You think you know pain? Ha, try my life.
I could hardly breathe as I ran through the laboratory, my heart going a mile a minute. Nothing was holding me back, so why was my chest strained and my breath uneven?
My brain didn't have time to process everything I was going through. I couldn't register the sound of the alarms, or even when they went off. I didn't know how far behind me the white coats were, I just knew that I'd been in pain with them and I had to get away.
I shoved passed metal tables and sprinted down the halls. Windows lined the walls, taunting me. I wanted to jump out of them and fly, but I would just plummet to my death anyway.
When my parents gave me up to the white coats ten years ago—when I was just four and a half years old—they put avian DNA into mine. Of course, this caused many tests to have to be done and believe me when I say they were painful. Not only this, but they attached the tendons in my wings wrong, so I couldn't fly for very long and the longer I flew, the more painful it was.
They'd kept me until now, when I was just fourteen, but had had a life full of misery and merciless torture.
All this ran through my head as I raced towards the exit. I couldn't stop looking behind me and I let my legs carry me faster, wanting to get out and be free so much that it hurt more than my strained muscles.
Suddenly I heard the roars behind me, and ran faster. Erasers; the man-wolves that the white coats used against me.
I knew there had to be others like me. The white coats never stopped talking about them. Sometimes I doubted it, but I knew they were out there. Maybe I could find them, finally be part of a true family, since my parents were just assholes anyway.
Then I pushed through the door and felt the cool breeze toss my shoulder-length brown hair. It was uneven and messy already, and the wind didn't help. I couldn't stop to think about that with Erasers and white coats behind me.
I looked around, doing a quick scan of the area. I'd never been outside of the School, the place where the scientists worked their evil. I only knew what I did of the goings on in the world because of oh-so-faithful internet. Of course I got punished every time I tried to sneak in there to use the computers, but that didn't stop me. They'd hurt me too much already to stop me anymore, and this would be my proof.
I spread my weak, tawny wings and scrambled up onto the ledge with my slim, tall body. I was always tall for my age, but my metabolism made it so I practically burned calories chewing.
I took one more glance behind me and hoped I'd fly far enough to get away from them.
I leaped off the balcony and flapped, trying to get higher, though my shoulders were on fire. My body ached to the very tips of my hair and I think I felt something pop in my shoulder.
The only thing keeping me going was the free feeling I felt collide with my mind and body as I flew. Nothing was stopping me.
My soul felt free as the air whipped my hair around and seeped through my feathers. I smiled slightly, loving this feeling and hoping, praying, that it would last forever.
I was still having trouble staying up. I flapped once more, whimpering a little at the immense pain following, like an avalanche. The higher I got, the more air currents helped keep me there. It was getting really high that was difficult.
I soared for a while, then decided I could no longer take it. I let myself, slowly, go down. I saw a lake with rocks around it and a nearby forest. I opted to stay away from the forest and head to the town that was about a quarter of a mile away. You could see it from the air.
Forests were basically Eraser hunting grounds. No way was I staying in a tight, enclosed forest with a bunch of man-eating beasts.
I landed a few hundred feet from the town, stayed low and out of sight. I went through the rest of the forest quickly and leaped from tree to tree. I didn't like the feeling of being grounded, being stuck down.
I felt a wave of relief wash over me at getting to the small town. It looked dirty and half abandoned, but it'd have to do for the night. It was actually more like a trailer park than an actual town or city.
I scurried over to a trailer and climbed in the window, crawling over junk until I saw them.
There were six of them, and they were just like me. Well…mostly. They had wings, too, but some were different colors than mine. There were two small kids with blond hair, and a girl that looked a couple years younger than me. There was a boy with strawberry blond hair, who looked just a little older than me, but was really tall (whom I have to admit, was extremely attractive; he had a spiky hair-do with red tips), and an older girl and a black-haired boy.
I froze, not wanting to wake them and thinking of running, but where would that get me? I'd finally met people like me, people who might accept me and protect me.
"Who the hell are you?" I turned at the voice, shocked that even while being so quiet, I was able to wake on of them. It was the strawberry blond one, and he was looking at me with intense eyes, but they had a cloudy haze to them that I recognized all to well.
He was blind. Did the School do that to him?
"M-my name is Morph. I m-mean I don't know my real name, I-I just call myself that because I can't fly r-right." I stuttered, scared that he was blind and yet he could pinpoint exactly where I was.
"What are you doing in here? You smell like Eraser." He said, walking right in front of me. He froze for a split second, then relaxed.
Eraser? Was my strawberry lotion that bad?
"I just got away from the School…" I trailed, still afraid. I got scared really easily, in case you missed that.
"Iggy, relax, she's like us." A new voice said from behind the Iggy guy. I looked over to see the older girl, looking wearily, yet curiously at me.
He looked back at me and I couldn't help but notice the others were waking up grumpily.
Iggy held out a tentative hand and barely ran his fingers over my back, feeling my wings. I think I twitched as he touched the sensitive part of my wings—the part where the tendon stuck out irregularly.
The rest were all awake now. The blond boy was standing protectively in front of the little girl, and the girl who looked around twelve was standing near them, curious at me but ready to protect them. The black haired boy stood defensively by the girl, glaring cynically at me.
"What is this?" Iggy asked, gently putting pressure on my weak spot in my wings.
I flinched and he took his delicate fingers away. "Don't worry about it," I told him, "You know the School right? Well, they messed up my wings. I can't fly right."
"Who are you and what are you doing here?" The black haired one asked me with venom. I was terrified of him so much that I was shaking.
"Calm down, Fang." The girl next to him said, "She's not a threat."
Is that how they thought of people? To be analyzed? Just like the School?
"Max, maybe we should explain who we are. It'll calm her down. She scared; I can tell because she's shaking." Iggy said, backing up a couple steps. I was glad. I needed breathing room now.
"Alright, good idea." The girl named Max said, cautiously taking a few steps toward me, though never removing her hand from Fang's wrist. "My name is Max. This is Fang and Iggy, and those three are Nudge, the Gasman—for obvious reasons—and Angel. I know the School…we come from there too. Right now we're trying to find out more about our real parents though."
I listened closely to every detail of Max's explanation, carefully taking in the information to make sure it wasn't flawed.
"You can call me Gazzy." The little blond boy called the Gasman piped in. The girl named Nudge promptly whacked him, shutting him up.
The little blond girl, Angel, still looked at me with large, curious eyes.
"Um, so would you mind…um, helping me, too? I mean, I've never been to this outside world, not since I was taken there when I was four and a half…I want to learn about my own parents too and learn about this world and—yeah…" I shut myself up when I noticed I was babbling and looked at Max hopefully. There was another reason I really didn't want to do this alone: I had no idea where to start, what to do, or where to go. I didn't know this place.
"Sure…" Max replied, relaxing a bit, "I mean, we do have a hard time taking care of ourselves, and it might take time for you to adjust with us, but yes, you can come with us…if you want. It's dangerous."
I nodded, "That's okay. It'd be dangerous if I went out on my own, too."
Max nodded, smiling a little at me. She managed to get the younger kids to bet despite their overwhelming curiosity and desire to talk to me.
That's another thing. I can sense peoples' desires. I mean, I had no idea where it came from, but I know when people are lying to me and I know what people want.
Eventually it was just me, sitting by a wall, and Iggy awake. He came to sit next to me.
"Are you planning on sleeping?" He asked sarcastically.
"Um, not really. I mean, I can't. This is all a lot to process at once. And anyway, I'm always scared about falling asleep because I never know when someone will attack me." I said, rubbing my arm.
"Well, Max is serious when she says you can stay with us. We'll protect you." He said warmly, and I was surprised at how much emotion was in his voice if you listened closely. I could sense his desire to tell me everything, to just gush about his pain and all the things they'd been through to me. I also sensed his need to stay loyal to his family and stay quiet about it until they were all ready to tell me about themselves.
"Nice to know." I said, taking a deep breath. "Sorry for asking, but are you blind? Your eyes are really foggy."
"On the contrary, thanks for asking instead of calling me some creep for touching you. I had to make sure some Eraser didn't have me trapped and was impersonating Max's voice. I always do that." He explained, rubbing the back of his neck.
"I get that feeling. Just worried about people constantly betraying you, right?" I questioned.
"Yeah. Like, you don't want to be trapped and you just want to trust everyone, but you know you can't." Iggy continued. I felt glad I could relate to him. He was fun to talk to, and definitely easy to talk to.
For at least two hours more, we just talked quietly and laughed. I couldn't help but notice that by the time we went to sleep, we were a few inches closer to each other. I don't even remember falling asleep. I just remember the last bit of our conversation:
"And the air in your wings!" He gushed. We'd been talking about flying and its wonderful assets.
"Yeah." I agreed, boldly lying my head on his shoulder. I didn't want to feel like a flirt, he was just so comforting to be around.
He looked down at me, a little surprised, but just smiled and wrapped an arm around me, lying his head on top of mine. We let the moon leak through the window and shine down on us as we sank into unconsciousness.
So began my time with the Flock.