Fourteen years ago, a baby was born. She had no name, as she was simply a science experiment. Why a science experiment you may ask? Because she is, like the rest of her flock, only 98% human.
I woke to my stomach grumbling again. For a ten year old, I ate a whole lot more than anyone I knew, not that I knew anyone except for the sinister Whitecoats and the other 'experiments'. I need at least two thousand calories a day to simply survive. The reason for this? I am part bird. That's right, us bird-kids are only 98% human. Trust me, 2% makes all the difference. I have more efficient lungs, plus air sacs, and my heart beats nearly twice as fast as a human. Oh, and did I tell you that I have wings? Yep, welcome to the life of a mutant freak.
I let my eyes adjust to the darkness called the School. The section of the School I am kept in also houses six other kids like me, and by 'like me' I mean that they have wings too. I tried to sit up, but hit my head on the top of my dog crate, my home. Stretching, I peered around at our cruel lab, named the School, ironically, as the only thing it teaches us is how to be afraid. On my left, a cage containing a bird-kid like me, but with with dark eyes, dark hair, and dark wings. We never spoke, but occasionally we made eye contact. On my right there was an empty cage that usually held a bird-kid with ice blue eyes, strawberry blonde hair, and pale wings. He was taken away seven hours earlier, judging by the ancient clock on the far wall. My daily schedule depended on that clock, because there were no windows in this part of the School. When the Whitecoats came to collect him, they had strapped him to a stretcher bed and wheeled him down a long corridor-lit by flickering fluorescent lights-followed by two guards.
The heavy metal door had slammed shut behind them.
I was itching to stretch out my wings, and fly away, only, my cage is to small, and I don't know how to fly. I jumped as a door swung open, disturbing my thoughts. Peering through the darkness with my enhanced raptor vision, I saw the kid with the pale skin and blonde hair wheeled in on a stretcher bed, and as they arrived at his crate, they unstrapped him, and threw him roughly into his small cage, not really caring. He winced, and I saw that his eyes are bandaged shut with a bloodstained gauze. As the Whitecoat strode out, followed by the two guards, I heard the Whitecoat murmur. '...enhanced night vision...eyes damaged...what were they thinking?...' I shuddered, hoping what I thought had happened wasn't true. They had experimented on his eyes.
Two hours later the Whitecoat named Jeb strode through the door, his boots clicking on the concrete floor. Jeb was always the kindest, and most careful Whitecoat when it came to experimenting on us. But that meant nothing. He could just be trying to trick us. I edged toward the back of my cage, as he took a shiny key out of his pocket and unlocked my cage, then the next, and the next. He walked over to the other side of the room, and unlocked three more cages. I was hesitant to get out of my cage at first, but then gathered my courage, and slowly crept out. Over the other side of the room, Jeb was coaxing someone, a girl, out of her cage, while he was carrying a baby girl, and holding the hand of a small boy. Yes, if you're wondering, they all had wings too. 'It's okay, you can come with me, but we have to be quick if we want to get out of here.' Jeb told us, once we were all out of our cages. I didn't want to trust this man, but what other choice did I have? He broke into a run, and we followed. He was frantically pushing security system buttons with his spare hand as we raced through several corridors, twisting and turning. The boy with the bandaged eyes was holding my hand, trying to navigate the maze-like corridor, without his sight. Alarms pierced the normally quiet air, and we were being chased by several Whitecoats who were yelling at us to stop, or we will be 'extirpated', whatever that means. The narrow corridor opened up to an enormous room full of empty cages. We ran to the far wall, and climbed the ladder leant against the wall. When we reached the top, we were standing on a wide ledge, next to an open window. This was Jeb's escape plan?! I glanced down, and noticed
that we were about 100 metres into the air. Way too high to jump down. 'Quick! Spread your wings and fly down!' Jeb yelled over the intense wind.
'How?!' I yelled back.
He went silent, and simply looked back down the ladder in fear. Guards were climbing up the ladder, twice as fast as we could, with huge guns strapped to their backs. It was now or never, so I jumped.
I tumbled down, steadily approaching the concrete ground, that could easily end my short life. Just in the nick of time, I snapped my wings out, and winced as they caught the strong wind. Suddenly, I wasn't falling. I was flying, and it was amazing. I looked behind me and the rest of the bird-kids, my new flock, were close behind. The guards were yelling at us over the wailing alarms. Jeb had got a lift to the ground with the boy with the dark hair, and there was a car waiting. He got into the car, with the two younger kids, and we were off. I kept turning back, watching the only place I ever knew disappear into the distance.
The sun was setting as we flew for hours, developing our technique. We didn't get talk, only stare at the world below in bewilderment. This was nothing like the home we were used to, but it looked like what home should be. There were kids playing, families having dinner and people just walking down the street, not looking over their shoulders for possible killers. We mainly followed Jeb in the car, until he stopped at a service station and got out. We cautiously landed, out of sight of the road, and walked over to Jeb. 'What do you guys want to eat?' He asked casually. I wanted everything, I was starved and by the looks of it, so were the rest of my new flock. We were far from our usual average of 2 thousand calories a day. 'Let's see...' I replied
5 minutes later I was finishing my fifth burger. The boy with bandaged eyes was feeling around for his soft drink. Jeb was feeding the youngest girl a bread roll, and the small boy was eating fries. We were all content, and ready to go. Once we were outside, and in the air, Jeb yelled out to us 'Meet me at Colorado! It's safe there!' We flew for what seemed like days, but was actually only 2 hours, and finally arrived at
Colorado, with Jeb's rusty blue car leading the way. We were at the bottom of a sheer cliff face, and at the top was a beautiful wooden cabin, held up on stilts. Once he had parked, we flew up to the top of the cliff, and pulled down an attached ladder for him.
Inside the cabin was luxury for us, and we all plonked ourself down on the musty green couch, exhausted after our long flight. 'First things first,' Jeb announced, 'You all need to pick a name for yourself, then we will talk about training you.' 'Fang.' The boy with the dark hair said without hesitation.
'Gazzy!' The small boy said after a few moments, 'And my sister is going to be called Angel.' He gestured lovingly to the baby girl.
The girl who looked about 6 years old said hesitantly, 'My name's gonna' be... Nudge.'
'Iggy.' the last boy with the bandaged eyes said quietly, 'I'm gonna' be Iggy.'
And for me, 'My name's Max, Maximum Ride.'