pop quiz.
Lovely.
As soon as the bell rang, I walked out the door of my class, sat down at the nearest bench, clutching my head. I closed my eyes and numbers and equations danced around my brain. My friend Leila passed by and asked me if I was planning on going to our next class.
"Oh! Um, right. Yeah." I muttered. I got up, my head still pounding, and followed her to our English class.
"Charlotte, could you please explain to me the author's use of symbolism in this text, please?" My head shot up, I hadn't been paying attention to anything for the past 20 minutes.
"Uh, can I go to the bathroom?"
My teacher just rolled her eyes, and the rest of the class snickered.
"Fine, but when you come back, be prepared to participate in class."
I walked out of the classroom and out into the deserted corridor. I headed towards the bathroom…
Chapter 4
"Ughh."
I groaned as I struggled to raise my head. I was in a dark, windowless room, with a cold tile floor. My hands were tied behind my back with a strip of hard plastic. I pulled myself into a somewhat sitting position, and took a deep breath to steel my nerves.
I racked my brain, trying to figure out how I got here. I remember walking to the bathroom. And… and then someone grabbed me from behind. They snagged my arms and held them painfully behind my back. I tried to struggle but they forced me down onto my knees. Then, they placed a rag over my nose and mouth. I had no choice but to breathe in the sickly-sweet smell. My eyelids drooped, I slowly stopped struggling. And then, as if someone flicked off a switch, everything went black.
At that moment I felt a strange sense of déjà vu, ice started creeping up my spine. I took a deep breath and immediately a strong chemical/disinfectant odor blasted my nose.
Oh no, please please no…
There was only one place I could be, the one place I've been running away from my whole life
The School.
I started shivering, fear gripped my heart. Images flashed through my mind: cages, Whitecoats, exhausting tests, painful experiments, and all of the other DNA recombinant failures I had seen come and go.
I have to get out of here now. I forced myself to stand, only to instantly regret it. The world was spinning and I almost threw up. I quickly decided it wise to not stand for a while.
As soon as I sat down an automatic door slid open. The bright light emitting from the doorway stunned me, and temporarily blinded me. Before I knew what was happening, rough hands dragged me out of the room. Once my eyes adjusted to the light I was greeted by the oh-so wonderful sights of The School. Whitecoats flitted around, but once I passed by most of them turned their gaze upon me
"Didn't your mother ever tell you it's rude to stare?" I snapped at them but they acted like I didn't speak.
I was brought down a long passageway and into a dimly lit room, where all the walls were lined with cages. Some of them were occupied with the saddest things I have ever seen. I wanted to scream at these people. Tell them to take glance around and see the destruction they were causing. I wanted them to understand the pain they were inflicting upon children.
I was stopped in front of a medium sized cage, unbound and unceremoniously shoved into the metal bars of the cage. The door was closed and locked with a metallic click.
Once the Whitecoats were out of the room, I urgently began thinking of a plan. Max always had a plan, or she just led people into thinking she did. But, under the circumstances, an actual plan is desired.
The hairs on the back of my neck started to prickle, and I could feel a pair of eyes boring into the back of my head. I slowly turned to the left of me and almost screamed. I was faced with a pair of two bright yellow eyes punctuated with slits for pupils. They were staring unblinkingly at me, and seemed to be coming closer and closer. Then at last the owner of the eyes came into light.
It was a boy, who looked around my age, with shaggy blond hair, and freckles covering almost every inch of his face. He was still glaring at me, almost predatorily.
Figuring I should break the tension, I introduced myself
"Er, um, hello there… I'm Charlotte."
The boy seemed to be debating whether or not to answer me. In the end he answered, very stiffly;
"I'm Ariek." He looked me up and down, "Why are you here?" he asked bluntly. I was taken slightly aback, who does this kid think he is?
"You don't look like some of the mistakes they bring in here." He clarified.
"Oh, well neither do you." I pointed out, "Why are you here?"
"I asked you first." He countered.
Rolling my eyes, I shook out my wings and extended them out as far.
"Holy shit" he said in an awed voice. Slightly pleased with the appropriate reaction, I folded them against my back.
"So your one of them" he gaped.
"What do you mean?" I asked, unsure if I wanted to hear the answer.
"You're one of the bird kids!" He exclaimed. "The second most successful DNA recombinant life forms! You're like a superhero!"
"Wow… that's, um, one way to look at it, I guess." I said scratching the back of my neck.
"So, what did they do to you?" I asked cautiously.
He grinned maniacally, and almost instantaneously cat ears sprouted on opposite sides of his head. His canine teeth elongated and grew to a lethal point.
My jaw dropped, my eyes bugged. I'll admit it, I was pretty amazed.
"Oh, you haven't seen anything yet." Ariek said, seeing my reaction. He held out his hand and instead of fingernails, he had a set of cat-like claws.
"Retractable claws."
Chapter 5
Get away from me, you monsters!
I was lying on the tile floor, panting. I was tired of being forced through all of theses torturous experiments. I had been plucked, prodded, zapped, poked, stabbed, and sedated for the past 72 hours. And all for what, you might ask?
"For the sake of science"
Bullshit, if you ask me. And then again, no one ever really does.
Two Whitecoats came up, and pulled me up on my feet.
"That's it, a couple more tests and you'll have a break." Someone said, in what I'm guessing he thought was a comforting tone. I was led towards a metal table with sinister looking instruments lying next to it.
Suddenly it was all too much. The room started to whirl and everything looked smeared, almost like a painting. But then, I couldn't see anyone's faces, just the outlines of their bodies. It was frightening. I cried out, and dropped to my knees. I felt a sharp sting in my arm and everything faded to white. My breathing returned to normal, my heart slowed to a normal rate. I relaxed.
It was a nice feeling. But, alas, it did not last long…
I fell into a fitful sleep, to find that demons not only had to surround me during the day, but in my dreams as well.
I… have to… escape… I thought desperately. I was racing through one of those mazes made out of big, tall hedges. I had absolutely no clue what direction I was going, whether I was going deeper into the maze or out of it. All I knew was that I needed to get away from whatever that was chasing me.
I rounded a corner, and skidded to a stop. There was an opening out of the maze. But blocking the exit was the Eraser that always haunted my dreams.
"Ari…" I breathed. He smiled and cracked his knuckles menacingly. I looked behind me and found that the way I had come through was gone. It had become part of the maze walls. Ari took a step closer, smirking at my fear. He raised his hand and brought it to my throat…
"Charlotte! CHARLOTTE! Wake up!" Someone yelled. I opened my eyes and heaved a sigh. I wasn't in a maze, Ari wasn't here, and I was okay. I shook my head, and stretched.
"Are you okay?" Ariek asked, looking somewhat freaked out, "What were you dreaming about?"
"I think I know the answer to that." Said a voice from the opposite end of the room. The speaker finally came into view. Ariek gulped, the other kids cringed and hid as he passed by. He walked right up to my cage and pressed his face in real close.
"Didya miss me?"
"Goddammit Ari, why don't any of you people stay dead?"
Ari chuckled and reached his hand through the cage bars and grabbed my face, forcing me to look him in the eyes.
"One of these days… God, one of these days, you won't even see it coming. Max won't be around for you to cower behind. But I promise you, you're going to feel the most pain and suffering you've ever felt. No one will be able to save you. You are going to be completely alone. But you wanna know the best part?" He asked his voice low and terrifying. Without waiting for an answer, he continued, "It'll be all your fault."
He pinched my cheek affectionately, stood up, and started walking out. Clearly savoring the moment, he took his time, bending down to look in the cages, waggling his finger through the bars, and laughing cruelly at the children's whimpers.
When he got to the doorway, looked back at me and in that second I saw in his eyes pure hatred and pain. So much pain, it scared me even worse than what he had said.
Then he was finally gone. All the children relaxed, and those who still had the ability to speak, talked quietly with some of the others, and stole furtive glances in my direction.
After everything had calmed down, and Ariek and I were in the middle of a debate about how far we could escape to before someone caught us, two Whitecoats came in. They were carrying something large in their arms. As they drew nearer, the form in the middle took shape into a child. She had a cascade of dirty blond hair, a long and thin body, with freckles all over her arms and legs…
Ariek knew who it was instantly.
"Hey! That's my sister! Karyanna! Kary!" Ariek yelled, but his sister didn't answer. I looked closer and saw that her gangly limbs were slack and her head lolled to the side.
"What have you done to her?" Ariek asked, outraged. But as usual no one answered him. The Whitecoats shoved Karyanna into an open cage, checked to make sure she wasn't actually dead or anything, and then left.
And thus two became three.
Chapter 6
I'm not too great at comforting people in their time of need. So when Ariek was a complete mess of anger, sadness and worry, I had absolutely no clue what to do or say. So I watched helplessly as he pulled at his hair, took deep breathes, and punched his cage in retaliation.
My only words were "Uh, hey Ariek, you might want to stop doing that. You're kind of hurting your hand." Real reassuring. Point Charlotte.
Finally though, Karyanna came to. She sat up and bonked her head on the top of the cage. Rubbing her head, she looked around, utterly confused and probably petrified.
"Kary?" Ariek called out. She turned in to direction of his voice, her eyes finally landed on him and her face flooded with relief.
"Ariek! What's going on? Where are we?" Ariek turned to me, silently asking me to break the news to her.
"I'm Charlotte, a friend of your brother's. You're in a place called The School. There are scientists here that perform… experiments on the children here. But you're brother and I are going to get all of us out of here. I promise." I explained to her, hoping I didn't just crush her spirit. But she nodded, a determined look growing on her face, as if she faces almost certain doom everyday.
"Okay, what's the plan?" She asked. Ariek looked at me sheepishly.
"Um, we're still working on it." Ariek said. She just rolled her eyes and offered up her services to help think of a plan.
Just as we were about to start brainstorming, a Whitecoat walked in and knelt by Kary's cage.
"Oh, good. You're up. Come on, you are wanted in Lab 4." Kary blinked, and said nothing. The Whitecoat opened up the door of her cage and attempted to pull Karyanna out. But she resisted with an incredible amount of strength for a girl of her size.
"Get your hands off me!" She screamed, "I wanna go home! You let me go, you bastard!" The Whitecoat, not even trying to mask his irritation, forced her out of the cage and onto the floor.
"Come on, ya little brat. We're going to do the dissection whether you want to or not."
It was in that moment that I learned one of the most interesting things about Karyanna.
She was a biter.
She chomped down on the Whitecoats hand, and refused to let go. The Whitecoat, apparently unused to having his subjects fuse their jaws to his flesh, started yelling. Really, really loudly.
While the Whitecoat danced around, still yelling, Kary slipped her hand, unnoticed, into the inside pocket of the Whitecoat's lab coat. She pulled something out, dropped it down on the floor and kicked it smoothly over to her brother.
Drawn by the commotion, none other than Jeb Batchelder walked in, white lab coat and all.
Now that's a face I haven't seen in awhile.
He looked from Kary, who still was attached to the Whitecoat, to the Whitecoat, who looked extremely unhappy, and then back to Kary.
"Well?" He asked. Kary, finally, released the man's hand, which he cradled close to his chest.
"Scott, go get that cleaned up." Jeb said, waving the man off. He stood surveying Kary as if she was a piece of meat, rather than a human being.
"Well, well, Karyanna. That was an interesting display, wasn't it?" He asked her.
He never got his answer, I mean, unless you count being hit in the back of the head with a blunt object as an answer.
It took me a few seconds to actually process what had happened. The thing that Kary pick-pocketed from the Whitecoat was a set of keys that unlocked, you guessed it, the cages! So Ariek, being the stealthy boy he was, unlocked his cage and crept up behind Jeb, and knocked him out cold.
Mutant kids: 1
Whitecoats: 0
Chapter 7
"Alright, everyone know the plan?" I said rubbing my hands together.
Ariek and Kary both groaned and gave me exasperated looks.
"Yes! We went over it like 50 times!" Ariek said, extremely annoyed, Kary nodded in agreement.
"Sorry, I just don't want anything to go wrong." I said, looking over my shoulder. My eyes landed on the other kids in cages. My mind flashed back to when I was rescued from the Institute.
"Kids don't belong in cages."
I turned from Ariek and Kary and started down a row of cages.
"Um, Charlotte the door is that way…"
"These kids deserve as much of a chance as we do." I stated firmly. Ariek sighed, "Start unlocking, I guess."
Chapter 8
"Go left! No! Your OTHER left!"
We were running down what we assumed was a deserted corridor. And it was, until we heard footsteps tearing down the hall, in our direction.
"Uh oh" Ariek said, grimly.
"Define 'uh oh'" Kary demanded.
"We've got company." I said.
Kary screeched to a stop, opened a door to her right and peeked inside, "Quick get in here!" She called
We all piled into the room. It was small and cramped, but it was a hell of a lot better than being caught. Thankfully most of the kids, sensing this was a critical moment, were quiet.
Ariek and I stood with our ears pressed against the door. We heard the footsteps get louder and louder, until they stopped right outside our door. I held my breath, hoping against hope that they won't open the door.
"Wait, where'd they go?" asked one voice.
"Uh, maybe they went down this way…" said another. Just at that moment one of the kids let out a little whimper. I froze, my stomach sinking with dread.
"What was that?" The first voice asked.
"I didn't hear anything."
"It came from over there, I'm sure I heard it" the voice continued as if the other one hadn't spoken.
"Look we're going to lose them, let's go or the Director is going to have our heads.
The footsteps started up again but this time growing fainter. And when we couldn't hear them anymore we stepped outside and continued our escape.
When we finally put a sound distance between us and the School, we stopped to rest and regroup. No matter how we addressed the problem, there were always a few setbacks. Like the fact that we were in the middle of Death Valley. Death fucking Valley. Or that we were a group of mutant children, with no place to go.
But our luck prevailed. One of our major problems seemingly solved itself.
Ariek, Kary and I were discussing our options when we were interrupted by a precocious two year old.
"Yo mutants! Down here!"
"Can we help you?" Ariek asked, barely suppressing a grin.
The toddler, obviously very intuitive, sensed he wasn't going to be taken seriously and cut right to the chase.
"Do ya have a plan? Cause all the other kids were justa wonderin' were we was goin'."
Ariek and Kary turned to look at me, and I was left to think of a fool proof plan in less than five seconds.
"Of course we have a plan. It's just a little complicated," I began, but was cut off by the toddler.
"I'm gonna take a wild guess here, but you don't got a plan do you?" He asked, I took a deep breath and shook my head.
"Well now that's settled, we are just gonna leave ya to your thoughts and find someplace safe, got it?"
"Wait a minute!" Ariek exclaimed, "The best plan you can come up with is to lead a bunch of mutant children into the middle of Death Valley?"
"Well at least I gots a plan, instead-a pretendin' to have one" the baby countered.
"Is there anything we can do or say that will make you change your mind?" Kary asked.
"A-nope." The baby apparently thought that was all there was too it, so with a jaunty salute, he and the other children left. As we were watching their retreating backs disappear into the horizon, Kary spoke, "I'm starting to think we need a 'that was easy' button."
Half an hour later we were at some skuzzy diner at the edge of a freeway. We sat at in the back, in the most secluded booth we could find.
"So what can I get for y'all?" asked our over perky waitress, who had the most impressive wad of gum I've ever seen.
"Could I get the All American Burger with a side of fries, the Mac 'n' cheese, a bowl of the Chicken Noodle soup, and two glasses of lemonade please?" I asked avoiding the stares coming from Ariek and Kary.
"You orderin' for the whole group hun?" the waitress asked, her bright smile faltering a bit. I smiled politely and shook my head.
As Kary and Ariek ordered food in normal quantities, all three of them kept shooting strange looks at me. I suddenly became very interested with a single thread hanging off the hem of my shirt. So with one last weird look at me the waitress left.
As soon as she was gone, Ariek turned on me, "Hey Charlotte, would you mind explaining?" he demanded.
"To what could you possibly be referring?" I questioned, feigning innocence.
"You know exactly what I'm talking about."
"Do I, really?"
He huffed and glared at me from across the table. I crossed my arms and glared right back. After a few minutes, and a couple of coughs from Kary, Ariek dropped his gaze and I grinned in triumph.
"Seriously Charlotte, could you just explain the food?"
"I just burn through calories really fast, so I need a lot of food to keep my body running." He and Kary nodded, apparently satisfied with this information.
Soon after our waitress came by with our drinks, and we were temporarily distracted. We all had sand and dust stuck in our throats.
"Where do you think we should go after this?" Kary asked, chewing on her straw. She and Ariek looked at me, expecting to hear my master plan about how we were going to take down the School and all that shit.
I quickly glanced around and my eye fell on the TV that was playing a baseball game. It was the Florida Marlins against the San Francisco Giants.
"San Francisco." I said feeling the rightness of it. Ariek nodded in agreement and Kary kept repeating it softly to herself, trying it out for size.
"Ok, All American Burger, the Lasagna, and the Chicken Tenders? The rest of your order is comin' soon hun."